Tag: mind

Sorry, moms and dads. Scientific studies about the benefits of four-letter words just keep coming. Cursing can reduce stress and increase strength and pain tolerance.

Scientists don’t fully understand the reasons behind these phenomena, but they’re onto some clues. Benjamin Bergen, author of What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves, talked with Vice about swearing and the reduction of stress.

Benefits from swearing are related to our fight-or-flight response.

“It helps you pick the right thing to do when expressing strong emotion,” Bergen said. By uttering words that are taboo, we’re actually taking a step toward deciding how to handle a situation.

You might be surprised to learn that curse words come from a completely different part of the brain than most language. “Spontaneous emotional speech” originates in the basal ganglia, which is a more primitive part of the brain. All vertebrates have a basal ganglia (which leads us to believe that most animals would curse if they had vocal cords).

Researchers have proven that swearing can also increase strength and pain tolerance.

Richard Stephens of Keele University has conducted extensive studies on the effects of cursing. Two of his more interesting findings are that cursing can make you both stronger and more tolerant of pain.

In the strength study, Stephens had participants complete a test of anaerobic power—once after cursing and once after not cursing. The participants performed better in two measures of strength—one on an exercise bike and one a handgrip test—after they’d been given free rein to curse.

Stephens still does not understand why cursing increases people’s strength. He believes it has something to do with the body’s sympathetic nervous system. However, he could not find significant differences in heart rate or other quantifiable body responses that might have explained the differences in performances.

“So quite why it is that swearing has these effects on strength and pain tolerance remains to be discovered,” Stephens said. “We have yet to understand the power of swearing fully.”

In a separate test, Stephens showed that swearing helps people better tolerate pain.

In this study, Stephens asked participants to plunge their hands in a bucket of ice water. When participants repeated a swear word, they could stand the icy water for longer than when they repeated a neutral word.

There was one caveat: People who cursed more frequently in their daily lives experienced less of a painkilling effect. “Swearing is a very emotive form of language and our findings suggest that overuse of swear words can water down their emotional effect,” Stephens said.

That tidbit should console parents. If your children claim the right to curse in the name of its health benefits, remind them that they should do it less frequently to get the biggest effect.

Stephens may not understand how cursing unlocks these health benefits, but he plans to continue studying the topic. “We are just scratching the surface of how swearing can influence our emotions and how it can have impact in different situations,” he said.

“Whether swearing has beneficial effects in other contexts is something we would like to explore in the future.”

Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that affects thinking and memory. While the disease usually progresses slowly, it becomes more severe with time and can be difficult to diagnose. Alzheimer’s cannot be cured, but catching symptoms early can allow for the implementation of treatment options that slow the progression of the disease.

“Our hope is that if we could identify patients who are developing the disease early, it would give us a much better opportunity to intervene with treatments, and it’s much more likely for those treatments to be effective,” Cedars-Sinai Medical Center chairman of neurosurgery Dr. Keith Black said in an interview with CNN.

Alzheimer’s is difficult to diagnose because no single test can identify the disease. Diagnosis requires knowledge of an individual’s medical history along with mental evaluations, blood tests, and ongoing neurological exams.

Watch for these warning signs and prepare to discuss them with a medical professional if you notice any of the following in yourself or a loved one:

1. Disruptions of Daily Life

Forgetfulness can be a normal part of aging, but it becomes a problem when a person starts struggling with recall on a regular basis.

Take note of memory loss that affects daily life. If you notice a loved one forgetting important dates, relying heavily on memory aids, or asking the same questions over and over, arrange for a professional evaluation.

2. Difficulty Solving Problems

Alzheimer’s can affect a person’s ability to work with numbers, follow directions, or make plans. This often manifests when the patient has trouble understanding conversations, paying bills, or even following recipes.

People may also have a more difficult time concentrating on a task while attempting to start or complete it. Making small occasional errors is part of human nature, but when simple tasks become extremely difficult or impossible to complete, it’s a sign of a serious problem.

3. Loss of Time

People with Alzheimer’s often struggle with an altered perception of time. These individuals might “lose” years, forget their age, not know the season, or have no idea how long someone has been out of the room.

“Five minutes can seem like five hours for someone with AD, so a husband may think his wife has been gone for hours or even weeks, even if it’s just been a few minutes, or he might tell his grandchild that he hasn’t seen him in five years, even though he just saw them yesterday,” Lisa P. Gwyther, co-author of The Alzheimer’s Action Plan: A Family Guide, shared with CBS News.

Stages of Progression

It’s a common misconception that Alzheimer’s only affects older people. According to the Alzheimer’s Association 2017 facts and figures:

“An estimated 5.5 million Americans of all ages are living with Alzheimer’s dementia in 2017. This number includes an estimated 5.3 million people age 65 and older, and approximately 200,000 individuals under age 65 who have younger-onset Alzheimer’s, though there is greater uncertainty about the younger-onset estimate.”

People of any age can begin to show signs of Alzheimer’s, and that’s why it’s important to recognize the symptoms. The disease has multiple stages of progression, and early detection can allow for effective treatment that slows progression sooner.

Most Alzheimer’s treatments involve a medication regimen that promotes neurotransmitter connections in the brain. Additionally, physicians work with patients’ families to create safe environments and promote regular exercise and a nutritious diet plan. While Alzheimer’s is a difficult disease to manage, early recognition of key symptoms can dramatically improve patients’ quality of life.

Your smartphone may reduce your cognitive capacity—even if you don’t use it.

Titled “Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity,” the study shows how phones change cognitive processes for the worse. Researchers at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin gathered 800 participants and asked them to complete a series of computer tasks specifically designed to require their full attention.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the people who’d left their phones in another room scored higher on the tests than the people who kept their phones on their desks—but this group also scored higher than people who kept their phones in their pockets.

“The proliferation of smartphones has ushered in an era of unprecedented connectivity,” the study’s authors wrote. “[…]Just a decade ago, this state of constant connection would have been inconceivable; today, it is seemingly indispensable.” “We propose that the mere presence of one’s own smartphone may induce ‘brain drain’ by occupying limited-capacity cognitive resources for purposes of attentional control.”

The researchers believe that smartphones prevent us from paying full attention to certain tasks.

When our smartphones are present, we necessarily pay more attention to them—we’re incapable of treating our smartphones as unimportant.

“We see a linear trend that suggests that as the smartphone becomes more noticeable, participants’ available cognitive capacity decreases,” said co-author Adrian Ward to Science Daily. “Your conscious mind isn’t thinking about your smartphone, but that process—the process of requiring yourself to not think about something—uses up some of your limited cognitive resources. It’s a brain drain.”

The study shows that smartphones affect cognitive capacity in two ways: available working memory capacity and functional fluid intelligence.

Other studies have drawn similar conclusions. One survey from Kaspersky Lab indicated that Americans use their phones as “replacement memories,” choosing to store important information in the digital realm.

“Our brain appears to strengthen a memory each time we recall it, and at the same time forget irrelevant memories that are distracting us. Past research has repeatedly demonstrated that actively recalling information is a very efficient way to create a permanent memory,” said Dr. Maria Wimber of the University of Birmingham’s School of Psychology.

“[…]It can be argued that the trend to look up information before even trying to recall it prevents the build-up of long-term memories.”

Looks like phones are going to continue to be controversial. Do they help us? Or, do they hurt us?

Sleep deprivation is a serious public health issue.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 50 to 70 million Americans have sleep or wakefulness disorders, and recent research indicates that long-term sleep issues can lead to serious health problems.

But if you’re looking for another reason to refine your sleep schedule, we’ve got one—and it’s a bit disturbing. According to a new study, sleep deprivation can literally cause your brain to start eating itself.

Granted, that’s a pretty rough way of putting it, but it’s essentially true. Researcher Michele Bellesi and colleagues published their findings in the Journal of Neuroscience.

The study showed that extended periods of sleep deprivation activate microglia, a type of cell found in the brain and spine. These cells act as phagocytes, engulfing other cells and ingesting them.

In a healthy body, phagocytes serve an important function; they eliminate dead or dying cells, along with bacteria and viruses, allowing the body to operate efficiently. But an overabundance of phagocytes isn’t a good thing, because it exposes tissues to potential damage.

So, does sleep deprivation prompt your brain to completely devour itself?

Not quite. The effect is certainly important and deserves scientific study, but it’s probably not something that most people need to worry about, provided that their periods of missed sleep are relatively few and far between.

Many other stressors can cause the same type of issues with phagocytic activity, as the study notes in its conclusion. Still, given the prevalence of sleep issues in American adults, these findings seem especially troubling; people who regularly miss out on sleep may be exposing their brains to certain diseases.

The good news is that the phagocytic activity isn’t problematic in the short term. In fact, it’s likely a healthy reaction to short periods of sleeplessness, because the microglia allow the brain to treat the problems that are keeping it awake.

The study stops short of explaining how the brain damage from sleep deprivation might manifest, but the takeaway is clear. You’re not at risk if you miss a few hours of sleep on occasion, but extended periods of sleep deprivation aren’t good for your brain.

That’s certainly not the only serious health issue associated with sleep deprivation.

In recent years, scientists have linked insomnia with fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and a host of other chronic conditions.

So, what’s the best way to treat sleep dysfunction? For otherwise healthy people, it’s as simple as refining bedtime habits. The CDC recommends going to bed at the same time every day, staying away from caffeine before bed, and avoiding large meals late at night.

Recent research also indicates that smartphones and other LCD-equipped devices can make sleep more difficult. This is likely due to blue light waves, which stop the brain from sending out the chemical signals it uses to prompt sleep. In other words, parts of your brain might mistake the blue light for daylight.

While light filter applications can help to diminish this effect, the best tactic is to put down the phone completely.

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg is the sixth richest man in the world, with an estimated fortune of $45 billion. He and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, plan on using the vast majority of that fortune for philanthropic aims through their newly formed Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
Most notably, they are attempting to overhaul the American education system with an approach called “whole-child personalized learning.”

The power couple plans to use their particular specialties to move the initiative’s agenda ahead. That means that they will support the development of software to help teachers while also focusing on a holistic approach to serving each child.

Of course, Zuckerberg is the technology specialist, and Chan specializes in how developmental problems can derail a child’s educational advancement.

Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education James Shelton will head the project to determine how best to combine these two approaches.

Shelton told Education Week, “We’ve got to dispel this notion that personalized learning is just about technology. In fact, it is about understanding students, giving them agency, and letting them do work that is engaging and exciting.”

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative outlines their approach on the organization’s web site.

The mission statement says, “No child can reach his or her full potential without an education to match—an education that lifts up their passions and accommodates their needs. We believe all young people should have such experiences and that personalized learning is one of the most promising approaches to reach this goal.”

Their goals are ambitious as they look to change the way teachers and students interact for years to come. But there’s reason to be hopeful about the initiative’s potential for success. Chan and Zuckerberg fund their organization with around 99 percent of their Facebook shares, which are worth well over $40 billion.

With that money, they hope to tackle social, emotional, and physical development issues for students.

The initiative recognizes that many factors affect a child’s education. Free lunch programs help combat one of those issues, but there are countless more problems that can derail a child’s development.

In addition to developing software and mitigating problems that occur outside of the classroom, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative plans to lobby politicians, support candidates for office, and invest in for-profit businesses that can help their cause. The philanthropic couple knows how formidable of a challenge they’re taking on, but they’re ready to tackle it from all angles.

Shelton also realizes that they face a long road ahead.

He says that Chan Zuckerberg is “one of the best-resourced startups in the world, but still a startup.” Nothing conveys that more than the fact that there are 20 employees on the organization’s education team.
Despite the long odds against them, Chan and Zuckerberg are forging ahead. They created the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in December 2015 after they had their daughter, Maxima. Now that they are expecting a second child, they are moving ahead with vigor. As they develop their own strategies for education, they have also given grants to various educational groups such as Vision to Learn, Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, and SAGA Innovations.

Nothing conveys the organization’s ambitious goals as well as this illustrative section of their mission statement: “We focus on developing breakthrough products and practices that address the needs of each student, bringing together the best teachers, researchers, advocates and engineers to tackle pressing problems and growing a movement to support the development and broad adoption of powerful personalized learning solutions.”
Chan, Zuckerberg, and Shelton aren’t the first big names to take on the deficiencies in American education. Still, we can’t help but feel good about these smart and powerful people using their fortunes for such a worthy aim.

STEM fields are growing, but unfortunately, many kids don’t seem especially interested.

The US Department of Education notes that over the decade from 2010-2020, the number of jobs requiring strong training in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) will grow at a significantly faster rate than other professions.

The problem, though, is that most students won’t go into these lucrative fields. According to the Department of Education, “only 16 percent of American high school seniors are proficient in math and interested in a STEM career.”

Fortunately, some educators are exploring novel ways to promote STEM literacy—and robots play a surprisingly significant role.

A Need for Tactile Teaching Techniques

To tackle the STEM problem educators need to start early. Research shows that children who acquire mathematics skills before entering elementary school have a much greater chance of academic success later in life. Problem-solving skills and critical thinking are also vital additions to a balanced early childhood education curriculum.

“Much of math and science instruction in schools is theoretical,” explains June Lin, a robotics-based education professional.

As Lin writes, educators need to find ways to “bring STEM to life” in classrooms.

“In elementary school, students are still learning with their eyes and hands—drawing, molding, and manipulating objects,” Lin says. “They are starting the tough transition to learning by reading, and robots make it possible for them to work through problems visually and experiment with concepts they are learning.”

Educators like Lin believe that robotics provides an exceptional introduction to STEM learning, since children engage easily with robots. By teaching kids to design, build, and code robots, educators can teach the essential skills associated with STEM.

Perhaps more importantly, this approach provides children with motivation; after all, there’s nothing cooler than a fully functional robot.

Robots as Teachers

Recently, Sony Electronics launched its own robotic learning system via Indiegogo, following a successful February release in Japan and China. The project, KOOV, allows kids to intuitively embrace their natural creativity and curiosity to acquire essential STEM skills. The KOOV system uses a process that education professionals call “inquiry-based learning.”

With KOOV, children construct objects using colorful three-dimensional blocks, which can fit together in more than 100 different ways. Young learners then add battery-powered wheels, lights, sensors, and other electronic components. To bring those electronics to life, KOOVers must learn to code.

That’s actually easier than it sounds. KOOV features a 30-hour coding course that starts with the basics, gradually adding new skills and concepts while introducing users to visual programming via a simple drag-and-drop interface. Children learn how to find and address problems, design new features, and gradually create more complex devices.

To kids aged 8 and up, KOOV feels like playing. However, KOOV isn’t a toy—it’s the blueprint to success in STEM, brilliantly presented in an engaging way.

Creativity in the Curriculum

Some schools are incorporating coding and robotics into their education policies.

The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology in the Bronx, reports the New York Times, “requires all its students to take computer science courses in each year of middle school.”

Lab School computer science teacher Ben Samuels-Kalow has seen the benefits of this requirement:

“I’ve literally had a conversation with a student where she’s saying, ‘I really don’t like math,’ as she’s walking me through a JavaScript function to have an interactive photo gallery on a web page that she had also built from scratch,” Mr. Samuels-Kalow told the Times. “I looked at her and said, ‘This is harder math than what you’re doing in your math class.’”

“Mr. Samuels-Kalow said he found that students are often willing to work harder in his classes than in their other classes,” writes the Times, “because the rewards of…being able to play a game that they designed were so enticing.”

Teaching
More than Technology

Educators say that robotics and coding competitions may provide another avenue for keeping STEM students motivated. Macungie, PA-based teacher Julia Dweck includes robots in her classroom and coaches her elementary school’s robotics team.

“[Learning about robotics] helps students develop a respect for their own abilities,” Dweck told the education website Getting Smart.

“As students develop strategies to facilitate the learning process, they experienced growth in their meta-cognitive skills, too. Introduction to coding and robotics is as relevant to our world as learning to write. Today’s learner should experience opportunities to practice coding and robotics in the classroom from an early age. This foundation will serve them as learners, digital citizens and world leaders.”

These competitions also teach teamwork—another exceptionally helpful STEM skill—along with empathy.

“I learned to always include all of my teammates because it isn’t fair if nobody else gets a chance to do things and we can finish anything on time if we just work together,” an 8-year-old robotics team member explained to Getting Smart.

Coding and robotics keep children engaged, which is ultimately the most important factor in long-term academic performance. Creative education programs may hold the key to solving America’s STEM problem; by starting with the simplest concepts and developing core skills, kids can gain the technical literacy they need for success.

Learn more about KOOV by visiting the system’s Indiegogo page here.

Yes, you read that correctly. The script for Bad Moms was written by two decent dads.
This insight may come as a surprise to some women who enjoyed this movie, like Globe and Mail critic Julia Cooper, who wrote, “I wish I could say I was a few years off from finding the premise of two groups of moms battling over the title of next PTA president funny. But it turns out I want all the kale jokes, the Zumba one-liners, the ‘mom bra’ bangers. Like Bad Mom’s star Mila Kunis, it seems I have aged into a new demographic.”
Cooper wasn’t the only reviewer to note how the witty comedy mines the real-life aggravations of motherhood in this day and age.

“It’s not just at title,” wrote the Chicago Reader’s J.R. Jones. “It’s a demographic!”
Typically, the creators of movies that are written about and (let’s be honest) are marketed to a certain demographic are members of that particular demographic themselves. That’s why the news that Bad Moms was written and directed by two men was so surprising to most viewers. This fact becomes even more startling considering the two particular men involved and the other movies they’ve created thus far.

John Lucas and Scott Moore wrote the screenplay for Bad Moms in addition to directing the film. If those names sound familiar, that’s because this is the same duo responsible for The Hangover comedy franchise.

Aren’t those movies about dudes being dudes and doing dude things?

Yes, yes they are. So how did these two guys figure out how to portray moms and the issues they face so well? They watched their wives, Moore told the Los Angeles Daily News.
“Jon and I are both married to two lovely women and we both have two kids,” Moore said. “We’re kind of in the thick of it, parenting-wise. What happened was, we were both sitting around trying to think of our next script in our home offices, looking at blank monitors and watching our wives trying to live up to this idea of being the perfect mom and running ragged with the kids. We saw how intense and how much pressure that is, and we thought there was a lot of comedy there.”

Moore and Lucas didn’t stop with their own wives. They also invited other moms they knew over for parties.

Then they proceeded to grill them on their mothering experiences.

“We sort of tackled it more like documentary filmmakers,” Moore said. “We were just putting other people’s stories in there and then made sure it made sense for our story.”

That doesn’t sound like a bad way to write. Besides, as Lucas told the Los Angeles Daily News, “It’s so much easier than coming up with stuff on our own.”
There’s no way Bad Moms would have turned out as funny as it is if Moore and Lucas weren’t self-aware enough to step aside and let the moms tell their own stories. Thankfully they did, and the film did alright at the box office.

More importantly, it connected with its target audience: moms who are sick of the perfectionist culture of parenting. And isn’t that all moms, when they’re being honest?

Patty Jenkins, director of Wonder Woman, has smashed through another glass ceiling with the help of an Amazon warrior with a magic lasso. Within just a few weeks of opening, the 2017 superhero hit grossed $635 million in global ticket sales.

The previous record for a live-action film directed by a woman, incidentally, was $609.8 million for Phyllida Lloyd’s Mamma Mia!, back in 2008. Wonder Woman is a record breaker.

This victory won’t surprise the legions of fans who swarmed to theaters on opening weekend or the tearful moms who can finally bring their daughters to a superhero film starring a woman or the DC comics scholars who have been waiting for this moment since they were 10 years old.

It might, however, silence the online legions of men who complained bitterly about a women-only screening at the legendary Texas theater, the Alamo Drafthouse.

This was the same crowd that went into hysterics about women leading the Ghostbusters reboot. The summer before that, they were all up in arms about Charlize Theron’s character Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road because she wasn’t subservient enough to the titular Max. 

The trollosphere even slithered into the conversation surrounding the production of Wonder Woman, with a comment promising that, “People inside are already confirming it’s another mess.”

That line came from an open letter to Warner Bros CEO Kevin Tsujihara, complaining about layoffs and the general state of the studio’s output over the past few years. The letter was signed “Gracie Law,” who claims to be an ex-employee.

Jenkins responded directly, via Twitter of course.

“Whoah, just saw some press about WW having problems,” the director wrote. “Are they serious? This is some made up bs right here. Made up! Produce a source, anyone.”

When no one responded with a source, Jenkins doubled down on her argument.

“You can’t because it’s entirely false,” she tweeted. “Don’t believe the hype people. Someone’s trying to spread some serious misinfo.”

The tweets go on and on, but Jenkins’ point is that there was no behind-the-scenes trouble on the set of Wonder Woman. We weren’t there, so we can’t claim to know how the entire production went, but one thing is for sure: the film itself is not a “mess.” Anything but, actually.

And the fans agree. Although Frozen remains the highest-earning film directed (co-directed, in this case) by a woman, Wonder Woman is now tops in the non-animated category. Besides, Wonder Woman is still in theaters. It could conceivably soar past the $1 billion record set by Frozen.

Either way, people are lining up to congratulate Jenkins on her success.

Actor Connie Nielsen, who played Wonder Woman’s mother, Queen Hippolyta, tweeted a nice message.

“@PattyJenks Am so unbelievably proud of you,” she wrote.

“Thank you my dear friend and incredible queen,” Jenkins responded. “Couldn’t have done it without you. Without all of you. Honored to be a part of it.”

Co-writer Geoff Johns told Variety that he and Jenkins are currently
working on the story for the next installment in what promises to be a legendary franchise. “The goal is to make another great Wonder Woman film,” he said.

Noisy eaters aren’t exactly pleasant company for anyone.
But if you fly into a rage when you hear a stranger noisily munching on some popcorn, you might have a condition called misophonia. It’s characterized by an extreme reaction to a specific noise, and for many misophonic people, noisy eating is a major trigger.

Note that misophonia is, by definition, an excessive reaction; if you’re simply slightly annoyed when you hear a family member munching, you probably don’t qualify as misophonic.
To meet the criteria for diagnosis, you need to exhibit a clear physical response; if you become irrationally angry, disgusted, or irritated, you may qualify.
In most cases, misophonia develops at an early age. Many patients don’t experience a negative reaction when they’re the source of their own trigger sounds—so, for instance, you might not be bothered by your own munching, but you may fly into a rage when you’re in the presence of a noisy eater.
Misophonia often becomes more severe over time. Scientists believe that the issue is due to a malfunctioning fight-or-flight response, but there’s some debate over the cause of the condition.

What’s more, the brains of people with misophonia are notably different.

In a recent study in the UK, researchers performed brain scans on 22 misophonic people and 20 other individuals. While the study participants waited in an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, the researchers played a variety of cues, including neutral sounds, unpleasant sounds (such as people screaming), and misophonic trigger sounds.

Predictably, misophonic patients were most annoyed by their trigger sounds. When confronted with their triggers, the patients experienced an overreacting anterior insular cortex, the part of the brain tasked with connecting senses to emotions.
Researchers expected some structural differences, since misophonia typically develops early in a patient’s life while the brain is still forming. The results of the study were published in the scientific journal Current Biology.

“Misophonia does not feature in any neurological or psychiatric classification of disorders; sufferers do not report it for fear of the stigma that this might cause, and clinicians are commonly unaware of the disorder,” the study’s authors note, adding that the results of the research should help clinicians classify and treat misophonia.

If you think that you have misophonia, new treatments could be on the way.

The BBC reports that medical researchers have hypothesized that low levels of targeted electricity could help to disrupt the brain activity that seems to compel misophonia.

“I hope this [research] will reassure sufferers,” said Tim Griffiths, professor of cognitive neurology at Newcastle University and University College London.
“I was part of the sceptical community myself until we saw patients in the clinic and understood how strikingly similar the features are. We now have evidence to establish the basis for the disorder through the differences in brain control mechanism in misophonia.”

In the meantime, behavioral therapy may help to curb some of the effects. Parents should also pursue treatment for young children who display signs of misophonia, as the condition may be more easily treated early in life.