20 Things to Start Doing in Your Relationships. Unusual Experiment Gives People a Third Arm. Arvid Guterstam, a doctoral student, conducts experiments aimed at tricking the brain into believing the body has three arms. If you’ve ever felt like you needed an extra hand around the house, a bizarre new study may have found a way to make it possible. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm conducted an unusual experiment aimed at creating the illusion — and physical sensation — of having a third arm. In five separate laboratory experiments, 154 volunteers were seated with their hands on a table and a rubber arm was placed next to their right arm.
A sheet covered their shoulders and elbows, creating the illusion that the person had three arms. The scientists then gently brushed the real and fake hands. Sometimes the brushing occurred simultaneously, while other times the hands were touched separately. In one part of the experiment, both the real hands were “threatened” with a knife after the brushing exercise. Mr.
Mr. Go Easy on Yourself, a New Wave of Research Urges. Self-Compassion. When Democracy Weakens. While millions of ordinary Americans are struggling with unemployment and declining standards of living, the levers of real power have been all but completely commandeered by the financial and corporate elite. It doesn’t really matter what ordinary people want. The wealthy call the tune, and the politicians dance. So what we get in this democracy of ours are astounding and increasingly obscene tax breaks and other windfall benefits for the wealthiest, while the bought-and-paid-for politicians hack away at essential public services and the social safety net, saying we can’t afford them. One state after another is reporting that it cannot pay its bills. The poor, who are suffering from an all-out depression, are never heard from. In an Op-Ed article in The Times at the end of January, Senator John Kerry said that the Egyptian people “have made clear they will settle for nothing less than greater democracy and more economic opportunities.”
When the game is rigged in your favor, you win. _lgepn2Ajyv1qzy0ygo1_1280.jpg (919×1280) The Myth of Joyful Parenthood. Raising children is hard, and any parent who says differently is lying. Parenting is emotionally and intellectually draining, and it often requires professional sacrifice and serious financial hardship. Kids are needy and demanding from the moment of their birth to… well, forever. Don’t get me wrong. I love my children dearly, and can’t imagine my life without them. But let’s face the facts: Study after study has shown that parents, compared to adults without kids, experience lower emotional well-being — fewer positive feelings and more negative ones — and have unhappier marriages and suffer more from depression.
Yet many of these same parents continue to insist that their children are an essential source of happiness — indeed that a life without children is a life unfulfilled. How do we square this jarring contradiction? They recruited 80 fathers and mothers, each parent with at least one child under age 18. Eibach and Mock were testing a couple ideas.
The results were clear. The Mind. The Roots of Consciousness: Theory, The Biological Perspective. The Biological Perspective In the Introduction, I discussed the evolution of organized matter from the photon through particles, atoms and molecules to living cells which begin to differentiate in structure and function forming a wide variety of tissues and organs that play a specialized function in the human body. It is reasonable to assume all these levels of organization including the whole human being play a role in shaping consciousness. Particularly important are the nervous system, comprising brain and spinal cord, and the endocrine system, comprising a number of ductless glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream.
Many biological scientists today implicitly believe that these structures not only shape consciousness, but are actually the source of conscious awareness. This view is known as the biological identity theory. The Nervous System Neuron cells are the principle units of the nervous system. Multi-Polar Neuron Bipolar Neurons Cross-section of the human brain Serotonin. Meditation May Protect Your Brain | Miller-McCune Online. For thousands of years, Buddhist meditators have claimed that the simple act of sitting down and following their breath while letting go of intrusive thoughts can free one from the entanglements of neurotic suffering.
Now, scientists are using cutting-edge scanning technology to watch the meditating mind at work. They are finding that regular meditation has a measurable effect on a variety of brain structures related to attention — an example of what is known as neuroplasticity, where the brain physically changes in response to an intentional exercise. A team of Emory University scientists reported in early September that experienced Zen meditators were much better than control subjects at dropping extraneous thoughts and returning to the breath. The same researchers reported last year that longtime meditators don’t lose gray matter in their brains with age the way most people do, suggesting that meditation may have a neuro-protective effect.
Where does all this lead?