WiseBrain | Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom. Why We Are Wired to Connect. When we experience social pain — a snub, a cruel word — the feeling is as real as physical pain. That finding is among those in a new book, Social, and it is part of scientist Matthew Lieberman’s case that our need to connect is as fundamental as our need for food and water. He answered questions from Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook. You argue that our need to connect socially is “powerful.” But just how powerful is it? Different cultures have different beliefs about how important social connection and interdependence are to our lives. Across many studies of mammals, from the smallest rodents all the way to us humans, the data suggests that we are profoundly shaped by our social environment and that we suffer greatly when our social bonds are threatened or severed.
What is the connection between physical pain and social pain? With respect to understanding human nature, I think this finding is pretty significant. You devote a section of your book to what you call “mindreading.” When Lovers Touch, Their Breathing and Heartbeat Syncs While Pain Wanes. Summary: Study explores how interpersonal synchronization could help to decrease pain. Source: University of Colorado at Boulder. Fathers-to-be, take note: You may be more useful in the labor and delivery room than you realize. That’s one takeaway from a study released last week that found that when an empathetic partner holds the hand of a woman in pain, their heart and respiratory rates sync and her pain dissipates.
“The more empathic the partner and the stronger the analgesic effect, the higher the synchronization between the two when they are touching,” said lead author Pavel Goldstein, a postdoctoral pain researcher in the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab at CU Boulder. The study of 22 couples, published in the journal Scientific Reports last week, is the latest in a growing body of research on “interpersonal synchronization,” the phenomenon in which individuals begin to physiologically mirror the people they’re with. About this neuroscience research article Abstract. Neurophysiology and Neuroanatomy of Orgasm. Male Sexual Arousal & Orgasm Erections: Both the autonomic and somatic pathways of the nervous system mediate the male sexual arousal mechanisms. At the most basic level, the parasympathetic system (autonomic system) acts as the pro-erectile, excitatory pathway while the sympathetic system acts as the anti-erectile, inhibitory pathway (Goldstein, 2003).
Excitatory nerves in the penis respond by releasing pro-erectile neurotransmitters nitric oxide and acetylcholine. These chemical messengers allow the smooth muscles of the penis arteries to relax and fill with blood (Goldstein, 2003). The 1890s brought about important knowledge regarding the erection-generated location. Along with the autonomic pathways involved in male erection, the somatosensory pathways are extremely important in stimulating arousal. Ejaculation & Orgasm: Female Sexual Arousal & Orgasm Sexual Arousal: Orgasm: References Bianchi-Demicheli, F., & Ortigue, S. (2007). The NeuroAffective Relational Model. The NeuroAffective Relational Model™ [NARM] Mindful Self-Regulation in Clinical Practice In recent years the role of self-regulation has become an important part of psychological thinking.
The NeuroAffective Relational Model™ (NARM) brings the current understanding of self-regulation into clinical practice. This resource-oriented, non-regressive model emphasizes helping clients establish connection to the parts of self that are organized, coherent and functional. It helps bring into awareness and organization the parts of self that are disorganized and dysfunctional without making the regressed, dysfunctional elements the primary theme of the therapy.
Core Principles The NeuroAffective Relational Model™ focuses on the fundamental tasks and functional unity of biological and psychological development. NARM uses four primary organizing principles: • Supporting connection and organization • Exploring identity • Working in present time • Regulating the nervous system • Connection. Dr. Know Your Brain: Insula. The insula is a small region of the cerebral cortex located deep within the lateral sulcus, which is a large fissure that separates the frontal and parietal lobes from the temporal lobe. If you decided to write a term paper on the insula 20 years ago, it probably would have been a bad idea. First off, your teacher might have thought you were just trying to impress her by choosing an obscure area of the brain that even she knew nothing about. Second, you would have had a hard time even finding enough sources to write the paper with.
Since the mid-1990s, however, this deeply-buried region of the brain has begun to garner much more attention. The insula is tucked away inside a prominent fissure of the brain called the lateral sulcus. Its concealment is one reason why it went mostly unnoticed for such a long time. Indeed, the insula appears to be activated during a wide array of events. The role of the insula in the somatic marker hypothesis was expanded upon by A.D. Visceral Influences on Brain and Behavior. Behavioral Epigenetics Healthcare. A New Sexual Femunculus? Figure 3A (adapted from Komisaruk et al., 2011). Group-based composite view of the clitoral, vaginal, and cervical activation sites, all in the medial paracentral lobule, but regionally differentiated. We interpret this as due to the differential sensory innervation of these genital structures, i.e., clitoris: pudendal nerve, vagina: pelvic nerve,1 and cervix: hypogastric and vagus nerves. "Femunulus" is a neologism for "female homuculus" The neuroanatomical definition of homunculus is a "distorted" representation of the sensorimotor body map (and its respective parts) overlaid upon primary somatosensory and primary motor cortices.
The figure below illustrates the sensory homunculus, where each body part is placed onto the region of cortex that represents it, and the size of the body part is proportional to its cortical representation (and sensitivity). It's rare to see the genitals represented at all. Homunculus image from Reinhard Blutner. A New Clitoral Homunculus? Footnote References.