Ronnie gets a little tired after our big walks!
Here’s what we are reading today!
“I’m not alone in this experience. A handful of studies in recent years have examined the prevalence of phantom cellphone vibrations, and they’ve come up with impressive numbers, from 68 percent of the medical staff at a Massachusetts hospital to 89 percent of undergraduates at a midwestern university, to more than 90 percent of Taiwanese doctors-in-training in the middle of their internships”
“‘We are hoping that this type of programme will eventually be useful in several different practical applications. Personally, I think a versatile household robot would be tremendously valuable, but we’re not there yet,’ says Strannegård.
The research team included Claes Strannegård, Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science, University of Gothenburg, and at the Department of Applied Information Technology, Chalmers University of Technology.”
“Most studies investigating P300 and recognition have been conducted in lab settings that are far removed from the kinds of information a real witness or suspect might be exposed to. This new study marks an important advance, says lead research John B. Meixner of Northwestern University, because it draws on details from activities in participants’ normal, daily lives.
“Much like a real crime, our participants made their own decisions and were exposed to all of the distracting information in the world,” he explains.”
“Professor Quentin Sattentau, who led the research at the Dunn School of Pathology at the University of Oxford, says: ‘This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a potential trigger for peanut allergy has been directly shown.’
Previous studies have shown that roasting modifies peanut proteins leading to altered recognition by the immune system, but they did not show that roasted peanuts can trigger an allergic immune response.”
“But in this new study, conducted by doctoral student Adaikkan Chinnakkaruppan in the laboratory of Prof. Kobi Rosenblum of the Sagol Department of Neurobiology at the University of Haifa, in cooperation with the Riken Institute, the leading brain research institute in Tokyo, the researchers demonstrate for the first time that there is a functional link between the two brain regions.”
“Researchers do not yet know how exactly gut bacteria might influence behavior, but one hypothesis is that a leaky gut may allow substances to pass into the bloodstream that harm the brain. In the mouse study, the probiotic may have helped reshape the microbial ecosystem and made the intestines more robust, preventing the leakage of such substances, says co-author Elaine Y. Hsiao, a microbiologist at Caltech.”
“An earlier study by Dr. Molholm and colleagues suggested that brainwave electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings could potentially reveal how severely ASD individuals are affected. That study found that children with ASD process sensory information—such as sound, touch and vision—less rapidly than typically developing children do.”
“Sliman Bensmaia, PhD, assistant professor of organismal biology and anatomy at the University of Chicago, and Hannes Saal, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in Bensmaia’s lab, reviewed more than 100 research studies on the physiological basis of touch published over the past 57 years. They argue that evidence once thought to show that different groups of receptors and nerves, or afferents, were responsible for conveying information about separate components of touch to the brain actually demonstrates that these afferents work together to produce the complex sensation.
“Any time you touch an object, all of these afferents are active together,” Bensmaia said. “They each convey information about all aspects of an object, whether it’s the shape, the texture, or its motion across the skin.””
23 Comments
Kguerin · September 23, 2014 at 7:47 pm
I read the article on the possible correlation between autism and gut bacteria, and I have to admit, I am once again left confused. I have written a few term papers on autism and babysat 2 children with the disorder, and in doing so have tried to sift through the research articles about it. “…but autism is the result of a “complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors,” explains Manya Angley,.” Is this statement portraying that we know the causes of autism, but perhaps they are too detailed for the casual reader to grasp? The article does not try to break down which of the genetic and environmental factors we believe to be contributing to autism. The media continues to say we do not yet know the causes of autism, but surely someone is conducting a meta analysis of autism research and reaching some preliminary conclusions. I personally believe (as this article seems to imply) that diet can treat and even cure many of the worst diseases we are dealing with today, but I would like a better understanding of autism, and one of my education goals is to obtain a clearer view at Cal Poly.
ChelsPsychPerkins · September 24, 2014 at 3:05 pm
I read the article titled, Neuroscientists Challenge Long Held Understanding of the Sense of Touch. This is very interesting, not only because I learned something new by reading this. But, because science is always allowing us to discover new things about the brain and body of humans. This is why I love science, you never stop learning. I love the way he describes the afferents working together, not individually, to contribute to the overall sensation of touch. He compares them working in unison like a concert, this gave me the ability to visualize the way our afferents work. With this new information, Bensmaia hopes to change neuroscience textbooks and the way somatosensory is taught! I can’t wait hear more regarding this, I will be staying informed about this matter.
cmc4 · September 28, 2014 at 9:43 pm
I read the article entitled “What’s up with that? Phantom Cellphone Vibrations.” I found this article intriguing, because along with the many other people, I have experienced this phenomenon. One difference between my experiences and the experiences discussed in the article is that my phone is always in it’s usual spot when I feel the vibrate, whip out my phone and there is no notification. However, I feel the hypothesis that Silman Bensmaia could still apply when the phone is still where you left it. He thinks that when clothes rub against your skin, it triggers the same receptors that sense your phone’s vibrations. This could also be the case if a cell phone is still in one’s pocket. Especially with tighter fitting clothing, a rubbing cell phone could trigger those receptors every once in a while. I also agree with David Laramie’s findings that this could very well be a generational thing. Growing up with vibrating cell phones could very well lead to imagining a few vibrates once in a while.
cmc4 · September 28, 2014 at 10:26 pm
Enjoying crime shows myself, the article entitled “Brain Wave May Be Used to Detect What People Have Seen and Recognize” sparked some interesting thoughts. If such a small detail, such as the color of the umbrella they used that day, can be detected through their brain waves, it is very exciting to think about the many ways this technique could be used, especially with criminal investigations. My first thought was that this could be helpful with witnesses who went through shock and/or trauma. If they were having troubling remembering details, they could be shown specific “probes” and their brain waves could potentially reveal a murder weapon or any other unknown crime details. In addition, suspects could be shown crime details to see if their brain waves reveal them as guilty. I am very interested to watch where this technology goes.
jorgiewu · September 30, 2014 at 4:58 pm
I enjoyed reading the article “Autism and Gut Bacteria.” I have always thought that autism research is limited only to the brain, so I was surprised to read that there is speculation of links between autism and other parts of the body. Because this article was a short general overview, I would be interested in researching this subject more in depth. One of the theories mentioned in the article stated that substances in the gut can leak to the bloodstream and harm the brain, however, I believe that there are other factors that can harm the brain as well. Nevertheless, autism is a disorder that we do not know much about, so exploring all possibilities and considering all factors can open up more doors for further discovery.
jorgiewu · September 30, 2014 at 8:47 pm
Reading the article “A.I. and You” reminded me of the film that recently came out called “Her.” This movie is about a man who falls in love with his operating system, and it paints a picture of what our reality could look like with artificial intelligence advancements. With technology advancing, I find it frightening that computer programs can now function at a similar level to children’s brains. As we grow in this field, I hope that computer programmers and scientists can also focus on the things that artificial intelligence can not do that human can.
ChelsPsychPerkins · October 1, 2014 at 5:09 pm
I read the article “Violent Media and the Brain”, this is extremely interesting to me and to be honest I was not surprised by their findings. It makes perfect sense that if you are born with an active aggression gene then you are more likely to process violent images differently than someone who is not aggressive. Similar to someone with a normal brain and the brain of psychopath respond differently to negative words and/or horrific images. I love the quote, “How an individual responds to their environment depends on the brain of the beholder”, Dr. Alia-Klein. The structure of your brain due to your genes and traits play huge role in how you react and perceive the world around you and everyone is different. Hopefully, we can try to change how children with aggressive tendencies interact with the world by working with them early on.
aflor · October 1, 2014 at 6:09 pm
The article that I read was “What’s Up With That? Phantom Cellphone Vibrations” by Greg Miller. This article was very interesting because I too have experienced this phantom vibration. What is unusual about my situation is that most of the time I hear my phone vibrate it versus feeling it vibrate when it’s in my pocket. That is because when my phone vibrates, it is really loud. I have the habit of taking out my phone when I believe to have heard it but most of the time, I don’t have a notification. A good point made is that those that grew up with phones (such as my generation) tend to be the victims to the phantom vibrations. In some cases it can be true, because we are a generation that has become very dependent of our phones. I know that I am always on the go, and I am constantly checking my messages, emails, etc. The issue that I have with this article is that there wasn’t enough evidence given to support that statement. I hope to read an article that gives more information and evidence in regards to how and why phantom cellphone vibrations occur.
rqlam · October 3, 2014 at 2:06 pm
I read the article “What’s up with that? Phantom Cellphone vibrations”. I found this article to be really interesting because it stated that one of the reasons we may experience these phantom vibrations may be due to pareidolia which is the seeing or hearing of things that weren’t meant to be there. This is interesting to me because I have always found the human ability to see patterns in anything to be very fascinating and I believe that these phantom vibrations being caused by us mistaking everyday sounds to be vibrations is pretty likely. It’s similar to people hearing their phone’s ring tone in running water or hearing English words in foreign music. Its important to note that this instinct of ours to notice patterns in the world around us most likely developed to help us escape any hidden threats but has now lead to these interesting phenomena and extremely intricate conspiracy theories in this increasingly technological world.
ksomasek · October 4, 2014 at 10:15 am
I read the “Phanton Cellphone Vibrations” article by Greg Miller and found it particularly interesting because I had never heard of such a concept and have never experienced a “phantom cellphone vibration” myself. The statistics of people who experience this phantom cellphone vibration was also surprising, such as the “90% of Taiwanese doctors-in-training”. I also thought it was interesting to not only look at this phenomenon from a biological point of view, but also a psychological view and analyze the current generation of people and their deep relationship with their phones. I believe that the mere existence of such a concept justifies that our generation is outrageously impacted by technology and now it is even beginning to control our minds. This article was extremely informative and honestly made me more aware of the growing impact of technology in our lives and its possible consequences.
sabrinayoukhane · October 4, 2014 at 3:04 pm
After reading the article “What’s Up With That? Phantom Cellphone Vibrations”, I was able to conclude that this is something that doesn’t just happen to me! However, my experiences are a little bit different. Usually my cellphone will be where I think it is, but it’s the notifications that aren’t there. Many times I will rush to answer my phone just to see that it hasn’t even rang. What I think is most interesting, though, is that sometimes my family members will think they hear my phone ringing as well. There have been a few occasions where my sister will ask me why I am not answering my phone when it isn’t ringing. According to David Laramie, we hear or feel these notifications from our phones because our brain is filling in the patterns of our everyday life, but I would like to know how this works when the phone is not yours. Why does my sister randomly hear my phone ringing and not her own if her brain is trying to fill in these patterns? Something else that I would also find interesting is if it is possible to find out how many hours (or another unit) do you have to spend on your phone in order to have this pattern filling glitch occur in your brain?
sabrinayoukhane · October 4, 2014 at 3:17 pm
I read the article “New Discovery in the Study of the Brain and Memory.” This article is very interesting because it is about an experience that everyone has had: bad experiences with food! After reading this article, I am happy to learn that I will be able to experience the same food, hopefully, in a better place or environment. I was wondering if the only connection that has so far been made is only between taste and memory, or if other senses are already known to be connected to memory as well. In my personal life, I have experienced some unpleasant feelings of dizziness and nausea when going to certain places (Sandwich Factory on Cal Poly’s campus is one of them). The first time I walked into the building I started to feel as if I was going to faint, I had thought it was maybe because I hadn’t eaten very much in the day. After I got my food and sat down outside, I felt much better. Unfortunately, this feeling kept returning several times as I went back to get lunch. This has kept me from going back to The Sandwich Factory. I wonder if I go back one more time and make sure that I have a pleasant experience that time, if I will be able to start going back there again!
dbbermancalpoly · October 4, 2014 at 5:58 pm
I read the article “Neuroscientists challenge long held understanding of the sense of touch. I thought it was interesting because we are just getting started learning about how different structures of the brain contribute to sensory evaluation but this was way more in depth. The idea that certain afferents that were once believed to be the sole detector of texture and be capable of detecting all textures, have now been proven to only process certain textures, excluding sand paper which is a common texture in human experience. It’s interesting that most of the previous research has been done using artificial stimulus when it seems intuitive to use real life stimuli, such as tree bark or sand to study the brains’ reactions.
dbbermancalpoly · October 4, 2014 at 6:19 pm
I thought the article, “Gut Bacteria May Play a Role in Autism,” was fascinating. I read a lot about health and food so I know how much an unbalanced microbial situation can throw off all sorts of things in the body, but I never considered this. My mom is all about healthy living and she tends to blame all things bad that have increased in the past 30 years on the rise of junk food, and while this is an obvious cause of many contemporary chronic diseases plaguing the population like obesity and hypertension, I’ve observed friends and acquaintances who have autism and eat extremely healthy. I have one friend who is one of five children with autism in his family. His parents make a huge effort to eat all-organic. When I first read this article, this family came into my mind and I wonder if it could be a familial abnormality in their microflora or if it’s some outside variable. Like they stated in the article and other commenters have reflected on, autism is a condition caused by an interplay of genetics and environmental factors.
Another interesting point brought up in the article is the question of whether this gut condition is a consequence or cause of autism. It will be interesting to see how this research develops in the next few years.
cmc4 · October 5, 2014 at 11:36 am
I read the article entitled “A.I. and YOU.” This kind of science is very fascinating, because it shows the potential of the future. Even the potential to perhaps one day build robots to have similar cognitive functions as humans. I think that analyzing the way children learn and identify patterns is an exciting start for such technology. Reading this article reminded me of the movie “I, Robot,” where in the future, nearly everyone has a household robot to do chores, run errands, babysit, etc. The movie did have a twist in the story where the robots end up turning destructive towards humans “for the good of human life.” This reminded me that with advances in technology, usually comes controversial and ethical issues. Another movie the article reminded me of is actually called “A.I.” and it tells the story of a robot boy built to have the emotions of a human being. From what I am learning in biopsychology and from my previous knowledge, psychology and the brain are subjects that scientists have come so far in understanding, yet there is still a long way to go. However, it is exciting to think that they are advancing towards these technological goals.
cmc4 · October 5, 2014 at 6:18 pm
After reading the article “New Discovery in the Study of the Brain and Memory,” I was intrigued by the intense connection our brain and memory has to our senses. It is so amazing how intensely connected things are and how new discoveries are being made all the time. I can relate to this article because I am very aware of places that I have had bad food experiences in and every time I revisit these places, I immediately am reminded that I will not be getting that certain dish. Just like the article said, most of the time we aren’t even aware of these sensory experiences. In this case, I was not aware that my dislike for a certain dish was so closely linked to the location I had the experience in, all because of activities going on in my brain. However, this article reminded me of a sensory experience I am very aware of and that is smell and memory. Certain scents and fragrances can immediately pull me back to certain times in my life and cause me to feel certain emotions just from one whiff. I have always been intrigued by this phenomenon and although I am sure different areas of the brain cause these two phenomenons, I feel like they are the same sort of idea. I think this article will now led me to examine my restaurant outings more closely. I will think twice about trying a meal I disliked in another location. Perhaps I will like it at another place or at least dislike it a little less since my brain isn’t linking me to the location I originally had the bad experience in.
mikaelastreeter · October 5, 2014 at 8:24 pm
I read the article on phantom cellphone vibrations and agree with the idea that this phenomenon is generational. I think the younger generations are so tied to their cell phones that they are more likely to experience phantom vibrations. Many people (especially younger) use their phones for everything nowadays- banking, email, texts, social media, games, etc. I think this growing dependance on mobile devices is what leads to these hallucinations. Personally I have experienced people swearing that their phone was going off and in reality they had no notifications. On a scientific level, I found it very interesting that the vibration frequency of cell phones falls between the the frequency of the two main receptors in the skin that detect vibrations. It makes sense that sometimes a simple stimulation caused from anything hitting your pocket could lead to your brain interpreting your phone vibrating because it is a known association in that area. Overall I thought the article was really interesting and it relevant to todays society and the future of younger generations.
mikaelastreeter · October 5, 2014 at 8:36 pm
I read the article, “Gut Bacteria May Play a Role in Autism” and found it very interesting that the correlation between gut bacteria and autism was so high (90%). It is extremely outstanding that it may be possible to alleviate some of the symptoms that people with autism suffer from just by trying to restore the proper microbial balance in their gut. Researchers are still debating wether or not these microbial differences are developed before or after they develop autism. They are also still trying to figure out how exactly the gut bacteria influence the behavior of individuals. Overall this article was very informative and hopeful into the idea that in the near future we may be able to understand a main contributor to autism and be able to find a way to decrease these contributors. It may be possible for people with autism to be treated to a certain extent.
jorgiewu · October 7, 2014 at 10:59 am
I found the article “What’s Up With That? Phantom Cellphone Vibrations” to be extremely fascinating, especially because cell phone addiction has been a hot topic lately. Unlike most other young people, I do not experience feeling “phantom” cellphone vibrations, but I do commonly experience hearing my cellphone vibrate on the table when it doesn’t actually vibrate. However, when the article described learned association triggers, it made sense for me because I don’t often keep my cellphone in my pocket; I more often keep it on the tabletop. I also found the segment on emotions to be interesting. The reality is that people do depend on their cell phones and social media for emotional assurance. My friend once said that the ability to text her boyfriend at any time of the day felt like she was carrying him in her pocket.
jorgiewu · October 7, 2014 at 11:06 am
I read the article “Dry Roasting and Allergies” and found it particularly interesting because I have many friends who are allergic to peanuts. Although it makes sense that high temperatures from the roasting process change proteins in peanuts to make them recognizable by the body’s immune response, I believe that there are other factors to peanut allergies. In addition, people are allergic to peanuts in different ways. For example, some people can’t even breathe in peanut powder or peanut butter, while others can’t ingest peanuts. Nevertheless, this is an area where further research would be beneficial to people with food allergies in general.
jennatehaney · October 13, 2014 at 12:54 pm
I found Greg Miller’s, “What’s Up With That? Phantom Cellphone Vibrations” article to be really interesting. I have reached for my phone in my pocket only to realize its in my backpack, at home, or simply void of any new notifications, and I know my friends have had this experience as I just did a quick survey of my roommates. I found it of particular interest that in his study, Laramie found the two “biggest predictors” of these “phantom vibrations” to be age and “the extent to which people relied on their phone to regulate their emotional state.” It’s really quite intriguing that using ones phone more heavily for an emotional boost or to calm down as were his examples can actually lead ones brain to afford their body the same stimulation of the vibration without it actually being present. The overall effect of my generation’s heavy reliance on cell phones and how that informs our overall psychological health in such a technologically forward society is something worth further investigation. But I found this article to be a pithy example of a somewhat harmless occurrence underlying a generational relationship and reliance on cell phones that may prove to have more bothersome and lasting effects on our psychological health than a quick passing phantom buzz.
ChelsPsychPerkins · October 14, 2014 at 11:00 pm
I read the article “Genes for School”, I can understand how personality, motivation, confidence and many other traits influence/shape intelligence, however so do many other factors, such as the way you are raised, the country you are raised in (less access to education), Socioeconomic status, privileges and opportunities, parental support, etc. Many children are pressured to do well in school, many children are lovingly encouraged and supported through school and some children are neglected with less value and importance placed on school/education. All this needs to be considered. Environment and Biology shape us as human beings including our successes and failures in school. Genes are not the only thing that determine intelligence. However, genes can contribute to our knowledge and understanding of why children differ in learning styles and academic achievement. Like all studies, hopefully this will help us further understand children learning abilities, teaching strategies, intelligence, etc.
zk · November 9, 2014 at 6:50 pm
I read the article regarding phantom phone vibrations, and I, similarly to the rest of the cell phone-owning population, have experienced such a phenomenon. As I began reading the article and was informed that the occurrence had actually earned the title of a “syndrome”, I couldn’t help but laugh a little. The concept of dedicating a syndrome to such a humorous, first world country occurrence seems silly to me. Right off the bat I thought “Well obviously the phantom vibrates are due to other mechanical stimuli which our brain interprets as a phone vibration, which does not come as a surprise considering how often we are thinking about our phones”. I was really excited for some awesome new discovery, like we had evolved new mechanical receptors with the ability to detect cellular wavelengths and that this “phantom vibrate” was you detecting wavelengths from local cell phones. But, to my disappointment, we had not evolved any new sensory mechanisms.
Laramie’s psychology thesis about our intimate cell phone relationships being a reason for this phantom vibrate was pretty interesting to think about, and definitely would like to read about their results. I personally think that if we placed an object that vibrated randomly in our pockets as frequently as we do cell phone that we would still feel the same phantom vibrates when it was removed.