Did you watch the solar eclipse through a 'pinhole camera'? 1) here I am observing the eclipse 2) a photo of the eclipse from San Luis Obispo in California and 3) the hundreds of eclipses that filter through our local Alders surrounded by shadows on the ground.
Here is what I am reading today:
“A single brief therapy session for adults with a lifelong debilitating spider phobia resulted in lasting changes to the brain’s response to fear.”
“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but an apple? Well it may be more than just an apple. Is it normal? Local? Organic? Is that piece of cheese low fat, is the coffee fair trade?
Psychologists have known of a “health halo”, centered around foods thought to be “healthy”, whether or not they actually are (like low fat yogurt, which may be low fat, but is often high in sugar). There is also a “health halo” around foods that are organic. People think organic foods are lower in fat and lower calorie than foods without the organic label.”
“The anterior insular cortex is a small brain region that plays a crucial role in human self-awareness and in related neuropsychiatric disorders. A unique cell type – the von Economo neuron (VEN) – is located there. For a long time, the VEN was assumed to be unique to humans, great apes, whales and elephants. Henry Evrard, neuroanatomist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, now discovered that the VEN occurs also in the insula of macaque monkeys. The morphology, size and distribution of the monkey VEN suggest that it is at least a primal anatomical homolog of the human VEN. This finding offers new and much-needed opportunities to examine in detail the connections and functions of a cell and brain region that could have a key role in human self-awareness and in mental disorders including autism and specific forms of dementia.”
“Larry Benowitz, PhD, and colleagues at the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, showed that mice with severe optic nerve damage can regain some depth perception, the ability to detect overall movement of the visual field, and perceive light, allowing them to synchronize their sleep/wake cycles. Findings were published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of May 21. “
A disturbing trend that begs the question,” why are men less likely to attend college?” ( trend started in early 90’s)
“The result is that 40 percent of all children born in Maine last year were born to unwed mothers, up significantly from 10 years ago. What it will mean to the state if the trend continues is not clear; there are few hard numbers on the phenomenon and few people studying the impact.
But at least one scholar says the shift from two-parent to single-parent households means tough decisions ahead.”
“It’s not just rising college tuition and room and board charges. It’s all those incidentals–from student activity and health fees to lab fees and books–that are turning higher education into such a financial burden. According to the College Board’s latest Trends In College Pricing report, in 2011-2012, books and supplies cost students at four year public colleges an average of $1,168, and at private non-profit four-year colleges an average of $1,213. Nor is this a new problem. A 2005 report by Congress’ Government Accountability Office found that from 1986 through 2004, text book prices nearly tripled, rising at twice the rate of inflation. “
29 Comments
caseypagan · May 22, 2012 at 10:14 am
More Women Graduating College Than Men:
I would love to see the raw data as applies to all U.S. college graduates – this data is only referencing population ranging 25-29 years old. What about folks who graduate at an age x<25 or 29<x ?
I'm not sure how much I trust that particular study. I'd rather see the results of a study that used data points reported by U.S. colleges, rather than (what I suppose to be) a general survey of gender and whether or not the respondent graduated college.
mapplebaum · May 22, 2012 at 10:39 am
I read the article “regenerating the optic nerve” and found it to be very interesting. Not only is this a huge breakthrough for vision (and the maintenance of circadian rhythms) in those with vision deficits, but I believe it implies future abilities to re-grow nerves in the central nervous system as well. This article seems to imply a limited ability to re-grow these nerves their full length so that they reach the appropriate optic centers in the brain while retaining new myelin. The largest problem with re-growth of central nervous system cells is this inability to rebuild this myelin (thus leaving central nervous system damage permanent). This implies great strides in this field and I believe will lead to huge leaps in development over the next few decades. With this type of development, I believe we could be looking at fully synthetic, functional replacement eyes in the near future that full develop the necessary optic nerves to regain vision in those who lost it (whether through trauma or glaucoma etc.). In addition, I believe this research could also be applied to other central nervous system damage and be instrumental in these types of repairs down the road.
mapplebaum · May 22, 2012 at 10:56 am
I read the article “got spider?” and also found this article to be quite interesting. I do not have a necessarily large fear of spiders (not to say I like them crawling around in my house or bed, but don’t have a problem approaching them and killing them) but this article hits home because my sister has a huge, irrational fear of spiders like those patients in the study. The most surprising part about this article was how simple the study was. It seemed the patients were merely informed on normal (what should be well known) facts about spiders, thus making them more comfortable with spiders. Then they just slowly had them get closer and closer to spiders until they were able to physically touch them. Such a simple regimen seems like it could work for nearly all phobias. However, for people like my sister, this form of treatment would seem unthinkable. No matter how much she may want to get over this phobia (or how promising the treatment may be), there would be no way of convincing her to get anywhere close to a spider. The most significant part of this article, in my opinion, was that the phobias and reactions to these fears could be measuring on a fMRI. It is seemingly that more and more often people’s reactions to anything (as with lying, fears, emotions, etc.) can be measured by fMRI machines. I believe that in the coming years fMRI will be used more and more often for uses like this and will be a staple in most types of treatment and analysis of brain development.
Kristin · May 22, 2012 at 4:29 pm
I just finished the article, “does eating organic food make you a jerk.” I wasn’t as surprised as I thought I might be to find out that people who viewed organic foods vs. comfort or neutral foods had lower altruism afterward and saw questionable situations as more morally wrong. I could see how people felt morally righteous after introduced to organic foods. It was great to see an experiment prove what you see in people but cant put a finger on.
nicoleboughton · May 23, 2012 at 8:31 am
After reading the article, “Got Spider,” I’m curious if using fMRI’s in studies will require a study on the effects on participants that go through fMRI proceedures will change reactions to the study. It could be causing participants to become more self aware of being studied, which may lead to a bias. I also wonder if there might be a change in the sample size, because the information that the fMRI give us is much more efficient than mere observation (or is it). That’s not really the point of this article, but, I wanted to bring it up because fMRI are being used for more studies, even one as easy to monitor as an anxiety level test, from profound phobias. I thought the fact that they used technology to measure the reactions that have historically been satisfactorily observed was more interesting that the incremental conditioning of the spider- which doesn’t seem like a new found discovery, though anything that can reduce a debilitating fear is an asset to the individual’s quality of life.
mpakele · May 23, 2012 at 12:33 pm
The article “does organic food make you a jerk” was very interesting. I can see how there might be some connection between eating “healthy organic” foods and judging others, probably because these people feel they are making the better decision by eating it, and therefore other people are making a worse decision by not eating it. Judging others on eating habits may carry over to judging others on other things as well – which is what the research found. However I liked their possibly alternative explanation that eating the sweet food might actually just be making people more altruistic. It is an interesting question, and I think more research would have to be done before any correlation could be made.
slboman · May 23, 2012 at 12:46 pm
After reading “does eating organic food make you a jerk” i am surprised that they were able to find a correlation between viewing a certain type of food and behavior. I have frequently thought about what i EAT affecting my mod and behavior, but never about what i SEE. I find it interesting that more prosocial behavior was seen in participants who viewed junk food. The article raised speculation as to why this may be, however they did not mention the fact that junk food tastes good. Many people crave junk food, it makes them happy for a brief time while consuming and then they may go on with their day. Viewing the food may make them happy without the “guilt” feeling of consuming it, they then may be put in a good mood.
slboman · May 23, 2012 at 1:02 pm
After reading “got spider?” i find it intriguing that people are able to overcome their inhibiting fears. If this therapy can be applied to other phobias using the same gradual treatment we can potentially have lasting brain effect in other affected people. I think that educating the participants about their fear was beneficial to them because it made it seem more irrational. If this therapy was successful on them, the possibilities are many.
Jerusha · May 23, 2012 at 3:23 pm
I read the article on whether or not organic foods make you a jerk. First of all, very interesting study! I constantly hear people who eat organic food discuss how it is so much better for the environment and how it is healthier for you and it gets annoying after a while! They seem to have this complex about it. I wonder what the underlying reason for this is. However, as the article clearly pointed out there was a wide variety of things that could have influenced this outcome – like the sweet comfort foods. I would be interested to see this study done again but with external influences accounted for.
kdevlugt · May 24, 2012 at 2:39 am
E-text books. I have yet to purchase an e-text book, in fact, I’ve never used a Kindle or iPad to read a book before. (I briefly tried to read “Pride and Prejudice” on my phone before, but the battery drain and eye strain quickly nullified that decision.) I understand the argument for eReaders. I like trees, and I hate to think about how books are made of dead ones. I’m not strong, so a lighter vessel for information than 5lb textbooks would be preferable. I also love reading and technology, and eReaders promise to be a perfect marriage of the two. But when it comes to adopting eReaders, there’s a nostalgia driven inertia keeping me from taking the leap. Partly, it’s the preference for the familiar, as mentioned in the article. There’s a physicality to holding a book that’s different from reading a digital copy. When I have read textbooks on my computer, it’s been to skim and control+f my way to what I’m looking for. But while I’m reading the ebook, I’m also answering emails, listening to a podcast, checking facebook notifications, and buffering a youtube vid. When want information from my computer, I’m looking for quick shots of information. Textbooks are definitively text heavy, and I’m used to getting my news in 120 characters or less. I struggle through online articles that are more than 3 pages long, and will usually print out any research papers I have to read. Because reading a physical copy, means reading it for understanding. I had physics teacher that called it “special alone time with physics.” It’s a creepy phrase, but it’s indicative of the intimacy of sitting down to read a book without the distraction of the devices other capabilities. A book is a book, it’s not a book, a phone, a camera, a GPS, and a gaming console. During tests, I also rely on my memory of where information was physically located in a book to recall information. (It was toward the back third of the book, on the bottom right page, near the funny picture of the girl in a hat.) This process has been effective for the 3 dimensions of books. In a 2D world, I’m not sure I could keep track of “number of scrolls down” or “times I pretended to flip a page.”
The article also mentions price as a driving factor for book purchases. The article is correct when talking about the egregious price of new textbooks (which I’ve heard is inflated because we buy for many used books). However, a person looking to save money has 3 options: buy used (my preferred method), don’t buy (I’ve had classes where I never cracked open the text), or get the digital copy. But I predict that when it comes to digital copies, I suspect publishers will, if they aren’t already, run into the music industry problem of illegal downloading. We have an expectation for digital stuff to be free, or come with a free trial version, or be available to download from come obscure chinese website. And when it comes to digital information, I am an advocate for free. I love freely viewable video lectures and interactive education widgets and picture-based how to guides. Multimedia and interactivity is where the digital format shines. And eBooks need to offer this interactivity to entice me, but at a much more competitive price. My favorite price would be free, but I understand that would require devastating restructuring of an entire industry and the educational system. Maybe we can start by including Free Textbook of the day cards at Starbucks along side their free songs.
mpakele · May 24, 2012 at 12:31 pm
I read the article “got spider” and think it is amazing that the patients were able to get over their fear so quickly! A lifetime phobia would seem to take years of therapy to work through, but this study showed that an intense session done properly can have amazing results. It makes sense that once the people realized the irrationality in their fear they would no longer have a problem, but I would have expected the actual therapy to have taken longer. This could be a break through way of dealing with phobias from now on, which would have a huge impact on many people’s lives. I personally have some irrational fears and would have a hard time even signing up for a therapy session such as this, but the end results would definitely make it worth it.
Josh VanVoorhis · May 24, 2012 at 10:50 pm
The article about organic food reminded me of my parents. Whenever I go back home to visit my Mom, she always has a new organic product and is eager to send me home with them. I was surprised by the findings in this article. I didn’t think whether food was organic or not would have an impact on altruistic behavior. I’d figure they’d be unrelated. But this was an interesting article, and at least I can give my Mom a hard time now!
Josh VanVoorhis · May 24, 2012 at 10:55 pm
I just read the article “Got Spider”. The results of that study could set the precedent for reducing fear. Phobias –and fear in general– affect so many people. If this finding can be applied to other types of phobias, it could be groundbreaking. For a person with arachnophobia to be able to hold a tarantula 6 months later, is pretty amazing. It’ll be interesting for our society to see where this technology and research leads.
anguye15 · May 26, 2012 at 11:38 pm
The article regarding spider phobia surprised me in that it discussed therapy that was so short in time (2-3 hours) but yet, was successful in “curing” the phobia. The most surprising part was the mention that these very same participants were able to just walk right up to the spiders and pet them willingly and without hesitation even 6 months after the initial therapy. As an individual that has a bit of a spider phobia (but not to the extent of the participants described), it is hard to grasp that, in theory, this therapy should work on me as well. Even after reading this article, I still cannot imagine myself in that scenario–that is, where I would willingly pet a tarantula. This is a study where I would definitely have loved to see some video footage of before I could fully believe it.
anguye15 · May 26, 2012 at 11:46 pm
Reading the title of the article on E-Books, which poses the question: “Should college students be forced to buy e-books?” already had me gravitate to the answer “no” even before I proceeded to read the rest of the article. As an individual who does not prefer to complete class readings over the computer for eye-strain purposes amongst other issues, I do not believe that any strict enforcement on e-books would be plausible. Some students, like myself, are simply students who learn better by having a physical hard copy of the work in front of them so they can mark it up with a pen and manually make notes easily, rather then be forced to interact with the assignments in a virtual world. I understand that within this new generation along with its rise of technology, e-books are growing in popularity. However, I believe that more factors, such as student interest and performance, should be considered before such a change. The choices and variability in resources should still be left up to the student, regardless of bookstore profit or any silly factors alike, in order to preserve and maintain the quality of education for the student.
anguye15 · May 27, 2012 at 12:01 am
While the article on organic food was interesting, I found it also to have missing parts or conclusions that were not necessarily fully supported. As the article even mentions itself, there are many external factors that are not yet accounted for (in that particular study) and as a whole, need to be controlled for. I would definitely like to see additional research conducted, using this study as a foundation to spark a more detailed and focused hypothesis and conclusion.
corrieesmon · May 27, 2012 at 1:36 pm
So I read the article about spiders and I must say growing up I owned a tarantula and would take it out and allow it crawl up my arms and yes at first I experienced a slight fear at first then got over it. I did the same thing with Snakes, I was always a little scared of snakes then I got one and he became my baby. I watched him grow from 1 ft to 4 ft and it hit me real hard when he passed away. So I do believe exposure does help with managing your fear. The one fear I can not over come is height. But I experience severe panic/ anxiety attacks when I have to deal with height.
christucker · May 27, 2012 at 8:35 pm
“Got Spider”
It is so cool that these people were able to get over their phobia. However, I found the beginning of this article slightly misleading which leads to the question: do these people still have a general fear of spiders? The given treatment only dealt with tarantulas. I understand that they might be a commonly conceived as the ultimate feared spider by many but I don’t think exposure to one spider is enough to “cure” arachnophobia. It would be interesting to see if these research therapists could create a new treatment to completely cure the entirety of arachnophobia.
christucker · May 27, 2012 at 9:38 pm
“does eating organic food make you a jerk?”
In my opinion, I believe this article is absolute bird turds. First of all, the author is definitely not a psychologist and begins to twist data and results to say things that they don’t.
“Seeing the organic food made people less nice, not nicer. The people viewing the junk food, on the other hand, were nicer, volunteering the most time and judging people the least.” He begins judging the judgers by accusing participants with moral values as becoming less nice. Morals are necessary for holding society together and without them, havoc and chaos reign supreme. The judicial system would fall apart. Also, volunteering more time does not make you a “nicer” person, it makes you a more available person. I can see how you could correlate the two but they are not the same thing.
“Eskine concluded that the people who saw the organic foods felt confirmed in their moral identities (in other words, they were self-satisfied), which made them less likely to help others. ” ( confirmation in moral identities does not equal self-satisfaction).
Since I disagree with the authenticity of this study, I will give alternate theories to Eskine’s findings (and his sources) and interpretations of their data.
“You see, in previous studies (which Eskine cited), people who ate sweet foods were afterward more sweet tempered, they had higher ranking of altruism. And all of the ‘comfort’ foods seen here…were sweet. This might mean that people would be more likely to be altruistic anyway”
People who eat sweeter foods experience a greater rush of endorphins. For example, chocolate, is known to increase the release of endorphins and serotonin. Endorphins are well known to decrease stress, increase feelings of well being, and heighten mood levels. Serotonin works as an anti-depressant. Therefore, these mood changes that transgress to an overall more happy/less sad feelings, will more likely cause people to help others. Therefore, it is not the act of eating foods that cause these actions but more-so the neurotransmitters involved.
I don’t mean to attack these people but I believe they are jumping to conclusions and wrongly interpreting data. It feels to me like they are trying to shape words and results in a way to gain the public eye and make more money.
P.S. I don’t eat organic food. 🙂
Kristin · May 28, 2012 at 10:30 am
I read the “got spider?” article and found the results very surprising. I wouldn’t have guessed that people who had such a phobia about spiders could touch one six months later. I suppose short exposure therapy allows them to get over their fear by having them experience many instances where a spider does not harm them, thus negating their irrational fear. I wonder if this type of therapy would also work for people who have panic attacks. If they were exposed to whatever triggers their anxiety for short amounts of time with no panic reaction, they might be able to recover from their disorder like those who were afraid of spiders.
LyudmilaFeldsher · May 28, 2012 at 10:30 am
I read the article “got spider” and i find it fascinating that people were able to overcome their fear of spiders in such a short amount of time. I know a few people who actually are afraid of these creatures and i think they would greatly benefit from this treatment. this should be applied to other fears such as heights and speaking in front of crowds.
LyudmilaFeldsher · May 28, 2012 at 10:34 am
i read the article about college students having to buy e-books and i really don’t think we should. they aren’t always cheaper and the student does not have the ability to flip through pages or mark different pages. i personally enjoy reading a book not looking onto a screen. one of my textbooks now is online because i got it for free and it is extremely inconvenient. good old fashioned print is the way to go
Aaron Sisneros · May 28, 2012 at 8:00 pm
I read the article regarding spider phobias and the idea of exposure therapy is a great idea. Realistically, the fear is a survival instinct and the amygdala is just over active in some people. I think mostly this is due to the education the participants have regarding tarantulas. Most people think spiders go out of their way to bite people, when most are really harmless. It surprises me that arachnophobia is such a common fear with people I personally know, when realistically if people are going to be afraid of bugs, their biggest fear should be mosquitos.
Aaron Sisneros · May 28, 2012 at 8:12 pm
The article regarding whether or not organic food makes you a jerk or not literally made me laugh out loud. This is one of the most bizarre, most pointless study I’ve ever read. To simply put it, I couldn’t disagree more with the article. There are so many factors that contribute to a person’s mood and if ANYTHING, healthy food is going to make a person feel better, and probably have a better attitude while junk food is going to make a person feel more sick. I know plenty of people who eat garbage 24/7 and are some of the biggest jerks I’ve ever met, and know many people who eat really healthy and are some of the most genuine, caring people I’ve met.
nicoleboughton · May 28, 2012 at 11:04 pm
Regarding e-text books; I’ve tried them on Kindle, and iPad, and my computer and notebook. Either way I miss flipping pages to study and find that the ebooks; while they may work very well for a generation raised with a mouse in thier toddler hands, for this Generation X-er, I still find paper and ink still has the advantage. Now if I’m travelling, or studying at the coffee shop (because that’s always effective for undivided attention), the Kindle is my preference. It has an audio feature, so I can listen to the book while I read along (hence keeping my little ADHD brain attending; while using two inputs instead of one). The iPad does not have this feature. Though the Kindle’s automated voice doesn’t compare to the real voices, one can attain from Audiobooks, or Learning Ally, it does grow on you, and on sleepless nights- will put you straight to sleep…that is if you’re listening to a text on Economics or Statistics…certainly not Neuroscience!
madisonwalter · May 29, 2012 at 8:42 pm
I read the article “Got Spider” and found it fascinating. I would never think that someone with such intense phobias would be able to face their fears and completely overcome them. I think that this treatment could be really useful for someone with irrational germ phobias or phobias about social situations because those types of phobias can really affect a person’s life. I have a roommate that won’t go near her room and will sleep on the couch for a week if she sees a spider–she could probably benefit from this treatment! I also found it surprising that the people still benefited from the treatment after 6 months, even though they had not continuously been around tarantulas. I think people have a lot of fears just because they don’t know the true facts and simply learning the facts could make them realize how irrational their phobias are.
klovelace · May 30, 2012 at 9:33 pm
I read the study “does seeing organic make you act like jerk” and found the results to be very interesting. The author brings up a few good points about the way the study was conducted (ie comfort foods being sweet, guilt associated with eating certain foods), and I look forward to reading followup studies in this area. How food affects our moods and behaviors could be very influential in our society. Many organic foodies may be irritated by these findings, however I think we must look at the difference in lifestyles overall before we can make any more conclusions. There is a large range of people who eat organic food, I would be interested in knowing if people who eat only organic differ from those students used in the study.
LauraPolacci · June 6, 2012 at 9:24 am
Regarding the article about if eating organic food makes you a jerk 🙂 – I think it’s pretty interesting that those who viewed images of organic food were more harsh in their ratings of others and less likely to volunteer more of their time than others. On the other hand, those who saw junk food images were more likely to volunteer more of their time and judged people less harshly. But does organic food really explain this finding, or is there another explanation? I think the author of the article has a good point when he notes that most of the junk food was “sweet” and could induce guilty feelings, especially in the sample, of which many participants were college-aged women, who were susceptible to these guilty feelings. Personally, I think this issue is one far deeper than the food one eats, as where they purchase food and how much of the food one eats can also contribute to their mood and how kind they decide to be to others. Interesting article with a lot of conclusions left to be made/researched.
LauraPolacci · June 6, 2012 at 9:28 am
After reading the article about people with a phobia of spiders handling tarantulas really freaked me out! Personally, I do have a fear of spiders, but I am not willing to give up that fear, because I am just horrified of them and do not ever want to allow them to crawl on me, especially willingly! I do think it is interesting, however, that those participants who originally had the highest measurements of brain activity in areas related to fear when seeing the spider, were likely to show the lowest fear of spiders after 6 months. I am wondering, though, if someone has a moderate fear of spiders (ie. can still walk on the grass or walk by a spider, but is just very afraid of them) if this therapy would be effective for them? This article did not change my opinion of spiders, however… maybe another day ;)!
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