Resistance Is Futile…
Nov 1 at 5:05pm by Aileen
And Things Nature Does to Rattle Our Perceptions
Lots of interesting science reports lately about all things neurological, in brains and in our remote sensor neurons. First up is a surprising (or maybe not so surprising) finding by a researcher at the University of Hertfordshire - the harder we try to mentally suppress our thoughts and desires, the more we will indulge in the activity we’re trying to suppress.
Resistance to Thoughts of Chocolate is Futile
This research project dealt with something quite simple, chocolate. Which some say is addictive, but that’s a whole different area of research. Dr. Erskine of Hertfordshire divided 134 young (avg. age 22) people into two groups to investigate how our thinking affects our behaviors.
The participants were asked to try two brands of chocolate and answer questions about which they preferred and why. Then they were given two periods of thought verbalization where they were to talk about their thoughts while alone. On top of this they were told they must think about - or not think about - certain things. Including chocolate.
Among those told not to think about the chocolate which was still present and available to them, consumption of chocolate was significantly higher than in those who could think about chocolate all they liked. Among those who were told to go ahead and focus on thinking about chocolate, the males ate significantly more chocolate than the females.
It’s always nice to get scientific confirmation of things we already know. Meanwhile, psychologists at the University of Pittsburgh tell us that Human Decision-making Takes Multiple Brain Regions Performing Individual Functions, something most people who think about such things also already knew.
It’s not new news that there is a hierarchy of brain regions that separately receive inputs from our remote sensors and process the information before we become aware of what we are perceiving. What psychology professor Mark Wheeler tells us IS new is how these regions work together for decision-making - knowledge integration and action planning based on the perceptual information.
Decision making forwards the processed information to the object processing, reasoning and memory circuits for evaluation and classification in line with previous experience and memory.
A particularly interesting finding from studies at Drexel and Northwestern Universities tells us that Brain Activity Differs for Creative and Noncreative Thinkers. They found that creative thinkers made use of more right-hemisphere involvement in their thinking, which indicates that creative thinkers process more loosely connected or “remote” associations between elements of a problem than noncreative thinkers do.
From that report, “…creative and methodical solvers exhibited different activity in areas of the brain that process visual information. The pattern of “alpha” and “beta” brainwaves in creative solvers was consistent with diffuse rather than focused visual attention. This may allow creative individuals to broadly sample the environment for experiences that can trigger remote associations to produce an Aha! Moment.” Cool.
Finally, in the weird world of serious sensations that aren’t what they appear to be, researchers at the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University report that they’ve (once again) discovered the World’s Hottest Chili Pepper.
We fans of hot chili peppers already know that the alkaloid chemical capsaicin in pepper ribs and seeds is what stimulates our heat and pain sensing nerves to think we’re being badly burned, when no actual burn tissue damage is taking place. It apparently evolved as a way for the plant to get its seeds distributed by only certain animals (birds) and not by others (mammals).
To get a feel for the ‘heat’ this Indian “Ghost Chile” [Bhut Jolokia] is capable of producing, consider the lowly jalapeno, which has a Scoville heat unit [SHU] index of about 2,500. Those firey habaneros rate from 300,000 to 500,000 SHU, making them among the hottest known until now. The previous record holder was the Red Savina, which measured at a solid 577,000 SHU.
The Bhut Jolokia ghost chile weighed in at a cool million SHU. Not very likely to find its way into that pickled pepper jar on the bar at the local pub, as the reaction just might really hurt somebody. The researcher do think it may have an impact in the processed food industry, since it would take much less of the pepper to impart some serious heat to chiles, salsas, sauces and stews.
Links:
Resistance to Thoughts of Chocolate is Futile
Human Decision-making Takes Multiple Brain Regions Performing Individual Functions
Brain Activity Differs for Creative and Noncreative Thinkers
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