NSF Study: Developmental Differences in Stress Responses

Adriana Galván, of UCLA, is exploring how daily stress and associated stress hormones impact decision making. Through a grant from the National Science Foundation, she is able to contrast the effect of stress on brain function in adolescents and adults.

Galván monitors the level of stress in her study participants four times per day. When an individual records high or low levels of stress, he or she immediately comes to the lab for evaluation.

Data suggest that the greatest sources of stress for teens are parents, while for adults stress tends to come from work or schoolwork.

There are also differences based on the time of day. While adults are most stressed in the morning, teens are most stressed in the early evening. Data also suggest that teens show greater cognitive impairment when stressed than adults.

Once the individuals come to the lab, their levels of cortisol are evaluated. Galván explained, "We expect diurnal patterns of cortisol release to differ between adults and adolescents and that this distinction will correlate with levels of stress. Previous work has shown that, under identical stress conditions, teens show greater cortisol release than adults."

Full Text via NSF and LiveScience

Anatomy of an Impact

Look at this millisecond by millisecond description written by Australian engineers of what happens when one car hits another at 50 mph (~80 kph). The physical impact is completed in about a quarter of the time is takes to blink your eyes (which is about 300 to 400 ms). It happens faster than your 50-100 billion neurons can perceive it. Their description reads like a poem, with the last line delivering the real punch. If it can be thought of as a poem, it's one about how slowly our minds move in contrast to the mechanical world.

This is a reconstruction of a crash involving a stationary Ford Falcon XT sedan being struck in the driver's door by another vehicle travelling at 50 km/h.
[One millisecond equals 1/1000th of a second.]

• 0 milliseconds - An external object touches the driver's door.
• 1 ms - The car's door pressure sensor detects a pressure wave.
• 2 ms - An acceleration sensor in the C-pillar behind the rear door also detects a crash event.

Dr. John Cleese makes Neuroanatomy E-Z

I've been to lectures like this, but they were never this good. Must be all that Cambridge education.

The Neuroscience behind Bias and Bad Science

Yo.

My bona fide cool boss sent me this article in Wired [two articles from one publication is considered a "kick" for me. Normally I like to wander from place to place.] I suppose it's because she'd like us all to do better science. The article goes into depth on why we expect to see what we do (and vice-versa), how we edit this information to fit our beliefs- making a convincing argument in favor of theoretical diversity and open debate.

Over the past few decades, psychologists have dismantled the myth of objectivity. The fact is, we carefully edit our reality, searching for evidence that confirms what we already believe... The problem with science, then, isn’t that most experiments fail — it’s that most failures are ignored.

The lesson: scientists, or any group of people working towards a common goal, could stand to benefit from being more social with thinkers from diverse theoretical backgrounds.

Dunbar [the principle investigator]... found that the intellectual mix generated a distinct type of interaction in which the scientists were forced to rely on metaphors and analogies to express themselves. (That’s because they lacked a specialized language that everyone could understand.) These abstractions proved essential for problem-solving, as they encouraged the scientists to reconsider their assumptions. Having to explain the problem to someone else forced them to think, if only for a moment, like an intellectual on the margins, filled with self-skepticism.

This is why other people are so helpful: They shock us out of our cognitive box. “I saw this happen all the time,” Dunbar says. “A scientist would be trying to describe their approach, and they’d be getting a little defensive, and then they’d get this quizzical look on their face. It was like they’d finally understood what was important.” 

Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up