How Our Brains Feel Emotion | Antonio Damasio With rendition switcher Question: What is happening in our brain when we feel an emotion? Antonio Damasio: Feeling of an emotion is a process that is distinct from having the emotion in the first place. So it helps to understand what is an emotion, what is a feeling, we need to understand what is an emotion. And the emotion is the execution of a very complex program of actions. Some actions that are actually movements, like movement that you can do, change your face for example, in fear, or movements that are internal, that happen in your heart or in your gut, and movements that are actually not muscular movements, but rather, releases of molecules. And an emotion consists of a very well orchestrated set of alterations in the body that has, as a general purpose, making life more survivable by taking care of a danger, of taking care of an opportunity, either/or, or something in between. And it’s going to be the same across even other species.
A Painting of Cancer Cells Inspired by Carl Sagan by Maria Popova What supernovas have to do with cancer cells. When she lost her friend Cathy to cancer, artist Michele Banks (whose stunning biological watercolors you might recall) set out to tell her friend’s story in the language she speaks most fluently and eloquently: painting. But she didn’t want it to be another “cancer painting.” Instead, she found unlikely inspiration at the intersection of the deadly disease and Carl Sagan’s iconic, life-affirming idea that we’re all made of “star stuff” — she saw a striking parallel between supernovas and dividing cancer cells. I was reading about astronomer Carl Sagan, who often expressed the idea that humans are made of “star stuff”. Curiously, Sagan himself also had myelodysplastic syndrome, or “preleukemia,” and underwent three bone marrow transplants before losing the long and difficult fight in 1996. This painting, besides celebrating the cosmic connection that all living creatures share, goes out to Cathy and Carl. Donating = Loving
Holmes Institute School of Consciousness Studies. Time on the Brain: How You Are Always Living In the Past, and Other Quirks of Perception I always knew we humans have a rather tenuous grip on the concept of time, but I never realized quite how tenuous it was until a couple of weeks ago, when I attended a conference on the nature of time organized by the Foundational Questions Institute. This meeting, even more than FQXi’s previous efforts, was a mashup of different disciplines: fundamental physics, philosophy, neuroscience, complexity theory. Crossing academic disciplines may be overrated, as physicist-blogger Sabine Hossenfelder has pointed out, but it sure is fun. Neuroscientist Kathleen McDermott of Washington University began by quoting famous memory researcher Endel Tulving, who called our ability to remember the past and to anticipate the future “mental time travel.” McDermott outlined the case of Patient K.C., who has even worse amnesia than the better-known H.M. on whom the film Memento was based. Tellingly, not only can he not recall the past, he can’t envision the future. Alas, they couldn’t.
William Utermohlen's Self-Portraits Of His Decline From Alzheimer's Disease For over twelve years, William Utermohlen's mind slowly unraveled. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1995, and "from that moment on, he began to try to understand it by painting himself," said his wife, Patricia, to The New York Times. Utermohlen's self-portraits reveal his decline from Alzheimer's disease, but they also show an artist rediscovering color. In one piece from 1996, his face is painted vibrant yellow, and his shoulders are outlined in a streak of orange. Utermohlen was born in 1933, and developed an early interest in painting. Currently, Utermohlen's art work is on view in a group show simply titled, "Trauma" at GV Art in London (until February 18). Let us know what you think of the slideshow below in the comments section. 1967. Related on HuffPost: Video no longer available We're sorry, but the video you are trying to watch is no longer available.
Plot Generator Why Does Beauty Exist? | Wired Science Over at the always excellent Not Exactly Rocket Science, Ed Yong summarizes a new investigation into the neural substrate of beauty: Tomohiro Ishizu and Semir Zeki from University College London watched the brains of 21 volunteers as they looked at 30 paintings and listened to 30 musical excerpts. All the while, they were lying inside an fMRI scanner, a machine that measures blood flow to different parts of the brain and shows which are most active. On the one hand, it’s not exactly shocking that beauty can be sourced to the cortex. But why does beauty exist? Here’s my (extremely speculative) theory: Beauty is a particularly potent and intense form of curiosity. Let’s begin with the neuroscience of curiosity, that weak form of beauty. The first thing the scientists discovered is that curiosity obeys an inverted U-shaped curve, so that we’re most curious when we know a little about a subject (our curiosity has been piqued) but not too much (we’re still uncertain about the answer).
5 timeless insights on fear and the creative process, how the aurora borealis works and more Hey <<Name>>! If you missed last week's edition – flowcharting your way to happiness, inside the haunting world of 19th-century mental institutions, how your nose works and more – catch up right here. And if you're enjoying this, please consider a modest donation. 5 Timeless Insights on Fear and the Creative Process From Monet to Tiger Woods, or why creating rituals and breaking routines don't have to be conflicting notions. "Creativity is like chasing chickens," Christoph Niemann once said. Despite our best-argued cases for incremental innovation and creativity via hard work, the myth of the genius and the muse perseveres in how we think about great artists. In the ideal – that is to say, real – artist, fears not only continue to exist, they exist side by side with the desires that complement them, perhaps drive them, certainly feed them. Steven Pressfield is a prolific champion of the creative process, with all its trials and tribulations. Are you paralyzed with fear? What is the self?
Name Nerds! Were you one of 10 Jennifers or Mikes or Bobs or Lindas in your class at school? Or perhaps you were the only Moonbeam or Daejuwon in school and loved it, and wish to continue the tradition. In any case, here is a site that, hopefully, will break you out of the bonds of conventional naming trends and start you down the path to creativity. Unlike in past eras, when Johns and Marys reigned supreme, the21st century is marked by parents looking to different sources than the traditional naming pools when naming their children. ***NEW!!! Controlling Brains With a Flick of a Light Switch | Mind & Brain Stopped at a red light on his drive home from work, Karl Deisseroth contemplates one of his patients, a woman with depression so entrenched that she had been unresponsive to drugs and electroshock therapy for years. The red turns to green and Deisseroth accelerates, navigating roads and intersections with one part of his mind while another part considers a very different set of pathways that also can be regulated by a system of lights. In his lab at Stanford University’s Clark Center, Deisseroth is developing a remarkable way to switch brain cells off and on by exposing them to targeted green, yellow, or blue flashes. Deisseroth’s technique, known broadly as optogenetics, could bring new hope to his most desperate patients. Today, those breakthroughs have been demonstrated in only a small number of test animals. For all its complexity, the brain in some ways is a surprisingly simple device.
Music and Art – Good for Your Soul and Your Lifespan Friedrich Neitzsche once claimed that without music, life would be a mistake. Researchers in Norway claim that without music, art, or other cultural events, life may also be shorter and less satisfying. A new study, published by the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, reports that visiting museums, attending concerts, playing an instrument, and creating art are associated with happier lives. The investigators surveyed more than 51,000 adults to assess their leisure habits and cultural participation and their self-perceived health status and levels of depression and anxiety. Overall, there was a strong correlation between engaging in cultural activities and happiness. A gender difference was observed in the types of activities that men and women preferred. A previous study reported a similar association, extending the findings not just to happiness, but to overall lifespan. References Konlaan BB, Björby N, Bygren LO, Weissglas G, Karlsson LG, & Widmark M (2000).