tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/amygdala-13453/articlesAmygdala – The Conversation2022-11-21T13:14:55Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1936002022-11-21T13:14:55Z2022-11-21T13:14:55ZAir pollution harms the brain and mental health, too – a large-scale analysis documents effects on brain regions associated with emotions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495285/original/file-20221115-12-5koaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=270%2C90%2C4741%2C3013&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As the planet heats up, air pollution is getting worse.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/california-los-angeles-smog-over-los-angeles-royalty-free-image/916896750?phrase=air%20pollution&adppopup=true">Westend61/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>People who breathe polluted air experience changes within the brain regions that control emotions, and as a result, they may be more likely to develop anxiety and depression than those who breathe cleaner air. These are the key findings of a systematic review that my colleagues and I recently published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuro.2022.10.011">the journal NeuroToxicology</a>. </p>
<p>Our interdisciplinary team reviewed more than 100 research articles from both animal and human studies that focused on the effects of outdoor air pollution on mental health and regions of the brain that regulate emotions. The three main brain regions we focused on were the hippocampus, amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. </p>
<p>In our analysis, 73% of the studies reported higher mental health symptoms and behaviors in humans and animals, such as rats, that were exposed to higher than average levels of air pollution. Some exposures that led to negative effects occurred in air pollution ranges that are currently considered “safe” by the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/national-ambient-air-quality-standards-naaqs-pm">Environmental Protection Agency’s standards</a>. In addition, we discovered that 95% of studies examining brain effects found significant physical and functional changes within the emotion-regulation brain regions in those exposed to increased levels of air pollution. </p>
<p>Most of these studies found that exposure to elevated levels of air pollution is associated with increased <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-inflammation-two-immunologists-explain-how-the-body-responds-to-everything-from-stings-to-vaccination-and-why-it-sometimes-goes-wrong-193503">inflammation</a> and changes to the regulation of neurotransmitters, which act as the brain’s chemical messengers.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Research into the physical health effects associated with air pollution exposure, such as asthma and respiratory issues, have been <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/17/6212">well documented</a> for decades. </p>
<p>But only over the last 10 years or so have researchers begun to understand how air pollution can affect the brain. Studies have shown that small air pollutants, such as ultrafine particles from vehicle exhaust, can affect the brain either <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08958370490439597">directly</a>, by traveling through the nose and into the brain, or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2020.107523">indirectly</a>, by causing inflammation and altered immune responses in the body that can then cross into the brain.</p>
<p>At the same time, researchers are increasingly documenting the association between air pollution and its negative effects on mental health.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, research suggests that <a href="https://www.epa.gov/air-research/air-quality-and-climate-change-research">air pollution will only worsen</a> as climate change intensifies and carbon emissions remain <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/30/1103595898/supreme-court-epa-climate-change">unregulated</a>. </p>
<p>For this reason, more research into the health effects of air pollution exposure that goes beyond respiratory health outcomes into the realm of biological psychiatry is badly needed. For instance, the neurobiological mechanisms through which air pollution increases risk for mental health symptoms are still poorly understood.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>In addition to our primary findings, our team also identified some notable gaps within the research that need to be addressed in order to paint a fuller picture of the relationship between air pollution and brain health. </p>
<p>Relatively few studies examined the effects of air pollution exposure during early life, such as infancy and toddlerhood, and in childhood and adolescence. This is especially concerning given that the brain <a href="https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1308.009">continues to develop</a> until young adulthood and therefore may be particularly susceptible to the effects of air pollution. </p>
<p>We also found that within the studies investigating air pollution effects on the brain, only 10 were conducted in humans. While research on animals has extensively
shown that air pollution can cause a host of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuint.2021.104989">changes within the animal brain</a>, the research on how air pollution affects the human brain is much more limited. What’s more, most of the existing brain studies in humans have focused on physical changes, such as differences in overall brain size. More research is needed that relies on a technique called functional brain imaging, which could enable researchers like us to detect subtle or smaller changes that may occur before physical changes. </p>
<p>In the future, our team plans to use brain imaging methods to study how air pollution increases the risk of anxiety during adolescence. We plan to use a variety of techniques, including <a href="https://www.habitatmap.org/airbeam">personal air monitors</a> that children can wear as they go about their day, allowing us to more accurately assess their exposure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193600/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clara G. Zundel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a systematic review of existing studies, researchers found that air pollution such as fine particulate matter can interfere with regions of the brain responsible for emotional regulation.Clara G. Zundel, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1840352022-06-21T11:48:59Z2022-06-21T11:48:59ZKids’ neighborhoods can affect their developing brains, a new study finds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467784/original/file-20220608-25-sm6gka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children living in low-income neighborhoods with 'hands-off' norms about safety showed higher levels of reactivity in a region of the brain associated with emotion processing and threat detection.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/poor-neighborhood-royalty-free-image/172857417?adppopup=true">DenisTangneyJr/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Children growing up in more disadvantaged neighborhoods – meaning those with poor housing quality, more poverty and lower levels of employment and education – show observable increases in brain activity when viewing emotional faces on a screen, according to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101061">our team’s new study</a>. But importantly, we found that this association was true only when the adults in those neighborhoods also did not have strong shared norms about preventing crime and violence.</p>
<p>Our findings emphasize that where children live and the resources of others in the neighborhood may affect brain development. But neighbors may help protect children from these effects on the brain when they are able to build positive social norms about looking out for one another and preventing violence.</p>
<p>To get at these findings, we recruited families from neighborhoods in southern Michigan with above-average levels of disadvantage. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to measure adolescents’ brain activity while they looked at facial expressions of different emotions. We focused on observing brain activity in the amygdala, a region of the brain <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025048802629">responsible for detecting threats and processing emotions</a>. </p>
<p>We used <a href="https://www.neighborhoodatlas.medicine.wisc.edu/">neighborhood census data</a> on factors such as home ownership rates, percentage of families living below the poverty line and percent unemployed to measure neighborhood disadvantage. We then asked randomly selected neighbors of each family to answer questions about the social norms within their neighborhoods, especially regarding shared beliefs about crime and violence prevention. </p>
<p>We found that youth ages 7 to 19 who lived in neighborhoods with more disadvantage had greater reactivity in the amygdala to fearful and angry faces. But neighbors who shared strong social norms, such as believing that adults should do something if children are fighting, seemed to offset this effect. That is, neighborhood disadvantage was related to amygdala reactivity only when neighbors had more hands-off attitudes about preventing violence. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Family engagement strengthens not only the family but also the health of the community, which in turn can have beneficial effects on child development.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>In 2020, <a href="https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/6795-children-living-in-high-poverty-areas?loc=1&loct=1">approximately 6.4 million children</a> in the U.S. were living in neighborhoods with poverty rates of 30% or more. Studies show that youths growing up in more impoverished neighborhoods are more likely to perform <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.2.309">worse in school and have greater mental health problems</a>. </p>
<p>Disadvantaged neighborhoods <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.2.77">introduce higher risks for children</a> that go beyond a family’s own resources or environment. This is because these neighborhoods increase children’s exposure to violent crime and physical hazards such as pollution, toxicants and street traffic, and they decrease access to healthy food options and high-quality schools. </p>
<p>Our research, alongside <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12453">other recent studies</a>, highlights that neighborhood disadvantage can get “under the skin.” In other words, it can affect child development by shaping brain structure and function, in addition to affecting other systems of the body, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00277">like the stress response system</a>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, studies show that such <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.28.110601.141114">structural factors</a> as where freeways are built and how neighborhood boundaries are defined can concentrate disadvantage <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.3594">into specific neighborhoods</a>. This, in turn, makes it harder for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.277.5328.918">neighbors to build strong relationships and norms</a>. So although neighbors can work to promote a more positive environment for children, <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/child-poverty/highlights.html">policy level changes</a> may be needed to help neighbors and families thrive in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. </p>
<h2>What other research is being done</h2>
<p>Recent studies from other researchers have been trying to understand why living in a disadvantaged neighborhood affects brain development and to identify additional factors that may protect children.</p>
<p>For example, in a peer-reviewed study that is not yet published, researchers found that <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/k37rf/">deadly gun violence</a> within a half-mile of children’s houses was related to the communication between brain regions important for emotion processing and self-regulation. And, like our study, they found that this effect was offset by positive neighborhood relationships. </p>
<p>Other work shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.01.036">exposure to air pollution</a> from car traffic is associated with differences in how children’s brains develop.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriela Suarez receives funding from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a supplement from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health. </span></em></p>The latest findings add to the understanding of how social disadvantage such as poverty and low-quality, unsafe housing can affect early child development.Gabriela Suarez, PhD Candidate in Developmental Psychology, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1841452022-06-20T19:55:47Z2022-06-20T19:55:47ZGrowing up in a disadvantaged neighbourhood can change kids’ brains – and their reactions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469638/original/file-20220620-24-k915ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C12%2C4203%2C2800&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1483193722442-5422d99849bc?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2070&q=80">Unsplash/Caleb Woods</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Understanding the facial expressions of others is an important development stage. It helps us learn non-verbal communication and to recognise when someone is angry or scared and primes us to react to threats or show empathy for others’ feelings. A growing body of evidence suggests our neighbourhood environment shapes this response in children’s brains in different ways, depending on the dynamics of the neighbourhood itself.</p>
<p>The amygdala is an important brain structure for recognising and reacting to facial expressions. It is responsible for our “<a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response">fight or flight</a>” response and is sensitive to emotional facial expressions, especially those <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1219167110">related to threats</a>. </p>
<p>While this primitive alert system is useful to keep us safe, the amygdala can’t differentiate between real threats and emotions like <a href="https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpp.12316">stress, aggression, anger or fear</a>. This means we often have the same “fight or flight” response to different situations. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8777301/">A recent study</a> examined the link between neighbourhood disadvantage and amygdala reactivity to emotional faces in kids. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/kids-neighborhoods-can-affect-their-developing-brains-a-new-study-finds-184035">researchers</a> wanted to understand whether positive or negative <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00420980120087081?casa_token=mnqdCiHv3GEAAAAA:90m8pFnT_t0YJKQvk7Oji_KIDjAMxqCd7PpZ0tl7hnjjNBTL11TDQcPY9jsuQUAJf2W5m2tsG1u0VQc">social aspects of the neighbourhood</a> could influence amygdala reactivity in childhood. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469640/original/file-20220620-26-9u1snj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="outline of brain with two small red dots highlighted" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469640/original/file-20220620-26-9u1snj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469640/original/file-20220620-26-9u1snj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469640/original/file-20220620-26-9u1snj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469640/original/file-20220620-26-9u1snj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469640/original/file-20220620-26-9u1snj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469640/original/file-20220620-26-9u1snj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469640/original/file-20220620-26-9u1snj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The right and left amygdala drive responses to emotional stimuli, real or imagined.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/amygdala-known-corpus-amygdaloideum-brain-600w-1872650494.jpg">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-children-need-protection-from-toxic-stress-at-an-early-age-161528">Why children need protection from toxic stress at an early age</a>
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<h2>Making connections</h2>
<p>The amygdala is particularly responsive to our environment, especially as children when our brains are developing. </p>
<p>Kids exposed to extreme trauma growing up – such as living in a warzone or experiencing physical or emotional abuse – show <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7145742/">altered brain pathways</a> for fear and anger processing, with new brain connections allowing faster and more intense emotional responses. This means that kids may be more “on guard” and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:CCFP.0000006294.88201.68">quick to react</a> to negative emotions.</p>
<p>People who grow up in disadvantaged neighbourhoods may have an <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2021.624705/full">enlarged amygdala</a>, which is related to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/5/4/424/1624502">increased fearfulness</a>.
They are more likely to show <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19596123/1">heightened sensitivity</a> to emotional stimuli. Neighbourhood disadvantage and amygdala reactivity are also linked to antisocial child and youth <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.soc.28.110601.141114">behaviours</a>. </p>
<p>What is less known is how the environment and social processes of neighbourhoods can shape the developing brain, for better or worse. Positive social processes of neighbourhoods might include shared beliefs about what behaviour is appropriate, community support and trust, and willingness of neighbours to intervene for the common good.</p>
<p>To understand how neighbourhood environments could influence brains, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8777301/">researchers</a> examined 700 children from different neighbourhoods in Michigan, United States. To get accurate information about neighbourhoods, they used census information to rate neighbourhood disadvantage based on employment rates, education, home ownership, and income. </p>
<p>Researchers then used birth records to locate families with twins. Twins are helpful for this kind of research because they live in the same environment so should have the same brain responses. The study included twin families living above and below the poverty line to specifically examine effects of disadvantaged neighbourhoods.</p>
<p>Twins underwent <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30359060/">task-based Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans</a>. They were shown faces for two seconds and matched faces based on whether they were angry, fearful, happy, or neutral (no expression). The MRI scans detected reactivity of the amygdala in their scans in real-time when viewing the faces.</p>
<p>The study also included adults from the same neighbourhoods as the twins. These adult neighbours provided an independent rating of the neighbourhood. There were about four neighbours to each twin family.</p>
<p>Neighbours filled out questionnaires about social processes such as community support (e.g. how willing people are to help their neighbours); informal social order (e.g. what someone in the neighbourhood might do if a child was left home alone at night); and behavioural norms (e.g. how people in the neighbourhood might intervene if a child was doing something dangerous, even if it was not their child). </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kids-neighborhoods-can-affect-their-developing-brains-a-new-study-finds-184035">Kids' neighborhoods can affect their developing brains, a new study finds</a>
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<h2>Neighbourhood disadvantage, over-active brains</h2>
<p>The study found experiences of neighbourhood disadvantage resulted in over-activity of the right amygdala, with kids from these neighbourhoods being more reactive to facial expressions of anger and fear. </p>
<p>Likewise, if neighbours scored the neighbourhood social processes low and thought neighbours did not look out for one another, kids from these neighbourhoods were more likely to have a highly reactive amygdala response to emotional faces.</p>
<p>However, researchers also found positive neighbourhood social processes could mediate, or lessen, the relationship between neighbourhood disadvantage and amygdala reactivity. </p>
<p>When neighbours said the neighbourhood worked together cooperatively and was supportive – there was no effect of neighbourhood adversity on amygdala reactivity. The kids from these neighbourhoods had the same response to expressions of anger and fear as kids from less disadvantaged neighbourhoods.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469639/original/file-20220620-14-puzn53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="housing commission flats in Melbourne" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469639/original/file-20220620-14-puzn53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469639/original/file-20220620-14-puzn53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469639/original/file-20220620-14-puzn53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469639/original/file-20220620-14-puzn53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469639/original/file-20220620-14-puzn53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469639/original/file-20220620-14-puzn53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469639/original/file-20220620-14-puzn53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In communities where neighbours report strong social support and interpersonal connections, researchers found less effect on brain reactivity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/external-view-housing-commission-apartment-600w-1521657638.jpg">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Social connections matter</h2>
<p>Neighbourhood environments and social connections are critically important for shaping emotional recognition in kid’s brains. This influence can be positive or negative, depending on the social dynamics of the neighbourhood. </p>
<p>This fresh research shows no matter how disadvantaged a neighbourhood is, the actions, attitudes and behaviour of the people who live there are highly important influences on how growing children understand and process threats around them.</p>
<p>Growing up in a positive and connected neighbourhood where people look out for one another and act in the best interests of the community is one of the best things we can do to give our kids a stable start in life. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This story is part of The Conversation's Breaking the Cycle series, which is about escaping cycles of disadvantage. It is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.</span></em></p>Children who grow up in disadvantaged areas seem to react more strongly to facial expressions showing anger or fear. But social connections between neighbours can help.Sarah Hellewell, Research Fellow, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, and The Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1772412022-03-28T21:00:38Z2022-03-28T21:00:38ZWhere our thoughts come from: How microemotions affect spontaneous thought<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454657/original/file-20220328-25-1mgocz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=198%2C254%2C5894%2C3734&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People can have several thousand thoughts per day, many of which can be classified as spontaneous or involuntary.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/where-our-thoughts-come-from--how-microemotions-affect-spontaneous-thought" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Our thoughts are like a private theatre, and as such they can fascinate us. They are sometimes unpredictable and sometimes on cue. They can surprise us, stimulate us, move us to action and sometimes to tears. As much as thoughts can trigger emotions, they can also be triggered by them: feelings influence what is shown in our mental theatre.</p>
<p>The fleeting images and phrases in our minds make up a good portion of our lives. By some estimates based on brain state transitions in neuroimaging data, we may have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17255-9">four to eight thoughts per minute</a>. Even accounting for some periods of fatigue or apathy and many periods spent perceiving sensory input (such as reading or listening), that can add up to several thousand thoughts a day. </p>
<p>Several psychological disorders produce changes in stream of thought. Manic states, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety often <a href="https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/189899/1/Piguet_toughts_mood_JAD_2010.pdf">increase thought rate</a>, whereas depression and dementia often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13825589708256645">reduce it</a>. </p>
<h2>Spontaneous thoughts</h2>
<p>Many thoughts can be classified as spontaneous or involuntary. They spring to mind; they don’t feel deliberate. Some may be ideas or intuitions relevant to a current situation, intrusive thoughts linked to preoccupations, or “free associations” while the mind wanders. Some are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0693">recollections of autobiographical memories</a> with some link to recent experiences. </p>
<p>Where do spontaneous thoughts come from? An obvious source is environmental stimulation: the ideas evoked by what we see and hear. However, spontaneous thoughts often appear when the environment is relatively stable, like when walking a familiar path or sitting on a bus.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Illustration of a brain lit up with red and blue, against a black background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453763/original/file-20220323-17-aibxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453763/original/file-20220323-17-aibxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453763/original/file-20220323-17-aibxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453763/original/file-20220323-17-aibxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453763/original/file-20220323-17-aibxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453763/original/file-20220323-17-aibxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453763/original/file-20220323-17-aibxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Emotions play a key role in many types of spontaneous thoughts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Spontaneous thoughts often <a href="http://www.christofflab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Christoff_2004_Cortex.pdf">emerge from long-term memory</a>, unconscious pieces of phrases, images, actions and ideas that also give rise to dreams. These mental construction blocks are the collective activity of networks of neurons in the brain’s <a href="https://human-memory.net/gray-white-matter/">grey matter</a> whose connections have been strengthened by numerous experiences. </p>
<p>These neural networks are ordinarily inactive, but when they are excited by other brain activity, such as a stimulus, a related thought or hunger, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2008.07.012">compete for access to consciousness</a> based on their strength. The competitive strength of networks is influenced by their relevance to our situation, but also to our goals, needs, interests or emotions. We think about food more easily when we are hungry but also when we have an important dinner to prepare. </p>
<p>Emotions play a key role in many types of spontaneous thoughts. For example, intrusive thoughts <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/2167702615577349">are forced upon us by emotions</a> so that we focus on high-priority information like threats, frustrations or opportunities. Anxiety often produces intrusive thoughts pointing to real or imagined threats. In post-traumatic stress, it can cause repetitive <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOTS.0000029266.88369.fd">flashbacks and ruminations</a>. </p>
<p>While negative emotions make us focus on high priority content, positive emotions appear to facilitate more remote or unusual associations which increase memorization and creativity. During euphoria — intense happiness or pleasure that may be out of proportion to its causes — intrusive thoughts often include optimistic anticipations and imaginative ideas. Passion induces <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-016-9755-3">positive spontaneous thoughts</a>. </p>
<h2>Microemotions</h2>
<p>Even during uneventful daily activities, weak emotions or microemotions such as worries, desires, irritation, stress, surprise or interest are involved in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00415">orienting many of our thoughts</a>. </p>
<p>Microemotions are brief and often unconscious. They mainly trigger micromovements like muscle tension or <a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.935.3519&rep=rep1&type=pdf#page=227">facial microexpressions</a> and they produce small <a href="http://www.gruberpeplab.com/3131/8.2_Levenson_2003_Bloodsweatfears.pdf">physiological reactions</a> including adrenaline secretion and cardiovascular responses. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a thinking pose with a finger to his chin, with icons of different thoughts in gears behind him" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454800/original/file-20220328-17-1s31zd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454800/original/file-20220328-17-1s31zd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454800/original/file-20220328-17-1s31zd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454800/original/file-20220328-17-1s31zd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454800/original/file-20220328-17-1s31zd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454800/original/file-20220328-17-1s31zd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454800/original/file-20220328-17-1s31zd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Microemotions are themselves triggered by a perception or an idea, often an unconscious one, that is significant enough to subtly activate emotional systems.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Micro-fears often trigger what-if thoughts and <a href="http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/%7Esc318/PDF%20files/daveyhampton1992.pdf">worries</a> that maintain anxiety through a positive feedback loop; this in turn can be a source of insomnia. Desires regularly activate thoughts like goals, wishes and conversation themes. </p>
<p>Microemotions of guilt or pride trigger <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphysparis.2007.12.003">moral intuitions</a> of anticipated disapproval or approval of others, which are essential to develop pro-social behaviour such as co-operation, helpfulness and other types of behaviour that benefit others. Microemotions of boredom or craving for stimulation can trigger distraction or mind wandering and may underlie <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054719865781">some symptoms of attention deficits</a>. </p>
<p>Microemotions influence our thoughts in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00415">variety of ways</a>. They distract our attention from its present object, they sensitize perceptual systems to notice things related to their dominant theme and they facilitate the retrieval of memories relevant to that theme. Microemotions are themselves triggered by a perception or an idea, often an unconscious one, that is significant enough to subtly activate emotional systems. </p>
<h2>The amygdala</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Illustration of a female head in profile, showing brain anatomy with the amygdala in red" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454658/original/file-20220328-17341-sh4i6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454658/original/file-20220328-17341-sh4i6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454658/original/file-20220328-17341-sh4i6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454658/original/file-20220328-17341-sh4i6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454658/original/file-20220328-17341-sh4i6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454658/original/file-20220328-17341-sh4i6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454658/original/file-20220328-17341-sh4i6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The amygdala has access to our urges and desires activated in the low parts of our frontal lobe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Emotions can activate spontaneous thoughts through several brain circuits <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.10.011">centred on a hub called the amygdala</a>. That hub has access to our urges and desires activated in the low parts of our frontal lobe. It can interpret the emotional significance of perceptions or retrieved memories, and it can also influence them. </p>
<p>The amygdala hub also activates the <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0026187">brain’s amplifiers</a> in the brain stem that feed neuromodulators like adrenaline and serotonin to the grey matter. These systems juice up the level of neural activity and steer it toward the theme that is consistent with the emotion. When the evoked thought is itself emotion-provoking, a self-sustaining loop is created between thought and emotion that is stopped by either distraction or cognitive processes.</p>
<p>In essence, spontaneous thoughts are largely motivated thoughts: every minute, feelings nudge our attention, our inner voice and our mental theatre in a specific direction. Better control of stress levels, emotions and daily experiences may improve the quality of these spontaneous thoughts and the satisfaction derived from them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177241/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francois Richer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Emotions play a key role in many types of spontaneous thoughts. Even microemotions — which are often fleeting and unconscious — can affect thoughts and influence attention.Francois Richer, Professor, neuropsychology, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1391852020-06-08T16:03:56Z2020-06-08T16:03:56ZHaving trouble concentrating during the coronavirus pandemic? Neuroscience explains why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337235/original/file-20200524-124826-r09a3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1356%2C667&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why do so many students say they have a hard time studying? Recent advances in cognitive sciences have found some answers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/">(Shutterstock)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fear, anxiety, worry, lack of motivation and difficulty concentrating — students cite all sorts of reasons for opposing distance learning. But are these excuses or real concerns? What does science say?</p>
<p>At the beginning of the pandemic, when universities and CEGEPs, Québec’s junior colleges, were putting in place scenarios to continue teaching at a distance, students expressed their opposition by noting that the context was “<a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1682689/enseignement-education-coronavirus-fermeture-prolongation-cours-ligne">not conducive to learning</a>.”</p>
<p>Teachers also felt that the students were “simply not willing to continue learning in such conditions.” A variety of negative emotions were reported in opinion columns, letters and surveys. A <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/petition-calling-on-quebec-to-keep-students-out-of-school-until-september-has-more-than-250-000-signatures-1.4916828">petition was even circulated</a> calling for a suspension of the winter session, which Education Minister Jean-François Roberge <a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1689225/coronavirus-cegep-universite-college-education">refused</a>.</p>
<p>Students are not the only ones who have difficulty concentrating on intellectual tasks. In a <a href="https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/litterature/202004/07/01-5268431-pandemie-et-paralysie-creatrice.php">column published in <em>La Presse</em></a>, Chantal Guy says that like many of her colleagues, she can’t devote herself to in-depth reading.</p>
<p>“After a few pages, my mind wanders and just wants to go check out Dr. Arruda’s damn curve,” Guy wrote, referring to Horacio Arruda, the province’s public health director. In short: “It’s not the time that’s lacking in reading, it’s the concentration,” she said. “People don’t have the head for that.”</p>
<p>Why do students feel they don’t have the ability for studies? Recent advances in cognitive science provide insights into the links between negative emotions and cognition in tasks that require sustained intellectual investment.</p>
<h2>A question of the amygdala</h2>
<p>“The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.” This sentence from 17th-century philosopher Blaise Pascal sums up well the way in which western science has long separated the emotions of the “hot” universe from those of the “cold” universe in human rationality.</p>
<p>Walter Cannon’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.4000/acrh.7293">physiological research</a> has provided a first explanation of how emotions, especially negative emotions, take over our minds. He showed that emotion is a physiological warning system in the body, activating several structures below the cerebral cortex.</p>
<p>One of these structures, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2005.09.025">the amygdala</a>, is now proving to be particularly important. The amygdala is rapidly activated in the face of threatening stimuli and allows us to learn to be wary of them. Faced with what could be a snake hidden among the branches, an animal will awaken its senses, alert its muscles and react quickly, without having the luxury of analyzing whether the slender shape is a snake or a stick.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332837/original/file-20200505-83745-aarr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332837/original/file-20200505-83745-aarr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332837/original/file-20200505-83745-aarr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332837/original/file-20200505-83745-aarr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332837/original/file-20200505-83745-aarr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332837/original/file-20200505-83745-aarr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332837/original/file-20200505-83745-aarr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In humans, the amygdala activates quickly and automatically in response to social stimuli loaded with negative emotions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In humans, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1534582303002002003">amygdala activates quickly and automatically</a> in response to social stimuli loaded with negative emotions. Neuroscience research shows that people are not only highly sensitive to the emotional charge of their perceptions but they are also unable to ignore it. </p>
<p>For example, the emotions aroused by the sight of a snake in the grass or an untrustworthy political figure can capture our attention in spite of ourselves.</p>
<h2>Attention: A limited resource</h2>
<p>One might object that for many people, fortunately, COVID-19 does not pose the same kind of threat as a snake encountered in the undergrowth. Our social systems provide us with protections that are previously unimaginable and we are much better prepared to deal with crisis situations.</p>
<p>And, learning situations established by educational institutions — whether in-person classes or online classes — always require that students focus their attention and consciously control their thoughts. As teachers know from experience, a great challenge while leading any lesson is keeping the attention of all students by ensuring that they remain focused on the activity at hand.</p>
<p>The cognitive psychologist <a href="https://scholar.princeton.edu/kahneman">Daniel Kahneman</a>, a Nobel Prize winner in 2002, was among the first to propose that <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Attention_and_effort.html?id=7kvuAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">attention is a limited cognitive resource</a> and that some cognitive processes require more attention than others. This is particularly the case for activities involving the conscious control of cognitive processes (such as reading or writing academic papers), involving what Kahneman calls “System 2” thinking. That requires attention and mental energy.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332841/original/file-20200505-83769-10p2rvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332841/original/file-20200505-83769-10p2rvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332841/original/file-20200505-83769-10p2rvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332841/original/file-20200505-83769-10p2rvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332841/original/file-20200505-83769-10p2rvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332841/original/file-20200505-83769-10p2rvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332841/original/file-20200505-83769-10p2rvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Psychologist Daniel Kahneman received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former president Barack Obama at a ceremony at the White House in November 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Limited attention capacity is also at the heart of the theories proposing that conscious and controlled cognitive processes are carried out in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100422">working memory</a>, which is compared to a mental space capable of processing a limited amount of new information.</p>
<p>In working memory, attention acts as a supervisor of cognitive resource allocation and a controller of action execution. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1996.0129">brain circuits associated with working memory</a> and executive functions are those of the prefrontal cortex.</p>
<h2>When emotion eats at attention</h2>
<p>Researchers have long believed that the processing of emotions through the amygdala does not depend on the attention resources of working memory. However, evidence is accumulating in favour of the opposite hypothesis, indicating that the circuits connecting the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3025529/">play an important role</a> in discriminating between relevant and irrelevant information for the current activity. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.12.004">emotional stimuli were found to interfere</a> with the performance of a working memory task especially since they were not very relevant to the task. Furthermore, as the cognitive load associated with the task increased (for example, when the task required more cognitive resources), the interference of emotional stimuli not relevant to the task also increased. Thus, it would appear that the more a task requires cognitive effort and concentration, the more easily we are distracted.</p>
<p>Much of the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2007-06782-011">extensive research on anxiety by psychologist Michael Eysenck</a> and colleagues supports this view. They show that people who are anxious prefer to focus their attention on stimuli associated with the threat, unrelated to the task at hand. These stimuli may be internal (worrisome thoughts) or external (images perceived as threatening).</p>
<p>This is also the case with worry as the repeated experience of seemingly uncontrollable thoughts about possible negative events. Both <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2008-11014-021">anxiety and worry eat up the attention</a> and cognitive resources of working memory, resulting in decreased cognitive performance, especially for complex tasks.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333144/original/file-20200506-49538-e84l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333144/original/file-20200506-49538-e84l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333144/original/file-20200506-49538-e84l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333144/original/file-20200506-49538-e84l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333144/original/file-20200506-49538-e84l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333144/original/file-20200506-49538-e84l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333144/original/file-20200506-49538-e84l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mental fatigue increases when one performs a task while trying not to respond to external demands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other research indicates that feelings of mental fatigue increase when performing a task while trying not to respond to outside demands. It has been suggested that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3856320/">mental fatigue is a particular emotion</a> that tells us that our mental resources are being depleted. </p>
<p>Overall, this research suggests that we are depleting our attention resources to avoid paying attention to irrelevant, but emotionally charged information! It is now better understood why it is so difficult — and exhausting — to avoid checking one’s email while reading a scientific text, to switch from email to Facebook and from Facebook to COVID-19 news coverage, when we are concerned about the curve or death toll in seniors’ homes.</p>
<h2>Emotion and cognition are inseparable</h2>
<p>Research in cognitive sciences today confirms what we know intuitively: studying requires attention, time and availability of mind. This research shows that cognitive and emotional processes are so intertwined in the brain that, for some researchers, such as <a href="https://www.odilejacob.fr/catalogue/sciences/neurosciences/erreur-de-descartes_9782738124579.php">Antonio Damasio</a>, no thought is possible without emotion.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, then, in a context full of messages about the dangers of the pandemic, students find it difficult to focus sustainably on their studies and most seem to lack quality time for reading or writing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139185/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Béatrice Pudelko is a regular researcher at the Institut des sciences cognitives at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and at the Groupe interdisciplinaire de recherche sur la cognition et le raisonnement professionnel at l’Université de Montréal (UdeM). She is also a member of the Commission de l'évaluation de projets de programmes of the Bureau de la coopération interuniversitaire (Québec), of the Working Group on Distance Learning of the Fédération québécoise des professeurs et professeures d'universités (FQPPU), and Vice-President of the Syndicat des professeures et professeurs de l'Université TÉLUQ.
</span></em></p>Students say they have a hard time studying and cognitive science proves they’re not trying to dodge work: there’s a link between negative emotions and difficulties in concentrating.Béatrice Pudelko, Professeure en psychologie de l'éducation, Université TÉLUQ Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1331292020-03-16T12:20:01Z2020-03-16T12:20:01ZFear can spread from person to person faster than the coronavirus – but there are ways to slow it down<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320609/original/file-20200315-50583-1alxjft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=500%2C331%2C5466%2C3641&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's hard not to be scared of an invisible and spreading threat.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Germany-Virus-Outbreak/a1ad70e3babb41d491567fcabd5139e1/1/0">AP Photo/Markus Schreiber</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As cases of COVID-19 proliferate, there’s a pandemic of fear unfolding alongside the pandemic of the coronavirus.</p>
<p>Media announce mass cancellations of public events “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51735208">over coronavirus fears</a>.” TV stations show images of “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-shoppers/no-milk-no-bleach-americans-awake-to-coronavirus-panic-buying-idUSKBN211171">coronavirus panic shopping</a>.” Magazines discuss attacks against Asians sparked by “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/28/sensationalist-media-is-exacerbating-racist-coronavirus-fears-we-need-to-combat-it">racist coronavirus fears</a>.” </p>
<p>Due to the global reach and instantaneous nature of modern media, fear contagion spreads faster than the dangerous yet invisible virus. Watching or hearing someone else who’s scared causes you to be frightened, too, without necessarily even knowing what caused the other person’s fear.</p>
<p>As a psychiatrist and researcher <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4RT_XMgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">studying the brain mechanisms of social regulation of emotions</a>, I frequently see in clinical and experimental settings how powerful fear contagion can be.</p>
<h2>Responding with fear in face of danger</h2>
<p>Fear contagion is an evolutionarily old phenomenon that researchers observe in many animal species. It can serve a valuable survival function.</p>
<p>Imagine a herd of antelopes pasturing in the sunny African savanna. Suddenly, one senses a stalking lion. The antelope momentarily freezes. Then it quickly sets off an alarm call and runs away from the predator. In the blink of an eye, other antelopes follow.</p>
<p>Brains are hardwired to respond to threats in the environment. Sight, smell or sound cues that signal the presence of the predator automatically triggered the first antelope’s survival responses: first immobility, then escape.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320610/original/file-20200315-50543-15q7gip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320610/original/file-20200315-50543-15q7gip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320610/original/file-20200315-50543-15q7gip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320610/original/file-20200315-50543-15q7gip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320610/original/file-20200315-50543-15q7gip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320610/original/file-20200315-50543-15q7gip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320610/original/file-20200315-50543-15q7gip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320610/original/file-20200315-50543-15q7gip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The brain’s amygdala coordinates the fear response.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/amygdala-female-brain-anatomy-lateral-view-royalty-free-image/177726332">janulla/iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The amygdala, a structure buried deep within the side of the head in the brain’s temporal lobe, is key for responding to threats. It receives sensory information and quickly detects stimuli associated with danger.</p>
<p>Then the amygdala forwards the signal to other brain areas, including the hypothalamus and brain stem areas, to further coordinate specific defense responses.</p>
<p>These outcomes are commonly known as fright, freeze, flight or fight. We human beings share these automatic, unconscious behaviors with other animal species.</p>
<h2>Responding with fear, one step removed</h2>
<p>That explains the direct fear the antelope felt when sniffing or spotting a lion nearby. But fear contagion goes one step further. </p>
<p>The antelopes’ run for their lives that followed one frightened group member was also automatic. Their escape, however, was not directly initiated by the lion’s attack but by the behavior of their terrified group member: momentarily freezing, sounding the alarm and running away. The group as a whole picked up on the terror of the individual and acted accordingly.</p>
<p>Like other animals, people are also sensitive to panic or fear expressed by our kin. Human beings are exquisitely tuned to detect other people’s survival reactions.</p>
<p>Experimental studies have identified a brain structure called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2017.04.010">vital for this ability</a>. It surrounds the bundle of fibers that connect the left and right hemisphere of the brain. When you <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsm005">watch another person express fear</a>, your ACC lights up. Studies in animals confirmed that the message about another’s fear <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.04.004">travels from the ACC to the amygdala</a>, where the defense responses are set off.</p>
<p>It makes sense why an automatic, unconscious fear contagion would have evolved in social animals. It can help prevent the demise of an entire group bound by kinship, protecting all their shared genes so they can be passed on to future generations.</p>
<p>Indeed, studies show that social transmission of fear is more robust between animals, including humans, that are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2017.04.010">related or belong to the same group</a> as compared to between strangers.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, fear contagion is an effective way of transmitting defense responses not only between members of the same group or species but also across species. Many animals, through evolution, acquired an ability to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221279">recognize alarm calls of other species</a>. For example, bird squawks are known to trigger defense responses in many mammals.</p>
<h2>Transmitting fear in 2020</h2>
<p>Fear contagion happens automatically and unconsciously, making it hard to really control.</p>
<p>This phenomenon explains mass panic attacks that can occur <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/nyregion/central-park-concert-stampede.html">during music concerts</a>, sports events or <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/stampede-texas-mall-man-issues-public-threat/story?id=64922215">other public gatherings</a>. Once fear is triggered in the crowd – maybe someone thought they heard a gunshot – there is no time or opportunity to verify the sources of terror. People must rely on each other, just like antelopes do. The fear travels from one to the next, infecting each individual as it goes. Everyone starts running for their lives. Too often, these mass panics end up with tragedies.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320612/original/file-20200315-50543-19970ua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320612/original/file-20200315-50543-19970ua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320612/original/file-20200315-50543-19970ua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320612/original/file-20200315-50543-19970ua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320612/original/file-20200315-50543-19970ua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320612/original/file-20200315-50543-19970ua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320612/original/file-20200315-50543-19970ua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320612/original/file-20200315-50543-19970ua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Always-on news and social media can mean an unending stream of contagious fear.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/man-watching-tv-at-home-royalty-free-image/1182894920">seb_ra/iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fear contagion does not require direct physical contact with others. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129179">Media distributing terrifying images and information</a> can very effectively spread fear.</p>
<p>Moreover, while antelopes on the savanna stop running once they’re a safe distance from a predator, scary images on the news can keep you fearful. The feeling of immediate danger never subsides. Fear contagion didn’t evolve under the always-on conditions of Facebook, Twitter and 24-hour news.</p>
<h2>Tempering fear others transmit to you</h2>
<p>There’s no way to prevent fear contagion from kicking into gear – it’s automatic and unconscious, after all – but you can do something to mitigate it. Since it’s a social phenomenon, many rules that govern social behaviors apply.</p>
<p>In addition to information about fear, information about safety can be socially transferred too. Studies have found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000341">being in the presence of a calm and confident person</a> may help overcome fear acquired through observation of others. For instance, a child terrified by a strange animal will calm down if a calm adult is present. <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/87c9/831f3c3a2eaf76e8af13dd6e54f87a137b82.pdf">This kind of safety modeling is especially effective</a> when you have your eyes on someone close to you, or someone you depend on, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(01)00013-4">such as a caretaker</a> or an authority figure.</p>
<p>Also, actions matter more than words, and words and actions must match. For example, explaining to people that there’s no need for a healthy person to wear a protective face mask and at the same time showing images of presumably healthy COVID-19 screening personnel wearing hazmat suits is counterproductive. People will go and buy face masks because they see authority figures wearing them when confronting invisible danger.</p>
<p>But words do still matter. Information about danger and safety must be provided clearly with straightforward instructions on what to do. When you are under significant stress, it is harder to process details and nuances. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/11/politics/fact-check-trump-administration-coronavirus-28-dishonest/index.html">Withholding important facts or lying</a> increases uncertainty, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2013.792100">uncertainty augments fears and anxiety</a>.</p>
<p>Evolution hardwired human beings to share threats and fears with others. But it also equipped us with the ability to cope with these threats together.</p>
<p>[<em>Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-facts">Sign up for our newsletter.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133129/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacek Debiec has received funding from the NIH, University of Michigan and Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.</span></em></p>It can feel like everyone is stewing in anxiety about COVID-19 and seeing other people freak out can make you freak out more. A psychiatrist explains this phenomenon, and how to keep it in check.Jacek Debiec, Assistant Professor / Department of Psychiatry; Assistant Research Professor / Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1066772018-11-09T11:46:39Z2018-11-09T11:46:39ZWhat mass shootings do to those not shot: Social consequences of mass gun violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273369/original/file-20190508-183106-135sjpv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Officials guide students off a bus and into a recreation center where they were reunited with their parents after a shooting at a suburban Denver middle school Tuesday, May 7, 2019, in Highlands Ranch, Colo.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-School-Shooting-Colorado/e69881940515429fb78da8274b585cf3/20/0">David Zalubowski/AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mass shootings are a tragic new normal in American life. They happen too often, as evidenced by the May 7 shooting in Highlands Ranch, Colo. and the April 30 shooting in Charlotte, N.C., the April 27 shooting at a synagogue in San Diego on the last day of Passover. Schools, places of worship, movie theaters, workplaces, schools, bars and restaurants are no longer secure from gun violence. Families lose loved ones, and lives are ripped apart.</p>
<p>Often, and especially when a person who is not a minority or Muslim perpetrates a mass shooting, mental health is raised as a real concern – or, critics say, a diversion from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/mental-illness-and-gun-laws-what-you-may-not-know-about-the-complexities-92337">real issue of easy access</a> to firearms. </p>
<p>Less is discussed, however, about the stress of such events on the rest of society. That includes those who survived the shooting; those who were in the vicinity, including the first responders; those who lost someone in the shooting; and those who hear about it via the media.</p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/wsu-starc/members/arash-javanbakht?authuser=0">trauma and anxiety researcher and clinician</a> psychiatrist, and I know that the effects of such violence are far-reaching. While the immediate survivors are most affected, the rest of society suffers, too.</p>
<h2>First, the immediate survivors</h2>
<p>Like other animals, we humans get stressed or terrified via direct exposure to a dangerous event. The extent of that stress or fear can vary. For example, survivors may want to avoid the neighborhood where a shooting occurred or the context related to shooting, such as outdoor concerts if the shooting happened there. In the worst case, a person may develop post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. </p>
<p>PTSD is a debilitating condition that develops after exposure to serious traumatic experiences such as war, natural disasters, rape, assault, robbery, car accidents and of course gun violence. Nearly 8 percent of the <a href="https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/what/ptsd_basics.asp">U.S. population deals with PTSD</a>. Symptoms include <a href="https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/essentials/dsm5_ptsd.asp">high anxiety, avoiding reminders of the trauma, emotional numbness, hyper-vigilance, frequent intrusive memories of trauma, nightmares and flashbacks</a>. The brain switches to fight-or-flight mode, or survival mode, and the person is always waiting for something terrible to happen. </p>
<p>When the trauma is man-made, the impact can be profound: The rate of PTSD in mass shootings may be as high as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8267140">36 percent among survivors</a>. Depression, another debilitating psychiatric condition, occurs in as many as <a href="https://theconversation.com/syrian-refugees-in-america-the-forgotten-psychological-wounds-of-the-stress-of-migration-96155">80 percent of people with PTSD</a>. </p>
<p>Survivors of shootings may also experience <a href="https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/types/mass_violence_help.asp">survivor’s guilt</a>, the feeling that they failed others who died, did not do enough to help them survive or just because they survived. PTSD can improve by itself, but many need treatment. We have effective treatments available in the form of psychotherapy and medications. The more chronic it gets, the more negative the impact on the brain, and the harder to treat.</p>
<p>Children and adolescents are in a developmental stage of forming their worldview and how safe it is to live in this society. Exposure to such horrific experiences or related news, can fundamentally affect the way they perceive the world as a safe or unsafe place, and how much they can rely on the adults, and the society to protect them. They can carry such world view for the rest of their lives, and even transfer it to their children.“</p>
<h2>The effect on those close by, or who arrive later</h2>
<p>PTSD can develop not only through personal exposure to trauma, but also via exposure to others’ severe trauma. Humans are evolved to be very sensitive to social cues and have survived as a species particularly because of the ability to fear as a group. We therefore <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-fright-why-we-love-to-be-scared-85885">learn fear and experience terror via exposure</a> to trauma and fear of others. Even seeing a black-and-white scared face on a computer will make our <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00154/full">amygdala</a>, the fear area of our brain, light up in brain imaging studies. </p>
<p>People in the vicinity of a mass shooting may see exposed, disfigured or burned dead bodies, injured people in agony, terror of others, extremely loud noises, chaos and terror of post-shooting, and the unknown. The unknown – a sense of lack of control over the situation – has a very important role in making people feel insecure, terrified and traumatized. </p>
<p>I, sadly, see this form of trauma often in asylum seekers exposed to torture of their loved ones, refugees exposed to casualties of war, combat veterans who lost their comrades and people who lost a loved one in car accidents, natural disasters or shootings. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244675/original/file-20181108-74763-10c2zbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244675/original/file-20181108-74763-10c2zbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244675/original/file-20181108-74763-10c2zbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244675/original/file-20181108-74763-10c2zbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244675/original/file-20181108-74763-10c2zbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244675/original/file-20181108-74763-10c2zbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244675/original/file-20181108-74763-10c2zbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A first responder after the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Oct. 27, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pittsburgh-pennsylvania-usa-oct-27-2018-1213929463?src=2puSZQibBnZUyKlnKuOScw-1-12">B Peterson</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Another group whose trauma is usually overlooked is the first responders. When we all run away, the police, the firefighters and the paramedics rush into the danger zone, and frequently face uncertainty, threats to themselves, their colleagues and others, as well as terrible bloody scenes of post-shooting. This exposure happens to them too frequently. PTSD has been reported in up to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26253760">20 percent of first responders</a> to man-made mass violence. </p>
<h2>How does it affect those who were not even near the shooting?</h2>
<p>There is evidence of distress, anxiety or even PTSD symptoms among people who were not directly exposed to a disaster, but were <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3520479/">exposed to the news</a>, including <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12150669">post-9/11</a>. Fear, the coming unknown (is there another shooting, are other co-conspirators involved?) and reduced faith in our perceived safety may all play a role in this. </p>
<p>Every time there is a mass shooting in a new place, we learn that kind of place is now on the not-very-safe list. When at the temple or church, the club or in the class, someone may walk in and open fire. People worry not only about themselves but also about the safety of their children and other loved ones.</p>
<h2>Media: The good, the bad and the sometimes ugly</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244678/original/file-20181108-74754-oje4am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244678/original/file-20181108-74754-oje4am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244678/original/file-20181108-74754-oje4am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244678/original/file-20181108-74754-oje4am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244678/original/file-20181108-74754-oje4am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244678/original/file-20181108-74754-oje4am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244678/original/file-20181108-74754-oje4am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Daily Telegraph front page of the shootings in Las Vegas on Oct 1, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/paris-france-oct-3-2017-man-728314648?src=_2xa31Er5UPIOzOu4SvHHQ-1-11">Hadrian/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>I always say American cable news are "disaster pornographers.” When there is a mass shooting or a terrorist attack, they make sure to add enough dramatic tone to it to get all the attention for the duration of the time they desire. If there is one shooting in a corner of a city of millions, the cable news will make sure that you feel like the whole city is under siege. </p>
<p>Besides informing the public and logically analyzing the events, one job of the media is to attract viewers and readers, and viewers are better glued to the TV when their positive or negative emotions are stirred, with fear being one. Thus, the media, along with the politicians, can also play a role in stirring fear, anger or paranoia about one or another group of people. </p>
<p>When we are scared, we are vulnerable to regress to more tribal and stereotyping attitudes. We can get trapped in fear of perceiving all members of another tribe a threat, if a member of that group acted violently. In general, people may become less open and more cautious around others when they perceive a high risk of exposure to danger.</p>
<h2>Is there a good side to it?</h2>
<p>As we are used to happy endings, I will try to also address potentially positive outcomes: We may consider making our gun laws safer and open constructive discussions, including informing the public about the risks. As a group species, we are able to consolidate group dynamics and integrity when pressured and stressed, so we may raise a more positive sense of community. One beautiful outcome of the tragic shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue was the solidarity of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2018/10/28/respond-evil-with-good-muslim-community-raises-money-victims-synagogue-shooting/">Muslim community with the Jewish</a>. This is especially productive in the current political environment, where fear and division are common.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that we get angry, we get scared and we get confused. When united, we can do much better. And, do not spend too much time watching cable TV; turn it off when it stresses you too much.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s Note: This article was originally published Nov. 9, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arash Javanbakht does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mass shootings bring terror in ways that people watching from afar can only imagine. And yet, society at large is also affected, a trauma psychiatrist writes.Arash Javanbakht, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1055412018-11-02T10:53:46Z2018-11-02T10:53:46ZDeveloping teen brains are vulnerable to anxiety – but treatment can help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243125/original/file-20181031-76411-11c80l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The character of Kayla in 'Eighth Grade' is a true-to-life representation of an anxious teen.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7014006/mediaindex?ref_=tt_ov_mi_sm">A24</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Adolescence is the life stage when mental illnesses are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593">most likely to emerge</a>, with anxiety disorders being the most common. Recent estimates suggest that <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/any-anxiety-disorder.shtml#part_155096">over 30 percent of teens</a> have an anxiety disorder. That means about one of every three teenagers is struggling with anxiety that significantly interferes with their life and is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psc.2009.06.002">unlikely to fade</a> without treatment.</p>
<p><iframe id="08i3I" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/08i3I/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Kayla is the anxious teen protagonist in the recent movie “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7014006/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Eighth Grade</a>.” From the acne peeking out through her makeup to the frequent “likes” that punctuate her speech, she seems to be a quintessentially awkward teen. Inside her mind, though, the realities of social anxiety meet the typical storm and stress of adolescence. Through its warm yet heart-wrenchingly truthful portrayal of an awkward and anxious teen, “Eighth Grade” provides a relatable character for identifying and understanding how teen anxiety can really look and feel.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HlR1nSAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">As developmental</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4SpCHKcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">neuroscientists</a>, watching the film sparked a conversation about the latest science on anxiety during adolescence. Researchers are learning more about why the teenage brain is so vulnerable to anxiety – and developing effective treatments that are increasingly available.</p>
<h2>What does teen anxiety look like?</h2>
<p>The hallmark of <a href="http://www.abct.org/Information/?m=mInformation&fa=fs_ANXIETY">anxiety disorders</a> is fear or nervousness that does not go away, even in the absence of any real threat. In an emotional scene, Kayla shares that she’s “really, like, nervous all the time” and she “[tries] really hard not to feel that way,” as if she’s constantly waiting to ride a roller coaster with butterflies in her stomach, but never getting the relief of the ride ending.</p>
<p>For teens and parents, it can be hard to disentangle normal emotional changes that often accompany puberty from anxiety that may require professional care. Some of Kayla’s worries and fears are highly typical - feeling nervous about what others will think, worrying about making friends, wanting to “fit in.” The problem is that, unlike everyday worry, Kayla experiences these feelings all the time and in ways that force her to miss out on important opportunities of adolescence like exploring relationships.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243128/original/file-20181031-76396-1syjnq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243128/original/file-20181031-76396-1syjnq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243128/original/file-20181031-76396-1syjnq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243128/original/file-20181031-76396-1syjnq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243128/original/file-20181031-76396-1syjnq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243128/original/file-20181031-76396-1syjnq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243128/original/file-20181031-76396-1syjnq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243128/original/file-20181031-76396-1syjnq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Connections between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex at the front of the brain are involved in the experience of fear and anxiety.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ptsd-brain.png">National Institute of Mental Health</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Studies on the teenage brain are increasingly revealing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1600013113">why adolescence may be such a vulnerable time for anxiety</a>. Researchers have focused on connections between the brain’s limbic system, including the amygdala which governs emotion, and the prefrontal cortex, the frontmost part of the brain. These <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.23.1.155">connections are essential for controlling emotions</a>, including fear, a core symptom in anxiety disorders. </p>
<p>The problem is that these amygdala-prefrontal cortex connections are slow to develop; they continue to strengthen into one’s early 20s. During adolescence, the brain goes through rapid changes in its shape and size and also in how it works. The very structures and connections in the brain that help to manage emotions are in flux <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/38/44/9433">during this developmental period</a>, making teens especially vulnerable to stress and anxiety.</p>
<p>Anxious teens are at heightened risk for a host of long-term problems, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-200109000-00018">depression, substance abuse and suicide</a>.</p>
<h2>Evidence-based treatments work</h2>
<p>Fortunately, help exists for anxious teens. As is the case for the startlingly high <a href="https://childmind.org/2015-childrens-mental-health-report/">80 percent</a> of youth struggling with anxiety who don’t get treatment, Kayla’s journey through “Eighth Grade” also does not include any professional help. Yet no teen should need to face anxiety on their own. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa0804633">Psychotherapy and medications can both</a> be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2013.11.010">highly effective</a>.</p>
<p>Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective and widely used psychosocial treatments for anxiety in teens. In CBT, therapists help individuals with anxiety to gradually and repeatedly expose themselves to the very situations that they fear.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243130/original/file-20181031-76387-ht1rzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243130/original/file-20181031-76387-ht1rzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243130/original/file-20181031-76387-ht1rzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243130/original/file-20181031-76387-ht1rzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243130/original/file-20181031-76387-ht1rzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243130/original/file-20181031-76387-ht1rzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243130/original/file-20181031-76387-ht1rzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243130/original/file-20181031-76387-ht1rzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Practicing something that causes fear or anxiety can lessen its power in real-life situations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ollisplace/15834558334">olli's place/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>A socially anxious teen might start with imagining sending a classmate a text asking to hang out, gradually move on to sending that text, or even calling a classmate on the phone, and eventually initiating a conversation with an unfamiliar peer at a party. The goal is to practice these anxiety-provoking actions and associate them with a new state of safety.</p>
<p>Decades of studies in animals and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2004.08.042">people</a> have helped psychology researchers understand more about how the brain regulates fear. Building on this work, emerging neuroscience evidence suggests that current treatments for anxiety directly modify the same amygdala-prefrontal connections that are in flux during adolescence and implicated in anxiety.</p>
<p>For example, evidence suggests that both cognitive behavioral therapy and medication treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.59.5.425">reduce amygdala reactivity</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23945981">enhance prefrontal control</a>. The treatments help these brain circuits regulate fear and keep them from overreacting to potentially anxiety-provoking situations.</p>
<p>Researchers <a href="http://candlab.yale.edu/category/research">like us</a> are actively working to leverage growing insight into the teenage brain to further optimize anxiety-focused treatments. Neuroscientific studies have the unique advantage of peering inside the teenage brain to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3446-12.2013">directly assess developmental changes</a> in amygdala-prefrontal cortex connections. Using imaging technologies, we’re able to characterize the state of this neural circuitry and how well it’s controlling fear at a given stage of development. And this knowledge provides clues about how to match up the most effective behavioral techniques for regulating anxiety with a particular teen’s stage of brain circuit development.</p>
<p>Evidence suggests that the ways in which people learn about potential dangers in their environment and how they are able to control or regulate responses to those threats <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11475">undergo important changes</a> during the teenage years. Translating this knowledge into the treatment realm could provide new windows into precision medicine, allowing treatments to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1260497">tailored specifically</a> for teenagers.</p>
<p>Although the teenage brain is prone to anxiety because of where it is on its path of biological development, effective treatment options exist and are continually being refined to target the adolescent brain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paola Odriozola receives funding from the National Science Foundation. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dylan Gee receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.</span></em></p>Almost a third of American adolescents have anxiety disorders. Researchers in developmental neuroscience are figuring out that how the brain matures over time may be part of the reason why.Paola Odriozola, Ph.D. Student in Psychology, Yale UniversityDylan Gee, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1037252018-09-24T10:22:27Z2018-09-24T10:22:27ZMemories of trauma are unique because of how brains and bodies respond to threat<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237617/original/file-20180923-129844-ab10wp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=838%2C225%2C3841%2C2793&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A traumatic memory can be near impossible to shake.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/0lD4hF1fBv0">Carolina Heza/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most of what you experience leaves no trace in your memory. Learning new information often requires a lot of effort and repetition – picture studying for a tough exam or mastering the tasks of a new job. It’s easy to forget what you’ve learned, and recalling details of the past can sometimes be challenging.</p>
<p>But some past experiences can keep haunting you for years. Life-threatening events – things like getting mugged or escaping from a fire – can be impossible to forget, even if you make every possible effort. Recent developments in the Supreme Court nomination hearings and the associated <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45621124">#WhyIDidntReport action on social media</a> have rattled the public and raised questions about the nature, role and impact of these kinds of traumatic memories.</p>
<p>Leaving politics aside, what do psychiatrists and neuroscientists <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4RT_XMgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">like me</a> understand about how past traumas can remain present and persistent in our lives through memories?</p>
<h2>Bodies respond automatically to threat</h2>
<p>Imagine facing extreme danger, such as being held at gunpoint. Right away, your heart rate increases. Your arteries constrict, directing more blood to your muscles, which tense up in preparation for a possible life-or-death struggle. Perspiration increases, to cool you down and improve gripping capability on palms and feet for added traction for escape. In some situations, when the threat is overwhelming, you may freeze and be unable to move.</p>
<p>Threat responses are often accompanied by a range of sensations and feelings. Senses may sharpen, contributing to amplified detection and response to threat. You may experience tingling or numbness in your limbs, as well as shortness of breath, chest pain, feelings of weakness, fainting or dizziness. Your thoughts may be racing or, conversely, you may experience a lack of thoughts and feel detached from reality. Terror, panic, helplessness, lack of control or chaos may take over.</p>
<p>These reactions are automatic and cannot be stopped once they’re initiated, regardless of later feelings of guilt or shame about a lack of fight or flight. </p>
<h2>Brains have two routes to respond to danger</h2>
<p>Biological research over the past few decades has made significant progress in understanding how the brain responds to threat. Defense responses are controlled by neural systems that human beings have inherited from our distant evolutionary ancestors.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237615/original/file-20180923-129853-1u53a7g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237615/original/file-20180923-129853-1u53a7g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237615/original/file-20180923-129853-1u53a7g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237615/original/file-20180923-129853-1u53a7g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237615/original/file-20180923-129853-1u53a7g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237615/original/file-20180923-129853-1u53a7g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237615/original/file-20180923-129853-1u53a7g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237615/original/file-20180923-129853-1u53a7g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The amygdala – in red – is involved in emotion processing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amygdala.png">Life Science Databases</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2005.09.025">key players is the amygdala</a>, a structure located deep in the medial temporal lobe, one on each side of the brain. It processes sensory threat information and sends outputs to other brain sites, such as the hypothalamus, which is responsible for the release of stress hormones, or brain stem areas, which control levels of alertness and automatic behaviors, including immobility or freezing.</p>
<p>Research in animals and more recently in people suggests the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-329-9_2">existence of two possible routes</a> by which the amygdala receives sensory information. The first route, called the low road, provides the amygdala with a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4324">rapid, but imprecise, signal</a> from the sensory thalamus. This circuit is believed to be responsible for the immediate, unconscious responses to threat.</p>
<p>The high road is <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2015.00101">routed through the cortical sensory areas</a> and delivers more complex and detailed representations of threat to the amygdala. Researchers believe the high road is involved in processing the aspects of threats <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1619316114">of which a person is consciously aware</a>.</p>
<p>The two-roads model explains how responses to a threat can be initiated even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-329-9_2">before you become consciously aware of it</a>. The amygdala is interconnected with a network of brain areas, including the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex and others, all of which process different aspects of defense behaviors. For example, you hear a loud, sharp bang and you momentarily freeze – this would be a low road-initiated response. You notice somebody with a gun, immediately scan your surroundings to locate a hiding spot and escape route – these actions wouldn’t be possible without the high road being involved.</p>
<h2>Two kinds of memories</h2>
<p>Traumatic memories are intensely powerful and come in two varieties.</p>
<p>When people talk about memories, most of the time we refer to conscious or explicit memories. However, the brain is capable of encoding distinct memories in parallel for the same event – some of them explicit and some implicit or unconscious.</p>
<p>An experimental example of implicit memories is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1400335111">threat conditioning</a>. In the lab, a harmful stimulus such as an electric shock, which triggers innate threat responses, is paired with a neutral stimulus, such as an image, sound or smell. The brain forms a strong association between the neutral stimulus and the threat response. Now this image, sound or smell acquires the ability to initiate automatic unconscious threat reactions – in the absence of the electric shock.</p>
<p>It’s like Pavlov’s dogs salivating when they hear the dinner bell, but these conditioned threat responses are typically formed after a single pairing between the actual threatening or harmful stimulus and a neutral stimulus, and last for life. Not surprisingly, they support survival. For example, after getting burned on a hot stove, a child will likely steer clear of the stove in order to avoid the harmful heat and pain. </p>
<p>Studies show that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-014954">amygdala is critical</a> for encoding and storing associations between a harmful and neutral stimuli, and that stress hormones and mediators – such as cortisol and norepinephrine – play an important role in the formation of threat associations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237616/original/file-20180923-129853-hg8k6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237616/original/file-20180923-129853-hg8k6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237616/original/file-20180923-129853-hg8k6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237616/original/file-20180923-129853-hg8k6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237616/original/file-20180923-129853-hg8k6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237616/original/file-20180923-129853-hg8k6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237616/original/file-20180923-129853-hg8k6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237616/original/file-20180923-129853-hg8k6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One detail – the buzz of streetlights, a truck’s squealing tires – can trigger the memory of a traumatic accident.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/9UxW_MqBGe4">Ian Valerio/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Researchers believe <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.06.008">traumatic memories are a kind of conditioned threat response</a>. For the survivor of a bike accident, the sight of a fast approaching truck resembling the one that crashed into them may cause the heart to race and skin to sweat. For the survivor of a sexual assault, the sight of the perpetrator or someone who looks similar may cause trembling, a feeling of hopelessness and an urge to hide, run away or fight. These responses are initiated regardless of whether they come with conscious recollections of trauma.</p>
<p>Conscious memories of trauma are encoded by various sites in the brain which process different aspects of experience. Explicit memories of trauma reflect the terror of the original experience and may be less organized than memories acquired under less stressful conditions. Typically they’re <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00311">more vivid, more intense and more persistent</a>.</p>
<h2>After the memories are made</h2>
<p>Memories are biological phenomena and as such are dynamic. Exposure to cues that trigger the recall or retrieval of traumatic memories <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1871">activates the neural systems that are storing the memories</a>. This includes electrical activation of the neural circuits, as well as underlying intracellular processes. </p>
<p>Reactivated memories are susceptible to modification. The character and direction of this modification depends on the circumstances of the person recalling the memory. Retrieval of implicit or explicit traumatic memories is usually associated with high levels of stress. Stress hormones act on the activated brain circuits and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20803">may strengthen the original memory</a> for trauma through a phenomenon known as memory reconsolidation.</p>
<p>There are <a href="http://www.traumacenter.org/products/pdf_files/ISTSS_Complex_Trauma_Treatment_Guidelines_2012_Cloitre,Courtois,Ford,Green,Alexander,Briere,Herman,Lanius,Stolbach,Spinazzola,van%20der%20Kolk,van%20der%20Hart.pdf">clinical strategies to help people heal from emotional trauma</a>. One critical factor is the sense of safety. Retrieval of traumatic memories under safe conditions when levels of stress are relatively low and under control enables the individual to update or reorganize the trauma experience. It’s possible to link the trauma to other experiences and diminish its destructive impact. Psychologists call this <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317778011/chapters/10.4324%2F9781315805597-8">post-traumatic growth</a>.</p>
<p>It is an ethical imperative to consider the circumstances under which traumatic memories are recalled, whether in the course of therapy, during police investigations, court hearings or public testimonies. Recalling trauma may be a part of the healing process or may lead to re-traumatization, persistence and continued detrimental effects from traumatic memories.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacek Debiec receives funding from the University of Michigan, the NIH and Brain and the Behavior Research Foundation. </span></em></p>Two neural systems record traumatic memories, meaning they can be remembered in both conscious and unconscious ways.Jacek Debiec, Assistant Professor / Department of Psychiatry; Assistant Research Professor / Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/986612018-06-21T10:26:00Z2018-06-21T10:26:00ZWhy our brains see the world as ‘us’ versus ‘them’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224114/original/file-20180620-137750-j7ktun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C95%2C1104%2C654&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What are your in-groups and out-groups?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/set-people-portraits-vector-illustration-1065559073">ksenia_bravo/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Anti-immigrant policies, race-related demonstrations, Title IX disputes, affirmative action court cases, same-sex marriage litigation. </p>
<p>These issues are continually in the headlines. But even thoughtful articles on these subjects seem always to devolve to pitting warring factions against each other: black versus white, women versus men, gay versus straight. </p>
<p>At the most fundamental level of biology, people recognize the innate advantage of defining differences in species. But even within species, is there something in our neural circuits that leads us to find comfort in those like us and unease with those who may differ?</p>
<h2>Brain battle between distrust and reward</h2>
<p>As in all animals, human brains balance two primordial systems. One includes a brain region called the amygdala that can generate fear and distrust of things that pose a danger – think predators or or being lost somewhere unknown. The other, a group of connected structures called the mesolimbic system, can give rise to pleasure and feelings of reward in response to things that make it more likely we’ll flourish and survive – think not only food, but also social pleasure, like trust.</p>
<p>But how do these systems interact to influence how we form our concepts of community?</p>
<p><a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/">Implicit association tests</a> can <a href="https://theconversation.com/measuring-the-implicit-biases-we-may-not-even-be-aware-we-have-74912">uncover the strength of unconscious associations</a>. Scientists have shown that many people harbor an implicit preference for their in-group – those like themselves – even when they show no outward or obvious signs of bias. For example, in studies whites perceive blacks as more violent and more apt to do harm, solely because they are black, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615624492">this unconscious bias is evident</a> even toward black boys as young as five years old.</p>
<p>Brain imaging studies have found <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167276">increased signaling in the amygdala</a> when people make millisecond judgments of “trustworthiness” of faces. That’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-060909-153230">too short a time to reflect conscious processes and likely reveal implicit fears</a>.</p>
<p>In one study, researchers tapped into negative black stereotypes by playing violent rap music for white participants who had no external biases. This kind of priming made it hard for the brain’s cortex <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsr052">to suppress amydgalar activation and implicit bias</a>. Usually these “executive control” regions can override the amygdala’s push toward prejudice when confronted with out-group members. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are plenty of ways to define who’s in-group and who’s out-group.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_sheep-1.jpg">Jesus Solana</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whether or not such biases are learned or in some way hardwired, do they reflect conflicting activity of the amygdala versus the mesolimbic system? That is, how do our brains balance distrust and fear versus social reward when it comes to our perceptions of people not like us?</p>
<p>Research into how the amygdala responds as people assess the relative importance of differences, such as race, is nuanced and complex. Studies must take into account the differences between explicit and implicit measures of our attitudes, as well as the impact of cultural bias and individual variation. Still, research suggests that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3136">signaling within the amygdala</a> underlies the degree to which people are reluctant to trust others, especially regarding in-group versus out-group preference. It’s reasonable to conclude that much of the human instinct to distrust “others” can be traced to this part of the brain that’s important for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2017.11.056">feelings of fear and anxiety</a>.</p>
<h2>Reward from ‘sameness’</h2>
<p>As opposed to fear, distrust and anxiety, circuits of neurons in brain regions called the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.02.018">mesolimbic system are critical mediators of our sense of “reward</a>.” These neurons control the release of the transmitter dopamine, which is associated with an enhanced sense of pleasure. The addictive nature of some drugs, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.01.040">as well as</a> <a href="http://www.who.int/features/qa/gaming-disorder/en/">pathological gaming</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.02.006">gambling</a>, are correlated with increased dopamine in mesolimbic circuits. </p>
<p>In addition to dopamine itself, neurochemicals such as oxytocin can significantly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.06.011">alter the sense of reward and pleasure</a>, especially in relationship to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.11.039">social interactions</a>, by modulating these mesolimbic circuits.</p>
<p>Methodological variations indicate <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.04.011">further study is needed</a> to fully understand the roles of these signaling pathways in people. That caveat acknowledged, there is much we can learn from the complex social interactions of other mammals.</p>
<p>The neural circuits that govern social behavior and reward <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.22735">arose early in vertebrate evolution</a> and are present in birds, reptiles, bony fishes and amphibians, as well as mammals. So while there is not a lot of information on reward pathway activity in people during in-group versus out-group social situations, there are some tantalizing results from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.22735">studies on other mammals</a>.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.05.017">in a seminal paper</a>, neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth and his colleagues at Stanford combined genetics and behavioral tests with a cutting-edge approach <a href="https://www.neurophotometrics.com/what-is-fiber-photometry">called fiber photometry</a> where light can turn on and off specific cells. Using this process, the researchers were able to both stimulate and measure activity in identified neurons in the reward pathways, with an exquisite degree of precision. And they were able to do this in mice as they behaved in social settings.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Are you like me or not?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Field_Vole_by_Bruce_McAdam.jpg">Bruce McAdam</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They showed that neural signaling in a specific group of these dopamine neurons within these mesolimbic reward loops are jazzed up when a mouse encounters a new mouse – one it’s never met before, but that is of its own genetic line. Is this dopamine reward reaction the mouse corollary of human in-group recognition?</p>
<p>What if the mouse were of a different genetic line with different external characteristics? What about with other small mammals such as voles who have dramatically different social relationships depending upon whether they are the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1152/physiol.00049.2005">type that lives in the prairie or in the mountains</a>? Is there the same positive mesolimbic signaling when a prairie vole encounters a mountain vole, or does this “out-group” difference tip the balance toward the amygdala and expressing fear and distrust?</p>
<p>Scientists don’t know how these or even more subtle differences in animals might affect how their neural circuits promote social responses. But by studying them, researchers may better understand how human brain systems contribute to the implicit and unconscious bias people feel toward those in our own species who are nonetheless somewhat different.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224076/original/file-20180620-137717-1afw45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Higher brain functions can override more primitive instincts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/brain-cerebrum-anatomy-cross-section-103381424?src=csl_recent_image-3">CLIPAREA l Custom media/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Neural signaling is not destiny</h2>
<p>Even if evolution has tilted the balance toward our brains rewarding “like” and distrusting “difference,” this need not be destiny. Activity in our brains is malleable, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2010.02.005">allowing higher-order circuits in the cortex</a> to modify the more primitive fear and reward systems to produce different behavioral outcomes.</p>
<p>Author <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie</a> eloquently states that “the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” In other words, stereotypes reduce those not exactly like us to only their differences.</p>
<p>So why would people put up with the discomfort that differences evoke, rather than always selecting the easy reward with sameness? In his book “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8757.html">The Difference</a>,” social scientist <a href="https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/scottepage/">Scott Page</a> provides mathematical evidence that although diverse individuals are less trusting of one other, when working together, they are more productive. </p>
<p>From cracking the Enigma code in World War II to predicting stock prices, Page provides data to demonstrate that a diversity of perspectives produces better innovation and better solutions than the smartest set of like-minded experts. In short, diversity trumps ability. And diversity significantly <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/01/how-and-where-diversity-drives-financial-performance">enhances the level of innovation</a> in organizations across the globe.</p>
<p>So acknowledge the amygdalar distrust that differences evoke. Then, while you may not get that same boost of dopamine, recognize that when it comes to what will promote the greatest good, working with those “not like us” has its own rewards.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-like-us-how-our-brains-view-others-33974">article originally published on Nov. 12, 2014</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98661/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leslie Henderson has received funding from the National Institutes of Health. </span></em></p>Our neural circuits lead us to find comfort in those like us and unease with those who differ, resulting in a battle between reward and distrust. But these brain connections aren’t the end of the story.Leslie Henderson, Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology, Dean of Faculty Affairs, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/924902018-06-12T10:40:41Z2018-06-12T10:40:41ZLiving with neighborhood violence may shape teens’ brains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222837/original/file-20180612-112637-m1aocj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Violence in communities may have an additional unseen victim: young peoples' developing brains.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/torontojuly-17-police-line-do-not-107853224">Zoran Karapancev/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Flinching as a gunshot whizzes past your window. Covering your ears when a police car races down your street, sirens blaring. Walking past a drug deal on your block or a beating at your school.</p>
<p>For kids living in picket-fence suburbia, these experiences might be rare. But for their peers in urban poverty, they are all too commonplace. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/B:CCFP.0000006292.61072.d2">More than half of children and adolescents living in cities</a> have experienced some form of community violence – acts of disturbance or crime, such as drug use, beatings, shootings, stabbings and break-ins, within their neighborhoods or schools. </p>
<p>Researchers know from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.445">decades of work</a> that exposure to community violence can lead to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12328">emotional</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00623">social</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146514567576">cognitive</a> problems. Kids might have difficulty <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.68.4.670">regulating emotions</a>, paying attention or <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-03323-005">concentrating at school</a>. Over time, kids living with the stress of community violence may become <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034121">less engaged in school</a>, withdraw from friends or show symptoms of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2009.04.001">post-traumatic stress</a>, like irritability and intrusive thoughts. In short, living in an unsafe community can have a corrosive effect on child development.</p>
<p>Few studies, though, have specifically looked at the toll community violence may take on the growing brain. Recently, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=q676bXMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I studied this question </a> in collaboration with a team of researchers here at the University of Southern California. Our goal: to see whether individuals exposed to more community violence in their early teen years would show <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12686">differences in the structure and function of their brains</a> in late adolescence.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216903/original/file-20180430-135848-1m3z0wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216903/original/file-20180430-135848-1m3z0wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216903/original/file-20180430-135848-1m3z0wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216903/original/file-20180430-135848-1m3z0wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216903/original/file-20180430-135848-1m3z0wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216903/original/file-20180430-135848-1m3z0wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216903/original/file-20180430-135848-1m3z0wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216903/original/file-20180430-135848-1m3z0wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Witnessing crime has lots of downstream effects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/7552532@N07/5694981557">ATOMIC Hot Links</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<h2>Connecting community violence to the brain</h2>
<p>My colleague <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=e1wD7z0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Gayla Margolin</a>, an expert on youth exposure to violence, has been following a sample of Los Angeles-area youth for over a decade. When these teens were about 13 years old, she asked them to fill out a checklist of community violence experiences: hearing gun shots, witnessing a beating, seeing someone do drugs, watching someone get arrested or chased by the police, seeing someone get chased by a gang, or seeing someone get threatened with a beating or stabbing. For our current study, we added these items together to get an overall sense of how much violence each teen had witnessed in his or her neighborhood.</p>
<p>About four years after they took the community violence survey, when the youth were around 17 years old, we asked 22 of them to lie down in a <a href="https://www.nibib.nih.gov/science-education/science-topics/magnetic-resonance-imaging-mri">magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine</a> while we scanned their brains. When we examined the images we’d collected, we zeroed in on two small but critically important structures near the base of the brain: the <a href="http://psycheducation.org/brain-tours/memory-learning-and-emotion-the-hippocampus/">hippocampus</a> and the <a href="http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_04/d_04_cr/d_04_cr_peu/d_04_cr_peu.html">amygdala</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222495/original/file-20180610-191974-by0tjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222495/original/file-20180610-191974-by0tjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222495/original/file-20180610-191974-by0tjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222495/original/file-20180610-191974-by0tjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222495/original/file-20180610-191974-by0tjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222495/original/file-20180610-191974-by0tjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222495/original/file-20180610-191974-by0tjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222495/original/file-20180610-191974-by0tjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The hippocampus and amygdala are beneath the cortex of the brain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/brain-cross-section-showing-basal-ganglia-329843930">Blamb/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The hippocampus, a curved structure shaped like the seahorse it is named after, plays a role in learning and memory. Stress hormones seem to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.57.10.925">shrink this structure</a>, and adverse childhood experiences like abuse and neglect have been linked with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1364.024">smaller hippocampal volumes later in life</a>. One recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.12070957">review of research on child maltreatment</a> found that early abuse and neglect predicted smaller hippocampal size in 30 out of 37 studies that looked at the connection.</p>
<p>In our current study, we also measured the size of the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure located close to the hippocampus that is known for its involvement in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/372669a0">emotion and threat-related processing</a>. Childhood adversity has also been tied to the size of the amygdala, although this research has been mixed: Some studies have found that people exposed to early stress show smaller amygdala volumes, some show larger amygdalae and some show no relationship at all.</p>
<p>In addition to looking at the size of the hippocampus and amygdala, we also looked at patterns of interconnection between these structures and other regions of the brain. Which parts of the brain “talked” more to each other, as reflected by more tightly correlated levels of activation?</p>
<h2>A neural signature of community violence?</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12686">In our data</a>, we found that witnessing violence in early adolescence predicted smaller volumes of both the hippocampus and amygdala in this group of teens.</p>
<p>We didn’t measure the absolute size of these structures – instead we tested the relationship between community violence and brain volume. In other words, if our participants told us at around age 13 that their neighborhoods were higher in crime and violence, the size of these critical brain structures looked smaller about four years later, compared to teens who reported less community violence. Interestingly, this link held up even after we controlled for the youth’s socioeconomic status (family income and education) and their present-day exposure to community violence.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216910/original/file-20180430-135817-knsc6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216910/original/file-20180430-135817-knsc6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216910/original/file-20180430-135817-knsc6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=194&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216910/original/file-20180430-135817-knsc6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=194&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216910/original/file-20180430-135817-knsc6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=194&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216910/original/file-20180430-135817-knsc6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216910/original/file-20180430-135817-knsc6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216910/original/file-20180430-135817-knsc6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These brain regions showed stronger connectivity with the hippocampus among youth exposed to greater community violence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darby Saxbe</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>We also found that, among youth exposed to more community violence, the right hippocampus showed stronger connections with other brain regions linked to emotion processing and stress, perhaps suggesting that these youth were more vigilant to potential threat. If you’re used to encountering dangerous situations, maybe you and your brain learn to stay alert to avoid the next potential threat that lurks around the corner. </p>
<p>Our study dovetails with other research on early stress and the brain but is the first to specifically look at the link between community violence and the size and connectivity of the hippocampus and amygdala. Our sample was quite small and limited by the fact that we scanned the youth only once, in late adolescence. Therefore, although our measure of community violence was collected about four years before the scan, we have no way of knowing for sure whether community violence actually led to changes in the hippocampus and amygdala. It’s possible these brain differences preceded the youths’ exposure to community violence. For these reasons, this study should be considered preliminary and needs to be corroborated by much more research.</p>
<p>Despite its limitations, this work takes a first step in showing that community violence is linked with detectable differences in the teen brain in ways that are consistent with other forms of early adversity like abuse and neglect. These effects might be due to stress hormones that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2639">flood the developing brain and affect the growth</a> of neural structures like the hippocampus and amygdala.</p>
<p>Youth with <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/foc.2005.0006">smaller hippocampal volumes may show learning and cognitive difficulties</a>, whereas smaller amygdala volumes have been linked with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-010-2009-2">depression risk and behavior problems</a>. In other words, if, as we suspect, community violence has a toxic effect on the brain, downstream effects may emerge both at school and at home. And those effects converge with the deficits in attention, cognition and emotion regulation that other researchers have already noted in youth exposed to community violence. They may even endure into adulthood and contribute to a cascade of risk for further problems in employment and education. </p>
<p>Although community violence may be widespread, that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable. Developing kids and teens deserve to feel safe at home, in their schools and in their neighborhoods. As our results and those of many other studies show, growing up in a violent or chaotic environment seems to leave traces on the brain, and may put youth at risk for other problems down the line. Although we don’t usually think of street lights, after-school programs and revitalized park spaces as brain-building improvements, public investment in urban neighborhood safety and quality may have wide-ranging benefits for teens at risk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92490/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darby Saxbe receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Experiencing and witnessing violence in their communities can lead to emotional, social and cognitive problems for kids. A new study shows it affects how their developing brains grow, as well.Darby Saxbe, Assistant Professor of Psychology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/933202018-03-20T14:30:14Z2018-03-20T14:30:14ZThe science behind the red mist (and how fish can help with anger management)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210620/original/file-20180315-104635-19qtkw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/12/jamie-carragher-apologises-spitting-incident-moment-madness/">Apologising for spitting</a> towards a teenage girl and her father in a car, football pundit Jamie Carragher referred to a “moment of madness”. It was, he said, like an “out of body” experience, which had taken over for a few seconds following a <a href="http://www.skysports.com/football/man-utd-vs-liverpool/373392">football match</a> between his old club Liverpool and Manchester United. </p>
<p>So what makes certain people more prone to moments of aggressive behaviour? And how can we better manage those moments? To accurately answer these questions, we need to distinguish between <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17405620444000300?src=recsys&journalCode=pedp20">two different types of aggression</a>.</p>
<p>The first is what psychologists refer to as “proactive aggression”. This is a deliberate, purposeful attack on a victim. Proactive aggression is often associated with callousness and a lack of remorse or guilt. </p>
<p>The second type, “reactive aggression” is an impulsive response under conditions of stress or anger. It is a response to provocation, frustration or threat, and involves enraged attacks, usually directed at the source. </p>
<p>Examples of reactive aggression might include so-called crimes of passion or road rage – and Carragher’s response to the actions of a football fan on the motorway. Such aggressive outbursts are often followed by a sense of shame and regret, which makes them different to proactive aggression. </p>
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<p>The brain mechanisms underpinning reactive aggression also differ, as seen <a href="http://www.journalofpsychiatricresearch.com/article/S0022-3956(16)30069-3/fulltext">in a study</a> of intermittent explosive disorder (IED). IED is a behavioural disorder characterised by disproportionate outbursts of anger and violence. </p>
<p>For the study, individuals with IED underwent an MRI brain scan while observing pictures of faces with various emotional expressions (angry, sad, happy, frightened) to observe how the amygdala (an almond-shaped structure in the brain behind the temples) responded. </p>
<p>The amygdala tends to activate when we feel threatened or fearful, but is also important for responding with empathy to emotions in other people. Under normal circumstances, we inhibit aggressive behaviour because we empathise with the pain it might cause victims. </p>
<p>In the study, participants with IED showed a much greater amygdala reaction in the left side of the brain in response to angry faces (a threat) than those who did not have IED. The degree of reaction was also linked to the number of serious aggressive outbursts the person had engaged in throughout their lifetime. </p>
<p>In addition, for those with IED, communication between the amygdala and an area at the front of the brain (the orbitofrontal cortex) was impaired. The orbitofrontal cortex helps to integrate emotions and social context in order to activate situation-appropriate behaviours. The frontal lobes affect our ability to monitor, plan and regulate behaviours and emotions – our self-control. </p>
<p>If the amygdala is too highly activated, it can override the function of regions involved in monitoring and regulating behaviour, leading to the experience of “blind rage”. Poor emotional control (frontal function) is associated with an increased tendency towards reactive aggressive behaviour. </p>
<p>Overly rigid control over emotions can also present difficulties by impairing the healthy processing of feelings. Under continued conditions of stress, at some stage, a person will reach breaking point. Although the outbursts might be less frequent, the rage experienced is often more severe. </p>
<p>The accumulation of intense over-controlled emotions due to chronic stress and continued provocation can make a person vulnerable to intermittent, but severe explosive reactions. People in high pressure situations where emotional control is required (such as athletes, politicians or surgeons) may be particularly vulnerable, and might consider taking specific steps to reduce the risk. </p>
<h2>Anger management</h2>
<p>There are several innovative ways in which people can build psychological resilience and regulate behaviour. These include brain training, meditation and nutrition, which can alter the way emotions are experienced or perceived. Mindfulness meditation, for example, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-012-0191-5">has been shown</a> to help in the regulation depression, anxiety and anger. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210805/original/file-20180316-104673-1e4294e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210805/original/file-20180316-104673-1e4294e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210805/original/file-20180316-104673-1e4294e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210805/original/file-20180316-104673-1e4294e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210805/original/file-20180316-104673-1e4294e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210805/original/file-20180316-104673-1e4294e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210805/original/file-20180316-104673-1e4294e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Reducing aggression in a tin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/can-sardines-746391478?src=rKY3xbYIqn7bpqu3IiKR3g-1-0">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Other methods directly address the body’s physiological response to stress, when steroid hormones (like cortisol) and inflammatory chemicals are released in the body. These can damage the body and brain, and interfere with the modulation of emotion and behaviour by <a href="http://news.berkeley.edu/2014/02/11/chronic-stress-predisposes-brain-to-mental-illness/">disrupting and damaging</a> functions of the frontal lobe and its connections with other areas of the brain. </p>
<p>This is in part controlled by our “second brain” – the gut. Work from our lab suggests the bacteria in our intestines plays a part in modulating feelings by affecting the release of these chemicals. </p>
<p><a href="https://ntupsychology.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/gut-feeling-is-your-mood-influenced-by-your-gut">Collaborative work</a> between Nottingham Trent University and the University of Reading is now looking into how the bacteria in our intestines is linked to brain function, and how we feel about ourselves and others.</p>
<p>What we eat has an impact on how we behave. Certain nutrients protect against these adverse effects – for example, those contained in fish or tumeric, a powerful anti-inflammatory. </p>
<p>Some studies suggest dietary supplementation with fish oil and other micronutrients <a href="http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28028/1/Dean.Fido-2015.pdf">can improve</a> frontal lobe function and reduce aggressive behaviour. </p>
<p>Perhaps football stadium food stalls should start selling sardines.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93320/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Sumich is affiliated with Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK and Auckland University of Technology (AUT), NZ. He has previously received funding from BIAL foundation, The Mother and Child Foundation, Equazen, Crystal Mind, NTU, AUT, Royal Society of New Zealand. </span></em></p>Jamie Carragher blamed a moment of madness for spitting at car passengers. But where do these moments come from?Alexander Sumich, Associate Professor of Psychology, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/858852017-10-26T14:38:42Z2017-10-26T14:38:42ZThe science of fright: Why we love to be scared<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191433/original/file-20171023-1738-1w6q8qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scary pumpkins are the least of what frightens us at Halloween, a day devoted to being frightened. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/halloween-pumpkin-lantern-dry-leaves-black-715784869?src=oTD6a8IATcbbcVlWOWMeWA-1-21">asife/Shutterstock.com </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fear may be as old as life on Earth. It is a fundamental, deeply wired reaction, evolved over the history of biology, to protect organisms against perceived threat to their integrity or existence. Fear may be as simple as a cringe of an antenna in a snail that is touched, or as complex as existential anxiety in a human.</p>
<p>Whether we love or hate to experience fear, it’s hard to deny that we certainly revere it – devoting an entire holiday to the celebration of fear. </p>
<p>Thinking about the circuitry of the brain and human psychology, some of the main chemicals that contribute to the “fight or flight” response are also involved in other positive emotional states, such as happiness and excitement. So, it makes sense that the high arousal state we experience during a scare may also be experienced in a more positive light. But what makes the difference between getting a “rush” and feeling completely terrorized?</p>
<p>We are psychiatrists who treat fear and study its neurobiology. Our studies and clinical interactions, as well as those of others, suggest that a major factor in how we experience fear has to do with the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5072129">context</a>. When our “thinking” brain gives feedback to our “emotional” brain and we perceive ourselves as being in a safe space, we can then quickly shift the way we experience that high arousal state, going from one of fear to one of enjoyment or excitement.</p>
<p>When you enter a haunted house during Halloween season, for example, anticipating a ghoul jumping out at you and knowing it isn’t really a threat, you are able to quickly relabel the experience. In contrast, if you were walking in a dark alley at night and a stranger began chasing you, both your emotional and thinking areas of the brain would be in agreement that the situation is dangerous, and it’s time to flee!</p>
<p>But how does your brain do this? </p>
<h2>How do we experience fear?</h2>
<p>Fear reaction starts in the brain and spreads through the body to make adjustments for the best defense, or flight reaction. The fear response starts in a region of the brain called the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3055445/">amygdala</a>. This almond-shaped set of nuclei in the temporal lobe of the brain is dedicated to detecting the emotional salience of the stimuli – how much something stands out to us. </p>
<p>For example, the amygdala activates whenever we see a human face with an emotion. This reaction is more pronounced with anger and fear. A threat stimulus, such as the sight of a predator, triggers a fear response in the amygdala, which activates areas involved in preparation for motor functions involved in fight or flight. It also triggers release of stress hormones and sympathetic nervous system. </p>
<p>This leads to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181681/">bodily changes</a> that prepare us to be more efficient in a danger: The brain becomes hyperalert, pupils dilate, the bronchi dilate and breathing accelerates. Heart rate and blood pressure rise. Blood flow and stream of glucose to the skeletal muscles increase. Organs not vital in survival such as the gastrointestinal system slow down.</p>
<p>A part of the brain called the hippocampus is closely connected with the amygdala. The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex help the brain interpret the perceived threat. They are involved in a higher-level processing of context, which helps a person know whether a perceived threat is real. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191703/original/file-20171024-30587-xvhxzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191703/original/file-20171024-30587-xvhxzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191703/original/file-20171024-30587-xvhxzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191703/original/file-20171024-30587-xvhxzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191703/original/file-20171024-30587-xvhxzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191703/original/file-20171024-30587-xvhxzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191703/original/file-20171024-30587-xvhxzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A lion in the wild can make us fearful.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/wild-lion-595730450?src=UMSNoJTDXpMy24usJGetVA-1-12">Chadofski/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>For instance, seeing a lion in the wild can trigger a strong fear reaction, but the response to a view of the same lion at a zoo is more of curiosity and thinking that the lion is cute. This is because the hippocampus and the frontal cortex process contextual information, and inhibitory pathways dampen the amygdala fear response and its downstream results. Basically, our “thinking” circuitry of brain reassures our “emotional” areas that we are, in fact, OK.</p>
<h2>How do we learn the difference?</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191436/original/file-20171023-1695-17rrd7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191436/original/file-20171023-1695-17rrd7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191436/original/file-20171023-1695-17rrd7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191436/original/file-20171023-1695-17rrd7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191436/original/file-20171023-1695-17rrd7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191436/original/file-20171023-1695-17rrd7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191436/original/file-20171023-1695-17rrd7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Being attacked by a dog or seeing someone else attacked by a dog triggers fear.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aggressive-dog-barking-young-man-angry-491343199?src=hkAIEZJcNnkb0kuV5FIOGQ-1-39">Jaromir Chalabala/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>Similar to other animals, we very <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nn1968">often learn fear </a>through personal experiences, such as being attacked by an aggressive dog, or observing other humans being attacked by an aggressive dog.</p>
<p>However, an evolutionarily unique and fascinating way of learning in humans is through instruction – we <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27089509">learn from the spoken words</a> or written notes! If a sign says the dog is dangerous, proximity to the dog will trigger a fear response.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191481/original/file-20171023-1746-1t5awtb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191481/original/file-20171023-1746-1t5awtb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191481/original/file-20171023-1746-1t5awtb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191481/original/file-20171023-1746-1t5awtb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191481/original/file-20171023-1746-1t5awtb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191481/original/file-20171023-1746-1t5awtb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191481/original/file-20171023-1746-1t5awtb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author and his Great Pyreness, Jasper.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We learn safety in a similar fashion: experiencing a domesticated dog, observing other people safely interact with that dog or reading a sign that the dog is friendly. </p>
<h2>Why do some people enjoy being scared?</h2>
<p>Fear creates distraction, which can be a positive experience. When something scary happens, in that moment, we are on high alert and not preoccupied with other things that might be on our mind (getting in trouble at work, worrying about a big test the next day), which brings us to the here and now. </p>
<p>Furthermore, when we experience these frightening things with the people in our lives, we often find that emotions can be contagious in a positive way. We are social creatures, able to learn from one another. So, when you look over to your friend at the haunted house and she’s quickly gone from screaming to laughing, socially you’re able to pick up on her emotional state, which can positively influence your own. </p>
<p>While each of these factors - context, distraction, social learning - have potential to influence the way we experience fear, a common theme that connects all of them is our sense of control. When we are able to recognize what is and isn’t a real threat, relabel an experience and enjoy the thrill of that moment, we are ultimately at a place where we feel in control. That perception of control is vital to how we experience and respond to fear. When we overcome the initial “fight or flight” rush, we are often left feeling satisfied, reassured of our safety and more confident in our ability to confront the things that initially scared us. </p>
<p>It is important to keep in mind that everyone is different, with a unique sense of what we find scary or enjoyable. This raises yet another question: While many can enjoy a good fright, why might others downright hate it?</p>
<h2>Why do some people not enjoy being scared?</h2>
<p>Any imbalance between excitement caused by fear in the animal brain and the sense of control in the contextual human brain may cause too much, or not enough, excitement. If the individual perceives the experience as “too real,” an extreme fear response can overcome the sense of control over the situation. </p>
<p>This may happen even in those who do love scary experiences: They may enjoy <a href="http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0002143/bio">Freddy Krueger</a> movies but be too terrified by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070047/">“The Exorcist</a>,” as it feels too real, and fear response is not modulated by the cortical brain. </p>
<p>On the other hand, if the experience is not triggering enough to the emotional brain, or if is too unreal to the thinking cognitive brain, the experience can end up feeling boring. A biologist who cannot tune down her cognitive brain from analyzing all the bodily things that are realistically impossible in a zombie movie may not be able to enjoy <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1520211/">“The Walking Dead</a>” as much as another person. </p>
<p>So if the emotional brain is too terrified and the cognitive brain helpless, or if the emotional brain is bored and the cognitive brain is too suppressing, scary movies and experiences may not be as fun.</p>
<h2>What are disorders of fear?</h2>
<p>All fun aside, abnormal levels of fear and anxiety can lead to significant distress and dysfunction and limit a person’s ability for success and joy of life. Nearly one in four people experiences a form of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181629/">anxiety disorder</a> during their lives, and nearly 8 percent experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).</p>
<p>Disorders of anxiety and fear include phobias, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety, PTSD and obsessive compulsive disorder. These conditions usually begin at a young age, and without appropriate treatment can become chronic and debilitating and affect a person’s life trajectory. The good news is that we have effective treatments that work in a relatively short time period, in the form of psychotherapy and medications.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85885/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We may pretend that we do not like fear, but Halloween proves otherwise. Many of us enjoy being scared. But why?Arash Javanbakht, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State UniversityLinda Saab, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/695442016-12-16T03:23:04Z2016-12-16T03:23:04ZHow to know when holiday drinking is hurting your brain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150389/original/image-20161215-26074-1nghn38.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Holiday drinking brings good cheer, but it can also be a sign of problem drinking.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>For many, the holidays are indeed the most wonderful time of the year. Families and friends come together and enjoy food, good cheer – and, often, alcohol. </p>
<p>Commercially speaking, alcohol and the holidays seem to be made for each other. Alcohol can be a quick and easy way to get into the spirit of celebration. </p>
<p>And, it feels good. After two glasses of wine, the brain is activated through complex neurobiochemical processes that naturally release dopamine, a neurotransmitter of great importance. </p>
<p>When the dopamine molecule locks on to its receptor located on the surface of a neuron, or basic brain cell, a “buzz” occurs. It is often desirably anticipated before the second glass is empty. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149742/original/image-20161212-26063-i2ccwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149742/original/image-20161212-26063-i2ccwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149742/original/image-20161212-26063-i2ccwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149742/original/image-20161212-26063-i2ccwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149742/original/image-20161212-26063-i2ccwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149742/original/image-20161212-26063-i2ccwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149742/original/image-20161212-26063-i2ccwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This image shows an illustration of a man drinking a pint of beer, indicating how the body metabolizes alcohol and the organs that this alcohol affects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wellcomeimages/5814717084/in/photolist-9RPWNQ-prynUg-q6U6Mc-9RM2SX-BCnTop-BKEKNT-rxzDNi-rg2ekq-q635KG-dxxovQ-9RPXyq">Wellcome Images via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are those, however, who drink right past the buzz into intoxication and, often, into trouble. For them, the brain starts releasing the same enjoyable dopamine, no different than what happens in the casual drinker’s, but it doesn’t stop there. A compulsion to binge drink can result. </p>
<p>As someone who has studied alcohol use disorder for over 15 years and who has treated thousands of patients who have it, I think it’s a major, yet often poorly understood, public health problem. Our culture seems to be moving beyond the point of labeling those with opioid addictions as “weak,” and I hope we can do the same for those with alcohol use disorder, too, which is more widespread than people may appreciate. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?cmd=search&term=24967831">Excessive drinking accounted for one in 10 deaths among working-age adults</a> in the United States.</p>
<h2>Moving beyond judgment</h2>
<p>Although alcohol can feel as though it is relieving stress, it <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24967831">contributes to 88,000 deaths</a> in the United States each year. That is more than double the number of people killed by <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates">heroin and opioid prescription drug overdose</a>, another major public health crisis, in 2014.</p>
<p>In addition, <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-FRR1-2014/NSDUH-FRR1-2014.pdf">more than 66.7 million Americans reported binge drinking</a> in the past month in 2015, according to the <a href="https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/executive-summary.pdf">recent report</a> on addiction by the surgeon general.</p>
<p>The consequences to the individual and the family are staggering, affecting physical and mental health, an increased spread of infectious disease, reduced quality of life, increased motor vehicle crashes and abuse and neglect of children, to mention a few. </p>
<p>Scientific study of the brain has helped explain binge drinking even if it may be hard for family and friends to understand. It’s defined as drinking five or more drinks for men and four for women on the same occasion on at least one day in the past 30 days.</p>
<p>Binge drinking is a <a href="https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/executive-summary.pdf">medical condition</a>. It happens through no fault of the individual, who is victimized by the comparative malfunction of the pleasure circuits in the brain. This causes the drinker to want more and more alcohol. Brains of binge drinkers have a disease, acknowledged by the American Medical Association since the 1950s, yet binge drinkers are often vilified. </p>
<p>Americans typically want to know and are willing to make some lifestyle changes out of fear and common sense when it comes to diseases such as heart disease, obesity and cancer. We as a society are not quite at the same point with substance abuse disorders, but researchers are desperately trying to bring that same willingness for prevention and treatment to substance use disorders. </p>
<p>Science understands the cause well enough to explain it and treat it so that lives can be saved and spared the devastating consequences for the millions who suffer with these conditions, their families and communities. This has become an urgent matter of national importance for scientists and medical practitioners.</p>
<h2>The three stages of addiction</h2>
<p>The alcohol addiction process involves a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9311926">three-stage cycle</a>: Binge-Intoxication, Withdrawal-Negative Affect, and Preoccupation-Anticipation. </p>
<p>It begins in the neurons, the basic type of brain cell. The brain has an estimated 86 billion of these cells, which communicate through chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. </p>
<p>Neurons can organize in clusters and form networks or circuits in order to perform specific functions such as thinking, learning, emotions and memory. The <a href="https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/executive-summary.pdf">addiction cycle disrupts the normal function</a> of some of these networks in three areas of the brain – the basal ganglia, the extended amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. </p>
<p>The disruptions do several things that contribute to continued drinking. They enable alcohol or drinking-associated triggers (cues) which lead to seeking alcohol. They also reduce the sensitivity of the brain systems, causing a diminished experience of pleasure or reward, and heighten activation of brain stress systems. Last, they reduce function of brain executive control systems, the part of the brain that typically helps make decisions and regulate one’s actions, emotions and impulses. </p>
<p>These networks are critical for human survival. Unfortunately for the binge drinker, <a href="https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/executive-summary.pdf">they become “hijacked,”</a> and the bingeing continues even after the harmful effects have begun. </p>
<p>Because binge drinkers’ brains feel intense pleasure from alcohol, there is a powerful motivation to binge drink again and again. What may begin as social binge drinking at parties for recreation can cause <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/193144">progressive neuro-adaptive changes in brain structure and function</a>. The brain is no longer well enough to function normally. It’s getting sick. Continued partying can transition into a <a href="http://www.journalofsubstanceabusetreatment.com/article/S0740-5472(03)00130-2/references">chronic and uncontrollable daily pattern</a> of alcohol use. <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/481765">These maladaptive neurological changes can persist </a>long after the alcohol use stops. </p>
<h2>Your brain on alcohol</h2>
<p>During the Binge-Intoxication Stage, a part of the brain called the basal ganglia rewards the drinker with pleasurable effects, <a href="http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v8/n11/full/nn1578.html">releasing dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for the rewarding effects </a>of alcohol and creating the desire for more.</p>
<p>With continued bingeing, the <a href="https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/executive-summary.pdf">“habit circuity” is repeatedly activated </a>in another part of the basal ganglia called the dorsal striatum. It contributes to the compulsive seeking of more alcohol. This explains the intense desire (craving) which is triggered while a binge drinker is driving by a favorite bar and can’t resist pulling in, even after a promise to go directly home after work. </p>
<p>During the Withdrawal-Negative Affect Stage, there is a break from drinking. Because the reward circuit has a diminished ability to deliver a dopamine reward, there is far less pleasure with natural (safe) experiences – such as food and sex – compared to alcohol.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v35/n1/abs/npp2009110a.html">During abstinence from alcohol</a>, stress neurotransmitters such as corticotropin-releasing factor (FRC) and dynorphin are released. These powerful neurochemicals cause negative emotional states associated with alcohol withdrawal. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/articles/11120394/">This drives the drinker back to alcohol</a> in order to gain relief and attempt to reestablish the rewards of intoxication. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150386/original/image-20161215-26051-1xivd3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150386/original/image-20161215-26051-1xivd3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150386/original/image-20161215-26051-1xivd3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150386/original/image-20161215-26051-1xivd3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150386/original/image-20161215-26051-1xivd3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150386/original/image-20161215-26051-1xivd3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150386/original/image-20161215-26051-1xivd3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Regions of the brain are affected differently by alcohol.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Surgeon General's Report on Addiction</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After a period of abstinence from alcohol, which may last only hours, the drinker enters the Preoccupation-Anticipation Stage. This involves the prefrontal cortex, where executive decisions are made about whether or not to override the strong urges to drink. This part of the brain functions with a “Go system” and “Stop system.” </p>
<p>When the Go circuits stimulate the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22011681">habit-response system of the dorsal striatum</a>, the drinker becomes impulsive with a craving and seeks a drink, perhaps even subconsciously. The Stop system can inhibit the activity of the Go system and is important especially preventing relapse after being triggered by stressful life events.</p>
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hbm.22913/abstract">Brain imaging studies</a> show that <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/46/12700.full">binge drinking can disrupt the function </a>in both the Go and Stop circuits. This interferes with proper decision making and behavioral inhibition. The drinker is both impulsive and compulsive. </p>
<h2>An illness that can be treated</h2>
<p>There is good news, as scientific evidence shows that this disorder can be treated.</p>
<p>The FDA has approved <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/482282">three medications for treatment that should be offered whenever appropriate</a>. There is well-supported scientific evidence that behavioral therapies can be effective treatment. This includes recovery support services, such as Alcoholic Anonymous. </p>
<p>Most importantly, it is important to know that alcohol use disorder is a brain disorder causing a chronic illness. It is no different from diabetes, asthma or hypertension. When comprehensive continuing care is provided, the recovery results improve, and the binge drinker has the hope of remaining sober as long as lifelong treatment and maintenance of sobriety become a dedicated lifestyle choice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69544/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Smolen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Alcohol contributes to close to 90,000 deaths a year. Because repeated binge drinking damages the brain, it’s hard to know when we’ve developed a problem. Here are some things to consider.Jamie Smolen, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/633242016-09-25T19:33:14Z2016-09-25T19:33:14ZThe emotion centre is the oldest part of the human brain: why is mood so important?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137877/original/image-20160915-23120-g1xxy0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Our mood is a transient frame of mind that influences how we think and view the world. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/?photo=W5TJpNKI9c4">David Schap/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The brain is key to our existence, but there’s a long way to go before neuroscience can truly capture its staggering capacity. For now, though, our <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/brain-control-series-31489">Brain Control series</a> explores what we do know about the brain’s command of six central functions: language, mood, memory, vision, personality and motor skills – and what happens when things go wrong.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>“<em>Somebody</em> woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning.” You know that comment; the one that rarely makes you feel any more gracious towards the world (or the person saying it). At other times you might feel particularly gracious and sunny, for no reason at all. </p>
<p>Our mood is a transient frame of mind that influences how we think and view the world. It is influenced by events in our lives, the amount of <a href="https://theconversation.com/chill-out-disturbed-sleep-plays-havoc-with-your-mood-and-mind-15994">sleep</a> we get, <a href="https://theconversation.com/chemical-messengers-how-hormones-affect-our-mood-42422">hormones</a>, even <a href="https://theconversation.com/here-comes-the-sun-how-the-weather-affects-our-mood-19183">the weather</a>. But what role does the brain play in shaping our mood?</p>
<h2>The limbic system</h2>
<p>Many regions fundamental to mood are buried deep in the most primordial parts of the brain; that is, they are thought to have been among the first to develop in the human species. This is probably because mood is evolutionarily important. </p>
<p>Being glum can be advantageous and has been shown to <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/13/1/34.abstract">sharpen our eye for detail</a>, for instance. But, overall, the brain seems geared towards maintaining a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25253069">mildly positive frame of mind</a>. Being in a good mood makes us more likely to seek new experiences, be creative, plan ahead, procreate and adapt to changing conditions.</p>
<p>The limbic system is the major primordial brain network underpinning mood. It’s a network of regions that work together to process and make sense of the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138916/original/image-20160923-25468-13oswmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138916/original/image-20160923-25468-13oswmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138916/original/image-20160923-25468-13oswmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138916/original/image-20160923-25468-13oswmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138916/original/image-20160923-25468-13oswmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138916/original/image-20160923-25468-13oswmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138916/original/image-20160923-25468-13oswmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If you feel great, the hippocampus might guide you to walk down a path fringed with daffodils.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and dopamine, are used as chemical messengers to send signals across the network. Brain regions receive these signals, which results in us recognising objects and situations, assigning them an emotional value to guide behaviour and making split-second risk/reward assessments.</p>
<p>The limbic system sits under the cerebrum (the largest and newest part of the brain) and is made up of structures such as the hypothalamus, hippocampus and the amygdala.</p>
<p>The almond-shaped <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627305008238">amygdala</a> attaches emotional significance to events and memories. It came to the attention of emotion researchers in 1939 when monkeys whose amygdalae were removed <a href="http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/v6/n1/full/4000812a.html">showed bizarre patterns</a> of behaviour. They became fearless, hypersexual and either devoid of emotion or irrationally aggressive. </p>
<p>Dubbed Kluver-Bucy Syndrome, it is rare in humans, but has been observed in people with amygdala damage incurred, for instance, after a bout of brain inflammation.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v7/n3/full/nn1190.html">hippocampus</a>, meanwhile, reminds us which courses of action are congruent with our mood. For instance, if you feel great you might like to walk down a path fringed with daffodils. If you feel crap, you may instead be drawn to that bar that spins melancholy albums by The Smiths. </p>
<p>The hippocampus has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/depression-damages-parts-of-the-brain-research-concludes-43915">shown to be shrunken</a> in people with chronic depression. This may account for common features of the condition, such as <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=2006-23058-006">vague or non-specific recall</a> of personal memories.</p>
<p>The limbic system also regulates <a href="http://my.slc.edu/ICSFileServer/9fd1fc33-4c44-4830-af85-b9efc72b4a6f/bede258f-5443-47a2-96b3-b6ad68a46116/8bade204-0b95-444e-9a59-46320b312f17/ekman-levenson-friesen-83.pdf">biological functions</a> in line with our mood, such as accelerated heart rate and sweating triggered by feeling flustered. Being so old, however, the limbic system is rather primitive. In day-to-day life it’s controlled by some newer networks that co-ordinate how we think and act, so our behaviour is <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-you-shouldnt-want-to-always-be-happy-62086">conducive to achieving longer-term goals</a>, rather than always going wherever the mood takes us.</p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138754/original/image-20160922-22540-3x9dov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138754/original/image-20160922-22540-3x9dov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138754/original/image-20160922-22540-3x9dov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138754/original/image-20160922-22540-3x9dov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138754/original/image-20160922-22540-3x9dov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138754/original/image-20160922-22540-3x9dov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138754/original/image-20160922-22540-3x9dov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<hr>
<h2>Rival networks</h2>
<p>Researchers are increasingly looking towards newer networks to understand how the brain controls mood. Two particular networks that stand out across numerous studies are the autobiographic memory network and cognitive control network.</p>
<p>The autobiographic memory network processes information related to ourselves, including recalling personal memories and <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24502540">self-reflection</a>. Key <a href="http://psych.colorado.edu/%7Ehannaje/Publications_&_CV_files/Andrews-Hanna_Smallwood_Spreng_YCN_2014.pdf">hubs in this network</a> comprise brain areas inside the prefrontal cortex, which sits in the front of the brain; the hippocampus; the posterior cingulate cortex, which is the upper part of the limbic lobe; and parietal regions, which sit behind the frontal lobe and are important for mental imagery.</p>
<p>The cognitive control network links up regions that co-ordinate our attention and concentration so that we can <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661313002222">complete tasks</a>. It recruits a circuit of <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13415-011-0083-5">the front part of the cingulate cortex</a> and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which are specialised for cold, unemotional, rational thought.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137166/original/image-20160909-13348-1eqn450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137166/original/image-20160909-13348-1eqn450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137166/original/image-20160909-13348-1eqn450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137166/original/image-20160909-13348-1eqn450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137166/original/image-20160909-13348-1eqn450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137166/original/image-20160909-13348-1eqn450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137166/original/image-20160909-13348-1eqn450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The autobiographic memory network switches on when someone is preoccupied by thoughts concerning themselves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/james_sickmind/5448338716/in/photolist-9isahq-6Cbkrn-6ma21Z-51VtbF-6YUfab-9Bi5Nf-7LbZex-eoMgkT-dYye4K-noHe6D-cPCujs-7qYHVK-iiH6Rf-98Gx8P-5JrHG4-qhNVUY-8fwvFX-9xDSKk-2fPPTM-98KEQq-o692cA-8V1xZJ-dhqS4L-9V8r1T-fPfxTY-h9uur2-836bC9-btEDnt-aaXGYR-i2odhL-faYVrT-c2HwyN-5XcTmq-hsdayN-6enoYv-9Fq3PL-jcRtZ-4mG4eo-cmGtF5-aEiva9-7bM8aC-hLsNvB-HC2WHf-byGds7-4W6cGb-hLtAGJ-8SjP45-dSypEh-bWmQNf-ivTJJF">Mitya Ku/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>These two networks are thought to have a strained relationship. The autobiographic memory network switches on when someone is preoccupied by thoughts concerning themselves. This causes <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2850105/">the task-oriented cognitive control network to switch off</a>, thereby reducing our ability to complete whatever task we’re supposed to be doing. This is why daydreaming is frowned on at work. </p>
<p>Conversely, the autobiographic memory network is suppressed when the cognitive control network <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19913622">is required to gather the attention needed for a task at hand</a>. This is in line with the notion that we “lose ourselves” when we are absorbed doing something. </p>
<p>When the two networks don’t work properly, they can result in what psychiatrists refer to as <a href="https://theconversation.com/feeling-down-when-does-a-mood-become-a-disorder-14566">mood disorders</a>.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138384/original/image-20160920-11095-6rb666.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138384/original/image-20160920-11095-6rb666.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138384/original/image-20160920-11095-6rb666.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138384/original/image-20160920-11095-6rb666.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138384/original/image-20160920-11095-6rb666.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138384/original/image-20160920-11095-6rb666.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138384/original/image-20160920-11095-6rb666.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<hr>
<h2>Mood disorders</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/feeling-down-when-does-a-mood-become-a-disorder-14566">two major types</a> of mood disorders are depressive disorders, characterised by a persistent down mood, and bipolar disorders, expressed as extreme high or manic moods that alternate with periods of feeling down. </p>
<p>In depressive disorders, the autobiographic memory network gets <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26562681">stuck being on</a>. This leads to thinking-too-much-about-ourselves symptoms, such as brooding, rumination and self-loathing. The concurrent suppression of the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26562681">cognitive control network</a> gives rise to symptoms such as poor concentration, indecisiveness and sluggish thinking.</p>
<p>Treatment for depressive disorders, such as <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/neurobiological-mechanisms-of-repetitive-transcranial-magnetic-stimulation-of-the-dorsolateral-prefrontal-cortex-in-depression-a-systematic-review/859706D1B9CF90C267BE1D8348B832D9">transcranial magnetic stimulation</a>, involves stimulating the cognitive control network to work better. And medications aim to restore normal levels of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4r3qCkLUDQ">neurochemicals</a> that communicate between the two networks and the limbic systems.</p>
<p>Many psychological therapies empower the sufferer to wrest control over their own mood. They often train the person to activate the cognitive control network, by challenging negative thoughts for instance, to strengthen it over time. They also seem to disrupt the domination of the autobiographic memory network through techniques such as mindfulness.</p>
<p>While trying to understand the neuroscience behind disordered mood is necessary, there is a push in psychology for mood investigations to focus more on the positives in everyone’s psychology; involving the fostering of <a href="http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/docs/Positivepsychology.pdf">resilience and our individual strengths</a>, for instance. </p>
<p>Much like the zeitgeist itself, however, investigations into the brain’s role in these functions are in their infancy.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Want to know how the brain controls your language? Read today’s accompanying piece <a href="http://theconversation.com/what-brain-regions-control-our-language-and-how-do-we-know-all-of-this-63318">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Genevieve Rayner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many regions fundamental to mood are buried deep in the most primordial parts of the brain; that is, they are thought to have been among the first brain regions to develop in the human species.Genevieve Rayner, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental HealthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/591052016-05-11T11:15:55Z2016-05-11T11:15:55ZThe possible cause of flashbacks discovered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122282/original/image-20160512-16402-nj7ye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Traumatic events can stop the brain storing the context in which they took place.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/dl2_lim.mhtml?src=pVk83qcbJFHh9I_JK_Gycw-2-26&clicksrc=download_btn_inline&id=213702265&size=medium_jpg&submit_jpg=">www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Remembering the past is an important function and defines who we are. In some situations though, the normal processes that store our experiences into memory can go wrong. After experiencing a distressing event, people can develop memory disturbances where they re-experience the event in the form of flashbacks – distressing vivid images that involuntarily enter consciousness, as happens in <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-11135">post-traumatic stress disorder</a>. </p>
<p>Our <a href="http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/05/09/scan.nsw028.long">latest study</a> shows that a distressing experience has opposite effects in two different parts of the brain: the amygdala and the hippocampus. The amygdala, a region of the brain involved in emotion, seemed to strongly encode the negative content of an experience while the hippocampus, which is involved in storing new memories, is only weakly activated.</p>
<p>When remembering something from the past, we can bring to mind what we were doing, the people we were with, and where the event took place. An important aspect of memory is that these separate pieces of information are bound together as a single memory so that all of it can easily be recalled at a later time. But when experiencing a distressing event, the normal processes that help to integrate this information in memory can be disrupted. </p>
<p>The hippocampus is crucial for forming these associations so that all parts of a memory can be later retrieved as a single event (and damage to this brain region can stop a person from <a href="http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.neuro.30.051606.094328?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed">forming new memories</a>). In contrast, the amygdala is involved in processing emotional information and making basic responses to things associated with fear, such as recoiling from a snake or spider. </p>
<p>People who have suffered a trauma often have difficulty remembering the context of the event. We thought that, while processing in the amygdala might be increased during a negative experience, processing in the hippocampus might be decreased, disrupting the way it binds the different aspects of the experience together as a single memory.</p>
<h2>Brain imaging study</h2>
<p>To test this idea we showed 20 volunteers pairs of pictures and asked them to remember the pictures while lying in an MRI scanner. Some of the pictures were of traumatic scenes, such as a badly injured person. </p>
<p>The volunteers’ memory of the pictures was then tested in two ways. First, they were shown one picture from each pair and asked if they recognised previously seeing it. Second, if the picture was recognised, we then asked whether they could remember what other picture had been part of the original pair. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122108/original/image-20160511-18150-1cz0n25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122108/original/image-20160511-18150-1cz0n25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122108/original/image-20160511-18150-1cz0n25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122108/original/image-20160511-18150-1cz0n25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122108/original/image-20160511-18150-1cz0n25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122108/original/image-20160511-18150-1cz0n25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122108/original/image-20160511-18150-1cz0n25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The hippocampus. The brain region involved in consolidating new memories.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=p19yqmare07zgzytaKbg9g&searchterm=hippocampus&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=235282123">decade3d - anatomy online/www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>When asked whether they recognised the individual pictures, people showed better memory for previously seen pictures that were negative (traumatic) compared with pictures that were neutral, such as a person sitting at an office desk. Improved memory for negative pictures related to increased activity in the amygdala. In contrast, their memory for remembering what pictures were presented together as a pair was worse when one of the pictures was negative. </p>
<p>We also found that activity in the hippocampus was reduced by the presence of negative pictures suggesting that its function in storing the associations between the pictures was impaired. This imbalance could lead to strong memories for the negative content of an event that is not properly stored with the other parts of the event and the context in which it took place.</p>
<h2>Implications for psychotherapy</h2>
<p>This work supports the view that experiencing a traumatic event might alter how memory works. The re-experiencing of intrusive images in post-traumatic stress disorder might happen because of strengthened memory for the negative aspects of a trauma but not their context – that is, the location where the event occurred or the time it occurred. This may result in the person involuntarily retrieving the traumatic event “out of context” and experiencing it as though it was in the present. </p>
<p>In this case, therapy should focus on strengthening or recreating appropriate contextual associations for the negative event. This view is supported by current psychotherapies where a person is taken back to the place where the traumatic event took place to help in strengthening memory for the context. </p>
<p>These findings also highlight potential issues with eyewitness testimony as trauma sufferers with poorly contextualised memories are likely to provide a fragmented report of an event.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59105/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Bisby does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Brain imaging study shows that we forget the context in which a traumatic event take place which could be crucial to avoiding negative loops.James Bisby, Research associate, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/368292015-02-04T11:16:23Z2015-02-04T11:16:23ZHumans are wired for prejudice but that doesn’t have to be the end of the story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70886/original/image-20150203-9187-kmh1eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">All people have prejudices, but learning more about them could help keep them in check.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-213008221/stock-photo-multiethnic-group-of-people-with-colorful-outfit.html">Crowd image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Humans are highly social creatures. Our brains have evolved to allow us to survive and thrive in complex social environments. Accordingly, the behaviors and emotions that help us navigate our social sphere are entrenched in networks of neurons within our brains. </p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00126">Social motivations</a>, such as the desire to be a member of a group or to compete with others, are among the most basic human drives. In fact, our brains are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2012.10.017">able to assess</a> “in-group” (us) and “out-group” (them) membership within a fraction of a second. This ability, once necessary for our survival, has largely become a detriment to society. </p>
<p>Understanding the neural network controlling these impulses, and those that temper them, may shed light on how to resolve social injustices that plague our world.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70979/original/image-20150203-25516-5uyng9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70979/original/image-20150203-25516-5uyng9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70979/original/image-20150203-25516-5uyng9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70979/original/image-20150203-25516-5uyng9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70979/original/image-20150203-25516-5uyng9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70979/original/image-20150203-25516-5uyng9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70979/original/image-20150203-25516-5uyng9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70979/original/image-20150203-25516-5uyng9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Our brains can almost instantly assess in-group or out-group status.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29487767@N02/6836936038">Daniela Hartmann</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<h2>Prejudice in the brain</h2>
<p>In social psychology, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrn3800">prejudice</a> is defined as an attitude toward a person on the basis of his or her group membership. Prejudice <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1556/JCEP.2.2004.3-4.4">evolved</a> in humans because at one time it helped us avoid real danger. At its core, prejudice is simply an association of a sensory cue (e.g., a snake in the grass, the growling of a wolf) to an innate behavioral response (e.g., fight-and-flight). In dangerous situations time is of the essence, and so human beings adapted mechanisms to respond quickly to visual cues that our brains deem dangerous without our conscious awareness. The rub in all of this is that our brains have inherited the tendency to erroneously deem something dangerous when it is in fact benign. It is safer to make false-positive assumptions (avoid something that was good), than to make false-negative assumptions (not avoid something that was bad).</p>
<p>Neuroscience has begun to tease out the neural underpinnings of prejudice in the human brain. We now know that prejudiced behavior is controlled through a complex neural pathway consisting of cortical and sub-cortical regions.</p>
<p>A brain structure called the amygdala is the seat of classical fear conditioning and emotion in the brain. Psychological research has consistently supported the role of fear in prejudiced behavior. For this reason, the vast majority of brain research on this topic has focused on the amygdala and the cortical regions that influence it.</p>
<h2>Focus on the amygdala</h2>
<p>In one study by Jaclyn Ronquillo and her colleagues, eleven young, white males underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while being shown photographs of faces with varied skin tones. When they <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsl043">viewed black faces</a>, it resulted in greater amygdala activity than when they viewed white faces. Amygdala activation was equal for light and dark black faces, but dark-skinned white people had greater activation than those with lighter skin tone. The authors concluded that Afrocentric features drove an unconscious fear response in white participants.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70707/original/image-20150201-25921-1l81hso.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70707/original/image-20150201-25921-1l81hso.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70707/original/image-20150201-25921-1l81hso.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=177&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70707/original/image-20150201-25921-1l81hso.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=177&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70707/original/image-20150201-25921-1l81hso.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=177&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70707/original/image-20150201-25921-1l81hso.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70707/original/image-20150201-25921-1l81hso.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70707/original/image-20150201-25921-1l81hso.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Darker faces elicited more amygdala activity when white subjects were fMRI scannned.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://10.1093/scan/nsl043">The effect of skin tone on race-related amygdala activity: an fMRI investigation, Ronquillo (2007)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recent imaging research has supported the intractable nature of prejudice in the human psyche. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsr052">Chad Forbes</a> and colleagues found that even self-reported non-prejudiced subjects could be prejudiced in some situations. White study subjects had increased amygdala activation while viewing images of black faces when they were listening to violent, misogynistic rap music, but not when listening to death metal or no music. Interestingly, they found that a region of the frontal cortex – an area of the brain expected to tamp down amygdala activation – was also activated.</p>
<p>The researchers speculated that the music reinforced a negative stereotype about black subjects, creating a situation in which the white subjects were not able to temper their prejudiced emotions. In fact, the authors speculated that the frontal cortices – generally thought of as areas of “higher” brain function – were instead recruited to help justify the feelings of prejudice felt by the participants listening to rap music. </p>
<p>Other research has shown that the amygdala <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02214.x">response to out-group faces</a> is not strictly bound to characteristics such as race. The amygdala responds to any out-group category, depending on whatever someone deems is salient information: your sports team affiliation, gender, sexual orientation, where you go to school, and so on. </p>
<h2>Brains can control bias too</h2>
<p>The Forbes <em>et al</em> study highlights that our ability to control reactionary implicit bias is dependent on the frontal cortices of the brain. A particularly important region of the cortex is the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). </p>
<p>The mPFC is the seat of empathy in the brain. It forms impressions about other people and helps us consider other perspectives. A lack of mPFC activity is associated with prejudice marked by dehumanization and objectification of others. For example, it is known that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsl037">mPFC activation increases</a> when we view a person of high esteem or prestige – for example, firefighters or astronauts – but not when we view someone marked with disregard or disgust, such as a drug addict or homeless person. Men with highly <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2010.21497">sexist attitudes</a> have less mPFC activity when viewing sexual images of female bodies. These men also believed sexualized women have “less control over their own lives.” </p>
<p>Taken together, it seems that though the frontal cortices are able to reduce our innate prejudices about certain people, they are greatly influenced by context. In other words, our desire to not be prejudiced may sometimes get trumped by exposure to media supporting stereotypical portrayals of certain groups. Moving forward, it is essential to take into account not only the neural architecture of prejudice, but also the context in which we humans live. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70980/original/image-20150203-25554-j639i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70980/original/image-20150203-25554-j639i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70980/original/image-20150203-25554-j639i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70980/original/image-20150203-25554-j639i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70980/original/image-20150203-25554-j639i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70980/original/image-20150203-25554-j639i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70980/original/image-20150203-25554-j639i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70980/original/image-20150203-25554-j639i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Babies aren’t born with prejudices.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-144900358/stock-photo-group-of-multiethnic-babies-crawling-isolated-on-white-background.html">Babies image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Current questions being addressed in this field of research include whether or not amygdala activation in response to those of other races is something we’re born doing or a learned phenomenon. So far, research suggests that amygdala activity in response to out-group members is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00311">not innate</a>, and develops later in adolescence. Also, studies support the notion that childhood <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00605">exposure to diversity</a> can reduce the salience of race in adulthood.</p>
<p>In today’s world people are more connected than ever – from social media to Skype, to the never-ending news cycle – people are exposed to increasing diversity. Due to these advances, we as a global community are also faced with the knowledge that prejudice-based discrimination and violence still exist. It’s become a human imperative to transcend divisive impulses which no longer serve our survival. Neuroscience has started to educate us about innate human drives. It’s now up to all of us how to use this information.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36829/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caitlin Millett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Humans are highly social creatures. Our brains have evolved to allow us to survive and thrive in complex social environments. Accordingly, the behaviors and emotions that help us navigate our social sphere…Caitlin Millett, PhD candidate in Neuroscience, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/339742014-11-12T10:44:06Z2014-11-12T10:44:06ZPeople like us: how our brains view others<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64162/original/64s4k4mh-1415648621.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Race is one way we categorize ourselves among in-groups and out-groups.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-219184798/stock-photo-multicultural-children-s-hands-in-a-circle-instagram-effect.html?src=pd-same_artist-214707637-qdh8B0NLSSz4VPSSFlEE9A-1">Hands image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Race-related demonstrations, Title IX disputes, affirmative action court cases, same-sex marriage bans. </p>
<p>These issues made headlines in all spheres of the media this year. However, thoughtful articles on these subjects seem always to devolve to pitting warring factions against each other: black vs white, women vs men, gay vs straight. </p>
<p>At the most fundamental level of biology, we recognize the innate advantage of defining differences in species. But even within species, is there something in our neural circuits that leads us to find comfort in those like us and unease with those who may differ?</p>
<h2>Brain battle between distrust and reward</h2>
<p>Like all animals, our brains balance two primordial systems: one that includes a brain region called the amygdala that generates fear and distrust of those things that pose a danger (think predators); the other, a group of connected structures called the mesolimbic system, that gives rise to pleasure and feelings of reward that make it more likely we will flourish and survive (think food). But how do these systems interact to influence how we form our concepts of community?</p>
<p>Through <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/">implicit association tests</a> which uncover the strength of subliminal associations – for example, white=good, black=bad – scientists have shown that many of us harbor an implicit preference for our in-group (those like us), even when we show no outward or obvious signs of bias. Are such associations learned? Are they in some way hardwired? And either way, do they reflect conflicting activity of the amygdala vs the mesolimbic system?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64286/original/2f7nrxvc-1415721237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are plenty of ways to define who’s in-group and who’s out-group.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_sheep-1.jpg">Jesus Solana</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Distrust of ‘others’</h2>
<p>Research into how the amygdala responds when we assess the relative importance of race is nuanced and complex. Studies must take into account the differences between explicit and implicit measures of race attitudes, as well as the impact of cultural bias and individual variation. Still, most research suggests that signaling variations within the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3864590/">amygdala</a> are responsible for the way we measure trust in implicit in-group vs out-group preference.</p>
<h2>Reward from ‘sameness’</h2>
<p>Reward, on the other hand, is encoded in our brains by loops of neurons within a circuit called the mesolimbic system. These neurons control the release of the transmitter dopamine, which is associated with an enhanced sense of pleasure. The addictive nature of some drugs, gaming and gambling depends on increases in the activity of these neurons. </p>
<p>The neural circuits that govern social behavior and reward arose early in vertebrate evolution and are present in birds, reptiles, bony fishes and amphibians, as well as mammals. So far there’s not a lot of information on reward pathway activity in people during in-group vs out-group social situations, but there are some tantalizing results from studies on these other <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21800319">animals</a>.</p>
<p>In recent <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4123133/">work</a>, neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth and his colleagues at Stanford combined genetics and behavioral tests with a <a href="http://www.biotechniques.com/BiotechniquesJournal/2014/July/OPTOGENETICS-TURNS-10/biotechniques-352735.html?pageNum=1">cutting-edge approach</a> called fiber photometry where light can turn on and off specific cells. Using this process, the researchers were able to both stimulate and measure activity in identified neurons in the reward pathways, with an exquisite degree of precision. As important, they were able to do this in mice as they behaved in social settings.</p>
<p>They showed that neural signaling in a specific group of these dopamine neurons within these mesolimbic reward loops are jazzed up when a mouse encounters a new mouse – one it’s never met before, but that is of its own genetic line. Is this dopamine reward reaction the mouse corollary of human in-group recognition?</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64281/original/nxr747dp-1415720190.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Are you like me or not?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Field_Vole_by_Bruce_McAdam.jpg">Bruce McAdam</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What if the mouse were of a different genetic line with different external characteristics? What about with other small mammals such as <a href="http://physiologyonline.physiology.org/content/21/2/146">voles</a> who have dramatically different social relationships depending upon whether they are the type that lives in the prairie or in the mountains? Would the mesolimbic neurons still light up in recognition, or would the differences tip the balance toward the amygdala expressing fear and distrust?</p>
<p>We don’t know how these subtle differences in animals might affect how their neural circuits promote social responses, but by studying them, we may better understand how our own brain systems contribute to the implicit and unconscious bias we feel towards those in our own species who are nonetheless somewhat different.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64280/original/34ryddqp-1415719712.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Higher brain functions can override more primitive instincts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-103381424/stock-photo-brain-cerebrum-anatomy-cross-section.html?src=csl_recent_image-3">Brain image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Neural signaling is not destiny</h2>
<p>Even if evolution has tilted the balance toward our brains rewarding “like” and distrusting “difference,” this need not be destiny. Activity in our brains is malleable, allowing higher order circuits in the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20303254">cortex</a> to modify the more primitive fear and reward systems to produce different behavioral outcomes.</p>
<p>Author <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie</a> eloquently relates that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Stereotypes reduce those not exactly like us to only their differences.</p>
<h2>Diversity’s value</h2>
<p>Why would we put up with the discomfort that differences evoke, rather than always selecting the easy reward with sameness? In his book, The Difference, <a href="http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/%7Espage/">Scott Page</a> provides mathematical evidence that although diverse individuals are less trusting of one other, when working together, they are more productive. </p>
<p>From cracking the Enigma code in WWII to predicting stock prices, Page provides data to demonstrate that a diversity of perspectives produces better innovation and better solutions than the smartest set of like-minded experts. In short, diversity trumps ability.</p>
<p>So let’s acknowledge the amygdalar distrust that differences evoke. Then, while we may not get that same boost of dopamine, let’s recognize that when it comes to what will promote the greatest good, working with those “not like us” has its own rewards.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33974/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leslie Henderson has/does received funding from The National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p>Race-related demonstrations, Title IX disputes, affirmative action court cases, same-sex marriage bans. These issues made headlines in all spheres of the media this year. However, thoughtful articles on…Leslie Henderson, Professor of Physiology & Neurobiology and Senior Associate Dean at The Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.