Answer to yesterday's question: Yes. (Now, go read yesterday's post.)
Current Biology reports research by Wen Zhou and Denise Chen that, indeed, "If one odor is presented to one nostril and another odor is presented to the other nostril, a person will experience 'binaral rivalry' - sensing one smell and then the other, backwards and forwards, rather than a blending of the two."
Even though in the same nose, the chemoreceptors in one nostril worked separately from the receptors in the other nostril to send competing sensory messages to the brain. As with yesterday's "binocular rivalry," this "binaral rivalry" results in the brain being fooled and not able to make an accurate perception of the sensations.
I love the odors the researchers chose: one nostril smelled rose, the other a permanent marker. I would just like to know how they captured the ordors to present them. Did they do what Richard did in the Smuckers' commerical, where he was out in the strawberry field with a mason jar collecting "the smell of fresh strawberries" to take back to the jelly factory?
October 24, 2009
October 23, 2009
Dueling Banjos, Dueling Eyeballs
POP QUIZ: What happens if you divide your visual field so that each eye is seeing a different image at the same time? What does your brain do with that? Does it try to merge the images into one? Does one "disappear"?
ANSWER: To quote Research Digest, your perception "flits back and forth randomly and endlessly between the two." The name for this phenomenon is "binocular rivalry".
Your brain can't make up its mind what it is supposed to be looking at, which is the "figure" and which is the "ground". The brain usually automatically determines what is the "figure" and which is the "ground" when it looks at things. The "figure" is what stands out and is focused on, the "ground" is everything else that is relegated to the background.
Once you think about it, it is pretty easy to see (no pun intended) why it could happen: two eyes, each with its own optical nerve splitting and going to each hemisphere.
Now, here is the real question.
Can you also have "bi-nostril rivalry" with your nose? One nose, two nostrils?
Answer, tomorrow.
ANSWER: To quote Research Digest, your perception "flits back and forth randomly and endlessly between the two." The name for this phenomenon is "binocular rivalry".
Your brain can't make up its mind what it is supposed to be looking at, which is the "figure" and which is the "ground". The brain usually automatically determines what is the "figure" and which is the "ground" when it looks at things. The "figure" is what stands out and is focused on, the "ground" is everything else that is relegated to the background.
Once you think about it, it is pretty easy to see (no pun intended) why it could happen: two eyes, each with its own optical nerve splitting and going to each hemisphere.
Now, here is the real question.
Can you also have "bi-nostril rivalry" with your nose? One nose, two nostrils?
Answer, tomorrow.
October 20, 2009
Anarchic Hand Syndrome
When I teach on the role of pain, I tell the story of the time I got second degree burns on my hand from some cooking oil that "volcanoed" when I was using my Fry Daddy to fry some okra. I explain that my hand "developed a mind of its own" when it decided it would stop the flow of oil by reaching out and making a dam of flesh.
I am not being serious when I say that my hand developed a mind of its own, but it could have. There actually is a condition that is common enough to have a name, "Anarchic Hand Syndrome" or "Alien Hand Syndrome."
According to Research Digest, the person with the syndrome has a hand "reaching, grabbing and clutching whatever it likes."
Cause? Brain damage, usually to the front part of the brain.
The TV show, House, had an interesting episode not too long ago that focused on a patient with "Anarchic Hand Syndrome." It kept doing things like throwing things at people. It was his left hand. The challenge for the doctors was to figure out what was wrong with the man for his hand to be acting that way.
POP QUIZ: Which hemisphere was controlling his hand?
ANSWER: Right hemisphere.
Left hemisphere controls right side of body, right hemisphere controls left side of body.
POP QUIZ 2: Which hemisphere is responsible for language production?
ANSWER: Left hemisphere.
Think it through and you have the plot of the House episode: His left hand was being controlled by his right hemisphere, which has no language capabilities. What else could it do to "express" its frustration or anger but throw things or grab people!
Great episode, and, it turns out, not so far fetched.
Now that I think about it, could that be the explanation for my 8th grade teacher throwing a chalkboard eraser at me because I was talking in class? I may have been the victim of "Anarchic Hand Syndrome!"
I am not being serious when I say that my hand developed a mind of its own, but it could have. There actually is a condition that is common enough to have a name, "Anarchic Hand Syndrome" or "Alien Hand Syndrome."
According to Research Digest, the person with the syndrome has a hand "reaching, grabbing and clutching whatever it likes."
Cause? Brain damage, usually to the front part of the brain.
The TV show, House, had an interesting episode not too long ago that focused on a patient with "Anarchic Hand Syndrome." It kept doing things like throwing things at people. It was his left hand. The challenge for the doctors was to figure out what was wrong with the man for his hand to be acting that way.
POP QUIZ: Which hemisphere was controlling his hand?
ANSWER: Right hemisphere.
Left hemisphere controls right side of body, right hemisphere controls left side of body.
POP QUIZ 2: Which hemisphere is responsible for language production?
ANSWER: Left hemisphere.
Think it through and you have the plot of the House episode: His left hand was being controlled by his right hemisphere, which has no language capabilities. What else could it do to "express" its frustration or anger but throw things or grab people!
Great episode, and, it turns out, not so far fetched.
Now that I think about it, could that be the explanation for my 8th grade teacher throwing a chalkboard eraser at me because I was talking in class? I may have been the victim of "Anarchic Hand Syndrome!"
October 18, 2009
Is That Fear I Smell?
Did you know that your sweat produced by fear or anxiety is different than your sweat produced by physical exercise? It's true.
Did you know that other people can tell the difference just from the smell? It's true. The brain can perceive the difference just from the smell.
Did you know that when they smell sweat produced by fear it creates the same fear pattern in their brain? It's true. Smell fear, feel fear.
The on-line journal, PLoS ONE, reports research by Alexander Prehn-Kristensen and colleagues, involving collecting sweat from people who had exercised and sweat from students waiting to give an oral exam, and having other people smell the different samples.
I love it. "We're doing research. Could we scare you and then have you sweat into this cotton swab for us?" Or, "We're doing research. Would you smell this sweaty cotton swab for us?" Psychological research is so glamorous.
Anyway, here's what they found: "The smell of sweat taken from students anxiously awaiting an oral exam led to proportionately greater activation in the participants across a swathe of brain area known to be involved in empathy [and] emotion... triggering an emotional brain response in the absence of any conscious awareness."
Smell sweat from gym class, just get repulsed. Smell sweat from fear, experience fear (at least unconsiously).
I guess this explans why coaches say to their teams, "Don't let them see you sweat, boys." They would be more accurate to say, "Don't let them smell you sweat, boys."
Did you know that other people can tell the difference just from the smell? It's true. The brain can perceive the difference just from the smell.
Did you know that when they smell sweat produced by fear it creates the same fear pattern in their brain? It's true. Smell fear, feel fear.
The on-line journal, PLoS ONE, reports research by Alexander Prehn-Kristensen and colleagues, involving collecting sweat from people who had exercised and sweat from students waiting to give an oral exam, and having other people smell the different samples.
I love it. "We're doing research. Could we scare you and then have you sweat into this cotton swab for us?" Or, "We're doing research. Would you smell this sweaty cotton swab for us?" Psychological research is so glamorous.
Anyway, here's what they found: "The smell of sweat taken from students anxiously awaiting an oral exam led to proportionately greater activation in the participants across a swathe of brain area known to be involved in empathy [and] emotion... triggering an emotional brain response in the absence of any conscious awareness."
Smell sweat from gym class, just get repulsed. Smell sweat from fear, experience fear (at least unconsiously).
I guess this explans why coaches say to their teams, "Don't let them see you sweat, boys." They would be more accurate to say, "Don't let them smell you sweat, boys."
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