You're Getting Very Relaxed, Very Relaxed

We talked about clinical hypnosis in my General Psychology classes this week as we worked our way through the chapter on States of Consciousness.

I started by suggesting that my students close their eyes, take a deep breath, hold it for a second, release it and relax. Then I suggested that before they opened their eyes they clear their mind of everything they knew about hypnosis.

Why did I start that way?
1. It was relaxing.
2. Almost everything people know about hypnosis comes from entertainers, and most of it is wrong.
3. All hypnosis is based on suggestion, so I began with suggestions.

The hypnotic state is defined as a state in which one is highly relaxed and receptive to suggestions.

Last night I read an interesting report on research at London's University College that if you call hypnosis something else it is not as effective. Some therapists have called it "visualization" or "relaxation therapy" because of perceived stereotypic beliefs about hypnosis (false beliefs of what it is and how it works).

What the researchers found was, "Therapists who embrace the term 'hypnosis' have more success in treating patients. That's because the therapy relies largely on the patient's openness to suggestion, and possibly even their preconceived notions of what hypnosis is all about."

In other words, even if their preconceptions are wrong, they facilitate successful therapy that uses hypnosis. Do you see the power of suggestion and expectations even in that? If they expect hypnosis to work, and have a therapist who uses hypnosis, it is more likely to work.

Now, when I count backward to 1 you will open your eyes and not remember anything I have written in this post. But you will feel very relaxed, think that I am one of the best writers you have ever read, and tell someone that they need to start reading my Blog.

3 2 1

Skip a Meal, Pass the Test

Yale researcher, Tamas Horvath, has discovered an interesting side effect of having an empty stomach... at least in rats.

Comparative Psychology is a field in which we study animal behavior to "compare" it to human behavior. In other words, studying animal behavior often helps us understand human behavior.

According to Horvath, empty stomachs produce Ghrelin, a hormone that "enhances learning in the short term, at least in rats. Ghrelin speeds communication in the hippocampus, a brain region associated with spatial memory."

The operant phrase is, "enhances learning."

We know that getting a good night's sleep before a test helps memory. Maybe you should get a good night's sleep and skip breakfast the day of your next test?

Something else rat research has told us about learning is that rats perform best on tasks when the temperature is 55 degrees.

So, get a good night's sleep, skip breakfast, and ask the professor to turn down the thermostate in the classroom for your next test.

Let me know how that works for you.

Be Happy, Be Heart Healthy

Answer to my last post's Pop Quiz: Beethoven.

One of my Facebook networks paid off today. BPS Research Digest "Facebooked" me (2 years ago that would have been a meaningless phrase) about an article in the upcoming issue of European Heart Journal.

A study that followed the emotional and physical health of 1,739 adults for 10 years has confirmed what we have suspected: positive affect predicts cardiovascular health independent of negative affect.

What does that mean? It means that there are two ways to decrease your odds of having a heart attack.

1 - Eliminate negative affect (depression, anxiety, hostility, etc.).
2 - Increase positive affect (overall happiness).

Those are not the same thing stated two ways. They are totally different approaches. One is a negative approach - decrease the negative. The other is a positive approach - increase the positive.

Focus on the negative, to eliminate it, and you improve heart health.
OR
Focus on the positive, to increase it, and you improve heart health.

Look for the good and promote it! You will be happy and more heart healthy.

At the risk of creating an ear worm, I quote Bobby McFerrin's 1998 song... "Don't worry. Be happy."

Sing Me An "A" Above Middle "C"

Non-musicians won't have a clue what the title means. Most serious musicians will know that "A above middle C" is the note produced by soundwaves at 440 Hz.

Those with perfect pitch will be singing it perfectly on key. Not many will be doing that because only about 1 in 10,000 are born with perfect pitch, the ability to perfectly produce a specific singing note without the aid of an instrument.

According to a 2006 article in Psychology Today (no, I'm not that far behind in my reading, I just brought home a stack of old magazines weeded from Connors' library) two things have to be true for someone to be able to produce perfect pitch

1. You have to be born with the ability.
2. You have to receive musical training before the age of 5. According to the article, "After age 9 it becomes virtually impossible to develop truly perfect pitch."

Interesting note* #1: "The rare instances of late acquisition (of perfect pitch) usually occur among the developmentaly challenged - most often those with autism or Williams syndrome - whose cognitive maturation is delayed."

This is a good example of Nature AND Nurture, rather than Nature OR Nurture.

Interesting note* #2: "30% of Asian-American music students had perfect pitch compared with 7% of non-Asian-American music students."

In case you were wondering, perfect pitch is not required to be a great vocalist.

POP QUIZ: One of these four musicians had perfect pitch. Which one?
Brahms
Stravinsky
Beethoven
Wagner

Answer in my next post.

*No pun intended with the "note" comment.

I Love You With All My Brain

The Valentine's Day card I gave Yvonne this morning has this verse in it: "Love for you is the music in my heart."

We use phrases like, "I love you with all my heart." That sounds so much better than, "I love you with all my brain." One comic strip mother this morning said to her brainy son, "If your father had tried to woo me with a brain-shaped box of candy you would never have been born!"

You can be thankful that Alcmaeon didn't make his major contribution to the understanding of the human brain until the belief that the mind was in the heart was too established in our vocabulary to be changed.

Circa 520 BC, the Greek anatomist and physician Alcmaeon discovered that the optic nerve goes to the brain, not the heart. Until then, most people believed that the mind was found in the heart, and that the purpose of the brain was simply to cool the blood. Wrong!

The mind is in the brain. Alcmaeon's student, Hippocrates (the Father of Modern Medicine), would later write, "From the brain come all of our joys and sorrows."

To be technically correct in both physiology and psychology we should say, "I love you with all my brain."

Guys, try that and let me know how it works out for you. Your Significant Other might think it is more evidence of your CLOD gene. (See yesterday's post.)

You won't read this "Gradyism" anywhere else: "Sometimes it is psychologically smart to be physiologically wrong."