When the Rug Gets Yanked Out from Beneath You: An Interview with Joel Metzger

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I have known Joel Metzger for perhaps 20 years and was told I needed to meet this resilient thriver and hear his story of rebirth following a traumatic event that forever changed his life.

When we wake up each morning, we generally don’t imagine that this day could be our last on the planet. We go about our business, interacting with family, friends and co-workers, “clocking in and clocking out” on the job, assuming that another 24 hours will be granted to us or that they will be predictable.

Joel was one of those who likely didn’t question that belief. He is a consistent presence in our community and I had heard over and over throughout the years that he was the ‘Unofficial Mayor of Doylestown,’ since as he walked through town, he seemed to know nearly everyone and greeted them warmly. His sense of humor, intelligence, creativity and love for those in his life are among his gifts that didn’t leave him on that day.

He was “the foreman of a cabinet shop that manufactured components for private aircraft. On the side, I was a semi-professional puppeteer, directing my own troupe.” On that auspicious day, he had submitted his resume to puppeteer Jim Henson because he wanted to make a shift in his career. Little did he know that he would need to shift gears at an intersection that would also bring about a multitude of decisions he needed to make about navigating the roads that lay before him.

Please share about the pivotal event that turned your world upside down and inside out. How long ago did it happen?

Many years ago (over 30), my life almost ended with a car crash. Actually, in many ways it did end. I suffered a head trauma and spent two months in a coma and nine in hospitals. I must point out that this is all because of a drunk driver.

A head injury has indescribable impact and mine was a very severe one. The brain is a pretty important organ that’s right smack in the center of our personal universe. I lost every physical ability, was like a new-born baby for months, my wife left me, had to relearn how to speak, walk, and work a new career. My personality changed. I was moved to a new city. My ability to think is still challenged. I have major memory and balance problems.

What was the biggest lesson that emerged?

Everything changes. The rug can be yanked out from beneath you. And yet, we can know a constant foundation.

Who was the man you were before the accident and who are you now?  

Before the accident I was already on a path of learning what part of me is strong and central. I had been experientially examining this for ten years at that time. So, the injury was a practical demonstration of what I thought about and glimpsed. It was an acid test. Theories quickly flew out the window. Only what was solid and absolute could help.

If you could speak to him in a “what I wish I knew when I was you” manner, what would you say to him?

The very best can come out of what seems like the very worst.

How has inner awareness helped you to heal?

I could say a lot about that. Feeling stability inside is extremely important when your world shakes. This is needed when I walk (physical balance), as I my health improves (healing and imagery), as I go through the ups and down of living (always staying afloat), on my journey towards where I want to be (keeping my eyes on what is true), and more (including this lifestyle of being single and seeking a partner!).

How would you describe your life now?

Blessed! I am very focused on my project of expressing some of what I’ve learned. 

Please talk about The Piece We Need.

The Piece We Need is my expression about Inner Strength, “the piece we need to face serious challenges”.  This is a series of videos with animation and commentary.

I’ve been creating a series of videos about the inner resources we all have. There are now two compilations on Vimeo On Demand called Inner Strength and Inner Beauty. I encourage people to watch these videos if they are interested in my message.

What is the takeaway message in it?

We have access to a source of inner strength, and we need to learn to held on to it solidly, quickly, anytime. I say “we”, but I really mean me. It is very personal, and I only want to talk about myself. I say “inner strength” but really mean a whole carpetbag of inner resources. My life is a process of basing myself more and more on myself. 

Some who have experienced trauma live in fear of it occurring again. What keeps you living day by day in the midst of the unpredictability of life?

My breath. It’s my role model!!

I have enjoyed viewing Joel’s videos which highlight cartoon versions of himself and the other characters in them,  over the past few years and find inspiration in the ways he consistently turns inward when it would seem natural to seek external validation to make sense of the world. From this observer’s perspective in many conversations with him, it came to me that when he experienced the Traumatic Brain Injury, his sense of spiritual connection seemed to deepen and appreciation for life has grown incrementally.

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February 18, 2018 at 11:46AM

Scientists Explore Ties Between Alzheimer's And Brain's Ancient Immune System

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February 18, 2018 at 11:34AM

The Happiest People Earn This Much Money

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The amount of income that makes people happiest.

The maximum income for optimal happiness is between $60,000 and $75,000 per year, new research finds.

Any more than that is associated with falling levels of happiness — perhaps because, above this level, the sacrifices are not worth it.

The researchers also asked people about their satisfaction with life.

Life satisfaction involves evaluating our lives in comparison to goals and to other people; whereas happiness refers to daily levels of positive feelings.

The ideal income for the optimum level of life satisfaction is higher at $95,000 per person.

However, life satisfaction also began to drop once a person earned more than $95,000 a year.

Andrew T. Jebb, the study’s first author, said:

“That might be surprising as what we see on TV and what advertisers tell us we need would indicate that there is no ceiling when it comes to how much money is needed for happiness, but we now see there are some thresholds.

It’s been debated at what point does money no longer change your level of well-being.

We found that the ideal income point is $95,000 for life evaluation and $60,000 to $75,000 for emotional well-being.

Again, this amount is for individuals and would likely be higher for families.”

The results come from a Gallup World Poll of 1.7 million people in 164 countries.

Incomes in different countries were adjusted to take into account the purchasing power of the local currency — but the results are expressed in US dollars.

Mr Jebb said:

“…there was substantial variation across world regions, with satiation occurring later in wealthier regions for life satisfaction.

This could be because evaluations tend to be more influenced by the standards by which individuals compare themselves to other people.”

The drive to earn more money could also be hurting their happiness and life satisfaction, Mr Jebb said:

“At this point they are asking themselves, ‘Overall, how am I doing?’ and ‘How do I compare to other people?’

The small decline puts one’s level of well-being closer to individuals who make slightly lower incomes, perhaps due to the costs that come with the highest incomes. These findings speak to a broader issue of money and happiness across cultures.

Money is only a part of what really makes us happy, and we’re learning more about the limits of money.”

→ Explore PsyBlog’s ebooks, all written by Dr Jeremy Dean:

The study was published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour (Jebb et al., 2018).

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February 18, 2018 at 11:00AM

FDA Okays First Concussion Blood Test--but Some Experts Are Wary

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week gave its first green light to a company that wants to start selling a blood test to evaluate for mild traumatic brain injury, or concussion. The agency lauded the blood test as an innovative tool for speeding diagnosis and avoiding radiation exposure from brain scans. But some head trauma experts worry the authorization was pushed through too hastily.

“The data aren't as conclusive as we would have hoped, so I was surprised by the rapid FDA approval,” says Henrik Zetterberg, a professor of neurochemistry at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, who was not involved with the project. The Brain Trauma Indicator, developed by San Diego–based biotechnology company Banyan Biomarkers, was reviewed and authorized for commercialization in fewer than six months. It was cleared under the FDA's Breakthrough Devices Program—an approvals process that aims to fast-track the development of promising and relatively low-risk medical technologies, after reviewing available data. Banyan says the new test will soon be available in hospitals.

The Brain Trauma Indicator measures blood plasma levels of the UCH-L1, a protein scientists believe helps dispose of cellular waste in the brain, and GFAP, a structural protein found in non-neuronal cells called astrocytes. Both are released at elevated levels following a concussion or other injury that damages nerve fibers, and both can be detected within 20 minutes of a head injury (although it may take longer for doctors and patients to get the results from a lab).

Concussions are notoriously difficult to diagnose, and patients suspected of having them are typically assessed by a doctor using the Glasgow Coma Scale—a series of physical tests for determining the level of consciousness—followed by a computed tomography (CT) head scan for brain abnormalities. CT scans are expensive, however, and many patients suspected of having traumatic brain injuries do not exhibit signs of visible damage when scanned. The blood test would provide hospitals and clinicians with a relatively quick screening tool to help them decide whether a CT scan would be likely to pick up any brain injury.

The FDA authorized marketing the Brain Trauma Indicator after examining data from a clinical study of nearly 2,000 blood samples from patients with suspected concussions. From that data, the agency concluded the test can predict the absence of lesions on a CT scan with an accuracy of 99.5 percent, making it reliable enough to rule out the need for a scan in at least one third of the patients.

Yet Zetterberg, who has been identifying biomarkers associated with brain injury and other neurological disorders in his lab, questions the usefulness of UCH-L1 as a concussion biomarker, and says his own testing has found it unreliable. “It's very important to look at the timing of the sample,” he says. “UCH-L1 might work at early time points, but if a sample is collected two to three days after an injury, perhaps other markers would be better.”

Joseph Fins, a professor of medicine and medical ethics at Weill Cornell Medical Center, applauds the approval and says, “This test is an advance for triaging CT scans.” But he cautions it may not capture all minor concussions—like those that do not produce structural changes in the brain.“A negative blood test means that proteins were not released—not necessarily that there was not a mild concussion,” he says. “If it’s assumed that a patient did not have a concussion because the test is negative, and then the patient resumes the sporting activity, the effects of the next head injury can be augmented.”

“It's promising that the FDA has approved something,” Zetterberg says. “But much more research is needed,” he adds—especially comparisons of different biomarkers at different time points after injury—to develop a more reliable blood test for concussion. CT scan abnormalities, he says, are just one aspect of this type of injury.

 

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February 18, 2018 at 09:13AM

Many Struggling Readers Have Binocular Vision Problems

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A new Canadian study finds that many elementary school children who read below grade level have challenges with their eyesight — even if standard tests say their vision is 20/20.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo found that one-third of a group of children with reading difficulties tested below-normal in binocular vision. Healthy binocular vision is defined as both eyes being able to aim simultaneously at the same visual target. Problems with binocular vision may lead to eye strain, fatigue or double vision.

“A complete binocular vision assessment is not always part of the standard vision test,” said Dr. Lisa Christian, lead researcher on the project and an associate clinical professor at the School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Waterloo. “However, binocular vision problems could be compounding a child’s academic difficulties, and should be investigated.”

The research involved a retrospective review of 121 children between the ages of six and 14 who had all been assigned an Individual Education Plan (IEP) specifically for reading. The findings show that more than three-quarters of these children had good eyesight, but when they were tested for binocular vision, more than a third of them scored below what was considered normal.

Optometrists classify binocular vision anomalies under three main categories: accommodation, vergence and oculomotor. The symptoms may sometimes appear benign or may be masked as other problems.

Children with accommodative issues have trouble focusing or have difficulty changing their focus from one distance to another. For example, our eyes have a natural focusing system, similar to a camera. When the eyes cannot switch focus correctly, the images appear blurry.

Children with vergence problems have trouble turning their eye in or out — eye movements required for reading. When reading a book up close, for example, our eyes need to be able to move inward to see the words. Children with oculomotor issues have trouble with eye tracking and may lose their place while reading.

“Kids can see words on the page, but if (for example) they have difficulty turning their eyes in to read or focusing words on a page, they may experience symptoms of eye strain, double vision or fatigue after five or 10 minutes,” Christian said. “It’s not just about visual acuity, but about how well the eyes work together when performing an activity such as reading.”

“Full eye examinations, particularly in children with vision issues, may be a tool for parents and educators to assist children who are found to have difficulty reading.”

Source: University of Waterloo

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February 18, 2018 at 09:05AM

High Dopamine May Cause Psychosis Patients to Focus More on Expectations

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A new study finds that schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations often hear what they expect to hear. In fact, the hallucinations may be an extreme version of a perceptual distortion quite common among healthy people.

Research has long established that people who experience hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms tend to have elevated dopamine, but the exact link between dopamine and hallucinations has remained unclear.

In the new study, researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) and New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) found that elevated dopamine could be causing some patients to rely more on expectations, which could then result in hallucinations.

The findings help explain why treatments targeting the production of dopamine could help alleviate this condition.

“Our brain uses prior experiences to generate sensory expectations that help fill in the gaps when sounds or images are distorted or unclear,” said Guillermo Horga, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at CUIMC and a research psychiatrist at NYSPI.

“In individuals with schizophrenia, this process appears to be altered, leading to extreme perceptual distortions, such as hearing voices that are not there. Furthermore, while such hallucinations are often successfully treated by antipsychotic drugs that block the neurotransmitter dopamine in a brain structure known as the striatum, the reason for this has been a mystery since this neurotransmitter and brain region are not typically associated with sensory processing.”

For the study, the research team designed an experiment that induced an auditory illusion in both healthy participants and participants with schizophrenia. They observed how building up or breaking down sensory expectations can modify the strength of this illusion. They also measured dopamine release before and after administering a drug that triggers the release of dopamine.

The findings show that the schizophrenia patients tended to perceive sounds in a way that was more similar to what they had been cued to expect, even when sensory expectations were less reliable and the illusions weakened in healthy participants.

This tendency to inflexibly hear what was expected became worse after they were given a dopamine-releasing drug, became more pronounced in participants with elevated dopamine release, and more apparent in participants with a smaller dorsal anterior cingulate (a brain region previously shown to track reliability of environmental cues).

“All people have some perceptual distortions, but these results suggest that excess dopamine can exacerbate our distorted perceptions,” said Horga. “Novel therapies should aim to improve the processing of contextual information by targeting the dopamine system or downstream pathways associated with modulation of perceptual processing, which likely include the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex.”

The study is published in the journal Current Biology.

Source: Columbia University Medical Center

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February 18, 2018 at 08:29AM

Screening All Adults for Hepatitis C is Most Cost-Effective Way to ID Those Infected

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Screening all adults for hepatitis C (HCV) is the most cost-effective way to identify more people with the disease as well as improve patients’ health and quality of life, compared to the current recommendations of screening only certain populations.

Hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes liver inflammation and sometimes serious liver damage. Many people with HCV experience neuropsychiatric symptoms such as brain fog, confusion, irritability, difficulty concentrating, and fatigue. These symptoms make it difficult to carry on everyday tasks.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends HCV testing for people born between 1945 and 1965, the highest risk population in the U.S. However, recent statistics have shown a growing incidence rate of HCV among young people.

“Due in part to the opioid epidemic and the increase in injection drug use, the country has seen an increase in cases of HCV among young people,” says Benjamin Linas, M.D., co-senior author of the study and infectious disease physician at BMC and an associate professor of medicine at Boston University Medical Center. “The CDC could address this public health concern by recommending all adults receive a one-time HCV test.”

To address this gap in testing, researchers from Boston Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and Stanford University created a simulation model to estimate the effectiveness of HCV testing strategies among different age groups.

They compared the effects of testing four age brackets: current testing recommendations (those born between 1945 and 1965), testing people over 40 years old, testing people over 30 years old, and testing all adults over 18 years old. All strategies included the current recommendations for targeted testing of high-risk individuals, such as people who inject drugs.

The researchers discovered that, compared to current recommendations, screening all adults over 18 for HCV would identify more than 250,000 additional people with the disease, increase cure rates from 41 percent to 61 percent, and reduce death rates for HCV-attributable diseases by more than 20 percent. Overall, screening for all adults would increase life expectancy and quality of life while remaining cost-effective.

“When we expanded testing, the results were compelling,” says Joshua Barocas, M.D., lead author on the study, an infectious disease physician at MGH and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Changing the current recommendations could have a major public health impact, improving the quality of life for young people with HCV, and reducing death rates.”

The study pulled data from national databases, clinical trials, and observational cohorts to inform their simulation models, which took into account the same demographics and HCV epidemiology of the U.S. population.

Although all of the age-based strategies lowered costs associated with managing chronic HCV and advanced liver disease, the strategy of testing all adults was most effective. Even in a simulated scenario that required twice as much testing among uninfected people to identify the same number of HCV cases, the testing-all-adults strategy remained cost-effective.

“Testing all adults would lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment for many people, which would help to prevent cirrhosis and other long-term complications,” says Joshua Salomon, Ph.D., co-senior author of the study and professor of medicine at Stanford University. “Overall, when you consider both the better health outcomes and the reduced costs of managing long-term liver disease, expanded testing offers excellent value for money.”

Researchers say these findings should be considered by the CDC for future recommendations on HCV testing.

Source: Boston Medical Center

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February 18, 2018 at 07:40AM

​The Science of Vastly Different Teens: Introverts and Extroverts

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Personality is more than just how we act around others. There are deeply ingrained elements to who we are that impact every single aspect of our lives. Nowhere is this more true than when looking at the differences between extroverts and introverts.

Due to the prominence of these characteristics shown on television or in internet memes, there tends to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what these terms mean and how they relate to people. An introvert is not necessarily shy, or someone who hates being around others. They simply need time alone after social or stressful situations, preferring to recharge their batteries in the quiet and solitude.

On the other hand, extroverts are often seen as people who are loud and outgoing, always needing to be the center of attention. In reality, they gain energy and happiness from being around others and interacting with a myriad of individuals in many situations. That is how they rev up those batteries and alone time is less beneficial.

Both sides can have characteristics of the other: introverts could enjoy time with others and extroverts could cherish their alone time. But as a whole, these two types follow by a certain brain chemistry that dictates their more likely behaviors.

You may have noticed your teen has been exhibiting more of these traits as they age. Now that their brain matter is growing, forming, and solidifying they are beginning to show the more permanent stages of who they are and will continue to be in adulthood. Where in their childhood they may have shown both extroverted and introverted signs, they could be leaning much more towards one or the other now.

Introversion, Extroversion and the Brain

The differences between these two personality types goes well beyond personality and preference. A study done in 2012 by a Harvard University researcher found that introverts have more grey matter in the portion of the brain responsible for critical thinking and decision making. This may account for why introverts are less spontaneous and tend to prefer to think things through before acting.

Extroverts tend to prefer the rush of immediate gratification and react strongly to dopamine that accompanies quick decisions. Because of this, some studies have also found that they tend to be happier as a general rule.

What does all of this mean? Not as much as you might think. People are complex creatures who can fall on a scale of introversion and extroversion. But it does show us that personality types are fundamentally linked to brain activity and development, giving us unique qualities as per how our mind processes environments, chemicals and stimulation.

Understanding Your Teenager Through Brain Science

When it comes to your teen, knowing their personality type can go a long way towards understanding them and how they interpret rewards. For the more thoughtful and cautious introvert, they are more likely to wait to act and think things through, even if it means delaying gratification. This can lead to missed opportunities as their anxiety gets the best of them.

Extroverts can be more rash because they are seeking that reward right away. They are prone to jumping in without consideration of the consequences, making them more spontaneous than their more reserved counterparts, but their constant fear of missing out can get them into trouble.

Ultimately, we can use this knowledge to help us navigate the murky waters of parenting. Knowing how our teen is more likely to react in any given situation can give us a handle on how to help them, either by reining them in or pushing them to get out of their comfort zone once in awhile.

Communication can also be improved using this insight. You may have a better idea of why it is your introverted son or daughter has been so anxious about making small decisions about classes. Or the reason that your teen decided they would sneak out of the house after curfew.

It may just all be in their heads, literally.

Resources

• Williams, A. (2016, October 07). The Difference Between Introverts And Extroverts, In 1 Simple Chart. Retrieved from http://ift.tt/2yDA1aD
• Holmes, A. J., Lee, P. H., Hollinshead, M. O., Bakst, L., Roffman, J. L., Smoller, J. W., & Buckner, R. L. (2012, December 12). Individual Differences in Amygdala-Medial Prefrontal Anatomy Link Negative Affect, Impaired Social Functioning, and Polygenic Depression Risk. Retrieved from http://ift.tt/N7DToC
• Bryner, J. (2010, December 21). Extroverts Prefer Immediate Gratification. Retrieved from http://ift.tt/2EQsysk
• Pappas, S. (2011, May 03). Why Extroverts Are the Happiest People. Retrieved from http://ift.tt/2EACjHN
• Bennington-Castro, J. (2013, September 10). The Science of What Makes an Introvert and an Extrovert. Retrieved from http://ift.tt/2yccQEB
• Sundance Canyon Academy. (n.d.). Improving Communication with Your Teen [Infographic]. Retrieved from http://ift.tt/2ExUFZT

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February 18, 2018 at 06:41AM

NSAIDs: Unsafe for Chronic Pain

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By Cindy Perlin.

If you take any of the following nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for pain relief you are putting your life at risk: aspirin, celecoxib (Celebrex), diclofenac (Cambia, Cataflam, Voltaren-XR, Zipsor, Zorvolex), ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), indomethacin (Indocin), naproxen (Aleve, Anaprox, Naprelan, Naprosyn), oxaprozin (Daypro), piroxicam (Feldene). This may come as a shock to you. After all, these drugs have been around for decades and many are available over the counter.

Cindy Perlin

It has long been known that NSAIDs increase the risk of potentially fatal stomach and intestinal adverse reactions including bleeding, ulcers, and perforation of the stomach or intestines. These events can occur at any time during treatment and without warning symptoms. Elderly patients are at greater risk for these adverse events. Aspirin, for instance, despite being less popular than in the past due to the availability of other options, causes over 3000 deaths annually in the United States.

NSAIDs, except for aspirin, increase the risk of a potentially fatal heart attack or stroke, according to an FDA advisory issued in July, 2015. The FDA warned that “those serious side effects can occur as early as the first few weeks of using an NSAID, and the risk might rise the longer people take NSAIDs”. “There is no period of use shown to be without risk,” says Judy Racoosin, M.D., M.P.H., deputy director of FDA’s Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia, and Addiction Products. People who already have cardiovascular disease, particularly those who recently had a heart attack or cardiac bypass surgery are at greatest risk. However, “Everyone may be at risk – even people without an underlying risk for cardiovascular disease,” says Racoosin.

Unfortunately, another widely available over the counter pain reliever, acetaminophen (brand name Tylenol) also carries significant risks. If used long term at higher than recommended doses or in individuals whose liver function is compromised, acetaminophen can cause liver failure. Liver failure is fatal without a liver transplant, and acetaminophen is the most frequent cause of liver failure in the United States today.

With prescription opioids becoming increasingly restricted due to concerns about addiction, as well as growing evidence that they may cause more pain over the long term, what can a chronic pain patient do?

Fortunately, there are many safe and effective natural treatments for chronic pain. Here are some things you can take for pain relief: medical marijuana, CBD oil, kratom (a Southeast Asian herb that the FDA and DEA are currently trying to ban based on false allegations that it is unsafe), wild lettuce, turmeric, omega 3 fatty acids, homeopathic remedies such as arnica, ruta or hypericum, magnesium, vitamin D3 and many other herbs and nutrients. Here are some things that you can do: acupuncture, biofeedback, chiropractic, EMF treatment, exercise, hypnotherapy, low level laser therapy, massage, nutritional therapy, physical therapy, psychotherapy and much more. Some combination of these treatments can not only reduce your pain, they just might heal the underlying problem and eliminate your pain for good.

Author Cindy Perlin is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, certified biofeedback practitioner, chronic pain survivor and occasional columnist for the National Pain Report. To find out more about safe alternatives for pain relief, visit the online Alternative Pain Treatment Directory or read Cindy Perlin’s book, The Truth About Chronic Pain Treatments: The Best and Worst Strategies for Becoming Pain Free.

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February 18, 2018 at 06:08AM

How making fun of yourself can make you happy

A real-life adventure

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On December 31 2004, four British children boarded a Sri Lankan Airlines flight at Colombo airport bound for Heathrow. They had cut an odd sight walking through the airport that Friday. They had no parents, no luggage, and, perhaps most puzzling of all, no shoes. Rob (17), Paul (15), Matty (12), and Rosie (8), had all turned up at the airport barefoot.

Five days before, at approximately 8.30 a.m., a huge wave had destroyed the holiday resort where the Forkan family was staying, near Galle, Sri Lanka. Rob and Paul shared a room; Matty and Rosie were with their parents in another. In one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time, the Asian tsunami killed more than 230,000 people. Rob last saw his father bolting past the window carrying Matty. And then he was gone.

The bodies of their parents, Kevin Forkan, 54, and Sandra, 40, were flown back from Sri Lanka three months later. The couple left behind six children (their oldest two, Joanne, then 19, and Marie, 21, had not been in Sri Lanka with them).

The family’s core value was being adventurous. The family planned to set up an establishment in India. Before settling in India, they decided to holiday in Sri Lanka. Christmas Day 2004 was warm and cloudless. The family surfed and played chess. At one point, the family was waiting for Kevin, who was surfing. The next day, Rob was lying in bed when he heard screams outside. Then he saw water trickling under the door. Seconds later, the first wave came in. It took out the door, windows, basin, beds, everything was smashed. The water rose, up to the ceiling as the boys tried to get out. Rob and Paul took refuge on the roof.

Rob remembers suddenly seeing his little brother Matty on a tree. The brothers believed their father had pushed him to safety before being swept away. Rob swam towards him. They survived by clinging to the tree, holding on to each other. Half an hour or so later, the sea had receded. They remember chaos, panic and fear. They remember looking for their parents, but it wasn’t easy.

Rosie, it turned out, had been fortunate. She was found on a tree and taken to safety and, later that day, her brothers found her.

From here on, the children’s education kicked in. They said they did not spend years in a classroom and never knew about tsunamis. In pain and with no food or money, they hitched 200 km back to Colombo. Their only possessions were their father’s mobile phone and some traveller’s cheques. Rob called Marie from Colombo. She couldn’t believe her siblings were alive. The children went to the British Embassy, where an official looked after them. From the moment they landed back in the U.K. they were protected from the media by a Scotland Yard injunction.

When finally he was relieved of responsibility, Rob was asleep for practically a week. He was exhausted. He’d been staying awake all night, in case something happened, always watching. He was referred for hypnotherapy with a trauma therapist for a week or two.

Find out more about the Forkan family. What are they all doing now?

Get hold of the book ‘Tsunami Kids: Our Journey From Survival To Success by Rob and Paul Forkan’. It is inspiring.

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February 18, 2018 at 03:36AM

Does Vitamin D Deficiency Contribute to Brain Disorders?

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There seems to be a lot of talk about Vitamin D deficiency lately, particularly in relation to brain disorders. I’ve always associated vitamin D with healthy bones, but really, it is important for good overall health. Vitamin D helps our hearts, muscles, lungs and brains work well. Unlike other vitamins, most vitamin D does not come from what we eat, but rather from our exposure to the sun (and possibly from supplements). With all the emphasis on staying out of the sun and/or wearing sunscreen these days, it’s not surprising that many of us are now deficient in vitamin D.

Another unique characteristic of vitamin D is the fact that our bodies turn it into a hormone called “activated vitamin D” or “calcitriol.”

Some of the areas in which vitamin D is known to be helpful include:

• Immune system
• Muscle function
• Cardiovascular function
• Respiratory system
• Brain development
• Anti-cancer effects

Specifically, vitamin D deficiency has been associated with certain cancers, asthma, type-II diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, Alzheimer’s, and some autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s and type 1 diabetes.

It is interesting to note that vitamin D deficiency has also been associated with cognitive impairments in the elderly, as well as schizophrenia.

In this study published in July 2017, researchers looked at the vitamin D levels and cognitive function in patients who experienced psychosis. They found an association between low levels of vitamin D and decreased processing speed and verbal fluency. The authors suggested the next step should be randomized controlled trials of vitamin D supplementation in those with psychosis and vitamin D deficiency.

Another study, published in Psychiatry Research in August 2017, looked at whether vitamin B12, homocysteine folic acid, and vitamin D might be connected to childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Fifty-two children and adolescents with OCD and thirty controls without OCD were involved in the study, which found that vitamin D levels were lower in study participants with OCD and also had a negative correlation with the severity of the disease — the lower the vitamin D level, the worse the OCD. The researchers concluded that vitamin D deficiency appears to be connected to childhood OCD and might even be a risk factor for developing the disorder.

So what do these studies actually mean? Are schizophrenia and OCD caused by a vitamin D deficiency? Or does having these brain disorders somehow cause the deficiency? Both? Neither?

In this article, Dr. John Grohol explains why it’s more complicated than it looks. While he discusses vitamin D deficiency in relation to mood disorders (specifically depression), the premise is the same. More quality research (specifically more randomized controlled trials) is needed, and even then, it’s unlikely that adding vitamin D supplements to our diets will bring about any miraculous changes. Still, the benefits of vitamin D for our overall health are real, and maintaining as healthy a lifestyle as much as possible certainly can’t hurt when it comes to managing all types of illnesses, including brain disorders.

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February 17, 2018 at 04:37PM

Love Never Fails is the New Call In Talk Show- March 6, 2018

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Tune in every Tuesday afternoon for "Love Never Fails"  with your questions and to hear exciting cutting edge programs that go beyond  old ideas and understanding at 3:00PM Pacific Time on http://boldbravemedia.com/ and tune in radio, 866-451-1451.  

Marilyn is the speaker for this millennium and offers a wide range of information for curious listeners. She answers your questions from her experience, understanding, and insight. Tune in every week with your questions and to hear "Love Never Fails" for exciting programs with answers that work and  go beyond usual opinions. Her guests bring fresh information for her listeners.

She has  unique knowledge and wisdom of the human dilemma and the solutions that will work for you, too. She shares her experience, strength, and hope including tools to help you find your inner strength for health, healing, empowerment, and a higher consciousness. Her pioneering and innovative work in restoring traumatic lives, healing emotional causes of illness, and releasing negative energy restores health and reality. Marilyn is multi-talented and wishes to share all her abilities with everyone.

Her many topics will embrace: Relationships, Holistic Health and Healing, Regression, Therapeutic and Past Life Therapy, Counseling, Empowerment, Self-esteem, Domestic Violence, Addictions, Education, Spirituality, Angels, Mediumship/ Psychic, Meditation, Tarot, and more.

 Marilyn graduated from Western Washington University and attended the University of Washington for her graduate work. She is a retired school and college teacher. Marilyn was ordained as a spiritual minister for spiritual counseling along with becoming a healer, regressionist, past life therapist, and other related proficiencies.

In addition, she is teaches in colleges, wellness centers, and for metaphysical groups. She is an International award winning writer, author, and an artist of angels that she sees, as well as being available for readings, counseling, and portraits of your angel. 

Her monthly column is in "The Sussex Newspaper" on the internet as their wellness and spirituality expert. Marilyn channels Ascended Masters, Archangels, and your family members passed over. She has many paperback books and EBooks at Amazon.com. Check out her website: Angelica's Gifts.com, her blog, and her many video interviews, lectures, and spiritual information on You Tube.

Marilyn is a member of the International Board of Regression Therapy, American Board of Hypnotherapy, and lifetime member of Edgar Cayce's Association for Research and Enlightenment. 

Join her for this new, live call in radio show, "Love Never Fails" for answering your questions begins March 6, 2018 at 3:00PM Pacific Time on BBM Global Network.com and tune in radio. Call your  host, Rev. Marilyn Redmond, at 866-451-1451.

Rev. Marilyn Redmond

Marilyn Redmond, BA, CHT, IBRT

Edgewood, WA

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February 17, 2018 at 02:15PM

Empowering Our Girls: Being Part of the #MeToo Solution

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Recently, a memory of an experience I had made me think about how we can empower our girls and young women in a culture that is wrought with many obstacles to do so. A number of years ago I saw a new male doctor for some medical issues I was experiencing. He was warm and friendly, but instead of putting me at ease, something didn’t feel right. In his brief exam (with my clothes on) he lingered in a way that gave me an uncomfortable gut feeling. He asked me questions about my sex life that seemed irrelevant to my issues. He sat unusually close to me and gave me a hug when I left, which no other doctor had ever done.

I began to question my own experience. Am I giving off some signals to bring this on? Maybe I’m crazy — this is all in my head, I’m just imagining this. He is just being friendly and concerned. He is a reputable doctor, so it must be me. Despite my better judgment I continued to see him on several more occasions, and on each time I felt a similar gut feeling of something not being quite right. It was not until years later, when I found out that he had lost his medical license (for undisclosed reasons) that I felt some validity for my own gut feeling of something not being right after all.

This situation was a relatively minor one in comparison to some of the far more severe issues that girls and women face on a daily basis in a culture that has historically disempowered women. But as the memory of it surfaced recently, I began thinking a lot about my teenage and young adult female patients, who have been victim to unwanted sexual advances and worse, and to all of the woman who have had the courage to stand up and say “me too” after enduring sexual assault and harassment of all kinds. If, as a psychologist and person trained to help people validate their emotions, I could not trust my own gut feelings, felt some shame for what happened, and doubted myself all the while, I could only imagine how impossible it would feel to be anything but immobilized in the face of strong, unwanted sexual advances, and verbal and physical harassment.

Thanks to the courage of those behind it, the #MeToo movement is raising awareness and calling out for desperately needed global and systemic changes at all levels to address this disturbing and widespread problem. Most importantly, we need to stop explicitly and implicitly blaming and shaming women who are victims of sexual harassment. We as a society need to give a clear message to girls that the victim is never to blame, and that this kind of behavior will never be tolerated under any circumstances.

But as the parent of both a young adult daughter and son, this all leaves me unsettled, and raises the question as to what I can do personally to empower my daughter to stand up to abuses of power that she may encounter, and to make sure that my son never engages in such behaviors. I had a few thoughts about what we can do in our own backyards, so to speak, as parents, teachers, and relatives of young children, to help empower girls to find their voices and stand strong in their own strength and conviction, and to teach our boys how to value and respect girls and women.

First of all, we can be more aware of the subtle messages that we give to girls at an early age, and we can work to validate, not invalidate, their feelings. We want girls to be able to trust their own emotions and body signals, yet even the most well-meaning of us (myself included) at times inadvertently undermines this by some of the things we say. Some examples might include saying, “Stop being angry, just calm down”, “don’t be so sad”, or “Cheer up… I just want you to be happy.” In our effort to take away our kids’ pain, we often miss the opportunity to validate what they are feeling, and instead, give them the message that they need to push their feelings away in order to please us or make someone else feel better. Saying something like, “you look angry/sad, I wonder if you want to talk about it?” can help validate what they are feeling and give them permission to let these feelings have a voice.  

Comments such as “you can’t be hungry, you just ate two hours ago”, or “what do you mean you’re not feeling well, you look fine to me”, or “why are you putting on your jacket, it’s not cold in here” are seemingly minor comments, but can carry the subtle message that girls can’t trust their own body signals because we, the adults, know better. We can help girls to sense into their own body signals from the inside out, by teaching them simple mindfulness skills of being aware of their own body sensations. If a girl is expressing hunger but just ate, it might be helpful to ask, “what are you noticing in your body? Does it feel like a signal of hunger, or might you be worried, bored, or something else?  Listen inside and sense what you might most need right now.”  

If a girl is expressing not feeling well it could be helpful to validate that her body is giving her important information, and suggest she notice and describe the feelings in her body. You might explain that our bodies can feel “not good” for lots of reasons, including sickness, but also sometimes if we are fearful or worried, sad, lonely, etc. What kind of “not feeling good” are you feeling right now? What do you think would most help?”

Most of us at a young age have an innate ability to sense our own “personal space” and know when a boundary is being violated, but it can be quite difficult to verbalize this feeling, and to know it is all right to do so. One way of teaching young children to learn to listen to and respond to this “gut” feeling is to play a simple game. Have the child stand in one spot, and walk toward the child. Encourage them to pay attention in their bodies to what they are noticing, and have them call out “stop” when they feel you are just the right distance and closeness from them, and not too close. You might do this with different friends or family members to illustrate that this personal space may get bigger or smaller depending on who is walking toward them. Their personal space bubble with their mother may be quite different than with their brother or father or friend that they just met.

We can also empower girls by giving them opportunities to advocate for themselves, even at a young age. As parents and caregivers, we often want to swoop in and make it all better or “fix it” for our children, and sometimes this is called for. But other times, we miss the opportunity for our children to learn to speak up for themselves, and develop their own inner strength in doing so. It can be helpful to sit with them and encourage them to problem solve when an injustice feels like it has been done, to give them the message that it is okay to speak up, be involved in a solution, and assert themselves.

When my son was in fourth grade he suffered from a terrible case of Tourette’s, with uncontrollable body movements that made other children look strangely at him and tease him. With the help of his teacher, he decided that he would get up in front of the class and explain to the class about Tourette’s, and answer questions the kids might have. This was enormously empowering for him in terms of handling a very difficult situation and helping to head off further potential bullying. While this example involved my son, we can work to help our girls advocate for themselves in this and other ways. Girls need permission to speak up, and we can be by their side and support them as they do.

Finally, we need to talk with our boys, at all ages, to explain to them what true informed consent means. Many well meaning adolescent and young adult boys do not understand what this actually means. We can start at a young age. “You need to ask your little sister if she wants to be hugged, OK? Just because it might feel good for you, she may not want to be hugged right now.” Or, “when you two are rough housing and she says ‘stop’ you need to respect her and leave her alone immediately.” (All too often, this kind of thing can be taken too lightly by parents.)  

For older boys and even young adults, these conversations are critical, and need to be stated clearly and with concrete examples, leaving no room for doubt. Boys often assume that girls will speak up if they are uncomfortable, and that if a girl is “going along with it” and not protesting or saying anything, it means she is okay with it. Boys need to understand that consent is about asking directly, not about making assumptions. This is not well understood in our culture, and it is our job as parents and teachers, aunts, uncles and grandparents, to have these explicit conversations, over and over again, at all ages with our boys. We should not make the assumption that boys understand this concept. They likely will need specific examples. I just had such a conversation with my college son, despite that I believe he is a very good person at heart and very respectful of women.

The recent courage of so many brave female voices is helping to raise awareness for all of us. This can offer us an opportunity to look for ways to be part of the solution, and perhaps one place to start might be in our own backyard.

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February 17, 2018 at 11:46AM

The Instant Sign Of A Cheating Partner

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Watch the eyes for this sign that a partner is 50% more likely to cheat on you.

Partners who spend a fraction of second longer looking at other people they find attractive are 50% more likely to cheat, psychological research finds.

The marriages of those who can’t keep their eyes in their heads are also more likely to fail.

Other signs of infidelity were hidden in couple’s appearance and dating history.

Less attractive women were more likely to be unfaithful, it emerged.

Among men, those that reported more short-term sexual partners before marriage were more likely to have an affair.

The opposite was true for women: the more sex partners before marriage, the more faithful women were during marriage.

The conclusions come from a study in which newlyweds were shown pictures of both average-looking and very attractive men and women.

Those that had trouble looking away from the very attractive pictures were 50% more likely to cheat.

Professor Jim McNulty, the study’s first author, said:

“People are not necessarily aware of what they’re doing or why they’re doing it.

These processes are largely spontaneous and effortless, and they may be somewhat shaped by biology and/or early childhood experiences.”

Faithful newlyweds were more likely to downgrade or discount the very attractive faces they saw.

This helped them put these other options out of their mind.

The study followed 233 newlyweds for up to the first 3.5 years of their marriage.

Professor McNulty said that social media has a role to play in the US divorce rate, which is approaching 50%:

“With the advent of social media, and thus the increased availability of and access to alternative partners, understanding how people avoid the temptation posed by alternative partners may be more relevant than ever to understanding relationships.”

→ Explore PsyBlog’s ebooks, all written by Dr Jeremy Dean:

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (McNulty et al., 2018).

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February 17, 2018 at 11:00AM

Many Teens Take Great Care in Posting Online Content

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A new study finds that many teens, particularly girls, may go to great lengths to create a favorable online image. That may include posting only carefully selected photos, choosing to share activities that make them appear well-liked and even going as far as to ask friends to like and comment on their posts.

So what may appear as a fun and effortless way to share content may actually be quite painstaking and tedious.

“Teenagers aren’t just posting carelessly; they’re surprisingly thoughtful about what they choose to reveal on social media,” said lead author Joanna Yau, a Ph.D. candidate in education at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). “Peer approval is important during adolescence, especially in early adolescence, so they’re sharing content that they think others will find impressive.”

In fact, the researchers found that the primary social media goal of most teens is to post content that makes them appear interesting, well-liked and attractive.

In contrast to real life scenarios, social media platforms, such as Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram, allow individuals time to craft and edit posts and even strategize about how they want to present themselves online. This is quite possible because many online “friends” are those we know in person but aren’t necessarily close to, such as classmates.

Yau and study co-author Dr. Stephanie Reich, UCI associate professor of education, found that for girls, the effort to construct a favorable image can involve lengthy deliberation and advice from confidantes. The process of posting pictures is particularly time-consuming and can be a joint endeavor among friends, ensuring that only the most flattering photos, filters and captions are chosen.

Girls also actively enlist their friends to comment on and like their posts in an attempt to boost their popularity index, with especially savvy users choosing to post during peak social media traffic hours in order to maximize their number of likes. Boys in the study did not ask pals for feedback or to like their posts.

“We found that some teens invested great effort into sharing content on Facebook and Instagram and that what may seem to be an enjoyable activity may actually feel tedious,” Yau said.

“Their social rules for online interaction require a higher level of sensitivity than do those for in-person communication. Even interesting and positive posts can be interpreted negatively. For example, sharing about college admissions could come across as pretentious and prideful.”

The research included 51 Southern California adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 (27 females and 24 males). The study involved 10 focus groups consisting of three to eight teens each, based on proximity, grade level and gender. At each grade level, there were female, male, and mixed-gender groups, with no adults known to the participants present.

Source: UC Irvine

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February 17, 2018 at 10:08AM

More Daily Activity Linked to More Gray Matter in Older Adults’ Brains

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Higher levels of everyday physical activity, such as house cleaning, walking a dog, and gardening, are associated with more gray matter in the brains of older adults, according to a new study.

The gray matter in the brain includes regions responsible for controlling muscle movement, experiencing the senses, thinking and feeling, memory and speech and more. The volume of gray matter is a measure of brain health, but the amount of gray matter in the brain often begins to decrease in late adulthood, even before symptoms of cognitive dysfunction appear, noted researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

“More gray matter is associated with better cognitive function, while decreases in gray matter are associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias,” said Shannon Halloway, Ph.D., the study’s lead author and the Kellogg/Golden Lamp Society Postdoctoral Fellow in the Rush University College of Nursing. “A healthy lifestyle, such as participating in lifestyle physical activity, is beneficial for brain health, and may help lessen gray matter atrophy.”

The study measured the levels of lifestyle physical activity by 262 older adults in Rush’s Memory and Aging Project, an ongoing epidemiological cohort study. Participants are recruited from retirement communities and subsidized housing facilities in and around Chicago to participate in annual clinical evaluations and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, and to donate their brains and other parts of their bodies for research after their deaths.

Participants in the lifestyle study wore a non-invasive device called an accelerometer continuously for seven to 10 days. The goal was to accurately measure the frequency, duration, and intensity of a participant’s activities over that time, the researchers explained.

Lifestyle physical activity is “more realistic for older adults” than a structured exercise program that might require them to go to a gym, according to Halloway.

“Accessibility becomes an issue as one ages,” she said. “Transportation can be a problem. Gym settings can be intimidating for any individual, but especially so for older adults.”

The use of accelerometers was only one of the ways in which this analysis differed from some other investigations of the health of older people, according to Halloway. Most research that explores the effects of exercise relies on questionnaires, which ask participants to “self-report” their levels of activity, she noted.

The problem with questionnaires is that “sometimes, we get really inaccurate reports of activity,” she said. “People commonly over-estimate, and on the flip side, some underestimate the lifestyle activity they’re getting from things they don’t consider exercise, like household chores, for example.”

Another departure in Halloway’s study from others was the opportunity she had to assess the effects of exercise on individuals older than 80. In fact, the mean age in this study was 81 years, compared with 70 years for other studies Halloway used as a reference.

“One great strength of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center is its amazing ability to follow up with participants, and its high retention rates of participants,” she said.

As a result, the Memory and Aging Project captures a number of participants in that older age group, she explained.

However, no one was included in Halloway’s analysis who had a diagnosis or symptoms of dementia, or even mild cognitive impairment; a history of brain surgery; or brain abnormalities such as tumors, as seen on MRIs.

The study compared gray matter volumes as seen in participants’ MRIs with readings from the accelerometers and other data, which all were obtained during the same year. Halloway’s analysis found the association between participants’ actual physical activity and gray matter volumes remained after controlling for age, gender, education levels, body mass index, and symptoms of depression.

All of these are associated with lower levels of gray matter in the brain.

“Our daily lifestyle physical activities are supportive of brain health, and adults of all ages should continue to try and increase lifestyle physical activity to gain these benefits,” Halloway said.

“Moving forward, our goal is to develop and test behavioral interventions that focus on lifestyle physical activity for older adults at increased risk for cognitive decline due to cardiovascular disease.”

The study was published in The Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.

Source: Rush University Medical Center
 
Photo: This is Rush University College of Nursing researcher Shannon Halloway, PhD and patient. Credit: Rush Photo Group.

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February 17, 2018 at 09:04AM

More Daily Activity Linked to More Gray Matter in Older Adults’ Brains

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Higher levels of everyday physical activity, such as house cleaning, walking a dog, and gardening, are associated with more gray matter in the brains of older adults, according to a new study.

The gray matter in the brain includes regions responsible for controlling muscle movement, experiencing the senses, thinking and feeling, memory and speech and more. The volume of gray matter is a measure of brain health, but the amount of gray matter in the brain often begins to decrease in late adulthood, even before symptoms of cognitive dysfunction appear, noted researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

“More gray matter is associated with better cognitive function, while decreases in gray matter are associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias,” said Shannon Halloway, Ph.D., the study’s lead author and the Kellogg/Golden Lamp Society Postdoctoral Fellow in the Rush University College of Nursing. “A healthy lifestyle, such as participating in lifestyle physical activity, is beneficial for brain health, and may help lessen gray matter atrophy.”

The study measured the levels of lifestyle physical activity by 262 older adults in Rush’s Memory and Aging Project, an ongoing epidemiological cohort study. Participants are recruited from retirement communities and subsidized housing facilities in and around Chicago to participate in annual clinical evaluations and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, and to donate their brains and other parts of their bodies for research after their deaths.

Participants in the lifestyle study wore a non-invasive device called an accelerometer continuously for seven to 10 days. The goal was to accurately measure the frequency, duration, and intensity of a participant’s activities over that time, the researchers explained.

Lifestyle physical activity is “more realistic for older adults” than a structured exercise program that might require them to go to a gym, according to Halloway.

“Accessibility becomes an issue as one ages,” she said. “Transportation can be a problem. Gym settings can be intimidating for any individual, but especially so for older adults.”

The use of accelerometers was only one of the ways in which this analysis differed from some other investigations of the health of older people, according to Halloway. Most research that explores the effects of exercise relies on questionnaires, which ask participants to “self-report” their levels of activity, she noted.

The problem with questionnaires is that “sometimes, we get really inaccurate reports of activity,” she said. “People commonly over-estimate, and on the flip side, some underestimate the lifestyle activity they’re getting from things they don’t consider exercise, like household chores, for example.”

Another departure in Halloway’s study from others was the opportunity she had to assess the effects of exercise on individuals older than 80. In fact, the mean age in this study was 81 years, compared with 70 years for other studies Halloway used as a reference.

“One great strength of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center is its amazing ability to follow up with participants, and its high retention rates of participants,” she said.

As a result, the Memory and Aging Project captures a number of participants in that older age group, she explained.

However, no one was included in Halloway’s analysis who had a diagnosis or symptoms of dementia, or even mild cognitive impairment; a history of brain surgery; or brain abnormalities such as tumors, as seen on MRIs.

The study compared gray matter volumes as seen in participants’ MRIs with readings from the accelerometers and other data, which all were obtained during the same year. Halloway’s analysis found the association between participants’ actual physical activity and gray matter volumes remained after controlling for age, gender, education levels, body mass index, and symptoms of depression.

All of these are associated with lower levels of gray matter in the brain.

“Our daily lifestyle physical activities are supportive of brain health, and adults of all ages should continue to try and increase lifestyle physical activity to gain these benefits,” Halloway said.

“Moving forward, our goal is to develop and test behavioral interventions that focus on lifestyle physical activity for older adults at increased risk for cognitive decline due to cardiovascular disease.”

The study was published in The Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.

Source: Rush University Medical Center
 
Photo: This is Rush University College of Nursing researcher Shannon Halloway, PhD and patient. Credit: Rush Photo Group.

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February 17, 2018 at 09:04AM

Conversation Boosts Kids’ Brain Development

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New research has discovered that conversation between an adult and a child appears to change the child’s brain.

In a study of children between the ages of four and six, cognitive scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that differences in the number of “conversational turns” accounted for a large portion of the differences in brain physiology and language skills that they found in children.

The findings suggest that parents can have considerable influence over their children’s language and brain development by simply engaging them in conversation, according to the researchers.

“The important thing is not just to talk to your child, but to talk with your child. It’s not just about dumping language into your child’s brain, but to actually carry on a conversation with them,” said Rachel Romeo, a graduate student at Harvard and MIT and the lead author of the paper, which was published in Psychological Science.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers identified differences in the brain’s response to language that correlated with the number of conversational turns.

In children who experienced more conversation, Broca’s area, a part of the brain involved in speech production and language processing, was much more active while they listened to stories, according to the study’s findings. This brain activation then predicted children’s scores on language assessments.

“The really novel thing about our paper is that it provides the first evidence that family conversation at home is associated with brain development in children. It’s almost magical how parental conversation appears to influence the biological growth of the brain,” said senior author Dr. John Gabrieli, the Grover M. Hermann Professor in Health Sciences and Technology at MIT and the senior author of the study.

A landmark 1995 study found that children from higher-income families hear about 30 million more words during their first three years of life than children from lower-income families. This “30-million-word gap” correlates with significant differences in tests of vocabulary, language development, and reading comprehension.

Before the new study, little was known about how the “word gap” might translate into differences in the brain, the researchers noted. So they set out to find these differences by comparing the brain scans of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

As part of the study, the researchers used a system called Language Environment Analysis (LENA) to record every word spoken or heard by each child. Parents who agreed to have their children participate in the study were told to have their children wear the recorder for two days, from the time they woke up until they went to bed, the researchers explained.

The recordings were then analyzed by a computer program that yielded three measurements: the number of words spoken by the child, the number of words spoken to the child, and the number of times that the child and an adult took a “conversational turn” — a back-and-forth exchange initiated by either one.

The researchers found that the number of conversational turns correlated strongly with the children’s scores on standardized tests of language skill, including vocabulary, grammar, and verbal reasoning.

The number of conversational turns also correlated with more activity in Broca’s area when the children listened to stories while inside an fMRI scanner.

These correlations were much stronger than those between the number of words heard and language scores, and between the number of words heard and activity in Broca’s area, the researchers reported.

This result aligns with other recent findings, according to Romeo.

“But there’s still a popular notion that there’s this 30-million-word gap, and we need to dump words into these kids — just talk to them all day long, or maybe sit them in front of a TV that will talk to them,” she said. “However, the brain data show that it really seems to be this interactive dialogue that is more strongly related to neural processing.”

The researchers believe interactive conversation gives children more of an opportunity to practice their communication skills, including the ability to understand what another person is trying to say and to respond in an appropriate way.

While children from higher-income families were exposed to more language on average, children from lower-income families who experienced a high number of conversational turns had language skills and Broca’s area brain activity similar to those of children who came from higher-income families, according to the study’s findings.

“In our analysis, the conversational turn-taking seems like the thing that makes a difference, regardless of socioeconomic status. Such turn-taking occurs more often in families from a higher socioeconomic status, but children coming from families with lesser income or parental education showed the same benefits from conversational turn-taking,” said Gabrieli, who is also a professor of brain and cognitive sciences and a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

The researchers hope their findings will encourage parents to engage their young children in more conversation. Although this study was done in children age four to six, this type of turn-taking can also be done with much younger children, by making sounds back and forth or making faces, the researchers said.

Source: MIT

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February 17, 2018 at 08:08AM

Social Media Replaces Human Contact? Maybe Not

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A new study contradicts the notion that social media has created “social displacement” — the alienation of people from friends and family in favor of Facebook and Twitter.

Published in the journal Information, Communication & Society, the study finds no evidence for the proposition that social media crowds out face-to-face communication with those who ought to matter most — our close friends and family, according to Dr. Jeffrey Hall, a University of Kansas Associate Professor of Communication Studies.

“I’m trying to push back on the popular conception of how this works,” Hall said. “That’s not to say overuse of social media is good, but it’s not bad in the way people think it is.”

For the study, Hall and then-KU doctoral students Michael W. Kearney and Chong Xing performed two unique studies.

In the first, they compared data sets from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY) from 2009 and 2011, to see whether there was any decrease in interpersonal contact that could be correlated with increased use of social media. The researchers found no such relationship.

Hall said the young adults tracked in the LSAY “are squarely in the middle of Generation X. What was really convenient was the questions about social media use were asked right when Facebook was hitting its inflection point of adoption, and the main adopters in that period were Gen Xers.”

“It was not the case at all that social media adoption or use had a consistent effect on their direct social interactions with people,” he said.

Direct interactions were defined as getting out of one’s house, visiting friends, talking on the phone and attending meetings of groups and organizations (apart from religious groups), he explained.

“What was interesting was that, during a time of really rapid adoption of social media, and really powerful changes in use, you didn’t see sudden declines in people’s direct social contact,” Hall said. “If the social-displacement theory is correct, people should get out less and make fewer of those phone calls, and that just wasn’t the case.”

The second study was one the researchers designed and executed themselves in 2015. They recruited 116 people, half adults and half college students, and texted them five times a day for five consecutive days, querying them each time about their use of social media and direct social contacts in the previous 10 minutes.

“What we found was that people’s use of social media had no relationship to who they were talking to later that day and what medium they were using to talk to people later that day,” Hall said. “Social media users were not experiencing social displacement. If they used social media earlier in the day, they were not more likely to be alone later.”

“It’s also not the case that because they were using social media now, they were not interacting face to face later,” he said. “It doesn’t seem that, either within the same time period or projecting the future, that social media use indicates people not having close relationship partners in face-to-face or telephone conversation.”

Hall notes that while several studies have questioned the displacement effect, the theory seems stubbornly resistant to debunking.

He said he suspects that time spent on social media has displaced older forms of media, such as reading the newspaper, browsing the Internet, or watching television.

Source: University of Kansas

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February 17, 2018 at 07:04AM

Psychology Around the Net: February 17, 2018

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Hello, Psych Central readers.

For this week’s Psychology Around the Net, we’re diving into vibes and what causes us to feel them, how we can use our emotions to cause positive environmental change, ways to help children better understand and practice mindfulness, and more.

I’ve chosen to not address the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in this week’s Psychology Around the Net, as many of our Psych Central writers have already and are continuing to do so. I encourage you to browse our latest blog posts for our team’s insights.

How Real Are Vibes: The Good and the Bad? Have you ever picked up a “vibe”? You can’t exactly put your finger on it, but you just feel a situation or a person is or isn’t “right.” You have a good vibe about your new neighbor. You have a bad vibe about how your boss is restructuring the office. Well, some explanations that might help with better understanding “vibes” lie in our brains’ abilities to process a variety of sensory inputs, even if we don’t consciously know we’re doing it.

Taking Too Many Selfies Confirmed to be a ‘Real Psychological Disorder’: More accurately, two India-based researchers, Janarthanan Balakrishnan and Mark D. Griffiths, conducted a study with results that could support the idea that there’s a “gradual scale” mental health professionals could use to determine whether a person exhibits signs of this obsessive behavior.

How to Hack Our Psychology to Take More Eco-Friendly Actions: Renee Lertzman, Ph.D. is an expert on the psychological impact of environmental threats, and after years of researching and teaching she has quite a bit of information for us on how we can use the complicated emotions those environmental threats give us to make positive changes.

People with Depression Use Language Differently – Here’s How to Spot It: It probably comes as no surprise to many of us that people with depression tend to verbally express themselves differently. For a long time, scientists have been trying to figure out the relationship between language and depression, and the results of a new study that focuses heavily on the two components of language — content (what we express) and style (how we express it) — might help us better predict whether a person is suffering from depression.

Teach Kids about Mindfulness with These Everyday Objects: Many adults struggle with mindfulness, so how can we expect children to understand it — much less practice it? Well, a few simple objects — such as snow globes, apples, and even ice cubes — can help children with mindfulness activities.

Why Do So Few Docs Have Buprenorphine Waivers? Only about 5% of America’s doctors have waivers to prescribe buprenorphine — Suboxone — which is a medication to help treat opioid addiction, and some doctors claim bureaucratic hoops and doctor office culture could play roles in why that percentage is so small.

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February 17, 2018 at 06:41AM