the biology of love II

["Recent studies in neuroscience have indicated that as people fall in love, the brain consistently releases a certain set of chemicals, including dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, which act similar to amphetamines, stimulating the brain's pleasure center and leading to side-effects such as an increased heart rate, loss of appetite and sleep, and an intense feeling of excitement. ...Attachment is the bonding which promotes relationships that last for many years, and even decades. Attachment is generally based on commitments such as marriage and children, or on mutual friendship based on things like shared interests."]

In honor of my parents, who have been married for about 30 years now, I wanted to include this video in today's postings. This song (the more traditional version, that is) is what my mom and dad selected as their wedding ceremony music... and this was well before it became so overused - or "overexposed" in this context so that now, it might well be characterized as some sort commercial/Hollywood cliché (think Father of the Bride circa 1991).

So my parents were pretty cutting-edge, as is this pumped-up arrangement of Pachelbel's Canon in D:



Special thanks to JerryC/funtwo, the composer of the arrangement & the musician.

the biology of love

["Biological models of sex tend to view love as a mammalian drive, much like hunger or thirst. Helen Fisher, a leading expert in the topic of love, divides the experience of love into three partly-overlapping stages: lust, attraction, and attachment..."]

Here are some interesting Valentine's Day statistics, courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau.

(love conquers) amnesia

["Fugue state is also known as dissociative fugue. It is caused by psychological trauma and is usually temporary. The Merck Manual defines it as 'one or more episodes of amnesia in which the inability to recall some or all of one's past and either the loss of one's identity or the formation of a new identity occur with sudden, unexpected, purposeful travel away from home'. While popular in fiction, it is extremely rare."]

~Happy V-Day to everyone~

I understand that the holiday is bittersweet for many (I've heard it tartly referred to as "Singles' Awareness Day"), and I know that some people prefer to ignore it altogether. I myself am trying to maintain the view that today is a Wednesday like any other... but a friend sent me the following article, and I can't resist sharing it (despite the context).

The man featured in this article, Jeff Ingram, wandered off and forgot literally everything about his life as he knew it when he suffered from an episode of dissociative amnesia. But through the most unpredictable of circumstances, he was reunited with his girlfriend of over two years, and has since fallen in love with her all over again. (It's really an amazing story - I think even the most cynical would consider it heartwarming.)

going viral II (here it goes... again)

This is one of the videos that "went viral" on YouTube, and seemed to be a large part of what catapulted OK Go to fame last year. It was mentioned on that 20/20 segment that I mentioned yesterday evening. "Here It Goes Again," is an example of how successful viral marketing can be. It's such a clever video, and I can understand it's popularity. But I wonder how much of "viral" success is owed to pure luck and/or good timing? Why do certain videos spread like wildfire in the online community while other attempts at this type of exposure fail?

(virtual) intelligence II

["Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be defined as the study of methods by which a computer can simulate aspects of human intelligence. One aim of this study is to design a computer that might be able to reason for itself...."]

This is a digital image that I created as part of a project for a past photography class (I had a great time doing it too):

(All rights reserved.)

narcolepsy (dog-tired)

["Narcolepsy is a neurological condition most characterized by Excessive Daytime Sleepiness (EDS). A narcoleptic will most likely experience disturbed nocturnal sleep, confused with insomnia, and disorder of REM or rapid eye movement sleep. It is a type of dyssomnia."]

There are medications and certain behavioral therapies (including the strategy of taking controlled naps) that are used to help effectively control this disorder. Narcolepsy is, however, often left undiagnosed, and the signs of the disease are many times misunderstood by parents and teachers.

It has been known for some time that certain mutations in the hypocretin gene is what causes narcolepsy in dogs. If you'd like to learn more about the genetics responsible for narcolepsy, this report from Nature Medicine is quite interesting - it shows that such mutations are also seen in humans. I learned more about this common disorder in one of my neurobiology classes, and I think part of why I remember the etiology so well is because of the following clinical case:

(And so, without further ado, I present Rusty, the narcoleptic dachshund.)

sleep (is for the smart)

["Psychologists and neuroscientists dispute the precise role of the hippocampus, but, in general, agree that it has an essential role in the formation of new memories about experienced events. Some researchers prefer to consider the hippocampus as part of a larger medial temporal lobe memory system responsible for general declarative memory (memories that can be explicitly verbalized — these would include, for example, memory for facts in addition to episodic memory)."]

A recent Princeton University study has found that no sleep does in fact mean no new brain cells. This research team discovered that sleep deprived animals had high levels of stress hormone, which directly reduces cell production and connection formation within the hippocampus. (This is no good. You want to keep that savings account in good order.)

So be smart, kids: stay in school AND get plenty of sleep so that you can retain what you learn!