August 10, 2006

• Absolutely fascinating. Top link, HW, thank you!
• Groovy reading. Although I am of the opinion that it's risky to generalize from fear to other emotions. Fear conditioning is more than a convenient thing to study; it's an established, reproducible model with interesting analogs in the human brain (PTSD, anyone?). We understand when/under what circumstances this type of learning occurs, just not the biological mechanics of what's going on under the hood. It'd be really neat if it led to an understanding of more complex, "human" emotions, but I wonder if calling this research emotion instead of fear is imprecise. That said, there are certainly applications for this area of work. /end pedantic science student rant Ahem. Er... carry on, then.
• You want me to RTFA don't you. *grumble* Lousy egghead monkeys s'posed to post so good for ya. I never got to post nothin' that nobody ever read except that one time
• I used conditioned fear because it seemed like a relatively straightforward technique: you give a meaningless tone followed by a mild shock a few times, and pretty soon the tone starts eliciting a blood pressure response. Yeah, no. *pulls 'request stop' cord*
• *BZZZZZZAP*
• Very interesting. I agree with pianistic, though. We know (I think) that 'fear and loathing' is an amygdala speciality; the other emotions are another matter. Gazzaniga describes a woman whose amygdala, bizarrely, had somehow been destroyed without affecting the rest of her brain. She was perfectly rational, and led a pretty normal life, but was incapable of feeling fear or hostility towards other people. Obviously this trusting kind of nature has its practical disadvantages, but in a way it might be quite a nice state to be in. Apparently every time she came in to be examined, she would start by giving the doctor a big, friendly hug.
• Bugger: not Gazzaniga, Damasio. And when I look it up properly it will turn out to have been a man whose hippocampus was destroyed and became unable to remember anything he had read...
• The amygdala can control the neocortex very easily, because all it has to do is arouse lots of areas in a very non specific way. But for the cortex to then turn all of that off is a very difficult job. One reason why the Middle East is so intractable. Brain problems. Thanks for the article HW.
• Inducing the shadow-self by stimulating the brain
• Very creepy in a fascinating way. It's amazing to think that each one of us houses one of these barely-understood thingies in our heads, uses it every day, and has no idea what it's capable of.
• 'We have met the enemy, and he is us.' Walt Kelly, in the long-vanished strip Pogo
• We have met the enemy, and he is us My dad had lots of Pogo books, and I loved them when I was a kid. Truly genius work. Very sad to see that they're out of print. *goes and rummages in parents' bookshelves*
• We have only a couple left. The rest disappeared, alas, due to the enthusiasm of young folk loaning them to friends. I, too, would love to see 'em back in print.
• Scientists exploring the brain find root of out-of-body experiences
• Scientists find drug to banish bad memories
• Ruh roh.
• Shifting eye therapy sucessfully treats trauma
• My therapist recommended that for me, but he didn't do it himself and the only therapist in town who did it was neither on my insurance formulary nor taking new patients.
• Can Fear Be Forgotten?
• OMG, could it possibly be true?
• That is astounding. It does scare me that researchers don't know what else they may wipe out with the fear memories, but if I were suffering a crippling fear that made my life unbearable, I'd find the risk worth it.
• Who are you, and what are you doing in my computer!
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
• And when I look it up properly it will turn out to have been a man whose hippocampus was destroyed and became unable to remember anything he had read... Nope, you had it right, Pleggers. And her amygdalae (it's gotta be both that aren't working to get this effect) were calcified by some rare disease whose name I forget.