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Unique regulation of brain in yoga practitioners

Unique regulation of brain in yoga practitioners

by | 2022 Apr 7 | Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

yoga brain

Yes, you yoga practitioners knew you were special and here is the science to prove it!

In this older study I came across (2018) participants were recruited to see how they dealt with stress. 19 were yoga practitioners (taking part in 1-3 30- to 60-minute sessions per week) and 12 were from the general public who didn’t participate in yoga but were physically active. They were then given various questions and then they had their brains scanned. During scanning they were given various emotion-eliciting stimuli and tasks. These were video clips and were selected to elicit certain types of emotions e.g. anger, or conversely, happiness.

What was interesting is that the researchers found that yoga practitioners had a unique brain activation pattern activating two brain regions known as the superior parietal lobule and the supramarginal gyrus during emotional regulation. This suggest that something about yoga changes brain activation patterns. As the researchers note:

“… yoga experience may allow individuals to: (1) regulate the emotion generation process through greater flexibility, acceptance and non-attachment to the self when observing or experiencing emotions; and (2) be more empathic when presented with an emotional situation, by attending to the emotions of other individuals”

Now that is a sales message for yoga!

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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Reference

Wadden, K. P., Snow, N. J., Sande, P., Slawson, S., Waller, T., and Boyd, L. A. (2018).
Yoga practitioners uniquely activate the superior parietal lobule and supramarginal gyrus during emotion regulation.
Front. Integr. Neurosci. 12.
doi:10.3389/fnint.2018.00060.

 

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Neurodivergence and the lonely brain

Neurodivergence and the lonely brain

by | 2022 Apr 5 | Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

lonely brain health

Neurodivergence is term that describes those that are not “neurotypical” such as those with autism and ADHD. In the surge of research into loneliness spurred by the pandemic it has also been clear that loneliness has impacted these people much more intensively and also has a relationship with cardiovascular health.

Janine Gronewold has recently reviewed this and explored the reasons behind this. Though this is slightly paradoxical i.e. autistic people do not relate to people in the same way as most of us do and so we may assume, falsely that they don’t want human engagement. In fact, this different pattern of engaging with people is just what has increased stress and loneliness because it has changed patterns and opportunities to interact which can, in this population group increase anxiety and stress and therefore also impact cardiovascular health.

An interesting review and shows that loneliness impacts us all but in different ways and that we should be conscious to engage with neurodivergent individuals – especially during a pandemic.

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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Reference

Gronewold, Janine; Engels, Miriam
The Lonely Brain – Associations Between Social Isolation and (Cerebro-) Vascular Disease From the Perspective of Social Neuroscience
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
25th January 2022
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.729621

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Art Engages the Social brain

Art Engages the Social brain

by | 2022 Apr 5 | Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

art social brain

I reported in last week’s Quick Hits on how engaging in the arts has a relationship with self-control and avoidance of disagreeable and criminal behaviour and that is why this impressive piece of research published in February caught my eye.

In this Janneke van Leeuwen et al. map different types of art engagement to a detailed neural map of social centres. These types of engagement range from perceptual analysis, to animated dynamics (i.e. movement), to symbolic meaning, and personal significance.

I was impressed by the depth of this paper. Basically, what we can see is that each of these separate aspects of interacting with art activate networks in the brain that are strongly associated with social functioning.

In some respects, this should be actually logical — the arts are after all incredibly humanistic and engage our emotions and aesthetics.

This piece of research show to what extent this is so — all aspects of engaging with art engage multiple parts of the brain and recruits the same brain networks as those involved in complex social behaviour.

Good to know!

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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Reference

Janneke E. P. van Leeuwen, Jeroen Boomgaard, Danilo Bzdok, Sebastian J. Crutch, and Jason D. Warren
More Than Meets the Eye: Art Engages the Social Brain
Frontiers in Neuroscience
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.738865

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Swearing can increase strength, self-confidence, and risky behaviour

Swearing can increase strength, self-confidence, and risky behaviour

by | 2022 Apr 4 | Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

swearing brain neuroleadership

Swearing is frowned upon in many circumstances but is also used by many people in casual situations and particularly by comedians. So why do we swear if it is taboo?

A team of researchers at Keel University in the UK have just published a series of experiments in which they tried to elucidate the psychological mechanisms of swearing. It should be noted that these effects are in line with previous research. First off, they found that swearing increases physical strength – in this case it was how long participants could perform a chair push up (holding yourself for as long as possible on the arms of a chair). Other research has found that swearing increases pain tolerance which may be related.

Another experiment they conducted was in risky behaviour – in this case this was pumping up a balloon and seeing how far participants would pump with the obvious risk that it would explode. Swearing increases risk by 8%. They also noted that swearing increased self-confidence but also it had a humorous effect (also in line with previous research).

The psychological mechanisms they identify are all related to lowering self-control and “letting go”. So, swearing seems to do many things that are actually beneficial to us – no wonder we swear so much.

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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Reference

Stephens R, Dowber H, Barrie A, Almeida S, Atkins K.
Effect of swearing on strength: Disinhibition as a potential mediator.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, March 2022.
doi:10.1177/17470218221082657 

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Neurons for alcohol withdrawal

Neurons for alcohol withdrawal

by | 2022 Apr 1 | Public, Quick Hits

I’ve reported on alcohol a number of times. Most recently reporting that even low quantities of alcohol appear to age the brain (however, higher quantities are much worse).

Researchers had previously found that a signalling molecule pathway in the brain seemed to affect addiction and withdrawal from alcohol. But a team of researchers at Scripps Research Institute have found that activating this, in mice at least, did not impact their withdrawal symptoms. Yes, they do get mice drunk and addicted on alcohol for this research. So, the search is now on to find the precise mechanisms that control withdrawal symptoms. This has many obvious benefits apart from a clearer understanding of withdrawal in general and ways to manage this.

For me I just found it fascinating that this was researched in the first place and that addiction and withdrawal can be controlled by different mechanisms in the brain.

Reference:
Max Kreifeldt, Melissa A. Herman, Harpreet Sidhu, Agbonlahor Okhuarobo, Giovana C. Macedo, Roxana Shahryari, Pauravi J. Gandhi, Marisa Roberto, Candice Contet. 
Central amygdala corticotropin-releasing factor neurons promote hyponeophagia but do not control alcohol drinking in mice. 
Molecular Psychiatry, 2022
DOI: 10.1038/s41380-022-01496-9

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