The Pain Killers

I thought I'd start off with that powerful quote by Murakami. Although it might seem irrelevant to the topic I will address, I thought it was a good opening statement. Pain for humans can be experienced physically, psychologically or emotionally. And pain is not a good sensation. It hurts, no matter where we experience it. But it is a necessary fact we have to accept in life. 

Despite the unpleasant feeling it gives, pain is actually a natural response our body makes for survival. Pain, as humans experience it, hurts but biologically our body is repairing itself or working its defense system for the "harmful" stimuli that it encountered. Fortunately, there are ways to relieve pain for the human experiencing the side effects of this physiological response. For example, if we happen to have a burn on our hand, we can rub it repeatedly, so the intensity of the pain will diminish. It's as if by rubbing, we're numbing the feeling of the pain. If we're experiencing a headache or a muscle ache, we can ingest over the counter medications like Tylenol to relieve the pain. Also think of the "fever". That feverish feeling that we call as "being sick" is actually our body's immune system attacking the virus that invaded our body cells, to help us survive. Humans just interpret it differently than our physiological system. It's pretty neat stuff.

For this particular blog, I will illustrate the use of Over-the-Counter Pain Medications and its uses for both physical and emotional pain.  

Those are the generic names for the many brands available for over the counter pain relief medications (aka analgesics). And if you recall from our readings, acetaminophen (Tylenol) have actually been linked, in addition to physical pain relief properties, to relieving "hurt feelings" as well. Acetaminophen, as depicted in the illustration above, is best for headaches and toothaches. However, it has also been found in the brain to diminish responses in the cingulate cortex (responsible for emotional pain). Interestingly, researchers found used in this study, subjects taking acetaminophen progressively show less frequency in hurt feelings! 

I know there are much more complex and intricate explanations out there about the mechanisms and pathways of drug interaction in the human body system, but this is what I found interesting. I find it interesting how our bodies react pain and how we as humans interpret this biological mechanism. Everything that we experience can have a biological explanation. Of course I will sound biased because I am getting my inspiration from our biological physiology book, but this is one explanation that is scientific and factual, free of ambiguity. 

Effects of Stress on Memory

I want for you to take a minute and watch a clip below from the National Geographic channel titled Brain Games! It is an interactive, as well as informative, video where they have a memory matching game in the beginning to do yourself! Give it a go! 

That was pretty neat right?! All right let's move on… 

If you recall from our textbook, emotionally significant memories form quickly. This is because emotions increase adrenaline (epinephrine) and cortisol in the hippocampus and amygdala where the brain enhances the storage and consolidation of recent experiences, i.e., better memories. But what happens when the same chemicals are elevated continuously in our system? And how do these levels affect human memory in the long run? Will it have a positive or negative effect? 

To answer, take a quick look at the image below. It illustrates how a type of stress, called chronic stress, negatively affects human memory. 

Adrenaline and cortisol are natural occurring chemicals in our body that are apparent for homeostasis. In fact, initial stages of adrenaline insurgence can cause a feeling of euphoria (i.e. adrenaline junkie) and is necessary for fight-or-flight to cope in fear-causing situations, but prolong stress (or abnormal levels of both chemicals) actually result to memory impairment. 

The hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex are the brain structures associated with memory. Glucocorticoids are stress chemicals that directly impair memory. Cortisol is a bio-marker that triggers the impairment of memory. Adrenaline is a stress hormone used for flight-or-fight situations, how humans cope with stressful situations for survival. 

Below is a chemical structure of the stress hormone cortisol

Below is adrenaline

In conclusion, stress negatively affects memory if the chemicals associated with it are imbalanced. If not observed early, it can not only affect our emotions but our cognition as well. I found a neat chart that exposes stress we can experience in different human levels. I thought I could also benefit from this in the future: 

 

So now you have an idea about the negative consequences of seemingly good chemicals in our memory and emotional wellness. I want to know if this inspired you to change something in your life regarding stress? Also, I would appreciate your own strategies on how to cope with stress! Comment below! Thank you!  

Impact of Meditation on Attention

We've all heard about meditation. And we've seen others do it. But have you ever wondered why they do it? And how? In this post, I will attempt to outline some of the numerous benefits of this silent practice to inspire you to change the way you think about the ritual, or if you've never cared about it, I will attempt to make you take a second look!

So what is attention? According to Merriam-Webster, it is "the act or power of carefully thinking about, listening to, or watching someone or something"

Attention is an important component of making humans an animal capable of higher forms of cognition. At this very moment, you are only focusing on reading this passage (or so I hope) and not even aware of other stimuli bombarding you, like the sensation of your clothes against your skin, or how your legs are positioned while reading this visual text. But I bet now I have turned your attention to the feeling of your clothes against your body or the position of your legs simply through reading! You've now become aware of all those other things, while still reading this text! How cool is that right? Absolutely cool! 

So where in the brain exactly is attention processed? Well neuroscientists have associated attention to the cerebral cortex, the largest component of the human brain that covers both left and right hemispheres: (Click on image to expand) 

The frontal lobe contains most of the dopamine-sensitive neurons in the cerebral cortex. The dopamine is a chemical in the brain that is associated with the reward system, attention, short-term memory tasks, planning and motivation. Basically it's what makes humans the smartest of all animals! 

So now we know about the physical structure of attention on the brain. How does meditation associate with attention and what are its benefits? A study done by Eileen Ruders and colleagues at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging have found that long term meditators have larger amounts of gyrification (folds and fissures that compress cerebral cortex) compared to those who do not practice meditation. Neuroscientists believe gyrification is responsible for making better decisions, stronger at forming memories, and improving attention. 

There are numerous other literature review out there that are done specifically on meditation and attention, but the key message is that there are physical changes to the brain (good changes) that directly impact human attention. 

Below is an image that charts a number of researches done on the many benefits of meditation, not just attention: 

To close I will include an informative chart that appeals to the student. Enjoy!