Category Archives: Science

STORYTELLING MAKES HEARTS BEAT AS ONE · Oct 10th

(Susan Pinker’s article appeared in The Wall Street Journal, 10/9; Illustration by Thomasz Walenta; via the Drudge Report.)

Research shows that listening to the same narrative leads our heart rates to rise and fall in unison

A human heart is so much more than an organ. No one says they left their pancreas in San Francisco, for example, or that two kidneys beat as one. Yet most of us believe that two hearts can beat as one, and that the heart reveals our unedited emotions. Now there’s some evidence that such folk wisdom is true.

When people listen to the same story—each alone in their own home—their heart rates rise and fall in unison, according to a new study published last month in Cell Reports. “The fluctuations of our heart rates are not random,” said Lucas Parra, a professor of biomedical engineering at City College of New York and a senior author of the study. “It’s the story that drives the heart. There’s an explicit link between people’s heart rates and a narrative.”

This finding aligns with a mountain of research showing that our brains sync up when we interact in the same location, participate in the same activity, or simply agree with each other. The new study goes one step further; it tests whether our heart rates become synchronized while taking in the same narrative—even though we’re not in the same room nor even listening at the same time as other listeners.

How faithfully do our hearts clock our mental lives?

The paper describes four small studies, each one with approximately 20 to 30 participants. In all four, subjects’ heart rates were monitored via EKG while they listened to or watched various types of stories, which included short audio segments of Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” excerpts from educational videos, and prerecorded children’s fables.

The goal was to see how much heart rate coordination there was among participants within the same study, all of whom had listened to the same type of content, though at different times. Did the peaks and valleys of their heart beats match up on the EKG? How faithfully do our hearts clock our mental lives—while we are reading a book, or listening to the radio or a podcast, or watching video content on our phones?

(Read more)

 

ACTORS SHUT DOWN PARTS OF THEIR BRAINS TO TAKE ON ROLES, SCANS REVEAL · Mar 13th

(Josh Gabbatiss’s article appeared in the Independent, 3/12.)

‘I got the idea that maybe acting was a bit similar to possession… when you’re acting you’re kind of being taken over by character,’ says scientist

To truly inhabit a role, actors must effectively turn off part of their brain, according to a new study based on brain scans of thespians. 

In a series of experiments, actors were placed in MRI machines and asked to respond to questions as if they were Romeo or Juliet during the “balcony scene” from William Shakespeare’s play.

Scientists were surprised to see that as the participants mused on concepts ranging from romance to religion, their brains were truly taken over by those of the famous star-crossed lovers,

They watched as brain activity dropped off, with a notable deactivation in a part of the frontal lobe.

This result suggested the portrayal of a fictional character goes far deeper than simply learning a script. 

(Read more)

Photo: The Independent

BIRDS USE A LINGUISTIC RULE THOUGHT TO BE UNIQUE TO HUMANS · Mar 8th

(Rachel Feltman’s article appeared in the Washington Post, 3/8.)

When it comes to human language, syntax — the set of rules for arranging words and phrases to impart meaning — is important. People might understand what you meant if you declared "to the store I go must," but your phrasing wouldn't seem quite right. And saying "must store go the I to" wouldn't get you anywhere at all, even though the same six short words were in play.

But sometimes we use syntax to impart complex combinations of ideas. "Careful, it's dangerous" is a phrase that has meaning, and so is "come toward me." When those two phrases are combined, they have a different meaning than they do on their own: They're directing the receiver to act in a different way than either phrase would independently.

Until now, only humans seemed to use syntax this way. But a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications suggests that the Japanese great tit — a bird closely related to the North American chickadee — uses grammatical rules like these in its calls.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/03/08/these-birds-use-a-linguistic-rule-thought-to-be-unique-to-humans/