We all feel guilty when we take a piece of chocolate cake from the dining commons, go to the creamery and order a cone of Peachy Paterno, or eat Chic-Fil-A from the Hub. And I know I feel exceptionally guilty if I don’t go to the gym or do some form of exercise on these days. This made me wonder about exercise, diet, and obesity. Obesity in America is on the rise. It’s a wonder to me as to whether or not anything is being done about this.

Referring to my question as to whether something is being done about the rise of obesity in America, we can look at this study on “Are Health Care Professionals Advising Obese Patients to Lose Weight?” done by Deborah A. Galuska, PhD; Julie C. Will, PhD; Mary K. Serdula, MD; and Earl S. Ford, MD. 12,835 adults that were 18 years or older, classified as obese, and visited their physician for a frequent, routine checkup during the 12 months prior to experiment were in question. Obesity in this experiment was considered to be anyone with a body mass index ≥30 kg/m^2. It was concluded that 42% of participants said that their health care professional told them that they should lose weight. Female, middle aged, people with higher levels of education, that lived in the northeast, reported poorer perceived health, were more obese, and had diabetes mellitus were the ones who were more likely to receive advice from medical professionals. Those who were told to try to lose were trying sufficiently harder to lose it than those who were not. Less than 50% of the obese people tested were being advised to lose weight. If this is a threat to their bodies, why aren’t they all being told to lose weight?

What kind of strategies are people utilizing when attempting to lose weight? According to Kruger, Galuska, Serdula, and Jones, the most common ways to try to lose weight include: eating fewer calories, eating less fat, and exercising more. The less common strategies consist of: skipping meals, eating food supplements, joining a weight-loss program, taking diet pills, taking water pills or diuretics, or fasting for less than 24 hours.

With all these different weight-loss mechanisms, which is the best? And is it only one mechanism that will get a good result? Wing’s study asked these same questions. Wing found that 60% of studies found significantly greater weight loss in exercise alone in comparison to no treatment controls. 15.4% of studies found major differences in initial weight loss for diet and exercise versus diet only. In conclusion, Wing found that exercise for weight loss tends to be most effective, but there is not solid enough information to say that this is the most effective always. My guess is that this could be due third variables. Wing even offers that same idea.

So what does this mean?

• Obesity is on the rise in America.
• A medical professional advising someone to lose weight will prompt them to attempt to lose weight.
• The most common weight loss strategies are: eating fewer calories, eating less fat, and exercising more.
• Exercise alone has proven to be the most effective mechanism for weight-loss, but there is not enough data to prove that this is full proof.

We all have that friend…

We all have those friends we just want to be in the presence of whenever we can. Or maybe we want to have a girls day with our sisters. Maybe we want to go to family dinner with our parents. Or maybe spend a romantic evening with our significant other. Regardless, we develop a relationship with many people that is a type of attachment. As I think about my family and friends that I am missing from home, I wonder what it is exactly that caused me to develop such a close relationship with these people.

(Photo Found: here)

When looking at attachment through the psychological perspective, we can examine John Bowlby’s view. Bowlby’s opinion on attachment stemmed from classical psychoanalysis, object relations theory, ethology, and evolutionary biology. Essentially, Bowlby concludes in the attachment theory that attachment is a developmental thing. He also says that the attachment theory diminishes the psychosexual stages of development. Keeping in mind, Bowlby’s experiment was observational. He looked at children in the absence of a maternal figure and made conclusions based on that. This issue with an observational study like this is third variables, such as another nurturing figure aside from the mother, and the possibility of chance.

Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson did a longitudinal study of 60 babies at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life and described the different stages of attachment as:

1. Up to 3 months of age – indiscriminate attachment (baby attaches to any caregiver)
2. After 4 months – preference for certain people (baby learns to tell the difference between their primary caregivers and others, but will accept nurturing from anyone)
3. After 7 months – special preference for a single attachment figure (baby shows signs of fear and separation anxiety when not in the presence of the person they’ve attached too
4. After 9 months – multiple attachments (baby becomes more independent and forms multiple attachments)

Schaffer and Emerson concluded that more attachments formed with those who responded appropriately to the baby’s signals, a theory known as sensitive responsiveness.

So this explains a few possible ways that we were attached to our family members at birth, but what is it that causes these attachments as we grow older. My assumption would be that maybe friends, significant others, etc. do things that trigger a reminder of something that happened with our parents when we were babies. We probably subconsciously find comfort in knowing that someone else is able to give us the same feeling we were given as infants.

Crowell, Fraley, Chris, Shaver, and Cassidy looked at attachment from an adult system. They attempted to apply previous attachment theories to romantic attachment with adults. The issue is that they used self-report measures. Typically self-report measures are not the most accurate when attempting to reach conclusions.

Further into this study, Hazan and Shaver explored the possibility of romantic love as an attachment process. This attempt to carry out the attachment theory as infants into adulthood attachment focuses on three main components: secure, avoidant, and anxious/ambivalent. Hazan and Shaver performed two questionnaire studies where they found, “(a) relative prevalence of the three attachment styles is roughly the same in adulthood as in infancy, (b) the three kinds of adults differ predictably in the way they experience romantic love, and (c) attachment style is related in theoretically meaningful ways to mental models of self and social relationships and to relationship experiences with parents.” So it seems fairly likely that my prediction about the comparison of infancy attachment is carried through adulthood attachment.

In this video:

We conclude that:

• The attachment theory is biological and it is carried throughout our lives.
• Early relationships with parents set the pattern for relationships later in life.
• Ainsworth established that attachment gives security.
• Improper treatment as infants in any of the given phases can impact a person throughout the rest of their lives.
• We take our attachment styles with us throughout adulthood.

So what does this mean? Essentially, the way we formed attachments during infancy are carried throughout our lives as we form new attachments with new people. We’ve been attached to someone or more than one person at all times ever since birth.

Disney movies, pictures of old friends, a childhood teddy bear, children’s books, 90s pop hits. Whether these specific items stroke a note in your heart or not, we have all experienced nostalgia invoked by something at some point in our lives. “A sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations” as defined by the dictionary.

(Photo Found: here)

According to David S. Werman, nostalgia derives from homesickness and is related to fantasy. Nostalgia is caused by the human need to repress certain direct memories. Nostalgia functions in both screen affect and screen memory.

But is nostalgia good or bad for us? Vess, Arndt, Routledge, Sedikides, and Wildschut tested this exact question. In their first experiment, nostalgia was promoted and then, they assessed the accessibility of positive self-attributes. Heightened accessibility of positive self-attributes was more present in the subjects who thought of a nostalgic experience rather than the subjects who were told to think of a positive future experience. In the second experiment, the subjects of the experiment received negative or positive performance feedback. Then, they were supposed to think about nostalgic or ordinary past experience. Those who were not involved with nostalgia displayed a typical pattern of self-serving attribution, but those who were involved with nostalgia did not display these same attributions. This proved nostalgia functions as a positive resource for the self.

This experiment might be flawed, however. Self-attribution is anecdotal and we know that anecdotes are not the most reliable.

Watch this video about nostalgia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odiSsYhZ03Q

The most important message to note from this video is that nostalgia can be both good and bad for you. It is good if you think about it in moderation and you are just reflecting on the past, but not yearning for it. Also, note that the hippocampus (the memory house of the brain) can only store so much. Therefore, it is important that the many memories of the past do not override the experiences occurring now.

So what does this mean?

• Nostalgia is “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.”
• Nostalgia derives from homesickness and is related to fantasy.
• Nostalgia functions as a positive resource for the self.
• Nostalgia is good if you think about it in moderation and you are just reflecting on the past, but not yearning for it.

So feel free to think back on fond past experiences, but don’t live by them.

Sitting in the Huck Life Sciences building today, I looked out the window at a very beautiful Penn State campus. But beyond that, I saw endless mountains of colorful trees, a bright blue sky, and rainbow leaves on the ground. I started wondering what makes this wonderful world of ours appear so beautifully colorful.

According to Craig F. Bohren, there are two ways that white light can be transformed. One way is absorption, which transforms light into other forms of energy. The other way is scattering, which redirects the light. Three different derivatives of scattering include: reflection, refraction, and diffraction. In scattering, the color perceived depends on the different sizes of the particle. Bohren explains the blue of the sky by “selective scattering by molecules.” However, he also mentions that the sky is not uniformly blue. Evidently the sky is a result of multiple scattering.

In the “Journal of Mind and Behavior,” Carl Ratner introduces a different view on color perception. Ratner disagrees with the naturalistic experiments of color perception. He notices a trend among color experiments in cultural variations. This leads him to believe that color perception has a sociohistorical psychological explanation.

This theory, however does not make much sense to me. If this was the case…that color perception is due to sociohistorical psychological reasons rather than biological reasons, what would explain the following experiment?

In an experiment performed by Robert L. Goldstone, the participants were asked to examine a picture of an object, and while the object was shown, they were to attempt to reproduce the color. The shape of the object did not matter, but it was established that the shape actually had an impact on the accuracy of the color reproduction by the participants. Goldstone says that, “objects that belonged to categories with redder objects were judged to be more red than identically colored objects belonging to another category.” Goldstone concluded that there was indeed a category-level influence on color perception of the participants.

If this is so, how could sociohistorical psychological reasons explain it? It is likely they cannot. Color perception tends to lean towards a biological explanation.

This video explains how we perceive light:

This describes color perception only as something that occurs biologically.

So what does this mean?

• Two ways that white light can be transformed are absorption and scattering.
• Color perception might have to deal slightly with sociohistorical psychological explanations.
• There is a category-level influence on color perception.
• Color perception is due to the cones and rods in our eyes.

It’s a bright, colorful world out there, so stop reading this blog post and go see it.

I’m sure we have all seen the cute, romantic, sappy Extra Gum commercial recently. It has been talked about quite frequently. For as much we would hate to admit it, it really is a very cute commercial. If you haven’t seen it, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLpDiIVX0Wo

This got me thinking about gum. As I pulled out a piece to chew in gum and offered one to a classmate, I thought, “I wonder what kind of effects gum has on our learning and cognitive performance. Certainly I am not the only one who has ever wondered this.

According to Andrew Scholey, recently it has been reported that chewing gum has an effect on cognitive processes. Here you will find a meta-analysis of different studies. Before any of the studies, their only idea was that gum maybe had something to do with glucose levels, which enhanced mental processes. In a study done by, Wilkinson, Scholey, and Wesnes, they experimented by having a portion of people chew gum and the other portion not chewing gum. Those who were chewing the gum performed much better than those that were not chewing gum when asked to complete a standardized test. These tests viewed both working memory and episodic memory, and both of these memories improved with the chewing of gum. They found that chewing gum might be indirectly linked to an insulin release.

In contrast to this test, there was another that reported that gum had no such effects. This study conducted by Tucha, Mecklinger, Maier, Hammerl, and Lange found a correlation between gum chewing and attention, but not between gum chewing and cognitive ability. But this may be due to a lousy experimental setup, gum flavor, third variables, etc.

In these experiments, there were four groups of participants. They were asked to recall a list of 15 words 24 hours later after looking at it for 2 mins. There was a group given gum before and gum during (gum-gum), a group given gum before and no gum during (gum-no gum), a group not given gum before and given gum during (no gum-gum), and a group given no gum before and no gum during (no gum-no gum). Here are the results:

As you can see, those who chewed gum before and during did the best on the test whether it be with the immediate response or the delayed response.

This study analyzes the findings of the effects of gum-chewing on memory. They conclude “that claims concerning an improvement of cognition associated with gum chewing should be viewed with caution.” They are basically saying that these studies have a good foundation, but could use some improvement to enhance certainty.

So what does this mean?

• Gum likely has a positive impact on cognitive processing.
• Gum-chewing deals with glucose levels.
• The theories apply to both working memory and episodic memory.
• Gum-chewing deals with insulin release.
• There are experiments that refute this theory.
• It is a good study design, but it could use improvement.

My recommendation? Chew some gum. There’s a chance it might help you out in school!

Alzheimer’s disease is an extremely difficult condition to deal with. This is especially true for those of us who have had to deal with this disease more closely. My grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease along with Lewey Body Dementia in 2007. I watched her suffer from these terrible diseases. My grandma passed away this summer and I miss her dearly. I reminisce about her daily and it got me thinking: “where does Alzheimer’s come from?”

In Richard A. Armstrong’s full journal, “What Causes Alzheimer’s Disease?,” he mentions that there are many theories on the cause of Alzheimer’s disease. He analyzes each of 8 different categories of theories.

To begin with, one major, frequently recurring theme in the theories is aging. This theme is based on observation. According to Richard A. Armstrong, the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease are quite similar to those of aging. Some of the symptoms of both Alzheimer’s and aging include “brain volume and weight, enlargement of ventricles, and loss of synapses and dendrites in selected areas.” After many observational studies on changes in many different regions of the brain, through both Alzheimer’s Disease and aging, the conclusion that was made is the differences between Alzheimer’s and the normal aging are quantitative rather than qualitative. The difficulties with these studies are that they are all based solely on observation. It wouldn’t be ethical to alter someone’s genetics or brain functioning, so the conclusion had to have been made based on observation.

In this particular study, the loss of connectivity in the patients brain is accredited to a wide variety of electrophysiological and neuro-imaging studies. In this study, they investigate the crossmodal effect. This is an examination of the integration of visual and auditory stimuli. They did this by using a control group, which more than likely gives a little more accuracy to the study. There is less chance for discrepancy with an experiment in comparison to the previous study that was solely observational. In their conclusion, they found that the data suggests the “occurrence of a specific, audio-visual integration deficit in AD, which might be the consequence of a connectivity breakdown.”

Everything in the brain shrinks, shrivels, or deteriorates when affected by Alzheimer’s Disease. 

(Picture found: here)

In this study, S. Yagishita, Y. Itoh, Wang Nan, and N. Amano used electron microscopy to study Alzheimer’s neurofibrillary tangles. Not only were Alzheimer’s patients used, but also two dementia patients and one supranuclear palsy patient were used. They found that in the Alzheimer’s patients, the tangles were composed of either straight filaments or paired helical filaments. After carrying out the study, Yagishita, Itoh, Nan, and Amano found that all of the Alzheimer’s patients involved had neurofibrillary tangles composed of 15-20nm SF and PHF. So if these filaments are seen separately in each neuron, it’s safe to say that Alzheimer’s disease is in the near future of that patient. Hopefully using this, scientists and doctors will be able to catch the disease earlier and be able to figure out a way to stop the disease in its tracks.

So what does this mean? Clearly there is an abundance of theories regarding the cause of Alzheimer’s.  None have been full proof in creating a cure, however. Aging is very closely related symptom-wise to Alzheimer’s Disease. There is a connectivity breakdown as the result of Alzheimer’s Disease. In Alzheimer’s patients, the tangles are composed of either straight filaments or paired helical filaments.

The hopes from all these many different theories, studies, and experiments, and many others is that soon, a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease will be found.

Who doesn’t like a good nap or two? Not to mention a good night sleep consisting of six to eight hours. I know I do. My favorite part of the day is arguably when I get into my bed and settle in for the night. Sleeping is literally a part of our daily schedule. There aren’t many things that remain constant through our lives, but sleep definitely does. Every night, we jump into our beds and call it a day. But what if we didn’t sleep? Then what would happen?

According to this video:

• People who get 6-8 hours of sleep nightly tend to live longer.
• People who sleep for too long are more inclined to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
• If we stop sleeping, our dopamine runs chaotically, which can actually put us in a better mood, but it’s unpredictable.
• After a day or two of no sleep, our body has a weaker immune system and we are unable to metabolize glucose.
• Fatal Familial Insomnia can cause hallucinations and lead to death.
• Continual sleep deprivation can most certainly have a negative effect on your body.

So clearly it is a good idea for us too keep sleep as a part of our daily habits. But how much is enough?

The experiment in this video is one where the experimenters had assigned some people to sleep for four hours, some people to sleep for six hours, and some people to sleep for eight hours. The eight-hour people seemed to be completely fine and enthusiastic. The six-hour people resembled a drunk person. The four-hour people had trouble staying awake everywhere. It is ideal to get no more than 7-8 hours of sleep, but also no less.

In this article, Jeffrey Ellenbogen tells us that sleep is necessary and without it, we can suffer from severe cognitive and behavioral impairments. In a study that was conducted, people with full time jobs who got less sleep suffered from 36% more medical issues than interns with plenty of sleep. All in all, not getting the proper amount of sleep can lead to both medical issues and attention problems. All in all, not getting the proper amount of sleep can lead to both medical issues and attention problems. Here you’ll see that in an experiment that was conducted by the researchers, those who slept had more accelerated learning.

So what does this mean? Get some sleep and lots of it. Don’t be afraid to take advantage of receiving a full 8 hours. If we want to be at our absolute best, the best thing we can do for ourselves is get the proper amount of sleep. So go to sleep and enjoy it!

As we start a new school year at a new place, we are meeting and seeing many new faces for the first time at a school as big as Penn State University. Remembering the names of each and every person we come across is not an easy task by any means, especially for us freshman. I cannot even begin to tell you the amount of times that I have spoken with someone here and forgotten their names within seconds. For example, at my orientation, I sat down with this girl in the morning and we introduced ourselves to each other. I spent a few hours with her doing orientation things. It wasn’t until she said, “I’ll talk to you later, Amber,” that I realized that I didn’t remember her name. But why do we forget people’s names? Watch this to find out:

According to this video, we are more likely to remember someone’s face before their name. Forgetting someone’s name may be due to the “Baker Effect.” Because telling a bit about yourself creates more connections in the brain than simply saying a name does. Saying a name requires no mental links, which makes it simple to forget. Also, another reason we forget people’s names is due to the “next in line” effect. We are so focused on our own speech and movement that it is hard for us to focus on another person at the same time. If we don’t focus on information in our short-term memory, it goes away quickly. Another issue with remembering names is that sometimes we don’t even care about other people’s names. The truth hurts…

This isn’t only the case with forgetting names. Our short-term or working memory does a pretty good job at letting a lot of information slide. This book mentions a correlation between word-structure and length with short-term memory. Two interesting facts that this book points out are, “(1) Memory span is inversely related to word length across a wide range of materials; (and) (2) When number of syllables and number of phonemes are held constant, words of short temporal duration are better recalled than words of long duration,” These are very interesting factors in memory. It proves that you are more likely to remember a shorter name than you are to remember a longer name. According to this article, the three subcomponents of short-term memory are: the central executive, the visuospatial region, and the phonological loop. This book argues that “short-term and long-term memory are closely related but involve some separate mechanisms.”

So what does this mean? Forgetting names is inevitable, but here is 7 tricks to help you remember names:

1. Focus on the name.
2. Use and repeat their name.
3. Build associations.
4. Use wordplay (mnemonic devices).
5. Spell out the name and picture it.
6. Help people remember your name.
7. Introduce someone else (so you hear their name).

Follow these steps and you’ll know everyone on campus in no time. Well maybe not EVERYone.

(Picture found: here)

Everyone is familiar with the well-known Republican that ran for vice president with John McCain. With her short brown hair, glasses, and iconic accent, how could we forget her? And let’s not forget Tina Fey’s striking resemblance with her imitation of the possible vice president on “Saturday Night Live.” While some may know her as Governor Palin, or an American politician, I know her as “Aunt Sarah.” She comes near us much more than we are able to make it out to Alaska. However, we have gone to Alaska to visit her three times. The last time we went to Alaska was the summer after my freshman year of high school. Luckily we have FaceTime to keep in touch. Aunt Sarah is my mom’s sister and they talk nearly daily. He are some pictures from our last Alaskan visit:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

That was a lie. Sarah Palin is not my aunt. I don’t honestly know much about her at all. Those are actual photos that I took in Alaska, but I have only been there once and it was on a cruise ship, I wasn’t visiting my “Aunt Sarah.”

Now to go into my actual blog post: The Science of LYING…

It was so simple for me to tell you a lie, but there is actually a lot of work that goes into telling a lie. The brain works hard to not tell the truth. In this article, Shermer says that, ” nearly all of us shade the truth just enough to make ourselves or others feel better.” Think about it. How many times have you caught yourselves saying “oh that shirt looks so good on you” or “your presentation was flawless, I could barely tell that you were nervous?” Probably very frequently. We do this to spare others’ feelings. According to Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist, we lie about 10% of the time, which he states in his book The Honest Truth About Dishonesty. In order to establish an idea on how frequently we lie, Dan Ariely carried out an experiment in which he had people solve different matrices and for each that they got correctly, they got paid. When they had to turn their answers in, they averaged 4 out of 20 correct. When they counted their correct answers for themselves, they averaged 6 out of 20 correct. This proved a 10% increase in lying.

Speaking technically here, when telling a lie, as indicated in a fMRI (functional MRI), there is increased brain activity in the prefrontal cortex and parietal lobe as noted here. It is currently being debated as to whether or not there is concrete proof that brain scans can detect whether or not someone is being deceptive. According to this article, neuroscientists believe that a brain scan can indeed detect when someone is being deceptive. Here is a photo of the brain when lying and when being truthful:

(Photo found: here)

As we can see from the photo. There is a great increase in brain activity when telling a lie, specifically in the aforementioned regions: the prefrontal cortex and the parietal lobe.

Watch this:

believe me, no contractions, that – distance self, more eye contact, smile done with story, shake head no when yes

So what does this mean? In the beginning of my post, I lied to you. My brain activity increased in my prefrontal cortex and parietal lobes. To sum up the articles and video: we lie to make ourselves or others feel better.

• We need lies for social interaction.
• We do it even though there are laws that prohibit lying and even infringe on our freedom of speech.
• It is believed that we learn to lie as young as 6 months old.
• We become so accustomed to lying that by the time we reach this age (college student), 1 in 5 things that we say is a lie.
• Lying to ourselves is due to two pieces of conflicting information that go back and forth in our heads.
• Pathological liars believe their own lies.
• When lying, we say things like “believe me” and “to be completely honest.”
• Typically we don’t use contractions when lying.
• We use different demonstrative pronouns in attempt to distance ourselves.
• We make more eye contact, smile when we are done with our story, and shake our heads no when saying yes.

“Lying isn’t easy, but we do it anyway…” -a quote by Sarah Palin

Or is it?

How frequently do you find yourself craving chocolate? Pretty often, am I right ladies? Sometimes it feels like chocolate is our savior. After a hard day of classes, sometimes you just want to bite into a big old Hershey’s chocolate bar. Or maybe on a rainy evening, you just want to bundle up in a blanket, listen to some music, write a blog post, and eat some Reese’s Pieces, And I’m not just saying that because that’s what I am doing currently…But chocolate seems to make us feel better after we consume it. But that’s weird, right? I mean how could something so bad for you make you feel so good? Well what if it’s not so bad for you after all? Why that’s absurd. Is it not? It is not. Consuming chocolate can possibly be good for you.

It has been proven that consuming higher levels of chocolate is linked with a significant reduction of cardiometabolic disorders. In these particular studies, this idea was tested. There were multiple types of experiments played out. There were randomized trials, cohort studies, case-studies, and cross-sectional studies carried out most likely to ensure the accuracy of the results of each of the experiments. The way they collected their data was by comparing the lowest and highest levels of chocolate consumption in relation to the risk of developing cardiometabolic disorders through the use of meta-analysis. There were even seven different studies that met the inclusion criteria. However, it does say that the results varied among the different experiments so we cannot be sure that chocolate for sure is good for you based upon these studies. They even say that, “five of the seven studies reported a beneficial association between higher levels of chocolate consumption and the risk of cardiometabolic disorders.” Five of seven is not the same as seven of seven by any means. This obviously reveals some uncertainty with this particular study.

However, chocolate has many other benefits. Chocolate releases the following neurotransmitters: serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins. These neurotransmitters are essentially our happy juices. Who would avoid a happiness boost? Bulletproof (the company that studied the effects of chocolate) says that chocolate is similar to coffee in the sense that it contains polyphenol antioxidants. Chocolate is proven to enhance your mood. In one study that Bulletproof refers to, “Participants were asked to complete serial subtraction tasks of threes and sevens” and “a rapid visual information-processing task to test sustained attention.” The results of this experiment was that, “those who consumed cocoa flavanol drinks prior to the trial had overall better cognitive performance and reported less ‘mental fatigue’ than the control group.” Overall, it appears that chocolate has only beneficial outcomes on the mind. Additionally, consumption of chocolate causes a reduction in appetite. This study also mentions the benefits that chocolate consumption has on the cardiovascular system on top of everything that the other experiment brought up.

Now this isn’t to say that chocolate is all good for you. It still has it’s negative outcomes. Chocolate has been known to cause acne and obesity, but this occurs when chocolate is not consumed in moderation. If you pay close attention to this, you’ll find that cocoa beans are full of these things called “flavonoids,” natural antioxidants. The source behind the minimizing of cardiovascular disease is the specific flavonoid known as “epicatechin.” This flavonoid helps the body get rid of free-radicals, which are thought of to preserve cell membranes. However, they say that, “flavonoids degrade quickly when heated or processed and are often removed from commercial chocolate because they taste bitter. So only raw cocoa and, to a lesser extent, dark chocolate, offer these benefits.” So it isn’t necessarily true to say that the flavonoids are the only thing taking care of the minimization of cardiovascular diseases. Theobromine is a stimulant present in chocolate that is similar to caffeine. “One of Theobromine’s well-known effects is on the heart. By increasing the heartbeat and dilating blood vessels, it can lower blood pressure.” Also, Theobromine can help stop a build-up of plaque on the artery walls. Additionally, a very shocking and unbelievable piece of information is that, “chocolate may fight tooth decay more effectively than fluoride. Theobromine appears to help with repairing enamel and protecting teeth from further erosion by acids.”

Take a look at this video:

The important things to note from this video are:

• the higher the percentage, the better the chocolate is for you
• the higher the percentage, the more flavonols/flavonoids
• chocolate contains antioxidants, flavonols, polyphenols
• chocolate is anti-inflammatory
• ENJOY IT

So what does this mean? Eat some chocolate. I mean why not…It looks as if chocolate has predominantly positive outcomes when consumed. It puts you at lower risk for cardiovascular diseases, it releases your happy juices, it contains antioxidants, it enhances your mood, it may even fight tooth decay. So what is a bit of acne going to do? My advice to you is to enjoy some chocolate…

…in moderation of course.

(Photo found: here)

Through every emotion, music is there for us. For those days when you need to get pumped up before going out to a party, we listen to some Beyoncé. For the days we are feeling rather nostalgic, we might listen to our favorite hits from the 90s and 2000s, like “I Want it That Way” by the Backstreet Boys or Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back.” For the days where we feel like sulking in our own tragedies, we always have “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion and Katy Perry’s “Thinking of You” to listen to. We are guaranteed a song to appeal to whatever we are feeling for every feeling. Music tends to be the first thing that anyone resorts to when in need of emotional appeal of some sort. Music heals, supports, and is there for us.

But why? Why does music have the ability to help us in these aspects? As Anthony Storr says here, that, “the patterns of music make sense of our inner experience, giving both structure and coherence to our feelings and emotions.” Essentially, the magnificent machines we have in our heads (our brains) easily sort out random mixes of sounds and allow them appeal to our feelings. According to this article by Keith Black, MD, “music increases activity in the nucleus accumbens part of the brain.” The nucleus accumbens is based on two specific neurotransmitters, dopamine and serotonin. Of the two, dopamine has more relevance in the process of evoking emotion when listening to music. Dopamine is associated with pleasure and reward. Additionally, the most important part of the brain as far as housing emotions goes is the amygdala. The amygdala is activated by music. Besides the amygdala, another part of the brain that is heavily affected by the brain is the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for abstract decision making. This means that music is involved in the most cognitive levels of thinking.

Music is known to enhance our mood. But not only does music appeal to our emotions, but music also has healing power. According to this study of the correlation between music and recovery, music played a big role in the healing process of the people involved in the experiment. In this study, eighteen individuals with traumatic brain injury were assigned either a rehabilitation with music therapy or a rehabilitation without music therapy. In conclusion, the results of the group of individuals with music therapy were much better than that of those without the music therapy. The staff of the research study even said that those with music therapy included in their rehabilitation were “more actively involved and cooperative in therapy than those in the control group. So it is clear that music had a positive impact on the healing process of those with some of the most serious brain injuries and strokes, so just imagine the impact it has on those of us with well-functioning brains. Now the argument with this particular study may be confounding variables. Who is to know that the food that the music therapy people were eating is better for the brain than the food than the food that the people in the control group are eating? Or maybe there is a resilience to brains of younger people than there are to those over the age of say thirty. What if the experimenters hadn’t thought this through? I suppose this is why science is such an unsure topic. However, at the level that this experiment was tested, it is likely that the experimenters eliminated as many third variables as possible.

To prove how much music is affecting the brain, here is a comparison picture of the brain at rest and the brain while listening to music. 

(Photo found: here)

As you can see based on the picture, the brain is much more active when music is present. It appears as if nearly every part of the brain is active when reacting to music. The hippocampus is in the central-rear section of the brain. The hippocampus is where the amygdala is located and we know that the amygdala houses emotions. Clearly the central-rear region of the brain is lit in the presence of music. This proves that music has a heavy affect on our emotions. 

Here is additional proof of music’s affect on our brain:

Note how he says that we didn’t need anyone to tell us what kind of music is happy and what kind is sad. Our brains were able to figure it out on our own. Additionally, not only is music able to appeal to our emotions, but to our movement too. Music is all around us in our daily lives.

So what does this mean? LISTEN TO MUSIC. Listen when you’re sad, listen when you’re happy, listen when you need a friend, listen when you’re bored, just listen as much as you can because you are guaranteed a positive outcome regardless. Music will appeal to whatever emotion you are feeling because music has a direct connection to your amygdala, which houses your emotions. Music will make you feel better because music has healing powers. Unlike many other things, music will ALWAYS be there for you, through good times and bad. Music is in fact the best medicine.

Hello everyone. My name is Amber Shojaie, I am a freshman here, and I am majoring in Actuarial Science. I live about 2.5 hours away from Penn State. I am from a city called Irwin. It is a little bit outside of Pittsburgh, PA. A few things about me:

1. I am half Persian. My dad is from Iran.
2. I’m a math geek. I could do calculus all day, everyday. So if you ever need assistance with a math problem, please do not hesitate to ask. I’d be happy to help.
3. I have 3 sisters and they’re awesome. I love my family. We are all super close…including my dog, who I miss dearly.
4. I love to act. Musical theatre has been a part of my life since the age of 4. It has always been a passion of mine.
5. I play the piano. Music is such an important part of everyone’s lives.
6. From preschool through eighth grade, I went to a Catholic school and then I went to public high school. My elementary school had less people than the amount of people we have in this SC200 class.
7. I can jump rope and pogo stick at the same time.
8. I can dislocate my shoulders because I’m missing joints in them.

So anyway, I decided to take this class because I’m definitely into all the different topics we will be covering. Additionally, my NSO academic adviser said that she has never heard any complaints about this class. She said that everyone has told her that they truly enjoyed the course. I am not majoring in science because like I said, I’m a math geek. I just love math. The parts of science that are heavy on math wouldn’t cut it for me. I wanted all math all the time! Here’s a picture of some pin wheel flowers in the Garden of Hope at a “Walk to End Alzheimer’s” that my family and I did for my grandma.

Here is a trailer to an amazing movie that ties two parts of my life together: my love for music and the elderly with Alzheimer’s.

Click Here

(cite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaB5Egej0TQ)