Music Psychology??!!

Resource: http://cornellsun.com/node/47183

Can you live without T.V. or music? I can put T.V. aside and listen to music all the time. Music Psychology truly is pretty fascinating. The music cognition is one of coolest parts too. Songs have been shown to be known what they are after hearing the first 400 milliseconds in the beginning. Also, music is something children can understand more than normal talking could perform. It can be taken as a way to remember easier than traditional studying. Also, another part is why do people go see live shows when recordings could be better? The live shows actually enhance the music, emotions that come with it, and overall better seeing of the performance.

I think this was an appetizer to interest people in music psychology. I think the article gave a few important or interesting facts that would help people relate to what this may be. This is not meant to teach someone about music psychology, but it used to get someone interested or an update. I think people knowing music psychology can put people to a job that they may like and it can help people understand why we may do things.

Video Games related to LOWER attention span? That's impossible.... Wait what are we talking about?

Resource: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/07/05/games.attention/index.html

Video games are things that today are used all over by kids and teens. They are not limited to teens or kids though, people in college and over can play them as well. Is this a bad thing? Well research conducted on this subject suggests this could sap away attention span. Video games and T.V. are one of the same in this group though. It is seen that this may be a problem for school especially. Over 50 percent of people have seen or admitted that they have an attention span of a dog. A.K.A., this is not a good sign. Although, it is wondered why media can take a person's attention and not school. School compared to media or video games may seem dull and slow, so it is very boring to a person. This could pose a problem for future generations since they can't focus on much anything.

I enjoyed the article very much. I believe this was well made and has made me an informed person on this subject. To put it in numbers, 9/10. I think parents could lower time on these electronics which in a way, make kids pretty angry.

Warbling Wrens Whistle

Warbling Wrens Whistle

http://news.yahoo.com/warbling-wrens-dont-just-tweet-sing-duets-180118228.html

Eric Fortune of Johns Hopkins University who studies psychology and brain science began studying South American birds when field biologists reported the birds singing duets. His research is seeking to explain how the brain handles the details of the shared song.

Birds singing duets isn't unheard of, but it's rare and these perform the fastest and most precise songs known, Fortune said in a telephone interview. The birds live in dense bamboo groves in the Andes Mountains in Ecuador.

"Calling it a love song is probably too strong a word," says researcher Eric S. Fortune of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. But, he adds, the little wrens shift their heads around and move closer together as they sing.

Fortune thinks it's a test, with the female birds choosing mates based on how well the males can follow cues and keep up with the song.

The females start the song, he said, and the males join in. Sometimes the males will drop out for a bit. He isn't sure if it's a mistake on their part, or they just can't keep up. Indeed, the birds alternate chirps so quickly it can sound like a single bird singing.

"It's as if the birds each sing their own unique part," Fortune explained. If the song had lyrics that went A, B, C, D, the female might be doing A and C while the male did B and D, he said. And, he added, the duet songs vary slightly from place to place.

Reminds me of the mockingjays in the Hunger Games, but this is a picture of a male plain-tailed wren.

Mock Mission to Mars

Mock Mission to Mars

Associated Press November 4, 2011

http://news.yahoo.com/isolated-crew-completes-520-day-mock-mars-mission-190426327.html

Moscow’s Institute for Medical and Biological Problems conducted the longest mock space mission

in history. Six men spent 520 days in cramped, windowless compartments to simulate a trip to

Mars. Researchers studied their responses to confinement, stress and fatigue. They communicated with their families and space officials through the internet. They showered only every ten days and ate food similar to what is available on the International Space Station. The scientists stated that the psychological conditions are even more challenging on a mock mission because there would be none of the euphoria or danger of space travel. Halfway through the mission, the men simulated a landing, emerging from the capsule in heavy space suits, planting their flags in a sand covered room.

"If anything, the make-believe nature of this exercise's goal — a simulated Mars walk — would have made it even harder psychologically than a real mission," said James Oberg, a space consultant and NASA veteran. "So the team's success is even more impressive, not less so, because it was 'only a game.'" However, Oberg felt the lack of any female crew members was a flaw in the experiment.

"Aside from the absence of physiological factors such as weightlessness and cosmic radiation, the most glaring shortcoming of this exercise was the all-male composition of the crew," he said. "Psychological studies of frontier life and extended expeditions suggest that aside from specific skills they contribute, the presence of women in an isolated group is a positive, 'civilizing' effect, not a stress-inducing distracting influence."

But the scientists were impressed with the crew’s ability to overcome the language barrier between the three Russian, one Chinese, one French and one Italian-Columbian crew members.

The crew was proud to complete the longest space flight simulation so that "humankind can one day greet a new dawn on the surface of distant but reachable planet." A real trip to Mars is not expected before the year 2030.

It was understandable the crew was looking forward to spending time in the warm sunshine after 17 months of confinement. It is remarkable they were able to get along well for such a long time.

Dogs Trained to Sniff Out Termites

Dogs Trained to Sniff Out Termites

http://news.yahoo.com/sniffer-dogs-join-fight-protect-koreas-heritage-155933193.html

English springer spaniels that were trained to detect explosives and drugs were retrained to sniff out termites. The dogs are being used to save South Korea’s cultural heritage. The dogs were purchased from a police dog training school in the West Midlands by the Samsung Detector Dog Centre. The trainers let the spaniels smell termites, then hid the insects and let them practice searching until they were retrained. If termites can be seen by the human eye, there has already been too much destruction, and most of S. Korea’s historic sites are constructed of wood. Gyeongbokgung, the grandest of Seoul’s five main historic places has 13 main buildings spread over 84 acres. It only took the two spaniels three hours to sweep the whole of Gyeongbokgung. They are trained not scratch the wood but sit rigid to indicate the area of termite infestation. When they make a find, they get to chase a ball as a reward. The Cultural Heritage Administration needs more dogs on the job and the second generation needs to be trained soon. With the climate becoming warmer and more humid, the number of termites in Korea may rise.

Pilots Studied to Understand the Aging Brain

Pilots Studied to Understand the Aging Brain

From HealthDay October 25, 2011 // Published online October 18, 2011 in the journal of Translational Psychiatry

http://news.yahoo.com/aging-brains-decline-may-hinge-gene-130406334.html

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System have identified a gene variation that seems to have a major effect on the rate men experience a decrease in intellectual function due to age.

144 pilots over the age of 40 were divided into two groups after taking blood and saliva samples and doing genetic evaluations. The pilots were divided based on having a variant of the BDNF gene, which produces a protein called “brain-derived neurotropic factor.” From previous studies, a variant of the BDNF gene that contains methionine or “met” was thought to increase the rate of intellectual decline.

The pilots were given the flight simulator test three times in two years. The scores in both groups declined over time, but the rate of decline was much steeper in the “met” group. The rate of decline was double in the “met” variant group. MRI scans also found that the “met” variant group showed significant age-related decline in the hippocampus, a brain area that is important to memory and spatial reasoning.

The study suggested one way to keep BDNF levels higher in your brain was to keep physically active. This study is important to help identify people at risk of losing their cognitive functions earlier than normal and to figure out a way to counteract the methionine variant.

A Study to Thwart “Obesity Gene” with Exercise

A Study to Thwart “Obesity Gene” with Exercise

From HealthDay, originally published Nov. 1, 2011 in PLoS Medicine Journal

http://news.yahoo.com/exercise-might-help-thwart-obesity-gene-220407407.html

A new study suggests that people predisposed to be obese can reduce their odds of weight

gain by remaining active. The FTO gene or “fat mass and obesity associated” gene has a 27%

weaker effect on physically active adults. Researchers examined the data of 45 previous studies

with more than 218,000 participants.

The main point is that the genetically susceptible can still prevent weight gain with a healthy

lifestyle. Regular activity like walking the dog, taking the stairs, and doing chores still count.

People don’t have to do rigorous exercise for it to help. One hour of activity five times a week

is beneficial.

Some people that are predisposed to being overweight may feel they are hopeless to fight

obesity. A recent study on the effects of genetic testing showed those people increased their

dietary intake over the next three months, suggesting they felt there was no control. However,

researchers feel this sense of fatalism is misplaced.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2/3 of American adults are either overweight or obese and nearly 1/5 of children up to age 19. Obesity increases the risk of diabetes,

heart disease, stroke and certain forms of cancer.

Decreasing obesity even when predisposed by the FTO gene would not only be beneficial for

individual health but also for the health care system. Diseases like diabetes and heart disease

cost the health care system millions of dollars each year.