Some dreadful memories can re-emerge out of the blue — like Michael Myers in every ‘Halloween’ movie. Exposure therapy has a way with them. If spiders give you the creeps after you were bitten by one, you will be encouraged to allow a harmless spider crawl on you. And then your latest memory of spiders would be a tickle — safe. Researcher Michael Drew and his team have identified safe memories as “extinction memories”. Extinction does not actually delete the original fear memory; instead, it creates a new memory that hinders or competes with the original fear. The hippocampus in our brain produces memory traces of both fear and extinction, and competition between these opposing traces determines whether fear is expressed or suppressed. By using a tool called optogenetics, Drew’s team was able to turn the extinction neurons on and off again. Incidentally, the hippocampus seems to play a critical role in contextualising fear, for example, by tying fearful memories to the place where they happened. Imagine turning a crawling spider into a tickle!
SNEAK PEEK
1. Sound source: One
You are looking towards a sound source but can’t detect an object. Only its sudden movement makes it visible. Simultaneous counterchange of light at the borders between object and background triggers activity waves in the visual brain. Who discovered this?
1. Dr. Dirk Jancke (Ruhr-University Bochum)
2. Sound source: Two
Lip-reading helps us make sense of unintelligible speech. Actually, the brain can translate lip movements alone into sound-related information. Who detected this astounding activity in a group of healthy people while they listened to a silent video of a woman speaking?
2. Mathieu Bourguignon (Source: Society for Neuroscience)
3. Up to 3 degrees
Even nations accept “friends of friends”. Nations are much less likely to have wars with their allies, the allies of their allies, and the allies of their allies’ allies. Who figured that the peace dividend extends up to three degrees of separation this way, without getting weaker?
3. Skyler Cranmer (Ohio State University)
4. When not primary
Masculinity is closely welded to the conventional view of the male breadwinner. This has an impact on males as well. Compared to women, men may be more prone to psychological distress if they become the family’s secondary earner. Who studied this power structure?
4. Dr. Joanna Syrda, a University of Bath economist
5. It’s all observation
While analysing a CT scan, radiologists discuss the same principles that art students use to appraise works of art. Art training could be helpful across many specialties where diagnosis and treatment are based primarily on direct observation. Who put it into practice?
5. Penn Med Ophthalmologist Gil Binenbaum
6. Stunningly zero
A new study found that the connection between intimate partners’ emotional climate and their later health is zero! It is stronger in people who are more likely to have longer associations with family members — not including a spouse. Who was stunned by the finding?
6. Sarah B. Woods (UT Southwestern Medical Center)
7. Internet isn’t luxury
People who are unable to get online (notably in developing countries) will not be in a position to find meaningful ways to influence the global players shaping their everyday lives. Who, therefore, argued that free Internet access must be considered as a human right?
7. Dr. Merten Reglitz (University of Birmingham)
8. In human absence
Nearly a decade after a nuclear disaster, wildlife populations thrive in the human-evacuated areas in Fukushima — despite the presence of radiological contamination! Who backed up the fact with over 267,000 wildlife photos from the Fukushima Evacuation Zone?
8. UGA wildlife biologist James Beasley
9. With fewer neurons
We have over 86 billion neurons in our brains; bees have less than a million. We were separated from bees by over 600 million years of evolution. Who proposed that bees can link symbols to numbers and learn things as complex as a human-made symbolic language?
9. Adrian Dyer (School of Media and Communication, RMIT)
[ANSWERS]
1. Dr. Dirk Jancke (Ruhr-University Bochum)
2. Mathieu Bourguignon (Source: Society for Neuroscience)
3. Skyler Cranmer (Ohio State University)
4. Dr. Joanna Syrda, a University of Bath economist
5. Penn Med Ophthalmologist Gil Binenbaum
6. Sarah B. Woods (UT Southwestern Medical Center)
7. Dr. Merten Reglitz (University of Birmingham)
8. UGA wildlife biologist James Beasley
9. Adrian Dyer (School of Media and Communication, RMIT)
QUIZ No. 937
1. Who noted that drawing an object and seeing it engage the brain in similar ways?
– Judith E. Fan
– George Bard Ermentrout
– Roderick MacKinnon
1. Judith E. Fan
2. Who argued that smaller class size itself doesn’t necessarily boost performance?
– Lisa Feldman Barrett
– Spyros Konstantopoulos
– Lawrence Barsalou
2. Spyros Konstantopoulos
3. Who posited that life could have emerged from lakes that are rich in carbonates?
– Jonathan Toner
– Margaret Oakley Dayhoff
– Thomas B. Kornberg
3. Jonathan Toner
4. Who made the idiom “elephant in the room” proverbial through a fable in 1814?
– Don Marquis
– Ivan Andreyevich Krylov
– Władysław Reymont
4. Ivan Andreyevich Krylov
5. Who wrote about the correspondence between Elizabeth I and Ivan the Terrible?
– Inna Lubimenko
– Tatyana Proskuryakova
– Semyon Remezov
5. Inna Lubimenko