Psychosis from Using Social Media?

The title of this article could certainly be a cause for worry, as almost all of us use some form of social media daily.

source: pixabay

Researchers at the Charité recently reported a rare case of psychosis believed to be induced by ‘Twitter’, an online short-form communication system [1]. The article, titled ‘Twitter Psychosis: Rare Variation or Distinct Syndrome’, describes the development of psychosis in a 31-year-old female, Mrs. C, which coincided with the excessive use of Twitter. Mrs. C had no previous history of psychiatric illness prior to the episode of “twitter-induced psychosis”. Even her family history was clean. The authors conclude that social media like Twitter might have the ability to induce psychosis in predisposed users [1].

Twitter can induce psychosis in predisposed users

This may be the first documented case of psychosis being caused by Twitter, but such computer-mediated psychosis was already reported in 2011. Nitzan et al. talk about three patients who also experienced a psychotic episode, which coincided with excessive computer-mediated communication (CMC), such as Facebook or chats [2]. Similar to the case of Mrs.C, none of these patients had a history of psychiatric illness and also described symptoms akin to the ‘Twitter Psychosis’ episode, such as misinterpretation of information and hyperpersonal relationships with strangers.

Facebook can help people suffering from depression

Importantly, however, all these patients had turned to the internet as a refuge from loneliness, emotional distress and job insecurities. At the other end of the spectrum, studies have found that Facebook can actually help people suffering from depression [4]. Thus, CMC is capable of generating broad psychopathological phenomena especially in vulnerable individuals. Now, you can go back to your Facebook page since you know that casual use of social media is not going to make you psychotic but can actually have a positive effect. But remember to read ''Like, Dislike or Disregard'' on March 1 for more about Facebook and mental health.

[1] Kalbitzer et al, J Nerv Ment Dis, 2014
[2] Nitzan et al, Isr J Psychiatry Relat Sci, 2011
[3] Mota Pereira, Scientific World Journal, 2014

by Apoorva Rajiv Madipakkam, PhD Student AG Sterzer
This article originally appeared in CNS Volume 7, Issue 4, Communication and Social Media 

Caught in the Web

Over the past few decades, computers and the internet have infiltrated every facet of our lives. Which is why it is somewhat difficult to process the concept of the internet as being addictive; if we’re all online almost all of the time, is everyone an addict? Or is there a line between useful from harmful internet use?

 Internet Overuse as a Psychiatric Disorder
Ivan Goldberg first coined the term ‘Internet addiction disorder’ in 1995 [1]. At the time, Goldberg didn’t actually believe that such a thing existed. On his website, he parodied the diagnosis of pathological gambling, replacing gambling with internet use, using it as an example of how human behavior was becoming increasingly medicalized.
Twenty years later, the disorder is far more than just a satirical joke. Although it hasn’t made it into the latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), many experts believe it to be a legitimate condition.

Source: Sam Wolff, Flickr

Seeking Socialization or Solace?
The most addictive aspects of the internet seem to be those that involve contact with others. So-called ‘interactive real-time services’, which include online chatrooms and web conferencing, seem to be particularly reinforcing. One study found that dependent internet users spent most of their online time in chatrooms and online multiplayer games or virtual worlds. Non-dependent users on the other hand spent most of their online time using email [2].

Socializing online is a strong reinforcer

Online gaming can be very entertaining, and studies have consistently shown that its most reinforcing aspect is the ability to interact with other people. The more interactive a game is, the higher the likelihood that players become addicted [3]. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) involve a large number of players taking the role of a character and interacting with each other. World of Warcraft, a MMORPG, is one of the most widely played games in the world with almost 8 million currently active subscribers [4].
Interestingly, internet use can also be a powerful negative reinforcer. Dependent users often view the internet as a means of escaping from stressful interpersonal relationships and their negative consequences [5].

A Social Paradox
From a social point of view, internet overuse is an intriguing phenomenon. The main reason why most people spend so much time online is due to the internet’s inherently abundant opportunities for socialization [6]. Why then does internet addiction cause social isolation and loneliness?
It may be that people who are predisposed to internet addiction have a generally different perception of social life. In fact, most frequent internet users are somewhat introverted and lonely, and tend to consider their online interactions as important and real as face-to-face relationships [7]. They may prefer to spend the time they have dedicated to socialization in an online game rather than out in the real world, resulting in a vicious cycle that leads to more loneliness [8].

Source: lechenie-narkomanii,  pixabay

Far-Reaching Repercussions
The sheer magnitude of internet overuse has resulted in a major public health problem in a number of countries. The prevalence of the condition has reached alarming levels in China (11%) and South Korea (18%) [9,10]. For individuals, the consequences of overusing the internet range from mildly discomforting to seriously debilitating and share remarkable similarities to the consequences of substance abuse.
In terms of mental health, internet addiction is associated with increased hostility and aggression in real-life [11,12]. People who overuse the internet are also more than twice as likely as others to be depressed [13]. They are also more likely to suffer from insomnia and to abuse alcohol and tobacco [14].

Internet overuse can be detrimental to health

In addition, MMORPGs are known to precipitate seizures. Evidence suggests that these fits differ considerably from classical video game-induced seizures [12], which were first described in the early ‘80s. Their pathogenesis is multifactorial, involving photosensitivity, anxiety, emotional excitement, and fatigue.
While non-dependent internet users perceive the internet as having a productive, positive effect on their personal and professional or academic lives, dependent users perceive the opposite [15]. Time disruption seems to be the key factor in causing dependent users to perceive their use of the internet as having a negative impact on their lives.

All In Good Time
Experts believe that, when treating internet addiction, advocating complete abstinence is best avoided. Instead, they recommend using certain time management strategies to help achieve a ‘normal’ level of productive internet use [16]. Overall, a combination of cognitive behavior and motivational enhancement therapies seems to be the most effective strategy.
Internet addiction research is plagued by methodological issues that need to be addressed [17]. One particularly unsettling notion is that internet overuse itself may not be the problem. We may need to focus instead on treating the psychiatric conditions that are masked by the long hours spent online.

[1] http://tinyurl.com/3fm67w 
[2] Young, Cyberpsychol Behav, 1998
[3] Ng, Cyberpsychol Behav, 2005
[4] http://tinyurl.com/wowsubscr
[5] Ng and Wiemer-Hastings, Cyberpsych Behav, 2005
[6] http://tinyurl.com/nwtmeld
[7] Peris, Cyberpsychol Behav, 2002
[8] Morahan-Martin, Cyberpsychol Behav, 1999
[9] Lam et al, Cyberpsychol Behav, 2009
[10] Ko et al, J Adolesc Health, 2009
[11] Yen et al, Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw, 2011
[12] Chuang, Cyberpsych Behav, 2006
[13] Lam and Peng, Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med, 2010
[14] Kim et al, Nutr Res Pract, 2010
[15] Chou and Hsiao, Comput Educ, 2000
[16] Young, Innovations in Clinical Practice: A Source Book, 1999
[17] Byun et al, Cyberpsychol Behav, 2009

by Ahmed Khalil, PhD Student AG Fiebach
This article originally appeared in CNS Volume 7, Issue 4, Communication and Social Media

ENCODS 2016: An Insight Into the Publishing Process

ENCODS 2017 will also offer a number of workshops. One of our students attended the "Publishing Process" workshop last year:

The ENCODS 2016 program contained inspiring keynote lectures from various neuroscience fields, interesting talks by PhD students, lunch poster sessions, various workshops to choose from and offered, last but not least, a great opportunity to meet fellow students from 35 different countries. 

Publishing in a Top Journal
An especially interesting part of the program was the workshop “The Publishing Process” held by Alexander Arguello, Associate Editor of Nature Neuroscience. He gave us a professional insight into the processes of publishing and editing and was ready to discuss associated problems. He opened the workshop with a brief history of scientific publication and then explained the editing process at Nature Neuroscience, which is coordinated by eight editors. They receive and evaluate altogether about 250 papers per month and decide on rejection or review – at the end of this process, approximately 10% of the submitted articles are accepted. Besides considering the interest of the article for the typical reader of the journal, the assessment is mainly based on the abstract, focusing on clarity, novelty, scientific benefit and a plausible concept of the study. 

Good data visualization is key

Considerable focus is also placed on graphs and pictures, which should clearly convey the message of the paper without needing the actual text – nice images are always a plus! In the end, each editor alone, sometimes after consultation with his or her colleagues, has the final say on whether a paper goes into review or is sent back to the author. We concluded this part of the workshop by evaluating various abstracts that had actually once been sent to Nature Neuroscience for their chance to be published. This was not always easy to do at first glance!

Do We Still Need Printed Journals?
During the course of the workshop, we also discussed the problems and advantages of printed journals versus open access options. As more and more papers are published every year, it is hard and time-consuming to decide which articles are worth reading, especially if they are outside one's own research focus. Printed journals can serve as a “filter” and provide a selection of important articles. However, as they are intended to reach a broader audience (and pursue financial interests), they tend to follow certain trends, as is currently happening with the Zika virus or CRISPR. Moreover, especially widely read journals such as Nature do not always succeed in identifying revolutionary, paradigm-shifting ideas. In fact, those are often published in smaller journals – so don’t feel bad if your paper doesn’t make it into Nature!

 Printed journals tend to follow fads

The majority of the workshop participants were in favor of open access publishing, as it seems to make scientific results more transparent and can provide a platform for constructive discussion. Nonetheless, there is a certain danger of false data interpretation that might lead to a misunderstanding of scientific results by non-experts. A solution to this problem might be a database only open to experts from a particular field of science. 

Scientific Journal Editor As a Job Option
For those who are still undecided whether or not to stay in research after finishing their PhD, it might be worthwhile to know that being an editor in a scientific journal is actually a realistic job option. The work as an editor at Nature Neuroscience consists not only of the above mentioned tasks, but also of travelling to various conferences to keep up with the latest developments in science. So, if you are looking for a job without all the worries about grants, funding and temporary contracts this might be a career option for you. Just go to the website of your favourite journal to check for open positions!

by Anna Pfeffer, PhD Student AG Steiner
This article originally appeared in September 2016 in "Happy Anniversary MedNeuro" 

A Journey to ENCODS 2016:A Conference Organized By and For PhDs

Still time to register for Encods Alicante Spain - the neuroscience conference for doctoral students until March 1st . The main goal of ENCODS meetings is to provide European PhD students with the opportunity to embrace the challenges of their research from a multidisciplinary outlook. Valérie Boujon attended the conference last year and highly recommends to participate

From June 28th to July 3rd 2016, many interesting speakers and neuroscience leaders attended the European Neuroscience Conference by Doctoral Students 2016 (ENCODS) that took place in Helsingør, Denmark and was already the third edition of this young conference. Previously it had taken place in Bordeaux, France in 2013, and in Sesimbra, Portugal in 2015. 

Enrichment on scientific, human, and personal levels

 

It is organized by and for doctoral students in all fields of neuroscience and from all over the world (out of around 100 participants, 35 nationalities and 46 universities were represented!). The meeting offers numerous benefits for young scientists, as it provides a friendly, interactive and intimate environment that enables students to exchange ideas about their research and network in an easier way than at other major scientific conferences.

Beautiful Denmark

The picturesque location was a charming, romantic hotel right by the Baltic seaside in the port town of Helsingør, about 45km away from Copenhagen. The rooms were tastefully decorated and each one was shared by two participants who initially did not know each other, strategically placed by the organizers to encourage social interactions from the very beginning. The program was well-organized to make use of the available time and consisted of a combination of keynote lectures, students’ talks, workshops and diverse social activities. There was just no time to feel bored.

Plenty of Fascinating Science

The keynote lectures were given by renowned scientists, such as Dr. Randall Platt, who shared with us how he developed the Cas9 mouse during his PhD at MIT; Dr. Tania Rinaldi Barkat, who gave us insight about her research in understanding the development and function of the auditory cortex; and Prof. Poul Nissen, who talked about his boundless knowledge of the structures and mechanisms of membrane transporters in the brain. All the same, the time for students’ talks was not overlooked and ranged from alcohol addiction to rhythmicity of medial septal neurons and neuroimaging of cognitive reserve. Typical poster sessions were substituted by “speed dating lunches”, during which participants had the opportunity to share knowledge and converse about their posters informally over lunch. A number of workshops were also offered, covering topics such as motivation and self-management, presentation skills, the publishing process (see page 17) and scientific creativity.

Board Games, Banquets, and Castles

In the evenings, after gourmet dinners, we were entertained with some nicely organized social activities. On the first evening, a scientific version of the board game Clue was on the menu, during which teams had to find out who the murderer of an unfortunate scientist was, what type of weapon had been used and in which part of the lab the crime had been committed. In order to answer these questions, the different teams had to collect a maximum of points and clues by answering some tricky questions, writing a song and solving a puzzle. 

Neuroscience meets... Shakespeare?

The second evening was a real surprise: a guided night tour of the Kronborg Castle, which is Denmark’s most famous castle, where the play Hamlet by Shakespeare was set. The Renaissance castle was built by the Danish King Eric VII in 1420 and used to be Denmark’s most powerful castle, as it controlled the entrance way to the Baltic Sea and collected toll from the many ships navigating through it. The castle’s ballrooms were some of the greatest in Europe at the time and Frederik II, together with his young wife, would hold huge banquets during which each guest would be served 24 dishes! The third and last evening was not as hedonistic as the times of the Kings of Kronborg, but still pretty enjoyable as it started with a gala dinner set around large round dining tables, softly covered with pristine white tablecloths. This was followed by a dancing “White & Black” Ball, accompanied by salsa and 90’s hits.

Not To Be Missed

Those three days were definitely a blast, as they were not only an enrichment at the scientific, but also at the human and personal levels. They helped me open my mind and widen my knowledge about neuroscience's unfamiliar domains. The workshops helped me train my communication skills and gave me insight about what it is like to work as an editor for a scientific journal (see page 19). Plus, I had the chance to meet extraordinary fellow PhD students that turned into international friendships! Hence, I highly recommend that all the MedNeuro PhD students take part in next year’s ENCODS, which will be held in Alicante, Spain ... or in 2018 right here in Berlin!

by Valérie Boujon, PhD Student AG Endres
This article originally appeared in September 2016 in "Happy Anniversary MedNeuro" 

Berlin's Neuromarketing Startups

Berlin is known as a startup factory, with many young businesses cutting their teeth here. With neuromarketing perhaps one of the youngest fields on the block, it is not surprising that it is well represented in this city.

Apple Emotions
When most people hear the term “neuro”, a pretty image of a brain with colourful patches pops into mind. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), otherwise known as “brain scanning”, has become the poster child for all things neuro, representing neuroscience's sexy side in the public eye. That is marketing appeal just waiting to be tapped, and that is exactly what the startup INCORE has done.

 Apple users elicit an emotional reaction to the brand unlike samsung users

They have capitalized on the appeal of fMRI by offering it as a neuromarketing service, proposing that market research on consumers inside the scanner will lead to a deeper understanding of how brands are perceived. With Dr. Simone Kühn of the Max Planck Institute at the scientific helm, they claim to “measure the unconscious emotional reactions of targ[et] groups” via fMRI [1]. They have done studies on brand perception of international giants such as Coca-Cola and Apple, with results suggesting that Apple users have an emotional reaction to the brand which is absent from Samsung users. Obviously, this is no cheap service, but perhaps the appeal of brain scanning will be strong enough to draw business in.

Measuring "Unconscious Emotions"?

FMRI might be prohibitively expensive for most companies, but there are cheaper alternatives out there. Berlin seems to have an abundance of attention-modeling startups, offering scientifically grounded analysis of media design, such as websites, to improve layout and maximize profits. Attention determines where we look and for how long, and companies are obviously keen to get this right when they are trying to communicate with a customer via a webpage or advertisement. 
One way to measure attention is with eye tracking. By directly measuring where users look, you know what has grabbed their attention and what has not. The startup Emolyzr does just this, in combination with other measurements such as electromyography and skin conductance. Specifically, Emolyzr claims to measure the “unconscious emotions” of users, although what exactly they mean by this is not clear [2].

SMI Eye Tracking, via flickr

 Attention: With or Without Humans?

Although cheaper than fMRI, eye tracking is also not without its costs. Another startup, Attensee, replaces eye tracking with mouse exploration [3]. Users are presented with a blurred version of the website, and as they move their mouse cursor around the screen a small portion of content is revealed. This is cheaper and faster than eye tracking, while still returning real participant data.
However, in the dog-eat-dog world of marketing, it is all about money and speed, and the startup EyeQuant attempts to push both of these to the bottom line by removing the participant altogether [4]. Instead of relying on human subjects to indicate what is attention grabbing, they implement a fully computational saliency and attention model, reducing both time required for a result (allegedly within seconds) and potentially cost as well. Of course, the highly complex model behind EyeQuant is itself validated against human eye tracking data.
But even so, modeling human behavior is a tricky business, and perhaps the main criticism of the method is that it is not always accurate (a claim that Attensee makes explicitly) [3]. However, with such speed and potential cost efficiency, and with saliency godfathers Prof. Laurent Itti and Prof. Christof Koch on the team, it is not surprising that Google has been a client already.

Check Your Brain App
Although not strictly neuromarketing, I could not help including the nascent startup BrainModes here. BrainModes aims to make neurofeedback available to the general public via an app. On their website, they state:
“We are developing the BrainModes app to visualize the brain activity of the user measured with BCI (brain-computer interface) devices, even if they have no prior experience. The visualization of brain activity is based on state-of-the-art computational neuroscience and brain imaging: a novel technology to provide detailed visualizations of brain activity based on sparse information collected with brain computer interface technology.” [5]
The idea is incredibly cool, and although they do not go into details about just what types of BCIs they will be working with, the notion that anybody could get a glimpse into the workings of their own brain via an app is tantalizing. It is unclear from their website whether the app will be commercial or not, but the team also appears to have been involved in some pretty wacky art installations involving neurofeedback. You can see a video of one of their previous projects here.


[1] http://www.incore-berlin.com/
[2] http://emolyzr.de/  
[3] https://www.attensee.com/
[4] http://www.eyequant.com/
[5] http://www.brainmodes.com/

by James Kerr, MSc Student, International Experimental and Clinical Linguistics
this article originally appeared December 2015 in "Money on My Mind"

Neuromarketing

SALE! Everywhere you look these days. Are these campaigns and advertisements simple sales strategies or is this already brain manipulation?

Source: Laura Moreno Velasquez

When you go shopping, do you end up buying much more than you had planned? Our mind is active and receptive all the time to different auditory, visual, and even olfactory stimuli. Companies and sellers know exactly how to get our attention. Have you noticed for instance how you have to cross the entire store just to go to another floor or to reach basic items?

Marketing has always sought to understand not only the needs of consumers but also their preferences and emotions in order to improve advertising and sales. Given the difficulties that marketers have faced trying to measure our minds and especially our emotions, the new discipline 'neuromarketing' has emerged.

Inside the Consumer's Brain

Neuromarketing is “a multidisciplinary field of research whose aim is to investigate the consumer's reaction to advertisements from a neuroscientific perspective” [1]. In other words, neuromarketing applies specialized and well-known techniques in neurosciences such as electroencephalography, galvanic skin response, electromyography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and eye tracking in order to measure and analyze emotion, attention, and the memory of consumers and try to unravel how our brains decide what to buy [1].

Only 15% of our decisions are made consciously

At least 70% of new products launched worldwide, tested by traditional techniques like interviews or surveys, fail within the first six months [2]. This happens because only 15% of our decisions are made consciously, whereas the rest is decided by our subconscious [3]. Neuromarketing seeks to be more accurate than traditional methods by measuring the unconscious and spontaneous reactions of the consumers when they are confronted with diverse stimuli.

Neuromarketing vs Neuroeconomics

Neuromarketing is often compared to and confused with neuroeconomics. While neuroeconomics focuses on individual and group choice, judgment, and decision-making, neuromarketing investigates how a distribution of choices can be influenced or shifted from one pattern to another [4].

This is where I start to wonder about the real purpose of neuromarketing. It is not any more about understanding our minds in order to satisfy our necessities, but about finding a way to manipulate our choices simply to boost consumerism. Neuromarketing is not necessarily intended to benefit the consumer by offering better products. Its main purpose is to enrich companies or sellers at the expense of the consumer.

Neuromarketing’s Challenges

Being a very recent discipline, while promising, it faces some challenges to overcome. First, implemented techniques require high cost equipment, which makes it unapproachable for small companies. Besides, these techniques can be also very invasive for the participants of the study.

Second, there are no defined standards yet for either measurements or analysis. Thus, any result can change based on the methods applied, measured parameters, and most importantly, the analysis of the data, depending on the scientist behind the research. 

Personally, I think ethics is the major problem to be solved in neuromarketing. On the one hand, data is taken directly from our brain and I am not sure how comfortable people feel being literally “read”, particularly because this information could be used widely for many other purposes, besides sales, as you can imagine. On the other hand, neuromarketing techniques are closely associated with the manipulation of our brain and, as already mentioned, we - as consumers - don’t even benefit from it. Therefore, if this field wants to survive, grow and attract people, it should start redefining itself and offering a real contribution to society.

[1] Vecchiato et al., Comput Math Methods Med, 2014

[2] http://bit.ly/1hoRuXY 

[3] http://bit.ly/QG5Nug 

[4] Breiter et al., Front Hum Neurosci, 2015

by Laura Moreno Velasquez, PhD Student AG Schmitz

this article originally appeared in December 2015 Volume 08 issue 4 in "Money on My Mind"

Shaping Tomorrow’s Scientists

On Monday two members of the Medical Neurosciences Graduate school visited the Friedrich-Gymnasium in Luckenwalde to talk at the ocassion of "Tag der Wissenschaften".
Berlin’s young neuroscientists are dedicated to public science engagement and at conveying science to young people in and around Berlin!

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Tag der Wissenschaft in Luckenwalde
For the past few years, the MedNeuro program has been taking part in the annual Tag der Wissenschaft (Science Day) at the Friedrich-Gymnasium in Luckenwalde (about 80 km south of Berlin). Last year, Mariana Cerdeira and Ahmed Khalil attended the event, which took place in February. It spanned a whole day where high school students could listen to talks by scientists, participate in experiments, and learn about science careers.
Mari spoke about daily life in a neuroscience laboratory and gave the students an introduction to stroke models of study. My talk was split between speaking about my own career path, the similarities and differences between working in clinical medicine and biomedical research, and the basics of magnetic resonance imaging and its use in medical practice.
Several of the students seemed intrigued by a career in science and asked about the employment prospects, day-to-day challenges, and perks of being a scientist. I was also glad that they were interested in practical issues that the media has helped to bring to the public’s attention recently, such as how to recognize when someone is having a stroke and what to do.

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Brain Awareness Week
Last year’s Brain Awareness Week (BAW), a worldwide campaign led by the Dana Foundation, was a resounding success. The Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, and MedNeuro organized over a dozen events between the 14th and 18th of March.
The program included a viewing of Pixar’s film Inside Out for primary school children. Depicting the delightful adventures of tiny anthropomorphized emotions inside an eleven-year old girl’s brain, the movie was followed by a Q&A with Professor Isabel Dziobek from the Humboldt University's Institute for Psychology.
Five PhD students (Henriette Edemann Callesen, Mariana Cerdeira, Judith Houtman, Lucille Alonso, and Katharina Ohrnberger) also took part in talks with 11th graders at the Berlin Metropolitan School.

A workshop on eye-tracking at the Brain Awareness Week 2016, taking place at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience. Source: Margret Franke

Aiming to explain the important role that mathematics has to play in neuroscience research, Dr. Michael Scholz of the Technical University of Berlin gave a workshop on “Computing Neurons”. The participants were given a basic introduction to the brain and its function, followed by principles of mathematical modelling of neurons - in the end, they could try their hand at modelling neuronal circuits on a computer.
For anyone who’s been following the news and has wondered to what extent humans and great apes can verbally communicate, the BAW addressed this, too. In a workshop at the Humboldt Graduate School, Dr. Richard Moore from the Berlin School of Mind and Brain discussed the science behind such publicity stunts as Koko the gorilla addressing a United Nations summit in Paris about climate change.

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Long Night of Science
The last  “cleverest night of the year”, as it’s also known, took place on June 11th 2016. All of Berlin’s major neuroscience institutes took part in organizing a series of lectures, discussions, and demonstrations for the public. 

At the Max Delbrück Center (MDC), the night was long and full of knowledge. Besides their usual tour of the MDC laboratories, there were over 80 different events on offer in Campus Buch. Serenaded by some smooth jazz, four researchers presented their work to the public at Café Scientifique. There was also plenty to do for kids, who could participate in a series of small experiments, collect stamps and receive a “researcher’s certificate” at the end.

Primary school children learning about the structure of the brain at Die Gelbe Villa, an educational center for youth in Kreuzberg. Part of the Brain Awareness Week 2016. Source: Inken Dose.

It was a record-breaking year at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain this year. More than 1,500 people of all ages joined this year’s Long Night of Science events, which included memory experiments highlighting the critical role of the hippocampus, a Science Slam, and a talk on how our brains react to food and drugs.






by Ahmed Khalil, PhD Student AG Fiebach
this article originally appeared in Volume 09 Issue 3 Happy Anniversary MedNeuro

Brain Activity in Love

Is love a mere secretion of chemicals in the brain? And if so, what are the differences between the various forms of it that we experience? Understanding the biological basis of love is a prerequisite to addressing these issues, and recently a lot of scientific research has been directed towards this topic.

Love. Love for God, for wife, for family, for food, for art. The most important aspects of our lives are defined by this strongest of all emotions. Yet we seem unable to define it properly, leading eventually every discussion about it to, at best, a compromise. Is love a mere secretion of chemicals in the brain? And if so, what are the differences between the various forms of it that we experience? Understanding the biological basis of love is a prerequisite to addressing these issues, and recently a lot of scientific research has been directed towards this topic.

The Arrows of Love
As expected, a variety of neurotransmitters are involved in the generation of this unique experience. In particular, waves of dopamine secreted by the hypothalamus flood the brain and recruit certain areas causing a feeling of euphoria and jubilation. At the same time, the neurotransmitter serotonin is depleted, causing the obsessive behavior often described in people who are in love. This association stems from the observation that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder have similar low serotonin levels. Vasopressin, a hormone associated with aggressive behavior among males, and oxytocin, responsible for the contractions during labor, have also been shown to increase when in love [1]. The above changes have been documented specifically for “romantic” and “maternal” love, indicating a close relation between them and constituting a possible parallel to Freud’s Oedipus complex.

The Coordinates of Love
These hormones and neurotransmitters exert their activity in a plethora of specific brain areas, including the medial insula, anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, striatum, and hypothalamus. This activity can be roughly summarized as the activation of the subcortical dopaminergic reward-related system and the areas that it projects to. In a parallel manner, brain areas such as the frontal and prefrontal cortex, amygdala and temporal poles are deactivated [2].
The known functions of most of these areas are consistent with the description of the feelings we experience when in love. For example, the striatum is associated with rewarding feelings and is activated by dopamine - so are the insula and the anterior cingulate gyrus, responsible for mediating emotions and somatosensory integration. On the other hand, the frontal and prefrontal cortex where logical planning and decision making take place are deactivated, partly explaining the irrational behavior and lack of judgment seen in many people that are in love. The parietal cortex and parts of the temporal lobe, linked to negative feelings and depression, are also deactivated [2,3].
On the other hand, the role of the amygdala, a known regulator of fear, is not as simple. Vasopressin and oxytocin seem to exert opposite actions on the activity of the amygdala, increasing and decreasing it respectively, with the effects of the latter prevailing eventually and leading to an experienced lessening of fear [1]. The majority of the above evidence is provided by the results of fMRI studies in which the participants were shown a picture or the name of their beloved partner or of their child.

Are there indeed Different Forms of Love?
Although “romantic” and “maternal” love and sexual arousal share common features in brain activity, there are crucial differences that distinguish them. In the case of maternal love, there is a stronger activation of the brain areas responsible for face recognition, consistent with the need to recognize quickly one's child’s facial expressions and act accordingly. Another region that was found to be activated only in the case of “maternal” love is the periaqueductal gray matter, an area involved in endogenous pain suppression.
Moreover, activation of the same hypothalamic regions has been documented in the case of sexual arousal and “romantic” love, but not in the case of maternal love. In all forms of love, however, the activation of the subcortical dopaminergic reward-related brain system and the deactivation of cortical areas that lead to an impairment in judgment is similar and pronounced, indicating the common aspects they share [3].

The Functional Role of Love
As pragmatic and harsh as it may sound, from an evolutionary point of view, love serves very specific purposes and its intensity as an emotion is totally justifiable. The strong activation of the reward systems that strengthen the bonding between the couple, and between the mother and the child, ensures the unity of the family, increasing their survival chances in a demanding environment [3]. Even the irrational behavior that makes a man defend his partner if a threat is presented, and a mother thoughtlessly sacrifice herself in order to protect her children, could be interpreted in the same way. 

Looking in the Mirror
Although we sometimes regard love as a feeling over which we have no control, fMRI studies suggest otherwise. Cortical areas, such as the angular gyrus, that control complex cognitive behaviors such as social cognition and self-perception are activated even when we are presented with implicit love stimuli, suggesting that love is also a cognitive process.
The mirror neuron system consists of neurons that are activated by the execution and the observation of object-related movements and normally participates in the perception of our surroundings and our actions. This system has been postulated to additionally mediate emotion recognition and social cognition. Located mainly in the insula and anterior cingulate gyrus, areas also activated during the experience of love, it has been suggested that mirror neurons facilitate the understanding of feelings and the prediction of the intentions of others, also providing feedback for the generation of our own feelings [4].

In other words, love is a mutual feeling that gives positive feedback to itself; we need to feel loved in order to feel love in return and vice versa! No matter how logically we try to approach love, using strict scientific terms, in the end love conquers all!


[1] de Boer et al, Neuroscience, 2012
[2] Ortigue, J Sex Med, 2010
[3] Zeki, FEBS Lett, 2007
[4] Ortigue, Med Hypotheses, 2008

By Andreas Antonios Diamantaras, Master's Student Medical Neurosciences
This article originally appeared June 2014 in Vol. 07 - Issue 2 "Neuroscience of Love".  

Stockholm Syndrome: A not-quite love story

Fed up with all the love stories you heard in the last days? Here comes a "not-quiet love story" for you:

by EneKiedis via DeviantArt

Love is complicated. While many may spend a sleepless night worrying about finding “the one”, getting together with “the wrong one” can be just as problematic. When taken to the extreme, developing romantic feelings for an inappropriate mate can be confusing, or even dangerous.
Stockholm syndrome is used to define a cluster of symptoms related to inappropriate feelings from a victim towards an aggressor. Within this framework, “positive” actions of the abuser such as withholding abuse are interpreted as signs of love and affection, and the victim begins to develop empathy toward their captor. The name stems from a famous case in the 1970s, a hostage-taking at a Swedish bank in which the victims developed close bonds with their captors and eventually defended them in court [1,2]. Since then, many more cases have been documented, including many linked to forms of domestic and childhood abuse. Though rare, this syndrome has appeared to capture the public imagination [2].

SIMILAR BEHAVIOR MAY BE OBSERVED IN ANIMALS

 


More formally, Stockholm syndrome forms a part of  “Complex post-traumatic stress disorder” [2].Unfortunately, information about its neurobiological correlates is lacking. Evolutionary psychologists have written extensively about Stockholm syndrome, explaining it as an adaptive mechanism to avoid social strife. The story goes like this: a prehistoric woman is kidnapped from her clan, and must survive to protect her children. Making friends, or better yet, a sexual connection with the abductor provides a higher likelihood of survival, and this type of coping strategy is carried on to the next generation. It’s an imperfect story, yet similar types of submissive behavior may be observed in primates or other animals [3,4].

THERE IS STILL SO MUCH TO UNDERSTAND

 


While important for understanding the nature of Stockholm syndrome, these “just so” stories from the animal kingdom are still a long way away from explaining its neurobiological correlates. If nothing else, however, it shows us just how easily (and frighteningly) our feelings may adapt to life-threatening situations. Somewhere between “heart” and “mind”, there is still so much to discover and understand…


[1] Bejerot, “The six-day war in Stockholm”, The New Scientist, 1974
[2] Fitzpatrick, “Stockholm Syndrome”, Time, 2009
[3] Carson and Price, Aust NZ J Psychiatry, 2007
[4] Speckhard et al, Traumatology, 2005

by Constance Holman, PhD Student AG Schmitz
This article originally appeared June 2014 in Vol. 07 - Issue 2 "Neuroscience of Love".