Insomnia Foods #3

Did you know that Indian curry and other heavy spices can keep you awake at night? In a study conducted in Australia, young men who poured Tabasco sauce and mustard on their dinner had more trouble falling asleep and experienced less deep sleep than men who ate blander dinners. Spices can also cause heartburn so avoid them in late-day meals. Blander definitely appears to be better in the hours before you intend to fall asleep. Relegate heavy spices to earlier in the day. Avoid combining spicy and high-fat foods in a late-day meal, too. Together, they can give you twice the potential for sleep-wrecking.

Your Thoughts and Happiness

Have you ever said to yourself, “I can’t be happy because _____________.? That’s a most unfortunate communication to your brain. A sense of happiness does not depend on circumstances alone. Happiness depends largely on how you prepare yourself for everyday living and the way in which you react to circumstances. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2010) reported that some adversity can actually make you stronger. Individuals who have experienced some adversity have the advantage of being toughened up to take on challenges later in life. They tend to be happier than those who have not experienced some adversity. Those experiences of adversity can function as doorways to positive change, as long as you view them as learning experiences and building blocks to achievement, and avoid getting caught in the mire of “I can’t be happy because _____________.” Balderdash! Of course you can! Feelings always follow thoughts. Think empowering thoughts and choose to be happy.

Dump Unwanted Thoughts

What can you do to stop thinking unpleasant thoughts? According to Richard Petty PhD, professor of  psychology at Ohio state and coauthor of a recent study, you can simply throw them away. For example, in this series of experiments, people who had unwanted and unpleasant thoughts, wrote these thoughts down on a piece of paper. Then they promptly tore the paper in pieces and threw it away. As the brain observed them discarding the paper, it discarded the unwanted thoughts mentally, as well. The people who did not tear up and discard the paper but stuck it in a pocket instead, were more likely to refer back to the thoughts. And if you've written down the unwanted thought and shredded it and it comes back, write it down and dump it again . . .

FOXP2 Gene and Language

Studies identifying the association of the gene associated with language in humans, FOXP2, have also discovered that this gene plays a part in language expression in other species. Four-day old male rats were found to have more FOXP2 in their brains than female rats. No surprise, the males made more noise than females. However, when researchers increased the levels of the protein in the female pups and decreased it in the male pups, this sex diference was reversed. Other studies have shown that this "language protein" plays an important role in vocal communication in birds. And in a study of this brain protein in a small group of children, sex differences in the level of FOXP2 were discovered. What does this mean? For one thing, it raises the possibility that sex differences in brain and behavior are established earlier than previously thought and are more pervasive. My brain's opinion? Differences are here to stay. You can recognize them, learn to work with them, enjoy the differences, and have fun with them--or not.

Brain, Gender, and Speech

The average woman speaks more words per day than the average male. Some studies have shown that women talk at least three times as much as men. Other studies have shown that women tend to speak more quickly and devote a larger portion of brainpower to speaking. There have always been questions regarding the contribution of socialization versus biology. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of medicine have been studying a gene that was discovered in 2001¾FOXP2 appears to be essential for the production of speech. Study results (published in The journal of Neuroscience) have shown that the brains of girls have 30% more of this FOXP2 protein. Possessing more of this "language protein" in their brains could help explain the reason females are more talkative and perhaps the reason they also tend to be better at small talk. Each person has his or her own opinion of whether this is good or bad. Someone asked, "Is there a cure?" My response was, "A cure for what? It is what it is." 

Brain Size vs Function, Part 1

A recent PBS special has pointed out that big is not necessarily better when it comes to brain function. Studies have shown that the ability to makes tools requires a high level of thinking. So far, this ability has been identified in humans, elephants, chimpanzees—and crows, especially a group of crows indigenous to New Zealand. Relatively speaking, crows have very tiny brains. Nevertheless, they can figure out how to make a tool to make another tool to get food. They also can learn ways to adapt to change, which they teach to their offspring, that in turn pass the knowledge to the next generation. Not only that, they have a fairly sophisticaed family system. A pair, mated for life, rely on extended family members to help feed, protect, and teach the fledglings. Because their tiny brains appear to function much the same as chimps, researchers have referred to crows as “feathered apes.”

Musician Brains and Birthday Anniversaries

I love music. My Aunt Isabelle put that down to the fact that my mother (her younger sister) played the piano and sang songs for at least thirty minutes a day during my entire pregnancy. There may be something to that. Studies have shown that babies prefer the types of food their mothers ate during gestation. Reportedly I was begging for a piano by age three and by age four, a sturdy Frenchman in Montreal strapped a piano to his back and hauled it up 57 stairs to our apartment. I have had the privilege to become personally acquainted with several individuals who I consider musical outliers. Roger Williams (born Louis Jacob Weertz) was one. I fell in love with his piano arrangement of “Autumn Leaves” when I was ten years old and remember telling my mother how happy I was that he had been born. David H. Hegarty is another (he did not change his name). Composer, arranger, organ-piano artist, I fell in love with his music the first time I heard him play circa 1976. What is it that makes us catch a breath as we listen to the sounds their brains envision, assembled in a way that has never quite been done before? That’s the mystery of the human brain, both from the position of the artist as well as the listener. And both are enriched in differing ways. Roger’s birthday was October 3^rd and until his death in 2011 at 87, we exchanged letters and cards. David’s birthday is March 1^st. I’m glad he was born, too. Happy Birthday!