Author Archives: sara

The Power of Power Naps

A student napping in a library. Source: Flickr Creative Commons. Image by: umjanedoan

A student napping in a library. Source: Flickr Creative Commons. Image by: umjanedoan

Many of us already know how lack of sleep can be detrimental, whether it be from personal experience or simply because we have been taught that sleep deprivation is bad for our health. Unfortunately, due to school, work, or other reasons, some people simply cannot afford a good eight hours of sleep every night; but that does not necessarily mean that they cannot be healthy! The key to survive short nights of sleep lies in the power of ‘power naps’. A short nap, ranging anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour, can have extraordinary benefits in terms of health and memory, even if someone is sleep deprived.

As shown in a recent study conducted by a group of neuropsychologists at Saarland University in Germany, a power nap of 45 to 60 minutes can significantly improve learning and memory. Indeed, the researchers asked participants to remember single words and pairs of words (e.g., milk-taxi); half of these participants were then allowed to take a short nap after the learning phase, while the other half watched a DVD. Surprisingly, compared to the DVD group, the ‘nap’ group performed significantly better when recalling the word pairs. This can be explained by the fact that memories are consolidated, or strengthened, when we sleep (either over night or during daytime napping), and that stronger or efficient consolidation leads to better chance of recall later on.    

Memory performance was assessed by recall of words or word pairs. Source: Flickr Creative Commons Image by: Chris Blakeley

Memory performance was assessed by recall of words or word pairs.
Source: Flickr Creative Commons Image by: Chris Blakeley

Adding to the benefits of enhancing learning and memory, Dr. Faraut from the Université Paris Descartes-Sorbonne in Paris, France, found that even just a 30-minute power nap is enough to counter the negative effects of a poor night of sleep. Indeed, in their recently published study, suggests that napping can help the immune system as well as the neuroendocrine system to recuperate from lack of sleep. The proper functioning of these systems are crucial for humans in order to protect us from diseases, regulate our digestive and respiratory systems, as well as to relieve stress.

Bearing the benefits of power naps in mind, students pulling ‘all-nighers’, along with other sleep-deprived individuals, should definitely consider spending some time napping here and there. This would allow their brains to consolidate newly formed memories as well as allowing their bodies to counter the damage done by lack of sleep.

This short video offers a quick summary of the benefits behind power naps, take a look!

This video was uploaded to Youtube by AsapSCIENCE

 

Sara Larivière

Forget about the ‘Near Miss’

A 7-7-7 winning combination on a slot machine.  Source: Flickr Commons Image by: Bev Wager.

A 7-7-7 winning combination on a slot machine.
Source: Flickr Commons
Image by: Bev Wager.

Pathological gambling is a relatively common disabling psychiatric disorder characterized by an inability to control gambling. Such pathological gamblers continue to gamble away their money despite repetitive and important losses that eventually negatively impact their lives. The ‘near miss’ theory has attempted to explain this kind of gambling behavior as well as how gambling can become a serious addiction.

Near misses’ are defined as failures that are close to being successful. This special kind of failure is useful in games of skill, as it can provide useful feedback to the participants, however, in games of pure chance, such as slot machines, crabs, poker games, or even the lottery, a ‘near miss’ does not carry any useful information as to what will happen next. In slot machines, for instance, a ‘near miss’ occurs when two reels of a slot machine stop on the same symbol on the pay out line, and that same symbol is found on the third reel either on the line above or below.

‘Near-misses’ do not provide any feedback for players in games of chance, unlike in games of skill. Source: Flickr Commons Image by: maorix.

‘Near-misses’ do not provide any feedback for players in games of chance, unlike in games of skill.
Source: Flickr Commons
Image by: maorix.

Back to our addicted gamblers, an interesting study has shown that ‘near-misses’ are perceived in different ways by different types of gamblers. Indeed, brain regions associated with wins in pathological gamblers are highly activated when they encounter ‘near misses’, whereas, in non-pathological gamblers, brain regions that are associated with losses are highly activated. This phenomenon is highly problematic as the activation of these ‘winning brain regions’ causes the reward system in the brain to be activated. Indeed, further studies have also shown this phenomenon in addicted gamblers by looking at dopamine activity, a chemical substance in the brain associated with rewards. Their results show that dopamine is released in high amounts when pathological gamblers encounter ‘near misses’. This dopamine activity is in turn associated with constant rewards,  which reinforces the gambler’s behavior to continue gambling despite losing.

Although pathological gambling is unlikely to be fully explained solely by the ‘near miss’ theory, this theory can in fact be a useful tool in attempting to treat individuals that suffer from this disorder. In particular, pathological gamblers could be trained to see themselves as constantly losing as opposed to see themselves as constantly nearly winning.

This short video clearly explains the ‘near miss’ mindset of pathological gamblers:

 

Sara Lariviere.

Can Lucid Dreaming Provide Insight into Psychosis?

Psychosis is a serious mental disorder, how can we treat it? A is for psychosis. Source: Flickr Common. Credit to: Al Shep

Are the characteristics of dreaming and the characteristics of the psychosis of mental illness similar to some extent? As it turns out, both dreaming and psychosis share many similar cognitive peculiarities, with the most common being a lack of insight into current mental state. With this in mind, neuroscientists are tackling a new approach that could allow psychotic patients to gain insight into their own pathological state. This approach consists of understanding lucid dreaming, a rare phenomenon where the sleeping subject is conscious that he or she is dreaming, thereby gaining insight into their dreaming state. In other words, scientists believe that by understanding how lucid dreamers come to be aware that they are dreaming, they can use this knowledge to teach psychotic patients to gain insight into their illness.

In my opinion, psychosis is one of the most debilitating conditions of all psychiatric disorders as the majority of people suffering from psychosis have no insight into their pathological state. I believe a good way to study this “lack of insight problem” would be to use lucid dreaming as a new therapeutic approach in order to train patients to gain insight into their own mental states. The idea of such a model has already been proposed to study this loss of touch with reality but was wholly speculative, until recently. Indeed, in a recently published paper, researchers examined the activation of neurons in the brains of both lucid dreamers and psychotic patients. Their results showed that the impaired brain regions of the cerebral cortex in psychotic patients who lack insight into their pathological state highly overlap with brain regions activated during lucid dreaming. That being said, if we further study the phenomenon of lucid dreaming, and how lucid dreamers get to be aware of the fact that they are dreaming, we could use this approach as a viable treatment option for those suffering from psychosis and lacking insight into their disorder.

One such treatment approach is metacognitive lucidity training, where subjects are not only trained to develop self-reflective thoughts but also are also trained to develop a conscious understanding of their own mental state. This treatment has been used in a variety of mental disorders, such as phobias and nightmare therapy, where subjects can improve their capability of self-reflecting. By assessing this therapeutic approach to individuals suffering from schizophrenia, or other psychotic disorders, these patients might learn skills that lucid dreamers gave developed in order to gain insight into their state of mind.

One possible limitation with this type of approach, however, is the fact that this phenomenon of lucid dreaming is quite rare. Nonetheless, I still believe that further research on the topic could be a great tool to shed light on the psychotic state present in mental disorders such as schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia. Source: Flickr Creative Commons. Credit to: Dejenee Shiflet.

Psychosis is most often characterized by a loss of touch with reality and a lack of insight. Schizophrenia. Source: Flickr Creative Commons. Credit to: Dejenee Shiflet.

 

If you feel like experiencing a brief simulation of a psychotic episode, watch the video below!

Source: Youtube. Credit to: braschlosan

Sara Larivière