It was interesting to see what our fellow countrymen had to say about the victims of tsunami two years on from the tragic disaster. It raised the queston of empathy in my mind- the ability of humans to understand what the others are experiencing and feeling.
From a social perspective empathy is important; it helps understand the suffering and emotion of others by putting oneself in the shoes of others. It aids bonding, social interaction, and is a vital element for us social creatures. It is beneficial to both community and the individual, and it is not surprising that the brain has evolved to empathise.
According to Decety and Jackson, empathy involves three main components. First is the unconscious automatic mimicry in the observer of the affective states and experience of the sufferer. It is supported by brain imaging studies - common neural circuits are involved in representing sufferer's and others’ affective painrelated states.
Second component is the cognitive ability to intentionally adopt the subjective perspective of others. This helps to put oneself into other people’s shoes and imagine what they feel. The aforementioned neural represenations between self and others are common but not absolute. This is important because "experiencing another’s distress state as one’s own experience could lead to empathic overarousal, in which the focus would then become one’s own feelings of stress rather than the other’s need". It is therefore vital to have the third component, selfagency and emotion-regulatory mechanisms, in order to maintain the boundary between self and other. To delve deeper checkout the whole paper, A Social-Neuroscience Perspective on Empathy.
Although we have empathy hard-wired into our brains, a person having the compassion to act on it or not is, of course, a different matter.
Got back from London yesterday, after attending the MSA AGM meeting which turned out to be a pleasant treat. I went there expecting to see people bickering about meaningless stuff but then the meeting turned out to be surprisingly civilised - perhaps as a result of all the dirty underwork being exposed just before the meeting commenced. Not that there wasn't trouble, heck someone tried to cook up some fuss from the forum of 2002! Guess some people have trouble letting the bygones be the bygones..
There wasn't a single moment this time in Rosemont where you couldn't hear laughter, be it morning, noon or night. No talk of religion, no talk of politics, it was everyone putting their differences aside and joining in for some wicked fun! The great ice-breakers (friend ok tha?, ok vaane kanneynge dhoaa), the games, the singing, the laughter..didn't we all thoroughly enjoy ourselves?
Fazal with his guitar entertaining the crowd..
You can download and listen to my favourite track by Fazal, "vakivumun". Huttey varey magey hih..roalaa varey dhe loa.. Russaalumah thibaa adhu..fohelaanamey dheloa..
I miss you guys. Terribly so. Sniff sniff..(frenge ma ok tha????). Luv u all.
Pictures! Ever since Subcorpus left a comment here about riha folhi, I've been having this obsessive pang of craving for it. And today, I got the perfect excuse to spoil myself
Me making the folhi
The final product tasted awesome thanx to Naaz and her newfound luv Luv you guys.
BURRRRRRP! *pats tummy* Yay! Can get a gud night's sleep now! zzZZ
Goodbye to the best year of my life - the happy times, the tough times, the frustrating times and the sad times.. I'm glad for all that because it gives meaning to my life.
Annnd howdy to an even better one! Starting off with the craving of the week: riha folhi!!
A patient with schizoaffective disorder describes what is going on in her head in this Times article, "A mind taut with pain".
Schizoaffective disorder is a mental illness where symptoms of schizophrenia alternate with that of bipolar symptoms. Schizophrenia is characterized by thought disturbances like - delusions (being convinced that something unreal is true, eg., you are the king of the world, or it was you who caused tsunami, or government is spying on you, etc). - hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that are not there, eg., visits by jesus, monks giving critical commentaries of every move you make, etc) -flight of thoughts (continuous uncontrollable talking, often without an objective, with a tendency to be interfered with their own thoughts (person could be talking abt his cat and in midsentence resort to a story of some hat cox cat and hat sound similar).
Bipolar is characterized by mood symptoms that alternate between intense sadness (depression) and intense happiness (mania).
When thought and mood distubances occur together, with thought disturbances being more pronounced, a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder is given.
Experiencing some of these symptoms is not enough to diagnose you, eg., being depressed for four days is not enough to say you are suffering from unipolar disorder. It is only when the symptoms are experienced over a prolonged period, and when they are debilitating to everyday life that the symptoms are considered serious enough to need medical intervention. Always consult a professional before convincing yourself that your own diagnosis is true. And one final note. If you scrounge through recent research articles, you will find that people who suffer from schizophrenia are not referred to as schizophrenics. This is an attempt to refrain from labelling, and to recognize the disorder as an illness that the patient is suffering from. Makes a difference!
I suggest you read through the Times article to get an idea of what it is like to suffer from schizoaffective disorder.
Ever woke up in a fit of anxiety unable to utter a word, move a muscle, and with the distinct feeling that there is a supernatural being in the room? A shadow perhaps? Or maybe the Old Hag sitting on your chest?
I had the experience once, two years ago. At the time I remember bearly being able to flop down onto the bed as I blackedout (was having period, stressful time for me) and a few minutes later I woke up with the feeling that somebody was standing behind my head between the bed and the wall, blowing down onto my head, enough to give me the impression that the top of my head was spinning. I tried to scream but my vocal cords were arrested. I struggled to look up to this 'supernatural force' and I couldn't move a muscle. Next I saw my flatmates storming into my room, calling out my name. I only fully came to when they nudged my knees to wake me up. It was over in a matter of seconds, but the experience stands vivid and real in my mind.
What I experienced was hypnopompic paralysis, which is a form of sleep paralysis that has been widely reported across populations from different cultures. Studies have showed REM atonia in individuals during the hypnopompic state. Hence, sleep paralysis is believed to be caused due to awakening of the brain from REM to fully awake state while the bodily paralysis of REM is still occurring, and is often accompanied by hallucinations.
These experiences are frequently observed in individuals with narcolepsy; its causes in the normal population has been attributed to stress, sleeping position, irregular sleeping schedules like naps and sleep deprivation, sleep medication and the like. While the most common experiences include sensing an evil presense, fear, and having breathing and other motor difficulties, the less common experiences include floating sensations, slipping into lucid dreaming and vibrations. Such episodes have inevitably been associated with jinnis, prophetic visions, alien abductions, telepathy, and ah, wat not?
Have you managed to have such a strong impact on one person's life that you've essentially turned the tides round for the better? That is exactly wat granny did to me. There's this song by Celine Dion, because you luved me, that I've sort of associated with her; it's like everytime I hear the song, it's my granny I think of. Heres the tidbits that rilly pour back memories..
For all those times you stood by me For all the truth that you made me see For all the joy you brought to my life For all the wrong that you made right For all the love I found in you I'll be forever thankful You're the one who saw me through.. through it all
You were my strength when I was weak You were my voice when I couldn't speak You were my eyes when I couldn't see You saw the best there was in me Lifted me up when I couldn't reach You gave me faith 'coz you believed I'm everything I am Because you loved me
You were always there for me The tender wind that carried me A light in the dark shining your love into my life You've been my inspiration Through the lies you were the truth My world is a better place because of you I'm everything I am Because you loved me
I'm trying to have this translated but it just sounds so ludicrous in dhivehi. Arrgh! Sigh! At over seventy she, who never flew alone her whole life, was willing to fly all the way from Male' to Manchester just to see me.. And she did fly alone, on the return flight from Gatwick to Male'. We have such different outlooks on life, hence plenty to disagree with, yet that doesn't stop us from luving each other with almost a vengeance.
Well, maybe I don't know that much, but I know this much is true: I was blessed because I was loved by her.
Kulhi kaja. A real treat when u r deprived of it, aye! Guess wot, I got some today, YAY!!, from me darling of a mom-in-law. Introduced it to me workmates, 'm pleased it went down well with them. Fire in ye mouth, that's how they described it. Reckoned it good for winter cox it apparently warmed 'em up Me, I was quite amused. There I was munching away merrily on the scrummy yummies while the rest of them brushed away watery eyes and sniffed up runny noses! Aye, aye, that didn't stop them from popping the kajas into their mouths, one after the other. Felt sorry for the Polish lad though, who looked no better than a pot of steaming water - guess he wasn't used to the Indian spicy stuff like the Brits are. Smashing time with them lot. Luved the name they dubbed kaja with: spicy crackers!
It is a common preconception that the embryo is just a ball of cells. Why? Because it's tiny. Minute. Far from it though, the embryo's rather busy, working out the blueprints into their exact beautiful forms. Here's a quick run through the development of the fetal nervous system and brain in the first trimester. After fertilization.. 10 days: embryo's cells separate into ectoderm (which later forms outer skin, nervous system), endoderm (digestive system, lungs) and mesoderm (bones, muscles, circulatory system). 17 days: neural tube appears from the ectoderm (differentiates into brain and spinal cord) 4 weeks: primitive structures of the brain - forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain- become recognisable. Size: 1/8th of an inch. 6 weeks: brain's basic units -thalamus*, cortex**, limbic system***- become recognisable:- *Thalamus - brain's switching board, receives sensory input and projects them onto relevant cortical parts of the brain for further processing. **Cortex - handles ability to percieve, communicate, move, thought, consciousness, etc ***Limbic system: drives emotion, motivation. Size: 1/2 an inch. 7 weeks: Pain receptors develop; peripheral nerves and connections within the spinal cord become functional, eg. able to move its head in response to a stimulus near the mouth. Size: 1 inch. 10 weeks: flexes the palms and curls the toes if touched. These are primitive reflex actions, attributed to lower brain areas, that start to subside from 17-18 weeks. They reappear after 6 months as the cortex wires into the neural network and starts recieving and processing sensory projections from thalamus. Size: 3 inches.
The main argument with CNS and embryo is the one related to the abortion debate; i.e., is the CNS developed enough to perceive pain at any given age. The conventional stance is that pain can only be perceived in the cortex and so the cortical areas have to be developed and wired into the neural network before a fetus can feel pain (not until 22-34 weeks). Others argue if the reflex actions observed in embryos could mean that lower brain areas mediate perception before they are taken over by higher cortical structures. Afterall, people born without cerebral hemispheres (cases of hydranencephaly and anencephaly ) can still perceive pain via the said lower brain areas.
Does a fetus not being able to perceive consciously mean it doesn't feel at all? Where do you draw the line between the embryo being 'meaningless goo' and it being a sentient living being?
I was almost swept off my feet several times today, not by a certain handsome gentleman *grrr, sigh* but by the frigging wind that's howling and gusting out there at over 40 mph. That would, I reckon, be enough to lift off some roofs back home.
Home..how I long to be there right now! To bath in the warm water, to swim with the fishes and to face creatures that instantly thrill, frighten and excite me. It was only recently that I touched a ray for the first time...and what a beautiful feeling that was. The rough texture, the warmth of its fleshy throbbing body, the slow mesmerizing flaps..seductive, and yet instilled a certain fear in me..
Inspite of my fear I wanted to feed it. I was advised against it though, cox these guys apparently came with very strong bony jaws which they use to crush clams, oysters, crabs and possibly my hand (poof..so there went my hopes through it's huge bony jaws *rolls eyes*). Moving on..
Jaa spotted a lionfish hanging around near the pier support-beams, and I was totally amazed by it (another first time). The way it changed its colours and moved its fins had me hypnotized for ages..Good that I wasn't in the water at the time cox I would prolly have followed it and got poisoned
Came across these wierd creatures on the sea bed while we were snorkelling. Camouflaged with the sand, the only bit visible was a pair of revolving eyes. Amused, we'd agitate the water to see it swiftly move and disappear; and away we went searching for the pair of eyes..Came to know last night that these are called sand flounders, or veli madi in dhivehi, and are potentially poisonous. Does anybody know if that's true cox I'm baffled as to why it didn't attack us. Afterall, we did pester them to bits!
Here is a severe case of epilepsy where cutting the corpus callosum alone wasn't enough. The docs had to remove almost half of a 6-year-old kids' brain. The show's a bit long, 1hr 4mins or so, but it's comprehensive and shows the actual surgery..go on and have a look if u r interested.
Split brain is a term used to describe a condition that arises when the nerve fibres connecting the two halves of the brain (cerebral hemispheres) are cut surgically. The surgery (corpus callosotomy) is performed to relieve seizures of patients with extreme and debilitating epilepsy. In cases of complete corpus callosotomy, the seizures become less severe or disappear altogether because seizures that start in one half of the brain are stopped from spreading to the other half. But it also leaves an interesting side effect in its wake.
Split brain research contributed immense evidence for the concept of brain lateralization. Information coming from the left half of the body are received by the right side of the brain, and information from the right side of the body are received by the left hemisphere. Depending on the type of information, processing takes place in either side of the brain; for example information regarding language and speech functions are specialzed and carried out primarily in the left hemisphere. This is where split brain patients with severed hemispheric connections show their shortcomings. For instance, an object presented while the right eye is closed (e.g. a spoon) is still perceived, but the patient fails to name it out loud because object in the left visual field is perceived in the right hemisphere and speech is left hemisphere dominant.
These effects are masked in day to day life of patients because both eyes are involved in perception. What it does show is how the two hemispheres are independent; to the point where speculations as to whether the two hemispheres are two different personalities have been put forward. Here is Ramachandran on split brain patients and religion.
Me, I was quite amused. There I was munching away merrily on the scrummy yummies while the rest of them brushed away watery eyes and sniffed up runny noses! Aye, aye, that didn't stop them from popping the kajas into their mouths, one after the other. Felt sorry for the Polish lad though, who looked no better than a pot of steaming water - guess he wasn't used to the Indian spicy stuff like the Brits are.
