Chocolate Gorging Linked To Opium Chemical In Brain

A new brain study suggests an opium-like chemical may drive the urge to gorge on chocolate candy and similar fatty and sweet treats.

Researchers discovered this when they gave rats an artificial boost with a drug that went straight to a brain region called the neostriatum: it caused the animals to eat twice the amount of M&Ms they would otherwise have eaten.

The team also found that when the rats began to eat the chocolate-coated candies, there was a surge in enkephalin, a natural opium-like substance that is produced in the same region of the brain.

Findings

"Here, we provide evidence that enkephalin surges in an anteromedial quadrant of dorsal neostriatum contribute to generating intense consumption of palatable food," researchers write, noting that:

"Endogenous >150% enkephalin surges in anterior dorsomedial neostriatum were triggered as rats began to consume palatable chocolates," before concluding:

"These findings reveal that opioid signals in anteromedial dorsal neostriatum are able to code and cause motivation to consume sensory reward."

Insights Into Overconsumption

"This means that the brain has more extensive systems to make individuals want to overconsume rewards than previously thought."

"It may be one reason why overconsumption is a problem today."
The findings uncover a surprising role for the neostriatum, which until now has mostly been linked to movement. But there are reasons why this discovery in rats might reveal something about the human tendency for binge-eating:

"The same brain area we tested here is active when obese people see foods and when drug addicts see drug scenes."

"It seems likely that our enkephalin findings in rats mean that this neurotransmitter may drive some forms of overconsumption and addiction in people."

Urge Not Same As Liking

Enkephalins or similar drugs may exert their effect not by increasing a liking for chocolates, only the urge to eat them: not unlike the compulsive overconsumption that characterizes disorders ranging from binge eating to drug addiction.

Gene That Makes Women Happy Identified

Scientists have explained that the low-expression of the gene MAOA (monoamine oxidase A) is linked to higher levels of happiness in adult females. They added that they were not able to find such an association in men.

"This is the first happiness gene for women. I was surprised by the result, because low expression of MAOA has been related to some negative outcomes like alcoholism, aggressiveness and antisocial behavior. It's even called the warrior gene by some scientists, but, at least for women, our study points to a brighter side of this gene."  - Lead author, Henian Chen, MD, PhD

Even though females experience higher incidences of anxiety and mood disorder, overall, they tend to report greater happiness compared to men. Nobody has really understood why this is so. This new finding might help explain the difference between men and women, and provide a deeper understanding of how specific genes affect happiness.

The MAOA gene targets the enzyme that breaks down the same neurotransmitters that many antidepressants target, namely serotonin and dopamine (plus some others). Serotonin and dopamine are sometimes called "feel good" chemicals.

The low-expression version of the monoamine oxidase A gene encourages elevated levels of monoamine, which results in higher quantities of neurotransmitters remaining in the brain; this improves mood.

After several studies, it was found that women with the low-expression type of MAOA were much happier than women with no such copies. Women with one copy scored higher, and those with two copies higher still.

A similar proportion of males had the low-expression type of MAOA, however, they did not report any higher happiness levels compared to the other men. Put simply, the gene does not make men happier.

Why does this happiness gene affect women but not men?

Women have much lower testosterone levels than men. Possibly because higher testosterone levels found in men neutralize the happiness effects of MAOA.

We do not know whether MAOA has an effect on boys, which then wanes as their testosterone levels rise when they get older. Maybe men are happier before adolescence because their testosterone levels are lower.
Previous studies have shown that genetic factors are probably responsible for between 35% and 50% of the variations in people's happiness. It is important to pursue further studies to find out which specific genes impact on resilience and subjective well-being.

Our individual well-being and happiness are not decided by a just a single gene, and not even by a set of genes, but probably by a combination of a set of genes combined with life experiences.

Chen said:

"I think the time is right for more genetic studies that focus on well-being and happiness. Certainly it could be argued that how well-being is enhanced deserves at least as much attention as how (mental) disorders arise; however, such knowledge remains limited."

Our Brains Make Men And Women See Things Differently

According to a new study, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Biology of Sex Differences, men and women have different ways of using the visual centers of their brains. Experts suggest that while females are better at distinguishing colors, males are more sensitive to fine detail and rapidly moving stimuli.

There are high concentrations of the male sex hormone (androgen) receptors throughout the cerebral cortex in the brain, particularly in the visual cortex, which is in charge of processing images.

Guys have 25% more neurons in the visual cortex than females because, during embryogenesis, androgens are responsible for controlling the development of those neurons.

The vision of men and women was compared by a team of researchers from Brooklyn and Hunter Colleges of the City University of New York. The experts observed people over the age of 16 from both college and high school, including students and faculty. Both sexes needed to have normal color vision and 20/20 sight (with glasses or contacts was considered fine), in order to participate.

Scientists learned that the color vision of men was shifted, after they asked the volunteers to describe colors shown to them across the visual spectrum. It also became clear that male subjects needed a slightly longer wavelength to experience the same hue as the female subjects.

It was not as easy for men to discriminate between colors as it was for women, meaning that the males had a broader ranger in the center of the spectrum.

In order to measure contrast-sensitivity functions (CSF) of vision, the researchers used an image of light and dark bars that were either horizontal or vertical, asking the participants to decide which one they saw. When the light and dark bars were alternated in each image, the image appeared to flicker.

The investigators found, by varying how quickly the bars alternated or how close together they were, that at moderate rates of image change, volunteers lost sensitivity for bars that were close together, and gained sensitivity when the bars were farther apart.

Both males and females had a harder time resolving the images over all bar widths when the image change was faster. However, men had an easier time resolving more rapidly changing images that were closer together than the women.

Professor Israel Abramov, lead author, explained:

"As with other senses, such as hearing and the olfactory system, there are marked sex differences in vision between men and women. The elements of vision we measured are determined by inputs from specific sets of thalamic neurons into the primary visual cortex.

We suggest that, since these neurons are guided by the cortex during embryogenesis, that testosterone plays a major role, somehow leading to different connectivity between males and females. The evolutionary driving force between these differences is less clear."

You Can Learn While You Sleep, Says Study

New research from Weizmann Institute, published in Nature Neuroscience has discovered that people can actually learn during sleep, which can unconsciously modify their behavior while awake.

The study suggests that while people sleep, if certain odors are presented after hearing tones, people start sniffing even if there is no odor presented when they hear the same tones. This happens during sleep and even when people wake up.

There have been several past studies explaining the importance of sleep for learning and memory consolidation. However, none of them have been able to show the human brain actually learning new information during sleep.

Professor Noam Sobel, research student Anat Arzi, Sobel's team from the Institute's Neurobiology Department, and experts from Loewenstein Hospital and the Academic College of Tel Aviv- Jaffa, decided to try an experiment with a type of conditioning that exposes participants to a tone followed by an odor, so that they soon experience a similar response to the tone as they would to the odor.

The researchers found many advantages from pairing tones and odors, for example, neither wakes the subject, yet the brain processes them and even reacts during sleep. Certain odors actually even help the participants to have a sound sleep. On the other hand, sleep-learning studies are extremely difficult to conduct, so the experts had to make sure the participants were really asleep during the "lessons."

Associations made whilst sleeping appear to be retained after waking up.

The sense of smell, or sniffing, holds a unique non-verbal measure that can be examined. Results showed that the brain acts just as it does when it is awake when dealing with smells. When we smell a pleasant aroma we inhale deeply, and when we smell something bad we cut our inhalation short.

It didn't matter if participants were asleep or awake, this variation in sniffing could be recorded either way. This type of conditioning, while appearing so simple, is also associated with some higher brain areas, like the hippocampus (involved in memory formation).

In order to continuously monitor the subjects' sleep state, the subjects slept in a special lab during the experiments. Even if a participant woke up for a second, the results had to be disqualified.

During sleep time, the subjects heard a tone that was followed by either a pleasant or an unpleasant odor. Then another tone was heard, followed by an odor (at the opposite end of the pleasantness scale from what they previously smelt).

The associations were partially reinforced throughout the night, in order to expose the subjects to the tones alone. The volunteers sniffed deeply or took shallow breaths when they heard the tones without the odor, reacting the same way as if the associated odors were still present.

After volunteers awoke the next day, they heard the tones again with no odor following. Since they were asleep the night before, they had no conscious memory of ever listening to them, but their breathing patterns were showing something different. When the tones that were paired with bad smells were played for the subjects, they produced short, shallow sniffs; and when they heard the tones that were associated with nice odors, they sniffed deeply.

The team conducted a second experiment to find out if this type of learning was tied to a particular phase of sleep. In order to do so, they divided the sleep cycles into rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep where they induced the conditioning in only one phase or the other.

Researchers were surprised to see that the REM phase showed a more pronounced learning response. However, being able to transfer the learned association from sleep to waking was only found when the learning happened in the non-REM phase.

REM sleep may make us more open to stimuli in the environment, according to Sobel and Arzi, but "dream amnesia" (which makes people forget their dreams) may operate on any conditioning during that stage. Non-REM sleep, they explained, is important for consolidating memory, so it could also be playing a role in this form of sleep-learning.

Since Sobel's lab focuses on the sense of smell, Arzi hopes to further investigate brain processing in altered states of consciousness such as sleep and coma.

Arzi said:

"Now that we know that some kind of sleep learning is possible, we want to find where the limits lie- what information can be learned during sleep and what information cannot."

The science of human bonding

Bonding behaviors, or attachment cues, are subconscious signals that can make emotional ties surprisingly effortless, once any initial defensiveness dissolves.
Bonding behaviors are effective because they are the way mammal infants attach to their caregivers. To survive, infants need regular contact with Mom's mammaries until they are ready to be weaned. Bonding behaviors work by encouraging the release of neurochemicals (including oxytocin), which lower innate defensiveness, making a bond possible.
In short, these generous behaviors are the way we humans fall in love with our parents and children. Caregiver-infant signals include affectionate touch, grooming, soothing sounds, nurturing, eye contact, and so forth.
In rare pair-bonding mammals like us, bonding cues serve a secondary function as well (known as an exaptation). They're part of the reason we stay in love (on average) for long enough for both parents to attach to any kids. Honeymoon neurochemistry also plays a role, but it's somewhat like a booster shot that wears off. In contrast, bonding behaviors can sustain bonds indefinitely.
In lovers, bonding behaviors look a bit different than they do between caregiver and infant, yet the parallels are evident. These potent signals include:

· smiling, with eye contact
· skin-to-skin contact
· providing a service or treat without being asked
· giving unsolicited approval, via smiles or compliments
· gazing into each other's eyes
· listening intently, and restating what you hear
· forgiving or overlooking an error or thoughtless remark, past or present
· preparing your partner something to eat
· synchronized breathing
· kissing with lips and tongues
· cradling, or gently rocking, your partner's head and torso (works well on a couch, or with lots of pillows)
· holding, or spooning, each other in stillness
· wordless sounds of contentment and pleasure
· stroking with intent to comfort
· massaging with intent to comfort, especially feet, shoulders and head
· hugging with intent to comfort
· lying with your ear over your partner's heart and listening to the heart beat
· touching and sucking of nipples/breasts
· gently placing your palm over your lover's genitals with intent to comfort rather than arouse
· making time together at bedtime a priority
· gentle intercourse

There are some curious aspects to bonding behaviors. First, in order to sustain the sparkle in a relationship these behaviors need to occur daily, or almost daily. Second, they need not occur for long, or be particularly effortful, but they must be genuinely selfless. Even holding each other in stillness at the end of a long, busy day can be enough to exchange the subconscious signals that your relationship is rewarding. Third, there's evidence that the more you use bonding behaviors, the more sensitive your brain becomes to the neurochemicals that help you feel relaxed and loving.
Fourth, some items on the list above may sound like foreplay, but in one important sense they are not. Foreplay is geared toward building sexual tension and climax—which sets off a subtle cycle of neurochemical changes (and sometimes unwelcome perception shifts) before the brain returns to equilibrium. In contrast, bonding behaviors are geared toward relaxation. They work best when they soothe an old part of the primitive brain known as the 'amygdala'.
The amygdala's job is to keep our guard up, unless it is reassured regularly with these subconscious signals. To be sure, it also relaxes temporarily during and immediately after a passionate encounter. After all, fertilization is our genes' top priority. However, regular, non-goal oriented contact seems to be more effective as a bonding behavior. This suggests that loving foreplay preceding a wonderful orgasm is great...but can send mixed messages. Perhaps these contradictory subconscious signals account for the "attraction-repulsion" phenomenon lovers often notice after their initial honeymoon high wanes.
In any case, nurturing touch not only creates a space of comfort and safety.
Bonding behaviors are a practical means of restoring and sustaining the harmonious sparkle in a relationship...even with a partner who is snapping like an alligator. Combine them with gentle lovemaking with lots of periods of relaxation (and a minimum of sexual satiety signals via orgasm), and you may find that you can sustain the harmony in your relationship with surprising ease.

The Science of Kissing!

Some statistics to start with- 67% of men don’t mind a woman’s wearing lipstick when kissing, 53% of women prefer a clean-shaven man, and 33% of people open their eyes while kissing.

Women’s favorite spot to be kissed, other than the mouth, is the neck. Ninety-six percent of women reported that they like neck kisses, while only about 10% of men do, so a guy will not even believe that a girl likes being kissed on the neck because it doesn’t really do anything for him. So I tell guys to move or slide off the lips occasionally down to the neck, and that will produce big results; we demonstrate that onstage. Similarly, women like being kissed on the ears much more than men do.

So the odds a neck kiss will succeed on a woman are…1 in 1.04. What about men?

Men often respond most to the French kiss, whereas women often respond to a romantic kiss. Guys will say they’re not really getting excited unless there is some tongue contact, while girls will often say if you’re passionate and loving, a lip kiss is good enough. You don’t have to rush in and, you know, trigger the gag reflex with the tongue.

One girl says, “When I turn blue, doesn’t he realize it means I can’t breathe?” Another says not to use your tongue like a dart, but put some finesse into the French kiss. That’s the number one mistake guys make.

Women also complain that men don’t do enough variations in kissing, that they’re too machine-like or repetitive. Women would like a number of different kisses: the neck, the ears, “liposuction,” which is moving from the upper lip to the lower lip…be creative.

The number one mistake girls make is not opening their mouths wide enough, probably because the guy is trying to initiate a French kiss.

What are some of the more unusual kisses?

The most unusual is probably the Trobriand Islands kiss, from the South Pacific. The natives there groom each other, pull little twigs out of each other’s hair, and then they do a 3-step procedure—they begin by biting each other’s lower lip very vigorously, and then they pull their partner’s hair, and finally they nibble off their partner’s eyelashes—

I’m sorry, you said nibble off?

Yeah, they nibble on each other’s eyelashes and often they bite them off. It’s definitely different. It's a status symbol there to have short eyelashes, because it shows how popular you are. That’s probably the most unusual.

In Asia, they can be very shy. In the Japanese kiss, renamed the Shy kiss for the latest edition of my book, they just touch lips and then look left and right to make sure no one is looking.

Another very unusual kiss is the Eskimo kiss. Most people think it’s just rubbing noses, but it’s actually an 11-step procedure which includes pressing your nose into your partner’s cheek and inhaling while making a smacking noise, without kissing, to the side of your partner’s lips. What they’re doing is inhaling the hopefully delicious scent of their partner.

In a 2007 study published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology, a team of researchers led by psychologist Susan Hughes examined gender differences in kissing among college students and the evolutionary foundations for those differences. What they found indicates that kissing is as much a science as an art.

Kissing Chemistry

According to the study, men and women swap more than spit when they kiss; they share important biological information as well. This is because our facial area is packed with sebum-producing sebaceous glands that are controlled by sex hormones. When we kiss, sebum is released from the glands and mixes with our saliva. Swapping sebum, the researchers suggest, may help people assess the health and hormonal conditions of their partner before they commit to sex (a metabolically expensive activity) or long-term involvement. Chemical cues also help people, particularly women, size up potential mates. Hughes and her colleagues found that women tend to base a man’s kissing ability on the smell and taste of his mouth. This is probably because foul breath and bad taste (apart from being unpleasant) are often symptoms of larger health problems.

The Wetter the Better

Gallup’s study also found that men prefer wetter kisses with more tongue action. Dr. Helen Fisher, a professor of biological anthropology at Rutgers University in New Jersey, theorizes this is because the sloppier the smooch, the more saliva—and hence, hormonal information—is exchanged. In a 2009 interview on the radio program Earth and Sky, Fisher explained that our cheek cells absorb the hormones estrogen and testosterone that are exchanged during a wet kiss. Men, suggests Fisher, may use this hormonal input to subconsciously gauge their partner’s fertility and reproductive potential. A man’s preference for extra-wet kisses may have to do with the fact that men are less sensitive than women to chemosenses like taste and smell.

Is the First Kiss Key?

The first kiss on a first date is notoriously nerve-wracking. We instinctively sense that a lot is riding on our performance. And there’s good reason—for most people, a bad first kiss can end a relationship before it’s even begun. In a separate survey, Hughes asked people, “Have you ever found yourself attracted to someone, only to discover after kissing them for the first time that you were no longer interested?” The majority of both male and female respondents answered yes. But if a bad kiss can end a first date, can a good kiss prompt one? Probably not, according to Hughes’s original study, which found that most men (69%) and women (67%) don’t believe in starting a relationship with someone just because he or she is a good kisser.

The odds a woman will kiss her partner on their first date are 1 in 1.85, or about 54%.

My all time favourite... :) The Sense of Smell

It is widely accepted that unconscious processes can modulate judgments and behavior, but do such influences affect one's daily interactions with other people? 

Given that olfactory information has relatively direct access to cortical and subcortical emotional circuits, we tested whether the affective content of subliminal odors alters social preferences. Participants rated the likeability of neutral faces after smelling pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant odors delivered below detection thresholds. Odor affect significantly shifted likeability ratings only for those participants lacking conscious awareness of the smells, as verified by chance-level trial-by-trial performance on an odor-detection task. Across participants, the magnitude of this priming effect decreased as sensitivity for odor detection increased. In contrast, heart rate responses tracked odor valence independently of odor awareness. These results indicate that social preferences are subject to influences from odors that escape awareness, whereas the availability of conscious odor information may disrupt such effects.

Our noses are lot more powerful than we give them credit for. A man's nose can tell when a woman is ovulating:

Adaptationist models of human mating provide a useful framework for identifying subtle, biologically based mechanisms influencing cross-gender social interaction. In line with this framework, the current studies examined the extent to which olfactory cues to female ovulation—scents of women at the peak of their reproductive fertility—influence endocrinological responses in men. Men in the current studies smelled T-shirts worn by women near ovulation or far from ovulation (Studies 1 and 2) or control T-shirts not worn by anyone (Study 2). Men exposed to the scent of an ovulating woman subsequently displayed higher levels of testosterone than did men exposed to the scent of a nonovulating woman or a control scent. Hence, olfactory cues signaling women’s levels of reproductive fertility were associated with specific endocrinological responses in men—responses that have been linked to sexual behavior and the initiation of romantic courtship.

Source: "Scent of a Woman: Men’s Testosterone Responses to Olfactory Ovulation Cues" fromPsychological Science, Vol 21. No 2, 276-283

Clean smells can actually make you a better person:

Given the symbolic association between physical and moral purity, we considered a provocative possibility: In addition to regulating physical cleanliness, clean smells might also motivate virtuous behavior. Indeed, moral transgressions can engender literal feelings of dirtiness (Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006). Just as many symbolic associations, such as coldness and loneliness (Zhong & Leonardelli, 2008) or darkness and depravity (Frank & Gilovich, 1988), are reciprocally related (Lakoff, 1987), morality and cleanliness may also be reciprocally linked. We investigated whether clean scents could transcend the domain of physical cleanliness and promote virtuous behavior.

-Taken from www.bakadesuyo.com