Category: Psychology & Medicine

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Cranial Nerves

Posted on by Jinavie

Nerves can be divided broadly as spinal nerves and cranial nerves: the latter which is directly from the brain. There are 12 pairs of cranial nerves:

  1. CN I – Olfactory nerve (smell)
  2. CN II – Optic nerve (sight)
  3. CN III – Oculomotor nerve (eye movements, control of pupil and lens)
  4. CN IV – Trochlear nerve (eye movements)
  5. CN V – Trigeminal nerve (sensory information from face and mouth, chewing)
  6. CN VI – Abducens nerve (eye movements)
  7. CN VII – Facial nerve (taste, tear and salivary glands secretion, facial expressions)
  8. CN VIII – Vestibulocochlear nerve (hearing and sense of balance)
  9. CN IX – Glossopharyngeal nerve (taste, swallowing, parotid gland secretion, sensory information from oral cavity, information about blood)
  10. CN X – Vagus nerve (sensory and motor signals to and from many internal organs, glands and muscles)
  11. CN XI – Accessory nerve (movement of SCM and trapezius, which are neck/shoulder muscles)
  12. CN XII – Hypoglossal nerve (tongue movements)

As there are so many nerves and the names are all varied, there is a simple (yet very obscene) mnemonic to help medical students remember the names and order of nerves:

Oh, Oh, Oh, To Touch And Feel Virgin Girls’ Vaginas And Hymens
or
Oh, Oh, Oh, To Touch And Feel A Girl’s Very Soft Hands
(where vestibulocochlear -> auditory)

It is also worth noting the mnemonic for the types of nerves is:

Some Say Marry Money, But My Brother Says Big Boobs Matter More

Perhaps the only way to survive medical school is through humour.

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Alice In Wonderland Syndrome

Posted on by Jinavie

There is a disease called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. This causes patients to suffer massive migraines, while suffering visual hallucinations that alter their perception of what they see.
For example, they see objects as bigger or smaller than what they actually are, or even see them as upside-down. Because of this, people who have experienced this syndrome say that it was like living in a fairy tale. There is no known cure, but it is often temporary and will one day disappear like magic.

When you fall in love, the other person’s weaknesses seem smaller, their strengths seem bigger, and sometimes they turn your world upside-down. So is love like living in a fairy tale, or like suffering a disease?.

(Source: http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/120/e/9/Alice_in_Wonderland_by_UlaFish.jpg)

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Gaze

Posted on by Jinavie

A gaze is defined as “to look fixedly, intently, or deliberately at something”, but its true meaning is far deeper than that. In art and psychology, the “gaze” is described as a complex medium of communication between the subject and the object being gazed at. There are many theories as to what the gaze signifies.

A popular explanation is the exertion of dominance by the subject by gazing at an object. In essence, this act objectifies something, such as a painting or a person, placing it on an inferior level relative to the observer. This applies to the concept of the “medical gaze” – where the doctor can see the patient as just an anatomical body, or a holistic being with a soul – or the “male gaze”, which feminists claim to be the tendency for films to objectify women and play to the male audience, providing them with the power and dominance. In this case, the gaze acts as a projection of the viewer, placing himself as a dominant figure indirectly interacting with the female being gazed at in the movie. Although the male gaze itself is questionable, there is no doubt that people tend to project themselves into the characters in a movie through gaze.
This theory explains the uncanny feeling brought on by a gaze, as it gives the impression that you are being defined by someone’s gaze, whilst becoming dominated.

The gaze plays a vital role in the development of babies as they pass through what is called the “mirror stage”. This is when babies first conceive the idea of self, as they see an external image of themselves in the mirror. At this point, the baby’s gaze defines the external image (reflection) while the reflection’s gaze gives the baby an uncanny feeling of “self”.
The concept of the gaze has been well-known throughout history, and is reflected in myths such as the evil eye (that brings bad fortune to those being gazed at) or Medusa (the gorgon who petrifies those who make eye contact with her). Interestingly, the story of Narcissus shows the danger of gaze by misidentifying “self”.

Artists use this concept of gaze effectively by either letting the audience simply gaze at the picture, essentially letting it be defined only when being looked at, or invite the audience in a “conversation” with the painting. This can be achieved when characters in the painting are gazing at the audience, giving the illusion that they can actually see past the two-dimensional plane, gazing into the viewer’s eyes. This produces a strange feeling, while also giving the viewer a heightened appreciation for the painting as he/she feels at level with the painting. 
Furthermore, as the gaze is a two-way conversation, there are also examples of “setting oneself at gaze”. This means that they are exposing themselves to be gazed at, a common example being nude art. Of course, this ties into voyeurism and scopophilia, showing just how complex the meaning behind the word “gaze” can be.

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Power Of Thought

Posted on by Jinavie

The power of thought is extremely potent. Beliefs can drive people to extreme actions, or let those who lost everything pick up and carry on. Not only does this apply to religion, but all beliefs have a powerful effect on us.

The most easily observed effect is that the mind has over the body. In the 1950s, an accident occurred where a sailor was trapped in a refrigerated container on a cargo ship. There was plenty of food, but he knew he had no hope when his fingers and toes begun to go numb, and as his body started go stiff. Instead, he decided to record the pain and suffering of freezing to death on the wall using a piece of metal. By the time the ship arrived at the port, he had already frozen to death. However, the container was not refrigerated as it was not being used – the sailor had killed himself with the power of thought.
This shows how thought affects the way we perceive the world, which forms the basis of the placebo effect. If you give a patient sugar pills and tell them it is medicine, it is common to see an improvement in their health. This is due to the body’s amazing ability to repair itself, yet the brain believes the drugs helped it recover.

Thoughts and beliefs affect society as well.
Private property, the monetary system, authority and ethics are all products of the human mind. This is called the Tinkerbell Effect, where some things only exist because people believe in them. The name comes from how Tinkerbell from the play Peter Pan is revived with the belief of children.

Furthermore, believing can determine the future. In philosophy, there is something called the Thomas Theorem, which states that “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”. For example, if there is a rumour that a bank will go bankrupt, people will withdraw their money and cause the bank to go bankrupt. 
This theorem explains self-fulfilled prophecies, a type of prediction that causes the events to take place because of the prophecies. Horoscopes and fortune telling are largely based around this effect, where telling a person that “good things will happen” (or bad) will cause the person to think positive (or negatively) and result in them acting in favour of positive results (or negative). 
This strange phenomenon is described very well in the movie “The Matrix”. When Neo visits the Oracle, she tells him “Don’t worry about the vase”. When he says “What vase” and turns around, he knocks over the vase behind him, causing it to fall and shatter. The Oracle then questions whether the vase would have broken if she had not told him about it. A similar case is seen in “Terminator” and “Back To The Future”.

As shown above, thoughts and beliefs contain immense power, and all humans need to do to make a better world is imagine and believe in such a world. However, the problem is that we seem to be unable to utilise this potential.

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Sneeze

Posted on by Jinavie

A sneeze is caused by the body trying to remove something that is irritating the nasal cavity. To do this, it contracts many respiratory muscles instantly to create a powerful expiration. This produces a gush of air and the foreign material at a speed of over 150km/h, which can spread saliva and mucus at a range of over 2m. Therefore, not putting your hand over your mouth during a sneeze is an easy way to spread infections like the common cold.

An interesting fact is that one cannot open their eyes during a sneeze. This is not because of the urban legend that the eyeballs pop out if the eyes are open when sneezing, but part of the reflex and powerful contraction of muscles. Also, pinching between the two nostrils very hard can stop a sneeze reflex successfully.
Lastly, although sneezing is usually due to breathing in an irritant, some people have what is known as a photic sneeze reflex (also called the ACHOO syndrome), wherein they sneeze when stare into bright light such as the sun.

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Babinski Reflex

Posted on by Jinavie

Normally when you tickle or stroke the sole of your feet, the toes flex inwards. However, when a newborn’s feet are tickled or stroked, the toes spread outwards. This is known as the Babinski reflex, or Babinski sign. It is a primitive reflex that disappears before 12 months of age.
If this reflex is seen after that, including adults, it is a sign there is something wrong with the nervous system, especially the brainstem or the spinal cord.

A primitive reflex is one shown by newborns but disappears gradually as they develop. These include reflexes such as the walking reflex, swimming reflex and crawling reflex that shows actions that they have not yet learnt, or the rooting reflex and sucking reflex that ensures the baby’s survival.

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Doppelganger

Posted on by Jinavie

A doppelgänger is popularly known as a “double” of oneself, with the exact same appearance but usually with a completely different personality. 
It comes from German folklore (the word is German for “double walker”), where it is believed that seeing a doppelgänger is an omen of bad luck, possibly death. It is also said that meeting one’s own doppelgänger will result in one of the two dying. 
However, in modern times this concept of doppelgängers have been largely replaced by the first meaning, that of an alter ego who is only identical physically, and completely different persona-wise. This can sometimes overlap with the concept of an “evil twin”, as a doppelgänger is sometimes described to have an inverse personality, values and motives.

Although in most cases a doppelgänger is just a look-alike, it could be the result of the brain projecting an identical image of oneself in another space. 
It has been discovered that electrical stimulation of an area of the brain called the left temporoparietal junction causes the sensation that someone is next to you. This “someone” has the same shape and body posture as the subject, and is sometimes described as having a completely different personality. It is reported that this sensation is extremely unpleasant.
The cause of this phenomenon is that the area of the brain is associated with self-image, such as body posture, location and proprioception (sense of what oneself appears as in space). Therefore, a disruption leads to the self-image being projected elsewhere, which the brain then interprets as a doppelgänger.

There are similar mental disorders such as the Capgras delusion (belief that someone close has been replaced by a doppelgänger), Fregoli delusion (belief that many people are the same person in disguise) and subjective doubles (belief that one’s own doppelgänger is acting on its own to interfere with one’s life).

Doppelgängers are common plot devices in many works, especially fantasy and science fiction where the aforementioned “evil twin” concept is used. However, the doppelgänger may also be described as benevolent or simply a clone.
They are notably used in How I Met Your Mother, where each character has a doppelgänger completely different to their persona (e.g. Stripper Lily, Fertility Expert Barney).

 image

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Love And Heartbeats

Posted on by Jinavie

A thumping heart is often quoted as the first sign of love – a way of your body telling you that the girl or boy in front of you is what you desire.
But does love come first or does your heartbeat come first?

Although most people believe that their heart is beating faster because they’re in love, science proves that it is in fact the opposite.
An experiment was designed where male subjects were asked to answer a questionnaire given out by an attractive woman. One group had to cross a very long suspension bridge first, the control group had to cross the same distance on flat, solid ground. It was found that men from the first group were more likely to complete the questionnaire, give answers that were more romantic and sexual, and even call the survey girl afterwards.

Similarly, a group of men were shown four women while being connected to headphones that played back their own heart sounds. They were then asked to rate which girl was the most attractive.
After the experiment, it was found that the third girl received a landslide win, despite the different tastes of each man in the group. When asked, the subjects all replied that they heard their heart speeding up, thus believed that they found her the most attractive.
The twist was, when the third girl was shown, the audio was changed from the subject’s heartbeat to a pre-recorded heartbeat that beat faster than normal. Therefore, the men were fooled into thinking that the girl was more attractive by “increasing” their heart rate. This phenomenon was found in women also.

The answer to the question is that dopamine and serotonin, neurotransmitters secreted when a person is in love, also has the effect of increasing one’s heart rate. The brain therefore can misinterpret an increased heart rate as the effect of love through false association.
This effect is quite well known in dating tips as people are encouraged to go to places that invoke fear or excitement, such as an amusement park, horror movie, or high place to gain the best response from the opposite sex.
Ergo, science does play a role in love and just like anything else, it can be easily manipulated.

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Forer Effect

Posted on by Jinavie

Read the following passage, and rate out of 5 how accurately it describes you:

You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others’ statements without satisfactory proof. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your major goals in life.

Does it fit your personality quite closely? Interestingly, in a study of 150 university students, the average score given was 4.26 out of 5. This is actually composed of pieces of horoscopes by the psychologist Bertram R. Forer, who studied the psychology of horoscopes. As one could see (on retrospect), the above paragraph involves many sentences that would fit almost everyone.

It is through these broad yet somehow specific-sounding statements and the human psychology that the words describe exactly who they are that allow horoscopes and fortune tellers to gain such a profit.

Zodiac by Alphone Mucha (1869)

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Hiccup

Posted on by Jinavie

A hiccup is a common phenomenon that almost everyone experiences some time in life. The exact mechanisms are still not well known, but it is likely caused by an irritation of the phrenic nerve, which supplies the diaphragm, causing it to spasm and interrupt normal breathing.

This can be a very debilitating condition, and such there are hundreds of “remedies”, such as drinking cold water, holding your breath or giving the person a scare. However, these are often ineffective in taking away the ailment. 

One thing you can try is pulling your tongue. Although it may sound like a crazy treatment, it stimulates the vagus nerve which can stop a hiccup. However, note that this may be ineffective in many cases as well.

In some cultures, it is said that hiccups are brought on by eating something one stole off another person, or if others are talking about you in a bad manner.
The world record for the longest attack of hiccups is held by Charles Osborne, who had it for 68 years.