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This press release is copyright Scientific American Mind.
VOL. 21 NO. 6 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011
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This press release contains:
• Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Get Attached
The pain of exclusion
Feeling blue about brainpower
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The full articles highlighted below are available on the Nature Press Site: http://press.nature.com/press and are also now live at www.scientificamerican.com.
Get Attached (p 22)
The attachment style exhibited by adults could predict the success of their romantic relationships, according to Amir Levine and Rachel S. F. Heller in the latest issue of Scientific American Mind.
Like children, adults display attachment behaviors, especially in romantic settings. Three attachment behaviors—secure, anxious, and avoidant—exhibited by children towards their mothers had previously been documented. Levine realized that these same behavioral styles can be seen in adults: secure people feel comfortable with intimacy; anxious people crave intimacy and are overly preoccupied by their partner’s ability, or inability, to love them back; avoidant people look at intimacy as a loss of independence and try to avoid closeness. Understanding these types of attachment and how people with different attachment styles interact can help people pick better partners and evaluate their current relationships.
A healthy relationship is important to healthy living. As Levine and Heller state, “If you want to take the road to independence and happiness, first find the right person to depend on and then travel down it together.”
Author contact:
Editors at Scientific American Mind are available to comment on this topic; please contact the Press Office.
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The pain of exclusion (p 30)
Even brief incidences of ostracism, whether involving close friends or complete strangers, trigger activation of the brain’s pain centers, which can lead to sadness, anger and lower self-esteem. In a feature in the January/February Scientific American Mind, Kipling D. Williams discusses the latest research on ostracism and proposes ways of minimizing and recovering from the sting of being excluded.
Using a computer game called Cyberball that he and his colleagues devised, Williams studied how almost 1,500 people from 62 different countries react to being suddenly left out of a ball tossing game that they had been playing. “These studies revealed that even subtle, artificial or ostensibly unimportant exclusion can lead to strong emotional reactions,” writes Williams. Moreover, regardless of how socially skilled or extroverted you are, you still feel intense pain from the experience, though some personalities deal with that agony better than others.
As a first response to ostracism, Williams suggests escaping the scene to avoid acting aggressively, which may further degrade your social status. In the aftermath, he advises distracting yourself to skirt negative thought patterns and to work on fortifying or rekindling your other social ties.
Author contact:
Editors at Scientific American Mind are available to comment on this topic; please contact the Press Office.
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Feeling blue about brainpower (p 54)
Vaccinium cyanococcus—or the blueberry, as it’s more commonly known—may boost brainpower and memory and protect us from the effects of age-related cognitive decline. Writing in this issue of Scientific American Mind, Mary Franz outlines research supporting the connection between blueberries, among other fruits and vegetables, and cognition. She also describes work that reveals some of the possible brain processes involved.
Blueberries contain compounds called flavonoids that researchers believe can improve general cognitive function. Regular consumption of these compounds could even provide protection against disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. To date, more than 6,000 different flavonoids have been identified. In addition to fruits and vegetables, these compounds appear in cereal grains, cocoa, tea, wine and chocolate.
According to Franz, researchers have found high levels of enzymes called kinases in the brains of mice fed a blueberry-rich diet. Many types of kinases are essential to learning and memory. Thus these enzymes provide a possible link between flavonoids and cognition, although other molecules are also likely to be involved.
The science doesn’t currently reveal which flavonoid-containing food has the greatest potential for enhancing learning and memory. However, Franz concludes that eating any flavonoid-rich food is probably better than taking supplements.
Author contact:
Editors at Scientific American Mind are available to comment on this topic; please contact the Press Office
E-mail: [email protected]
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