The Science of Lasting Happiness: Scientific American

I have personally found two different types of happiness. Immediate and persistent. Immediate comes from being relaxed and excited and immersing yourself in something that you enjoy... golfing, canoeing, going to a rock concert, flying RC airplanes, etc.

Persistent happiness seems to arise out of being in resonance with your intrinsic needs. If you need personal space and can't find it, if you need fresh air and are cooped up, if you need financial stability and are financially struggling, if you need companionship and don't have it, if you need quiet time and can't get it, if you need the energy of being out with a group and are stuck inside... all those things erode your happiness.

The Science of Lasting Happiness: Scientific American

How to Make—or Break—Memory: Scientific American

Worth a deeper read...

How to Make—or Break—Memory: Scientific American: "New evidence has been mounting to the contrary, however, since 1987 when an enzyme that carries out methylation was found in the neurons of adults. A study in this week's Neuron provides key evidence that DNA methylation—also known to occur as cancerous cells divide, when tumor suppressor genes are silenced—occurs in adult brains and can be triggered by environmental cues. Study co-author David Sweatt, a neurobiologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says the finding could provide new targets for treating mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and the autism-spectrum disorder Rett, conditions in which improper methylation switches off certain genes during development."

Case in Point -- NHL slaps Simon with 25-game suspension - Yahoo! News

NHL slaps Simon with 25-game suspension - Yahoo! News: "'I know what type of guy Chris is, and he's an honest guy. I saw the hit he took, and he lost control a little bit too much, and that's what it's all about,' Brashear, now with the
Washington Capitals, said after Saturday night's 5-2 loss to the Islanders. 'That's where it gets dangerous.

'A guy loses control, and you don't know what's going to happen. We try to stay away from those, and I'm sure after it happened, he looked at himself and said, 'What the hell am I doing?' It looked like he meant to do something else. Sometimes, guys have to pay the price, and I guess he's going to be one of them.'"

Was Chris Simon's action a deliberate act or revenge, or simply an overpowering urge to retaliate? A primal instinct that overpowered any sense of better judgment?

The question is less whether the punishment fits, but whether threat of punishment affects that type of decision-making. Hopefully along with a better understanding of neuroscience will be a better way to educate the subconscious mind on how to evaluate potential consequences.

Right from Wrong in the Justice System

Neuroscience - Law - The Brain on the Stand - Jeffrey Rosen - New York Times: "American law holds people criminally responsible unless they act under duress (with a gun pointed at the head, for example) or if they suffer from a serious defect in rationality — like not being able to tell right from wrong. But if you suffer from such a serious defect, the law generally doesn’t care why — whether it’s an unhappy childhood or an arachnoid cyst or both. To suggest that criminals could be excused because their brains made them do it seems to imply that anyone whose brain isn’t functioning properly could be absolved of responsibility. "

As we begin to understand the brain better, we will begin to understand that our actions are not entirely under conscious control. How do we determine what we can control and what we can't? Can a brain cyst or a chemical dependency which overpowers our decision-making processes be used to absolve us of responsibility?

Well said!

A Toast to Evolvability and Its Promise of Surprise - New York Times: "As scientists see it, these and others of nature’s fancy feats forward are clearly the result of large-scale evolutionary forces, but the precise mechanisms behind any given innovation remain piquantly opaque. For some researchers, the conventional gradualist narrative, in which organisms evolve over time through the steady accretion of many mincing genetic mutations, feels unsatisfying when it comes to understanding true biological novelty."

Modularity may be one part of the equation as the author mentions. I think a bigger part is the evolution of sexual selection and the ability to subconsciously recognize key traits in others, the effects of environment on how the brain experiences attraction and for whom, the mechanisms behind the transfer of epigenetic traits, and the processes by which cells fix transcription errors. Then there is similarly the notion of hybridization and rapid mutation in the presence of radiation... alas, we still have much to learn.

The Secret’s in the Neurons

Not much substance to these articles, but they point to interesting phenomenon.

The Secret’s in the Neurons - New York Times: "Groundbreaking spinal cord studies have shown that during development, certain proteins are released at ventral and dorsal sides of the cord, and their concentrations decrease across the cord. These protein gradients have been shown to play a role in the differentiation of nerve cells — what kind of cells form where."

Evolution and Religion

Evolution and Religion - Darwin’s God - Robin Marantz Henig - New York Times

I've always believed in a biological imperative driving us toward belief in a higher power. The biggest question for me though is whether that is a first-order biological process or a side-effect of having a biological predisposition toward social groups and hierarchical structures.

For instance, horses are naturally social and hierarchical in the wild, which is hypothesized to be why it is also easier for horses to look to humans for that leadership.

Similarly, wolves tend to be very social and hierarchical in the wild. Many breeds of dogs seem to need social companionship. That same need for social companionship seems to drive the comfort and pleasure we receive from being in a committed relationship. That sense of comfort is itself a neuro-chemical process.

I've also thought a lot about the "identification of traits in others" aspects to evolution lately. The idea here is that the ability to identify certain traits in other individuals is a key factor in successful sexual selection and in survival in general. Not only are we predisposed to recognize beauty (and especially facial beauty), we also possess a keen ability to recognize intellect in others.

I suspect horses and dogs also have this ability to recognize intellect and to decide whom to follow based on not just physical, but also intellectual prowess.

The ability to recognize intelligence in another individual of the same species would rapidly confer evolutionary advantage.

So in the end, from a neuro-chemical standpoint I think God may be an idealized abstract notion of intellectual perfection and the ideal leader hard-wired into the brain to set a pattern for selecting leaders and mates. Perhaps?

How to Grow a Super-Athlete

More details on the mechanisms behind neural development and the nature/nurture boundary.

The video is worth watching.

How to Grow a Super-Athlete - New York Times: "he heart of one of those breeding grounds, the Spartak Tennis Club in Mosco"