How Exercise Enhances Aging Brains

DYAO! Grin. Sedentary, older adults who took aerobic dance classes twice a week showed improvements in brain areas critical for memory and thinking.

The Power of a Smile —

When we smile, our body releases endorphins. Dopamine, serotonin are all the ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitters that get activated. The mere act of smiling can change our brain chemistry too, and spur a powerful chemical reaction in the brain that makes us happy. According to Ron Gutman, the author of ‘Smile: The Astonishing Powers of a Simple […]

The Power of a Smile —

Glacier!!!

Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Two person ship launch against glacier base.

Summer was the season for our visit to the edge of eternal, for now, Patagonian ice fields. Remnants from the last ice age, larger than some (small) countries. The site is surprisingly noisy with sharp, explosive, ice crackles.

More amazing even than the sounds, the dark shading on the ice is volcanic dust from recent eruptions of many cones.

Click this link for my series of posts about Chilean fjords and glaciers we visited February 2016.

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

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¿Corredores que venden tierras indígenas robadas en Facebook? … ¡Solo el escándalo más reciente en una continuación de siglos de saqueo y destrucción! — (Brokers selling stolen indigenous lands on Facebook? … Just the latest scandal in centuries of looting and destruction!) Barbara Crane Navarro

La selva amazónica es el hogar de una de cada 10 especies conocidas en la Tierra – Ignacio Palacios “Somos habitantes de los bosques y no queremos que nuestra gente muera. ¿Los blancos probablemente piensan que su Dios logrará eliminar del cielo la epidemia de humo de sus fábricas? Están equivocados. ¡El cielo … se […]

¿Corredores que venden tierras indígenas robadas en Facebook? … ¡Solo el escándalo más reciente en una continuación de siglos de saqueo y destrucción! — Barbara Crane Navarro

Stounhendž i Ejvberi, Velika Britanija – Stonehenge and Avebury, United Kingdom — Myrela

Ko je izgradio Stounhendž? Vijekovima su na to pitanje pokušavale da odgovore desetine legendi i svakojake ozbiljne i manje ozbiljne hipoteze. Da li su to bili Kelti, Saksonci, stari Egipćani, Rimljani ili narod Atlantide? A ko zna, možda i posjetioci iz svemira? Ili je – kako tvrde neki – kamene blokove “strateški” postavila grupa fanatičnih […]

Stounhendž i Ejvberi, Velika Britanija – Stonehenge and Avebury, United Kingdom — Myrela

Who built Stonehenge? For centuries, dozens of legends and all kinds of serious and less serious hypotheses have been trying to answer that question.

The real generosity|سخاوت واقعی

A Voice from Iran

181st story

Sara was a waitress in a restaurant.

It has been a little while that her washing machine was broken, and she was saving money to buy a new one.

She was a single mother and had to work very hard to be able to cover their living costs.

One of the nights at the restaurant, Sara handed the menu to a couple with a smile. The couple said: “It is our anniversary tonight.

We have been laid off because of the economy, and looking for a job, so please bring us the cheapest food on the menu. We really can’t afford it, but it is a special night we couldn’t ignore it.”

Sara brought a bottle of champagne. The couple got worried; Sara shook her head and said: “Don’t worry about the price. Yes, I remember, the cheapest on the menu.”

Then Sara served two great dishes that…

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Cuttlefish Pass Marshmallow Test

Cuttlefish are amazing little critters. They are cephalopods (along with octopus, quid, and nautilus), they see polarized light and can use that to change their skin color to match their surroundings. They have eight arms and two tentacles, all with suckers, that they use to capture prey. They, like other cephalopods, are also pretty smart. And now, apparently, they are also in the very elite club of animals who can pass the marshmallow test.

The “marshmallow test” is a psychological experiment of the ability to delay gratification. The basic study involves putting a treat (like a marshmallow, but it can be anything) in front of a young child and telling them they can have it now, or they can wait until the adult returns at which time they will be given two treats. The question is – how long can children hold out in order to double their treats? The interesting part of this research paradigm are all the associated factors. Older children can hold out longer than younger children. The greater the reward, the more children can wait for it. Children who find ways to distract themselves can hold out longer.

For decades the test and all its variations was interpreted as a measure of executive function, and correlated with all sorts of things like later academic and economic success. However, more recent studies have found (unsurprisingly) that there can be confounding factors not previously recognized. For example, children from insecure environments have not reason to trust that adults will return with more treats and therefore take what is in front of them. This could be seen as an adaptive response to their environment.

In any case – the core phenomenon seems robust. At the very least it requires a certain amount of self-control and perhaps some metacognition to be able to inhibit a desired behavior for future gain. Which animals have passed some version of this test? Chimpanzees are the best documented. Not only will they wait for a larger reward, they will find ways to distract themselves to help them do it (demonstrating metacognition – self-awareness of their own mental state). Some other primates, corvids, parrots, and dogs have also demonstrated some ability at delayed reward. This list makes sense – these are all animals who have demonstrated cognitive abilities rare in the animal world and associated with humans.

We can now add cuttlefish to the list, and this also makes sense because cephalopods have also previously demonstrated good problem-solving skills. The research not only shows that cuttlefish can delay gratification – wait for a greater reward – but that smarter cuttlefish were able to do it better. The researchers tested the ability of the cuttlefish to learn associations, and the ones who performed better were able to hold out longer on the marshmallow test. This reinforces the notion that some degree of cognitive ability is required in order to delay gratification.

This may also be a specific skill, not just a marker of overall cognitive power. In other words, perhaps there is some specific selective pressure that favors individuals with the brain wiring to delay reward. What would that be in cuttlefish? This is where evolutionary speculation comes into play, but this is what the authors surmise. Cuttlefish are predators, but they are also prey. They use camouflage and hide in order to avoid being eaten, which means before they get to eat they have to wait patiently until the coast is clear. A juicy morsel may swim by, but the cuttlefish has to stay hidden because there are also predators nearby. Cuttlefish who could not control themselves were more likely to get eaten.

This scenario makes sense, and perhaps could be tested by seeing, for example, if there is a correlation between average wait times for hunting prey and chance of becoming prey among cuttlefish. In any case – there is probably a combination of overall general intelligence and the specific ability to delay gratification at work here. Another way to look at this, which fits with the evidence, even with people, is that gratification can be delayed if there is another cognitive factor at work that is stronger than the immediate desire to obtain the treat.

This seems to come down to math – various factors are being weighed affecting the final decision. In the case of the marshmallow test, it is not just a binary choice – there is also the amount of time that an individual can hold out. So this experimental paradigm may be optimal for weighing various factors. As mentioned, for example, the bigger the later reward, the longer people can hold out on average, without any apparent upper limit. It’s a calculation. Much of our decision-making may be similarly calculated (at least in the aggregate), just not as obvious.

It’s hard for us to imagine what is happening inside the mind of a cuttlefish, a product of a distant evolutionary path. But there is some convergence here, probably because some things are fundamental and basic, like calculating optimal outcomes.

The post Cuttlefish Pass Marshmallow Test first appeared on NeuroLogica Blog.

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