brainhealthhacks.com

In my continued search of further brain stimulation on my current trip I visited some art galleries in Chelsea (Chelsea art galleries) (in NY city). Supposedly over 300 galleries between 10th and 11th avenues and 19th and 29th streets. I didn’t see anywhere close to 300 but I did randomly explore quite a few.

Yesterday, I posted about my visit to the metropolitan museum of art - that was good in many ways but a bit disappointing (with the exception of the ancient Egyptian carved walls). But today the art galleries were highly inspirational and stimulating. This might be due to the art I saw today was new and live - not the art of history. I did not know the name of the artists so I had no preconception, I simply walked in and let my eyes and mind explore. The galleries were vibrant with life - fresh paint, fresh thoughts. Now not all the art was personally stimulating to me and I wonder which of the multitudes of artist will ever ‘make it’? Though that mabye doesn’t matter, they are out there trying, living their dream.

One particular gallery really caught my interest. The art was in what I assume the edgy comic book genre. You could see, feel the inspiration, the drive, the flurry of thoughts and these simple but detailed and interesting mostly black and white panes. Very cool and interesting. I took some photographs which included the name of the artist so I can investigate later. Additionally, there was a gallery with some big carved granite installation that were impressive. I am sure there is plenty more to explore - if I can find the time tomorrow in my last day in NY city.

Art is alive in well in NY city.

Go out and explore art in your area - be it a singer playing a tune at a nearby bar, a poet slamming in a cafe, an artist’s painting hanging in a local gallery, or a novelist in a nearby coffee shop (though this one is difficult to really enjoy :)) - stimulate your brain.

I previously did a post (last week) regarding a paper published in Science that found in humans if you warm their hands they both judge strangers as ‘warmer’ but also more willing to pick up a gift for a friend instead of for themselves. Additionally, cooling the subjects hands had the opposite results.

I proposed that possibly the old saying – cold hands warm heart (and vice versa) needs to put to rest. However, I have been doing some rethinking and possibly I spoke in haste.

One thing that got me rethinking about this idea is many of the most warm hearted individuals I know are females with constantly cool to cold hands.

In the cited study they manipulated the baseline temperature of these subjects. So maybe it doesn’t matter if you are cold or warm handed – but rather what is important is the change in hand temperature. An alteration in homeostasis to either colder or warmer will influence your thoughts of strangers, or you likelihood in gift giving.

What part of the brain is involved in detecting temperature changes in our hands – the insula (insular cortex). Interestingly, the insula has also been tied into components of the system of trust and empathy (here, here and here). But since the insula, involved in trust and empathy, also plays an important role in detecting changes (for homeostasis purpose) in temperature (e.g. hand) it is possible that since it is more likely for a naturally cool hand to be warmed up, as compared to an already hot hand, therefore maybe there is a bit of truth to the saying; cold hands warm heart.

Image via Wikipedia

(The insula is also involved with disgust, possibly including moral disgust. I could probably write a hundred blog posts just on the insula but I won’t (currently) bore you readers).

Now some might argue that I am making too much out of this one somewhat oddball study even though it was published in the high impact Science journal. However, there are at least another papers that touches on a similar theme.

Cold shoulder:

Zhong and Leonardelli (2008) examined social inclusion and exclusion and how it affected subjects ‘coldness’ (via livescience). In this first study they asked subjects to recall being rejected from a social group – such as a club, and also a time when they were accepted. Then they asked the subjects to perform an unrelated task immediately after their imagination of the two circumstance of estimating the temperature of the room. While the actual room temperature did not change those that imagined being rejected by a group on average estimate the room temperature at 71 degrees, while the group that imagined acceptance reported 75 degrees (a statistical significance difference). Four degree difference while not a huge difference does support the cool and warm feeling we might feel depending on being accepted or rejected.

In the second study the researchers used a computer simulated game of catch among a group of participants where the program could be rigged to exclude a subject (making them feel socially isolated) or include them in the game of catch. After the simulated game of catch the researchers offered the participants a range of drinks: crackers, apple, hot soup, cold coke, hot coffee. The subjects that were excluded were more likely to pick a hot food/beverage compared to those that were included in the game of catch. This would suggest that when we feel rejected we do feel cold and reach out for something warm to comfort us.

Take home considerations:

Social isolation, in its various forms, appears to make a person judge their environment as colder and for them to feel cold and isolated and therefore seek out nourishment in the form of warm food and beverages to comfort themselves.

And on the flip side if a peripheral component of your body (e.g. hands) are warmed or cooled it changes your judgment of strangers and your gift giving.

Your actual baseline hand temperature might have nothing to do with how you judge strangers or your kindness – but it is the change in hand temperature that possibly signals through the insula which affects our social outlook.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Social Isolation Makes People Cold, Literally
• An icy stare might be more than a metaphor

This is a follow up of the post last week regarding David Foster Wallace’s (DFW)  memorial (see also death of a genius) and remembrances. One of the memorials was at Amherst college, which he attended, and the audio is available here (also see howlingfantods for a complete rundown of the various memorials). It is an hour and half long, which I can understand you don’t all have time for, but I would recommend:

1) The last 12 minutes

Where two close friends talk about DFW, including his interview for Amherst college which sounds like it inspired a similar scene in Infinite Jest. The last 5 minutes chocked me up.

2) From 8 minutes 30 seconds to around 13 minutes.

DFW did not believe in genius would bubble up to the top no matter what the situation, but rather DFW believed everything was based on a series of contingencies. DFW might not have believed in genius in general – though everyone around him (and those that read him) considered him one. DFW also felt like a fraud, and the only way to soothe this constant voice in his head calling himself a fraud, and accused him of being selfish, was by writing.

Additionally, everyone is praising the piece in the Rolling stones magazine (part of the piece can be found here, but for the full version you need to pick up the magazine).

Related articles by Zemanta

• David Foster Wallace’s Early Years At Amherst [Writing]
• Remembering Writer of ‘Infinite Jest’
• Authors remember David Foster Wallace

Several memorials and remembrances (see howlingfantods.com for full details) are being held around the world for novelist David Foster Wallace (DFW) (see death of a genius).

A DFW memorial is being held by by Little, Brown (open to public), scheduled for Thursday, October 23rd, at 4pm at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at NYU.

In Italy there is a 3 day happening Oct 28-30th: (see http://carovecchioneon.wordpress.com/)

In Vancouver, Canada there is a remembrance on Friday October 24^th, 2008 at at the Granville Island Hotel Dockside Lounge from 7 PM onwards, and will include readings and ruminations.

After finishing the new novel by Neal Stephenson (Anathem) I have started to re-read David Foster Wallace’s 1000+ page novel Infinite Jest, as I promised to myself, and I am even more impressed the second time through it.

I am even actively volleying back and forth the idea of starting a blog/book club covering his Infinite Jest novel. My idea is taking a neuroscience approach to the novel. Neuroscience makes sense since one central theme in the book is addiction. There is also a great deal of sports psychology. But the novel also includes depression which the author also suffered from most of his adult life, and resulted in his suicide (see the lost years and last days of David Foster Wallace in Rolling Stones Magazine, and getting to know David Foster Wallace). If by reading this novel, along with sprinkling in some relevant neuroscience by worldwide readers and/or neuroscientists, we can bring light on to these two life costing diseases then it would be more than worthwhile.

Of course there is always a problem of finding enough time in our busy lives; it is a big book with big subjects. Should a person try to make time?

Related articles by Zemanta

• The death of a genius
• Infinite Sadness.
• David Foster Wallace’s Early Years At Amherst [Writing]
• David Foster Wallace’s Online Legacy [In Memoriam]
• ? As close to a biography of David Foster Wallace as you’ll get
• David Foster Wallace: Commencement Speech