زندگی این روزها ترش و شیرین است...مثل طعم مربای آلبالو...نه!مثل وقتی روی قرقروت شکر بپاشی...همه چیز و همه جا و همه کسش هم همین طعم را دارد....هنوز آن آدم یا اتفاق یا ... را نچشیده دهانت آب می افتد، وسوسه می شوی برای امتحان کردنش...کمی می چشی...غافگیر می شوی...دهانت جمع می شود ...اخم می کنی..توی همین گیرودار هستی که پرزهای چشایی جلوی زبانت شیرینی شکرش را حس می کند! حالا درگیر می شوی با خودت برای اینکه بیشتر ناخنک بزنی...یک تکه دیگر فقط...خنده و اخمت قاطی شده حسابی و این کلافگی بدجور توی ذوق می زند...سعی می کنی سور(؟) باشی...کودک درونت حسابی به وجد امده و بدقلگی می کند برای اینکه بگذاری یکبار دیگر این طعم عجیب را تجربه کند..تو اما از نمای بیرونی اش واهمه داری...نهایتا تصمیم می گیری جلوی آینه بایستی قرقروت بمکی با طعم شکر و قیافه خودت را تست کنی...کودک درونت ریز ریز به تو و اداهای ناشیانه ات می خندد...و تو هی سعی می کنی جدی باشی...اخم کرده،می خندی...ترشی و شیرینی حالا در سرتاسر وجودت رخنه کرده..انگار مربای آلبالو به جای خون در رگهایت جاری شده،حس خوبیست...دوستش داری!
Friday, July 17, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Culture influences brain function, study shows
Cathryn M. Delude, McGovern InstituteJanuary 11, 2008
People from different cultures use their brains differently to solve the same visual perceptual tasks, MIT researchers and colleagues report in the first brain imaging study of its kind.
Psychological research has established that American culture, which values the individual, emphasizes the independence of objects from their contexts, while East Asian societies emphasize the collective and the contextual interdependence of objects. Behavioral studies have shown that these cultural differences can influence memory and even perception. But are they reflected in brain activity patterns?
To find out, a team led by John Gabrieli, a professor at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, asked 10 East Asians recently arrived in the United States and 10 Americans to make quick perceptual judgments while in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner--a technology that maps blood flow changes in the brain that correspond to mental operations.
The results are reported in the January issue of Psychological Science. Gabrieli's colleagues on the work were Trey Hedden, lead author of the paper and a research scientist at McGovern; Sarah Ketay and Arthur Aron of State University of New York at Stony Brook; and Hazel Rose Markus of Stanford University.
Subjects were shown a sequence of stimuli consisting of lines within squares and were asked to compare each stimulus with the previous one. In some trials, they judged whether the lines were the same length regardless of the surrounding squares (an absolute judgment of individual objects independent of context). In other trials, they decided whether the lines were in the same proportion to the squares, regardless of absolute size (a relative judgment of interdependent objects).
In previous behavioral studies of similar tasks, Americans were more accurate on absolute judgments, and East Asians on relative judgments. In the current study, the tasks were easy enough that there were no differences in performance between the two groups.
However, the two groups showed different patterns of brain activation when performing these tasks. Americans, when making relative judgments that are typically harder for them, activated brain regions involved in attention-demanding mental tasks. They showed much less activation of these regions when making the more culturally familiar absolute judgments. East Asians showed the opposite tendency, engaging the brain's attention system more for absolute judgments than for relative judgments.
"We were surprised at the magnitude of the difference between the two cultural groups, and also at how widespread the engagement of the brain's attention system became when making judgments outside the cultural comfort zone," says Hedden.
The researchers went on to show that the effect was greater in those individuals who identified more closely with their culture. They used questionnaires of preferences and values in social relations, such as whether an individual is responsible for the failure of a family member, to gauge cultural identification. Within both groups, stronger identification with their respective cultures was associated with a stronger culture-specific pattern of brain-activation.
How do these differences come about? "Everyone uses the same attention machinery for more difficult cognitive tasks, but they are trained to use it in different ways, and it's the culture that does the training," Gabrieli says. "It's fascinating that the way in which the brain responds to these simple drawings reflects, in a predictable way, how the individual thinks about independent or interdependent social relationships."
Gabrieli is the Grover Herman Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and holds an appointment at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and supported by the McGovern Institute.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on January 30, 2008 (download PDF).
Cathryn M. Delude, McGovern InstituteJanuary 11, 2008
People from different cultures use their brains differently to solve the same visual perceptual tasks, MIT researchers and colleagues report in the first brain imaging study of its kind.
Psychological research has established that American culture, which values the individual, emphasizes the independence of objects from their contexts, while East Asian societies emphasize the collective and the contextual interdependence of objects. Behavioral studies have shown that these cultural differences can influence memory and even perception. But are they reflected in brain activity patterns?
To find out, a team led by John Gabrieli, a professor at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, asked 10 East Asians recently arrived in the United States and 10 Americans to make quick perceptual judgments while in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner--a technology that maps blood flow changes in the brain that correspond to mental operations.
The results are reported in the January issue of Psychological Science. Gabrieli's colleagues on the work were Trey Hedden, lead author of the paper and a research scientist at McGovern; Sarah Ketay and Arthur Aron of State University of New York at Stony Brook; and Hazel Rose Markus of Stanford University.
Subjects were shown a sequence of stimuli consisting of lines within squares and were asked to compare each stimulus with the previous one. In some trials, they judged whether the lines were the same length regardless of the surrounding squares (an absolute judgment of individual objects independent of context). In other trials, they decided whether the lines were in the same proportion to the squares, regardless of absolute size (a relative judgment of interdependent objects).
In previous behavioral studies of similar tasks, Americans were more accurate on absolute judgments, and East Asians on relative judgments. In the current study, the tasks were easy enough that there were no differences in performance between the two groups.
However, the two groups showed different patterns of brain activation when performing these tasks. Americans, when making relative judgments that are typically harder for them, activated brain regions involved in attention-demanding mental tasks. They showed much less activation of these regions when making the more culturally familiar absolute judgments. East Asians showed the opposite tendency, engaging the brain's attention system more for absolute judgments than for relative judgments.
"We were surprised at the magnitude of the difference between the two cultural groups, and also at how widespread the engagement of the brain's attention system became when making judgments outside the cultural comfort zone," says Hedden.
The researchers went on to show that the effect was greater in those individuals who identified more closely with their culture. They used questionnaires of preferences and values in social relations, such as whether an individual is responsible for the failure of a family member, to gauge cultural identification. Within both groups, stronger identification with their respective cultures was associated with a stronger culture-specific pattern of brain-activation.
How do these differences come about? "Everyone uses the same attention machinery for more difficult cognitive tasks, but they are trained to use it in different ways, and it's the culture that does the training," Gabrieli says. "It's fascinating that the way in which the brain responds to these simple drawings reflects, in a predictable way, how the individual thinks about independent or interdependent social relationships."
Gabrieli is the Grover Herman Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and holds an appointment at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and supported by the McGovern Institute.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on January 30, 2008 (download PDF).
اگر مغز ما آنقدر ساده بود که آنرا بفهمیم، خودمان آنقدر ساده میشدیم که آنرا نمیفهمیدیم
لایل واتسن
خواهش می کنم جدی به این این لینک نگاه کنید....مثل یک بازی ریاضی!بعضی ادمها صرفا با دیدن آدمهای اطراف خودشون در موردنتیجه انتخابات و حوادث بعد از اون نظر میدن ،به صورت کاملا توصیفی! و احساسی....در چنین فضای هم صحبت شدن با آدمی که فلسفه ذهن و زبان می دونه خالی از لذت نیست...
Saturday, July 11, 2009
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