A study in the Netherlands recently published its findings relating to the political leanings of an individual – and how size of their amygdala reflected certain attitudes.
It’s a complex area of research and it would be worthwhile reading the full findings in the iScience Journal to provide a deeper insight into their conclusions.
That said, the headline summary, which accompanied the reporting of the results, says that someone with a possibly more ‘traditional’ political approach to life may have an above level of grey matter in the amygdala.
The reasoning seems simple: the amygdala is constantly evaluating risk and possible threats. Without wishing to oversimplify, the researchers pointed to the notion that if someone feels a greater need for security then they may feel more aligned to parties which reflect a ‘traditional’ set of values.
One of the University of Amsterdam’s report authors was reported as saying that they found a correlation between the size of amygdala and political ideology.
It’s all fairly nuanced stuff and the research followed a similar, earlier study conducted in 2011 which examined the brain structures of 90 university students in the UK.
‘Apres moi. La deluge.’
Chatting with a friend recently and she joked that ‘scrolling through social media can be harmful to your health.’ We laughed out loud (LOL) – but it got me thinking.
Sure, social media may give us a drop (or two) of dopamine as and when someone ‘likes’ a post of ours.
We may even see a few extra drops of the reward chemical when someone ‘of value’ to us gives us a much treasured ‘heart’ emoji.
The result? Social media can become (ever so slightly) addictive. We post and we monitor the responses. No responses? Sad face emoji. Lots of responses?
Well, we receive a happy face emoji and a wonderous cascade of dopamine. Well, maybe not a ‘cascade’ as such! But you get the picture.
There’s a huge amount of neurological research conducted into dopamine production – ever since the 1950s onwards. One experiment focused on rats being set a task to obtain a reward (food). The task was simple: push a lever. Food is then given.
Rats with high levels of dopamine would become obsessed about pushing that lever. This is compared to rats with no dopamine who would not appear to be too bothered about interacting with the device.
The same thing is true with humans. It’s that quick need for a ‘dopamine’ fix which people crave. In short, gambling isn’t necessarily about getting rich. It’s about ‘that’ hit.
It’s all about the ‘flood’ of dopamine which a gambler may experience when they win. That craving can push them further and further into the red.
The dopamine response
I mention scrolling through social media can be (perhaps) hazardous for our health. It’s not just because it can trigger a dopamine response in us which leads us to ‘crave’ more and more of it but also because it’s content can sometimes be too ‘negative.’
Asteroids. Impending war. It’s a trickle of constant negatives which can cause us to take fright. In some countries, members of the public will regularly arm themselves as they perceive threats around them. A literal ‘fight’ response. The result? It feeds the news and internet platforms which continues to ‘fuel the fear.’
At that point, for some people, it can be too much and that’s when they turn to therapy with the goal of reducing the amount of time being spent on-line.
This week has seen social media focus on conflicts around the world. There’s even been chatter about the dangers of solar flares. One feed even suggesting the lights would be going out during my designated newsletter writing time. So far. So good.
And so, for me, it’s now back to the social media feed where I’m keeping an eye on a pesky asteroid which is set to become a ‘mini moon’ over the course of the next few days. You’ll be relieved to learn it’s ‘only’ ten metres wide (phew).
The primitive brain approach to the news of its approach would be to ‘head for the hills’ and prepare for ensuring disaster!
Well, buying a few extra essentials for a rainy day is not necessarily a bad idea. Equally, it could be a little OTT to spend our time stockpiling when we could, instead, see our new ‘mini moon’ as a real opportunity.
An opportunity to dig out the telescope and head into the garden to see if we can spot this celestial wonder – while it remains in Earth’s orbit.