Why Do Our Fingers Get Pruney In Water?

Reader's Digest answered that for us in their May 2013's issue:

Did You Know... WhyWe Get Pruney Fingers In Water? 

Thank your primate ancestors for those wrinkly digits in your bath. Pruney fingers provided a better grip for wet objects, so they may have evolved to give humans an advantage in gathering food in the rain, British researchers at Newcastle University reported in the journal Biology Letters. The scientists, who studied how quickly participants could move wet versus dry marbles, found that people with dimpled fingertips were about 12 percent quicker at moving wet objects, according to the New York Times.

Want to learn more? Click here! for a related article in Scientific American.

Babies' Super-Grip!

This is a "Stuff I Just Learned" favorite, from the March 2012 issue of Reader's Digest:

Stronger than it looks?

"Using what's known as the palmar grasp reflex, many infants can squeeze a finger or small object tightly enough to support their body weight if they were lifted. Experts think the reflex, which lasts until a baby is about six months old, may have originated with young primates who needed to hold tight to their mothers while they moved from branch to branch."

Did you catch that? When your friend's baby grips your finger with his little hand, this says that if you lifted your hand, the baby could hang from your finger on his own strength! I am just not sure if I believe that, although I know that babies do hold on tight. I wonder if my brother will let me try with his new baby... :)

Dr. John B. Watson & Rosalie Raynor studying a newborn's grasp reflex, 1916-1920
(via WeirdHistoryPix)

What's A Hysterical Pregnancy?

Late in last season's hit sitcom 30 Rock, the character Jenna experienced a "hysterical pregnancy" during a gas leak, where she had all the signs of being pregnant without actually being pregnant.  I couldn't help but wonder... is that really a thing? 

Not only is it a thing, but women and men can experience it!

According to WebMD: 

False pregnancy, or pseudocyesis, is the belief that you are expecting a baby when you are not really carrying a child. People with pseudocyesis have many or all of the common symptoms of pregnancy [swollen belly, stopped menstruation, feelings of fetal movement, nausea/vomiting, milk production, etc] with the exception of an actual fetus.  

This condition is very rare, occurring in only 1 to 6 out of every 22,000 births.  It is most common in women aged 20 to 44, although it can affect women of all ages. 

In rare cases, even men can have a false pregnancy. Some men experience a related phenomenon known as couvade, or sympathetic pregnancy. They will develop many of the same symptoms as their pregnant partners -- including weight gain, nausea, and backache.

People suffering from a false pregnancy can sometimes even test positive on pregnancy tests!

What can cause hysterical (false) pregnancy?

According to an article in the NY Times:

Though scientists are still largely baffled about what causes it in humans, recent case studies and studies of similar conditions in animals are beginning to provide insight, exploring the role of hormones and psychology.  

Psychiatrists have suggested that pseudocyesis occurs in patients who desperately want to become pregnant — or who have a strong desire to be involved in a family member’s pregnancy experience.   

In a recent issue of the journal Psychosomatics, Dr. Biju Basil, a psychiatrist at Drexel University, reported a case of a woman who went through false delivery at the same time her son’s girlfriend was giving birth. "She started having labor pains..." Dr. Basil speculated that “she wanted to [subconsciously] play a more active part in this new life that was coming into the world.”  

Still, for all the theories about false pregnancy’s origins in the subconscious, biological studies suggest it may be in part hormonally mediated as well... Case studies at the University of Michigan and elsewhere indicate that many patients have elevated levels of hormones like estrogen and prolactin — compounds that can cause physical symptoms like abdominal swelling and milk excretion...  

This raises the possibility that pseudocyesis is the result of a delicate mind-body feedback loop: an initial emotional state induces abnormal hormone secretion, which in turn has its own physical and psychological effects... anxiety may be one emotional state that helps set this feedback loop in motion.

Wow.  That's incredible. False pregnancy has written about since at least 300 BC!  The human body is a crazy thing.

And what's stranger -- dogs have much higher instances of false pregnancy than humans!

New Experiences Help Time Pass More Slowly

I learn a lot of stuff from a great website called Lifehacker. It contains all sorts of ways to make your life easier and cheaper, from learning about what new gadget google has to turning cinder-blocks into planters. In my appreciation, I've decided to devote this week's Stuff I've Just Learned posts from recent Lifehacker entries.

Topic:

"Why New Experiences Are Important, and How They Positively Affect Your Perception of Time"

(from 5/17/11)

Summary:

Time may tick by at a consistent beat, but that's not how our brains perceive time. Instead, if something is unfamiliar and thus harder for our brain to process, time appears to slow down as our minds organize the new information. Conversely if something is familiar/easier to process, time appears to speed up.

From Lifehacker:

Neuroscientist David Eagleman, who has extensively studied the effects of our brain's perception of time, believes that this effect makes time fly by faster as we age. His profile in the New Yorker, written by Burkhard Bilger, explains further:

"This explains why we think that time speeds up when we grow older," Eagleman said-why childhood summers seem to go on forever, while old age slips by while we're dozing. The more familiar the world becomes, the less information your brain writes down, and the more quickly time seems to pass. "Time is this rubbery thing...it stretches out when you really turn your brain resources on, and when you say, ‘Oh, I got this, everything is as expected,' it shrinks up."

...If we perceive time more slowly when we're processing the unfamiliar, than the frequent introduction of the unfamiliar could help our perception of time from rapidly shrinking.

Click here to read more about fascinating perception-of-time Eagleman's research.

Sound Facts

I've been reading this book called In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise by George Prochnik. It's packed with information about how sound's purposes have changed throughout the centuries and such. It's pretty fascinating, actually.

I thought I'd give you a little sample of some of the many things I've learned so far.

- "Noise" originates from the word "nausea", probably from the "seasickness" feeling that one gets when overwhelmed with and disoriented by clamor. (pg. 88)

- We are biologically programmed to associate danger with a lower, rougher sounds. Coincidentally, when people smile, the shape of their mouths changes in such a way that naturally makes their voices a bit higher. Therefore, both the look of the smile and the sound of the smiling person's voice can help you feel at ease. (pg. 74)

- Typically, male species of animals call out to their females in as low of a tone as they can, in order to prove their masculinity. However, certain types of frogs in urban areas have had to change their calls to be much higher just so the female frogs can hear them over the sounds of traffic! (pg. 73)

Like I said, there is a ton of information in this book, so I can only give so much here. But if you've ever wondered about meditation, noise-cancelling devices, why people love listening to loud music, how to achieve perfect silence, or any number of other things, I'd recommend checking this book out!

How Well Can People Pay Attention?

There was a really cool bit on NPR's Science Friday this afternoon evaluating how aware humans are while focusing on a specific task. The conclusions are pretty fascinating!

The following videos were part of a study from Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris, testing how well people can pay attention. Try it out!

How did you do? Were you surprised by the result?

Now try this test:

Tricky, huh? It kind of made me wonder if things like talking on the cellphone while driving should be illegal!

To listen to the entire segment from Science Friday, you can find the podcast here.

Having A Bad Day?

Your mom may have told you once that "bad days" only happen because of your "bad attitude". As Steve Schwartz (via Lifehacker) discovered, psychology backs her up!

After he and his girlfriend had two bad days in a row, he did a little research and found:

1. Our brains process the gobs of information we receive by categorizing and drawing conclusions from them. As a result, we can draw the wrong conclusion from certain events. For example, I could drop a bowl of cereal in my lap first thing in the morning, and I can (falsely) conclude, "Oh, geez, this is a sign that I am going to have a bad day".

People tend to like to believe in "bad luck" so they don't have to feel like negative consequences are the result of their actions. The person becomes a "victim" of random cosmic events instead. In the cereal example, believing in bad luck takes away my responsibility in the mess (ie. maybe if I ate at the table instead of at the couch, it wouldn't have spilled so easily)!

Once a person "decides" that the day is "ruined" and it's out of his or her control, the day is much more likely to go badly, according to Schwartz.

2. People's expectations directly affect their reality. This is commonly known as the "placebo effect". In studies where patients were given a fake pain killer, for example, researchers found that "the brain regions that interpret pain actually show far less activity when subjects have lowered expectations for the pain they will experience."

This is a double whammy now - first you've given up control of your day to "bad fate" and then, since your expectations are so low, you're more likely to see and feel bad things happening, when otherwise the day might look quite average from any other point of view.

3. Knowing this, bad days can be nipped in the bud! Schwartz offers the following tips:

-- Reflect on the negative feeling you have right now. Is it stress? Anxiety? What caused it? Once you've labeled it, do not think about the feeling or events anymore. Move on and only refer back to the label if necessary. Matthew Lieberman, an associate professor at UCLA, has shown that the simple act of putting our feelings into a word or two can dramatically reduce the effect of those feelings.

-- Re-evaluate the situation or events that lead to this stress. Find some conceivable positive outcome. Figure out why [it happened], and you're left with a powerful experience from the school of hard knocks, which you can use to your advantage in the future.

-- Remember that the outcome of the previous minute is not indicative of the outcome of the next minute. Likewise, the last hour has no bearing on the next hour, and this morning is no indication of what this afternoon will bring.

For more details on the science behind these findings and how to reset your brain, read Steve's blog entry here.

The Benefits of Blemishes

Prevention Magazine claims that acne might not be all bad:

Researchers from the UK's University of Bristol tracked about 10,000 male college students for 30 years or more and found that those who suffered from severe breakouts as young adults were a third less likely to die from coronary heart disease.

Androgens -- hormones involved in acne -- may help prevent the narrowing of arteries, says study author Bruna Galobardes, MD. The findings may lead to androgen-related therapies to prevent heart disease.

Oh, man, I hope this is true! :)

(side note: if they give people androgens to prevent heart disease, will the patients get pimples? maybe it'd be worth it?)

Selling Your Eggs

My coworker and I were brain-storming how to make some extra cash this summer. Of course, selling our eggs came up. :) I looked up what a woman has to go through in order for someone to harvest her eggs. It's a pretty involved process, actually, which is probably one reason it brings in tens of thousands of dollars!

Here's the overview, with help from New York's Department of Health:

1. Eligibility

- Woman must be between 21 and 35.

- Some programs prefer women who have already had children.

2. Selection

- Woman applies or interviews for a program. Her height, looks, athletic ability, intelligence, etc., can be evaluated.

- Program staff go through the emotional and physical outcomes of donating, so that the woman knows what to expect.

- She has a psychological evaluation.

- She has a thorough physical exam, and fills out a questionnaire about general health, drinking and smoking habits, etc.

- She gives blood, urine, and cell samples to test for diseases, infections, and viruses.

- She gives an exhaustive medical history of herself and her family, and gives another blood sample to look for genetic diseases.

3. Preparation

- Woman first takes one (or more) weeks of medicine to stop her normal ovarian functioning. Side effects can include hot flashes, sleep problems, vision problems, headaches, etc.

- She begins ten-ish days of injections of fertility drugs to mature more eggs than normal. Side effects can include mood swings, fluid retention, etc., and in some cases, Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome, which can cause a variety of side effects from abdominal pain to kidney failure.

- During the injection cycle, the woman must have frequent blood tests and ultrasounds to monitor how her body is responding.

4. Procedure

- When the doctor determines the "time is right", the woman receives one last injection of another drug to prepare the eggs to be harvested.

- She undergoes a short (30 minutes usually) minor surgical procedure, where a thin needle retrieves the eggs from her ovaries.

5. Recovery

- Woman typically only stays in the hospital a few hours after the surgery. She may need a couple of days of restricted activity afterwards.

- It's normal for her to feel "let down" after the intense process ends.

- Some programs require her to come back for a couple of follow-up appointments or meet with a counselor.

Overall, egg donation seems to come with a lot of inherent risks, but if all goes well and the woman doesn't have any infections, she should recover fully and still be able to have kids of her own. Also, whereas the entire process usually takes less than a month, it apparently is completely time-consuming during those weeks!

Maybe there are easier ways to make some fast cash? :)

Sleep Like An Animal

Anyone else tired after last night's festivities?

Well, if you need an excuse to nap, just look to nature. The most protected animals (or the ones in the least fear of getting attacked by predators) get to sleep the most. Lions, for example, can regularly sleep for up to 17 hours a day. Bats, who can hide in caves, sleep around 19 hours per day.

I think, since I feel relatively safe from predators (besides possibly my bosses if I don't show to work!), I am going to follow the animals' example this weekend!

you've got the right idea, little buddy!

Taste Buds

I am not really giving you any new trivia today. But I just learned what wikipedia (which I know can sometimes be a questionable source) says taste buds look like:

Hmmm, appetizing. That leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth (har har). :)

Science of Fear

With Halloween coming up, I am devoting this week to facts about scary things. I am going to start off Day #1 explaining why our bodies have such a strong physical reaction to fear.

Ever wonder why you breathe faster when you're reading a suspenseful novel? Or why you sweat while checking the basement for that "strange noise"?

It's all due your sympathetic nervous system! When you feel a threat, your body does amazing things to prepare you to be able to engage in battle ("fight") or run away ("flee"). Your endocrine glands release neurotransmitters such as adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol into your system, causing:

1. your pupils to dilate and your senses to heighten so you can easily scan the scene and recognize danger.

2. your heart to beat faster, the blood vessels to constrict in your extremities, and you to breathe faster so you get more blood and oxygen to your core muscles and they can act quickly.

3. your metabolism to speed up so it absorbs every bit of sugar and fatty acids to use as energy.

4. your perception of pain to decrease so even if you get injured you can continue to fight or flee.

5. you to begin to sweat so your body doesn't overheat in action.

6. your body hairs to stand on end so that you appear larger and more intimidating to enemies.

However, when there is not an actual threat of danger, like when you're watching a scary movie, your body can react like there is a real threat. These natural reactions can then present themselves as a loud heartbeat, hyperventilation, a tightening in your chest, icy hands or feet, cold sweats, goosebumps, or an upset stomach. You also can feel jumpy, sensitive to little sounds, and "paranoid".

But don't worry, it's just your body doing its job! It you needed to run away from a bear, for example, you would be pleased that your body can work in this extraordinary way! Some people actually like the way the adrenaline feels pumping through their systems. :)