Scientific American Mind

37 Pages·2020·7.791 MB·English

JANUARY /FEBRUARY 2020 | MIND.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM
PLUS
HOW LYING
DRAINS YOU
The Secret to
A NEW WAY OF
THINKING ABOUT
DEPRESSION
Lasting Love
AND ANXIETY
DOES EMPATHY
INCREASE
This cognitive ability enables couples to
POLITICAL
POLARIZATION?
resolve their differences more quickly
WITH COVERAGE FROM
FROM
THE
EDITOR
Your Opinion Matters!
Help shape the future
of this digital magazine.
Let us know what you
think of the stories within
these pages by emailing us:
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R [email protected].
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In Love and Play
In 2014 mathematician Hannah Fry gave a TED talk where she presented the following set of equations that predicts the posi-
tivity of interactions between spouses:
W = w + r W + I (H )
t+1 W t HW t
H = h + r H + I (W )
t+1 H t WH t
Though they look complex, the two equations predict how each spouse will respond to the other depending on their respec-
tive moods and influence over each other. The reasoning goes that more positive interactions will lead to a more positive mar-
riage. Couples everywhere seemed to have a simple prescription: be more positive than negative, and you’ll have a better chance
at success. Now a recent finding adds a neuroscientific element to the balance. As David Z. Hambrick and Daisuke S. Katsuma-
ta write, individuals who score high in working memory have less enduring conflict in their romantic relationships (see “How
Research on Working Memory Can Improve Your Romantic Relationship”). This suggests that trying to resolve conflicts requires
you to pay closer attention to what your partner is saying. And don’t forget to stay positive as much as possible. And take out the
trash more often.
In perhaps more lighthearted news, neuroscientists Ryan P. Dalton and Francisco Luongo describe in this issue a fascinating
experiment in which rats were taught to play hide-and-seek while the researchers monitored their brain activity (see “Play May
S
Be a Deeper Part of Human Nature Than We Thought”). Specific neurons in the prefrontal cortex associated with reward lit up E
On the Cover G
A
during the game, suggesting that the brain’s response to play is evolutionarily ancient. We are hardwired for fun, it seems. And M
This cognitive ability Y I
that is a positive thought. T
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enables couples to GE
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Andrea Gawrylewski resolve their differences N
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Senior Editor, Collections more quickly N
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[email protected] R
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WHAT’S
January-
February
INSIDE
2020
Volume 31 • Number 1
NEWS OPINION
4. 26.
How Research on A New Way to Think
Working Memory about Mental Illness
Can Improve Your Instead of looking
Romantic Relationship for “the” cause
A cognitive factor helps of schizophrenia,
explain how well we depression and other
understand one another disorders, we should
6. consider whether there
A Simple Test Predicts might be a network
What Kindergartners of causes
Will Earn as Adults ES 28.
G
A
Psychologists zero M Galileo’s Big Mistake
Y I
in on the skills that TT How the great
E
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predict future success Z experimentalist created
E
D
7. AN the problem of
N
R
Scientists E consciousness
F
Demonstrate Direct STE 31.
TI
Brain-to-Brain AP Can Empathic Concern
B
Communication Actually Increase
FEATURES
in Humans Political Polarization?
17.
Work on an “Internet Research suggests that
Play May Be a Deeper Part of Human Nature
of brains” takes those who display the
Than We Thought
another step most concern for others
An animal study brings us closer to understanding
S
10. GE are also the most
A our own behavior
M
Western Individualism Y I 20. socially polarized
T
Arose from ET
G How Dishonesty Drains You
ILLUSIONS
Incest Taboo
12. 15. Deceitful behavior diminishes our ability to read
35.
Researchers link a
Deep Sleep Gives Your Failure Found to emotions, with many consequences
Catholic Church ban A Pair of Crocs to
Brain a Deep Clean Be an “Essential 23.
on cousins marrying in Match the Dress
Slow-wave activity Prerequisite” Cultivating Emotion Regulation and
the Middle Ages to the Casting new light
during dreamless for Success Mental Health
emergence of a way on viral illusions
slumber helps wash Scientists use big data Susanne Schweizer is a neuroscientist
of life that made the
out neural detritus to understand what investigating the development of emotional
West an outlier
separates winners regulatory processes and their role in mental
from losers health across the life span
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How Research
on Working Memory
Can Improve
Your Romantic
Relationship
A cognitive factor helps explain how
well we understand one another
Disagreements are virtually inevitable
in a romantic relationship. More than
90 percent of couples argue, accord-
ing to a survey by the University of
Michigan’s Institute for Social Re-
search, with nearly half quarreling at
least once a month. Common topics
of marital disagreement are money,
sex and time spent together. None
of this will surprise anyone who has
been in a long-term relationship.
But a new study indicates that a
cognitive ability may help to explain
why some couples are more suc-
cessful in resolving their differences.
University of North Carolina at
Greensboro psychologist Levi Baker S
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and his colleagues report that M
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spouses who were high in working T
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memory capacity had better memory that could be resolved through A new study able to remember their name sec-
for one another’s statements in changes in their partner’s behavior. onds later. You didn’t forget the
indicates that a
discussions about problems. In turn, The couples were then left alone to person’s name—you never committed
these couples showed greater discuss the problems, spending eight cognitive ability it to memory. That is, you didn’t pay
progress in resolving their problems minutes on each and rating the enough attention to it to transfer it
may help to explain
over time. The study suggests that severity of the problem before and into your long-term memory. In the
it’s not just dogged commitment that after discussing it. After each discus- why some couples same way, if you don’t attend to what
gets couples through rough spots sion, the spouses went to separate your partner is saying when discuss-
are more successful
but a cognitive factor that directly rooms and were recorded attempting ing a problem, you will remember it
in resolving their
affects the quality of partners’ to recall each other’s statements. poorly, if at all. Making matters worse,
communication with each other. Finally, after four and eight months, in the absence of an accurate
differences.
The sample included 101 couples the couples were e-mailed question- memory for the conversation, you
(93 heterosexual, seven lesbian and naires that asked them to again rate may remember what you think your
one gay) who had been married for the severity of the problems. partner said rather than what he or
less than three months. Working Couples high in working memory explained the relation between work- she actually said, leading to a false
individually, the newlyweds first capacity showed the greatest decline ing memory capacity and decline in memory. So listen carefully to your
completed tests of working memory in problem severity at the follow-ups. problem severity. While noting that loved one and save discussions
capacity, which is the ability to hold Furthermore, spouses high in work- other cognitive factors such as about relationship problems for times
information in the focus of attention ing memory capacity were the most reasoning ability could also play a when the two of you are most
over a short period, as when follow- accurate in recalling each other’s role in marital dispute resolution, the attentive: when you are rested, sober
ing what someone is saying to you in statements from the discussions. researchers suggested that a high and undistracted.
a conversation. In one of the tests Linking these two findings, when level of working memory capacity Conflict will always be a part of
used by Baker and his colleagues, the researchers statistically con- contributed to decline in problem romantic relationships. Insights
called operation span, the test taker trolled for spouses’ memory for each severity by facilitating encoding of gained from this new research
sees an arithmetic problem on the other’s statements, the relation the problem discussions into long- on the cognitive underpinnings of
screen and attempts to solve it, after between working-memory capacity term memory. dispute resolution, however, may
which a letter appears. After some and decline in problem severity These findings suggest that one help partners resolve their differenc-
number of these trials, the person is dropped significantly. way that romantic partners might es more effectively and spend
prompted to recall the letters in the Baker and his colleagues tested better resolve their disputes is simply more time on the things that make
order in which they were presented. for the influence of other factors on to pay better attention to each other a relationship worth having in the
Next, the couples participated their results, including self-control, when discussing problems. You have first place.
—David Z. Hambrick and
jointly in problem-solving discussions. tolerance for distress, and emotional probably had the experience of being
Daisuke S. Katsumata
Each spouse identified a problem regulation. None of these factors introduced to a person and not being
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leagues and I report that children who
A Simple Test were rated as “inattentive” by kinder-
garten teachers had lower earnings
Predicts What
at ages 33 to 35; those rated as
Kindergartners Will
prosocial—such as being kind, helpful
Earn as Adults and considerate—earned more.
This study shows that inattention
Psychologists zero in on the skills
may be among the most powerful
that predict future success
early behavioral predictors of future
earnings. It also demonstrates that it
Chances are you have heard about is possible to identify children at risk
the “marshmallow test.” Put a marsh- of lower future earnings based on a
mallow in front of a child and give single teacher assessment made in
them two choices: eat it now or wait kindergarten, which has important
15 minutes and get two. According practical implications. If these
to a classic study, children able to children can be identified, then it may
delay gratification and wait for the be possible to intervene—for exam-
second marshmallow have better ple, by flagging them for further
academic, social and health out- assessment or by providing support Recent efforts to replicate that In another influential study, pub-
comes years later. Since these early or prevention programs—and thus experiment using a larger and more lished in 2011, children aged three
experiments, researchers have shown improve their life chances. An diverse sample (the original one to 11 with good self-control were
that a wide range of childhood traits important strength of the paper is recruited children from Stanford reported to have more wealth, better
from social and emotional skills to that it examined a range of specific University’s campus nursery) found health and fewer criminal conviction
motivation and self-control can childhood behaviors and controlled that the effect was roughly half of in early adulthood. But the paper
predict better life outcomes. These for the children’s IQ and family that seen in the classic study. When failed to consider the role of antiso-
children go on to have more educa- background (such as their parents’ the researchers controlled for the cial traits, such as aggression and
tional and occupational success and education level and occupational children’s IQ and family background, opposition. When these were adjust-
to live longer, healthier lives. status), something not all previous the effect virtually disappeared. In ed for in a replication study, the
Now a new study I helped lead has investigations have done. other words, the ability to delay effects were considerably weakened.
found another link between behavior The classic marshmallow study gratification in childhood might One problem with self-control studies
in childhood and success later in life. failed to account for intelligence and matter for future success, but such as these is that they lump many S
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The findings were published in the family background, which are known intelligence and family background traits—such as attention, delayed M
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journal JAMA Psychiatry. My col- to influence future life success. matter much more. gratification and conscientiousness— T
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together to create a single composite their tax-return records in adulthood. earnings. The association between
Scientists
self-control score, often combining For boys and girls, ratings of inatten- boys’ prosocial behaviors and higher
traits assessed across multiple years. tion at age six were more strongly earnings may be more intuitive: Demonstrate Direct
This approach makes it hard to linked with lower future earnings prosocial children typically get on
Brain-to-Brain
identify the “active ingredients” that than any other behavior. Furthermore, better with their peers, have fewer
Communication
are linked with the outcome of for boys only, ratings of aggression behavioral problems in adolescence
interest, a crucial step if you plan to and opposition were linked with and perform better at school, which in Humans
develop targeted intervention pro- lower earnings, and prosocial should enhance employment oppor-
Work on an “Internet of brains”
grams designed to improve life behaviors were linked with higher tunities, collegial relations and,
takes another step
outcomes by promoting “good” traits earnings. The study accounted for consequently, earnings.
and reducing “bad” ones. other childhood behaviors, including The next step is to figure out which
Focusing on specific observable hyperactivity and anxiety, which were of these mediating pathways are
behaviors might lead to more reliable not associated with earnings. most important in explaining the link We humans have evolved a rich
and useful predictors of future life This study raises the question of between childhood behavior and repertoire of communication, from
outcomes. Experimental studies what underlying factors might poor economic outcomes in adult- gesture to sophisticated languages.
show that home- and school-based mediate—or explain—the association hood so they can be tested in All of these forms of communication
programs can reduce inattentive and between childhood behavior and intervention programs. Another link otherwise separate individuals in
disruptive behaviors and enhance future life earnings. Low educational important question, which wasn’t such a way that they can share and
prosocial traits through perspective- attainment and antisocial behavior addressed in our study, is why the express their singular experiences
taking, relationship management, and may be particularly important. behaviors associated with future and work together collaboratively. In
social and emotional training. Also, Inattention in childhood is known earnings appear to differ for males a new study, technology replaces
they are readily observable and easy to be linked with poor peer relations, and females. The answer may, in turn, language as a means of communi-
to measure in the classroom. substance abuse and antisocial suggest different interventions. cating by directly linking the activity
My and my colleagues’ new study behavior in adolescence, all of which While the ability to wait for a of human brains. Electrical activity
was based on analysis of nearly can harm educational attainment and couple of marshmallows may not from the brains of a pair of human
3,000 children living in Canada, who diminish employment opportunities, predict life success, other traits do subjects was transmitted to the brain
were rated by teachers for behaviors, consequently lowering earnings. seem to matter. Where earnings are of a third individual in the form of
including inattention, hyperactivity, Similarly, childhood aggression and concerned, kindergartners’ ability to magnetic signals, which conveyed an
aggression, opposition, anxiety and opposition are linked with substance pay attention—and boys’ ability to be instruction to perform a task in a
prosocial traits, when they were in dependence, antisocial behavior and kind—appear particularly important. particular manner. This study opens
kindergarten. The children were then criminal convictions, which could Fortunately, there are many good the door to extraordinary new means
followed up for 30 years, and the undermine educational and employ- reasons to promote these traits. of human collaboration while, at the
behavioral ratings were linked to ment opportunities and lead to lower —Francis Vergunst same time, blurring fundamental
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notions about individual identity and If networked rat brains are “smart-
autonomy in disconcerting ways. er” than a single animal, imagine the
Direct brain-to-brain communica- capabilities of a biological supercom-
tion has been a subject of intense puter of networked human brains.
interest for many years, driven by Such a network could enable people
motives as diverse as futurist to work across language barriers.
enthusiasm and military exigency. It could provide those whose ability
In his book Beyond Boundaries one to communicate is impaired with a
of the leaders in the field, Miguel new means of doing so. Moreover,
Nicolelis, described the merging of if the rat study is correct, networking
human brain activity as the future human brains might enhance perfor-
of humanity, the next stage in our mance. Could such a network be
species’ evolution. (Nicolelis serves a faster, more efficient and smarter
on Scientific American’s board of way of working together?
advisers.) He has already conducted The new paper addressed some
a study in which he linked together of these questions by linking togeth-
the brains of several rats using er the brain activity of a small net-
complex implanted electrodes known work of humans. Three individuals
as brain-to-brain interfaces. Nicolelis sitting in separate rooms collaborat-
and his co-authors described this ed to correctly orient a block so that
achievement as the first “organic it could fill a gap between other
computer” with living brains tethered blocks in a video game. Two individu-
together as if they were so many als who acted as “senders” could see
microprocessors. The animals in this the gap and knew whether the block orientation of the block and decide captured by the EEGs and sent, via
network learned to synchronize the needed to be rotated to fit. The third whether to signal the receiver to computer interface, to the receiver.
electrical activity of their nerve cells individual, who served as the “receiv- rotate it. They focused on a light A magnetic pulse was delivered to
to the same extent as those in a er,” was blinded to the correct answer flashing at a high frequency to the receiver using a transcranial
single brain. The networked brains and needed to rely on the instruc- convey the instruction to rotate or magnetic stimulation (TMS) device
were tested for things such as their tions sent by the senders. focused on one flashing at a low if a sender signaled to rotate. That
ability to discriminate between two The two senders were equipped frequency to signal not to do so. The magnetic pulse caused a flash of
different patterns of electrical stimuli, with electroencephalographs (EEGs) differences in the flashing frequen- light (a phosphene) in the receiver’s S
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and they routinely outperformed that recorded their brain’s electrical cies caused disparate brain respons- visual field as a cue to turn the block. M
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individual animals. activity. Senders were able to see the es in the senders, which were The absence of a signal within a T
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discrete period of time was the “conventional” social networks, anesthetized rat was able to move elicit awareness of particular seman-
instruction not to turn the block. according to the report. the animal’s tail. While in another tic content in the receiver’s brain.
After gathering instructions from This study is a natural extension study, a human controlled a rat as Meanwhile the tools for more
both senders, the receiver decided of work previously done in laborato- a freely moving cyborg. invasive—and perhaps more effi-
whether to rotate the block. Like the ry animals. In addition to the work The investigators in the new paper cient—brain interfacing are develop-
senders, the receiver was equipped linking together rat brains, Nicolelis’s point out that it is the first report in ing rapidly. Elon Musk recently
with an EEG, in this case to signal lab is responsible for linking multiple which the brains of multiple humans announced the development of a
that choice to the computer. Once primate brains into a “Brainet” (not have been linked in a completely robotically implantable BCI contain-
the receiver decided on the orienta- to be confused with the BrainNet noninvasive manner. They claim that ing 3,000 electrodes to provide
tion of the block, the game conclud- discussed earlier), in which the the number of individuals whose extensive interaction between
ed, and the results were given to all primates learned to cooperate in the brains could be networked is computers and nerve cells in the
three participants. This provided the performance of a common task via essentially unlimited. Yet the infor- brain. While impressive in scope and
senders with a chance to evaluate brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). mation being conveyed is currently sophistication, these efforts are
the receiver’s actions and the This time three primates were very simple: a yes-or-no binary dwarfed by government plans. The
receiver with a chance to assess connected to the same computer instruction. Other than being a very Defense Advanced Research
the accuracy of each sender. with implanted BCIs and simultane- complex way to play a Tetris-like Projects Agency (DARPA) has been
The team was then given a ously tried to move a cursor to a video game, where could these leading engineering efforts to
second chance to improve its per- target. The animals were not directly efforts lead? develop an implantable neural
formance. Overall, five groups of linked to each other in this case, and The authors propose that informa- interface capable of engaging one
individuals were tested using this the challenge was for them to per - tion transfer using noninvasive million nerve cells simultaneously.
network, called the BrainNet, and, form a feat of parallel processing, approaches could be improved by While these BCIs are not being
on average, they achieved greater each directing its activity toward a simultaneously imaging brain activity developed specifically for brain-to-
than 80 percent accuracy in com- goal while continuously compensat- using functional magnetic resonance brain interfacing, it is not difficult to
pleting the task. ing for the activity of the others. imaging (fMRI) in order to increase imagine that they could be recruited
In order to escalate the challenge, Brain-to-brain interfaces also the information a sender could for such purposes.
investigators sometimes added span across species, with humans transmit. But fMRI is not a simple Even though the methods used
noise to the signal sent by one of using noninvasive methods similar procedure, and it would expand the here are noninvasive and therefore
the senders. Faced with conflicting to those in the BrainNet study to complexity of an already extraordi- appear far less ominous than if
or ambiguous directions, the receiv- control cockroaches or rats that had narily complex approach to sharing a DARPA neural interface had
ers quickly learned to identify and surgically implanted brain interfaces. information. The researchers also been used, the technology still
follow the instructions of the more In one report, a human using a propose that TMS could be deliv- raises ethical concerns, particularly
accurate sender. This process noninvasive brain interface linked, ered, in a focused manner, to because the associated technolo-
emulated some of the features of via computer, to the BCI of an specific brain regions in order to gies are advancing so rapidly. For
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example, could some future embodi-
Western
ment of a brain-to-brain network
enable a sender to have a coercive Individualism
effect on a receiver, altering the
Arose from
latter’s sense of agency? Could
Incest Taboo
a brain recording from a sender
contain information that might
Researchers link a Catholic
someday be extracted and infringe
Church ban on cousins marrying
on that person’s privacy? Could
in the Middle Ages to the emergence
these efforts, at some point, com-
of a way of life that made the West
promise an individual’s sense
an outlier
of personhood?
This work takes us a step closer
to the future Nicolelis imagined, in In what may come as a surprise to
which, in the words of the late Nobel freethinkers and nonconformists
Prize–winning physicist Murray happily defying social conventions
Gell-Mann, “thoughts and feelings these days in New York City, Paris,
would be completely shared with Sydney and other centers of Western
none of the selectivity or deception culture, a new study traces the origins
that language permits.” In addition of contemporary individualism to the
to being somewhat voyeuristic in powerful influence of the Catholic
this pursuit of complete openness, Church in Europe more than 1,000
Nicolelis misses the point. One of the years ago, during the Middle Ages.
Science
nuances of human language is that According to the researchers, ber in , combines anthropolo- discouraging independence and
often what is not said is as important strict church policies on marriage gy, psychology and history to track analytic thinking.
as what is. The content concealed and family structure completely the evolution of the West, as we The engine of that evolution, the
in the privacy of one’s mind is the upended existing social norms and know it, from its roots in “kin-based” authors propose, was the church’s
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core of individual autonomy. Whatev- led to what they call “global psycho- socie ties. The antecedents consisted obsession with incest and its deter- AG
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er we stand to gain in collaboration logical variation,” major changes in of clans, derived from networks of mination to wipe out the marriages Y I
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or computing power by directly behavior and thinking that trans- tightly interconnected ties, that between cousins that those societies Z G
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linking brains may come at the cost formed the very nature of the cultivated conformity, obedience and were built on. The result, the paper ZA
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of things that are far more important. European populations. in-group loyalty—while displaying less says, was the rise of “small, nuclear G
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—Robert Martone The study, published last Novem- trust and fairness with strangers and households, weak family ties, and RI
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