Caffeine and Hallucinations?

We learned in class that caffeine is a stimulant, but a new study shows it may have some hallucinogenic effects, summarized in this article.

Researchers at Durham University conducted a survey among "high caffeine users" and found correlation to stress and proneness to hallucination.
Before the implications are discussed, we first must note the definition of these "high caffeine users." The study defines it as "more than 7 cups of instant coffee a day," which, because I think instant coffee is gross, I had to do some research for. According to the USDA, instant coffee averages around 100mg of caffeine. To put it into my perspective, that's 3-4 cups of regular, brewed coffee. And even less cups of espresso. (Check out conversions for your caffeinated-beverage-of-choice here. Bear in mind serving size; they are all for 8oz.)

What I thought the article tried to get at but failed to make clear was this: Caffeine, stress, and sleep deprivation all contribute to cortisol levels, a hormone produced in the adrenal gland, and widely dubbed "the stress hormone." So the so-called chicken-egg situation should be more like a cycle--people aren't taking in caffeine because they hear voices. Rather, these people are under a lot of stress to perform well, thus have to stay up late to study thus can't sleep, thus drink coffee. All of these factors combined spell cortisol release. And it is cortisol that causes the hallucinations.

I searched for the actual study to see if this was discussed (the link in the article didn't work) and found access to the abstract. Even when stress was controlled for, caffeine still succeeded to produce proneness to hallucination, but not 'persecutory ideation'--when an individual believes that harm is occurring or going to occur, when in fact no harm is present.

In the end, while caffeine intake, stress, and sleep deprivation are all positively correlated and lead to cortisol increases, which in turn can lead to hallucinations, elevated caffeine-intake alone is enough.

- Emily Rogers

Medical Marijuana - Ben Stevenson

Over Thanksgiving break, my great uncle was telling us about his job. He is Sherriff in Montana, which os one of the few states that had legalized the use of marijuana for medical puposes. He was talking about the good old days wen he used to have fun by putting poeple in jail for possesion. He also comoplained a lot about how poeple are being really stupid and abusing the new law. Here is a clip about medical marijuana.

Lucid Dreams

This discovery channel video explains how dreams, and brain activity during sleep contribute to memory and creativity. It also focuses on techniques and applications for lucid dreaming. The makers of this seem to give credence to the activation-synthesis theory for dreams because they attribute dreams to the synthesis of random signals.

criminal profiling, mariah redman

This is a short clip of the tv show crminal minds, its about people that profile criminals such a serial killers for a living and this technique makes it so they can predict who the person/ killer is, where they are, who/ when they will attack next, and why they are killing. In this clip though the profilers are the ones being profiled. I believe this is the closest it gets to psychics. They use many techniques such as observation, and many times use images and cognitive maps to replay the crime scene in there heads.

Cocaine and Cognition

A new study has proven the negative effects prenatal exposure of cocaine. This may seem a little obvious, but the article goes into more depth and talks about some interesting stuff.

http://college.cengage.com/psychology/resources/students/news/news_20020415.html

-Aaron Buzek

Aayushi Sardana

http://psychology.about.com/

Reasons Why You Need to Get a Good Night's Sleep

Monday November 30, 2009

When was the last time you found yourself drifting off in the middle of a long class lecture or meeting? According to the National Sleep Foundation's 2008 "Sleep in America" poll, 29% of participants reported becoming very sleepy or even falling asleep at work in the previous month alone.
Sleep can affect learning, stress, weight and much more.
"Nearly 50 million Americans chronically suffer from sleep problems and disorders that affect their careers, their personal relationships and safety on our roads," explains Darrel Drobnich of the National Sleep Foundation in a press release. Unfortunately, getting a good night's sleep is not a priority for many of these individuals. The foundation's reports also found that approximately 63% of respondents simply accept sleep deprivation as a part of their life, while 32% turn to caffeinated drinks to combat their daytime sleepiness.
"Similar to diet and exercise, sleep needs to be an integral element of a healthy lifestyle. The impact of not getting good sleep is far reaching and has Americans compromising their productivity, safety, health and relationships - both on the job and at home," Drobnich suggests. Recent research has linked lack of sleep to a wide range of ailments, including memory problems and obesity. Learn more about some of the top reasons why you should get a good night's sleep.

Summary: This article discusses the importance of sleep and how a lack of it can have an adverse effects. The correlation between sleep deprivation, memory problems and even obesity can't be ignored as a mere coincidence. Though many Americans have accepted sleep deprivation as a part of life they have forgotten that sleep is equally as important as eating healthy and maintaining a good weight.

Language and Cognition Lab--Mikey Makuch

http://coglanglab.org/index.html
This site is an online research lab with experiments you can participate in about language and cognition. By doing some of these you can contribute to the understanding of how learning language works and learn something yourself. They don't take very long to do and can be kind of fun!