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Why is sitting by a fire so relaxing? Evolution may hold the key.
Photo: flickr/aloha75
When it’s cold outside, there’s nothing quite like sitting by a cozy fire. But why do we find this experience so comforting? According to the author of this study, this relaxation response to fire is actually an evolutionary adaptation. The author argues that early humans who were more prone to relaxation at a campfire would be more likely to “benefit in the social milieu via fireside interactions”, thereby giving them a survival advantage. He then goes on to experimentally demonstrate that sitting by a fire (well, in this case a video of a fire), especially if you can hear that distinctive crackling sound, causes a reduction in subjects’ blood pressure. Although this study doesn’t prove that the fire response is an evolved adaptation (it could also be cultural conditioning, for example), it does show that sitting by the fire really can help you relax. A glass of mulled wine probably wouldn’t hurt either!
“The importance of fire in human evolutionary history is widely acknowledged but the extent not fully explored. Fires involve flickering light, crackling sounds, warmth, and a distinctive smell. For early humans, fire likely extended the day, provided heat, helped with hunting, warded off predators and insects, illuminated dark places, and facilitated cooking. Campfires also may have provided social nexus and relaxation effects that could have enhanced prosocial behavior. According to this hypothesis, calmer, more tolerant people would have benefited in the social milieu via fireside interactions relative to individuals less susceptible to relaxation response. Read More
According to scientists, Argentine Tango is literally addictive.
Photo: flickr/prayitno
Here’s another entry to add to the list of things you can get addicted to: Argentine tango. This paper, a follow-up to a previous case study, reports the results of a survey of over 1000 online tango magazine subscribers. Based on these studies, tango can be classified as an addiction based on to several psychiatric guidelines. Although the consequences of this addiction were primarily positive, many dancers reported experiencing withdrawal symptoms when they didn’t dance, even including “sadness, feeling uncomfortable and leg prickling.” Maybe this finally explains the dancing epidemic of 1518?
Argentine tango: Another behavioral addiction?
“BACKGROUND:
Behavioral addiction is an emerging concept based on the resemblance between symptoms or feelings provided by drugs and those obtained with various behaviors such as gambling, etc. Following an observational study of a tango dancer exhibiting criteria of dependence on this dance, we performed a survey to assess whether this case was unique or frequently encountered in the tango dancing community.
METHODS:
We designed an online survey based on both the DSM-IV and Goodman’s criteria of dependence; we added questions relative to the positive and negative effects of tango dancing and a self-evaluation of the degree of addiction to tango. The questionnaire was sent via Internet to all the tango dancers subscribing to “ToutTango”, an electronic monthly journal. The prevalence of dependence was analyzed using DSM-IV, Goodman’s criteria and self-rating scores separately.
Read More
Video games may not make kids more violent, after all!
Photo: flickr/martijnvandalen
Many politicians like to blame the media, and especially video games, for promoting violence among kids. The debate rages on, but this study at least might set some of those fears to rest. According to this author, who compared the popularity of violent video games over the years to youth violence levels in society over the last 20 years, there was actually an inverse correlation. That’s right: increased violence in video games is actually associated with less youth violence. In contrast, violence in movies tended to mirror violence in society as a whole. The author is careful to point out that these relationships are not necessarily causal, but who doesn’t feel better after blowing off some steam?
Does Media Violence Predict Societal Violence? It Depends on What You Look at and When
“This article presents 2 studies of the association of media violence rates with societal violence rates. In the first study, movie violence and homicide rates are examined across the 20th century and into the 21st (1920–2005). Throughout the mid-20th century small-to-moderate correlational relationships can be observed between movie violence and homicide rates in the United States. This trend reversed in the early and latter 20th century, with movie violence rates inversely related to homicide rates. Read More
Which sexual fantasies are the most (and least) popular? Science finally weighs in!
Photo: flickr/grovesa16
Sexual fantasies: we all have them, yet many people think they’re in the minority when it comes to their own fantasy of choice. Enter these scientists, who took it upon themselves to catalog the most common sexual fantasies in a population of 1,516 people from Quebec, Canada. Turns out that very few fantasies are truly rare; the rest are primarily ranked as “common”, while a few are so common as to be “typical” (e.g., “receiving oral sex”). Curious where you rank on the list? See below for the full fantasy tally.
What Exactly Is an Unusual Sexual Fantasy?
“Introduction
Although several theories and treatment plans use unusual sexual fantasies (SF) as a way to identify deviancy, they seldom describe how the fantasies referred to were determined to be unusual.
Aim
The main goal of this study was to determine which SF are rare, unusual, common, or typical from a statistical point of view among a relatively large sample of adults recruited from the general population. A secondary goal was to provide a statistical comparison of the nature and intensity of sexual fantasies for men and women. This study also aims at demonstrating with both quantitative and qualitative analyses that certain fantasies often considered to be unusual are common.
Read More
Flashback Friday: High Altitude Flatus Expulsion (HAFE).
This one’s pretty self-explanatory, so we will leave you with this delightful YouTube video!
High Altitude Flatus Expulsion (HAFE).
“We would like to report our observations upon a new gastrointestinal syndrome, which we shall refer to by the acronym HAFE (high altitude flatus expulsion). Read More
Killer whales can learn to “speak dolphin”.
Image: Flickr/Shawn McCready
Even if you haven’t watched Star Trek IV, you are probably aware of the fact that cetaceans (whales and dolphins) are among the smartest animals on the planet. In fact, this study suggests that, given a chance, different species of cetaceans may be able to learn to communicate with each other. Scientists noticed that killer whales who had spent time with bottlenose dolphins incorporated more clicking and whistles in their vocalizations than other whales, making their “language” a mashup of the two. In fact, one whale was able to learn the sounds taught to a dolphin trained by people! Although we don’t know what these different languages mean, or how much information is being transmitted between the species, it’s clear that these animals are motivated to learn to make each other’s sounds. And who knows, they may be teaming up to contact aliens after all!
“Limited previous evidence suggests that killer whales (Orcinus orca) are capable of vocal production learning. However, vocal contextual learning has not been studied, nor the factors promoting learning. Read More
Apparently, vigorous orgasms can burst a blood vessel in your eye and blind you.
Image: Flickr/SuperFantastic
Who doesn’t love a good medical case study involving sex? We certainly do! Here’s one about a patient who became blind in one eye after a vigorous romp in the sack. Apparently he experienced what’s known as a “valsalva manoeuvre” during orgasm–basically, by holding his breath and pushing on his diaphragm (like you do when you’re trying to clear your nose), he drastically increased the blood pressure in his eye. The result? A burst blood vessel and blindness. It turns out that this isn’t uncommon during orgasm–but hey, at least it’s temporary!
Postcoital visual loss due to valsalva retinopathy.
“A 29-year-old male patient presented to eye emergency clinic after noticing a left paracentral scotoma on waking. On direct questioning the patient revealed an episode of vigorous sexual intercourse the preceding evening. Read More
Ever wonder why someone becomes a Republican? Hint: it’s disgusting.
Image: Flickr/Anne-Lise Heinrichs
Previous studies have hinted that our political views may stem from unconscious responses we have to intense stimuli, like disgusting pictures. To directly test this hypothesis, these scientists scanned people’s brains while showing them regular or disgusting images (be sure to check out the horrifying list below…if you dare). It turns out that the brain’s response to disgusting images could accurately predict whether a person is liberal or conservative. But, even more surprisingly, the subjects’ voiced opinions about the images did *not* correlate with their ideologies, suggesting that this response is hard-wired and not under our conscious control. Perhaps we are all robots after all…
Nonpolitical Images Evoke Neural Predictors of Political Ideology
“Political ideologies summarize dimensions of life that define how a person organizes their public and private behavior, including their attitudes associated with sex, family, education, and personal autonomy. Despite the abstract nature of such sensibilities, fundamental features of political ideology have been found to be deeply connected to basic biological mechanisms that may serve to defend against environmental challenges like contamination and physical threat. Read More
Polygamous male bustards eat poisonous beetles to rid themselves of STDs.
Image: Flickr/Biodiversity Heritage Library
No, that’s not a typo. Bustards are birds, and these birds can teach us a thing or two about romance. That’s because male bustards get with a lot of ladies, which can make passing around STDs a real problem. Fortunately, lady bustards are hip to this, and they make sure to examine the male’s cloaca (the awesome “universal hole” of birds and reptiles, out of which comes poop, pee, and eggs!) looking for the telltale signs of infection. If the male looks like he’s got an STD, it’s no go. So, to help keep themselves infection-free, male bustards eat specific kinds of beetles that reduce STDs, even though the bugs are poisonous. And it’s only the males that do this–they will pick the medicinal/poisonous blister beetles out of an array of food choices, while the females will studiously avoid the nasty bugs, suggesting that the males are self-medicating to improve their odds with the ladies. As any worthwhile polygamous male bustard should!
Males of a strongly polygynous species consume more poisonous food than females.
“We present evidence of a possible case of self-medication in a lekking bird, the great bustard Otis tarda. Great bustards consumed blister beetles (Meloidae), in spite of the fact that they contain cantharidin, a highly toxic compound that is lethal in moderate doses. Read More
Flashback Friday Halloween Science Roundup: scientific studies to haunt your dreams!
Over the years we’ve featured some creepy studies, with topics ranging from ghosts to vampires to haunted scrotums. Here are a few of our favorites, just in time for All Hallows’ Eve. Enjoy!
The case of the haunted scrotum. “On CT scanning of the abdomen and pelvis, the right testis was not identified but the left side of the scrotum seemed to be occupied by a screaming ghost-like apparition (Figure 1). Read More
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