Flowers’ smell really can soothe stress

Wondering how to de-stress yourself? Well, then try savour the smell of flowers, lemon or mango, for a new study has revealed that inhaling certain fragrances alter gene activity and blood chemistry in ways that can reduce stress levels.

According to lead researcher Akio Nakamura, people have inhaled the scent of certain plants since ancient times to help reduce stress, fight inflammation and depression, and induce sleep.

Aromatherapy, the use of fragrant plant oils to improve mood and health, has become a popular form of alternative medicine today.

And linalool is one of the most widely used substances to soothe away emotional stress.

During the study, the scientists exposed lab rats to stressful conditions while inhaling and not inhaling linalool.

The findings showed that linalool returned stress-elevated levels of neutrophils and lymphocytes — key parts of the immune system — to near-normal levels.

Inhaling linalool also reduced the activity of more than 100 genes that go into overdrive in stressful situations.

The researchers hope that the findings could form the basis of new blood tests for identifying fragrances that can soothe stress.

The study appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication. - Indian Express

Single brain cell can hold memories

Good morning friends. We all know that brain is the most important part of our body. It is the brain who command us what to do. As it is very useful

Individual nerve cells in the front part of the brain can hold traces of memories on their own for as long as a minute and possibly longer.

This is the first time that a study has recognized the specific signal that establishes nonpermanent cellular memory, and revealed how the brain holds temporary information. The new finding has implications for addiction, attention disorders and stress-related memory loss. Permanent memories are known to be stored when the excitatory amino acid glutamate activates in channels on nerve cells in the brain to reorganize and strengthen the cells’ connections with one another.

This process takes minutes to hours to turn on and off and is too slow to buffer, or temporarily hold, rapidly incoming information.

It shows that rapid-fire inputs less than a second long initiate a cellular memory process in single cells lasting as long as minute, a process called metabotropic glutamate transmission.

It has been said that this transmission in the most highly evolved brain region holds moment-to-moment information.

These cellular findings have implications for how the human brain stores rapidly changing information, like the temporary memory a card shark uses when counting cards in a game of Black Jack and, as casinos have figured out. It is the memory that is most sensitive to the disruptive effects of alcohol and noisy distractions.

ref: The times of India

Why crying is therapeutic after breakup

Shedding tears often eases our sense of shock or trauma after a painful breakup. But why is the act so beneficial? And is there such a thing as a "bad cry"?

University of South Florida psychologists Jonathan Rottenberg and Lauren M. Bylsma, along with colleague Ad JJM Vingerhoets of Tilburg University analysed more than 3,000 recent crying experiences (outside of lab) and found that the benefits of crying depend entirely on the what, where and when of a particular crying episode.

They found that the majority of respondents reported improvements in their mood following a bout of crying. However, a third of the participants reported no improvement in mood and a tenth felt worse after crying.

The survey also revealed that criers who received social support during their crying episode were the most likely to report improvements in mood.

Research to date has not always produced a clear picture of the benefits of crying, in part because the results often seem to depend on how crying is studied, said a Southern Florida release.

The authors note several challenges in accurately studying crying behaviour in a laboratory setting. Volunteers who cry in a lab setting often do not describe their experiences as being cathartic or making them feel better.

Rather, crying in a lab setting often results in the study participants feeling worse; this may be due to the stressful conditions of the study itself, such as being videotaped or watched by research assistants.

However, these lab studies have provided interesting findings about the physical effects of crying. Criers do show calming effects such as slower breathing, but they also experience a lot of unpleasant stress and arousal, including increased heart rate and sweating. Research has shown that the effects of crying also depend on who is shedding the tears. For example, individuals with anxiety or mood disorders are least likely to experience the positive effects of crying. These findings will appear in the December issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.

ref: thetimesofindia