6 Compassionate Ways to Support a Loved One During Cancer Treatment
Authored by Scott Sanders <info@cancerwell.org>
Nearly 39% of Americans will deal with a cancer diagnosis at some point during their life. It’s a common condition that impacts millions of people each year but if you have a loved one who is being treated for cancer, they may be feeling alone. Chemotherapy and other forms of cancer treatment are painful, uncomfortable and exhausting, so it helps to have someone around to offer comfort and support. If you want to help a loved one in their battle against cancer, here are six ways to start.
Help Them Organize Their Home
Going through treatment can make your loved one feel chaotic so it helps to have a calm, organized space to come home to. Spend a day or two helping them declutter and arrange their home for easy access and convenience. If your friend or family member is in chemo, regular cleaning is crucial to prevent infections and complications. It’s best for chemo patients to not take on the cleaning themselves, so if you have the time tackle these sanitation tasks for them. If you can’t manage alone, ask friends or family members for help or consider hiring a professional cleaning service.
Get Out, or Stay In, to Have Some Fun
There will be days when they are just too tired to get out and that’s okay. But it’s still important for you to help them find ways to feel happy. Go for a quiet walk through your favorite park or along the beach. If they don’t feel up to activity, try something more subdued like a movie night at home featuring your favorite comedies. Laughing can be very therapeutic, so find ways to help them smile while going through this tough time.
Prepare or Order Some Healthy, Soothing Meals
Your loved one may not be up for cooking but it’s essential that they nourish their bodies while going through treatment. Help them out with some meal prep on weekends and prepare foods that are easy to eat and easy on the body. Chemotherapy can cause nausea and painful mouth sores, so think about pulling together lighter fare, such as chicken soup or soothing ginger popsicles. Keeping healthy foods available will help them keep their energy up through taxing treatments.
Find Ways to Encourage Rest and Self-Care
Rest and calm are vital to healing so help your loved one create a quiet space in their home for rest and relaxation. Work together to choose a cozy, comfortable space and add elements that will provide a much needed distraction from stress. Maybe pick up some detoxifying plants and some soothing essential oils or candles. Encourage mindful meditation and stress-relieving activities for your time together. If they feel up to it, you could book a day at the spa to unwind or even celebrate chemo victories.
Open Up Your Heart and Listen
Cancer is a heavy topic and those going through treatment often need a firm shoulder to cry on. Let your loved one open up to you as much as they like, even if it means talking about uncomfortable topics, like death. You don’t have to know what to say, and in fact, you don’t need to say anything at all during these times. Just listen with an open heart. If you start to feel down or overwhelmed, but you still want to stick around, seek out ways to decompress or think about talking to someone who can help you out.
Be There Through the Ups and Downs
Battling cancer can be a roller coaster of experiences and emotions and it helps to have someone there for the ride. Know that your loved one may experience days of joy mixed with days of pain. Calm and comfort them throughout their journey. Just being by their side is a true testament to your love and compassion. Take time to take care of yourself as well, however, so you can stay strong through their battles and your own.
Cancer treatment is tough but caring, compassionate friends can make all the difference to a cancer patient. Your gifts of help and hope will provide respite and comfort when needed most.
The importance of Self-Care After a Cancer Diagnosis
By Scott Sanders
Cancer is a vicious enemy that attacks its victims on both a physical and personal level. Standing up to this dreaded disease requires not only sound professional care but also effective self-care. In this post, we'll look at some of the common issues cancer patients face and how to manage them effectively. We'll suggest ways you can help yourself feel better right now, even in the midst of uncertainty. We'll also help you face the future by making the most of the present.
Understanding What's Going On inside Your Body
Many of the challenges cancer patients face come not only from the illness itself but from the therapies used to treat the condition. These issues can include:
● Nausea, poor appetite, and weight loss
● Fatigue and weakness
● Anxiety, fear, or depression over your diagnosis
Your healthcare professional will suggest ways to minimize these problems. In the meantime, here are some things you can do for yourself:
● Get plenty of rest. A refreshed body can fight cancer better than one that's struggling with exhaustion.
● Avoid junk food and try to eat nutritious meals.
● Spend time with those you love. Their caring support can make a world of difference during tough times.
● Consider starting a journal. Writing your feelings down on paper can help you to understand and deal with them more effectively.
Managing Expectations
Undergoing cancer treatment can be an emotional roller coaster, not only now but going forward, as pointed out by the Huffington Post. One day you feel fine; the next day, not so much. A new medicine may relieve your symptoms for a time and even put your cancer in remission. But this doesn't always last. Even long-term survivors face the prospect of their illness coming back somewhere down the road. How do you deal with this constant uncertainty? Here are some strategies:
● Live in the present as much as possible. None of us, no matter how healthy or how sick, has a guarantee of tomorrow. We can plan and dream all we want, but, in the end, all we have is right now.
● Prioritize. Some things in life are essential, others are desirable, and still others are either trivial or of minor importance. Focusing on the first two categories rather than the last may not extend our lives, but it can help us to get the most use from our time.
● Accept that controlling the future is impossible. We can take steps to avoid misfortunes and maximize our opportunities, of course. But we cannot change the inevitable. Coming to terms with this fact can spare us from needless worry and stress.
● Seek medical help only from qualified medical professionals. Despite what some people may tell you, there is no secret cure for cancer. Not only do bogus cures offer false hope, in some cases they can make your condition worse, as pointed out by the American Cancer Society.
Consider Getting a Therapy Dog
Therapy dogs can make a world of difference to how you feel, both now and in the future. Here's why:
● Nobody will show you more unconditional love than a dog. An animal will provide marvelous companionship when human company is unavailable.
● Therapy dogs can lift your spirits even when you're feeling hopeless, which is good medicine no matter how you look at it.
● Therapy dogs can help prevent falls, turn lights off and on, carry groceries, and summon help in case of emergency. And they ask for nothing in return, except affection and a little food and water.
Therapy dogs, living in the moment, eating nutritious food, and the other ideas in this post cannot cure cancer all by themselves. But they can help your body fight the disease while improving your quality of life. Please consider these suggestions as you deal with the issues before you, and accept our best wishes for a happy and abundant future.
Brain activity buffers against worsening anxiety
Activity in brain's thinking and problem-solving center linked to avoiding anxiety
November 17, 2017
Science Daily/Duke University
Boosting activity in brain areas related to thinking and problem-solving may also protect against worsening anxiety, suggests a new study. Using noninvasive brain imaging, the researchers found that at-risk people were less likely to develop anxiety if they had higher activity in a region of the brain responsible for complex mental operations. The results may be a step towards tailoring psychological therapies to the specific brain functioning of individual patients.
Using non-invasive brain imaging, the researchers found that people at-risk for anxiety were less likely to develop the disorder if they had higher activity in a region of the brain responsible for complex mental operations. The results may be a step towards tailoring psychological therapies to the specific brain functioning of individual patients.
"These findings help reinforce a strategy whereby individuals may be able to improve their emotional functioning -- their mood, their anxiety, their experience of depression -- not only by directly addressing those phenomena, but also by indirectly improving their general cognitive functioning," said Ahmad Hariri, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke. The results are published Nov. 17 in the journal Cerebral Cortex.
Previous findings from Hariri's group show that people whose brains exhibit a high response to threat and a low response to reward are more at risk of developing symptoms of anxiety and depression over time.
In the current work, Hariri and Matthew Scult, a clinical psychology graduate student in the department of psychology and neuroscience at Duke, wanted to investigate whether higher activity in a region of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex could help shield these at-risk individuals from future mental illness.
"We wanted to address an area of understanding mental illness that has been neglected, and that is the flip side of risk," Hariri said. "We are looking for variables that actually confer resiliency and protect individuals from developing problems."
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is our brain's "executive control" center, helping us focus our attention and plan complex actions. It also plays a role in emotion regulation, and well-established types of psychotherapy, including cognitive behavioral therapy, engage this region of the brain by equipping patients with strategies to reframe or re-evaluate their emotions.
The team drew on data from 120 undergraduate students who participated in the Duke Neurogenetics Study. Each participant completed a series of mental health questionnaires and underwent a type of non-invasive brain scan called functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) while engaged in tasks meant to activate specific regions of the brain.
The researchers asked each participant to answer simple memory-based math problems to stimulate the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Participants also viewed angry or scared faces to activate a region of the brain called the amygdala, and played a reward-based guessing game to stimulate activity in the brain's ventral striatum.
Scult was particularly interested in "at-risk" individuals with the combination of high threat-related activity in the amygdala and low reward-related activity in the ventral striatum. By comparing participants' mental health assessments at the time of the brain scans, and in a follow-up occurring on average seven months later, he found that these at-risk individuals were less likely to develop anxiety if they also had high activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
"We found that if you have a higher functioning dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the imbalance in these deeper brain structures is not expressed as changes in mood or anxiety," Hariri said.
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is especially skilled at adapting to new situations, the researchers say. Individuals whose brains exhibit the at-risk signatures may be more likely to benefit from strategies that boost the brain's dorsolateral prefrontal activity, including cognitive behavioral therapy, working memory training, or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
But, the researchers warn, the jury is still out on whether many brain-training exercises improve the overall functioning of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, or only hone its ability to complete the specific task being trained. Additional studies on more diverse populations are also needed to confirm their findings.
"We are hoping to help improve current mental health treatments by first predicting who is most at-risk so that we can intervene earlier, and second, by using these types of approaches to determine who might benefit from a given therapy," Scult said.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171117141743.htm
Stress can lead to risky decisions
Neuroscientists find chronic stress skews decisions toward higher-risk options
November 16, 2017
Science Daily/Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Making decisions that require weighing pros and cons of two choices is dramatically affected by chronic stress, neuroscientists have discovered. In a study of rats and mice, they found stressed animals were far likelier to choose high-risk, high-payoff options. They also found that impairments of a specific brain circuit underlie this abnormal decision making.
MIT neuroscientists have now discovered that making decisions in this type of situation, known as a cost-benefit conflict, is dramatically affected by chronic stress. In a study of mice, they found that stressed animals were far likelier to choose high-risk, high-payoff options.
The researchers also found that impairments of a specific brain circuit underlie this abnormal decision making, and they showed that they could restore normal behavior by manipulating this circuit. If a method for tuning this circuit in humans were developed, it could help patients with disorders such as depression, addiction, and anxiety, which often feature poor decision-making.
"One exciting thing is that by doing this very basic science, we found a microcircuit of neurons in the striatum that we could manipulate to reverse the effects of stress on this type of decision making. This to us is extremely promising, but we are aware that so far these experiments are in rats and mice," says Ann Graybiel, an Institute Professor at MIT and member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research.
Graybiel is the senior author of the paper, which appears in Cell on Nov. 16. The paper's lead author is Alexander Friedman, a McGovern Institute research scientist.
Hard decisions
In 2015, Graybiel, Friedman, and their colleagues first identified the brain circuit involved in decision making that involves cost-benefit conflict. The circuit begins in the medial prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for mood control, and extends into clusters of neurons called striosomes, which are located in the striatum, a region associated with habit formation, motivation, and reward reinforcement.
In that study, the researchers trained rodents to run a maze in which they had to choose between one option that included highly concentrated chocolate milk, which they like, along with bright light, which they don't, and an option with dimmer light but weaker chocolate milk. By inhibiting the connection between cortical neurons and striosomes, using a technique known as optogenetics, they found that they could transform the rodents' preference for lower-risk, lower-payoff choices to a preference for bigger payoffs despite their bigger costs.
In the new study, the researchers performed a similar experiment without optogenetic manipulations. Instead, they exposed the rodents to a short period of stress every day for two weeks.
Before experiencing stress, normal rats and mice would choose to run toward the maze arm with dimmer light and weaker chocolate milk about half the time. The researchers gradually increased the concentration of chocolate milk found in the dimmer side, and as they did so, the animals began choosing that side more frequently.
However, when chronically stressed rats and mice were put in the same situation, they continued to choose the bright light/better chocolate milk side even as the chocolate milk concentration greatly increased on the dimmer side. This was the same behavior the researchers saw in rodents that had the prefrontal cortex-striosome circuit disrupted optogenetically.
"The result is that the animal ignores the high cost and chooses the high reward," Friedman says.
Circuit dynamics
The researchers believe that this circuit integrates information about the good and bad aspects of possible choices, helping the brain to produce a decision. Normally, when the circuit is turned on, neurons of the prefrontal cortex activate certain neurons called high-firing interneurons, which then suppress striosome activity.
When the animals are stressed, these circuit dynamics shift and the cortical neurons fire too late to inhibit the striosomes, which then become overexcited. This results in abnormal decision making.
"Somehow this prior exposure to chronic stress controls the integration of good and bad," Graybiel says. "It's as though the animals had lost their ability to balance excitation and inhibition in order to settle on reasonable behavior."
Once this shift occurs, it remains in effect for months, the researchers found. However, they were able to restore normal decision making in the stressed mice by using optogenetics to stimulate the high-firing interneurons, thereby suppressing the striosomes. This suggests that the prefronto-striosome circuit remains intact following chronic stress and could potentially be susceptible to manipulations that would restore normal behavior in human patients whose disorders lead to abnormal decision making.
"This state change could be reversible, and it's possible in the future that you could target these interneurons and restore the excitation-inhibition balance," Friedman says.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171116132746.htm
Consuming nuts strengthens brainwave function
Researchers find that nuts benefit the brain by enhancing cognition, memory, recall and rest
November 15, 2017
Science Daily/Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center
A new study has found that eating nuts on a regular basis strengthens brainwave frequencies associated with cognition, healing, learning, memory and other key brain functions.
In the study titled "Nuts and brain: Effects of eating nuts on changing electroencephalograph brainwaves," researchers found that some nuts stimulated some brain frequencies more than others. Pistachios, for instance, produced the greatest gamma wave response, which is critical for enhancing cognitive processing, information retention, learning, perception and rapid eye movement during sleep. Peanuts, which are actually legumes, but were still part of the study, produced the highest delta response, which is associated with healthy immunity, natural healing, and deep sleep.
The study's principal investigator, Lee Berk, DrPH, MPH, associate dean for research at the LLU School of Allied Health Professions, said that while researchers found variances between the six nut varieties tested, all of them were high in beneficial antioxidants, with walnuts containing the highest antioxidant concentrations of all.
Prior studies have demonstrated that nuts benefit the body in several significant ways: protecting the heart, fighting cancer, reducing inflammation and slowing the aging process. But Berk said he believes too little research has focused on how they affect the brain.
"This study provides significant beneficial findings by demonstrating that nuts are as good for your brain as they are for the rest of your body," Berk said, adding that he expects future studies will reveal that they make other contributions to the brain and nervous system as well.
Berk -- who is best known for four decades of research into the health benefits of happiness and laughter, as well as a cluster of recent studies on the antioxidants in dark chocolate -- assembled a team of 13 researchers to explore the effects of regular nut consumption on brainwave activity.
The team developed a pilot study using consenting subjects who consumed almonds, cashews, peanuts, pecans, pistachios and walnuts. Electroencephalograms (EEG) were taken to measure the strength of brainwave signals. EEG wave band activity was then recorded from nine regions of the scalp associated with cerebral cortical function.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171115091809.htm
Quick! What's that smell? Mammal brains identify type of scent faster than once thought
November 14, 2017
Science Daily/NYU Langone Health / NYU School of Medicine
It takes less than one-tenth of a second -- a fraction of the time previously thought -- for the sense of smell to distinguish between one odor and another, new experiments in mice show.
In a study to be published in the journal Nature Communications online Nov. 14, researchers at NYU School of Medicine found that odorants -- chemical particles that trigger the sense of smell -- need only reach a few signaling proteins on the inside lining of the nose for the mice to identify a familiar aroma. Just as significantly, researchers say they also found that the animals' ability to tell odors apart was the same no matter how strong the scent (regardless of odorant concentration).
"Our study lays the groundwork for a new theory about how mammals, including humans, smell: one that is more streamlined than previously thought," says senior study investigator and neurobiologist Dmitry Rinberg, PhD. His team is planning further animal experiments to look for patterns of brain cell activation linked to smell detection and interpretation that could also apply to people.
"Much like human brains only need a few musical notes to name a particular song once a memory of it is formed, our findings demonstrate that a mouse's sense of smell needs only a few nerve signals to determine the kind of scent," says Rinberg, an associate professor at NYU Langone Health and its Neuroscience Institute.
When an odorant initially docks into its olfactory receptor protein on a nerve cell in the nose, the cell sends a signal to the part of the brain that assigns the odor, identifying the smell, says Rinberg.
Key among his team's latest findings was that mice recognize a scent right after activation of the first few olfactory brain receptors, and typically within the first 100 milliseconds of inhaling any odorant.
Previous research in animals had shown that it takes as long as 600 milliseconds for almost all olfactory brain receptors involved in their sense of smell to become fully activated, says Rinberg. However, earlier experiments in mice, which inhale through the nose faster than humans and have a faster sense of smell, showed that the number of activated receptors in their brains peaks after approximately 300 milliseconds.
Earlier scientific investigations had also shown that highly concentrated scents activated more receptors. But Rinberg says that until his team's latest experiments, researchers had not yet outlined the role of concentration in the odor identification process.
For the new study, mice were trained to lick a straw to get a water reward based on whether they smelled orange- or pine-like scents.
Using light-activated fibers inserted into the mouse nose, researchers could turn on individual brain receptors or groups of receptors involved in olfaction to control and track how many receptors were available to smell at any time. The optical technique was developed at NYU Langone.
The team then tested how well the mice performed on water rewards when challenged by different concentrations of each smell, and with more or fewer receptors available for activation. Early activation of too many receptors, the researchers found, impaired odor identification, increasing the number of errors made by trained mice in getting their reward.
Researchers found that early interruptions in sensing smell, less than 50 milliseconds from inhalation, reduced odor identification scores nearly to chance. By contrast, reward scores greatly improved when the mouse sense of smell was interrupted at any point after 50 milliseconds, but these gains fell off after 100 milliseconds.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171114091307.htm
Why head and face pain causes more suffering
Sensory neurons in the head and face tap directly into the brain's emotional pathways
November 13, 2017
Science Daily/Duke University
Scientists have discovered why pain from the head and face can be more disruptive, and more emotionally draining, than pain elsewhere in the body. The team found that sensory neurons from the head and face are wired directly into one of the brain's principal emotional signaling hubs, while sensory neurons from the body are connected only indirectly. The results may pave the way toward more effective treatments for chronic head pain.
Hate headaches? The distress you feel is not all in your -- well, head. People consistently rate pain of the head, face, eyeballs, ears and teeth as more disruptive, and more emotionally draining, than pain elsewhere in the body.
Duke University scientists have discovered how the brain's wiring makes us suffer more from head and face pain. The answer may lie not just in what is reported to us by the five senses, but in how that sensation makes us feel emotionally.
The team found that sensory neurons that serve the head and face are wired directly into one of the brain's principal emotional signaling hubs. Sensory neurons elsewhere in the body are also connected to this hub, but only indirectly.
The results may pave the way toward more effective treatments for pain mediated by the craniofacial nerve, such as chronic headaches and neuropathic face pain.
"Usually doctors focus on treating the sensation of pain, but this shows the we really need to treat the emotional aspects of pain as well," said Fan Wang, a professor of neurobiology and cell biology at Duke, and senior author of the study. The results appear online Nov. 13 in Nature Neuroscience.
Pain signals from the head versus those from the body are carried to the brain through two different groups of sensory neurons, and it is possible that neurons from the head are simply more sensitive to pain than neurons from the body.
But differences in sensitivity would not explain the greater fear and emotional suffering that patients experience in response to head-face pain than body pain, Wang said.
Personal accounts of greater fear and suffering are backed up by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), which shows greater activity in the amygdala -- a region of the brain involved in emotional experiences -- in response to head pain than in response to body pain.
"There has been this observation in human studies that pain in the head and face seems to activate the emotional system more extensively," Wang said. "But the underlying mechanisms remained unclear."
To examine the neural circuitry underlying the two types of pain, Wang and her team tracked brain activity in mice after irritating either a paw or the face. They found that irritating the face led to higher activity in the brain's parabrachial nucleus (PBL), a region that is directly wired into the brain's instinctive and emotional centers.
Then they used methods based on a novel technology recently pioneered by Wang's group, called CANE, to pinpoint the sources of neurons that caused this elevated PBL activity.
"It was a eureka moment because the body neurons only have this indirect pathway to the PBL, whereas the head and face neurons, in addition to this indirect pathway, also have a direct input," Wang said. "This could explain why you have stronger activation in the amygdala and the brain's emotional centers from head and face pain."
Further experiments showed that activating this pathway prompted face pain, while silencing the pathway reduced it.
"We have the first biological explanation for why this type of pain can be so much more emotionally taxing than others," said Wolfgang Liedtke, a professor of neurology at Duke University Medical Center and a co-author on Wang's paper, who is also treating patients with head- and face-pain. "This will open the door toward not only a more profound understanding of chronic head and face pain, but also toward translating this insight into treatments that will benefit people."
Chronic head-face pain such cluster headaches and trigeminal neuralgia can become so severe that patients seek surgical solutions, including severing the known neural pathways that carry pain signals from the head and face to the hindbrain. But a substantial number of patients continue to suffer, even after these invasive measures.
"Some of the most debilitating forms of pain occur in the head regions, such as migraine," said Qiufu Ma, a professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the study. "The discovery of this direct pain pathway might provide an explanation why facial pain is more severe and more unpleasant."
Liedtke said targeting the neural pathway identified here can be a new approach toward developing innovative treatments for this devastating head and face pain.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171113123753.htm
People will desire something even more if you increase their focus on it
November 13, 2017
Science Daily/Case Western Reserve University
The relationship between desire and attention was long thought to only work in one direction: when a person desires something, they focus their attention on it.
Now, new research reveals this relationship works the other way, too: increasing a person's focus on a desirable object makes them want the object even more -- a finding with important implications for marketers and clinicians seeking to influence behavior.
The study, published in the journal Motivation and Emotion, is the first to demonstrate a two-way relationship.
"People will block out distraction and narrow their attention on something they want," said Anne Kotynski, author of the study and a PhD student in psychological sciences at Case Western Reserve University. "Now we know this works in the opposite direction, too."
In marketing, advertisements with a hyper focus on a product's desirable aspect -- say zooming in on the texture of icing and frosting -- might help sell a certain brand of cake.
Findings suggest the ad could be targeted to people who have shown an interest in a similar product, such as running the cake commercial during a baking show.
Clinicians could potentially help their patients develop a stronger focus on -- and pursuit of -- healthy activities that they may desire but otherwise resist, such as exercising or eating a balanced diet, Kotynski said.
The study's findings also add a wrinkle to knowledge of focus and emotion.
According to a spate of previous research, positive emotions -- such as happiness and joy -- widen a person's attention span, while negative emotions -- such as disgust and fear -- do the opposite: narrowing a person's focus.
"We conceptualize fear as drastically different from desire," Kotynski said. "But our findings contribute to growing evidence that these different emotions have something key in common: They both narrow our focus in similar ways."
The findings also fit the notion that both of these emotions -- fear (negative) and desire (positive) -- are associated with evolutionarily pursuits that narrowed our ancestors' attentions.
For example, fear of predators motivated attention focused on an escape route, while an urge to mate motivated focus on a sexual partner.
"If a person has a strong desire, research says this positive emotion would make them have a wide attention span," Kotynski said. "Our research shows we developed a more beneficial behavior around desire: focusing our mental energy on the important object, much like fear would."
The study
Study participants were shown images of desserts mixed in with mundane items. They were instructed to pull a joystick toward them if the image was tilted one direction and push the stick away if it was tilted the opposite direction. Researchers recorded the reaction time of each.
Participants who responded fastest to pull the images of desserts were those whose attention had been narrowed. Responses were much slower to the mundane, and for participants whose attention was broad -- suggesting narrowed attention increases desire for desserts but not for everyday objects.
The study used dessert pictures to measure reaction time because such images have been shown to increase desire across individuals, most likely due to a motivation to seek high fat, high calorie foods that is rooted in evolution.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171113095516.htm
Blue lighting is scientifically proven to help us relax faster than white lighting after an argument
November 10, 2017
Science Daily/University of Granada
Researchers say that blue light accelerates the relaxation process after acute psychosocial stress such as arguing with a friend or when someone pressures you to quickly finish some task.
Said stress is a kind of short-term stress (acute stress) that occurs during social or interpersonal relationships, for example while arguing with a friend or when someone pressures you to finish a certain task as soon as possible.
The researchers, which belong to the BCI Lab (Brain-Computer Interface Lab) at the University of Granada, note that psychosocial stress produces some physiological responses that can be measured by means of bio-signals. That stress is very common and negatively affects people's health and quality of life.
For their work, whose results have been published in the PlosOne journal, the researchers made twelve volunteers to be stressed and then perform a relaxation session within the multisensory stimulation room at the School for Special Education San Rafael.
In said room the participants lied down with no stimulus but a blue (group 1) or white (group 2) lighting. Diverse bio-signals, such as heart rate and brain activity, were measured throughout the whole session (by means of an electrocardiogram and an electroencephalogram, respectively).
The results showed that blue lighting accelerates the relaxation process, in comparison with conventional white lighting.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171110113936.htm
'Bursts' of beta waves, not sustained rhythms, filter sensory processing in brain
November 8, 2017
Science Daily/Brown University
Scientists have found that people and mice alike use brief bursts of beta brainwaves, rather than sustained rhythms, to control attention and perception.
To better understand the brain and to develop potential therapies, neuroscientists have been investigating how "beta" frequency brainwaves help the brain filter distractions to process sensations. A new Brown University study stands to substantially refine what they thought was going on: What really matters is not a sustained elevation in beta wave power, but instead the rate of specific bursts of beta wave activity, ideally with perfect timing.
The new insight, reported in the journal eLife, arose from the scientists looking beneath the covers of the typical practice of averaging beta brain wave data. With a closer examination, trial-by-trial for each subject, they saw that what really reflected attention and impacted perception were discrete, powerful bursts of beta waves at frequencies around 20 hertz.
"When people were trying to block distraction in a brain area, the probability of seeing these beta events went up," said senior author Stephanie R. Jones, an associate professor of neuroscience at Brown. "The brain seemed to be flexibly modulating the expression of these beta events for optimal perception."
The findings, made with consistency in humans and mice, can not only refine ongoing research into how beta waves arise and work in the brain, Jones said, but also provide guidance to clinicians as they develop therapies that seek to modulate beta waves.
Testing touch
The research team, led by graduate student Hyeyoung Shin, acquired the data through a series of experiments in which they measured beta waves in the somatosensory neocortex of humans and mice in the second leading up to inducing (or not inducing) varying amounts of a tactile sensation. Humans wore a cap of magnetoencephalography sensors, while mice had implanted electrodes. For people, the sensation was a tap on a finger tip or the foot. For mice, it was a wiggle of a whisker.
Subjects were merely required to report the sensations they felt -- people pushed a button, while mice were trained to lick a sensor in exchange for a reward. The researchers tracked the association of beta power with whether subjects accurately detected, or didn't detect, stimuli. What they found, as expected, is that the more beta activity there was in the corresponding region of cortex, the less likely subjects were to report feeling a sensation. Elevated beta activity is known to help suppress distractions.
A particularly good example, Shin said, was that in experiments where people were first instructed to focus on their foot, there was more beta power in the hand region of the neocortex. Correspondingly, more beta in the hand region resulted in less detection of a sensation in the hand.
"We think that beta acts a filter mechanism," Shin said.
Beta bursts
Consistently throughout various iterations of the experiments across both the human and mouse subjects, increases in beta activity did not manifest as a continuously elevated rhythm. Instead, when beta appeared, it quickly spiked in short, distinct bursts of power. Only if a subject's beta was averaged over many trials would it look like a smooth plateau of high-power activity.
After discovering this pattern, the researchers performed analyses to determine what features of the bursts best predicted whether subjects would report, or miss, a touch sensation. After all, it could be the number of bursts, their power, or maybe how long they lasted.
What Shin and the team found is that number of bursts and their timing both mattered independently. If there were two or more bursts any time in the second before a sensation, it was significantly more likely to go undetected. Alternatively, if just one burst hit within 200 milliseconds of the sensation, the stimulus would also be more likely to be overlooked.
"The ideal case was having large numbers and being close in timing to the stimulus," Shin said.
A better idea of beta
While the study helps to characterize the nature of beta in the somatosensory neocortex, it doesn't explain how it affects sensations, Jones acknowledged. But that's why it is important that the results were in lockstep in both mice and in people. Confirming that mice model the human experience means researchers can rely on mice in experiments that delve more deeply into how beta bursts arise and what their consequence are in neurons and circuits. Shin is already doing experiments to dissect how distinct neural subpopulations contribute to beta bursts and somatosensory detection, respectively. Co-author and postdoctoral researcher Robert Law is applying computational neural models that link the human and animal recordings for further discovery.
In the clinical realm, Jones said, an improved understanding of how beta works could translate directly into improving therapies such as transcranial magnetic stimulation or transcranial alternating current to treat neurological disorders, such as chronic pain, or depression. Rather than using those technologies to generate a consistent elevation in beta in a brain region, Jones said, it might be more effective to use them to induce (or suppress) shorter, more powerful bursts and to time those to be as close in time to a target brain activity as possible.
"Typically with non-invasive brain stimulation you are trying to entrain a rhythm," Jones said. "What our results suggest is that's not what the brain is doing. The brain is doing this intermittent pattern of activity."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171108092409.htm
Clear effect of art therapy on severe depression
November 6, 2017
Science Daily/University of Gothenburg
Create a picture of how you are feeling on this particular day, said the first exercise in the art therapy. After ten treatments the patients who suffered from severe or moderately severe depression had shown more improvement than the patients in the control group, shows research.
"The conclusion is that it was the art therapy that facilitated their improvement," says Christina Blomdahl, PhD at the institute of health and care sciences, licensed occupational therapist and art therapist.
As part of her dissertation she has allowed 43 patients with severe or moderately severe depression to undergo a manual-based art therapy that she has developed herself. The control group consisted of 36 people who all suffered from the same medical condition.
In parallel with this, all participants were given different combinations of medication, cognitive behavioral therapy, psychodynamic therapy and physical therapy. The majority of the participants were so affected by their depression that they were unable to work.
The individual art therapy took place in psychiatry or primary care and was conducted by a specially trained therapist. Each session began with a short briefing and a relaxation exercise. After that it was crayons, water colors and creation that was on the agenda, all based on a predetermined setup.
"They followed the manual I had created in order to ensure that it was scientific, but although everyone was given the same theme to go on the patients responded very differently to the exercises. The materials were simple, allowing people to doodle and feel free to express themselves the way they wanted to, and then they would talk about the picture and its significance to the participant," explains Christina Blomdahl.
After ten hour-long treatment sessions the patients had improved on an average of almost five steps on a rating scale used for depression. A large leap that entails a considerable change to everyday life, and sometimes it may also mean that a patient is able to return to work.
Anxiety, sleep, ability to take initiative and emotional involvement are some of the factors that are assessed. In the control group that had not undergone art therapy there was no definite change.
"The focal point was that people felt like they were meeting themselves; that the picture served as a mirror where you could see and make new discoveries about yourself, a bit like coming to life, says Christina Blomdahl.
"Even the people who did not experience any direct benefit from the treatment had shown improvement. Painting pictures based on themes and discussing the pictures with the therapist promotes self-reflection and brain stimulation that takes place outside of the conscious mind," she continues.
"It is my hope that art therapy will be used in healthcare again. Based on evidence requirements it has been more or less scrapped by psychiatry, but this is one of the largest studies that has been conducted in this area and it is a step that may lead to more people being trained in it and the method being used again," Christina Blomdahl concludes.
Further information: https://gupea.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/52419
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171106100128.htm
Depressed fathers risk not getting help
November 6, 2017
Science Daily/Lund University
Postnatal depression among new mothers is a well-known phenomenon. Knowledge about depression in new fathers, however, is more limited. A new study shows that depression among new fathers may be more common than previously believed. There is also a major risk that it remains undetected using today's screening instruments, and that fathers do not receive the help they need.
Detecting depression in new parents is crucial -- not only for their own sake but also because depressed parents often become less perceptive to the needs of their child, particularly if the child cries a lot. Babies of depressed parents tend to receive less stimulation which, eventually, could lead to slower development. In some cases, depression may lead to neglect of the child or inappropriately forceful behaviors.
"These behaviours are not unusual -- depression does not only involve major suffering for the parent, but also a risk for the child," says Elia Psouni, associate professor of developmental psychology and co-author of the study, together with psychologists Johan Agebjörn and Hanne Linder.
All new mothers are screened for depression, and an estimated 10-12 per cent of women are affected during their first year after giving birth. Fathers, however, are not screened, but previous international studies claim that the proportion of depressed fathers amounts to just over 8 per cent.
The study of 447 new fathers showed that the established method of detecting depression (EPDS, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) works poorly on men.
"This means that current statistics may not tell the whole truth when it comes to depression in new fathers," says Elia Psouni. "The screening method does not capture symptoms which are particularly common in men, such as irritation, restlessness, low stress tolerance, and lack of self-control."
Although one-third of the depressed fathers in the study had thoughts of hurting themselves, very few were in contact with the healthcare system. Among those who were classified being moderately to severely depressed, 83 per cent had not shared their suffering with anyone. Although difficult to know, the corresponding figure for new mothers is believed to be 20-50 per cent.
"Telling people you feel depressed is taboo; as a new parent, you are expected to be happy. On top of that, previous research has shown that men are often reluctant to seeking help for mental health issues, especially depression; therefore it's doubtful that they would reveal their suffering to a paediatric nurse," says Elia Psouni.
Elia Psouni, Johan Agebjörn and Hanne Linder hope that their study will lead to improved screening methods in accordance with their suggestions, delivered so that it can reach all fathers. The method they developed, which combines questions from EPDS and GMDS (Gotland Male Depression Scale), proved to be well-suited for capturing dads with multiple symptoms of depression.
When it comes to screening depression in fathers, Elia Psouni thinks that the period to consider should be longer than the 12 months currently applied in studies of new mothers.
"Among dads, depression is common even at the end of the first year, which may be due to the fact that they rarely get help, but there may be other explanations. Whatever the reason, it is important to monitor dads' wellbeing as their part of the parental leave usually occurs towards the end of the child's first year of life."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171106112238.htm
How toxic air clouds mental health
November 2, 2017
Science Daily/University of Washington
Researchers have found a link between air pollution and psychological distress. The higher the level of particulates in the air, the study showed, the greater the impact on mental health. The study is believed to be the first to use a nationally representative survey pool, cross-referenced with pollution data at the census block level, to evaluate the connection between toxic air and mental health.
There is little debate over the link between air pollution and the human respiratory system: Research shows that dirty air can impair breathing and aggravate various lung diseases. Other potential effects are being investigated, too, as scientists examine connections between toxic air and obesity, diabetes and dementia.
Now add to that list psychological distress, which University of Washington researchers have found is also associated with air pollution. The higher the level of particulates in the air, the UW-led study showed, the greater the impact on mental health.
The study, published in the November issue of Health & Place, is believed to be the first to use a nationally representative survey pool, cross-referenced with pollution data at the census block level, to evaluate the connection between toxic air and mental health.
"This is really setting out a new trajectory around the health effects of air pollution," said Anjum Hajat, an assistant professor of epidemiology in the UW School of Public Health. "The effects of air pollution on cardiovascular health and lung diseases like asthma are well established, but this area of brain health is a newer area of research."
Where a person lives can make a big difference to health and quality of life. Scientists have identified "social determinants" of physical and mental well-being, such as availability of healthy foods at local grocers, access to nature or neighborhood safety.
Air pollution, too, has been associated with behavior changes -- spending less time outside, for instance, or leading a more sedentary lifestyle -- that can be related to psychological distress or social isolation.
The UW study looked for a direct connection between toxic air and mental health, relying on some 6,000 respondents from a larger, national, longitudinal study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Researchers then merged an air pollution database with records corresponding to the neighborhoods of each of the 6,000 survey participants. The team zeroed in on measurements of fine particulate matter, a substance produced by car engines, fireplaces and wood stoves, and power plants fueled by coal or natural gas. Fine particulate matter (particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter) is easily inhaled, can be absorbed into the bloodstream and is considered of greater risk than larger particles. (To picture just how small fine particulate matter is, consider this: The average human hair is 70 micrometers in diameter.)
The current safety standard for fine particulates, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is 12 micrograms per cubic meter. Between 1999 and 2011, the time frame examined in the UW study, survey respondents lived in neighborhoods where fine particulates measured anywhere from 2.16 to 24.23 micrograms per cubic meter, with an average level of 11.34.
The survey questions relevant to the UW study gauged participants' feelings of sadness, nervousness, hopelessness and the like and were scored with a scale that assesses psychological distress.
The UW study found that the risk of psychological distress increased alongside the amount of fine particulate matter in the air. For example, in areas with high levels of pollution (21 micrograms per cubic meter), psychological distress scores were 17 percent higher than in areas with low levels of pollution (5 micrograms per cubic meter). Another finding: Every increase in pollution of 5 micrograms per cubic meter had the same effect as a 1.5-year loss in education.
Researchers controlled for other physical, behavioral and socioeconomic factors that can influence mental health, such as chronic health conditions, unemployment and excessive drinking.
But some patterns emerged that warrant more study, explained primary author Victoria Sass, a graduate student in the Department of Sociology.
When the data are broken down by race and gender, black men and white women show the most significant correlation between air pollution and psychological distress: The level of distress among black men, for instance, in areas of high pollution, is 34 percent greater than that of white men, and 55 percent greater than that of Latino men. A noticeable trend among white women is the substantial increase in distress -- 39 percent -- as pollution levels rise from low to high.
Precisely why air pollution impacts mental health, especially among specific populations, was beyond the scope of the study, Sass said. But that's what makes further research important.
"Our society is segregated and stratified, which places an unnecessary burden on some groups," Sass said. "Even moderate levels can be detrimental to health."
Air pollution, however, is something that can be mitigated, Hajat said, and has been declining in the United States. It's a health problem with a clear, actionable solution. But it requires the political will to continue to regulate air quality, Sass added.
"We shouldn't think of this as a problem that has been solved," she said. "There is a lot to be said for having federal guidelines that are rigorously enforced and continually updated. The ability of communities to have clean air will be impacted with more lax regulation."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171102121128.htm
Are some natural environments more psychologically beneficial than others?
October 31, 2017
Science Daily/University of Surrey
Spending time in rural and coastal locations is more psychologically beneficial to individuals than time spent in urban green spaces, a new study reports.
During this innovative study, researchers from the University of Surrey, University of Exeter, University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory worked with Natural England to examine the experiences of over 4,500 people when spending time in nature and investigated for the first time how different environmental settings and their quality impacted on psychological wellbeing.
Asking participants to describe their visit and to evaluate their overall encounter, researchers discovered that those who visited rural and coastal locations reported greater psychological contentment than those who spent time in urban green spaces, such as city gardens and parks. It was also found that visits to natural areas of protected or designated status i.e. national parks, also resulted in improved mental wellbeing.
Researchers found these visits to nature (especially those to protected sites and to coastal and rural green settings) were associated with both greater feelings of relaxation and refreshment but also stronger emotional connections to the natural world. Interestingly it was discovered that visits longer than 30 minutes were associated with a better connection and subsequently had greater psychological benefits.
Socio-economic status was also found not to be a factor in enjoyment of nature, demonstrating the importance of providing free/affordable entrance to sites. This will help prevent socio-economic inequality in accessing nature.
Lead author of the paper Dr Kayleigh Wyles, who undertook the research whilst at Plymouth Marine Laboratory and now Lecturer in Environmental Psychology at the University of Surrey, said:
"We've demonstrated for some time that nature can be beneficial to us, but we're still exploring how and why. Here we have found that our mental wellbeing and our emotional bond with nature may differ depending on the type and quality of an environment we visit.
"These findings are important as they not only help unpick the mechanisms behind these psychological benefits, but they can also help to prioritise the protection of these environments and emphasise why accessibility to nature is so important."
Professor Mel Austen, Head of the Sea and Society Science Area at Plymouth Marine Laboratory said: "It was surprising to learn that the extent of protection of marine environments also affects the extent of mental health benefits that people gain from their interactions with the sea.
"People's health is likely to become an increasingly important aspect to consider as we manage our coasts and waters for the benefit of all users."
The positive benefits of interaction with nature are well documented with numerous studies reporting a reduction of stress levels in participants and an increase in overall wellbeing in those spending time in nature. This is the first study of its kind which shows that different types of natural environments have more of an impact on psychological wellbeing than others.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171031202451.htm
Regular marijuana use linked to more sex
October 27, 2017
Science Daily/Stanford University Medical Center
Despite concerns among physicians and scientists that frequent marijuana use may impair sexual desire or performance, the opposite appears more likely to be the case, new research indicates.
The jury's still out on rock 'n' roll. But the link between sex and at least one drug, marijuana, has been confirmed.
A study by investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine indicates that, despite concerns among physicians and scientists that frequent marijuana use may impair sexual desire or performance, the opposite appears more likely to be the case.
The findings, to be published online Oct. 27 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, are based on an analysis of more than 50,000 Americans ages 25-45. And they're unambiguous.
"Frequent marijuana use doesn't seem to impair sexual motivation or performance. If anything, it's associated with increased coital frequency," said the study's senior author, Michael Eisenberg, MD, assistant professor of urology. The lead author is Andrew Sun, MD, a resident in urology.
Hint of a causal connection
The study does not establish a causal connection between marijuana use and sexual activity, Eisenberg noted. But the results hint at it, he added. "The overall trend we saw applied to people of both sexes and all races, ages, education levels, income groups and religions, every health status, whether they were married or single and whether or not they had kids."
The study is the first to examine the relationship between marijuana use and frequency of sexual intercourse at the population level in the United States.
"Marijuana use is very common, but its large-scale use and association with sexual frequency hasn't been studied much in a scientific way," Eisenberg said.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more than 20 million adult Americans are current marijuana users. With the drug's legalization for medical or recreational use in 29 states, that number is climbing. But despite marijuana's growing status as a recreational drug, its status as a procreational drug remains ambiguous: On one hand, there are reports of erectile dysfunction in heavy users, and rigorous studies have found reduced sperm counts in men who smoke it; on the other hand, experiments conducted in animal models and humans indicate that marijuana stimulates activity in brain regions involved in sexual arousal and activity.
Looking at survey responses
To arrive at an accurate determination of marijuana's effect on intercourse frequency, Eisenberg and Sun turned to the National Survey of Family Growth, sponsored by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The survey, which provides data pertaining to family structures, sexual practices and childbearing, reflects the overall demographic features of the U.S. population. Originally conducted at regular intervals, the survey is now carried out on an annual basis. It explicitly queries respondents on how many times they've had intercourse with a member of the opposite sex in the past four weeks, and how frequently they've smoked marijuana over the past 12 months.
The investigators compiled answers to those questions for all years since 2002, when the survey first began collecting data on men as well as women. They included data from respondents ages 25-45 and excluded a small percentage (fewer than 3 percent) of respondents who had failed to answer one or more relevant questions.
In all, Eisenberg and Sun obtained data on 28,176 women averaging 29.9 years of age and 22,943 men whose average age was 29.5. They assessed these individuals' self-reported patterns of marijuana use over the previous year and their self-reported frequency of heterosexual intercourse over the previous four weeks.
Some 24.5 percent of men and 14.5 percent of women in the analysis reported having used marijuana, and there was a positive association between the frequency of marijuana use and the frequency of sexual intercourse. This relationship applied to both sexes: Women denying marijuana use in the past year, for example, had sex on average 6.0 times during the previous four weeks, whereas that number was 7.1 for daily pot users. Among men, the corresponding figure was 5.6 for nonusers and 6.9 for daily users.
In other words, pot users are having about 20 percent more sex than pot abstainers, Eisenberg noted.
Positive association is universal
Moreover, Eisenberg said, the positive association between marijuana use and coital frequency was independent of demographic, health, marital or parental status.
In addition, the trend remained even after accounting for subjects' use of other drugs, such as cocaine or alcohol. This, Eisenberg said, suggests that marijuana's positive correlation with sexual activity doesn't merely reflect some general tendency of less-inhibited types, who may be more inclined to use drugs, to also be more likely to have sex. In addition, coital frequency rose steadily with increasing marijuana use, a dose-dependent relationship supporting a possible active role for marijuana in fostering sexual activity.
Nevertheless, Eisenberg cautioned, the study shouldn't be misinterpreted as having proven a causal link. "It doesn't say if you smoke more marijuana, you'll have more sex," he said.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171027085539.htm
Smell sensitivity varies with circadian rhythm
October 26, 2017
Science Daily/Brown University
A person's ability to smell may vary throughout the day in accordance with their circadian rhythm, according to new evidence in a small study by researchers who are looking at how sleep may influence eating patterns in teens.
It has always been apparent that some individuals have a better sense of smell than others, but a new study of 37 teens provides the first direct evidence that within each person, smell sensitivity varies over the course of each day. The pattern, according to the data, tracks with the body's internal day-night cycle, or circadian rhythm.
"This finding is very important for olfactory perception science," said Rachel Herz, lead author of the study in Chemical Senses and an adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. "This hadn't been known before and this is the first clear, direct evidence."
As one of the five senses, smell is an important ability, Herz noted, not only for experiencing and enjoying the world, but also for receiving information about danger, such as nearby fire or spoiled food, and for basic functions like eating. Changes in the sense during the day can affect all these capabilities.
Indeed Herz, an expert in the sense of smell, made the findings in collaboration with sleep expert Mary Carskadon, a Brown professor of psychiatry and human behavior. Carskadon is conducting a larger study with a hypothesis that circadian timing and sleep habits may affect the eating habits of teens, potentially contributing to obesity. Smell is associated with food consumption, notes Herz -- who has authored the upcoming book "Why You Eat What You Eat" -- so the researchers devised an experiment to determine whether smell varies with circadian rhythm.
28-hour 'days'
To conduct the study, the researchers asked the 21 boys and 16 girls, all between ages 12 and 15, to sleep on a fixed schedule for two weeks before reporting to the Bradley Hospital sleep lab. After an adaptation night in the lab, the teens began a week of 28-hour days where their sleep was shifted four hours later each "night."
All along, they lived indoors in dim light, socializing and participating in fun activities with each other and staff members. The goal was to separate them temporarily from typical sleep disruptions and from external cues of circadian timing. In this way, Carskadon said, their inherent, internal circadian rhythms could be measured, as could the sensitivity of their sense of smell at all times throughout their rhythms (in addition to other measures, such as food intake).
The team measured circadian rhythm by detecting levels of the sleep-cueing hormone melatonin in their saliva. Melatonin secretion begins about an hour before the urge to sleep hits. They assessed smell sensitivity using "Sniffin' Sticks," a common test for measuring odor detection thresholds. Each time they used the sticks, the researchers could determine the threshold concentration of the odor that the teens could detect. Smell was assessed every three hours while teens were awake.
The rhythm of smell
Individuals varied substantially in how much their smell sensitivity varied over a circadian cycle and in when it peaked. But there were clear patterns individually and overall. One was that the variance showed a circadian rhythm, and the other was that smell sensitivity was never strongest well into the "biological night," or the period well after melatonin onset when people are most likely to be asleep and least likely to be eating. In clock terms, it's from about 3 to 9 a.m.
"So we have 84 tests done on each child, and each one has a circadian phase associated with it," Carskadon said. "There is a rhythm here, and it's not flat or that you smell the same all the time. Your sense of smell changes in a predictable manner, though it's not the same for every child."
Carskadon said the findings should be of note to clinicians and researchers who seek to assess a patient's sense of smell. The study suggests that sensitivity might be inherently higher at an afternoon appointment than in the early morning.
Herz noted that there could be implications for fire safety as well. A decade ago she and Carskadon had found that the sense of smell all but shuts down during sleep. Now there is evidence that the sense of smell is relatively weak during a quarter of the circadian cycle. This emphasizes, Herz said, the value of audible smoke alarms, since smell may be a poor indicator of that danger at least in the early morning hours.
On average, the peak of smell sensitivity was at the beginning of biological night, or about 9 p.m. for the teens.
Herz said she can only speculate about why smell sensitivity might peak, on average, in the late evening. From an evolutionary standpoint, it might be to ensure the greatest sense of satiety during the important end of day meal, it might be a way of increasing mating desire, or perhaps a way of scanning for nearby threats before bedding down for the evening.
For each individual, she said, knowing when during the day smell their sensitivity might peak could be a way of identifying the time when sensory experiences could be most pleasant.
For less ancient health concerns, however, Carskadon says more data from the experiments is coming to help the team determine whether the circadian fluctuations of smell sensitivity helps determine food choices and eating behaviors among teens.
"The sense of smell changes across the 24 hours of the day," Carskadon said. "We don't know if that difference will affect what or how people eat. There is more to come."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171026103130.htm