Case pinpoints possible happiness center in brain

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)

Researchers found the tickle spot on one epileptic woman's brain when they realized that stimulating a specific brain region caused her to feel happy and laugh.

The finding strongly suggests that, at least in this woman, laughter and "mirth" are linked to this zone of the brain, the authors note.

The brain region, known as the inferior temporal gyrus, has also been linked to language and memory, study author Takeshi Satow, of the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan, told Reuters Health.

The researchers made their discovery in a 24-year-old woman who was about to undergo surgery to help control her epileptic seizures.

Before surgery, Satow and colleagues applied electric stimulation to the surface of her brain to determine the "functional areas" of that layer, which should be avoided during surgery.

When they applied a slight amount of stimulation for one second to the woman's inferior temporal gyrus, the patient reported feelings of "mirth." At the same time, she said a melody she remembered from childhood popped into her head.

The longer the investigators applied the stimulation, the longer she felt happy. And after five seconds of stimulation, she smiled.

The case report appears in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Explaining why the childhood melody accompanied the woman's happy feelings, Satow speculated that stimulating that brain region simultaneously elicited pleasant memories -- in this case, a favored childhood song.

When the researchers applied stronger stimulation to the inferior temporal gyrus, the woman's feelings of happiness progressed to laughter. However, when the authors asked her to read sentences aloud while applying the stimulation, she did not laugh "because she paid strong attention to the task itself," Satow said.

Satow added that previous research has linked laughter to other regions of the brain, which suggests that applying stimulation to one region -- such as the inferior temporal gyrus -- ends up stimulating other brain sites as well.

"Several different (brain) areas can be responsible for mirth and laughter, independently," Satow said.

Buddhists really do know secret of happiness

By Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent



BUDDHISTS who claim their religion holds the secret of happiness may have been proved right by science: brain scans of the devout have found exceptional activity in the lobes that promote serenity and joy.
American research has shown that the brain’s “happiness centre” is constantly alive with electrical signals in experienced Buddhists, offering an explanation for their calm and contented demeanour.


Neuroscientists think the preliminary findings could provide the first proof that religious training can change the way the brain responds to certain environmental triggers.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison study team scanned the brains of people who had been practising Buddhists for several years, looking particularly at areas important for emotion, mood and temperament. They found that the left side — the “happiness centre” — was consistently highly active in Buddhists.

“We can now hypothesise with some confidence that those apparently happy, calm Buddhist souls one regularly comes across in places such as Dharamsala (the Dalai Lama’s home) really are happy,” Professor Owen Flanagan of Duke University, North Carolina, writes in New Scientist.

The positive effects were seen all the time, not only during meditation, which suggests that the Buddhist way of life may affect the way their brains work. Other research has also suggested that Buddhists have lower than usual activity in the part of the brain that processes fear and anxiety. These findings may eventually allow researchers to develop meditation techniques as treatments for depressive illnesses.

Steve James, founder of the London Buddhist Centre, said the findings offered evidence of what Buddhism can do to improve happiness, and Paul Seto, director of the Buddhist Society, said: “Lots of people are excited about this, but we’ve known it all along. Buddhism hasn’t been waiting for scientific proof. We know it works.”

Stand on Stages

If it's possible that one day I could stand on stages and preach to people about meaning of life, how to promote mind, how to solve troubles, how to be happy every day and stuff.

I think I tend to preach something good I found to people. Usually, when I meet friends, spontaneously I mention what I learned in these days, the inspiration I got and also I suggest to try something that I think it's good. It might be my nature.

Maybe I can use my nature and help people.

I think I have to learn more about life and more knowledge even though I don't really that but I have to learn for other people.

I am just a tiny person and I think that is what I can do for this world. I can't change the whole world but at least I can influence some people.

。

Winner!!!

I won the game today.

Finally, I had my own Blog.

What a coincidence!
I just surfed on-line and read some interesting articles and I found a author of a news station has his own Blog. And he didn't really creat the blog himself but just have to register in E-Blog and then he got his blog. Cool!!!

Thanks for Blogger. com!!!
Now I have my own blog. ^^

Yeah!