(Press-News.org) Over 100 years ago psychologist Carl Gustav Jung penned his theory of 'complexes' where he explained how unconscious psychological issues can be triggered by people, events, or Jung believed, through word association tests.
New research in the Journal of Analytical Psychology is the first to reveal how modern brain function technology allows us to see inside the mind as a 'hot button' word triggers a state of internal conflict between the left and right parts of the brain.
The study revealed that some words trigger a subconscious internal conflict between our sense of selves and downloaded brain programs referring to "other" beings.
Analysis showed how this conflict takes place between the left and the right brain over three seconds, after which the left brain takes over to ensure 'hot buttons' will continue to be active.
"We found that when a complex is activated, brain circuits involved in how we sense ourselves, but also other people, get activated," said Dr. Leon Petchkovsky. "However, as there is no external person, the 'other' circuits really refer to internalized programs about how an 'other' person might respond. When a hot button gets pressed, 'internal self' and 'internal other' get into an argument."
"If we can manage to stay with the conflict rather than pseudo-resolve it prematurely, it may be possible to move beyond it," said Petchkovsky. "We can do this in psychotherapy, or by developing 'mindfulness' meditation skills. This makes for fewer 'hot-buttons' and a happier life."
Further research into this technology may help to develop an office-based test for condtions such as schizophrenia. Jung noticed that when schizophrenic patients responded to the word association test, their complexes tended to predominate for a much longer time and they would often get a burst of auditory hallucinations when they hit complexed responses.
In Dr Petchkovsky's research with two schizophrenic patients found that their right brain activity persists for much longer than other patients and they reported an increase in auditory hallucination activity when complexes are struck.
### END
A rather complex complex: Brain scans reveal internal conflict during Jung's word association test
2013-06-10
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Whitebark pine trees: Is their future at risk?
2013-06-10
There's trouble ahead for the whitebark pine, a mountain tree that's integral to wildlife and water resources in the western United States and Canada.
Over the last decade, some populations of whitebark pines have declined by more than 90 percent. But these declines may be just the beginning.
New research results, supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and published today in the Journal of Ecology, suggest that as pine stands are increasingly fragmented by widespread tree death, surviving trees may be hindered in their ability to produce their usually abundant ...
Transplant patient outcomes after trauma better than expected
2013-06-10
Baltimore, MD – June 10, 2013 – In the largest study of its kind, physicians from the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) have determined that outcomes for traumatic injury in patients with organ transplants are not worse than for non-transplanted patients, despite common presumptions among physicians. The findings, published in the June 2013 issue of The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, also show that transplanted organs are rarely ...
2-D electronics take a step forward
2013-06-10
HOUSTON – (June 10, 2013) – Scientists at Rice University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have advanced on the goal of two-dimensional electronics with a method to control the growth of uniform atomic layers of molybdenum disulfide (MDS).
MDS, a semiconductor, is one of a trilogy of materials needed to make functioning 2-D electronic components. They may someday be the basis for the manufacture of devices so small they would be invisible to the naked eye.
The work appears online this week in Nature Materials.
The Rice labs of lead investigator Jun Lou, Pulickel ...
The body electric: Researchers move closer to low-cost, implantable electronics
2013-06-10
COLUMBUS, Ohio—New technology under development at The Ohio State University is paving the way for low-cost electronic devices that work in direct contact with living tissue inside the body.
The first planned use of the technology is a sensor that will detect the very early stages of organ transplant rejection.
Paul Berger, professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at Ohio State, explained that one barrier to the development of implantable sensors is that most existing electronics are based on silicon, and electrolytes in the body interfere with the ...
Ames Laboratory scientists discover new family of quasicrystals
2013-06-10
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Ames Laboratory have discovered a new family of rare-earth quasicrystals using an algorithm they developed to help pinpoint them. Quasicrystalline materials may be found close to crystalline phases that contain similar atomic motifs, called crystalline approximants. And just like fishing experts know that casting a line in the right habitat hooks the big catch, the scientists used their knowledge to hone in on just the right spot for new quasicrystal materials discovery.
Their research resulted in finding the only known ...
NASA animation sees Post-Tropical Storm Andrea speed away
2013-06-10
VIDEO:
This animation of GOES-14 satellite data from Saturday, June 8, through Monday, June 10 at 7:31 a.m. EDT shows Post-Tropical Storm Andrea's movement. On June 8, Andrea was centered off...
Click here for more information.
Post-Tropical cyclone Andrea's remnants sped into the North Atlantic Ocean over the weekend of June 8 and 9. NOAA's GOES-14 satellite data was used to create an animation of imagery that showed Andrea's movement from off the Maine coast through Atlantic ...
High rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia found in small community hospitals
2013-06-10
Arlington, Va. (June 10, 2013) – Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most frequent healthcare-associated infections found in intensive-care units (ICUs). New research on the prevalence of VAP in community hospitals shows small hospitals (less than 30,000 patient-days/year) have a higher rate of VAP than their larger counterparts, despite less use of ventilators. The study, published in the July issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, compares outcomes of patients on ventilators ...
Testing artificial photosynthesis
2013-06-10
With the daily mean concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide having reached 400 parts-per-million for the first time in human history, the need for carbon-neutral alternatives to fossil fuel energy has never been more compelling. With enough energy in one hour's worth of global sunlight to meet all human needs for a year, solar technologies are an ideal solution. However, a major challenge is to develop efficient ways to convert solar energy into electrochemical energy on a massive-scale. A key to meeting this challenge may lie in the ability to test such energy conversion ...
Flowering at the right age
2013-06-10
This news release is available in German. Perennial plants flower only when they have reached a certain age and been subjected to the cold. These two circumstances prevent the plant from starting to flower during winter. George Coupland and his fellow scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne have now discovered that the Alpine rock cress determines its age based on the quantity of a short ribonucleic acid.
Perennial plants carefully balance periods of growth and flowering to ensure that they can live for many years. They do ...
Quality-of-life issues need to be addressed for CML patients, Moffitt researchers say
2013-06-10
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have determined that chronic myeloid leukemia patients who are treated with a class of oral chemotherapy drugs known as a tyrosine kinase inhibitors have significant side effects and quality-of-life issues that need to be addressed. Some of these issues include depression, fatigue, nausea and change of appearance. The researchers say it is important to improve the patients' quality of life because most will take tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the rest of their lives.
Their study appeared in the April issue of Supportive Care in Cancer.
"Although ...