Nerd Alert!

So a couple of things to write about.

Firstly, I read a really great composite article in Time magazine the other day. It was a series of writings on the brain, consciousness, stress and the like. Now being in medicine, these things (written for anyone to read), are of extreme interest to me, but I just wanted to mention a few of the things I learned so that everyone could benefit!

• I read about the "phantom limb" syndrome. In people who have lost an arm, leg, whatever, the cerebral cortex adapts so that sensory fibers representing the (former) limb grow over to areas representing other places. So, in these patients, scratching their cheek can reproduce the sensation of i.e. an index finger being scratched even though it is totally absent. Neat, huh?
• On depression: cognitive behavioral therapy (group, talk therapy aimed to develop more healthy reactions and responses, "mind over mood," if you will) tended to diminish overactivity in the frontal cortex of the brain, which is generally accepted to be the focus of reasoning, logic, behavior, as well as rumination about bad circumstances (the "catastrophizing [to quote Molly] center" :)). However, paroxetine (Prozac), a common antidepressant, actually did the opposite, raising activity there. Interesting how two different accepted depression treatments have such different (well, opposite) mechanisms.
• More heart attacks and strokes occur between 6-8 a.m. than at other times due to an early morning surge of cortisol, a "stress" hormone.
• People with low self esteem tend to be more vulnerable to stress and, anatomically, tend to have smaller-than-average hippocampi (parts of the brain involved in memory)...
• Quadriplegics have lower incidences of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) than paraplegics, presumably due to a severed link between the brain and the adrenal glands (which are responsible for producing cortisol, epinephrine, and other "stress-related" compounds.)

Onto other nerdiness...

When we were elementary school, glasses-wearing was nerdy, was it not? Is it nerdy now? Is it equally as nerdy to want to wear glasses? Today, with my new lens-prescription in hand, I made a little expedition to Lens Crafters to check out my frame options. It was overwhelming! Never having shopped for frames before, I was quite perplexed, and it was good people kept coming to help me out. At first, I thought everthing looked horrible on me (but how do others look spectacular in their glasses?). But one of the salespeople pointed out that I needed narrow frames, and handed me one with tapered edges. Way better. They had to send away for lenses for my "serious" glasses, but here's a fun pair I got. I took these pictures of myself-- I have to say, I don't really like how I look up close. But what do you think of the frames?