29 January, 2015

Infants smell fear by mother's odour

Infants can smell fear. They learn to detect threats and remember these for long just by smelling the odour their mother gives off when she feels fear, says a study.

"Our research demonstrates that infants can learn from maternal expression of fear, very early in life," said lead researcher Jacek Debiec from the University of Michigan Medical School in the US.

Before having their own experiences, they basically acquire their mothers' experiences.

"Most importantly, these maternally-transmitted memories are long-lived, whereas other types of infant learning, if not repeated, rapidly perish," he added.

In the first direct observation of this kind of fear transmission, researchers studied mother rats who had learned to fear the smell of peppermint - and showed how they "taught" this fear to their babies in their first days of life through their alarm odour released during distress.

The researchers taught female rats to fear the smell of peppermint by exposing them to mild, unpleasant electric shocks while they smelled the scent, before they were pregnant.

Using special brain imaging, they zeroed in on a brain structure called the lateral amygdala as the key location for learning fears.

The team even showed that just the piped-in scent of their mother reacting to the peppermint odour she feared was enough to make the newborns fear the same thing.

And when the researchers gave the baby rats a substance that blocked activity in the amygdala, they failed to learn the fear of peppermint smell from their mothers.

"This suggests," Debiec said, "that there may be ways to intervene to prevent children from learning irrational or harmful fear responses from their mothers, or reduce their impact."

The study appeared in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

29.01.2015

Negative doctor-patient talks can worsen symptoms

Doctors who unintentionally tell patients that they do not believe or understand them could actually worsen their symptoms, a small yet significant study suggests.

If patients perceive a lack of understanding or acceptance from their doctor, it could create anger and distress - physiological conditions that could worsen illness.

"The effects of patients feeling that their doctor does not believe or understand them can be damaging both emotionally and physiologically. This could lead to worsening of illness known as the 'nocebo response'," explained lead author Maddy Greville-Harris from the University of Southampton in Britain.

Patients bring certain beliefs and expectations to their health care professional which are moulded by the culture they live in and their previous experiences.

Their expectations will undoubtedly affect the outcome but improving communication in consultations could make a big difference to patient care.

For the study, the team recorded and analysed consultations at a pain management clinic involving five women with chronic wide-spread pain.

During subsequent interviews, patients reported feeling dismissed and disbelieved by healthcare providers, encountering providers who did not invest in them or show insight into their condition.

Patients described feeling hopeless and angry after invalidating consultations, feeling an increased need to justify their condition or to avoid particular doctors or treatment altogether.

Comments such as "there is no physiological reason that you are experiencing pain" seek to reassure but can be perceived as patronising or disbelieving.

"We now need to see more research in this area, and for that to feed into training doctors to be more effective communicators for every patient they see," said professor Paul Dieppe, senior investigator from the University of Exeter.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

29.01.2015

The people who influence you are the people who believe in you

Henry Drummond