NEWS: Paranormal beliefs linked to brain chemistry

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Adam

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Paranormal beliefs linked to brain chemistry


9:15 27 July 02

Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition

Whether or not you believe in the paranormal may depend entirely on your brain chemistry. People with high levels of dopamine are more likely to find significance in coincidences, and pick out meaning and patterns where there are none.


(Photo: Photonica)
Peter Brugger, a neurologist from the University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, has suggested before that people who believe in the paranormal often seem to be more willing to see patterns or relationships between events where sceptics perceive nothing.

To find out what could be triggering these thoughts, Brugger persuaded 20 self-confessed believers and 20 sceptics to take part in an experiment.

Brugger and his colleagues asked the two groups to distinguish real faces from scrambled faces as the images were flashed up briefly on a screen. The volunteers then did a similar task, this time identifying real words from made-up ones.


Seeing and believing


Believers were much more likely than sceptics to see a word or face when there was not one, Brugger revealed last week at a meeting of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies in Paris. However, sceptics were more likely to miss real faces and words when they appeared on the screen.

The researchers then gave the volunteers a drug called L-dopa, which is usually used to relieve the symptoms of Parkinson's disease by increasing levels of dopamine in the brain.

Both groups made more mistakes under the influence of the drug, but the sceptics became more likely to interpret scrambled words or faces as the real thing.

That suggests that paranormal thoughts are associated with high levels of dopamine in the brain, and the L-dopa makes sceptics less sceptical. "Dopamine seems to help people see patterns," says Brugger.


Plateau effect


However, the single dose of the drug did not seem to increase the tendency of believers to see coincidences or relationships between the words and images.

That could mean that there is a plateau effect for them, with more dopamine having relatively little effect above a certain threshold, says Peter Krummenacher, one of Brugger's colleagues.

Dopamine is an important chemical involved in the brain's reward and motivation system, and in addiction. Its role in the reward system may be to help us decide whether information is relevant or irrelevant, says Françoise Schenk from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.


Helen Philips

Source.
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Even Choline can do the same - that is increase brain activity where one finds relevance from pure data. In my observations with a lot of computer and electrical engineers, I have found that there is a positive corelation with people who believe in paranormal and creativity.
 
I have found that there is a positive corelation with people who believe in paranormal and creativity.
Click to expand...
Wishful thinking is a form of creativity, too.
 
People who entertain the notion that the paranormal might at least be possible are those capable of thinking outside the box, to use an annoying phrase. Those who see a set of given rules and declare "that can't be so!" simply don't have the creativity to make advances or invent or such.
 
Adam luv, lay off on quoting the Apple commercials. :)

Oh, and I disagree. Belief in the paranormal comes ready made.
 
Well, I don't accept any conspiracy theories about aliens stealing all our beer or such. But I accept the possibility (not the likelihood) of certain things until there is proof otherwise.
 
Adamski:
I agree that it is irrational to wholly exclude the possibility, however, there is such a thing as Ockham's razor.

God *might* exist, but you don't see me yelling "Yaaaaaay! Yay! Praiiiiize Jeeeesus!"

(Although you might, fish-boy :p )

There's a difference between
"Gee, my beer is gone. Likely I drank it and don't remember, but it's possible that aliens stole it"

and

"OH SWEET JESUS, ALIENS STOLE MY BEER!!!!"

As for creativity, look at all the books on the paranormal. Can you honestly say that it requires creativity?

No more so than being a fundie takes creativity.
 
Adam,
People who entertain the notion that the paranormal might at least be possible are those capable of thinking outside the box,....Those who see a set of given rules and declare "that can't be so!" simply don't have the creativity to make advances or invent or such.
Click to expand...

In past centuries, more recently than the origin of contemplations of persistently etherial "paranormal phenomena", people like Copernicus, Bruno, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Einstein, Feynman, Hubble, Hawkings, and so many more, operating with, and from, given set of rules, each in their own way indeed did declare "that can't be so!" and then went on to create/invent new rule sets for thinking and practical useage.

What things practical have arisen from past millenia of combined thinking and searching "outside the box" for still-illusive paranormal phenomena? Religion, fiction literaure and genre film-making come to mind. What else?
 
May be some one should tell over a billion Chinese who believe in Feng Shui and an equal amout In India with similar belief - not to mention the entire cast of Hollywood.....

Mr. G, are you upto the challenge....:D
 
What challenge? The challenge of endless "produce nothing but feel-goodism" philosphies?

Hey, I feel best when I teach/do science. Why are most people not up to that challenge? Too difficult?

No pain, no gain.
 
May be it is their science that you lack understanding....think about it.

Some people go by what is statistically significant - and that is science to them....and a whole world out there....
 
Originally posted by Adam
That could mean that there is a plateau effect for them, with more dopamine having relatively little effect above a certain threshold, says Peter Krummenacher, one of Brugger's colleagues.
Click to expand...

two people having different innate levels dopamine are attuned to that level naturally, give them a shot of more and they do not instantly adjust. so their inconsistencies would be expected.:confused:

when you climb a high mountain you take oxigen, reason is the your body doesn't instantly adjust, but given time :) ... - as using Daily high doses of of the product... (I would expect)
 
You know what they say about 'statistics'?
Click to expand...

You do eat potato chips, dont you? (SPC)
The whole Japanese quality control is based on....
Every TV station has a ...
Insurance premiums are based on....
 
hmmmm
brain chemistry???????????
well i guess everything is dependent on chemistry to some point
like a global weather system, rite down to a cup of coffee.
its just that people dont seem to be able to put one and one togehter without shouting it is not true before they look at the experiment...
are we not all fluid in a molecular format???

and
i thought the word is spelt
jouvanile ???
funny how american words are a fenetic bastardisation of the fundermentals of modern understanding???
(ok that may be a bit out there but follow the trail)

as you may be aware i dont have great spelling and usualy cant be botherd to spell check
but if you need to feel superior then you can point your finger at me :D
that would make me vicariousely helpfull to your mental wellbeing :D
and that could manifest in your subconseuse and then i would be in your head!
and so i would be normal and you would be -
"noid" 'para'-normal:D
:D :D :D

groove on all
ther is majic in all of us...
it just takes a 'good school' to stamp it out :D
 
I know a really interesting site for skeptics and people that believe.
Go to this link

http://www.theodynamics.com

it talks about frequencies to chakras, to how different shapes effect frequencies for good or bad, about consciousness and many more.

bye thnx
 
I'm just waiting for someone to say directly that this is "proof" that people who beleive in the paranormal are mentally deficient. If you are willing to go down that road, then how long will it be before this kind of research is used to develop humans through manipulation into whatever form of thinking others desire.

Sounds like power play to me, and bullshit.

Who is ANYONE to decide where the "normal" levels of a given brain chemecal are?
 
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