no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/09/how-motherhood-affects-creativity/539418/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-091317&silverid=MzEwMTkwMTIyNzE2S0



fascinating article on how the changing chemistry of pregnancy and birth improve creativity. Well worth reading in its entirety

SWMBO

pafret Loc: Northeast

Very interesting article. It is surprising how malleable our brains really are. I just read this article which indicates that brain structure is also altered by reading. Not quite the effect of motherhood but it results in a similar modification of creativity.

“How Reading Rewires Your Brain for More Intelligence and Empathy”


“How Reading Rewires Your Brain for More Intelligence and Empathy”
by Derek Beres

"Fitness headlines promise staggering physical results: a firmer butt, ripped abs, bulging biceps. Nutritional breakthroughs are similar clickbait, with attention-grabbing, if often inauthentic-what, really, is a “superfood?”- means of achieving better health. Strangely, one topic usually escaping discussion has been shown, time and again, to make us healthier, smarter, and more empathic animals: reading.

Reading, of course, requires patience, diligence, and determination. Scanning headlines and retweeting quips is not going to make much cognitive difference. If anything, such sweet nothings are dangerous, the literary equivalent of sugar addiction. Information gathering in under 140 characters is lazy. The benefits of contemplation through narrative offer another story.

The benefits are plenty, which is especially important in a distracted, smartphone age in which one-quarter of American children don’t learn to read. This not only endangers them socially and intellectually, but cognitively handicaps them for life. One 2009 study of 72 children ages eight to ten discovered that reading creates new white matter in the brain, which improves system-wide communication.

White matter carries information between regions of grey matter, where any information is processed. Not only does reading increase white matter, it helps information be processed more efficiently.

Reading in one language has enormous benefits. Add a foreign language and not only do communication skills improve- you can talk to more people in wider circles- but the regions of your brain involved in spatial navigation and learning new information increase in size. Learning a new language also improves your overall memory.

In one of the most fascinating aspects of neuroscience, language affects regions of your brain involving actions you’re reading about. For example, when you read “soap” and “lavender,” the parts of your brain implicated in scent are activated. Those regions remain silent when you read “chair.” What if I wrote “leather chair?” Your sensory cortex just fired.

Continuing from the opening paragraph, let’s discuss squats in your quest for a firmer butt. Picture the biomechanics required for a squat. Your motor cortex has been activated. Athletes have long envisioned their movements- Serena Williams’s serve; Conor McGregor’s kicks; Usain Bolt’s bursts of speed- to achieve better proficiency while actually moving. That’s because their brains are practicing. That is, they’re practicing through visualization techniques.

Hard glutes are one thing. Novel reading is a great way to practice being human. Rather than sprints and punches, how about something more primitive and necessary in a society, like empathy? As you dive deeper into Rabbit Angstrom’s follies or Jason Taylor coming of age, you not only feel their pain and joy. You actually experience it.

In one respect novels go beyond simulating reality to give readers an experience unavailable off the page: the opportunity to enter fully into other people’s thoughts and feelings. This has profound implications for how we interact with others. When encountering a 13-year-old boy misbehaving, you most likely won’t think, “Well, David Mitchell wrote about such a situation, and so I should behave like this,” but you might have integrated some of the lessons about young boys figuring life out and display a more nuanced understanding in how you react.

Perhaps you’ll even reconsider trolling someone online regarding their political opinion, remembering that no matter how crass and inhumane a sentiment appears on screen, an actual human is sitting behind the keyboard pecking out their thoughts. I’m not arguing against engaging, but for the love of anything closely resembling humanity, argue intelligently.

Because reading does in fact make us more intelligent. Research shows that reading not only helps with fluid intelligence, but with reading comprehension and emotional intelligence as well. You make smarter decisions about yourself and those around you.

All of these benefits require actually reading, which leads to the formation of a philosophy rather than the regurgitation of an agenda, so prevalent in reposts and online trolling. Recognizing the intentions of another human also plays a role in constructing an ideology. Novels are especially well-suited for this task. A 2011 study published in the "Annual Review of Psychology" found overlap in brain regions used to comprehend stories and networks dedicated to interactions with others.

Novels consume time and attention. While the benefits are worthwhile, even shorter bursts of prose exhibit profound neurological effects. Poetry elicits strong emotional responses in readers and, as one study shows, listeners. Heart rates, facial expressions, and “movement of their skin and arm hairs” were measured while participants listened to poetry. Forty percent ended up displaying visible goose bumps, as they would while listening to music or watching movies. As for their craniums: Their neurological responses, however, seemed to be unique to poetry: Scans taken during the study showed that listening to the poems activated parts of participants’ brains that, as other studies have shown, are not activated when listening to music or watching films.

These responses mostly occurred near the conclusion of a stanza and especially near the end of the poem. This fits in well with our inherent need for narrative: in the absence of a conclusion our brain automatically creates one, which, of course, leads to plenty of heartbreak and suffering when our speculations prove to be false. Instead we should turn to more poetry: there is something fundamental to the poetic form that implies, creates, and instills pleasure.

Whether an Amiri Baraka verse or a Margaret Atwood trilogy, attention matters. Research at Stanford showed a neurological difference between reading for pleasure and focused reading, as if for a test. Blood flows to different neural areas depending on how reading is conducted. The researchers hope this might offer clues for advancing cognitive training methods.

I have vivid memories of my relationship with reading: trying to write my first book (Scary Monster Stories) at age five; creating a mock newspaper after the Bernard Goetz subway shooting when I was nine, my mother scolding me for “thinking about such things”; sitting in the basement of my home in the Jersey suburbs one weekend morning, determined to read the entirety of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which I did.

Reading is like any skill. You have to practice it, regularly and constantly. While I never finished (or really much started) Scary Monster Stories, I have written nine books and read thousands more along the way. Though it’s hard to tell if reading has made me smarter or a better person, I like to imagine that it has.

What I do know is that life would seem a bit less meaningful if we didn’t share stories with one another. While many mediums for transmitting narratives across space and time exist, I’ve found none as pleasurable as cracking open a new book and getting lost in a story. Something profound is always discovered along the way.”
- http://bigthink.com/

out of the woods Loc: to hell and gone New York State

Motherhood is in itself an act of creativity. All forces are joined physically and mentally to bring about this new person, and then to nurture
this person indefinately. Whatever life you had prior to children is relinquished, and the wellbeing of your children becomes the most important aspect of your life. At least that it how it should be. Excuse me but to hell with a sun and moon sculpture, raising a child plumbs the depth of your creativity daily. Moms dont get enough credit. We aren't perfect, and some of us raise brats, but if the kids still alive at 20, somebody did a great deal of work to get them there. I have two in college, one in ninth grade, so I'll be working for a long time. I have a creativity based business , I started when my youngest was born, and if anything it inspires and motivates me to work harder.

out of the woods Loc: to hell and gone New York State

On reading. I did not have the luxury of attending college. Actually I'm one of those people who wouldnt benefit much. I'm a laborer, like to be active, work with my hands, never happier then when I ve got some dirt to dig, a garden to plan, a rock wall to build... That said, reading has been my oasis, my education, and while there are gaps, like my punctuation is poor, I use words that dont exist, it has served me well in my chosen life. My love of reading spilled over onto my children. For years, I read to them every night untill they fell asleep. Starting with simple books, in the end reading the Bible, novels. I believe we read Narnia about seven times. All three of them went on to be high honors student, much of the credit there goes to the Christian school they attended,but I like to think that it helped. It also turned them into readers themselves, which can't be bad.

pafret Loc: Northeast

I agree with most of what you say but that comment about relinquishing the life you had prior to becoming a mother doesn't necessarily have to happen. My wife was a teacher, certified K through 12, in three states. She worked at a Catholic school right up to two weeks before giving birth to our first child. After the birth of our first three children (one a year) she continued working as a substitute. She became a specialist in working with physically and mentally handicapped children, as well as abused children and drug recovery children. As our children got older, she increased her activity in the teaching profession, including acquiring a Masters Degree in Adolescent Development Disabilities and had completed the course requirements for a Doctorate and was writing her dissertation at the time of her death. Part of her motivation was her extraordinary empathy with the broken, abused, discarded children, that were her priviege to teach, give guidance and support.

During her working career, as well as her motherhood career, she always put family first but never gave up on what she set out to do as a young woman. Instead, she flourished professionally as well as in being a mother. She was employed full time (by choice) as soon as our children became old enough to not need constant supervision. She was active in church groups and had many friends who called and visited frequently.

We have four college educated children, three of whom have families of their own. I still have a sampler she embroidered hanging in our kitchen. It says "Housework is a Bitch".

P.S.
It just occurred to me that my wife's life very much supports the brain modifications women undergo in becoming mothers. She had an excellent career prior to giving birth but her accomplishments afterwards were astounding.

out of the woods Loc: to hell and gone New York State

A remarkable woman. I guess I didnt mean so much relinquish as refocus. I was rather aimless prior, always worked hard, but the motivation came with my children. Gave my efforts a clear purpose. I wouldn't want to have missed any of it. I also was very active in the church and school where my children attended. Art teacher, gym teacher, painted almost the entire building single handedly, including
the gymnasium floor. My superhuman days. Now its tuition cars food, braces....