May 3, 2108--Pornhub

One of the things I try to keep up with is the neurobiology of pleasure. 

What is the nature of pleasure and how does the brain process it? What are the electrical and chemical events that fire when we experience pleasure?

To laypeople (which includes me) it would likely come as a surprise that there is a battle among researchers and clinicians about the nature of pleasure itself. Are all pleasures basically the same or is there a hierarchy of pleasure, with certain ones "higher" than others? 

The disputants, reported the New York Times, are about equally divided.  

One side in the conflict asks if the pleasure we receive from art and other aesthetic experiences is categorically different. In other words, not so between the lines, is the experience of art a higher form of pleasure as contrasted with the less-refined enjoyment we receive from food (particularly sweets) and sex. As a result, the title of the piece--"Mona Lisa and Pornhub as Equals?" Note the question mark.

Taking the other side in this struggle, neuroscientist Julia Christensen, in an article, "Pleasure Junkies All Around!" writes about the responses to ballet in contrast to, say, our addiction to sweets--have we turned into "mindless pleasure junkies handing over our free will for the next dopamine shot" which, she claims, is equally present in the brain as the result of engaging in social media, watching pornography, craving a sugar fix, or attending a dance recital.

This jumped out at me because of the dopamine that is a part of the L-DOPA compound I take for my PD because when I take my pills I am not aware of any heightened sense of pleasure except from the realization that it helps control the slight tremor I have in my right hand. I suspect there is no firing in the pleasure center of my brain, just this awareness and thankfulness. That feels like enough.

Researchers do not agree whether enjoying a da Vinci results in a different neural process than visiting McDonald's or Pornhub.

For those who claim that all pleasures are pretty much the same when it comes to brain function, to quote the Times, "why don't people ever orgasm from pleasure associated with food or art?" 

It turns out that they do! 

According to Debra Herbenick at the University of Indiana's Center for Sexual Health, eating a ripe tomato or reading nonerotic literature have been reported to provoke an orgasm. So too, apparently, does walking barefoot on wood floors and doing pull-ups. Though, in regard to the latter, I have my doubts.

October 15, 2014--Nobels

It is chauvinistic to worry about this year's spectrum of Nobel Prize winners?

For example, remember when Americans thought that though the Japanese economy was booming it was because they were assembling products for us and the rest of the West using our scientific and technological discoveries? That they were good at copying but not inventing?

For example, for decades TVs were manufactured almost exclusively in the U.S. but by the 1960s nearly all came to be manufactured in Japan. But, we were told and believed, the Japanese discovered and invented nothing having to do with television, from transistors (a Bell Lab invention) to the picture tubes themselves (developed by RCA and Western Electric). All the result of American research, ingenuity, and, unspoken, superiority.

So should we be upset that this year, of the 13 awarded, more Nobels were won by Japanese than Americans--three to one?

The three Japanese laureates are physicists who did important work on the development of blue, low-wattage LED light which is already revolutionizing lighting in resource-poor countries worldwide.

Even the Norwegians won more prizes than we--two to neuroscientists who did pioneering work on how the brain computes spacial memory. I imagine, why we don't bump into things. Though I do at night when staggering to the bathroom.

The coveted Peace Prize went to Malala Yousafzai, an inspired and courageous Pakistani advocate for girls' education, and Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children's rights activist.

There is a Brit (John O'Keefe, physiology) and a Romanian-born German (Stefan Hell, who shared his prize in chemistry with the one American--W.E. Moerner) and then, as if to rub it in, there are two French winners--

In economics, Jean Tirole, whose award continues the Nobel's recent support for work that challenges the Chicago School's free-market orthodoxy. Tirole's work, in contrast, see markets as "imperfect."

So, not only didn't we as usual win an economics prize, but the one that was awarded attacks mainstream economic theory effectively made in America!

Finally, my personal favorite, literature.

The winner this year was Patrick Modiano. His Italian-sounding name not withstanding, he was born and raised in France.

Once again, no Philip Roth. As they say in my old Brooklyn neighborhood--Wait til next year.