Human Behavior

The Fascist Spirit of the Pandemic Might Kill More People Than COVID-19 – PanAm Post

Journalists who pretend to be prosecutors of morality and people who condemn their neighbors on social media. Some of the embarrassing images from the days of the coronavirus pandemic (EFE).

Spanish The Argentine government literally shut down the country. Borders are closed. Businesses (except those that provide food, medicines, or essential services) are closed. Even people (with a few exceptions) are not allowed to walk on the streets. The country is under total quarantine.

The debate on the economic viability of these measures or the basis of the positions that divide liberals on the issue will be discussed another time. But if the state has already embarked on this path, some things do not make any sense and are dangerous in these circumstances.

I am referring to the embarrassing attitude displayed by many people. Although the authorities are already sticking to the plan to the T, some people have dedicated themselves to being moral prosecutors and pro bono police officers. A kind of parallel pandemic of fascism that does nothing but exposes frustrations and resentment.

It should be noted that the government has already made telephone lines available to the public so that people can communicate with and report those who violate the security measures. But it seems that this private and anonymous measure is not enough for many. People are incomprehensibly using social media to wreck those who behave in a way that could be reckless. Each post brings to light the worst: prejudice based on religion, nationality, or social class. At the same time, insults such as chetos for those who travel abroad and villeros for those who do not stay in their humble places are proliferating. It is all against all in a merciless war.

Lets not deceive ourselves. A concern for public health is not at the root of this attitude. Instead, it is the satisfaction of the morbidity of people who have found the pandemic an excuse for a dangerous catharsis. Videos of outraged people behaving in an authoritarian manner are constantly going viral amid a climate that seems to bring out the worst in us. A recurring scene is that of journalists mistreating people who have allegedly committed an offense even though the reckless ones in question are already in the hands of the security forces. They dig up dirt while there is a large audience ready to consume it. They all want blood.

These attitudes are, unfortunately, deeply rooted in human behavior. Today, they highlight many customs that were seen in authoritarian processes throughout history. It is evident that this is a virus that is still alive even though it is asymptomatic most of the time.

Precautionary measures have already been taken, everyone knows what they have to do, and the Argentine government has chosen the hard way to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. If a person feels that a neighbor is behaving irresponsibly and dangerously, they have the tools to notify the authorities, and that is it. But witch hunts and public posting on social media are not going to get us anywhere better in this difficult situation.

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The Fascist Spirit of the Pandemic Might Kill More People Than COVID-19 - PanAm Post

Human Behavior

The Climate Crisis Will Be Just as Shockingly Abrupt – The New Republic

As with the pandemic, responses to climate change have often emphasized individual actiontraveling less, eating more sustainably, switching to more efficient energy sources. But both crises require the kind of large-scale structural interventions produced by national and international policies, like designing more sustainable infrastructure and transportation and alternate work arrangements, as well as creating emergency responses and strengthening social safety nets for the most vulnerable. Thats not to mention governments regulatory role. We need stronger regulations, Otto said.

With national governments and the European Union rolling out subsidy programs for industries hit hard by the virus, Otto proposes attaching sustainable strings to this aid. For instance, the aviation industry is strongly dependent on fossil fuels, she said. Why not ask them for plans [on] how to decrease the emissions within, like, 50 percent within the next 10 years and maybe become carbon neutral by 2050 or so? I think this could be used as an incentive to encourage companies to make plans [for] how they want to achieve carbon neutrality. Otto argues against re-creating the systems countries had before the pandemic. If we dont build a more resilient system right now, we will, in a way, lose this opportunity, she said. In addition, investments in green initiatives, like renewable energy, could boost the economy.

The coronavirus pandemic has reshaped the way we live, work, and interact in a matter of weeks. It has also shown that governments are ableand in many cases are expectedto take swift, significant action on crises. Under these extraordinary circumstances, there can be quite decisive action from governance and policy that changes the way were all living day to day, Lenton said. It is possible to change large-scale patterns of human behavior, pretty quickly.

The question is whether governments, and voters, can appreciate the true urgency of the task. In reality, the climate crisis cannot be solved incrementally, Lenton said, because its taken too long to spur action: Many warming-related changes are already underway. Global greenhouse gas emissions must be dramatically reduced and eventually eliminated. If were going to avoid the worst of bad climate tipping points, then were going to need to find some positive tipping points in society and ourselves to transform the way we livein a generationto a more sustainable but also perhaps a more flourishing kind of future, Lenton said.

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The Climate Crisis Will Be Just as Shockingly Abrupt - The New Republic

Human Behavior

How culture affects the spread of pandemics like COVID-19 – Futurity: Research News

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You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license.

Events such as the 1918 influenza pandemic and the resurgence of measles in the US and Western Europe can help researchers understand how culture influences the current spread of COVID-19 worldwide.

Carolyn Orbann, an associate teaching professor of health science in the School of Health Professions at the University of Missouri, studies how cultural behavior can play a role in the spread of infectious diseases.

Here, Orbann shares her insight on how cultural behaviors influence the spread of infectious diseases in human populations, including why this can help us understand the current spread of the COVID-19 virus and why the choice to go on spring break during a pandemic is a complex decision:

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How culture affects the spread of pandemics like COVID-19 - Futurity: Research News

Neuroscience

Pop Culture, Neuroscience, And COVID-19 – KPBS

Many people are turning to movies as distraction while sheltering at home. Neuroscientist Eric Leonardis suggests a couple of films that can be used to look at the coronavirus pandemic from a social dimension.

Aired: March 26, 2020 | Transcript

Many people are turning to movies as a distraction while sheltering at home. Neuroscientist Eric Leonardis suggests a couple of films that can be used to look at the coronavirus pandemic from a social dimension.

Leonardis is an instructor of cognitive science at UC San Diego and his field of expertise is as an emotion researcher.

"I study how humans and animals understand each other's emotional state by using multi-sensory cues from our social counterparts," Leonardis explained. "My research is broadly concerned with how the brain gives rise to emotion and social interactions and how emotions like panic and fear can spread through a population of humans and animals. So I won't be speaking necessarily about the biological aspects of COIVD-19 of these films, but instead the social dimensions and how language and emotions can spread through a population as well as viruses."

Leonardis is compiling a list of pandemic films for people to watch and I will be discussing the full list with him next week on my Cinema Junkie podcast. But here he highlights two of those films: John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982) and Bruce McDonald's "Pontypool" (2008).

In the case of "The Thing," in which a shape-shifting parasitic alien can assume the appearance of its hosts, the inability to determine who is infected reflects current anxieties about how people can have the coronavirus and not show any signs of infection. In the movie, that leads to intense paranoia and anxiety.

"This inability to be able to tell what it is, this uncertainty or this ambiguity gives rise to these negative emotions that these people are experiencing," Leonardis said. "So this paranoia is very palpable in these cases."

A less well-known film that Leonardis recommends is "Pontypool," in which an infection is spread through language. For Leonardis this raises the intriguing notion that viruses need not necessarily be biological entities, that there are other types of entities that can spread in the same types of ways, as through words or emotions.

In the film, a doctor named Mendez starts to figure out what's going and concludes: "It's in words, not all words. Not all speaking, but in some. Some words are infected and it spreads out when the contaminated word is spoken. We are witnessing the emergence of a new arrangement for life and our language is its host ... if the bug enters us, it does not enter us by making contact with our eardrum. No, it enters us when we hear a word and understand it, understand it's when the word is understood that the virus takes hold and it copies itself in our understanding."

So it is a disease that infects the brain not in a biological way, but a cognitive one. And each person is susceptible to a different word as the point of infection.

"I think the fact that every brain is unique is a really important thing to me and the fact that there are words that you can say to certain people that can elicit widely different responses than others. So I guess the thing that really comes to mind with this point is that it kind of opens up to something like ideology," Leonardis said. "It's like if you hear the right sentence, it could radicalize you. It could make you join a crowd that's going to be in a mass panic and hysteria. I guess so. The way that I want to sort of analyze this part of the film and relate it to the current situation is that words actually have a huge impact on the way that people respond and the language that public officials use to describe what's going on can spread. And in this case, I think what we see is a lot of American leadership using a lot of racist and xenophobic rhetoric, using words like 'Chinese virus' or 'Wuhan virus.' And I think that that could lead to something like mass scale scapegoating of these others that have invaded our population. This is very classic 20th-century genocide speak. And I would say that racial discourse and language like this can spread just as in such a way. So it's like racial discourse in language like this can spread just like a virus and it can be just as if not more deadly."

"The Thing" is streaming on multiple services but "Pontypool" appears to only be available on iTunes.

Listen for my Cinema Junkie podcast next week with the full list of Leonardis' pandemic films.

Satisfy your celluloid addiction with the Cinema Junkie podcast, where you can mainline film 24/7. This film and entertainment series is run by KPBS Film Critic Beth Accomando.

So if you need a film fix, want to hear what filmmakers have to say about their work, or just want to know what's worth seeing this weekend, then you've come to the right place

Beth Accomando Arts & Culture Reporter

I cover arts and culture, from Comic-Con to opera, from pop entertainment to fine art, from zombies to Shakespeare. I am interested in going behind the scenes to explore the creative process; seeing how pop culture reflects social issues; and providing a context for art and entertainment.

To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.

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Pop Culture, Neuroscience, And COVID-19 - KPBS

Neuroscience

How Neuroscientists Are Helping Brands Create More Effective Ads – Built In

If you see a close-up shot of hands in an advertisement and think, Hey, this company really gets me, youre not alone. And its not that youreobsessed with hands.

According to consumer neuroscience research conducted by Mindshare, a global media agency, close-ups of hands resonate with people on a subconscious level butthere is a limit to how close the camera can get.

We found that using close-up shots of hands is an incredibly powerful way to connect with viewers, but this effect backfires when hand images are too closely cropped to the point where they no longer connect to a body, said James Kelly, a data scientist and co-lead of the Mindshare NeuroLab. We call this the amputated limb effect.

The NeuroLab is Mindshares in-house consumer neuroscience research facility, located in the companys New York office. Consumer neuroscience, also known as neuromarketing, seeks to augment traditional market research studies with physiological and neural data. The goal is to see if a persons responses in a survey or focus group match up with the signals sent by their subconscious and body.

Consumer neuroscience is a relatively new field dating back to the mid-1990s, when Gerald Zaltman, a Harvard marketing professor, used images to access the subconscious thoughts consumers had about brands. In the early 2000s, neuroscientists in Texas recreated the Pepsi Challenge using a functional MRI, or fMRI, which scans how the brain responds to physical sensations, while California researchers used an fMRI scan to observe how the brain reacts when shown different movies.

A long list of companies offer neuromarketing services to brands, ranging from established market research giants like Nielsen, which formed its consumer neuroscience division in 2011, to startups like New York-based Spark Neuro, which launched in 2017 and has raised $13.5 million in funding.

Companies like Hulu, Paramount and Universal work with Spark Neuro to learn where people zone out during movie trailers and what types of ads generate the most emotional engagement. The startup tracks brain and sweat-gland activity, along with facial expressions and eye movement, and says its algorithms can crunch more than6,000 data points per second.

While Mindshare is a relative newcomer to consumer neuroscience the NeuroLab opened in the summer of 2019 the company said itsseeing early returns from its work. Kelly and Arafel Buzan, a neuroscientist and the labs other co-lead, spoke with Built In about the equipment the lab uses, the insights theyve uncovered and how the demand for consumer neuroscience is growing.

What technology does the NeuroLab use, and how exactly does brain and physiological data determine how a person feels about an ad?

Buzan: We aim to circumvent self-report bias and provide more accurate and lucid insights into how consumers engage with and think about brands. Electroencephalogram, or EEG caps, record second-by-second changes in electrical activity in various regions of the cortex.High-definition EEG data allows us to observe changes in emotional valence which indicates how much someone likes or dislikes something memory encoding, attention and cognitive load, while consumers engage with different media channels.

Biometrics, including galvanic skin response and heart-rate variability, are used to measure emotional intensity and arousal response elicited by specific features of a stimulus, such as an ad, a UX experience or packaging.

Kelly: Were very excited about a few upcoming projects that will allow us to tap into additional neuro tools specifically, eye tracking. The NeuroLab is in the process of partnering with Mindshares advanced analytics teams to link neuro data to other data streams, which could create more predictive models for sales projections.

How does the data gathered by your team make an impact on the ad campaigns Mindshares clients run?

Buzan: For one client, we measured eight audio ads, all in context and across multiple groups, to identify which words, voices, musical elements and emotions were driving attention and key brand emotions. Then, we created a neuro audio blueprint, which they are using to inform future creative. Weve worked with a number of our clients to build neuro-audio blueprints to craft attention-grabbing audio creative and track the impact of audio on brand perceptions.

In one study, we found that Gen Z responds neurologically the same to 15- and 30-second social media ads, whereas older generations respond better to longer ad spots.

In addition to learning that people like ads featuring close-ups of hands, what other insights have NeuroLab researchers uncovered?

Kelly: In one study, we found that Gen Z responds neurologically the same to 15- and 30-second social media ads, whereas older generations respond better to longer ad spots. In a recent study, we quantified the brand value of reaching the LGBTQ+ community in authentic media environments, and why LGBTQ+ publications and content are crucial spaces for brands to support.In another study, we found that a client needed to change their contextual targeting strategy by seeking a different type of consumer emotion in media buys.

James, as a data scientist, does working with neurological data present a unique challenge for you and your team?

Kelly: Computational neuroscience is a rapidly emerging field that requires a bottom-up comprehension of both neuroscience and data science to surmount. To address this, the NeuroLab has a suite of proprietary tools for collecting, analyzing and visualizing neurological data, and were developing more. From an agency perspective, were excited by the opportunity to integrate our data even further with existing information. We believe that over the next five years, diversity will outstand quantity in the data hierarchy. Were working on leveraging neurocognitive metrics to build upon data sourced from more traditional streams.

How do you think consumer neuroscience will evolve in the next five years?

Buzan: We expect brands toengage more heavily with scalable neuroscience solutions, such as implicit association testing, to more accurately understand the ability of their media and advertising to influence brand perceptions. By leaning into consumer neuroscience and understanding the consumer at the level of the subconscious, brands can create more impactful, relevant and authentic advertising with less overall spend waste.

From Neuromarketing to Conversational Audio Ads

Read more about the latest marketing technology and industry innovations.

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How Neuroscientists Are Helping Brands Create More Effective Ads - Built In

Neuroscience

Intel + Cornell Pioneering Work in the Science of Smell – insideBIGDATA

Nature Machine Intelligence published a joint paper from researchers at Intel Labs and Cornell University demonstrating the ability of Intels neuromorphic test chip, Loihi, to learn and recognize 10 hazardous chemicals, even in the presence of significant noise and occlusion. The work demonstrates how neuromorphic computing could be used to detect smells that are precursors to explosives, narcotics and more.

Loihi learned each new odor from a single example without disrupting the previously learned smells, requiring up to 3000x fewer training samples per class compared to a deep learning solution and demonstrating superior recognition accuracy. The research shows how the self-learning, low-power, and brain-like properties of neuromorphic chips combined with algorithms derived from neuroscience could be the answer to creating electronic nose systems that recognize odors under real-world conditions more effectively than conventional solutions.

We are developing neural algorithms on Loihi that mimic what happens in your brain when you smell something, said Nabil Imam, senior research scientist in Intels Neuromorphic Computing Lab. This work is a prime example of contemporary research at the crossroads of neuroscience and artificial intelligence and demonstrates Loihis potential to provide important sensing capabilities that could benefit various industries.

Intel Labs is driving computer-science research that contributes to a third generation of AI. Key focus areas include neuromorphic computing, which is concerned with emulating the neural structure and operation of the human brain, as well as probabilistic computing, which createsalgorithmic approaches to dealing with the uncertainty, ambiguity, and contradiction in the natural world.

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Neuroscience

Cognition Therapeutics Announces Change in Leadership – BioSpace

NEW YORK, March 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --Cognition Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage neuroscience company focused on the protection and restoration of synaptic function in Alzheimers disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative disorders, today announced that Kenneth I. Moch has stepped down as president and chief executive officer to assume an advisory role. Lisa Ricciardi has transitioned from her position on the Cognition Board of Directors to become acting chief executive officer. Mr. Moch will continue to support the company as an advisor and consultant for at least the next year.

Throughout his tenure, Ken made significant progress repositioning Cognition in the very competitive and challenging Alzheimers disease space and expanding the management team to support the progress of CT1812, our lead candidate for Alzheimers disease, stated Ms. Ricciardi. As a Board member, I supported Mr. Mochs efforts and as acting CEO Ill remain committed to these endeavors. Our goal is to continue to advance the Companys pipeline of neurological disease candidates while broadening our financial prospects. Mr. Mochs counsel and the dedication of the Cognition leadership team will be crucial as we continue to pursue this mission.

It has been an honor to work with the Cognition team to address the societal tsunami of Alzheimer's disease and to help patients in need, stated Mr. Moch. I look forward to continuing to support the Company and its exciting science as CT1812 progresses towards its key clinical endpoints during 2020 and beyond.

Robert Gailus, Board chairman added, Ms. Ricciardi has substantial experience consulting with and leading biotechnology companies in all stages of development. During her career she has leveraged her networks on Wall Street and in the biopharmaceutical industry to negotiate impactful financial and business development transactions. As a Board member, Ms. Ricciardi has been deeply involved in the evolution of Cognitions business strategy. Her continued commitment and leadership in this time of transition will be invaluable.

Ms. Ricciardi has broad experience in leadership roles at start-ups and established biopharmaceutical firms. Before her appointment as acting CEO, Ms. Ricciardi served as an advisor at M.M. Dillon, a boutique life-sciences investment bank, working on transactions with pharmaand biopharma companies. Earlier, she was CEO of Suono Bio, a biotech company founded on technology licensed from MIT, which she led through a Series A fundraising. During her career in senior corporate and business development positions at Foundation Medicine, Medco and Pfizer, she oversaw the $1.03 billion agreement between Foundation Medicine and Roche, the $29 billion acquisition of Medco by Express Scripts, and numerous small to multi-billion-dollar licensing and development deals for assets at both early and late stages of development. As an entrepreneur in residence at Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, Ms. Ricciardi provided marketing and commercialization expertise to portfolio companies, and identified and evaluated potential investments.

About Cognition Therapeutics, Inc.

Cognition Therapeutics is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing small-molecule therapeutics that address the toxic oligomeric proteins that cause synapse degeneration and trigger neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimers disease.

Cognitions lead candidate, CT1812 (Elayta), is a novel first-in-class, orally available small molecule that has shown the potential in initial clinical studies to normalize protein trafficking and lipid metabolism pathways that are disrupted in Alzheimers disease and to allow the protection and restoration of synapses. CT1812 is currently being tested for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Alzheimers disease in four Phase 2 clinical studies: SPARC (Synaptic Protection for Alzheimers Restoration of Cognition); SNAP (AO Displacement from Synapses on Neurons in Alzheimers Patients); SHINE (Synaptic Health and Improvement of Neurological Function with Elayta) and SEQUEL (Study of EEG Quantification with Elayta). These studies are supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging of the NIH. CT1812 has been granted Fast Track designation by the U.S. FDA.

The Company maintains corporate and clinical operations in New York, NY and its laboratory and research facilities in Pittsburgh, PA.

CT1812 and Cognitions other pipeline candidates were identified using the companys disease-relevant screening and novel chemistry platforms. Additional information about Cognition and its product candidates may be found online at http://www.cogrx.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning the development and commercialization of Cognitions products, the potential benefits and attributes of such products, and Cognitions expectations regarding its prospects. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual future events or results to differ materially from such statements These statements are made as of the date of this press release. Actual results may vary. Cognition undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements for any reason.

CT1812 (Elayta) is an investigational product and neither its use nor the tradename has been approved by the FDA.

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Cognition Therapeutics Announces Change in Leadership - BioSpace

Physiology

PhysIQs Proprietary Personalized Analytics to be Used for COVID-19 Care with Newly Broadened FDA Labeling – Yahoo Finance

PhysIQ announces FDA-sanctioned labeling to address the COVID-19 public health emergency with its proprietary Multivariate Change Index (MCI)

Deployed within the pinpointIQ continuous remote monitoring solution, physIQs MCI will be used to proactively monitor homebound patients with or vulnerable to COVID-19

The sophisticated, machine learning-based algorithm uses multiple continuous vital signs from wearable sensors to detect subtle changes in physiology that may offer early detection of COVID-19-related clinical deterioration

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sanctioned labeling for pinpointIQ, physIQs continuous remote monitoring system for use in the COVID-19 pandemic, including application of its proprietary Multivariate Change Index (MCI). During this pandemic, pinpointIQ may be used to provide continuous physiologic remote monitoring to homebound or quarantined patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 or those whose high-risk profile that requires continuous remote monitoring, for example, those with heart failure, COPD, or hypertension. By passively collecting wearable sensor data and applying advanced analytics, pinpointIQ may ease burden on hospitals and other healthcare facilities and reduce the risk of exposure for patients and healthcare providers to SARS-CoV-2 and conserve resources for the very sickest.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200326005087/en/

PhysIQ announces FDA-sanctioned labeling to address the COVID-19 public health emergency with its proprietary Multivariate Change Index (MCI) ) (Photo: Business Wire)

Recently, physIQ announced the results of a VA-sponsored clinical study published in Circulation Heart Failure of 100 patients with congestive heart failure that was able to detect subtle physiologic changes predictive of hospitalization one week in advance. This study serves as a model for the potential utility of our artificial intelligence (AI)-powered devices to detect similar cardiovascular changes that may emerge in COVID-19 cases. The viability of pinpointIQ is substantiated by the work physIQ has done with USAID during the Ebola epidemic. This supports the solution and the previously stated use cases for how this platform/product can aid in the COVID-19 crisis mitigation.

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"Our entire healthcare infrastructure is about to become completely overwhelmed by COVID-19," said Gary Conkright, CEO of physIQ. "We will have more patients than hospital beds and our only option is to find ways to better care for patients at home. With clinical grade wearable sensors and our proprietary, FDA-cleared analytics, we are providing hospitals with personalized physiologic visibility into their homebound high-risk COVID-19 patients. We believe this will not only free up hospital capacity, but also reduce clinician exposure to this highly virulent disease."

PhysIQ is pursuing multiple clinical use cases including COVID-19 positive patients, patients with chronic diseases such as heart failure or COPD, patients on chemotherapy or other immune-suppressive therapy, and to surveille healthcare providers who are at elevated risk of getting infected themselves. With the system, patients are mailed a kit that provides all components required for continuous remote monitoring including FDA-cleared clinical-grade wearable sensors and a phone for data transmission with data plan. The system is deployed directly to patients home, requiring no direct physical contact from a clinician. Data continuously streams to the cloud where physIQs proprietary FDA-cleared analytics detect subtle changes in physiology that may offer early warning of clinical deterioration related to COVID-19.

About physIQ

PhysIQ is a leading digital medicine company dedicated to generating unprecedented health insight using continuous wearable biosensor data and advanced analytics. Our enterprise-ready cloud platform continuously collects and processes data from any wearable biosensor using a deep portfolio of FDA-cleared analytics. We have published one of the most rigorous clinical studies to date in digital medicine and are pioneers in developing, validating, and achieving regulatory approval of Artificial Intelligence-based analytics. With applications in both healthcare and clinical trial support, physIQ is transforming continuous physiological data into insight for health systems, payers, and pharmaceutical companies. For more information, please visit http://www.physIQ.com. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200326005087/en/

Contacts

Jodi PerkinsOutlook Marketing ServicesPh: 847-508-0877Jodi@outlookmarketingsrv.com

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PhysIQs Proprietary Personalized Analytics to be Used for COVID-19 Care with Newly Broadened FDA Labeling - Yahoo Finance

Physiology

‘I’m Losing My Mind.’ How to Counter Stress Response – Thrive Global

Have you ever wondered why people go a bit cray cray in times of deep stress? Its really out of our control

Well the huge demands (stessors) placed on people such as they may be experiencing now, with job losses, financial pressures and trying to keep themselves and their families healthy, starts a chain of events.

The brain reacts according to Harvard Health Publishing Harvard Medical School, in that the amygdala senses danger and sends a distress signal to the hypothalmus. This part of the brain is like a command centre communicating with the rest of the body through the nervous system.

When the hypothalmus receives a distress signal it activates our sympathetic nervous system. Stress hormones flood our body and it provides people with a burst of energy to respond to any perceived danger.

This allows people to activate the energy to fight or flight. This part of our brain controls our involuntary functions such as breathing, heart beat, heart rate, dilation of blood vessels and the like. This is why we show physiological signs when we feel stressed such as increased heart rate and headaches.

Our body becomes prepared to act in order to keep us safe. Stress hormone, cortisol is also activated and if not released from our body in a timely manner can cause problems to our health over time.

At the same time, a study by Amy. F. T. Arnstern National Institute of Health states that the pre-frontal cortex, which serves our highest cognitive function quickly suffers detrimentally to stress. It shuts down to conserve energy. Our thinking becomes impaired and we can lose our ability to think clearly. So the term Im losing my mind is kinda true!

Its important to know according to Harvard, that the sympathetic nervous system, our gas pedal and the parasympathetic nervous system, our brake cant function at the same time.

Our parasympathetic nervous system which controls our rest and digest functions responds to help us calm down post threat. It does the job of dampening down our stress response. Under normal circumstances cortisol levels will be reduced.

People with chronic stress however, behave differently. The body produces more cortisol than it can release, and that becomes a pre-cursor to a range of health problems. For example heart disease.

Countering our stress response with our natural brake is so important to our overall health and well being!

Relaxation methods activate the parasympathetic system and we can more easily dampen down.

So how does it work?

One of the best ways of returning to calm is by returning to your breath.

Dr. Herbert Benson M.D. in his book the relaxation response outlines its positive effects. He maintains one of the best things we can do for ourselves is learn deep relaxation to counter the flight fight response. When we breath in deeply it signals to our nervous system and our physiology we are safe and everything is ok.

So how do we do it?

Dr. Benson created his relaxation response technique over 25 years ago which you can find here

Today I want to show you The Backpack Meditation by Gabby Bernstein because you can literally do it anywhere, hence its name!

Its easy, feels great and its a quick way to reduce your stress response in one minute per day! To your best health and happiness.I hope youll give it a try.

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'I'm Losing My Mind.' How to Counter Stress Response - Thrive Global

Physiology

Are animals vulnerable to COVID-19? – The Ohio State University News

While theres no evidence so far that pets, livestock, or their owners can infect each other with COVID-19, there is also very little research about a potential crossover.

The novel coronavirus started with an animal, then mutated to transfer to people, but research hasnt yet shown if the virus has jumped back to animals, said Scott Kenney, a researcher at The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).

Viruses are constantly sampling and evolving, trying to find other hosts, said Kenney, who studies coronaviruses, including those that cross over from one species to another.

Quickly spreading among people across the world, COVID-19 is believed to have originated in bats, but the bat virus changed, altering surface proteins to be able to efficiently transfer from person to person. These surface proteins are different in the mutated bat virus, so COVID-19 is now less likely to affect the original bats. Whether other animals are susceptible to COVID-19 has yet to be tested, he said.

When viruses infect an animal, they produce billions of copies of themselves. Some of the copies tend to be slightly changed from the original virus. According to Kenney, while most of these irregular copies die, occasionally one has a change that is beneficial for the virus, such as altering its ability to infect a different species.

If the new species is exposed to this altered virus, it can now make many more copies of itself and potentially infect a whole new species, he said.

So far, the only research on COVID-19 and animals involves studies in China that showed two dogs tested positive for COVID-19. But neither of the infected dogs had symptoms of the virus, and researchers in those studies do not believe they transmitted the disease to any other animals or people.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, with COVID-19 being the newest addition. Some coronaviruses cause illness in people, some cause illness in certain animals, and others sicken both people and animals. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) were both coronaviruses that started in animals and shifted to people, leading to outbreaks. Neither was as adept at transmitting to people as COVID-19.

COVID-19 has managed to hit a virus evolution sweet spot, Kenney said. Infected people can be either very sick or show few signs, leading to very rapid spread of the infection.

Coronaviruses are common among farm animals. If COVID-19 were to jump species again and be receptive to animals, a likely animal on the farm to catch it would be pigs, he said. Thats because pigs have a similar protein to humans that the SARS virus, a coronavirus cousin to COVID-19, uses to infect humans. Studies show that it may work in pigs too.

Among farm animals, pigs seem to be the most susceptible to coronaviruses, able to contract up to six different pig-specific coronaviruses.

Im not sure anyone really knows why, he said. Outside of bats, pigs and humans seem to be infected by the largest numbers of different coronaviruses.

More studies are needed to understand whether this is because of something in pigs physiology or genetic makeup, or just that humans and pigs encounter coronaviruses more frequently than other animals. That results in more virus spillovers.

One of the more devastating coronaviruses among livestock in recent years affected only pigs: the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus. During a 2013 outbreak, the virus killed significant numbers of pigs in the United States and China, all of them young pigs.

The virus continues to pop up and cause problems in many countries around the world, Kenney said.

Even if farmers have spent a lot of time around pigs or other livestock, including animals with coronaviruses, they do not have immunity to COVID-19, he said. Thats why it is still important to be cautious.

Any time youre around an animal, you should use good hygiene. There are many illnesses besides coronaviruses in animals that can be passed to humans, and vice versa

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Are animals vulnerable to COVID-19? - The Ohio State University News