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  • Posted by Jason Hensel at
    12:00AM 06/14/2011 • 0 Comments

    Caffeine Making You Hallucinate?

    "There's too much caffeine in your blood stream and a lack of real spice in your life."—Morrissey

    Morrissey is wrong—caffeine can spice up your life. According to a new study, drinking five cups of coffee a day or more was found to be enough to increase a drinker's tendency to hallucinate. 

    "High caffeine levels in association with high levels of stressful life events interacted to produce higher levels of hallucination in non-clinical participants, indication that further caution needs to be exercised with the use of this overtly safe drug," said Simon Crowe, a professor at the School of Psychological Sciences at La Trobe University in Australia.

    Study participants were assigned to either a high or a low stress condition and a high or a low caffeine condition on the basis of self-report. The participants were then asked to listen to white noise and to report each time they heard Bing Crosby’s rendition of “White Christmas” during the white noise.

    The song was never played. The results indicated that the interaction of stress and caffeine had a significant effect on the reported frequency of hearing “White Christmas.” The participants with high levels of stress or consumed high levels of caffeine were more likely to hear the song.

    "There is a link between high levels of stress and psychosis, and caffeine was found to correlate with hallucination proneness," Crowe said. "The combination of caffeine and stress affect the likelihood of an individual experiencing a psychosis-like symptom."

    This study also helped to explain the mechanism by which stress may facilitate the symptoms of schizophrenia in non-clinical samples. Caffeine has only recently been reported to increase proneness to hallucinate.

    "The results also support both the diathesis-stress model and the continuum theory of schizophrenia in that stress plays a role in the symptoms of schizophrenia and that everyone, to some degree, can experience these symptoms," Crowe said. "This was demonstrated by a significant effect of stress on the occurrence of hallucinatory experiences, or hearing the song.

    "It is apparent that the health risks of excessive caffeine use must be addressed, and caution should be raised with regards to the exacerbating use of this stimulant," he said.

    And that, my friends, is why I stick with tea. 

    (Story materials provided by La Trobe University.)



  • Posted by Jason Hensel at
    12:00AM 06/06/2011 • 0 Comments

    Stress and Risky Decision Making

    Stress causes men and women to respond differently to risky decision making, with men charging ahead for small rewards and women taking their time, according to a new study in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, published by Oxford University Press this month. Under stress, men and women also have different brain activation patterns during decision making.

    There might be advantages to both stress responses, especially in areas with the need to weigh short-term gain and long-term benefits, such as the stock market, health decisions or retirement planning, according to lead author on the study, Nichole Lighthall, a University of Southern California (USC) doctoral student.

    The experiment might also have implications for daily life and relationships, Lighthall said. 

    Stress caused men and women to make decisions differently, but when stress was absent their behavior and brain activation was much more similar. Men and women faced with tough decisions might improve their communication by waiting until a stressful situation has passed, Lighthall says.

    “Men and women appear to think more similarly when they are not stressed,” Lighthall said. “You should be aware of the way you are biased in your decisions.”

    After being subjected to stress, men appeared to be more motivated to act quickly while women would slow down.

    For men under stress, playing a risk-taking game stimulated areas in the brain that are activated when one gets a reward or satisfies an addiction. The same experiment found diminished brain activity for women in the same areas when they were stressed. 

    “It appears women do not feel the drive to get a reward as much under stress,” Lighthall said.

    Participants were given a task of filling up a computer-simulated balloon with as much air as possible without popping the balloon.

    Subjects earned from US$4 to $45 based on their performance, with the men earning much more cash under stress.

    Lighthall says that although men performed this task better, the more important conclusion may be that important decisions made under stress should include input from both genders. 

    “It might be better to have more gender diversity on important decision because men and women offer differing perspectives,” Lighthall said. “Being more cautious and taking the time to make a decision will often be the right choice.” 

    (Story materials provided by the University of Southern California.)