Word: shock
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...want to think that people turned it off because of me, so I'll blame the game. There is something inherently not exciting about a game that people couldn't quit. The fun of the game is the shock and awe of seeing somebody get so greedy they'll stay far beyond what you would think is a safe gamble. Ours wasn't a gamble...
...report of this unusual case last September was just the latest shock from a bracing new field, the science of consciousness. Questions once confined to theological speculations and late-night dorm-room bull sessions are now at the forefront of cognitive neuroscience. With some problems, a modicum of consensus has taken shape. With others, the puzzlement is so deep that they may never be resolved. Some of our deepest convictions about what it means to be human have been shaken...
Because cortisol is a long-acting hormone, you can dally under the covers a bit without losing any steam. But your brain is already taking steps to protect you from the shock of starting a new day. Rising cortisol levels signal the hypothalamus to stop sounding the alarm. Other parts of the brain chime in, and eventually the adrenal glands ratchet down their cortisol production. In other words, the brain's stress response contains its own off switch...
Here's how the experiment works: if you provide mice with an escape route, they typically learn very quickly how to avoid a mild electrical shock that occurs a few seconds after they hear a tone. But if the escape route is blocked whenever the tone is sounded, and new shocks occur, the mice will eventually stop trying to run away. Later, even after the escape route is cleared, the animals simply freeze at the sound of the tone--despite the fact that they once knew how to avoid the associated shock...
...about the new. But Primal Scream is more than a show of displeasure toward the old—those abominable reading period papers—it’s also an act of defiance toward the new—the dread of impending exams. The excitement for participants, and shock for spectators, comes not just from the sight of 500 screaming, naked students, but from our symbolic bird flipping to all the proud institutions nearby: to the stodginess of academia, to the sanctity of Harvard Yard, to the camera-laden spectators, and to our career ambitions. We may be naked...