The songs of sadness: Dan Mangan - Basket

How we read the minds of others.

Article Lifted from Derec Bownds' Mindblog explains why interacting with depressed people is so important for the sadness warrior:
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How we read the minds of others.
Derec Bownds - Mindblog
June 28, 2010

"Tamir et al. do some interesting MRI studies that suggest that understanding the mental states of others starts with self perception as an anchor from which serial adjustments of the perceptions of others are made:

Recent studies have suggested that the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) contributes both to understanding the mental states of others and to introspecting about one's own mind. This finding has suggested that perceivers might use their own thoughts and feelings as a starting point for making inferences about others, consistent with “simulation” or “self-projection” views of social cognition. However, perceivers cannot simply assume that others think and feel exactly as they do; social cognition also must include processes that adjust for perceived differences between self and other. Recent cognitive work has suggested that such correction occurs through a process of “anchoring-and-adjustment” by which perceivers serially tune their inferences from an initial starting point based on their own introspections. Here, we used functional MRI to test two predictions derived from this anchoring-and-adjustment view. Participants (n = 64) used a Likert scale to judge the preferences of another person and to indicate their own preferences on the same items, allowing us to calculate the discrepancy between the participant's answers for self and other. Whole-brain parametric analyses identified a region in the MPFC in which activity was related linearly to this self–other discrepancy when inferring the mental states of others. These findings suggest both that the self serves as an important starting point from which to understand others and that perceivers customize such inferences by serially adjusting away from this anchor.

Figure - The relation between BOLD response and self–other discrepancy during Other trials was calculated separately for subregions of the MPFC. Although the response of dorsal MPFC (A) increased linearly with increasing self–other discrepancy, the response of ventral MPFC (B) distinguished only between trials on which self–other discrepancy was zero (overlap between self and other) versus greater than zero (discrepancy between self and other). Error bars indicate the SEM.

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Musical Interlude: The Police - So Lonely & Facebook precaution

Here's one to give your self-imposed loneliness a catchy feel to it.
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To ramp up your loneliness quotient, consider modern day communications as a potential mood inducer. In the post-post-Industrial world, most human interaction is now done online via sites like Facebook, Hyves and Twitter (TM). Farming is now enjoyed with electronic coins and push-button animatronics, with a virtual free economy and false ego inflation by meaningless awards mixed in with the most personal of announcements.

In addition to providing 'meaning' the 21st century life, it appears that social media is now possibly helping people get out of desperate situations. Getting depressed and heart- (and head) broken humans to turn their lives around with the aid of others. Thus, if you are on the long-term end of sadness exploration and wish to continue along the tear-strewn path, you may want to avoid expressing anything but a cover story to all friends and colleagues.

A more elite scheme (for both online and offline conversations) would be to avoid really saying anything to anybody & keeping as much bottled up inside. Never reveal your true feelings to anyone; if for some strange reason you've become happy, pretend to be sad. From your root mood of sadness - lie and say you're alright, chose a random mood for when you feel neutral. If simply excluding your regular associates from real communication doesn't work, make yourself see & ruminate on how often and 'well' other people stay in touch.

Whatever you do, don't write on face book that you're in trouble. That just gives do-good busy-bodies like the woman described below more opportunity to feel good about themselves. To ruin one's own sadness attempt and also provide another with happiness is not a recipe for success in the exclusive school of sadness studies.

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Stu Bykofsky: Can Facebook help save lives?
Stu Bykofsky - Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News Columnist
May 13th, 2010

HOW FAR would you go to save someone's life? How hard would you push?

Jennifer Domal did what her Christian faith called upon her to do, even though the person was a stranger, no more than a name on Facebook.

Some people reveal the most intimate details of their lives on Facebook, maybe more than they should, out of loneliness or fear or ego or other urges I can't imagine.
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Interview about mood & emotion research using fMRI

I was able to escape a crushing lack of inertia long enough to undergo the following controversial interview on the top behavioural science blog, of Christina Summerdyk & Martin Metzmacher:
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Part 1:

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Part 2:

Dan Fitzgerald about fMRI – Video interview
This is a Behavioural Science Video Interview with Daniel Fitzgerald about fMRI
fMRI Video Interview #1

* Introduction
* What is fMRI?
* fMRI Research
* fMRI Method
* fMRI Signal
* The Salmon
* Corrections & Thresholds
* The Black Box
* The Press

fMRI Video Interview #2

* fMRI & Behaviour
* Understanding Behaviour
* Getting Started
* Use of fMRI
* Future of fMRI
* Brain Pacemakers