Author: Iasmina Hornoiu

Despre slăbiciune. O scurtă introducere

Posted on by Iasmina Hornoiu

S-a așezat lângă domnul în vârstă, de lângă singurul loc cu căldură din bar, și l-a întrebat de vorbă. Tânărul voia să știe, în realitate, ce este “slăbiciunea”.

Domnul în vârstă își începu scurta explicație. “Slăbiciunea”, zise el, “nu este, în primul rând, absența forței”. Apoi continuă: “Slăbiciunea este un principiu puternic, în sine. Ea te ajută să te înțelegi pe tine însuți și să te dezvolți spiritual. Atunci când ești slab, te vezi cu adevărat. Îți vezi forța, destinul, potențialul, atuurile, defectele; afli cine îți este alături, cine te disprețuiește, cine te iubește, cine îți este dușman și cine te urăște. Am multe povești despre slăbiciune, pentru că este, într-adevăr, fascinantă. Dar ție îți voi spune numai una.”

“Cândva trăia o femeie cu doi câini. Iubea mult animalele, în special câinii, și vrusese să îi salveze de la moarte. Așa că îi adoptase. Într-o zi veni la ea un polițist, care îi spuse că, din cauza larmei, deranjante pentru vecini, e nevoie să îi ia câinii și să îi ducă la un adăpost. <<Din păcate, nu îmi este permis să divulg adresa sau numele adăpostului. Dar dumneavoastră vă este permis să îi readoptați după două săptămâni, la finalul reeducării lor, dar nu mai târziu de patru săptamâni, pentru că atunci vor fi considerați câini ai străzii și vor trebui uciși. Așa e legea.>> Acestea fiind spuse, polițistul ia câinii, în timp ce femeia, îngrijorată, îi înmâna lesele, botnițete și documentele legale ale câinilor.”

Trecu o săptămână, timp în care femeia a încercat să afle unde era adăpostul respectiv, însă fără succes. La finalul celei de-a doua săptămână era deja disperată. Mai încercă, totuși, să caute în toate părțile, poate, poate va reuși să își recupereze câinii adorați. În ciuda tuturor eforturilor, nu fu posibil să afle nimic. Se puse pe plăns, își smulse părul din cap, se lovi de cei patru pereți ai holulețului unde mai demult dormeau cățeii și apoi decise că sunt deja morți, iar ea trebuie să meargă mai departe. Poate va adopta alți câini sau pisici, care au nevoie de ajutor și așa se va simți mai bine.”

“Trecu o vreme, iar la un moment dat, în timp ce își plimba noul cățel, femeia văzu la o oarecare depărtare pe unul dintre câinii <<morți>>. Fu în același timp bulversată și fericită. Câinele avea acum alt stăpân, nu mai era al ei, dar era în viață. Celălalt poate fusese și el adoptat sau era într-adevăr, mort. Suferi un pic la gândul că, probabil, cel de-al doilea nu supraviețuise, însă se consolă cu gândul că ea facuse tot ce îi stătea în putință să îi salveze pe amândoi și că macar unul trăia.”

Domnul în vârstă își încheiase povestirea. “Ce părere ți-a făcut această femeie?”, întrebă domnul în vârstă. “Era slabă sau nu?”, întrebă tânărul, știind deja răspunsul.

English translation

On weakness. A brief introduction

He sat down next to the elderly gentleman, beside the only warm place in the bar, and asked him for a chat. The young man actually wanted to know what “weakness” was.

The elderly gentleman began his brief explanation. “Weakness,” he said, “is not primarily the absence of strength.” Then he continued, “Weakness is a strong principle, in itself. It helps one understand himself, and develop spiritually. When you are weak, you really see yourself. You see your strength, your destiny, your potential, your strengths, your flaws; you find out who is with you, who despises you, who loves you, who is your enemy, and who hates you. I have many stories about weakness, because it is indeed fascinating. But for you I only have this one.”

“Once there lived a woman with two dogs. She loved animals so very much, especially dogs, and had wanted to save them from death. So, she had adopted these two. One day a policeman came to her and told her that because of the noise, which was disturbing the neighbours, he needed to take the dogs to a shelter. That being said, the policeman takes the dogs away, while the worried woman hands him the leashes, muzzles and the dogs’ legal papers.”

“A week passed, during which time the woman tried to find out where the shelter was, but with no avail. By the end of the second week she was already desperate. She kept trying, however, to search everywhere, maybe, just maybe, she would get her beloved dogs back. Despite her best efforts, she was unable to find anything. She sat down, pulled her hair off of her head, bumped against the four walls of the small corridor where the dogs had once slept, and then decided that they were already dead, and that she must move on. Maybe she’ll adopt other dogs or cats who need help and that way she will feel better.”

“Some time passed, and at one point, while walking her new dog, the woman saw one of the <<dead>> dogs some distance away. She was at the same time bewildered and happy. The dog now had a new owner, was no longer hers, but it was alive. The other had perhaps been adopted as well, or was indeed dead. She suffered a little at the thought that perhaps the second one had not survived, but consoled herself with the thought that she had done her best to save them both and that at least one was alive.”

The elderly gentleman had finished his story. “What did you think of this woman?” asked the elderly gentleman. “Was she weak, or not?” the young man asked, already knowing the answer.

Muntele Sacru / The Sacred Mountain

Posted on by Iasmina Hornoiu

English translation following the Romanian text.

A sunat clopotul de patru ori. ”Ce înseamnă asta?”, se întrebară cu toții. După cum bine știa toată lumea, când suna clopotul o singură dată însemna că a răsărit Soarele. Dacă suna de două ori, Soarele se pogora pe Muntele Sacru pentru a aduce binecuvântări. Dar acest lucru se întâmpla rar, de obicei o data la două sute patruzeci si patru de zile, niciodata când mările erau agitate și întotdeauna noaptea.

Pentru că numai noaptea Soarele își înceta strălucirea și se preschimba în Călătorul Negru, singuratic și plin de Darurile Mântuirii, pe care locuitorii Muntelui Sacru le așteptau cu atâta nerăbdare. Dar, desigur, dacă mările se învolburau, Călătorul Negru era chemat în valurile lor și se îneca, iar darurile Lui se pierdeau în apele învolburate. Atunci locuitorii Muntelui Sacru intrau sub blestemul Lunii, pierzându-și sensul vieții; atunci suna clopotul de trei ori și se spunea că unii dintre locuitorii Muntelui Sacru se avântau în Codrul Vrăjit, unde se preschimbau în mituri veșnice, despre care toți își aminteau, nemaivazându-i pe aceia însă niciodată. Alți locuitori, dimpotrivă, rămâneau la casele lor, dar uitau cine sunt. Alte două sute patruzeci și patru de zile trebuiau să treacă până când Soarele ar fi încercat din nou să se pogoare printre ei, cu Darurile Sale, pentru ca locuitorii rămași în uitare să se deștepte și să se întoarcă la viețile lor.

De mulți ani, locuitorii Muntelui Sacru trăiau în uitare. Nu le mai rămăseseră decât așteptarea Călătorului Negru, amintirea miturilor din ce în ce mai numeroase și cunoașterea bătăilor clopotului, care de atâta timp suna numai o dată sau de trei ori.

Însă acum se întâmplase ceva nemaipomenit. Clopotul sunase de patru ori. Iar la scurt timp după aceea, locuitorii începură să vorbească despre un anume călător singuratic, dar care nu ar fi, totuși, Soarele și despre care ei credeau că ar fi fost, de fapt, un mit.

“Dar miturile nu pot fi văzute.”, spuneau unii. Poate că Luna, după atâta timp, le lua acum nu numai amintirile, ci și mințile…”, gândeau alții. De atâta amar de vreme, Călătorul Negru era înghițit de valurile mării, iar Darurile Mânturirii fuseseră toate, rând pe rând, mistuite.

Călătorul misterios apărea deseori acum printre locuitori, mereu tânăr și bătrân, ieșind mereu din Codrul Vrăjit și întorcându-se mereu acolo.

Nimeni nu îndrăznea să intre în vorbă cu dânsul. Prezența lui era atât de trecătoare, încât de fiecare dată când locuitorii încercau să se țină după el, dispărea ca prin vrajă. Soarele însă, din înaltul Cerurului, îl urmărea atent. Îi aștepta reîntoarcerea în codru, pentru ca, de fiecare dată când Călătorul se cufunda în visare și se ridica deasupra coroanelor copacilor, să îl atingă cu razele Sale. Când se deștepta, Călătorul uita cine fusese și încotro se îndrepta. Însă Soarele știa că odată, demult, Călătorul cel fără de țintă fusese poet. Și îl urmărea, din înălțimile Sale, cum colindă Muntele sacru, cum se preschimbă în bătrân și cum revine în Codrul Vrăjit. Iar atunci, împreună cu Vânturile Muntelui Sacru, Soarele îi redeștepta amintirile versurilor pierdute. Dar Soarele nu putea schimba Sorocul.

Soarele cunoștea Sorocul atotputernic și neprevăzut și se încredea în El. Știa că Sorocul era cel care de atâta vreme Îl îneca în mare, pentru ca Darurile Sale să se piardă, iar Luna să îi blesteme necontenit pe locuitorii Muntelui Sacru. Dar tot Sorocul făcuse ca un trist poet rătăcitor, cândva demult, să găsească unul dintre aceste Daruri neprețuite, pe care apoi îl păstrase, neștiindu-i valoarea și, în timp, uitând de el. Soarele Îl chema pe Călător mereu la El, în vis, și Îi redeștepta versurile pierdute, sperând ca, cu voia Sororcului, din aceste versuri să se releve și Darul mult sperat, unica șansă la Mântuire.

Luna privea și Ea la Călător. Ajunsese palidă, istovită de blestemele pe care era nevoită să le arunce asupra locuitorilor Muntelui Sacru, de când Sorocul Îl tot îneca pe Soare în mare. Și așa de istovită cum era, Luna alunecă odată de pe Cer și se pomeni alături de Călător, în timp ce acesta visa că plutește deasupra coroanelor copacilor. Atunci Ea Îl atinse ușor, iar acesta se deșteptă ca dintr-o lungă amorțire.

Acum Călătorul Își amintea tot. Fusese poet, fusese bătrân, colindasem mult și fără țintă, iar versurile Sale erau acum mai vii în mintea Lui decât chiar atunci când le crease.

Ghidat de Soare și de Lună, Poetul se reîntoarse în satul unde se aflau locuitorii Muntelui Sacru. Aceștia Îl înâmpinară ca pe un vechi prieten de care le fusese dor și pe care nu îl mai văzuseră de o veșnicie. Poetul le împărtăși versurile Sale, în care se vorbea despre o călătorie mitică printr-un codru vrăjit, despre Soarele care apunea în mare, despre Eroul care le aducea oamenilor Darurile vieții și despre Luna care redeștepta fantezia și creația lirică.

Pe Munte, oamenii din sat au ascultat povestea Poetului și au recitat-o apoi seri de-a rândul. Se întruneau la casa unui bătrân care suna clopotul de patru ori, pentru a vesti că e timpul să se înceapă rostirea primului Basm al Omenirii.

Acum fiecare om, bătrân sau copil, înțelegea tainele Soarelui și pe cele ale Lunii, misterul Creației Divine și puterea Sorocului, nemaitrăind niciodată în uitare. Din atâtea mituri, ei creară basmele. Iar la fiecare două sute patruzeci și patru de zile, când avea loc Marea Sărbătoare, ei se adunau pentru a recita în ordine toate basmele, de la primul până la ultimul.

Doamnei profesoare Sorina Gramaticescu, de la care am învățat engleza literară.

Poză făcută de Aravinda Ravibhanu Sumanarathna.

English translation

The bell rang four times. ”What does that mean?”, they all wondered. As everyone knew, ringing the bell once meant the sun had risen. If it rang twice, the Sun was descending on the Holy Mountain to bring blessings. But this happened rarely, usually once every two hundred and forty-four days, never when the seas were rough and always at night.

For only at night did the Sun cease Its brilliance and change into the Dark Traveller, lonely and full of the Gifts of Salvation, which the inhabitants of the Sacred Mountain so eagerly awaited. But, of course, if the seas swirled, the Dark Traveller was called into their waves and drowned, and His gifts were lost in the swirling waters. Then the inhabitants of the Sacred Mountain would come under the curse of the Moon, losing their sense of life; then the bell would ring three times, and it was said that some of the inhabitants of the Sacred Mountain would plunge into the Bewitched Grove, where they would be transformed into eternal myths, which they all remembered, but never saw. Other inhabitants, on the contrary, stayed in their homes, but forgot who they were. Another two hundred and forty-four days had to pass before the Sun would again try to descend among them with His Gifts, so that the inhabitants who remained in oblivion would awaken and return to their lives.

For many years, the inhabitants of the Sacred Mountain had lived in oblivion. All that remained for them was to wait for the Dark Traveller, to remember the ever-increasing myths, and to know the bell that for so long had rung only once or three times.

But now something extraordinary had happened. The bell had rung four times. And soon after, the inhabitants began to talk about a certain lone wanderer, who was not however the Sun, and whom they believed to be a myth.

“But myths can’t be seen,” some said. Perhaps the Moon, after all this time, was now taking away not only their memories, but their minds as well…”, thought others. For so long, the Dark Traveller had been swallowed by the waves of the sea, and the Gifts of Salvation had all been consumed, one by one.

The Mysterious Wanderer now often appeared among the inhabitants, always young and old, always coming out of the Enchanted Grove and always returning there. No one dared to speak to Him. His presence was so fleeting that, whenever the inhabitants tried to follow Him, He would disappear as if by magic. But the Sun, high above in the Skies, watched Him closely. He awaited the Wanderer’s return to the Grove, so that each time the Wanderer sank into reverie and rose above the crowns of the trees, the Sun would touch Him with His rays. When He awoke, the Wanderer forgot who He had been and where He was going. But the Sun knew that once, long ago, the aimless Wanderer had been a poet. And He watched Him, from His heights, as the Mysterious Wanderer walked the Sacred Mountain, as He changed into an old man and returned to the Enchanted Grove. And then, together with the Winds of the Sacred Mountain, the Sun reawakened His memories of lost verses. But the Sun could not change the Destiny.

The Sun knew the all-powerful and unpredictable Destiny and trusted in Her. He knew that it was Destiny who had for so long drowned Him in the sea, so that His Gifts would be lost, and the Moon would curse the inhabitants of the Sacred Mountain unceasingly. But it was the Destiny Herself who had also caused a sad wandering poet, once long ago, to find one of these priceless Gifts, which he then kept, not knowing its value and, in time, forgetting it. The Sun called the Wanderer to Himself again and again, in the Wanderer’s dreams, and reawakened His lost verses, hoping that, with the will of the Destiny, from these verses the long-hoped-for Gift, the only chance of Salvation, would be revealed.

The Moon also looked at the Wanderer. She had grown pale, exhausted by the curses She had had to cast on the inhabitants of the Sacred Mountain since the Destiny had been drowning the Sun in the sea. And weakened as She was, the Moon once slipped from the Sky and laid beside the Wanderer, as He dreamed of floating above the crowns of the trees. Then She touched Him lightly, and He awoke as if from a long numbness.

Now the Wanderer remembered everything. He had been a poet, He had been an old man, He had wandered far and wide, and His verses were now more vivid in His mind than ever, more so than when He had created them.

Guided by the Sun and the Moon, the Poet returned to the village where the inhabitants of the Sacred Mountain lived. They welcomed Him as an old friend they had missed and had not seen for ages. The Poet shared with them His verses, which told of a mythical journey through a bewitched forest, of the Sun setting in the sea, of the Hero bringing people the Gifts of Life, and of the Moon reawakening fantasy and lyrical creation.

On the Mountain, the people of the village listened to the Poet’s story and recited it for evenings. They gathered at the house of an old man who rang the bell four times to announce that it was time to begin the telling of Mankind’s first Fairy Tale. Now every man, old and young, understood the secrets of the Sun and the Moon, the mystery of Divine Creation and the power of Destiny, never to be forgotten. From so many myths, they created fairy tales. And every two hundred and forty-four days, when the Great Feast took place, they gathered to recite all the fairy tales in order, from the first to the last.

To my teacher Sorina Gramaticescu, who has taught me literary English.

Featured image by Aravinda Ravibhanu Sumanarathna.

Poveste într-un sat / Story in a village

Posted on by Iasmina Hornoiu

English translation following the Romanian text.

Un poet, mergând fără țintă, se rătăci într-un codru pustiu. Era obosit și înfometat. Se așeză pe iarbă, la umbră, și privi în sus, la coroanele copacilor care lăsau lumina să pătrundă. Poetul închise ochii și se imagină deasupra coroanelor copacilor. Nu atingea nimic. Dar toate îl atingeau pe el. Lumina îl atingea, frunzele îl atingeau, aerul îl atingea. Toate convergeau către el, în timp ce el se dizolva și devenea lumină, aer, copaci, sunet, fiind tot și nimic, în același timp. Poezia dispăruse, iar el nu mai era poet. Nu mai avea gânduri, nici voință, nici sentimente. Era doar creație.

“Ce vis frumos!” Se trezi. Simțindu-se mai odihnit, porni la drum. Parcă și foamea i se dusese. Încercă să își amintească niște versuri pe care le scrisese mai demult. Dar nu putu. Cum părea că începe să își amintească, o pală de vânt îi ștergea, de fiecare dată, versurile din minte.

Încercă să își amintească de trecut, de oameni cunoscuți, întâmplări, însă mereu și mereu, razele soarelui, care pătrundeau printre crengi, îl orbeau și îi întunecau memoria. Neamintindu-și de ce plecase la drum sau încotro se îndrepta, ajunse în cele din urmă la marginea unui sat.

Pășind pe o uliță cu case și garduri de o parte și de alta, el vedea oameni, care stând pe uliță și sporovăind, care trebăluind în gospodărie. Pe măsură ce fostul poet trecea, oamenii se opreau din ce făceau și se uitau la el, curioși. “Cine este acest om ciudat?”, se întrebau unii. “Pesemne că a pătruns în codru fără să fi avut vreo țintă”, ziceau alții.

Încetul cu încetul, oamenii începură să se ia după el. Până când un bătrân îl prinse de braț și îl opri. “Încotro te îndrepți?”, îl întrebă bătrânul. “Nu știu”, răspunse fostul poet. Bătrânul îi explică atunci că oricine se avântă în codrul de langă satul lor, fără vreo țintă, se pierde pe el însuși. Dar fostul poet îi spuse că, deși nu își amintește cine este și încotro se îndreaptă, nu se simte deloc pierdut.

Bătrânul îl rugă să poposească la el în colibă, până a doua zi. Îi dădu de mâncare, iar fostul poet mâncă, cu toate că nu îi era deloc foame. Bâtrânul îi spuse că el însuși fusese odată, demult, în acel codru, fără vreo țintă, și că de atunci rămăsese în satul acela, devenind pesemne alt om, pentru că nu își amintea cine fusese înainte de peripeția prin codru.

“Sunt și alții din sat tot așa, iar ceilalți s-au născut aici și știu să nu se avânte niciodată în codru, decât numai dacă știu pentru ce.” Bătrânul îi spuse apoi că a doua zi ar trebui să se apuce să își construiască o casă în satul lor și să rămână acolo, pentru că, oriunde altundeva s-ar duce, ar fi pierdut pe vecie și neînțeles de nimeni.

Dar fostul poet își păstrase, totuși, o urmă de identitate, cu toate că era vagă. Îi răsări întrebarea dacă nu cumva bătrânul și toți acești oameni trăiau în afara timpului și al destinului lor pentru că așa aleseseră, dar că acest lucru nu îi era sortit lui. Și simpla această întrebare era dovada că, în străfunduri, conștiința lui se lupta cu codrul.

Adormi cu un singur gând – să se întoarcă în acea pădure vrăjită. Avu un somn adânc, fără vise, iar când se trezi, văzu casa pustie. Bătrânul dispăruse. Dar acum el însuși se simțea bătrân. Și își amintea că avea treburi în ogradă. Se miră de aceste schimbări ciudate, însă înțelese totul când își privi mâinile și își simți barba aspră – el era bătrânul.

Părăsi coliba și se îndreptă spre codru, unde barba îi dispăru încetu cu încetul, mâinile îi reîntineriră, amintirile bătrânului fură șterse de razele soarelui, iar vântul îi readuse poeziile și amintirile din trecutul de poet. Suspină, pentru că acum era iar poet, dar fără țintă.

Colindând prin codru, obosi și se culcă, și din nou se ridică, în vis, deasupra coroanelor copacilor. Și tot așa, uita și renăștea și îmbătrânea și se pierdea, căutându-se pe sine, nestatornic, veșnic legat de codru, devenind astfel simbolul însuși al mitului veșnic. Satul era și el plin de mituri, însă acelea, fiind legate de sat, se statorniciseră și nu se schimbau decât puțin câte puțin, până ce dispăreau.

În amintirea tatălui meu, logicianul și filosoful Călin Candiescu.

English translation

A poet, walking aimlessly, wandered into a deserted wood. He was tired and hungry. He sat down on the grass in the shade and looked up at the crowns of the trees, which gave plenty of room for the light to shine through. The poet closed his eyes and pictured himself above the treetops. He wasn’t touching anything. But everything was touching him. The light touched him, the leaves of the trees touched him, the air touched him. All converged on him, as he dissolved and became light, air, trees, sound, being everything and nothing at the same time. Poetry had disappeared, and he was no longer a poet. He had no thoughts, no will, no feelings. He was only creation.

“What a beautiful dream!” He woke up. Feeling more rested, he set off. It was as if even his hunger had gone. He tried to remember some verses he had written earlier. But he couldn’t. As he seemed to begin to remember, a gust of wind blew the verses from his mind.

He tried to remember the past, people he knew, events, but again and again the sun’s rays, penetrating through the branches, blinded him and obscured his memory. Not remembering why he had set off or where he was going, he finally reached the edge of a village.

Walking along a lane with houses and fences on either side, he saw people, some who were sitting on the lane and chatting, some who were finishing their chores in the household. As the former poet passed by, people stopped what they were doing and looked at him quizzically. “Who is this strange man?” some wondered. “He must have entered the woods without any aim,” said others.

Little by little, people began to follow him. Until an old man grabbed him by the arm and stopped him. “Where are you going?”, the old man asked him. “I don’t know,” replied the former poet. The old man then explained that anyone who ventured into the woods near their village without a goal was losing himself. But the former poet told him that although he doesn’t remember who he is or where he is going, he doesn’t feel lost at all.

The old man asked him to stay at his hut until the next day. He gave him food, and the former poet ate, though he was not at all hungry. The old man told him that he himself had once, long ago, been in that wood, without any purpose, and that since then he had remained in the village, having become a different man, because he could not remember who he had been before his adventure in the woods.

“There are others in the village just the same, and the rest were born here and know never to venture out into the woods unless they know what for.” The old man then told him that the next day he should set out to build a house in their village and stay there, for wherever else he went he would be lost forever and misunderstood by everyone.

But the former poet still retained a trace of identity, however vague. He wondered if the old man and all these people were living outside their time and destiny, because they had chosen to do so, but that this was not his destiny. And this very question was proof that deep down his conscience was fighting with the forest.

He fell asleep with only one thought – to return to that enchanted forest. He had a deep, dreamless sleep, and when he awoke, he saw the house deserted. The old man was gone. But now he felt old himself. And he remembered he had chores in the garden. He wondered at these strange changes, but he understood everything when he looked at his hands and felt his rough beard – he was the old man.

He left the hut and went into the woods, where his beard slowly disappeared, his hands grew younger, the old man’s memories were erased by the sun’s rays, and the wind brought back the poems and memories of his past as a poet. He sighed, for now he was a poet again, but aimlessly.

Wandering through the woods, he felt tired and went to sleep, and again rose, in a dream, above the crowns of the trees. And still he forgot and was reborn and grew old and lost, seeking himself, fickle, eternally bound to the grove, thus becoming the very symbol of the eternal myth. The village was also full of myths, but those myths, being tied to the village, were fixed and did not change, except little by little, until they disappeared.

Tribute to my father, the logician and philosopher Călin Candiescu.

‘Gather’ for poster presentation at the German Neuroscience Conference

Posted on by Iasmina Hornoiu

Recently, I have had the pleasure to experience the ‘Gather’ platform, where several posters including my own were presented, as part of the 14th Göttingen Meeting of the German Neuroscience Conference. The platform is really fun to navigate and a great way to interact with fellow presenters and interested participants. I took a short video while I was navigating through the rooms.

As for my poster, I will soon upload it on the blog 🙂

On the nature of pain

Posted on by Iasmina Hornoiu

Last week, a manatee was found in Florida waters, with the word ‘Trump’ scraped on its back. Although this kind of ruthless mutilation is horrific in itself, I started wondering if the animal felt any kind of pain.

I must admit, up until I came across the news about what happened to the manatee in Florida, I knew very little about manatees, in general. And my first thought was whether, during the scraping proccess, this manatee suffered at all. To my dismay, there were not many scientific papers dealing with the somatosensory system in manatees. However, I did find something that eased my soul a little bit: one of the articles reporting on the dreadful event states that the scratch was done in the algae growing on the animal’s back. Still, in the same article it is said that manatees have sensory hairs and nerves in their skin, which means that, if the cuts had touched the skin, they could have caused pain; not to mention the infection that the skin was at risk of, due to the open wounds.

The video below shows the above-mentioned manatee swimming, with the human-made scars on its back.

After reading all these news articles, I was left with some questions that kept occupying my mind: What are manatees?; To what extent can they feel pain?; And can we talk about ‘pain’ at all in manatees, or just nociception? Lastly, how did pain evolve throughout the animal kingdom?

What are mantees?

Also known as ‘sea cows’, manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) are herbivorous acquatic mammals of the Order Sirenia. As the name of their order suggests, manatees are believed to be the animals behind the myths of mermaids. For those interested in how manatees inspired mermaid legends, please check out the video below.

Manatees are the largest vegetarian animal to inhabit the sea, and they communicate with each other through high-pitched sounds. They are also very gentle and lack defense mechanisms, given that they do not have any natural enemies. However, they have become and endangered species, due to human activity, which is the manatee’s greatest threat. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the year 2020 was a hard one for manetees as well: 637 of them died, 90 of which were victims of boat collisions, and another 15 were killed by other interactions with humans.

Although manatees do not possess a highly acute visual system, they compensate for that by the presence of tactile hairs, or vibrissae, spread all over their body, especially on the face. This distribution of vibrissae is something unique among mammals, and to manatees it is highly useful in allowing them to navigate in the water.

Since mantees rely tremendously on tactile inputs, it comes as no surprise that their brains are organised to support somatosensation. The primary somatosensory cortex of manatees occupies 25% of their neocortex. Moreover, the sixth layer of their cortex contains clusters of neurons, known as Rindenkerne, which are believed to process information related to the manatee’s facial and bodily vibrissae. Although the Rindenkerne cells of manatees are somewhat similar to other cortical representations of vibrissae, termed ‘barrels’, in rodents, shrews, opposums and hedgehogs, Rindenkerne are unique to sirenia. These neuronal aggregates become active when manatees engage in tactile exploration and object recognition.

At the subcortical level, manatees possess three types of somatosenroy nuclei in their brainstems, namely the Birchoff’s nucleus, which receives information from flukes, the cuneate-gracile nucleus, which processes inputs from flippers and body trunk, and the trigeminal nucleus, which receives sensory inputs from facial vibrissae. Figure 1. below shows the somatosentory representations of the manatee’s body parts, in a coronal section of the brainstem. The thalamus also has specialised somatosensory nuclei, which differ in size, depending on their functional relevance to somatic sensation.

Figure 1. Left diagram based on image by Isuru Pryiaranga. Right image from Sarko et al. (2007), showing functional divisions withing the brainstem, corresponding to the manetee’s body parts. 

Given that somatosensation is so developed in manatees, one burning question is whether they feel pain.

What is pain?

Pain is different from nociception. However, pain from injury cannot occur without nociception. The latter reffers to the process of detecting injury by the activation of a special class of receptors found in the skin, as well as deep tissues and organs, known as nociceptors. The detection of potentially or actually damaging stimuli is followed by a reflex withdrawal reaction, or nociceptive behaviour, mediated by nerves in the spinal cord. The nerve fibres that detect noxious stimuli are Aδ fibres and C fibres, which have their cell bodies in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) of the spinal cord, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Illustration taken from a student presentation at Heidelberg University, Germany.

Aδ fibres are mechano-nociceptors, meaning that they are activated by high mechanical pressures. C fibres are polymodal, which means that they respond to a variety of noxious stimulations, such as noxious chemicals (e.g., acids), extreme temperatures and high mechanical pressures. They not only encode the stimulus modality (type), but also their intensity and duration, which are relayed to reflex centres in the central nervous sytem, mediating withdrawal reactions.

The nociceptive information travels from the DRG to different parts of the brain via spinothalamic tracts (from the spinal cord to the thalamus) and sensory fibres of the trigeminal tract (from the face to the thalamus). And it is within the brain that pain happens.

Pain is a complex feeling. Many brain areas are involved in not just generating pain, but also in ameliorating it. Structures from the limbic system, such as the amygdala, receive and integrate nociceptive and affect-related information. The amygdala can lead to increased nocifensive and affective pain behavior, while, under certain circumstances, it can also contribute to endogenous pain inhibition. Pain is also processed in the hypothalamus, the basal ganglia, the insula and the somatosensory cortices. Because these areas play a role in metabolism, as well as fear, pleasure and homeostasis, the nociceptive information is integrated and modulated according to the current state of the individual. In some situations, pain becomes pathological, as it is the case in neuropathic pain, where either previously innocuous stimuli become painful (aka, allodynia), or previously painful stimuli become even more painful (aka, hyperalgesia).

There are two brainstem structures, which are highly involved in controlling pain and generating analgesia. One of them is the periaqueductal grey (PAG) and the other is the rostral ventromedial medulla. These regions exert control over pain to prioritise competing stimuli, and to maintain homeostasis and survival. You might have noticed that, in highly stressful situations you do not feel pain. This is known as stress-induced analgesia, a phenomenon whereby the brain responds to stress by the production of endogenous opioids that act as natural analgesics in the nervous system. The opioid receptors found in the brain are the same ones which analgesic drugs, such as synthetic opioids and morphine, act on to relieve pain.

The evolution of pain

Many animal taxa have nociceptors. A schematic of the evolutionary development of nociceptors and the types of noxious stimuli they respond to is presented in Figure 3. In order to process nociceptive inputs, animals need a central nervous system (spinal cord and brain). It might come as a surprise that such a system, though at different levels of complexity, is found in all kinds of animals, including insects (like Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly), C. elegans (a type of worm highly studied in neurosciences), fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and, of course, mammals.

Figure 3. The different types of nociceptors across animal taxa, from an evolutionary perspective.
Taken from Sneddon (2017)

Life-history shapes pain perception. A very interesting example is the African naked mole rat, which lives in underground burrows that are poorly ventilated, hence contain high carbon dioxide levels. As a result, the C fibres of the naked mole rat are unresponsive to acid, which means that, while other mammals find acidic environments nociceptive, the African naked mole rat does not.

When it comes to acquatic animals, such as manatees, they are expected to have differences in their sensory system compared to terrestrial ones, due to distinct ecological and evolutionary pressures. In water, any chemicals become dilluted, shifts in temperatures are less common, and there is no mechanical damage due to falling. Thus, acquatic animals are possibly at a lower risk of damage than terrestrial animals, which has implications on their nociceptive system.

As far as manatees go, it is still unclear to what extent they feel pain. The fact that they are an endangered species makes is difficult to study them. But given that they posses a very well-developed somatosensory system, which is even more advanced than in other mammals, it is expected that manatees are familiar with pain. Moreover, we still do not know enough about their stress, fear, memory and pleasure systems, which all play a role in pain processing.

It would be great if we managed to achieve a better understanding of these amazing marine animals. But, until then, let us enjoy their existance peacefully, without interfering violently with their lifestyles and without exposing them to any potential pains.

For a more in-depth view on pain, as well as more information about manatees, I highly encourage you to read the papers and articles listed in References.

Special thanks to Isuru Priyaranga for creating the cover image. He is a fellow blogger and YouTuber, and I highly recommend visiting his blog and YouTube Channel.

References

Animals are more than we think: Empathy and social intelligence in animals

Posted on by Iasmina Hornoiu

Our experience with animals has shown us that they are not mindless creatures, functioning solely based on their instincts, as Skinner’s behaviourism suggests. In fact, many animals exert characteristics generally thought to be uniquely human. This idea is important not only because it challenges our efforts to answer the ancient question of what actually makes us humans, but because it could also influence the way we interact with animals.

Several studies, either using behavioural, observational approaches, or looking at bodily chemicals and genes, have so far demonstrated that non-human animals, such as different species of primates, elephants, corvids, mice, dogs, dolphins, octopuses etc. show, to various degrees, traits otherwise believed to only pertain to humans. These traits include self-recognition, tool-making, co-operative behaviour, culture and, last but not least, empathy.

Own image

What is empathy?

Empathy is an innate ability to experience and share the mental state of others.

Kitano et al. (2020).

Scientists are still trying to elucidate which behaviours are truly empathic, as well as the underlying mechanisms of empathy. According to Frans B.M. de Waal, professor of Primate Behaviour and of Psychology at Emory University, USA, empathy can manifest through an emotional (bodily) channel, which includes behaviours such as motor mimicry, synchrony and emotional contagion, as well as through a cognitive channel, in the form of self-other distinction and perspective thinking (when one takes the perspective of somebody else). According to him, mammals definitely show the former type of empathy. When it comes to the latter, which seems more likely to be unique to humans, he demonstrates that, for instance, primates are able to manifest consolation towards a conspecific who has been defeated in a fight, as well as that they possess an understanding of justice.

Manifesting a sense of fairness or justice involves the ability of an individual to recognise and respond to inequitable outcomes between themselves and another individual. Brosnan and de Waal (2013) have observed that capuchin monkeys, chimpanzees and dogs react negatively to continued inequity between themselves and a social partner. These animals refused to continue participating in interactions in which the outcome is constantly less good than a partner’s. Moreover, they also exert pro-social behaviours, i.e. they would help their social partner achieve an outcome that they could not otherwise achieve on their own. All these points about empathy are presented more at-length by de Waal himself in a TED talk, which I highly encourage you to watch.

Aside from the above-mentioned ones, another sign of empathy is helping behaviour, or the attempt to help a conspecific get out of a distressed situation. Although it might not come as a surprise that highly intelligent animals, like primates or elephants, demonstrate helping behaviour, rodents do it, too. One of my previous articles mentions a study from 2011, by Bartal et al., in which one free rat occasionally heard distress calls from a second rat trapped in a cage. The first rat then learned to open the cage and freed the other one, even when there was no payoff reunion with it.

This kind of social cognition that allows rats to recognise consecifics and perceive their distress is also seen in another rodent species, the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster). Many studies regarding social behaviours and the neuropeptide oxytocin, known for its role in empathic responses and sociality, have been carried out in prairie voles. In a very recent paper, currently available on bioRxiv, Kitano et al. (2020) investigated helping behaviour in prairie voles, in which the receptor for oxytocin has been knocked out (the OXTrKO voles), meaning that it was absent. In an initial experiment, the researchers showed that prairie voles help a conspecific soaked in water by opening a door to a safe area. The soaking in water was used as an aversive situation, which caused distress in the soaked animal. In a following experiment, when the cagemate was not soaked in water, the voles did not open the door as quickly as in the first experiment, which suggested that the distress of the conspecific is necessary for learning door-opening behaviour. In the absence of the oxytocin receptor (knockout), the OXTrKO voles demonstrated less helping behaviour than the wildtypes (which had the receptor), pointing to the role of oxytocin in helping behaviour. It was hypothesised that the helper vole shared the soaked vole’s distress through emotional contagion, which motivated the helper to open the door.  

Lastly, let us turn our attention to an invertebrate animal, whose intelligence and abilities to use tools, solve problems and escape confined spaces are widely recognized – the octopus (Octopus vulgaris). This animal has three-fifths of its neurones in its arms (which it can regrow), but its brain is just as impressive. With around 300 million neurones, octopuses have a brain-to-body-mass ratio similar to that of birds and mammals; their brains support decision-making, observational learning, good spatial memory, and camouflage behaviour. Octopuses, unlike humans, are not social animals, which means that what their learning is not based on parental guidance, co-operation or communication, rather it depends entirely on their own interraction with their surroundings. Moreover, octopuses have some neurochemicals similar to those of humans, such as serotonin, oxytocin and vasopressin, which are important for positive emotions. Another interesting fact is that octopuses seems to have personality traits similar to those of humans; octopuses appear to exert temperamental differences, which closely resemble those found in humans, such as extroversion/introversion and neuroticism/emotional stability traits. It is not yet clear whether octopuses have consciousness or are capable of empathic behaviours. Having said that, the Netflix documentary My Octopus Teacher might suggest just that.

In conclusion, there is clear evidence pointing to the existence of human-like characteristics across animal species, which suggests that we still have a lot to learn from them. Sadly, our relationship with animals is, in many ways, abusive, and we often tend to perceive them as lower-ranking beings, meant to be turned into food, clothes and decoration in our homes, or experimental tools in our labs. I wish we could be more empathetic towards animals, and more intelligent in the way we interact with them. They deserve that and much more…

References

The biological implications of meditation practices in the treatment of depression

Posted on by Iasmina Hornoiu

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common mood disorder and a great cause of disability worldwide. Biological factors implicated in MDD range from neural imbalances to signaling dysregulations (which are partly grounded in genetic predispositions).

As shown in Figure 1, the socio-cognitive and biological deficiencies involved in MDD appear to influence each other in a circular, perpetuating manner. These deficiencies can be categorized into six non-exhaustive broad factors, i.e., mood, executive functioning, social skills, neuroplasticity, neural core networks, and neuroendocrine and neuroimmunological factors. The modulation of one factor is expected to exert an effect over the other factors, and subsequently to affect the overall depressive symptomology. Importantly, although these factors seem to play a causal role in the symptoms of MDD to various degrees, the precise causes of depression have not yet been entirely determined. There are, for instance, other psychological (e.g. cognitive biases) and biological factors (e.g. serotonin transporter genotype) that are known to be involved in depression, however these will not be covered in this article.

FIGURE 1 | A model of psychological and biological deficiencies associated with major depressive disorder; rounded square-shaped box, deficient factor(s); oval- shaped box, mediating factor(s); white box, psychological factor; gray box, biological factor; arrow, unidirectional influence; BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Taken from Heuschkel and Kuypers (2020)

Particularly impaired in individuals with MDD is neuroplasticity, a crucial neural mechanism that entails structural and functional brain adaptations in response to altered environmental circumstances. This impairment is generally indicated by abnormally low levels of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is related to hippocampal and prefrontal atrophy in MDD. Moreover, impairments in stress regulation and immune system functioning have also been associated with the development of MDD symptoms. The following paragraphs describe in more detail the roles of BDNF, as well as those of cortisol, as a marker of stress, and of inflammatory cytokines in mental health, with a focus on depression.

BDNF is an important neurotrophin which promotes neuronal development, survival and plasticity in the central and peripheral nervous systems. It is most active in brain areas that play a role in learning, memory and higher cognition, such as the hippocampus and cortex. BDNF is also pivotal in the regulation of several physiological aspects, including stress response, mood, inflammation and metabolism. Decreases in BDNF levels have been linked to psychiatric and neurological disorders, such as depression, anxiety and Alzheimer’s disease.

Cortisol is a glucocorticoid secreted by the adrenal glands and, as part of the hypothalamic-adrenal-pituitary (HPA) axis, is a reliable marker for stress response. Cortisol is also part of the feedback mechanism in the immune system, where its role is to reduce certain aspects of the immune function, such as inflammation. Moreover, this hormone follows a robust circadian rhythm, which peaks 30 min after awakening, termed the Cortisol Awakening Response—CAR, and gradually declines throughout the day.  

The circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines Interferon Gamma (IFN-γ), Interleukin-1β (IL-1β), Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Interleukin-8 (IL-8), Interleukin-12 (IL-12) and Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF-α), as well as the anti-inflammatory cytokine Interleukin-10 (IL-10) have been extensively investigated over the past 20 years for their roles in depression, anxiety and various other chronic medical illnesses. Typically, decreases in inflammatory pathway activation during periods without active infection are associated with better physical and mental well-being. That being said, a general decrease in pro-inflammatory (and increase in anti-inflammatory) immune mediators is not necessarily indicative of health and wellness, since acute inflammatory responses are known to be adaptive; instead, a healthy homeostatic balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory signaling is most beneficial. Moreover, chronic inflammatory states can be triggered through psychosocial stress.

The deficits within these factors result in profound impairments in daily functioning, reduced quality of life, an increased risk of suicide, and a substantial lack of productivity. It is clear that there is a dire need to come up with alternative treatments for depression, next to the conventional first-line psycho- and pharmaco-therapies. One such alternative therapeutic strategy is meditation.

How meditation can alleviate the symptoms of depression ~ a biological standpoint

Mindfulness meditation is already being used in certain mental health facilities under different forms of psychotherapeutic intervensions, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). These usually consist of sessions guided by a professional in addition to at-home practice, over a duration of several weeks. While MBSR is tailored to the management of stressful situations, MBCT involves strategies for dealing with maladaptive thought patterns, which makes it more suitable for the prevention of depressive relapse. Upon repeated training, mindfulness meditation can lead to relatively global cognition-enhancing effects, as shown in Figure 2.

FIGURE 2 | A model of possible effects of mindfulness meditation on psychological and biological deficiencies associated with major depressive disorder; rounded square-shaped box, deficient factor(s) in depression; arrow-shaped box, unidirectional effect; white box, psychological factor/ effect; gray box, biological factor/effect; black arrow, interdependence; BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor.
Adapted from Heuschkel and Kuypers (2020)

Meditative practices based on stress-reduction mechanisms and psychophysiological self-regulation are associated with anti-inflammatory benefits, through their modulation of inflammatory and HPA axis activities. In a study by Cahn et al. (2017), thirty-eight individuals participated in a 3-month yoga and meditation retreat, and were assessed before and after the intervention for psychometric measures, BDNF levels, circadian salivary cortisol levels, and pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Participation in this yoga and meditation retreat was associated with better coping with stress, also known as stress resilience, as well as decreased self-reported depression, increased mindfulness, and generally enhanced well-being. The plasma levels of BDNF were increased by three fold post-retreat compared to pre-retreat, and this increase was inversely correlated with participants’ self-reported anxiety levels on a questionnaire (the Brief Symptom Inventory-18, BSI-18). In addition, the CAR levels were also significantly higher in these participants after the retreat, indicating improvements in the dynamic rhythmicity of the HPA axis activity, which is a marker of better stress resilience.

The researchers also found an unusual pattern of increases in both anti-inflammatory IL-10 as well as pro-inflammatory TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, with simultaneous decreases in the pro-inflammatory IL-12. While overall there are inconsistencies across studies on the influence of meditative practices on the immune system, it is also important to bear in mind that these studies tend to differ with respect to the type of intervention (e.g., Kundalini yoga vs. MBSR vs. Tai Chi), population (e.g., clinical vs. non-clinical), setting, design and other methodological factors; these differences lead to complexities involved in interpreting cytokine and other biomarker samples.

Having said that, pro- and anti-inflammatory response modulations may be adaptive depending on the context, for instance in chronically inflamed body states versus non-inflamed healthy normals. It is likely that in relatively healthy adults, intense yogic and meditative practices recruit an integrate brain-body response, resulting in enhanced pro- and anti-inflammatory signaling processes, which on the one hand support an upregulated vigorous immunological surveillance system, while on the other hand concomitantly promote high expression of the anti-inflammatory ‘‘break’’ such as IL-10.

Overall, the biological findings in the above-mentioned study correlate with enhanced stress resilience and well-being. At the end of an intensive three-month yoga-meditation retreat, the increased BDNF signaling and increased CAR were likely related to improved neurogenesis and/or neuroplasticity, and to enhanced alertness and readiness for mind-body engagement, respectively, while the higher levels of anti- and pro-inflammatory cytokines suggested better immunological readiness. Further research should attempt to investigate the role of other contextual factors (e.g., social dynamics, diet, natural environment, relative impact of a revered spiritual teacher etc.) impacting the expression and regulation of these biological processes.

To conclude, it is evident that meditation exerts beneficial effects on the brain. Particularly important to mental disorders, when meditation is used as a therapeutic intervention, it contributes to improving mental states and cognitive abilities by influencing several key biological factors crucial for normal brain functioning.

References

  • Cahn, B.R., Goodman, M.S., Peterson, C.T., Maturi, R., Mills, P.J. (2017). Yoga, Meditation and Mind-Body Health: Increased BDNF, Cortisol Awakening Response, and Altered Inflammatory Marker Expression after a 3-Month Yoga and Meditation Retreat. Front Hum Neurosci, 11:315. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00315
  • Dutta, A., McKie, S., Downey, D. et al. (2019). Regional default mode network connectivity in major depressive disorder: modulation by acute intravenous citalopram. Transl Psychiatry 9, 116. doi: org/10.1038/s41398-019-0447-0
  • Heuschkel, K., & Kuypers, K.P.C. (2020). Depression, Mindfulness, and Psilocybin: Possible Complementary Effects of Mindfulness Meditation and Psilocybin in the Treatment of Depression. A Review. Front. Psychiatry, 11:224. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00224
  • Zeidan, F., Johnson, S., Diamond, B., David, Z., & Goolkasian, P. (2010). Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental training. Consciousness and Cognition, 19, 597-605. doi: org/10.1016/j.concog.2010.03.014

The biology of meditation. How meditating can change your brain

Posted on by Iasmina Hornoiu

Many of us are already familiar with what it means to meditate, in a broad sense, and we have often heard that meditation can improve our lives. Several books and articles have been written on the positive effects exerted by meditation on our bodies and minds. But what is the nature of meditation and how can it help us improve our mental states? More specifically, what happens at the level of neural networks, brain cells and molecules that results in all these beneficial actions upon meditating?

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! […] The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whatever comes. Because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

The Guest House by Rumi. Translation by Coleman Barks

FIGURE 1 |Sigiriya rock located near the Dambulla town, in the Central Province, Sri Lanka. Own image.

An introduction to meditation ~ its styles and purposes

Meditation encompasses various emotional and attentional regulatory practices, which aim at improving an individual’s cognitive abilities. Many recent behavioral, electroencephalographic and neuroimaging studies have investigated the neuronal events related to meditation, in order to achieve an increased understanding of cognitive and affective neuroplasticity, attention and self-awareness, as well as for their possible clinical implications.

The video below shows the kind of brain changes meditation leads to, in a monk who is a long-term practitioner.

According to Raffone and Sirivasan (2010), a central feature of meditation is the regulation of attention, and as such, meditation practices can be classified into two main styles—focused attention (FA) and open monitoring (OM)—depending on how attentional processes are directed. While the FA (‘concentrative’) style is based on focusing attention on a given object in a sustained manner, the second style, OM (‘mindfulness-based’) meditation, involves the non-reactive monitoring of the content of ongoing experience. More specifically, mindfulness refers to being constantly aware of the way we perceive and monitor all mental processes, including perceptions, sensations, cognitions and affects.

FA meditation techniques imply, apart from sustaining the attention on an intended object, monitoring attentional focus, detecting distraction, disengaging attention from the source of distraction, and (re)directing attention (back) on the object. This kind of attentional stability and vividness is achieved through concentrated calmness or serene attention, denoted by the word Samatha (which literarily means quiescence) in the Buddhist contemplative tradition. Another technique which can be broadly included in the FA meditation is transcendental meditation, which centers on the repetition of a mantra.

Unlike FA meditation, OM meditation does not involve an explicit attentional focus, and therefore does not seem to be associated with brain areas that control sustained or focused attention. Instead, OM meditation engages brain regions implicated in vigilance, monitoring and detachment of attention from sources of distraction from the ongoing stream of experience. Therefore, OM meditation is based on detecting arising sensations and thoughts within an unrestricted ‘background’ of awareness, without a ‘grasping’ of these events in an explicitly selected focus. In the transition from a FA to an OM meditative state, the object as the primary focus is gradually replaced by an ‘effortless’ sustaining of an open background of awareness, without an explicit attentional selection. In the Buddhist tradition, the practice of Vipassana (insight) OM meditation requires, first of all, attentional stability and vividness (acuity), as developed in FA meditation, in order to achieve a deep and reliable introspection.

The ancient yogic practice of Yoga Nidra, which is less-known, and yet is becoming increasingly popular, can also fall into the category of OM meditation. It is said to reduce stress and improve sleep, and that it has the potential to engender a profound sense of joy and well-being.

Another type of OM meditation worth mentioning here is the loving-kindness meditation or non-referential compassion (also known as Mettā in the Pali language), which involves compassion-based mental training aimed at promoting empathy. Practicing this kind of meditation is believed to increase the capacity for forgiveness, connection to others and self-acceptance, and to boost well-being and reduce stress. For more detailed descriptions as well as a deeper and broader understanding of the neurological implications of these different meditation practices, I strongly encourage you to check out the reviews listed in the Reference section, especially Brandmeyer et al. (2019) and Raffone & Srinivasan (2010).

Of all these different kinds, mindfulness meditation, which originally stems from Buddhist meditation traditions, has received the most attention in neuroscience research over the last twenty years.

Research over the past two decades broadly supports the claim that mindfulness meditation — practiced widely for the reduction of stress and promotion of health — exerts beneficial effects on physical and mental health, and cognitive performance. 

Tang et al. (2015)

Sustained engagement with mindfulness meditative practices has been shown to have neurophysiological and psychological benefits. In healthy individuals, several months of mindfulness meditation practice correlates with improvements in self-regulation and subjective well-being. Even much shorter mindfulness meditation training, of a few days, has a positive impact on mood and executive functioning, while at the same time reducing fatigue and anxiety.

Brain structural changes following mindfulness meditation

Several recent studies have investigated the structural changes in the brain related to mindfulness meditation, and have reported alterations in cortical thickness, hippocampal volume, and grey-matter volume and/or density. However, before we dive into how meditation can change our brains, it should be mentioned that there are a few issues with the current state of meditation research. First of all, most of these studies have made cross-sectional comparisons between experienced meditators and controls. But only a few recent studies have investigated longitudinal changes in novice practitioners. These logitudinal studies are very important because they follow subjects over a long-term period of practice, and are thus able to determine whether changes induced by meditation training persist in the absence of continued practice. Therefore, more such studies would be required for a complete picture of the effects of meditation on mental health.

In addition, the studies on mindfulness meditation so far have generally included small sample sizes, of between 10 and 34 subjects per group, which leads to limitations in interpreting the results, as well as increases the chances of false-positives. Another prossible issue is that these studies use different research designs, measurements and type of mindfulness meditation. Hence, it comes as no surprise that the reported effects of meditation are diverse and cover multiple regions in the brain, including the cerebral cortex, subcortical grey and white matter, brain stem and cerebellum. That being said, these findings can also reflect the fact that the effects of meditation involve large-scale and interactive brain networks.

According to various fMRI studies, minfulness meditation exerts its effects primarily (though not exclusively) on a network of brain regions – the Default Mode Network (DMN). This network comprises structures in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), anterior precuneus and inferior parietal lobule, which have been previously shown to have high activity during rest, mind wandering and conditions of stimulus-independent thought. These regions have been suggested to support different mechanisms by which an individual can ‘project’ themselves into another perspective.

When comparing meditators with naïve subjects, DMN regions, such as the medial PFC and PCC, have shown much less activity in meditators, across different types of meditation. This has been interpreted as indicating diminished self-referential processing. Experienced meditators also seem to exert stronger coupling between the PCC, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and dorsolateral PFC, both at baseline and during meditation, which indicates stronger cognitive control over the function of the DMN.

Brewer et al. (2011) investigated brain activity in experienced meditators versus meditation-naïve controls as they performed several different mindfulness meditations (Concentration, Loving-Kindness, Choiceless Awareness). They found that the main nodes of the DNM (medial PFC and PCC) were relatively deactivated in experienced meditators across all meditation types (Figure 2). Moreover, functional connectivity analysis revealed increased coupling in experienced meditators between the PCC, dorsal ACC, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, both at baseline and during meditation, as seen in Figure 3. This increased connectivity with medial PFC regions supports greater access of the default circuitry to information about internal states, because this region is also highly interconnected with limbic regions (such as insula and amygdala).

FIGURE 2 | Experienced meditators demonstrate decreased DMN activation during different meditation conditions: Choiceless Awareness (green bars), Loving-Kindness (red), and Concentration (blue) meditations. The decreased activation in PCC in meditators is common across different meditation types. Brain activation in meditators > controls is shown, collapsed across all meditations, relative to baseline (A and B). Activations in the left mPFC and PCC (C and D). Taken from Brewer et al. (2011)

FIGURE 3 | Experienced meditators show coactivation of mPFC, insula, and temporal lobes during meditation. Differential functional connectivity with mPFC seed region and left posterior insula is shown in meditators > controls: (A) at baseline and (B) during meditation. (C) Connectivity z-scores (±SD) are shown for left posterior insula. Choiceless Awareness (green bars), Loving-Kindness (red), and Concentration (blue) meditation conditions. Taken from Brewer et al. (2011)

Meditators also reported significantly less mind-wandering, which has been previously associated with activity in the DMN. Therefore, these results demonstrated that alterations in the DMN are related to reduction in mind-wandering. They also suggested that meditation practice may transform the resting-state experience into one that resembles a meditative state – a more present-centered default mode.

The findings from this study have several clinical implications, given that a number of pathological conditions have been associated with dysfunction within areas of the DMN, including depression. The self-referrential function of the DMN has pointed to the possibility that excessive rumination (negative inner preoccupation about the personal past, present and future) in depression involves excessive DMN activity as well as an inability to switch out of it, in response to external demands. Mindfulness meditation may prove useful in reducing distractive and ruminative thoughts and behaviors, and this ability may provide a unique mechanism by which mindfulness meditation reduces distress and improves mood.

In addition, meditation has also been shown to promote neuroplasticity, an important neuronal process that entails structural and functional brain adaptations in response to changes in environmental conditions. A key neurotrophin that promotes neuroplasticity is the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is usually found in abnormally low levels in various psychiatric and neurological disorders. Meditation has been shown to increase the levels of BDNF, thus promoting neuronal development, survival and plasticity, which in turn contribute to restoring the normal functioning of brain networks.

In sum, there is emerging evidence that mindfulness meditation might trigger neuroplastic changes in brain regions involved in the regulation of emotion and cognition. Although, as mentioned earlier, these studies often suffer from low methodological quality and present with speculative post-hoc interpretations, this is quite common in a new field of research. Thus, further research needs to use longitudinal, randomized and actively controlled research designs and larger sample sizes, as well as to concentrate on the biological factors implicated in mental health, in order to advance the understanding of how mindfulness meditation interacts with the brain. If supported by rigorous research, the practice of mindfulness meditation might be a promising therapeutic approach for clinical disorders, such as depression, and might facilitate the cultivation of a healthy mind and improved well-being.

For the readers interested in the effects of meditation on depression, please visit my article The biological implications of meditation practices in the treatment of depression.

References

  • Brandmeyer, T., Delorme, A., Wahbeh, H. (2019). Chapter 1 – The neuroscience of meditation: classification, phenomenology, correlates, and mechanisms, Editor(s): Narayanan Srinivasan, Progress in Brain Research, Elsevier, 244: 1-29. doi: org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2018.10.020
  • Brewer, J.A., Worhunsky, P.D., Gray, J.R., Tang, Y.Y., Weber, J., Kober, H. (2011). Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 108(50):20254-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1112029108
  • Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context: past, present, and future. Clin Psychol Sci Pract 10:144–156
  • Heuschkel, K., & Kuypers, K.P.C. (2020). Depression, Mindfulness, and Psilocybin: Possible Complementary Effects of Mindfulness Meditation and Psilocybin in the Treatment of Depression. A Review. Front. Psychiatry, 11:224. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00224
  • Raffone, A., & Srinivasan, N. (2010). The exploration of meditation in the neuroscience of attention and consciousness. Cognitive Processing, 11:1-7. doi: 10.1007/s10339-009-0354-z.
  • Tang, Y.Y., Hölzel, B.K., Posner, M.I. (2015). The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nat Rev Neurosci, 16(4):213-25. doi: 10.1038/nrn3916
  • Zeidan, F., Johnson, S., Diamond, B., David, Z., & Goolkasian, P. (2010). Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental training. Consciousness and Cognition, 19, 597-605. doi: org/10.1016/j.concog.2010.03.014.

Forced to suffer for science: From animal cruelty and experimental inefficiency to a change of perspective.

Posted on by Iasmina Hornoiu

We, as scientists, have become desensitised to the pain, the distress and the physical and emotional damage that we inflict on laboratory animals. So much so, that we constantly find justifications for our cruel experiments in the goal of finding cures for the illnesses of our conspecifics, and in the rules and regulations that authorise these heartless procedures.

Despite ongoing widespread use of animal models in research, recently there has been extensive criticism on the state of drug development in psychiatry, calling for a switch from rodent behavioral pharmacology to mechanistic studies in cellular systems. In a recent paper, Heilig and colleagues argue that:

Overall, neuroscience has simply had very little impact on clinical alcoholism treatment. The situation is representative of a broader translational crisis in psychiatric neuroscience. Because translational failures in this area have been the rule rather than the exception, pharmaceutical industry has largely retracted from efforts to develop novel psychiatric medication. As a result, the utility of animal models in research on psychiatric disorders, including addiction, is also being questioned.

Heilig et al. (2019)

Caricature Cruelty

Several experimental paradigms employed by labs all over the world, for elucidating the mechanisms of mental disorders and for the development of new psychiatric drugs, consist of procedures that innevitably cause suffering to the experimental animals. From learned helplessness paradigms (forced swim and tail suspension), intended to model the symptoms of depression in humans, to neuropathic pain models, which involve nerve operations to induce chronic pain in rats or mice, as well as fear conditioning experiments, consisting of series of electric shocks on consecutive days, large numbers of laboratory animals across the globe are subjected to procedures at the end of which they are euthanized for histological analyses.

The two videos below illustrate two paradigms for learned helplessness in rodents – forced swim and tail suspension, respectively. Even for those unfamiliar with these methods, it is not hard to notice the amount of distress and fear the animals are forced to go through.

Another example, otherwise claimed to be minimally invasive and highly relevant for medication testing (Meinhardt and Sommer, 2015), is the post-dependent animal model, a model for medication development in alcoholism. It involves inducing dependence through repeated intermittent cycles of alcohol vapour exposure. In other words, rodents (usually, rats) are exposed every day, for several weeks or months, to cycles of intoxication with alcohol vapours, alternating with withdrawal, which ultimately result in compulsive alcohol intake, excessive alcohol seeking, hypersensitivity to stress as well as the development of an alcohol withdrawal syndrome, which better resemble human alcoholism.

Rats usually undergo 5 cycles of 14 (sometimes, 16) hours of forced exposure to alcohol vapours, separated by 10-hour periods of withdrawal and an additional 58 hours at the end of each weekly cycle. These cycles take place over many weeks. As a result of severe alcohol intoxication, some rats die during the experiment. At the end of the last alcohol exposure, the rats that have survived are decapitated.

The sardonically humorous caricatures below, selected from (Meinhardt and Sommer, 2015), not only illustrate the procedure, but are at the same time indicative of a certain emotional detachement these scientists have developed from the rats they used in their experiments.

Mainhardt & Sommer (2015)

“Unavoidable” Suffering

Granted, there have been attempts at reducing the suffering of these poor animals. The three Rs – Replacement, Reduction and Refinement – reflect the scope to encourage alternatives to animal testing, as well as improving animal welfare in experiments where the use of animals is unavoidable. The 3Rs have been incorporated into the legislation governing animal use in many countries, in order to ensure that the use of animals in testing is as ethical as possible.

And yet, with paradigms such as forced swimming test, also known as the behavioural despair test, or the tail suspension test ( where the rodent is hanging from its tail upside down and is unable to touch the walls of the compartment), it is clear that there is a big discrepancy between what could be done and what is actually being done. We could move away from these cruel practices, which have been demonstrated to be misleading and offer little understanding on the mechanisms behind psychiatric conditions, and, instead, resort to alternative strategies, which have the potential to set research on a path of true breakthroughs in psychiatry (as it is being presented in a later section). However, most papers focused on schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, addiction etc. rely on experiments which would make the skin of the more sensitive of us crawl, and those with a tougher skin reconsider their academic career (such as switching to cognitive neuroscience and human-based studies only, in my case).

It is also important to remember that, not only the procedures themselves cause pain and suffering to the experimental animals, but often times the side-effects of the medications being tested on them and the behavioral tests they are being used in result in long-term health consequences – for instance, postdependent alcoholic rats end up developing peripheral secondary osteoporosis.

When suffering exceeds a certain limit, the animals are usually euthanized. What a great life these creatures must have, given that one of the best solutions to end their pain is premature death…

Rats empathise with other helpless rats

Although we all know that “animals have feelings too”, we are still far from understanding to what extent animals actually feel. In humans, for instance, pain and consciousness are tightly linked. We do not yet know which animals have consciousness and what (if anything) that consciousness might be like.

That being said, a study from 2011 demonstrated that rats exhibit emotional responses and empathy. In their experiment, Bartal and colleagues showed that when a free rat occasionally heard distress calls from another rat trapped in a cage, it learned to open the cage and released the other animal even in the absence of a payoff reunion with it. The free rat would even save a chocolate chip for the captive.


The presence of a rat trapped in a restrainer elicits focused activity from his cagemate, leading eventually to door-opening and consequent liberation of the trapped rat. (Science/AAAS).

This experiment clearly shows that rats, and possibly other animals as well, are capable of complex emotional experiences, previously only attributed to humans (more studies should be done to investigate this fascinating and important topic). Alas, in the absence of a deep understanding of the animal psyche, and moreover, with clear indications that animals possess the capacity to feel almost to the same extent as us humans do, we still continue to abuse them in our cruel experiments.

The issues with animal models

Valid disease models do not exist for psychiatric disorders.

Hyman (2012)

On the rodent models based on learned helplessness, Hyman went on to argue that:

Forced-swim and tail suspension tests do not even model the therapeutic action of antidepressants, because in those rodent screens a single dose of antidepressant is active, whereas in dependent patients, antidepressant drugs require weeks of administration to exert a therapeutic effect.

Hyman (2012)

In fact, given that most psychiatric diseases are heterogenous and polygenic, often times animal behavioral models have turned out to be misleading. Shockingly, only 8% of the CNS drug candidates developed between 1993 and 2004, which reached initial human testing, were approved to be used as medication. The main drawbacks of these drugs were the toxicity discovered in late-stage clinical trials, along with the inability to demonstrate efficacy. Not to mention the serious side effects these drugs produce in humans, such as weight gain and metabolic derrangements.

Animal models, albeit useful for some translational investigations and for basic studies in neuroscience, present various limitations:

  • Lack of molecular and neural circuit-based characteristics, which are required for molecular studies of psychiatric diseases.
  • The construction of transgenic mice is too slow and expensive.
  • Regarding non-human primates, the challenges involve cost, less well-developed technologies as well as ethical barriers.
  • When it comes to invertebrate models or zebrafish (extensively used in translational research), evolutionary distance poses huge obstacles in translational psychiatry, although they could be useful in the initial molecular investigations of the functions of risk alleles emerging from genetic studies.

Given the above-mentioned drawbacks of relying on animal models to develop psychiatric treatments, major pharmaceutical companies have already decided to move away from these old-fashioned approaches. Now, the question remains, what is there to do in the future?

Adopting new strategies in psychiatric research

Science needs to move forward and find better methods to study the highly complex mechanisms underlying psychiatric diseases, in order to allow for truly efficient drugs and therapies to be developed. As mentioned earlier, animal-based studies have more often than not failed to identify pharmaceutical compounds with positive outcomes in humans.

Over the last half-century, despite the identification of several antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs, alongside the discovery of various neurotransmitters, receptors and transporters involved in mental illnesses, objective diagnostic scans are scarce, and, surprisingly, only a handful of validated molecular targets have been established.

Luckily for us, there are several alternative solutions, which are already being seriously considered by various laboratories and drug companies, as listed below:

  • DNA sequencing, which is nowadays much cheaper than it used to be (by 1 million-fold), makes it possible to analyse large number of subjects, in the attempt to identify genes involved in the heterogenous, polygenic psychiatric disorders.
  • Large scale studies of gene function, epigenetics, transcriptomics and proteomics would contribute to the understanding of pathogenesis.
  • Optogenetics, a technology with increasing popularity in neurobiology, allows researchers to activate or inhibit single cell types, thus detecting which circuits are specific to certain disorders.
  • Human neurones derived directly from skin fibroblasts and blood cells in vitro, or generated from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in vitro.
  • These above-mentioned tools can be combined with electrophysiological and neuroimaging data from humans, which can indirectly reveal abnormal functioning of widely distributed circuits.

What psychiatric research needs is to be able to accurately model molecular mechanisms of disease, instead of relying on behavioral results. Since I already mentioned large-scale genetic as well as epigenetic strategies, it is fair to admit that such studies require suitable living systems in which experiments can be conducted (given that the living human brain is not accessible, and that postmortem studies have limitations when it comes to functional analyses). Although, in some circumstances, animal behavioral experiments can help in elucidating treatment options, conclusions ought not to be based on modelling disease symptoms, as these can be misleading and often fail to translate into human psychopathology. Moreover, symptoms change over time and depending on the context, and are based on subjective rating scales, making the comparison between human and animal conditions difficult.

The solution is plain and simple – scientists and pharmaceutical companies must, first of all, unanimously and once and for all come to terms with the fact that the efforts based on cruel animal studies have been of too little avail to justify their continuation. Instead, a new strategy must be incorporated by the scientific community in psychiatric research, which should carry on from cell-based models and established molecular mechanisms to early human trials, skipping the intermediate step of animal behavioral models.

To end on a cheerful note, here is a heartwarming video which proves there is hope that the future could look bright for laboratory animals if people are willing to start making a change:

Special thanks to my mom for insightful comments and for her constant support, and to Gasser Elmissiery for inspiring discussions and for his contribution to creating the featured image.

References

  1. Bartal, I. B.-A., Decety, J., & Mason, P. (2011). Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats. Science, 334(6061), 1427 LP – 1430. doi:org/10.1126/science.1210789
  2. Haaranen M, Scuppa G, Tambalo S, Järvi V, Bertozzi SM, Armirotti A, Sommer WH, Bifone A, Hyytiä P. (2020). Anterior insula stimulation suppresses appetitive behavior while inducing forebrain activation in alcohol-preferring rats. Transl Psychiatry. 10(1):150. doi: 10.1038/s41398-020-0833-7
  3. Hansson AC, Koopmann A, Uhrig S, Bühler S, Domi E, Kiessling E, Ciccocioppo R, Froemke RC, Grinevich V, Kiefer F, Sommer WH, Vollstädt-Klein S, Spanagel R. (2018). Oxytocin Reduces Alcohol Cue-Reactivity in Alcohol-Dependent Rats and Humans. Neuropsychopharmacology. 43(6):1235-1246. doi: 10.1038/npp.2017.257
  4. Heilig M, Augier E, Pfarr S, Sommer WH. (2019). Developing neuroscience-based treatments for alcohol addiction: A matter of choice? Transl Psychiatry. 9(1):255. doi: 10.1038/s41398-019-0591-6
  5. Hyman SE. (2012). Revolution stalled. Sci Transl Med. 4:155cm11
  6. Knobloch HS, Charlet A, Hoffmann LC, Eliava M, Khrulev S, Cetin AH, Osten P, Schwarz MK, Seeburg PH, Stoop R, Grinevich V. (2012). Evoked axonal oxytocin release in the central amygdala attenuates fear response. Neuron. 73(3):553-66. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.11.030
  7. Meinhardt MW, Sommer WH. Postdependent state in rats as a model for medication development in alcoholism (2015). Addict Biol. 20(1):1-21. doi: 10.1111/adb.12187
  8. Wahis, J., Kerspern, D., Althammer, F., Baudon, A., Goyon, S., Hagiwara, D., … Charlet, A. (2020). Oxytocin Acts on Astrocytes in the Central Amygdala to Promote a Positive Emotional State. BioRxiv, 2020.02.25.963884. doi:org/10.1101/2020.02.25.963884