Prince Charles Claims His Sons Inherited His Dance Moves

【Unlocking Word Meanings】

　今日の単語・フレーズ

Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article. 

1. inherit [in-HER-it] (v.) – to receive traits or characteristics from one's parents through genes

Example: She inherited her big brown eyes from her mother.

2. prowess [PROU-is] (n.) – great skill, talent, or ability

Example: Marjoe’s dancing prowess made her popular at school.

3. come in handy [kuhm – in- HAN-dee] (idiom.) – to become useful or convenient

Example: Her skills in dancing came in handy when a guy asked her to dance in the party.

4. becoming [bih-KUHM-ing] (adj.) – proper or appropriate

Example: Dancing to an upbeat music is now less becoming due to his old age.

5. subconsciously [suhb-KON-shuh s-lee] (adv.) – existing in one’s mind without the person’s awareness

Example: She subconsciously feels the desire to dance every time she hears the music playing.

【Article】

　ニュース記事

Read the text below.

Prince Charles insists that his sons William and Harry have inherited an essential quality from him—his dance moves. In 1974, Prince Charles expressed in a magazine interview that he has the urge to get up and dance whenever he hears a rhythmic music.  Almost 40 years later, the Prince acknowledged that he still has passion for dancing, although it has slightly turned less becoming because of his age. Prince Charles, now 64, added that given half the chance to dance again, a few simple steps may still come in handy. The Prince of Wales gladly said that Prince William, now the Duke of Cambridge, and Prince Harry, had subconsciously picked up his love for dancing. Although they may appear shy and reserved, both princes are often photographed dancing with enthusiasm [en-THOO-zee-az-uh m] in some gatherings. However, some people believe that the princes got their talent for dancing from their late mother, Princess Diana. The princes’ mother was widely known to be a graceful dancer. In the mid-1980s, Princess Diana captivated America by dancing with John Travolta at a dinner in the White House. While he expressed great pleasure with his sons’ dancing prowess, Prince Charles also conveyed how happy he is in his current relationship with Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall. He expressed his gratitude for the warm welcome they received during their trip in Australia last year. He also feels delighted that his wife made a lasting impression and that Australians recognize how special the Duchess of Cornwall is.

【Viewpoint Discussion】

　ディスカッションテーマ

Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.  

Discussion A

         Do you think having a talent is important if one is a member of the royal family? Why or Why not?

         How else do you think a talent can be of use to the members of the royal family?

Discussion B

         In your opinion, can a talent be inherited or is it something that anyone can learn? Please explain your answer.

         How can a person improve his or her talent? Please explain briefly.

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The Sinister Side of Mental Illness

First, hope all the little ghosts and goblins in your life have a safe, fun Halloween.  My grandkids are of an age to dress as something clever and cute, and to show up looking for whatever sugary treat they can mooch off this old  goat.

Second, a bumper sticker most of us have seen at more than one writer's conference:

"Writer's block is that condition when the voices in your head stop talking to you."

The article below explains this odd reference. 
 
Third, let me apologize to all my left-handed friends for making a joke I'm sure they've heard far too often, and for posting the almost as tasteless note under two, above.  The article below will explain my egregious but typical lapses of taste.

Hey, do you know that. . .

Lefties are significantly more likely to suffer schizophrenia?
According to a new report out of Yale, it seems that lefties are significantly more likely to suffer disorders such as schizophrenia.   Another way to put their conclusion, according to Yale researcher Jadon Webb, "people with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia are much more likely to be left-handed than those with mood disorders like depression or bipolar syndrome.

". . .40% of those with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder are left-handed."

About 10% of the U.S. population is left-handed. When comparing all patients with mental disorders, the research team found that 11% of those diagnosed with mood disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder are left-handed, which is similar to the rate in the general population. But according to Webb, a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow at the Yale Child Study Center with a particular interest in biomarkers of psychosis, "a striking of 40% of those with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder are left-handed."

"In general, people with psychosis are those who have lost touch with reality in some way, through hallucinations, delusions, or false beliefs, and it is notable that this symptom constellation seems to correlate with being left-handed," said Webb. "Finding biomarkers such as this can hopefully enable us to identify and differentiate mental disorders earlier, and perhaps one day tailor treatment in more effective ways."

Webb and his colleagues studied 107 individuals from a public outpatient psychiatric clinic seeking treatment in an urban, low-income community. The research team determined the frequency of left-handedness within the group of patients identified with different types of mental disorders.

The study showed that white patients with psychotic illness were more likely to be left-handed than black patients. "Even after controlling for this, however, a large difference between psychotic and mood disorder patients remained," said Webb.

What sets this study apart from other handedness research is the simplicity of the questionnaire and analysis, said Webb. Patients who were attending their usual check-ups at the mental health facility were simply asked "What hand do you write with?"

"This told us much of what we needed to know in a very simple, practical way," said Webb. "Doing a simple analysis meant that there were no obstacles to participating and we had a very high participation rate of 97%. Patients dealing with serious symptoms of psychosis might have had a harder time participating in a more complicated set of questions or tests. By keeping the survey simple, we were able to get an accurate snapshot of a hard-to-study subgroup of mentally ill people -- those who are often poverty-stricken with very poor family and community support.

*  *  *  *  *

10 Steps to Creating Memorable Characters: Forms, Checklists & Exercises Designed to Help Screen and Fiction Writers Create and Develop Exciting and U
by Sue Viders

Writing Great Characters: The Psychology of Character Development
by Michael Halperin

Story Source:  J. R. Webb, M. I. Schroeder, C. Chee, D. Dial, R. Hana, H. Jefee, J. Mays, P. Molitor. Left-Handedness Among a Community Sample of Psychiatric Outpatients Suffering From Mood and Psychotic Disorders. SAGE Open, 2013

Post Traumatic Growth: Surviving -- Then Thriving

"Some survivors of traumatic events develop new priorities, closer relationships, an increased appreciation of life, a greater sense of personal strength, and experience heightened spirituality."

I served in Vietnam, but was one of the fortunate to come home in one piece and with few problems.  Yes, it took quite a few years to de-militarize myself, and I did have a bit of survivors guilt.  Then a fellow vet asked me if I did what I was ordered to do.  If I had, what did I have to feel so (expletive deleted) guilty about? That question started me on a path working through those feelings.

This is to explain to any non-vet readers ~ only a relatively small proportion of combat veterans suffer full-blown Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. As with anything, there are a range of reactions to traumatic events such as combat. including people who actually learn better coping skills and appear happier and better adjusted for the experience, a phenomena called Post Traumatic Growth.

". . .individuals with Holocaust-survivor parents may be less likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder in the wake of their own traumas."

New research out of Tel Aviv University in Israel finds that trauma, however terrible, may have distinct psychological benefits.  Last year, junior investigator Dr. Sharon Dekel and Prof. Zahava Solomon of TAU's Bob Shapell School of Social Work found that individuals with Holocaust-survivor parents may be less likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder in the wake of their own traumas.

A Workable Coping Mechanism
"Post-traumatic growth can be defined as a workable coping mechanism, a way of making and finding meaning involved in the building of a more positive self-image and the perception of personal strength," said Dekel. "We were interested in studying the effect of the Holocaust on the second generation's propensity for this kind of growth. If we can identify verifiably positive implications of trauma, we will be able to incorporate them into treatment and teach people how to grow after terrible experiences," she said.

Trauma's silver lining
Researchers have traditionally focused on the negative implications of trauma, and survivors have been shown to pass this burden onto their children. But a growing body of evidence suggests that trauma can have positive outcomes as well. Some survivors of traumatic events develop new priorities, closer relationships, an increased appreciation of life, a greater sense of personal strength, and experience heightened spirituality.

In an earlier study, Dekel and Solomon found that veterans of Israel's Yom Kippur War were less likely to experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related conditions many years after combat if they were also second-generation Holocaust survivors. The researchers proposed several explanations, including that children of trauma survivors may have acquired coping mechanisms from their parents that helped protect them from traumas in their own lives.

With this theory in mind, they returned to combat veterans of the Yom Kippur War for their latest study. Using self-report questionnaires, the researchers assessed post-traumatic growth in the veterans 30 and 35 years after the war. They report that, contrary to their expectations, second-generation Holocaust survivors had consistently lower post-traumatic growth levels than non-second generation survivors across times.

The second-generation Holocaust survivors, therefore, don't experience their own traumas as "trauma virgins" would, since they are already conditioned by their parents' experience -- and, therefore, themselves experience no growth.

Making sense of the incomprehensible
Dekel and Solomon offer several explanations for the fact that second-generation Holocaust survivors who fought in the Yom Kippur War apparently do not have higher rates of post-traumatic growth to match their lower rates of PTSD. The second-generation Holocaust survivors could have grown up in families that did not discuss trauma, inhibiting their post-traumatic growth. Moreover, they could have inherited their parents' guilt for having survived the Holocaust, making it difficult for them to associate trauma with growth and causing them to underreport post-traumatic growth in the latest study.

Another proposed explanation is that second-generation Holocaust survivors grew up constantly exposed to their parents' trauma, making war less stressful for them and lessening their post-traumatic growth, which is understood as the result of struggle with the trauma. The researchers dismiss the idea that no trans-generational transmission of trauma occurs at all, noting that both their studies on the subject show that second-generation Holocaust survivors respond differently to trauma than others.

Trans-generational transmission of trauma seems to limit offspring's positive adaptation following trauma, say the researchers. As for future research, Dekel, who is now affiliated with the Psychiatry Department of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, plans to focus on identifying objective markers of post-traumatic growth in trauma survivors and their children, looking at things like stress-hormone levels, open-ended narrative descriptions, and reports by friends.

*  *  *  *  *

What Doesn't Kill Us: The New Psychology of Posttraumatic Growth
by Stephen Joseph

Holocaust Survivors; Resettlement, Memories, Identities.
by Dalia Ofer (edt)

Story Source:  Sharon Dekel, Christine Mandl, Zahava Solomon. Is the Holocaust Implicated in Posttraumatic Growth in Second-Generation Holocaust Survivors? A Prospective Study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 2013

Countries in Northern Europe Ranked as the World’s Happiest Nations

【Unlocking Word Meanings】

　今日の単語・フレーズ

Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article. 

1. well-being [WEL-BEE-ing] (n.) – the condition of being happy and satisfied

Example: Having good health and a satisfying career can improve one’s well-being.

2. fall [fawl] (v.) – to drop from a higher place

Example: The country’s economic ranking fell from the 58^th place to the 60^th.

3. unrest [uhn-REST] (n.) – the condition in which citizens of a country express their anger through violent protests

Example: The political unrest in the country has caused violent riots among the citizens.

4. poverty [POV-er-tee] (n.) – the condition of having very little to no access to money and the basic needs

Example: Due to poverty, many people can only eat once or twice a day.

5. societal [suh-SAHY-i-tl] (adj.) – referring to a society’s organization, structure, or function

Example: A country needs societal development to achieve long-term progress.

【Article】

　ニュース記事

Read the text below.

The 2013 World Happiness Report revealed that the countries in northern Europe are the happiest nations in the world. The Columbia University's Earth Institute based the report on a survey of 156 countries conducted from 2010 to 2012. This report comes at a time when more people wish for their government to focus more on the public’s well-being instead of on economic development. Among the top five happiest countries were Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Sweden respectively. Canada, Finland, Austria, Iceland, and Australia came as the sixth to tenth happiest nations. Surprisingly, Asian countries such as Israel and the UAE came in the top 15. Some major nations also ranked quite well in the report. The US ranked as the 17th happiest nation, Germany at the 26th place, Japan at the 43rd, Russia at the 68th, and China at the 93rd. On the other hand, the least happy countries were all from Sub-Saharan Africa, namely Togo, Benin, Central African Republic, Burundi, and Rwanda. Some countries such as Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Egypt, Myanmar, and Saudi Arabia also fell in this year’s ranking. The ranking of several countries dropped due to the recent economic crisis and political unrest they experienced. Poverty, unemployment, and severe mental illnesses have also caused the drop in rankings for some nations. On another note, some of the countries jumped up the ranking because the level of corruption has decreased. In order to improve the happiness level of a country, the report suggests that government allot enough budget for health, especially mental illnesses. The report also stressed the importance of balancing societal progress and economic development.

【Viewpoint Discussion】

　ディスカッションテーマ

Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.  

Discussion A

         Why do you think most of the countries in the top 10 are from Europe?

         In your opinion, how can this report be of use to the countries?

Discussion B

         In your opinion, why is improving the citizens well-being important?

         How else can the people’s well-being be improved?

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How Poverty Molds the Brain

". . .children in high-income families are exposed to 30 million more words than children from families on welfare."

Groundbreaking research nearly two decades ago linking a mother's educational background to her children's literacy and cognitive abilities stands out among decades of social science studies demonstrating the adverse effects of poverty.

Now new research conducted at Northwestern University has taken that finding in a neuroscientific direction: linking poor processing of auditory information in the adolescent brain to a lower maternal educational background.

"These adolescents had noisier neural activity than their classmates, even when no sound was presented," said Nina Kraus, the Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology, Physiology and Communication Sciences at Northwestern and corresponding author of the study.

In addition, the neural response to speech for the adolescents from a lower maternal educational background was erratic over repeated stimulation, with lower fidelity to the incoming sound.

"Think about the neural noise like static in a radio -- with the announcer's voice coming in faintly," Kraus said.

Maternal education acted as a proxy for socioeconomic status for the study. Adolescents were divided into two groups, according to whether their mothers had a high school education or less or had completed some post-secondary schooling.

Not only did the adolescents from a lower maternal educational background have neural responses to speech sounds that were nosier, more variable and represented the input signal weakly, but their performances on tests of reading and working memory also were poorer.

This study builds on evidence that children from low-income families experience a type of auditory impoverishment. The landmark study by Hart and Risley (1995) revealed that children in high-income families are exposed to 30 million more words than children from families on welfare. This reduction in the quality and quantity of language input, along with greater exposure to unstructured sound such as ambient noise, may be affecting how the brain represents auditory information.

In urban populations, income and amount of noise exposure are known to be correlated. Consistent with the idea that noisy auditory environments increase neural noise, the new Journal of Neuroscience study found that the adolescents from the lower maternal educational group have increased neural activity in the absence of sound input.

According to the study, "Neural models indicate that when the input to a neuron is noisier, the firing rate becomes more variable, ultimately limiting the amount of sensory information that can be transmitted."

"If your brain is creating a different signal each time you hear a sound, you might be losing some of the details of the sound," said Skoe, lead author of the study. "Losing these details may create challenges in the classroom and other noisy settings."

The new research conducted at Northwestern contributes to a recent wave of neuroscientific research demonstrating that sociocultural factors influence brain structure and function.

Another recently published study from the Kraus lab showed that inconsistent neural responses to sounds relate to poor reading but that by acoustically augmenting the classroom, neural responses became more stable.

"Modifying the auditory world for a particular student, even if just for a portion of the day, may improve academic performance and fine-tune how sound is automatically encoded in the brain," Skoe said.

Ongoing work in Northwestern's Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory is investigating whether auditory enrichment in the form of music education and other school-based activities can offset the negative impact of an impoverished acoustic environment.

For the new study, brain activity of Chicago Public School adolescents, almost all ninth-graders, was assessed both in response to and in the absence of auditory input. The nervous system's responses to speech sounds were observed through passive electrophysiological recordings, with students grouped according to the highest educational level achieved by their mothers.

The responses reflect activity from a communication hub within the central nervous system that provides a snapshot of sensory, cognitive and reward circuits that are engaged to process sound. These fundamental, automatic responses to sound reflect past and ongoing sensory experiences and relate to linguistic and cognitive function.

The collection protocol for "the impoverished auditory brain" lasted roughly 20 minutes, during which participants sat comfortably watching a self-selected subtitled movie, while the brain response to speech syllables was passively collected.

The syllables were presented at a rapid rate to the right ear through an earphone placed in the ear canal. The left ear remained unblocked, making the movie sound track audible yet not intense enough to mask the stimulus.

The syllables chosen are common to many languages of the world, and their acoustic characteristics are perceptually challenging.
In addition, IQ assessments for the students were collected, and they were administered a standardized, age-normed test battery of reading ability and executive function (working memory). Previous work has revealed that the neurobiological systems mediating higher order functions such as language, memory and executive function are especially sensitive to disparities in socioeconomic status.

"By studying socioeconomic status within a neuroscientific framework, we have the potential to expand our understanding of the biological signatures of poverty," Kraus concluded. "And a better understanding of how experiences shape the brain could inform educational efforts aimed at closing the socioeconomic achievement gap."

*  *  *  *  *

Story Source:  Skoe E, Krizman J, Kraus N. The impoverished brain: Disparities in maternal education affect the neural response to sound. Journal of Neuroscience, 2013

Video Game May Sharpen Adults’ Brain

【Unlocking Word Meanings】

　今日の単語・フレーズ

Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article. 

1. deteriorating [dih-TEER-ee-uh-reyt-ing] (adj.) – decreasing or worsening

Example: My grandfather’s deteriorating health worries me.

2. multi-task [MUHL-tee-task] (v.) – to do two or more activities at the same time

Example: Having several assignments and chores requires Mika to multi-task.

3. execute [EK-si-kyoot] (v.) – to do an action

Example: The instructor asked the participants to execute the tasks by following the instructions.

4. sustain [suh-STEYN] (v.) – to maintain or to keep something up

Example: Vitamins sustain nutrients for the elderly.

5. immediately [ih-MEE-dee-it-lee] (adv.) – without any interval in time; in an instant

Example: He immediately submitted the exam papers when the test administrator told him to do so.

【Article】

　ニュース記事

Read the text below.

Scientists have recently developed a video game that may be able to improve an adult’s short-term memory and long-term focus.  Deteriorating cognitive abilities are quite natural as humans grow old. However, a recent study showed that the video game NeuroRacer could actually counteract the effects of aging. It is a game that allows a person to multi-task, which can thus improve the neurological capabilities of seniors to the level of those in their 20s. Twelve 60 to 80-year-old adults participated in the study. Researchers asked these participants to execute tasks, such as manipulating a car on-screen and following the signs displayed. Then, the researchers compared the participants’ performance on the first task with the performance on the second task. According to the lead author of the study, the participants’ performance dropped by 65 percent when they were asked to multi-task. On the other hand, they only had a 16 percent decrease in performance after the researchers let the participating seniors rehearse for a month. The second result is quite remarkable compared with the 20-year-olds who experienced a drop in performance by 27 percent. Aside from the said improvements, the participants’ brain also improved its ability to sustain attention, as well as its ability to store knowledge, hold memories, and respond immediately. The lead author also said that similar benefits may be present in other video games that allow players to focus on a specific target. Currently, new video games for people suffering from attention deficit disorder and depression are in the development process.

【Viewpoint Discussion】

　ディスカッションテーマ

Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.  

Discussion A

         Do you think video games can improve one’s mental abilities? Why do you say so?

         How else do you think video games can affect a person?

Discussion B

         In your opinion, why are memories important?

         How do you think people can prevent themselves from losing their memory?

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