Showing posts with label Stress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stress. Show all posts

Comforting Words


Whether we are children or adults, if we are having a bad time we all respond to comforting words from a friend, spouse, parent or even a kindly passer-by. Often “good advice” isn’t what’s needed, but just the soothing sounds of sympathy. “There, there, don’t cry” doesn’t sound very helpful to a child with a cut knee. However, it usually works better than a detailed description of how we are going to clean it up and what might happen if it’s neglected, let alone what complications should be looked for in the future.

There are some situations in which we can’t be there in person, but the cell phone is now becoming almost universal, so we can elicit some soothing sympathetic words to comfort us that way. But what about instant messaging or texting? Can that do the job?

Seltzer et al of the U of Wisconsin-Madison set out to study exactly that and they have a pre-print that is flashing around in cyber-space as we speak (1). In their set of experiments, the ‘lab rats’ were young girls who were stressed out somewhat so the level of cortisol in their saliva was nicely elevated. Some were allowed to talk to their Moms, some over the phone and some in the flesh, whilst others were allowed to instant message and some, the valiant control group, just had to tough it out.

Talking to Mom, phone or in person, dropped cortisol levels and produced oxytocin, a hormone that induces calmness and decreases fear. Instant messaging did nothing like that, and their cortisol levels stayed as high as those who were just trying to get over it. The conclusion was that it is the sound of the familiar voice that helps and not the words.

However, the familiar may be especially potent, but I’m sure that sympathetic noises will work well even from an unfamiliar source. Maybe we should write a smart-phone app that will come out with a random variety of sympathetic phrases with a soft comforting voice speaking them. Then we can listen to a random selection to calm us down in stressful situations. Music helps, but the right voice might be better.

  1. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2011.05.004

Bird Brain

As we go about our daily business, we like our day to be predictable with no nasty surprises, but at the same time, no surprises quickly translates into boredom. The younger we are the quicker that happens. Captivity exacerbates this and we give our contained pets toys to brighten up their day. It is even possible to purchase a football game for your goldfish (although it should be called noseball). Fairhurst and team at U of Sakatchewan, published a study last week on how changing the toys can vary stress levels (1).


               Clark's Nutcracker
                                   photo US Fish & Wildlife

 The focus group were a small flock of Clark’s Nutcrackers and their stress levels were measured by the amounts of Corticosterone in their feathers. They are not used to being confined and normally go wandering around over large distances gathering pine seeds and burying little caches in the ground, so being shut up in a cage with nothing to do would not be their first choice. All were unpaid draftees, I must add.

When given toys such as bells and mirrors, their stress increased until these new and threatening objects were found harmless. Long-term exposure to the toy entertainment brought their stress down and it went back up again when their toys were taken away. If the toys were taken away after the victims had only had a short time to play, they relaxed, which reminds me of my piano lessons as a kid where my stress level went up until I was allowed to give it up. But once I have got used to a toy “you will have to prize it from my cold dead fingers” to quote Chuck Heston.


1. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0017663