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Douyon P Neuroplasticity Your brains superpower zzard Ink Publishing
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Panksepp J December The riddle of laughter neural and psychoevolutionary
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underpinnings of joy Current Directions in Psychological Science
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Chapter Optimal Quality of Life Training
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Gleitman H Fridlund A J Reisberg D Psychology th ed W W Norton
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and Company
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Lorenz K On aggression Methuen Publishing de Waal F The bonobo and
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the atheist In search of humanism among the primates WW Norton Company
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PROGRAM PEACE Self Care Exercises to Reprogram Your Mind and Body
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Chapter Persistent Adaptation to Chronic Stress
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Being defeated is often a temporary condition Giving up is what makes it permanent Marilyn vos Savant
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b
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Our Bodies Compensate in Response to Suboptimal Environments
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Although our bodies are capable of finding peace they were never designed to do so Rather
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they developed to internalize environmental hardship to ensure the perpetuation of our genes
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Harmful experiences cause organisms to promptly deviate from otherwise optimal body plans
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restricting growth and mobility while reducing their quality of life The focus of this chapter is to
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explain why we retain stress in the form of bodily trauma
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From microorganisms to monkeys all life forms respond to stressors with innate biological
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programs They are prepared to alter their bodies and life strategies if they encounter adverse
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environments To be clear this is a form of nonmutational adaptation that takes place without
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natural selection during an individuals lifetime We all have the potential to become highly
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stressadapted and this could happen to you in a matter of weeks if you were exposed to
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extreme hardship The DNA genotype does not change however the genes that are
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expressed change and cause the body phenotype to change Your genes specify the blueprint
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and the foundation but the environmental circumstances influence how soundly your structure
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is built
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The changes bodies make allow conformation to occasional but regularly recurring
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environmental pressures faced by the species These are usually stressors Changes can be
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either transient or permanent and are examples of a scientific concept called developmental
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plasticity How you responded plastically to your environment results in a unique
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developmental trajectory For instance if you were a sad child growing up you are more likely
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to be a melancholy adult Certain developmental windows close early in life but we retain a
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great deal of plasticity even in old age This means that your fundamental nature dominant
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submissive calm anxious etc is in the process of being determined even as you read this
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Developmental plasticity is any change in the body good or bad mediated by changes in
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gene expression as a response to the environment When say gene expression am referring
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to the process where the bodys cells determine that a particular protein is needed they find
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the gene that encodes the protein from within the DNA in the cells nucleus and use it to build
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the protein For example when you exercise consistently genes that encode the proteins
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needed for muscle tissue become highly expressed resulting in muscle growth Thats a clear
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case of developmental plasticity your body responds to exercise by building new muscle to
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make the lifting easier
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The same thing happens on a faster scale when your eyes adapt to darkness Cells in the
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retina use the rhodopsin gene to build the rhodopsin protein necessary to see better in low
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light The production of breast milk involves expressing milk proteins within the breast tissue
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that are not expressed before pregnancy Tanning involves the production of the protein
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pigment melanin The formation of longterm memories neuroplasticity involves physical
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changes to brain cells that necessitate protein expression Each of the genes in the
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PROGRAM PEACE Self Care Exercises to Reprogram Your Mind and Body
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human genome codes for a protein that performs a specific function within our bodies when
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needed Some of these genes and their proteins contribute to anxiety
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The Tradeoffs of Adapting to Adversity
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Simple singlecell organisms respond to stress excessive heat starvation and abrupt chemical
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changes in their environment by tweaking their body plan Molecular cues that they pick up
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cause them to express genes that may otherwise remain dormant causing changes within their
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cell walls to respond to the demands at hand Even in the simplest organisms like bacteria and
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protists these emergency alterations have costs Resources are funneled toward responding to
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the crisis rather than to longevity and upkeep Over time this negatively affects the health of
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the microbe
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Humans also make unhealthy changes in response to bad environments Constant muscle
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strain incites protein expression that changes the muscle making it hard inflexible and limiting
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its range of motion Shallow breathing becomes persistent because the body uses gene
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expression to retune the breathing apparatus to become maximally efficient at shallow
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breathing The heart is similarly retuned to beat rapidly Threatsensing areas of the brain are
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reinforced after threatening experiences Stress stimulates the expression of a large variety of
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different proteins in organs throughout the body and brain that would not otherwise be
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expressed These proteins are used in defensive structures defensive maneuvers and the
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creation of a defensive mind state The effects of developmental plasticity can be lifelong or
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even multigenerational Recent findings have found that many of the negative effects can be
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reversed but the longer you wait the harder it will be
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These changes might be useful for instance if your environment is filled with predators
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But they can produce drastic bodily changes especially if they are triggered early in
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development This is easiest to see in nonhuman examples like certain species of horned
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beetle The beetles body type can vary sharply based on food availability Visually the two
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versions look very different Even many scientists at first assumed these two morphs were from
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different species When they dont have enough food developing males become smaller and
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weaker and never develop their characteristic horns Their metabolism is reduced and they
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utilize sneaky reproductive tactics rather than the direct combat typical of their betterfed
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peers This morph is adaptiveit has better reproductive successbut only in environments
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where food is scarce and larger beetles cannot feed themselves Outside those environments
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a hornless horned beetle has no real chance to compete
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A similar thing happens to the water flea Daphnia If exposed to the smell of their natural
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predators early in life they develop a large protective covering that helps them resist being
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eaten However this armor also makes it harder to move and feed These examples of plasticity
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involve fundamental tradeoffs The same kinds of responses occur in mammals although the
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effects are usually less obvious Still sometimes you can visually recognize the ravages of stress
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in people who are extremely anxious highly traumatized drugaddicted or on the bottom of
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the social totem pole What these people share in common is that their stress system has been
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turned up too high for too long For the beetle the environmental cue predictive of adversity is
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malnutrition For the flea it is the smell of its natural predator Can you guess what ours is It is
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distressed breathing Shallow thoracic breathing drives the threat system and a cascade of
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harmful cellular modifications that change our physical body plan
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Chapter Persistent Adaptation to Chronic Stress
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Ze yo
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va Qa VA
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XY SS
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v
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illustration A Horned beetle and smaller hornless beetle B Water fleas with and without protective armoring
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How Mammals Adapt to Chronic Stress
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