Creativity in the Wild: Improving Creative Reasoning through Immersion in Natural Settings

A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author’s publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Adults and children are spending more time interacting with media and technology and less time participating in activities in nature. This life-style change clearly has ramifications for our physical well-being, but what impact does this change have on cognition? Higher order cognitive functions including selective attention, problem solving, inhibition, and multi-tasking are all heavily utilized in our modern technology-rich society. Attention Restoration Theory (ART) suggests that exposure to nature can restore prefrontal cortex-mediated executive processes such as these. Consistent with ART, research indicates that exposure to natural settings seems to replenish some, lower-level modules of the executive attentional system. However, the impact of nature on higher-level tasks such as creative problem solving has not been explored. Here we show that four days of immersion in nature, and the corresponding disconnection from multi-media and technology, increases performance on a creativity, problem-solving task by a full 50% in a group of naive hikers. Our results demonstrate that there is a cognitive advantage to be realized if we spend time immersed in a natural setting. We anticipate that this advantage comes from an increase in exposure to natural stimuli that are both emotionally positive and low-arousing and a corresponding decrease in exposure to attention demanding technology, which regularly requires that we attend to sudden events, switch amongst tasks, maintain task goals, and inhibit irrelevant actions or cognitions. A limitation of the current research is the inability to determine if the effects are due to an increased exposure to nature, a decreased exposure to technology, or to other factors associated with spending three days immersed in nature

Analgesia Followed By Long-Term Hyperalgesia Generated By Disinhibition Of The Basolateral Amygdala

Stress produces bimodal effects on pain peception. During exposure to a stressor pain responses are inibited (i.e. stress-induced analgesia). However, following long-term exposure to a stressor increases in responsiveness to painful stimuli may develop (i.e. stress-induced hyperalgesia). Here I evaluated how a key component of the subcortical defense circuit and target of stress hormones contributes to the development of both stress-induced analgesia and hyperalgesia. Bicuculline methiodide, a GABAA antagonist, injected into the basolateral amygdala was used to mimic the neural effects of a stressor or threat exposure. Immediately following injection pain responsiveness was decreased as measured by vocalizations after discharge and vocolizations during shock following a tailshock. In the days and weeks following bicuculline injection pain responsiveness became elevated compared to control rats. These findings suggest that pain responsiveness can be mediated by a reduction in GABAergic signalling within the basolateral amygdala following stress exposure

Effects of Guided Imagery on the Rehabilitation of Sports Injuries

Purpose statement: This study aims at discovering if there will be effects on an athlete\u27s strength, mobility, and mental state if guided imagery (GI) is used along with standardized rehabilitation of sports injuries. Hypothesis: This study hypothesizes that GI could be used to aid in the rehabilitation process of sports injures, allowing athletes to return from injury better prepared for the athletic performance.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/exercise-science-research-proposal-posters/1183/thumbnail.jp

Effects of Fescue Toxicosis on Whole Blood Gene Expression in Beef Cattle

Effects of Fescue Toxicosis on Whole Blood Gene Expression in Beef Cattle The consumption of endophyte-infected tall fescue causes negative effects on the growth, reproduction, longevity, and overall health of beef cattle; this condition, termed fescue toxicosis by researchers and producers today, costs the United States over $1 billion in losses each year. To mitigate these production losses, it is important for producers to understand how fescue toxicosis affects gene expression and physiological pathways in beef cattle. This study examined the whole blood gene expression and affected pathways in beef cows grazing both endophyte-infected (toxic) tall fescue and (non-toxic) tall fescue. Animal model included 100 Hereford and Charolais cross bred beef cows of varying age and parity. Cows were allocated evenly by sire breed to two pasture types: toxic (n = 50) and non-toxic (n = 50). Whole blood samples were collected from cows via jugular venipuncture and stored at 4℃ for two days, then at -80℃ for approx. 7 months. Isolation of RNA was performed, and concentration and purity were analyzed before samples (n = 90) were sequenced. Statistical analysis was performed to ultimately identify 499 differentially expressed (DE) genes, which were then analyzed for involvement in specific gene expression pathways using ENSEMBL identification numbers and DAVID software. Gene expression pathways identified in this study were related to heat shock protein function, immune response, and hormone signaling pathways. The research of DE genes and expression pathways identified in this study that have not yet been discussed may help to further our understanding of the impact of fescue toxicosis, such as those involved in immune responses