Circle of Willis is a podcast by Jim Coan for and about the scientists, authors, journalists, and even a few mystics, who make and communicate science for all of us. Circle of Willis is brought to you by VQR and the Center for Media and Citizenship, and is a member of the Teej.fm network.
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The Pandemic Changed You. It Also Changed Your Brain.
Dana G Smith, Elemental
March 9, 2021
“‘All else being equal, when we’re alone, our brain is a little more vigilant for any signs of danger. Also, our brain perceives demands from the world as more demanding than they would be if we had someone with us,’ says James Coan, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia.” Get the full article here (external link).
The power of hugs and why we miss them so much
Agnes Pawlowski, The Today Show
February 26, 2021
“Hugging is a way to unambiguously let your brain know that you are not alone. And when you’re not alone, you have another set of eyes to look out for potential problems. You have another set of hands to help you lift things. You have another prefrontal cortex to work out complex problems.” Get the full article here (external link).
Our Brains Explain the Season’s Sadness
Robin Wright, The New Yorker
November 26, 2020
“Our brains have a way to encourage us gently not to use the prefrontal cortex so much,” Coan told me. That part of the brain is there to help humans be the dominant species on Earth, “but it’s important for us to sparingly utilize the resource that is so magically powerful. It has other shit to do.” There are simple ways to relieve demands on the prefrontal cortex, such as getting enough sleep and basic exercise. “You brute-force a way to keep your prefrontal cortex from doing its work,” Coan said. Another is a vacation that reduces the demand for focus to an activity that requires only one eye. Get the full article here (external link).
Circle of Willis: Tim Cunningham, Part 1
Cabin Fever: Singing For Health
Sarah McConnell, With Good Reason
August 21, 2020
How can we be alone together in the pandemic? In a world without skin-to-skin contact, James Coan thinks the next best option might be something equally uncomfortable for many people: singing. Get the full episode here (external link).
Currents 006: Jim Coan on Our Social Recession
Jim Rutt, The Jim Rutt Show
June 19, 2020
In this Currents episode, Jim talks to Jim Coan about social recession, social origins & impacts on humanity, emergent group collaboration, ‘selfing’ beyond the individual, bioenergetic resource management & its connection to social isolation & depression, physicological weathering & health risks of involuntary isolation, mental impacts leading to less COVID-19 social distancing, dynamics of virtual communication, academia impacts & risks of reopening, and more. Get the full episode here (external link).
We finally all understand what it’s like to be lonely
Candice Chung, SBS (Australia)
June 3, 2020
“We are each other’s habitat,” says psychology professor James Coan, who teaches a course at University of Virginia on why we hold hands. “We now know that humans are adapted to each other not unlike the way that salamanders are adapted to cool, dark damp environments.” In other words, our appetite for intimacy isn’t mere luxury — but a necessity. Our hunger for connection a matter-of-fact need. Get the full article here (external link).
The stark loneliness of digital togetherness
Laura Entis, Vox
May 26, 2020
Touch is powerful; our need for it is primordial. Whereas most species evolved to survive in specific ecological environments, humans adapted to survive in groups. “We are each other’s habitat,” says Coan, whose lab at the University of Virginia studies the neural mechanisms in the brain that link social relationships to health and well-being. Get the full article here (external link).
Mourning my mother virtually: What Zoom funerals allow and what they deny
Rick Jacobs, The New York Daily News
May 10, 2020
Shiva is a kind of spiritual sheltering at home, traditionally a time for family and friends to sit together for seven days to mourn and pray. Shiva without physical touch and other ways of expressing love and affection is surely depriving mourners of much healing. Just ask Dr. Jim Coan, a neuroscientist at the University of Virginia, who has studied the benefits of human touch. Get the full article here (external link).
Combating Cabin Fever Amid Pandemic
Kathryn Young, CBS19 News, Charlottesville
April 20, 2020
“Now is the time to be vulnerable through creativity,” Coan said. He says this can include art, writing, dance or other creative outlets. Combating the coronavirus won’t be easy, because people are social creatures and the coronavirus thrives in a social environment. “The only way to combat this virus right now is to deny ourselves our basic human nature,” Coan said. Get the full article here (external link).
‘A drastic experiment in progress’: How will coronavirus change our kids?
Caroline Preston, The Hechinger Report
April 15, 2020
Play facilitates cognitive development, said James Coan, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia who studies the neuroscience of human connection. And yet “adults are not very good playmates,” he told me. “They are boring, they are impatient and they have other things to do.” Get the full article here (external link).
Will The Coronavirus Epidemic Change Us Permanently?
Rajat Mitra, Outlook India
April 09, 2020
Dr. James Coan, a neuroscientist researching on the effects of prolonged stress on the brain found that the brain processes information faster and more efficiently in the presence of others, even if they are six feet away than when they are alone or while talking on their mobile. A live person six feet away affects our brain far deeper than when no one is around. It is the sight, the touch, the presence of another that is soothing and necessary for our brain’s signal to survive. Get the full article here (external link).
As physical distancing expands amid COVID-19 pandemic, some worry about a social recession
Matt Galloway, The Current–CBC Radio
March 31, 2020
“Think of your body as a house,” Coan said. “You have to maintain it regularly. When we mount a stress response, we divert resources away from those sort of ongoing maintenance projects and apply that energy toward responding to an emergency.” Though social media and video chatting can be good substitutes for face-to-face interaction, Coan says forming virtual bonds can be tricky because humans didn’t evolve to interact with others through a screen. But that can be overcome by making an effort to be vulnerable with friends and family, even if it feels “ridiculous,” he said. “I’m talking about being vulnerable with each other in terms of expressing our feelings, creating art, writing poetry, writing songs, singing to each other.” Get the full article here (external link).
How Loneliness From Coronavirus Takes Its Own Toll
Robin Wright, The New Yorker
March 23, 2020
The brain has limited bandwidth to solve problems and to regulate emotions, Coan, who teaches a class on why people hold hands, told me. And so our intense sociability serves yet another purpose: to expand that bandwidth. Get the full article here (external link).
Episode 51: Does Your Doctor Listen to You?
Dacher Keltner, Greater Good Magazine
October 24, 2019
What happened in that moment when she grabs his hand? What does that hand signify, what is it doing to his mind and his brain? Get the full episode and transcript here (external link).
Beyond Biden: How Close Is Too Close?
Benedict Carey, The New York Times
April 2, 2019
“What we don’t know after all this time is how you get from one place to the other,” Dr. Coan said. “Nobody does. There’s no simple answer, in psychological research or in life. That trajectory is going to include all kinds of signaling errors. As people zigzag toward love or affection, they’re blowing it all the time.” Get the full article here (external link).
How Deeper Relationships Yield Better Results
Daniel Dworkin and John McBratney, Forbes
March 12, 2019
“James Coan, a neuroscientist from University of Virginia, suggests that our brains rely on relationships to steer our cognitive energy and focus our attention on shared goals — critical elements of team success.” Get the full article here (external link).
Why Do Couples Hold Hands?
Carolyn Twersky, Seventeen
January 4, 2019
“In a study conducted by Clinical Psychologist Dr. James Coan, it was found that when a person holds hands with their significant other during a stressful situation, they felt less threatened and their brain reacted accordingly.” Get the full article here (external link).
Child welfare experts worry about effects of separation policy on children
Cristela Guerra, The Boston Globe
July 18, 2018
“…we’re seeing in the popular media over and over and over again what traumatized children look like.” Get the full article here (external link).
The Violence We Have Committed
James Coan, The Inquisitive Mind
June 24, 2018
“What many Americans, not least border and immigration control agents, do not realize, is that for young children psychological trauma creates an increasingly well-defined pathway to brain trauma, which can alter behavior down the road in ways that lead to a lifetime of impaired health and even early death. For a proportion of children forcibly separated from their parents at the US border, real long-term harm has been done to their bodies. No less so—in the long run possibly more so—than if they were physically attacked.” Get the full article here (external link).
The Trauma of Family Separation: An Interview with Dr. James A. Coan
The Editors, Institute for Family Studies
June 21, 2018
“Children can be surprisingly resilient, but few are likely to come through this experience at the border emotionally unscathed. In the short term, we have seen extreme emotional distress. This distress actually serves a life-saving function: keeping caregivers from going away. For young children, especially, an absent parent means almost certain death, at least to the developing brain of the child, whose entire world consists almost exclusively of their parents and close relatives. ” Get the full article here (external link).
Reports have spread that shelter workers can’t comfort migrant children. Rules aren’t that simple
Kristine Phillips, The Washington Post
June 20, 2018
“’All of these kinds of rules are designed to deal with a problem, a real problem,’ said James Coan, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia. ‘But what I think is happening here, although we can all recognize that inappropriate touch is a problem, is that people are not sufficiently recognizing that no touch is also a problem.’” Get the full article here (external link).
The Trump Administration is Committing Violence Against Children
James Coan, The Washington Post
June 15, 2018
“I have a strong intuition that if Americans were seeing migrant children being obviously mistreated physically by U.S. border agents they would not abide this situation for an instant, whatever the dubious legal rationale. Such abuse would be recognized for what it obviously was: violence against children. Just because the damage being done today at the border with Mexico is not visible shouldn’t make it any less disturbing. Those in Congress who have been slow to rein in this insidious White House policy should be aware, as they ponder how to proceed, that these children wrenched from their parents will long bear the scars of the lawmakers’ inaction.” Get the full article here (external link).
Survival Story 4: The Misinformation Effect
Dylan Cunningham, Jett Hayward, Cathy Wong, State of the Human
April 23, 2018
Chris Coan remembers being lost in the mall, but we all have our stories.
The Brain and the Environment
The Brainwaves Video Anthology
November 7, 2017
Teachers Make a Difference — Frau Dufford
The Brainwaves Video Anthology
November 7, 2017
How a Focus on Rich Educated People Skews Brain Studies
Ed Yong, The Atlantic
October 31, 2017
“Years later, he got more money to do a bigger and more representative study of racially and socioeconomically diverse people drawn from the local community. “And the findings changed,” he says. The romantic partners still reduced the threat response, but a stranger’s hand had no effect at all. Why? Perhaps it’s because, as he showed in another study, the wealth of the neighborhood you grow up in affects the way your brain weighs up rewards and threats.” Get the full article here (external link).
“Shocking” New Research Finds Friendships are Key to Good Health
Jane Kelly, UVAToday
May 26, 2017
“Previous research has shown that frayed social networks can have deadly consequences. ‘We have all these public service announcements about exercise and not smoking, but social isolation is more deadly than all of those things,’ Coan said. ‘The more socially isolated you are, the more likely you are to die of anything at any time, no matter where you live or what culture you inhabit.’” Get the full article here (external link).
The Brain Benefits of Having Buddies
Matthew King, The Boston Globe Magazine
March 09, 2017
“Beyond managing our moods, Coan believes that our brains evolved to rely on social resources like friendship. His Social Baseline Theory, published in 2015, argues that the human brain depends upon a sophisticated network of relationships to coordinate cognitive energies and accomplish shared goals, which he suggests is unique to humans. Unlike most primates, human beings are prepared to have multiple kinds of caregivers, and we tend to cooperate reflexively with one another from an early age. ” Get the full article here (external link).
Why Friends Are Even More Important As We Age
Joan Lunden, The Today Show
May 24, 2016
Watch the video here (external link).
People who possess this one thing enjoy much better health as they age, science shows.
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, The Washington Post
May 17, 2016
“This is more than a psychological phenomenon, says James Coan, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, who directs the Virginia Affective Neuroscience Laboratory. Friends share the burden of life, helping you deal with 21st-century “threats” — office politics, the no-show of the babysitter, the health scares or spats with your spouse, the growing needs of your aging parents. We are wired to rely on friends, and this trickles down to our biology.” Get the full article here (external link).
Boomers Face A ‘Divorce Revolution,’ But Some Can Learn From Happy Couples
Michel Martin, All Things Considered, NPR News
March 19, 2016
“…love is not a romantic sentiment. It’s actually a survival mechanism, kind of an evolutionary code that’s designed to keep people close to you who are going to help you deal with life threats. So after this therapy, the unhappy wives went right back into the scanner. And the wives’ brains now looked like those of happily-married women. It suggests that even people on the brink of divorce who might make a go of it actually can improve their marriage enough to be happy.” Get the full report here (external link).
Midlife Friendship Key To A Longer, Healthier Life
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, Morning Edition, NPR News
March 16, 2016
“I gaze at the screen above. Whenever I see a red X, there’s a 1 in 5 chance that I’ll receive an electric shock in the next few seconds. Whenever I see an O, that means I’m safe. The researchers want to see how my brain reacts to the prospect of pain, and in particular, whether it behaves differently whether I’m facing the threat alone, holding the hand of a stranger – one of the technicians – or the hand of Cherie, who’s been a close friend for nearly 20 years.” Get the full report here (external link).
The Ambivalent Marriage Takes a Toll on Health
Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times
October 26, 2015
“I think about relationships like the stock market,” he said. “There are bull markets and bear markets in any short period of time, but if you take the long view, the investment almost always pays off.” Get the full article here (external link).
Närhet ger bäst vila för våra hjärnor (Proximity provides the best rest of our brains)
Svenska Dagbladet (Swedish daily newspaper)
September 10, 2015
“Det här utgångsläget, eller baslinjen, anser James Coan och hans forskarkolleger är mer sannolikt än ”the individual baseline” som man tidigare trodde gällde för hjärnan: att den skulle vara som minst aktiv om vi var ensamma och utan stimuli. I stället har deras studier visat att fungerande sociala sammanhang – med samspel, ömsesidigt beroende och gemensamma intressen – får hjärnan att hushålla med sin energi som allra bäst. De kallar hjärnans viloläge för ”the social baseline theory”.” Get the full article here (external link).
But What About Fraud? Reflections and advice from Peter Medawar
Circle of Willis, A Blog by Jim Coan
June 19, 2014
Some policemen are venal; some judges take bribes and deliver verdicts accordingly; there are secret diabolists among men in holy orders and among vice-chancellors are many who believe that most students enjoying higher education would be better-off as gardeners or in the mines; moreover, some scientists fiddle their results or distort the truth for their own benefit. Get the full essay here (external link).
Negative Psychology–The Atmosphere of Wary and Suspicious Disbelief
Circle of Willis, A Blog by Jim Coan
May 30, 2014
Negative Psychology implies a belief that increased wariness and suspicion will enhance scientific progress, a perspective with which I wholeheartedly disagree. But Negative Psychology also encompasses that suite of behaviors—public ridicule and shaming, moral outrage, clumsy humor—that the internet has a tendency to encourage. Get the full essay here (external link).
Why We Hold Hands
TEDxCharlottesville
The Human Brain and Empathy
The Academic Minute on WAMC
January 13, 2014
Scientists have long known that when the people we love most are near, we are happier and healthier. In our laboratory, we use brain imaging to measure the activity of the functioning brain during periods of mild stress, and during the momentary relief from that stress brought about by contact with another person—contact in the form of simple handholding. Get the full audio here (external link).
How marriage can save your life
Kate Lunau, McLean’s
January 9, 2014
Beyond financial support, though, the mere presence of a loving partner seems to dampen stress and regulate pain. In her new book, Love Sense, Ottawa-based psychologist Sue Johnson describes a study by James Coan at the University of Virginia, who put happily married women inside an fMRI machine, which measures brain activity. Read the full article (external link).
The Top Ten Brain Science and Psychology Studies of 2013.
#2: To Your Brain, Me is We
David DiSalvo, Forbes
December 12, 2013, 2013
A 2013 study from University of Virginia researchers supports a finding that’s been gaining science-fueled momentum in recent years: the human brain is wired to connect with others so strongly that it experiences what they experience as if it’s happening to us. Read the full article (external link).
We’re Wired For Empathy
August 26, 2013
To the Human Brain, Me Is We
David DiSalvo, Forbes
August 22, 2013
“The correlation between self and friend was remarkably similar,” said James Coan, a psychology professor in U.Va.’s College of Arts & Sciences who co-authored the study. “The finding shows the brain’s remarkable capacity to model self to others; that people close to us become a part of ourselves, and that is not just metaphor or poetry, it’s very real. Literally we are under threat when a friend is under threat. But not so when a stranger is under threat.” Read the full article (external link).
The Science of Friendship
Live Interview, Canada AM
March 25, 2013
Jim Coan from the University of Virginia explains the effects friends have on our health and well-being, and the science behind it. See the full video here (external link).
Friendship: Close Ties that Enhance, Extend Life
Rita Braver, CBS Sunday Morning
March 17, 2013
Braver went through one series of shocks alone, and another holding the hand of a good friend, “Sunday Morning” producer Kay Lim. And like all of the other subjects, the parts of my brain that sense danger were less — much less — active when she was holding her friend’s hand. “I would say it was a bigger difference even than we had predicted,” said Coan, examining Braver’s scans. So what does the test tell about what it means to have a friend? See the full video here (external link).
Can We Be Smarter About Our Feelings?
Emma Rathbone, The University of Virginia Magazine
December, 2012
Jim Coan is an associate professor of psychology who studies emotion through a coding system whereby he attempts to measure a person’s emotional behavior precisely through indicators such as body language and facial expressions. He then uses that system to study how people interact when solving a conflict. Read the full article (external link).
[Note: Can I just brag for a second about the fact that this interview was conducted by acclaimed novelist Emma Rathbone? How great is that?
SPAFF Coding the 3rd Presidential Debate, live and in real time on Twitter
October 22, 2012
James Coan will be SPAFF coding tonight’s debate in real time at twitter at https://twitter.com/jimcoan. The SPAFF (stands for “Specific Affect”) is a sophisticated system for carefully monitoring emotional behavior. Read more about the SPAFF here (external link).
Stress: The roots of resilience
Virginia Hughes, Nature
October 10, 2012
James Coan, a psychologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, has done a series of experiments in which women lie in an fMRI scanner and see ‘threat cues’ on a screen. They are told that between 4 and 10 seconds later, they may receive a small electric shock on the ankle. The cue triggers sensory arousal and activates brain regions associated with fear and anxiety, but when the women hold the hands of their husbands or friends, these responses diminish. Read the full article (external link).
Why the Puppy Cam Is About to Make the Whole Internet Better at Photoshop
Alexis Madrigal, The Atlantic
June 7, 2012
Back in 2009, researchers Gary Sherman, Jonathan Haidt, and James Coan recruited a group of 40 women at the University of Virginia and asked them to play the game Operation. You remember that one, right? There are these 12 plastic organs placed in this cardboard man gameboard; each one is set in a little cavity that is lined with conductive metal, and the point of the game is to extract the organs with a pair of tweezers without hitting the metal around the edges. (I still remember the horrible buzzing noise the game made when you did so, too.) Read the full article (external link).
Addendum: More on cuteness! Not by us, but highly related.
Sarah Kliff, The Washington Post
October 1, 2012
When economists talk about boosting productivity, they usually talk about increasing the adoption of new technologies and optimizing workflows. Japanese researchers, however, have come up with a very offbeat approach: Showing workers lots of pictures of adorable, fuzzy, baby animals. Read the full article (external link)
The Brain on Love
Diane Ackerman, The New York Times
March 24, 2012
Whether they speak Armenian or Mandarin, people around the world use the same images of physical pain to describe a broken heart, which they perceive as crushing and crippling. It’s not just a metaphor for an emotional punch. Social pain can trigger the same sort of distress as a stomachache or a broken bone. But a loving touch is enough to change everything. James Coan, a neuroscientist at the University of Virginia, conducted experiments in 2006 in which he gave an electric shock to the ankles of women in happy, committed relationships. Read the full article (external link).
Attach, and give your brain a break from stress
Jon G. Allen, The Menninger Clinic
September 27, 2011
We put a lot of effort into developing treatment methods to help patients become more adept at self-regulation of emotions. Prominent examples include mindfulness practice, dialectical behavior therapy and cognitive-behavior therapy. No doubt, we all need to be adept at self-regulation; we can’t be holding our attachment figure’s hand whenever we feel threatened! Yet self-regulation is not the most efficient or powerful means of emotion regulation. Accordingly, we should be putting as much—or more—effort into developing treatment approaches that enhance attachment relationships and promote security in those relationships. Read the full article (external link).
Peering Inside the Social Brain
Siri Carpenter, Science
May 14, 2010
What makes it possible for people to love, hate, help, or betray one another? How do we decode facial expressions? How do we understand and regulate our own emotional experiences? How do we separate the self from the other, make moral judgments, or decide how much money to save for retirement? What causes some people to turn to religious extremism, heroin, or politics? How does the brain fail those with social deficits such as autism? Read the full article (external link).
Is Marriage Good for Your Health?
Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times Magazine
April 14, 2010
Coan says the study simulates how a supportive marriage and partnership gives the brain the opportunity to outsource some of its most difficult neural work. “When someone holds your hand in a study or just shows that they are there for you by giving you a back rub, when you’re in their presence, that becomes a cue that you don’t have to regulate your negative emotion,” he told me. “The other person is essentially regulating your negative emotion but without your prefrontal cortex. It’s much less wear and tear on us if we have someone there to help regulate us.” Read the full article (external link).
Evidence That Little Touches Do Mean So Much
Benedict Carey, The New York Times
February 23, 2010
In the brain, prefrontal areas, which help regulate emotion, can relax, freeing them for another of their primary purposes: problem solving. In effect, the body interprets a supportive touch as “I’ll share the load.” “We think that humans build relationships precisely for this reason, to distribute problem solving across brains,” said James A. Coan, a psychologist at the University of Virginia. “We are wired to literally share the processing load, and this is the signal we’re getting when we receive support through touch.” Read the full article (external link).
Jim Coan and the Hand Holding Experiment
UVA Magazine, January 18, 2008
Marry Me
Lori Oliwenstein, Time Magazine (cover story)
January 17, 2008
When you are stuck in traffic or overwhelmed at work or worn down by the kids, the hypothalamus–a structure buried deep in the midbrain–tells your adrenal gland to pump out a supply of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol, in turn, tells your body to stop worrying about its basic metabolic needs and instead to “do the things you need to do to save yourself from whatever created the stress,” says University of Virginia neuroscientist James Coan. Read the full article (external link).
I Want Need to Hold Your Hand: The Social Regulation of Emotion
Catherine West, APS Observer
August, 2007
Have you ever wondered why people surrounded by friends or family appear happier and healthier? Or why a mother’s hand so quickly soothes a scared child? University of Virginia researcher James Coan addressed these and similar questions in his invited talk, “Toward a Neuroscience of the Social Regulation of Emotion,” at the APS 19th Annual Convention in Washington, DC. He also discussed the growing body of research showing that social contact serves as a buffer between life’s stressors and our health and happiness. Read the full article (external link).
Allyn Bacon Interview at APS, Washington DC, 2007
Click here and scroll to the right to find the James Coan interview
Interview on Insight with Tom Graham
2007 — Listen to the full interview here
Stressed Out? Grab Hubby’s Hand
Kathleen Doheny, The Washington Post
December 22, 2006
“Hand-holding is second nature for kids” when they’re under stress, said James A. Coan, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Virginia, who led the study. “This can also work for adults.” Read the full article (external link).
Friends for Life: An Emerging Biology of Emotional Healing
Daniel Goleman, The New York Times
October 10, 2006
Even remotely suggesting health benefits from these interconnections will, no doubt, raise hackles in medical circles. No one can claim solid data showing a medically significant effect from the intermingling of physiologies. At the same time, there is now no doubt that this same connectivity can offer a biologically grounded emotional solace. Physical suffering aside, a healing presence can relieve emotional suffering. A case in point is a functional magnetic resonance imaging study of women awaiting an electric shock. When the women endured their apprehension alone, activity in neural regions that incite stress hormones and anxiety was heightened. Read the full article (external link).
A Simple Show of Hands
Stephanie Rosenbloom, The New York Times
October 5, 2006
“Hand-holding is the one aspect that’s not been affected by the sexual revolution,” said Dalton Conley, a professor and chairman of the department of sociology at New York University. “It’s less about sex than about a public demonstration about coupledom.” Nowadays hand-holding has attracted the interest of scientists who are studying its effects on the body and mind. Read the full article (external link).
Why Marriage is Good Medicine for Men
Gail Sheehy, Parade Magazine
June 18, 2006
The biggest fiction behind James Bond is that the fantasy master spy and world-class heartbreaker lived past 40-something. It’s not just the death traps and vodka martinis, or even the three packs of cigarettes a day, that would have shortened his life. His naked ring finger would have too. Because real men need wives. Read the full article.
Holding Loved One’s Hand Can Calm Jittery Neurons
Benedict Carey, The New York Times
January 31, 2006
Married women under extreme stress who reach out and hold their husbands’ hands feel immediate relief, neuroscientists have found in what they say is the first study of how human touch affects the neural response to threatening situations. The soothing effect of the touch could be seen in scans of areas deep in the brain that are involved in registering emotional and physical alarm. Read the full article (external link).
Art and Emotion Seen Eye to Eye
Liz Else, New Scientist
December 24, 2005
Art inspires strong feelings – and feelings work on the brain in very specific ways. So in theory, art should make a good tool for anyone who wants to explore not just art but also emotions and neurology. Absolutely, reckon British artist Helen Storey and American psychologist and neuroscientist Jim Coan. Earlier this year, they worked with a British secondary school for the pilot of an art-science experiment called Eye and I that they hoped would add fresh insights into the relationship between facial expressions and emotions. Read the full article.
Eye and I Documentary by Pinny Grylls
Interview on BBC Radio 4
John Wilson, Front Row
May, 2005
Pupils See Future Staring Them in the Face
Sally Pook, The Telegraph
May 16, 2005
“Could your facial expression be a determining factor in your future? What an incredible thing.” In collaboration with Dr Jim Coan, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, she created the Eye and I experiment, which is being piloted at the Charles Edward Brooke School, in Camberwell. Read the full article (external link).
You must remember this…or do you? How real are repressed memories?
Elizabeth Loftus, The Washington Post
June 27, 1993
Consider what happened when Jim Coan, the chief research assistant on the project, tried to convince his younger brother Chris that he had been lost at age 5 in a shopping mall one day while browsing with his mother and brother Jim. Both mother and Jim attest that this event never happened. Read the full article (external link).
Childhood Trauma: Memory or Invention?
Daniel Goleman, The New York Times
July 21, 1992
With James Coan, a graduate student [sic], Dr. Loftus had a close relative of her experimental subjects describe three events from the subject’s childhood, and offer specifics for the setting of a fictitious fourth event, the time the person supposedly got lost. “We told the subjects we were studying childhood memories, and asked them to write everything they could remember about each of these incidents,” said Dr. Loftus. Read the full article (external link).
Virginia Affective Neuroscience Laboratory 