”More controlled experiments have been carried on to prove the importance of aesthetically enriched environments. Work done by Professor David Krech at the University of California at Berkeley has provided a multitude of insights. Krech assembled two groups of laboratory rats. One group was brought up in a "deprived" environment, similar to conditions existing for people in slums, barrios, favelas, and ghettoes. The rats were crowded, sanitary controls were absent or nearly absent, food was uninteresting and meager. The cages were in perpetual gloom, and shrill, unstructured sounds of a decibel level far too high interrupted the occupants during both waking and sleeping. The second group of animals were brought up in an "enriched" environment. Here colors, textures, and materials had been chosen with great care. Food and water were plentiful, vitamin enriched, and plenty of space was set aside for family grouping. Soft and pleasant music was piped into their habitat, and slowly changing lights and colors further enhanced the environment.
The result of this experiment showed that members of the "enriched" group had greater learning capacity, faster mental development, greater flexibility and adaptability to new stimuli, and far better memories. They also maintained their greater mental capacity into old age. Even their offspring, brought up under normal laboratory conditions, maintained a sizeable lead over those offspring of the "deprived" rats that were brought up in standard ways. Dissection showed that the size and weight of the cerebral cortex of the enriched rats (the part of the brain responsible for a rich flow of associations) was larger, heavier, and more convoluted.
When the experiment was repeated, retaining the differences in environment, but feeding identical amounts of water and identical food to both groups of rats, results were nearly identical to the first experiment. In both cases the environment-enriched rats developed a high concentration of an important brain enzyme responsible for the growth of brain tissue. The experiment showed that just the environment and its relationship to the rats can modify the basic brain chemistry. This is not to claim that people and rats are alike, but many child-care centers, kindergartens, nursery schools, and schools manage to recapitulate the deprived rats' environment. Too many parents (considering schools to be merely permanent baby-sitting agencies) never ask whether the schools are robbing their children of potential brain tissue!
Unfortunately, the rats' deprived environment can be said to exist for people in over ninety percent of the world. During the last fifty years or so, man-made environments have begun taking on the characteristics of a natural ecology: they are interlocking, user-responsive, and self-regenerating. All of humanity is fed into this new ecology, with little forethought as to how a biological mechanism responds to being ripped out of one habitat and compelled to exist in another. But we have only to look at our zoos...
Apologists for both schools as they are and for slums (and they often tend to be the same people) explain that life is grim and earnest, that existence is a continuous battle where the strong reap victory, and that the young are merely being taught to be tough in order to survive more easily in a difficult world. And in many countries life is tough indeed, with survival the only goal. In the first chapter we defined design. Under Need we listed three components in hierarchical order: Survival, Identity, and Goals. (This is my simplification of Abraham Maslow's classic, five-tiered description: Physical Needs, Security, Social Acceptance, Love, and Self-actualization.) The first imperative is always survival; only after that do we care to explore who we are. And only when the questions of our survival and our identity have come clear do we begin to establish goals. Beyond this lie extensions of these three basic imperatives: self- actualization, uniqueness, awareness, empathy, love, ecstasy, joy, and passion. The concept that the strong will perpetually triumph over the weak ("a boot stamping on your head, forever") is partially based on Social Darwinism - survival of the fittest, as consciously misinterpreted by the rising capitalist class in late nineteenth century England and America. Partially it arises from the concept that there "is just not enough to go around," until recently a historical fact. But in 1983 there is more than enough to go around for everyone if only it is properly planned, distributed, and frugally used. The amounts spent preparing for a nuclear terracide alone would feed, educate, and heal all people everywhere.”
Victor Papanek
Design For The Real World
first published 1971 revised 1984
pps 329 - 331
See
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/01/victor_papanek.phpThe rate of neurogenesis - the continuous creation of nerve cells in the brain - is higher, as might be expected, in mice that live in "enriched" environments with more activities than a standard cage. More surprisingly, however, neurogenesis doubles when a mouse has a simple running wheel in its cage. (FT)
Anomoly, Volume 20 Number 1 - February 2002
http://www.williamsinference.com/Anomalies/technology.htmaccessed Sunday, December 19, 2004
High caused by exercise may be related to cannabisDate: January 12 2004
Atlanta: The same family of chemicals that produces a buzz in marijuana smokers may be responsible for "runner's high", the euphoric feeling that some people get when they exercise, US researchers say.
High levels of anandamide were found in young men who ran or cycled at a moderate rate for about an hour, the study by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of California, Irvine, found.
Anandamide is a cannabinoid, or lipid molecule, that is naturally produced in the body. It is known to produce sensations that are similar to those of THC, the psychoactive property in marijuana.
The study's findings, published in the journal NeuroReport, challenges the belief that the release of brain chemicals called endorphins causes the peculiar high that some runners and cyclists claim to feel.
Arne Dietrich, the study's principal investigator, believes the body releases cannabinoids to help it cope with the prolonged stress and pain of moderate or intense exercise.
"No other study has ever considered this possibility, which is why the results are so significant," said Dr Dietrich, who added that there were no indications that cannabinoids caused any harm when naturally released during intense exercise.
He added that the findings could provide sufferers of glaucoma and chronic diseases an alternative to using marijuana for pain control.
The 24 young men who participated in Dr Dietrich's study were asked to run, cycle or sit. If they ran or cycled, participants began with a brief warm-up, followed by 45 minutes of moderate exercise and then a short cool-down period.
Dr Dietrich said further studies were necessary to determine the precise nature of the increase in cannabinoids during physical activity and to what degree the intensity, duration and type of exercise affected their release.
Reuters"
High caused by exercise may be related to cannabis
Sydney Morning Herald January 12 2004
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/11/1073769454351.htmlaccessed 17 Jan 2004
Treat 'em mean to keep 'em stupid. Stupid as cannon/canon fodder.
