Learn about why your brain treats hunger for knowledge like hunger for food; why the unexplored blue holes of Andros in the Bahamas is home to one of the most unique ecosystems on Earth; and folie à deux, a type of mental illness that can be shared and spread between people. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: Your Brain Treats Hunger for Knowledge Like Hunger for Food — https://curiosity.im/2rMu072 Andros, Bahamas Has More Than 200 "Blue Holes" — And They're Mostly Unexplored — https://curiosity.im/2rMW0r2 Folie à Deux Is the Psychosis You Share With the One You Love — https://curiosity.im/2rMtXrS If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn about why your brain treats hunger for knowledge like hunger for food; why the unexplored blue holes of Andros in the Bahamas is home to one of the most unique ecosystems on Earth; and folie à deux, a type of mental illness that can be shared and spread between people.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/andros-unexplored-blue-holes-folie-a-deux-and-how-your-brain-treats-curiosity-like-hunger
CODY: Hi! We’ve got three stories from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about why your brain treats hunger for knowledge like hunger for food; a place in the Bahamas where you can find one of the most unique ecosystems on Earth; and a type of mental illness that can be shared and spread between people.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Your Brain Treats Hunger for Knowledge Like Hunger for Food — https://curiosity.im/2rMu072 (Ashley)
ASHLEY: You know the phrase “hungry for knowledge?” Well that hunger might be more literal than we thought. In a new study, researchers from the UK and Japan found that your curiosity works a lot like hunger. And like hunger, it’s hard to ignore.
CODY: I just wish I’d been part of this experiment, because it basically mixed magic, food, and gambling.
ASHLEY: Yeah! Who ever said science wasn’t fun? For this study, participants watched either a short video of a magic trick or a picture of food. Then they used a seven-point scale to rate either their curiosity about the trick or their desire to eat that food. And then, the researchers asked them if they were enticed enough to gamble for it. Before making their decision, they got to see a "Wheel of Fortune"–style wheel that visually displayed their probability of winning. The exact layouts varied, and participants' chances of winning ranged from 17 to 83 percent. If the researcher's spin of the wheel ended on a winning region, the participant could find out how the trick worked, or eat the food they'd seen pictured. If the wheel landed on a losing region, though, the participant was told they'd receive an electric shock. They didn't actually, though — the researchers figured the fear of the shock was enough. The researchers found that people were more likely to accept the lottery if they were more likely to win (obviously), but they were also more likely to accept it if they had a higher curiosity or hunger score. In other words, curiosity and hunger were both powerful enough to make people willingly risk discomfort. Researchers did the experiment a second time, and this time, they scanned participants’ brains in an fMRI machine. They found that the same area of their brains lit up whether they were seeking food or information. It’s called the striatum, and it’s where what they call “incentive salience,” or basically, WANTING, comes from. The striatum was also activated when people gambled for the answer to a trivia question. And that’s important because the visual magic trick fell into the category of perceptual curiosity, but the trivia question triggered epistemic curiosity, which is what we feel about more abstract unknowns, like trivia. The moral of the story is that we want to gain knowledge in much the same we want to eat to stay alive. It's no wonder we're living in an information age — or that you're listening to a podcast called CURIOSITY Daily.
Andros, Bahamas Has More Than 200 "Blue Holes" — And They're Mostly Unexplored — https://curiosity.im/2rMW0r2 (Cody)
You’ve probably heard of the Galapagos Islands. That’s where Charles Darwin was inspired to develop the theory of evolution, and it’s home to a huge number of species that you won’t find anywhere else on Earth. What you may NOT know is that there’s a spot in the Bahamas that may also have a startling variety of life — but we don’t know, because we’ve barely scratched the surface exploring it. I’m talking about Andros [AND-ros], the largest island in the Bahamas. You’ll want to listen up if you like diving or snorkeling. [Snorkeling is cool. I went snorkeling in Belize. Really surprised me how much I liked it. / ad lib]
CODY: The thing about Andros is that it’s home to more than two hundred blue holes. They’re underwater cave systems that go as deep as almost a thousand feet. Blue holes are home to ancient limestone caves carved into the ocean floor. During the ice ages, glacial runoff eroded the limestone earth, and that formed elaborate cave systems. Once the glaciers melted, the sea levels rose and the caves flooded, and that’s what created the mysterious blue sinkholes that exist today. When these blue holes are found out in the oceans, they’re appropriately named for their indigo centers and light blue perimeters. They follow the rules of the ocean, subject to tides and home to the same species found in the surrounding sea. But while these offshore blue holes are visually the most familiar, Andros has more than 175 inland blue holes. They’re tucked away in wooded parts of the island, and they’re very different from offshore blue holes — and, quite frankly, anything else on earth. They look black, thanks to the accumulation of dead bacteria from fallen trees and leaves. From the surface, they just look like swamps, but what lies beneath is incredible. See, because of the reduced tidal flow, these blue holes are sharply stratified by a thin layer of freshwater on the surface. That stops oxygen from reaching the dense saltwater below. The result is an ecological anomaly. You end up with an underwater world of prehistoric species that are still capable of surviving in an oxygen-free environment, like that of early Earth. Instead of oxygen, the water is chock-full of another gas called hydrogen sulfide, which is potentially fatal to humans. Until recently, very few people have dived these dangerous inland blue holes, but as of late, scientists have begun investigating just how otherworldly they actually are. In 2011, biologists performed DNA analysis of microbes across five different Bahamian blue holes and found absolutely no shared species. Thousands of experienced divers flock to Andros every year to get a taste for these underwater marvels, but snorkeling the surface is also a popular activity. Dive in, and you may find some clues to the past.
Folie à Deux Is the Psychosis You Share With the One You Love — https://curiosity.im/2rMtXrS (Ashley) [FULLY ah-DOO]
When you live with someone, it’s common for a bug like a cold or flu to spread from one person to another. But mental illness? Believe it or not, it’s possible. Here’s the scoop on the phenomenon that’s technically called shared psychotic disorder, but is most famously known as folie à deux. The first case of the condition was documented in the 19th century with a 30-something married couple named Margaret and Michael. They shared a delusion that people were sneaking into their house at night spreading dust, dropping pieces of fluff, and wearing down the soles of the couple's shoes. Shared psychotic disorder most often affects people in very close relationships, like married couples, siblings, and parents and children. They're also usually socially isolated, and a lot of the time they have a pre-existing mental illness. The condition has lots of different forms, but the most common and oldest known one is called folie imposée, or imposed madness. In that form, the more dominating person in the pair spreads his or her delusion to the more submissive person, and that person doesn't resist the ideas. Another version is called folie simultanée, or simultaneous madness. That’s where two people with a deep connection both experience the delusion at once. And there’s also folie communiquée, or communicated madness. That’s like imposed madness, except the second person resists for a while. Luckily, in most of these forms, the cure is simple: just separate the two people. When that doesn’t work, psychiatrists can resort to medication or electroconvulsive therapy. But you know what? We all tend to share mental eccentricities with others, and that’s not always a bad thing. As Esther Inglis-Arkell of io9 puts it, quote, “There are few old married who don't share eccentricities. There are few families, or even close friendships, that don't require both people to work with the various mental glitches of the other. We all go a little crazy for the other people in our lives,” unquote. [ad lib? idk]
CODY: That’s all for today, but here’s a sneak peek at what you can learn about on Curiosity-dot-com this weekend.
ASHLEY: This weekend, you’ll learn about…
Why you get pleasure from the misfortune of other people;
An ancient supernova that may have triggered a mass extinction on Earth;
The humble but interesting origins of key lime pie;
A theory that says we live in an infinite web of alternate timelines;
The most addictive substances on the planet;
And more!
CODY: And don’t forget to visit our Facebook page at facebook-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com to see what Ashley and I were up to at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. You can also find exclusive photos and videos of our trip on our Patreon page at patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com, all spelled out.
ASHLEY: Come hang out with us again Sunday on the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m Ashley Hamer.
CODY: And I’m Cody Gough. Have a great weekend!
ASHLEY: And stay curious!