Teen Link: Brain

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Better get your hands free...

Beginning today,June 10th a new law comes into effect for Washington State that we anticipate is going to have some pretty heavy consequences.

As of Thursday, cops and state troopers can stop AND TICKET drivers who are talking on cellphones or texting while driving. Anyone using a cell-phone while driving without using a "hands-free" device can receive a $124 ticket.

Just so there's no misunderstandings on this matter:

TALKING ON YOUR CELL, READING TEXTS, WRITING TEXTS, and SENDING TEXTS

WHILE DRIVING IS NOW A PRIMARY OFFENSE.

And if you have an intermediate license or a permit, you are prohibited from using a phone
while driving at all - with or without a hands-free device.

Washington State Patrol reported that there will be no grace period for this new law either, so no one is getting off with a warning or will be able to tell an officer after they've been pulled over, "but, I didn't know."

Please spread the word to everyone you know about this change.

While we are in favor of this law forcing people to drive safely, we're not necessarily in favor of tons of people receiving tickets being the way that they are informed of the change in the law.

Supposedly, a campaign was begun Monday, June 7th, to raise awareness about the new law, but outside of some newspaper articles, there doesn't seem to be much being promoted regarding the law specifically.

We DID manage to find some videos through a site called Drive Nice Day, which was promoting awareness by targeting teens with slogans and videos around the topic of Safe Driving. All of these PSAs were made by students here in Western Washington and include a reminder about the new law and the date it goes into effect, one of which includes a new slogan, "Don't Drive While In-text-icated."

http://www.driveniceday.org/video_detail.php?video_id=21

http://www.driveniceday.org/video_detail.php?video_id=11

http://www.driveniceday.org/video_detail.php?video_id=23

http://www.driveniceday.org/video_detail.php?video_id=17

http://www.driveniceday.org/video_detail.php?video_id=26

Before the change to the law, drivers could be ticketed for using their cellphones only if they had been pulled over for another offense such as speeding. And despite what seems like universal agreement that driving while using a cell-phone is unsafe, the jury is still out on how much safer this law will make the roads.

From the Seattle Times:

"It's a feel-good law. It makes people think, 'We're trying to do something to address the problem,' " says professor David Strayer, of the University of Utah's psychology department.

...his research, and over the years that at other institutions shows there is no difference in driver impairment between those talking on hand-held versus hands-free cells.

The problem, he says, isn't with the hands. It's with the brain. Drivers turn their focus to the conversation rather than the road.When using either kind of cellphone, says Strayer, "the brain becomes overloaded."

And in NY state where a hands-free law has been in effect since 2001, different groups disagree - some asserting that the law has reduced deaths and others claim that it hasn't reduced crashes, even though it's reduced hand-held phone use.

The message that all agree on is that the brain is distracted when using a cell-phone in ANY way and driving simultaneously, which puts the driver and everyone around them at risk. The problem is most people think, "that may be the case for everybody else, but not me. I can handle it." Oh yeah? try on this game for size and see how well you do:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-driving-game.html

No matter which side of the argument you find yourself standing on, if you get behind the wheel, this new law is going to effect you. So here's a quick rundown.

New law takes effect June 10

What it does: Makes it a primary offense to use a hand-held cellphone while driving. Ticket won't become part of a driver's permanent record or be reported to insurance companies.
For drivers under 18: Outlaws any cellphone use, even with a headset.

Penalty: $124 fine for texting or talking without a headset.

Exemptions: Transit and emergency-vehicle personnel, tow-truck operators and those using a hearing aid are exempted, as well as anyone text-messaging or calling to report illegal activity or summon emergency help.

Sources: State of Washington and The Associated Press

Friday, November 6, 2009

Can You Taste the Colors?

What if whenever you said the word 'jump' you instantly tasted pumpkin pie? Or you believed all of the letters of the alphabet had designated colors (letter 'A' was aqua-marine, B lime green, C yellow, etc.)? Or whenever you saw the color pink you automatically smelled chlorine? Those experiences can be a reality for the estimated 1 in 23 people in the population have what's called synesthesia.

What is synesthesia you might ask? Good question. We think this definition sums it up pretty well. "Synesthesia is a neurological based phenomenon. It is when the stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report such experiences are known as synesthetes" (The Health Journals 1).

Synesthetes differ in the associations each has. While some associate colors with various letters of the alphabet or taste something in his or her mouth after hearing a certain word, some synesthetes also see colors when they hear music. Additionally, some say that numbers have genders and personalities. For example, the letter 4 might be a loud and exhuberant female, while the letter 7 is a quiet and reserved male. Interesting, huh?
Synesthesia has been researched since the 1800s. It typically runs in families, and is estimated to affect approximately 4% of the population. Additionally some individuals report synthetic experiences after a seizure or stroke.

The majority of scientists agree that synesthesia is due to "cross-talk" of the brain, or when different parts of the brain interact. Here's an explanation from The Health Journals online:
"...regions involved in naming letters are adjacent to the area involved in color processing;

synesthesia may be the result of cross-activation between these two areas. Recent research shows marked differences in the brains of synesthetes and the general population. Synesthetes have higher levels of connectivity between the fusiform gyrus (part of the temporal lobe, the area that controls processing and color information as well as word and number recognition) and the frontal cortex. Scientists hypothesize that this 'cross-wiring' occurs when the nerve wiring that is usually contained within one sensory system crosses into another system."
As children, many synthesthetes find it odd that classmates don't understand when he or she insists perhaps, that the color G is cranberry-red. Such is the case in A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass. It's a fictionous novel, but a pretty accurate and interesting read about a 13-year-old girl's experiences with synesthesia.

Artist Carol Steen described her own personal experiences with synesthesia. As she says, "There have been times when I have had one sensation such as toothache and observed the color of the pain, its taste and smell. All these synaesthetic perceptions are aspects of one overall experience. I perceive them as related in the same way that windows, a door and front steps combine to become the image of a house." She has also said, like many other synesthetes, that her synesthesia has been very beneficial in relation to her art.

After getting acupuncture, Carol described the synaesthetic experiences she had during her session. She later used these experiences as inspiration for the coloring of a new painting. "Lying there, I watched the black background become pierced by a bright red colour that began to form in the middle of the rich velvet blackness. The red began as a small dot of colour and grew quite large rather quickly, chasing much of the blackness away. I saw green shapes appear in the midst of the red color and move around the red and black fields."

There are many other synaesthetic artists like Carol, such as painter David Hockney, writer Vladimir Nabokov and composer Olivier Messiaen.

In addition to artistic benefits, many synesthetes also claim synesthesia benefits their memory; the idea of color, for example gives them an additional way to help remember facts.

Interesting phenomenon, huh? If you're interested to learning more, you can check out our sources below. Also, the book mentioned above, A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass is a good read.