Is there another human living inside you?

You may think your body and mind are your own. In fact, you are a fusion of many organisms - including, potentially, another person. Words by David Robson, photography by Ariko Inaoka.

By David Robson 18 September 2015

 
Once upon a time, your origins were easy to understand. Your dad met your mum, they had some fun, and from a tiny fertilised egg you emerged kicking and screaming into the world. You are half your mum, half your dad – and 100% yourself.

Except, that simple tale has now become a lot more complicated. Besides your genes from parents, you are a mosaic of viruses, bacteria – and potentially, other humans. Indeed, if you are a twin, you are particularly likely to be carrying bits of your sibling within your body and brain. Stranger still, they may be influencing how you act.

"A very large number of different human and non-human individuals are struggling inside us for control  "

“Humans are not unitary individuals but superorganisms,” says Peter Kramer at the University of Padua. “A very large number of different human and non-human individuals are all incessantly struggling inside us for control.” Together with Paola Bressan, he recently wrote a paper in the journal Perspectives in Psychological Science, calling for psychologists and psychiatrists to appreciate the ways this may influence our behaviour.

That may sound alarming, but it has long been known that our bodies are really a mishmash of many different organisms. Microbes in your gut can produce neurotransmitters that alter your mood; some scientists have even proposed that the microbes may sway your appetite, so that you crave their favourite food. An infection of a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, meanwhile, might just lead you to your death. In nature, the microbe warps rats’ brains so that they are attracted to cats, which will then offer a cosy home for it to reproduce. But humans can be infected and subjected to the same kind of mind control too: the microbe seems to make someone risky, and increases the chance they will suffer from schizophrenia or suicidal depression. Currently, around a third of British meat carries this parasite, for instance – despite the fact an infection could contribute to these mental illnesses. “We should stop this,” says Kramer.

Infiltrating siblings
In this light, it becomes clear that our actions are not entirely our own. It’s enough to make you question your sense of identity, but the idea of infiltration becomes even more eerie when you realise that your brain has not just been invaded by tiny microbes – but also by other human beings.

"Even non-conjoined twins could be sharing organs without realising it"

The most visible example might be a case of conjoined twins sharing a brain, says Kramer, but even regular twins could have shared organs without realising it. During early development, cells can be passed between twins or triplets. Once considered a rare occurrence, we now know it is surprisingly common. Around 8% of non-identical twins and 21% of triplets, for example, have not one, but two blood groups: one produced by their own cells, and one produced by “alien” cells absorbed from their twin. They are, in other words, a chimera – a fusion of two bodies – and it may occur in many organs, including the brain.

Brothers from another mother

Women accidentally carrying a "twin's" child

Lydia Fairchild’s paternity test was meant to be straightforward, proving to the courts that her two sons’ father was the person she said he was. When the test came back, however, Fairchild herself came up as a blank: there was no trace of her DNA in her own children.
The courts threatened to convict her of illegal surrogacy – they assumed it was a scam to gain benefits. Luckily, at around the same time, a scientific paper reported a similar case in which a woman was apparently not the biological mother of two of her three children. The reason was that she was a chimera: a case in which two twins had merged into one body early in development. Being the product of two different cell lines, some of her eggs carried a genome that was different from the rest of the body.


Needless to say, the discovery has caused Fairchild to question her own identity. “Telling my sons about this was the hardest part because I felt that part of me hadn't passed on to them,” she told the website Jezebel. “I thought, ‘Oh, I wonder if they'll really feel that I'm not quite their real mother somehow because the genes that I should've given to them, I didn't give to them.’”

A chimera brain could have serious consequences. For instance, we know that the arrangement of different brain regions can be crucial for its function – but the presence of foreign tissue, being directed by different genes carrying a different blueprint, may throw that intricate design into disarray. This may explain, for instance, why twins are less likely to be right-handed – a simple trait that normally relies on the relative organisation of the right and the left hemispheres. Perhaps chimerism has upset the balance.

Even if you do not think you ever had a twin, there are many other ways you might be invaded by another human’s cells. It’s possible, for instance, that you started off as two foetuses in the womb, but the twins merged during early development. Since it occurs at such an early age of development, the cells can become incorporated into the tissue and seem to develop normally, yet they are carrying another person’s genetic blueprint. “You look like one person, but you have the cells of another person in you – effectively, you have always been two people,” says Kramer. In one extreme case, a woman was surprised to be told that she was not the biological mother of her two children (See “Brother from another mother”, left). Alternatively, cells from an older sibling might stay around the mother’s body, only to find their way into your body after you are conceived.

However it happens, it’s perfectly plausible that tissue from another human could cause the brain to develop in unexpected ways, says Lee Nelson from the University of Washington. She’s currently examining whether cells from the mother herself may be implanted in the baby brain. “A difference in the amount, cell type, or the time during development at which the cells were acquired could all result in abnormalities,” she says.

Nelson has found that even as an adult, you are not immune from human invaders. A couple of years ago, Nelson and William Chan at the University of Alberta in Edmonton took slices of women’s brain tissue and screened their genome for signs of the Y-chromosome. Around 63% were harbouring male cells. “Not only did we find male DNA in female human brains as a general observation, we found it to be present in multiple brain regions,” says Chan. In other words, their brains were speckled with cells from a man’s body. One logical conclusion is that it came from a baby: somehow, her own son’s stem cells had made it through the placenta and lodged in her brain. Strangely, this seemed to decrease the chances that the mother would subsequently develop Alzheimer’s – though exactly why remains a mystery. Some researchers are even beginning to wonder whether these cells might influence a mother’s mindset during pregnancy.

Our knowledge of the human “superorganism” is still in its infancy, so many of the consequences are purely theoretical at the moment. Kramer and Bressan's aim with their paper was not to give definitive answers, but to enlighten other psychologists and psychiatrists about the many entities that make us who we are today. “We cannot understand human behaviour by considering only one or the other individual,” Kramer says. “Ultimately, we must understand them all to understand how ‘we’ behave.”

For instance, scientists often compare sets of twins to understand the origins of behaviour, but the fact that even non-identical twins may have swapped bits of brain tissue might have muddied those results. We should be particularly careful when using these twin studies to compare conditions such as schizophrenia that may arise from faulty brain organisation, Bressan and Kramer say.

In general, however, we shouldn’t feel hostile towards these invaders – after all, they made you who you are today. “I think it is now clear that our natural immigrants are with us for the long-term, for better or for worse,” says Nelson. “And I would think “for better” outweighs ‘for worse’.”

David Robson is BBC Future’s feature writer. More of Ariko Inaoka's photography, including her portraits of the Icelandic twins Erna and Hrefna, can be found here.

Atrito

E quando o atrito do caminhar dói demais, o melhor é flutuar...

To Feel Meaningful Is to Feel Immortal

By Clay Routledge | November 3, 2014

Still Life with Skull by Philippe de Champagne (1602-1674). (Wikimedia Commons)

Imagine when our ancestors first started to look up at the stars and question their place in the universe. Why are we here? Are we alone? What happens to us when we die? It is difficult to know for sure at what point in time we became a species obsessed with existential questions. We can roughly date when humans first started to paint magical beings on cave walls or carefully and ornamentally bury the dead. But precisely when our ancestors started to truly behave like us is a matter of considerable debate. What we do know, however, is that at some point tens or maybe even a hundred or more thousand years ago, people started to look beyond the basic day-to-day concerns of the body to focus on matters of the soul.

A lot has changed since our species first began to contemplate such heavy issues. We can now send rockets into outer space, map the human genome and transmit information around the globe nearly instantaneously (we still need those flying cars we were promised though). And yet despite how technologically advanced our world has become, we are still burdened by the basic existential queries that early humans grappled with. We want to know our place in the universe. We strive to maintain the belief that we are living meaningful lives. And we cling to the hope that we are more than the sum of our biological parts, that we will make contributions to the world that transcend our mortality. In short, humans have long been and probably always will be existential animals – a species on a quest for enduring meaning.

Our existential lives have always fascinated philosophers and theologians. But now scientists are jumping into the fray, using empirical methods to ask questions that were once considered off limits to them. Specifically, empirical psychologists are exploring questions such as: Why do people seek meaning? What is it that makes life meaningful? And what are the mental and physical health consequences of finding (or not finding) meaning?

Why Does Meaning Matter?

My dog does not appear to be contemplating his purpose in life and he seems relatively well adjusted. Why then do humans desire to perceive their lives as meaningful?

One explanation that has received a significant amount of scientific attention relates to the human awareness of self and death. According to terror management theory, a prominent theory in social psychology, humans are like all other animals in that we strive to survive. Our bodies consist of systems that work to keep us alive. And as conscious beings, we deliberately engage in efforts to avoid death. We are motivated to live. However, unlike other animals, humans are intelligent enough to realize that death is certain. That is, we are uniquely aware of our mortal nature. We understand that despite our best efforts to stay alive, death is inevitable.

Terror management theory asserts that this juxtaposition of a desire to live and an awareness of death has the potential to cause a significant amount of anxiety or terror and that humans need to manage this terror in some way. We would not be a very productive species if we lived our lives in constant fear of death. Thus, according to the theory, people seek out a sense of enduring meaning that makes them feel more than mortal.

In other words, people know their lives are brief and so we endeavor to be part of something that transcends biological existence. This sense of death-transcendence can come from having children, creating works that will leave a lasting legacy, investing in a group or organization that outlasts the lives of any individual member, and so on. Of course, religion is a particularly powerful meaning-making tool as most religious beliefs explicitly afford humans a means of transcending death.

St. Jerome by Caravaggio (1573-1610). (Wikimedia Commons)

Research supports terror management theory. Specifically, studies find that when people are exposed to stimuli that remind them of their mortality, they exhibit increased investment in the social and cultural identities that provide meaning and perceptions of death-transcendence. For example, having people contemplate mortality increases their desire to have children, level of patriotism, religious faith and commitment to romantic partners. In short, heightening the awareness of death heightens efforts to find and preserve transcendent meaning.

Similarly, meaning mitigates the threat of death awareness. For example, studies show that having people think about death increases fear of death. However, this effect is only observed among those who do not perceive their lives as meaningful. People who have meaning are not as terrified about the fact that they are mortal.

There may actually be a number of reasons that people need meaning. However, a large body of research demonstrates that the realization that life is finite is a potent driving force for people’s efforts to feel that their lives are purposeful and meaningful. People want to be more than mere mortal beings who die and disappear forever. To feel meaningful is to feel like you made a lasting mark, a contribution that will endure beyond your death. To feel meaningful is to feel immortal.

And there are many practical benefits to existential security as studies have identified a number of ways that meaning contributes to mental and physical health. Consider the following examples.
Meaning Helps People Cope with Life Challenges: Becoming ill or having to face a major life challenge such as job loss or the death of a loved one is difficult for everyone. However, research indicates that people who report having a strong sense of meaning in life are better able to cope with these mentally and physically taxing experiences. Meaning can give people the inner strength they need to overcome many of life’s hurdles. Meaning motivates. It makes people want to productively move forward in life.


Meaning Reduces the Risk of Mental Illness: Many studies indicate that people who believe their lives are full of meaning and purpose are less likely to suffer from mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders and less inclined to engage in problematic behavior such as excessive drinking. And studies show that when people do struggle from mental illness, finding meaning can improve the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions. Meaning not only helps people cope with difficulties in life, it also promotes psychological health.


Meaning Contributes to Successful Aging: A number of studies have established a strong link between meaning in life and quality of life among older adults. Older adults who perceive their lives as meaningful are physically and mentally healthier than those who perceive their lives as having little or no meaning. Meaning in life is also associated with decreased fear of death among older adults.


Meaning Reduces the Risk of Mortality: Emerging research further highlights the importance of meaning by revealing that people who report having a strong sense of purpose in life live longer. In fact, across all adult age groups, purpose is associated with mortality. Even among young adults, the greater your sense of purpose, the less likely you are to die.

A Growing Field

This is just a small sample of the ever-growing scientific literature on the psychology of meaning. Historically, existential psychology was considered a topic that “serious” empirical psychologists should avoid. It was too warm and fuzzy. This view was prominent, in part, because the field of psychology was desperately striving to earn its place as a legitimate science and shed its lay reputation as a discipline more about interpreting dreams and decrypting the hidden meaning of people’s thoughts than systematic scientific research and empirically-derived therapeutic interventions. But as the field continues to evolve and thrive as a science-based enterprise, researchers are beginning to feel more comfortable using the tools of science to explore fundamental questions about our existential nature. Humans are meaning-making animals and scientists are just now beginning to fully understand just how important the meaning motive is for adaptive functioning.

About the Author: Dr. Clay Routledge is a social psychologist and associate professor of Psychology at North Dakota State University. His research focuses on how the need to perceive life as meaningful impacts mental and physical health, close relationships, and intergroup relations. He is a leading expert in the area of experimental existential psychology. He regularly publishes his work in the top psychology journals, recently co-edited a book on the scientific study of meaning in life, and is currently writing a book on the psychology of nostalgia. His work has been featured by The New York Times, The New Yorker, NPR, BBC, CNN, CBC, ABC News, Men's Health, Women's Health and Cosmopolitan. He also regularly serves as an expert guest on national and international radio programs.


http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/2014/11/03/to-feel-meaningful-is-to-feel-immortal/?WT.mc_id=SA_Facebook

Crece apoyo al asesinato de recién nacidos en las universidades de EE.UU.

En los recintos universitarios estadounidenses ha crecido la cantidad de estudiantes que apoyan el asesinato de recién nacidos, según informaron organizaciones provida.

Texto completo en: http://actualidad.rt.com/sociedad/view/145265-crece-respaldo-abortos-posnatales-campus-eeuu

En los recintos universitarios estadounidenses ha crecido la cantidad de estudiantes que apoyan el asesinato de recién nacidos, según informaron organizaciones provida.

Algunos de los estudiantes encuestados incluso sugieren que es aceptable quitar la vida a niños de hasta cuatro o cinco años de edad, ya que aún no son "conscientes", según el portal 'The College Fix'.

"Casi en cada campus que visitamos, encontramos a personas quienes consideran moralmente aceptable el matar a infantes después de su nacimiento. Mientras este punto de vista impactante para la mayoría de las personas, cada vez recibe más apoyo", contó Mark Harrington, el director de 'Created Equal'.

Los campus mencionados incluyen a Purdue, la Universidad de Minnesota, la Universidad de Florida Central y la Universidad Estatal de Ohio.

"Entre los que apoyan los abortos, es habitual creer que matar a bebés no es nada malo porque no somos humanos hasta que no somos conscientes", afirmó Kristina Garza, una portavoz de Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust.

Texto completo en: http://actualidad.rt.com/sociedad/view/145265-crece-respaldo-abortos-posnatales-campus-eeuu

En los recintos universitarios estadounidenses ha crecido la cantidad de estudiantes que apoyan el asesinato de recién nacidos, según informaron organizaciones provida.

"Casi en cada campus que visitamos, encontramos a personas quienes consideran moralmente aceptable el matar a infantes después de su nacimiento. Mientras este punto de vista impactante para la mayoría de las personas, cada vez recibe más apoyo", contó Mark Harrington, el director de 'Created Equal'.

Los campus mencionados incluyen a Purdue, la Universidad de Minnesota, la Universidad de Florida Central y la Universidad Estatal de Ohio.

"Entre los que apoyan los abortos, es habitual creer que matar a bebés no es nada malo porque no somos humanos hasta que no somos conscientes", afirmó Kristina Garza, una portavoz de Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust.

Texto completo en: http://actualidad.rt.com/sociedad/view/145265-crece-respaldo-abortos-posnatales-campus-eeuu

Cuando el cuerpo pierde su identidad

Encontré este articulo en un post del Facebook y el comentario decia que 'parece que desde que el cuerpo dejó de ser importante en las tareas humanas, todo se mezcla' (Hugo Escalante).

Podria agregar que el ser humano está disolviéndose en su identidad y todavía no surgió otra.  Animales ya tienen el status de personas, tenemos protesis para organos, miembros, mentes. Estamos a camino de replicarnos como robots, de entrar en la mente del otro, etc. Perder el limite absoluto de la identidad sexual parece ser una consecuencia natural de este proceso.

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Un futuro sin género: 6 retratos de jóvenes que no se sienten ni hombre ni mujer

La periodista Rachele Kanigel y la fotógrafa Chloe Aftel publican The Shadow Sex, un reportaje sobre los jóvenes de San Francisco que no se identifican con género alguno

Por: Luna Miguel, martes 27 de mayo de 2014

Meneame57

 

 

Una tarde de noviembre de 2013, Sasha Fleischman regresaba a casa en el autobús escolar, cuando de pronto le entró el sueño. Mientras echaba una cabezada, otros dos adolescentes le prendieron fuego como símbolo de burla, de desprecio y de asco. La razón de que Fleischman provocara tanto rechazo a los agresores fue su manera de vestir: falda de mujer y camiseta de hombre, una indumentaria que no reflejaba sus ganas de provocar tanto como el simple hecho de que el joven no se identifica ni con el sexo femenino ni con el masculino, y por lo tanto expresa su manera de ser a través de la indumentaria.

La cámara de seguridad del vehículo captó el momento de la violencia, y entonces su historia dio la vuelta a la prensa internacional como si de un suceso cualquiera de bullying se tratara. Nada más lejos de la realidad: quemaduras de segundo y de tercer grado, vendas y medicinas para un tratamiento que ascendería a los 15.000 euros, y una actitud completamente heroica que llevaría a Fleischman a regresar a las clases, aun con sus piernas y sus brazos vendados, con el propósito de no avergonzarse de lo ocurrido pero sí de luchar por sus derechos como el adolescente sin género que se declara.

Como más tarde demostraría la revista San Francisco Magazine, Fleischman no está solo. Impresionada por lo sucedido, la fotógrafa Chloe Aftel comenzó un reportaje fotográfico centrado no sólo en Sasha sino en más jóvenes del área de San Francisco que también aseguran no pertenecer a ninguna condición sexual. Junto a la periodista Rachele Kanigel, ambas entrevistaron a estos adolescentes en sus lugares más íntimos y charlaron con ellos sobre cómo se sienten, o sobre cómo creen que las personas que estamos a su alrededor deberíamos tratarles e incluso denominarles. Palabras como libertad, aceptación y neutralidad son algunas de las más repetidas en sus discursos.
Pero la masculinidad ni la feminidad entran en su vocabulario como algo preciso y sin variables. Ellos son libres de mantener relaciones con quien deseen, vestirse como les guste o pensar en sus respectivos futuros profesionales sin presiones asociadas al sexo. De entre los entrevistados, también encontramos voces, aspectos y pareceres muy distintos: desde quienes crecieron sintiendo repulsión por su cuerpo según se les formaba en la adolescencia, porque no se sentían en sintonía con él; hasta los que supieron canalizar todas sus ansiedades de manera artística e incluso se comprometieron políticamente.

“No binarios en un mundo binario”, así es como los define Micah, joven bloguero de Neutrosis Nonsense que lleva años escribiendo sobre su condición e investigando de qué manera pueden definirse o nombrarse quienes se sienten como él. Aunque más allá de encontrar calificativos a sus casos —una tarea en la que, según ellos, parecen entretenerse mucho más los colectivos LGTB—, lo que a Sasha Fleischman y a muchos otros les interesa es poder tomar decisiones en su día a día sin sentirse desubicados. Que el mundo no se divida en “para chicos” o “para chicas”, sino quizá en un abanico más amplio de posibilidades.

O como escribe el autor de Neutrosis Nonsense: “las muñecas son para las niñas, los camiones son para los niños, los puzles son neutrales… Mi género es un puzle.”

[Vía San Francisco Magazine]

El éxito de la “inteligencia artificial” podría ser un error: Stephen Hawking

En un artículo publicado por el diario británico The Independent, el astrofísico Stephen Hawking revela su preocupación acerca del desarrollo de una “inteligencia artificial” superior, pues cree que actualmente no se le está prestando atención a las posibles implicaciones que eso tendría.

Para él, el principal problema que se tendría con este tipo de investigación, es que llegaría un punto donde el modelo "mecánico" sobrepasaría al humano, convirtiéndose este último en un sirviente del primero. Con esta declaración lo primero que viene a la mente es un escenario parecido al de films como Terminator o Matrix, donde las máquinas buscan el exterminio o control de la raza humana para su propio beneficio.

Sin embargo, lo que plantea es algo parecido a lo que se puede ver en el juego “Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots”, donde un sistema de Inteligencia Artificial (llamado Sons of the Patriots), al principio dominado por un grupo de personas, se vuelve autosuficiente llegando a controlar las decisiones políticas, sociales, mercantiles y humanitarias del mundo entero, pero dando una ilusión de elección al ser humano. En el caso del título de Konami, todo encaminado a sustentar una economía de la guerra.

Uno puede imaginar tal tecnología siendo más inteligente que los mercados financieros, superando a los investigadores humanos, manipulando a los líderes y desarrollando armas que ni siquiera podemos entender. El impacto a corto plazo de la inteligencia artificial depende de quién la controla, el impacto a largo plazo depende de si se puede controlar en absoluto. A pesar de todo, Hawking no se muestra en contra de tales investigaciones, pero sugiere que se deberían tomar en cuenta todas las variables.

Con información de The Independent

Obrigadamente

Não há dor maior que viver a vida obrigadamente.

Límites

(Fragmento del libro de ensayos sociales "Caminando en la Luz" de Juan Carlos Quiroga)

La vida tiene estos reveses, que nunca van a dejar de sorprenderme, asimilar los problemas y buscarles el equilibrio de la solución, entre la perdida, dolorosa, de lo conseguido, y la ganancia, complaciente, de lo perdido.

Es en esta singularidad subjetiva del espacio temporal, que transcurren las cosas y se modifican los preceptos, cuando, de repente, una figura abstracta de nuestro recuerdo, nos arranca una lagrima de alegría profunda, deseable y podemos amar, muy profundamente, más allá de todo contacto físico, transmutando lo épico y cronológico, en algo tangible y real, llevándolo al extremo de contagiarlo en subliminales gestos espirituales de nuestro comportamiento, que debido al limite verbal del idioma, queda en el momento inconcluso de la incertidumbre, porque solo el contacto expresivo de todos nuestros sentidos sumado al verbo, nos puede mostrar un bosquejo de esta inflexión, que simplemente puede morir en un acto tangencial, como un beso, y nunca más ser, pero eso ya es hablar de reencarnación.

A vida tem estes reveses, que nunca deixarão de me surpreender, assimilar os problemas e buscar o equilíbrio da solução, entre a perdida, dolorida, do alcançado, e a ganância, complacente, do perdido.

É nesta singularidade subjetiva do espaço temporal, que transcorrem as coisas e se modificam os preceitos, quando, de repente, uma figura abstrata de nossa lembrança, nos arranca uma lágrima de alegria profunda, desejável e podemos amar, muito profundamente, além de todo contato físico, transmutando o épico em cronológico, em algo tangível e real, levando-o ao extremo de contagiá-lo em subliminares gestos espirituais de nosso comportamento, que devido ao limite verbal do idioma, fica no momento inconcluso da incerteza, porque somente o contato expressivo de todos nossos sentidos somado ao verbo, pode nos mostrar um esboço desta inflexão, que simplesmente pode morrer em um ato tangencial, como um beijo, y nunca mais ser, mas isso já é falar de reencarnação.