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Mania linked
to desire for fame, success: Study
LONDON, (AFP) - People
with manic or bipolar tendencies have higher expectations of
what they can achieve in terms of success, money and fame, a new
study published Monday finds.
Researchers assessed 103 people, including 27 with diagnosed
manic depression, or bipolar disorder, a brain disorder that
causes unusual and often dramatic shifts in a person’s mood,
energy and ability to function.
They were asked to fill in questionnaires designed to assess
their most ambitious life goals, rating the likelihood of
certain things happening to them, such as appearing regularly on
TV or earning 20 million dollars or more.
“We found that the people who had experienced episodes of mania
during their lives had the highest expectations of achieving
popular success and financial success,” said Professor Sheri L.
Johnson from the University of California.
“This pattern suggests that people with manic or bipolar
tendencies are drawn to focus on success, money and popular
fame.”
Writing in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology, she said
mania characterised by an elevated mood, racing thoughts and
increased talkativeness had already been linked to a belief in
the importance of achievement.
“These results suggest that mania, along with all of its costs,
may also drive people to set higher goals,” Johnson said.
“In some cases they achieve them, giving us a glimpse into the
advantages that can accompany this highly painful disorder.”
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‘The
unexpected outcome’ is a key to human learning
ScienceDaily - The human brain’s sensitivity to
unexpected outcomes plays a fundamental role in the ability to
adapt and learn new behaviours, according to a new study by a
team of psychologists and neuroscientists from the University of
Pennsylvania.
Using a computer-based card game and microelectrodes to observe
neuronal activity of the brain, the Penn study, published March
13 in the journal Science, suggests that neurons in the human
substantia nigra, or SN, play a central role in reward-based
learning, modulating learning based on the discrepancy between
the expected and the realised outcome.
“This is the first study to directly record neural activity
underlying this learning process in humans, confirming the
hypothesised role of the basal ganglia, which includes the SN,
in models of reinforcement including learning, addiction and
other disorders involving reward-seeking behaviour,” said lead
author Kareem Zaghloul, postdoctoral fellow in neurosurgery at
Penn’s School of Medicine. “By responding to unexpected
financial rewards, these cells encode information that seems to
help participants maximise reward in the probabilistic learning
task.”
Learning, previously studied in animal models, seems to occur
when dopaminergic neurons, which drive a larger basal ganglia
circuit, are activated in response to unexpected rewards and
depressed after the unexpected omission of reward. Put simply, a
lucky win seems to be retained better than a probable loss.
Similar to an economic theory, where efficient markets respond
to unexpected events and expected events have no effect, we
found that the dopaminergic system of the human brain seems to
be wired in a similar rational manner -- tuned to learn whenever
anything unexpected happens but not when things are
predictable,” said Michael J. Kahana, senior author and
professor of psychology at Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences.
Zaghloul worked with Kahana and Gordon Baltuch, associate
professor of neurosurgery, in a unique collaboration among
departments of psychology, neurosurgery and bioengineering. They
used microelectrode recordings obtained during deep brain
stimulation surgery of Parkinson’s patients to study neuronal
activity in the SN, the midbrain structure that plays an
important role in movement, as well as reward and addiction.
Patients with Parkinson’s disease show impaired learning from
both positive and negative feedback in cognitive tasks due to
the degenerative nature of their disease and the decreased
number of dopaminergic neurons.
The recordings were analysed to determine whether responses were
affected by reward expectation. Participants were asked to
choose between red and blue decks of cards presented on a
computer screen, one of which carried a higher probability of
yielding a financial reward than the other. If the draw of a
card yielded a reward, a stack of gold coins was displayed along
with an audible ring of a cash register and a counter showing
accumulated virtual earnings. If the draw did not yield a reward
or if no choice was made, the screen turned blank and
participants heard a buzz.
“This new way to measure dopaminergic neuron activity has helped
us gain a greater understanding of fundamental cognitive
activity,” said Baltuch, director of the Penn Medicine Center
for Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery.
The work is supported by grants from the National Institutes of
Health, the Conte Center and the Dana Foundation.
Journal reference:
Kareem A. Zaghloul, Justin A. Blanco, Christoph T. Weidemann,
Kathryn McGill, Jurg L. Jaggi, Gordon H. Baltuch, and Michael J.
Kahana. Human Substantia Nigra Neurons Encode Unexpected
Financial Rewards. Science, 2009; 323 (5920): 1496 DOI:
10.1126/science.1167342
Adapted from materials provided by University of Pennsylvania.
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GSK wins two
awards at 2009 ‘PPA Quiz’
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the leading
pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare company took both second
and third places at this year’s annual Pharma Promoters
Association (PPA) Quiz.
GSK competed with 22 teams from other companies in the industry,
where each team comprised a cross section of members from the
respective companies.
The questions covered the areas of Sports, International
Affairs, Science and Medicine, History and Politics and Business
Knowledge (Finance, Economy, Marketing and Management).
“This is the second consecutive year that GSK teams won two of
the top three places at the PPA quiz,” said GSK Sri Lanka Human
Resources Director Ms. Kumudini S. Welmillage. She pointed out
that last year GSK teams won the ‘PPA Challenge Trophy’ as well
as the third place at the competition.
The GSK team adjudged runners up comprised of Rajeeve
Goonetileke, Monira Rafeek, Ranjith Samarasinghe, Kumudini
Welmillage, Shamith Perera and Amila Salgado while the team that
won the third place at the competition comprised of Suresh
Anandappa, Merindra Peiris, M. Zawahir, Tiran Goonerathne,
Arshag Ali and Gayan Kumara.
The “PPA Quiz Nite” is one of the main events in the PPA
calendar and is much looked forward to by PPA member companies.
It was initiated in 1991 for fostering a sense of togetherness
among the PPA fraternity, especially medical promotion
delegates.
A world leading research-based pharmaceuticals and vaccines
company, GSK operates in 114 countries and employs over 100,000
people. Every day, more than 200 million people around the world
use a GSK brand. GSK is also the only pharmaceutical company to
tackle the three “priority” diseases identified by the World
Health Organization (WHO): HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
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Making decisions the right way
DECISION-MAKING in organisations is simplified if management
sets the boundaries within which the business is to operate.
These boundaries are made by defining the objectives, which
should be generally understood, whether implicitly or
explicitly.
Writing the objectives down will help to clarify them further.
By defining objectives, it will help to distinguish them from
management beliefs, which may have no current purpose. Outdated
beliefs tend to continue in any organisation. In the armed
forces, it used to be said that generals always fight the last
war.
Management beliefs and attitudes are likely to influence the
type of decision that is made and the speed with which a
decision is reached and implemented. Some decisions may never
have been made because they are not in line with management’s
belief and priorities.
Some firms publish broad objectives, reflecting their corporate
philosophy. The objective is to describe the values that should
underlie management decisions.
The broad objectives incorporate the ideas of different
stakeholders in the company. Profit is one of the objectives and
the aim is not to maximise profit. An equivalent statement of
objectives is a useful guide to decision-making in any kind of
organisation. Hewlett-Packard first published its corporate
objectives in 1957 and has modified them since from time to
time. They are printed in a booklet called “The HP Way”. Here
are a few extracts: “Profit: To achieve sufficient profit to
finance our company growth and to provide the resources we need
to achieve our other corporate objectives.
Our People: To help HP people share in the company’s success
which they make possible; to provide employment security based
on their performance; to ensure them a safe and pleasant work
environment; to recognise their individual achievements; and to
help them gain a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment from
their work.
Management: To foster initiative and creativity by allowing the
individual great freedom of action in attaining well-defined
objectives.”
Source: Rosemary Stewart, The Reality of Management, 3rd
edition, Butterworth-Heinemann. **** |
