Cross Country 67 - In Progress

[Barrett Dorko]

It's been a quiet week in Cuyahoga Falls...

I thought this week I'd try posting as I travel. Had an experience on the plane in Cleveland that continues to haunt me and discussed it with Jon Newman who met me for dinner in Madison Wisconsin. (See photo below) I arrived a little late having gotten caught in Dubuque rush hour traffic - that's a local joke.

We sorted through the plane incident and I'll report more about that tomorrow.

[Louis Greenwald]

thought that you would like it Louie - have a great day !!!! :thumbs_up

[Crazy Pole]

Wow,

Both in the "Thinker" pose! Was that choreographed, or are your "ideomotors" so common that you express in the same way? Scary...

Wes

[nari]

I noticed the Rodinesque pose too!
Gotta be ideomotor...

Nari

[Jon Newman]

Hi Wes,

I was thinking actually. I was thinking "When is she going to find the right button to push".

[Barrett Dorko]

Seated toward the front of a small plane on the tarmac at the Cleveland airport I witnessed a verbal confrontation between the flight attendant and the woman in the seat in front of me. It apparently concerned some casual remark the passenger had heard the attendant say while our plane was being deiced on a frigid and snowy day. I got the impression that the passenger was scared and upset, and though I assume she was seeking reassurance she made it clear she felt the attendant was acting improperly.

The attendant’s face was about four feet from my own and I could see it clearly. I noticed an initial look of confusion there followed rapidly by a subtle shift toward a solicitous smile. Her words weren’t perfectly clear but the tone was unmistakable. Mildly sarcastic and patronizing, the attendant made it clear that she disagreed and that this woman simply needed to, well, shut up.

What haunts me is my personal reaction to the exchange. I grew as red as I ever have, all through my face and deep into my neck. I could feel the heat emanating from my head and noticed my shoulders rising as well. I’m not sure I could have moved in any other way and I stared at the book in front of me, waiting and hoping for this all to pass. My breathing shortened to nearly none at all.

This week I’m carrying with me Skin: A Natural History (http://www.amazon.com/Skin-Natural-History-Nina-Jablonski/dp/0520242815/sr=1-1/qid=1170387053/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7213658-3536738?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Nina Jablonski. Today I opened it to this passage in the chapter titled “Emotion, sex and skin.”

“For years the reasons for the “flush of anger” were not well understood. Why, after all, should the face turn red when a person is preparing for a fight…when the sympathetic nerves are working to increase cardiac output? It seems contradictory that at the same time the cutaneous blood vessels in one area would dilate.”

There’s more in the book, but I want to stop there and sleep on this one more night. I need some distance from the event to see it more clearly and a few hours here in the dark in Milwaukee should do it.

[Barrett Dorko]

At breakfast now before anyone has arrived. I use these moments to calm myself, play a little Art Tatum on my computer and fuel my system for what will be 7 hours of exhausting effort, an exhaustion I won't really feel until tomorrow, but I know it's coming. What I don't do is think about what I'm about to say. I let that take care of itself.

The book goes on to say this about blushing when angry: "The possible reasons for this seeming contradiction are intriguing. One explanation notes that increased facial blood flow during extreme anger appears to serve as a safety valve when blood pressure rises to extremely high levels. When the pressure sensors in the arteries of the neck detect dangerously high levels of blood pressure, the walls of these arteries actually relax, permitting blood to surge into the face and thus helping to slow down increases in heart rate and blood pressure."

Well, makes sense to me, and this certainly explains my coloring on the plane.

What it doesn't explain is the origin of my reaction.

More about that in the next post.

[Diane]

On this topic of reddening when angry, I offer this on-line book (http://employees.csbsju.edu/lmealey/hotspots/), called "Body Hot Spots: The Anatomy of Human Social Organs and Behavior" by R. Dale Guthrie (that I just learned about this morning by checking into my favorite blog (http://www.dericbownds.net/MindBlog.html)).

In Chapter 22, Redskins, Fair Ladies and Dark Wenches (http://employees.csbsju.edu/lmealey/hotspots/Chapter22.htm), red skin surges are discussed (along with peeks into much of the deconstruction of socially institutionalized racism and sexism that was going on in the 70's when the book was written).

[nari]

Barrett,

I'll take a punt at this point.
Mirror neurons.....you became that woman for an instant, asking a perfectly natural question.

Nari

[Jon Newman]

For the "show me the reference" crowd, here's a study considering the facial flushing (not the origins).

Unique Identifier11347864
Authors: Drummond PD (http://gateway.ut.ovid.com/gw1/ovidweb.cgi?S=IDNJHKKOADLHDN00D&Search+Link=%22Drummond+PD%22.au.). Quah SH (http://gateway.ut.ovid.com/gw1/ovidweb.cgi?S=IDNJHKKOADLHDN00D&Search+Link=%22Quah+SH%22.au.).

InstitutionSchool of Psychology, Murdoch University, Western Australia. drummond@central.murdoch.edu.au

Title: The effect of expressing anger on cardiovascular reactivity and facial blood flow in Chinese and Caucasians.

Source: Psychophysiology. 38(2):190-6, 2001 Mar.

Abstract:

Blood pressure, heart rate, and changes in facial and finger blood flow were monitored in 24 male Chinese and 24 male Caucasians while they described anger-provoking incidents and read out neutral material, either loudly and rapidly or softly and slowly. Describing the incidents loudly and rapidly heightened anger ratings and enhanced digital vasoconstriction but not blood pressure or heart rate; however, anger enhanced blood pressure during soft, slow speech. Facial blood flow increased during anger expression, irrespective of speech style, but decreased when neutral material was read out. The findings suggest that an increase in facial blood flow reduces peripheral vascular resistance during anger expression, and that baroreflexes attenuate increases in heart rate and blood pressure. Racial background did not influence subjective reports or physiological responses, possibly because the procedure did not draw strongly enough on cultural taboos.
Publication TypeClinical Trial. Comparative Study. Journal Article. Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't.

[Barrett Dorko]

Nari,

You're right of course, and Jon said the same thing when I asked him about this at dinner. But when you say "that woman" I presume you mean the passenger, and I don't have a sense of that at all - it was the attendant that I related to immediately, and it was her voice I heard and expression I saw that generated the effect.

My sense of something, and I don't think it was anger, could find no outlet whatsoever, so I blushed like a blooming rose in fast forward mode. I can only guess that I was immediately empathetic with the attendant. After all, being told that my way of being isn't all that pleasing is something I'm familiar with. When I heard the passenger's comment I went into a pattern of response that I know will defuse the situation. I learned this the hard way, of course.

When my "mirrors" sensed the situation and then saw the attendant's disastrous response my physiologic reaction included what fear and dread and, perhaps, some anger would produce when all were added together. No wonder I felt as if I were cooking, and no wonder my immobilization.

So, if I've figured out, at least for now, why I responded so profoundly, the next question would be this: How was it that I was able to recover so quickly? I'm talking about less than three minutes of warmth here.

More thoughts on that soon.

[nari]

Well tuned adaptive potentials.

I was thinking of the passenger, because her reaction may have been similar to yours. But, passenger aside, I guess you related to how you would have felt if the flight attendant had treated you the same way. However..my being cynical about flight attendants and their propensity to flatter males and act coolly towards females.....maybe not.

Nari

[EricM]

I hope for your sake that this wasn't your poker face, Barrett.

I wonder if reddening of the face might also be interpreted as a sign of strength, making you appear potentially aggressive or intimidating by other other members of your species, a survival mechanism. Why were you able to recover? Cognitively you probably rationalized the situation rather quickly, changing your perception of the potential threat which tempered your physical response. It would be socially inappropriate to act out, so your stillness allowed you to return to diaphragmatic breathing, resetting your autonomics. Oh and the little overhead A/C fan was probably blowing in your face, cooling you down. :)

Eric

[Diane]

I found this while (trying to) clean up my desktop this morning. It may contain something useful.

[Barrett Dorko]

I'm replying while seated comfortably in my usual spot in the restaurant, the same coffee and bakery at hand, gentle jazz coming over the speakers and the other regulars seated around me. A routine visit to this place each morning I'm home is essential for my ability to remain or return to the authentically calm state I ordinarily project. Knowing that unexpected and profound challenges lie before me, especially when I travel, I prepare myself in these ways, and repetitive routine like this fits my Aspergery nature. Perhaps the most important aspect of my routine is the movement of my fingers on the keyboard; especially the movement I choose unconsciously.

The concept of allostasis (http://www.somasimple.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3333&highlight=allostasis) fits here, and its relation to the adaptive potential I always teach has been discussed several places here. When I have time, I always show my students this definition in the power point: Maintaining stability through change; a fundamental process through which organisms actively adjust to both predictable and unpredictable events.

Now that I have a story to go with it maybe I'll emphasize its importance a bit more.

I think it's important to distinguish this from flexibility, which is primarily a quality in the mesoderm, and, I think, highly overrated.

[Jon Newman]

So, if I've figured out, at least for now, why I responded so profoundly, the next question would be this: How was it that I was able to recover so quickly? I'm talking about less than three minutes of warmth here.--Barrett

After reading the paper Luke linked to in the social nervous system thread (http://www.somasimple.com/forums/showthread.php?p=29634#post29634) I'm of the opinion that you're quite a good (vagal) brakeman.