{"id":82,"date":"2017-09-05T10:27:07","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T14:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/?p=82"},"modified":"2018-01-12T14:21:25","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T19:21:25","slug":"chapter-2-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/2017\/09\/05\/chapter-2-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I took a neuroscience course last semester, we studied mental illnesses and the potential brain differences\/ neurotransmitter differences that could explain them. We studied concepts of how too much or too little of this or that neurochemical led to this or that mental illness. However, in The Longevity Project<\/em>, it differ from this neuroscience perspective. Rather than saying that the changes in neurotransmitters resulted in a certain behavior\/ condition, The Longevity Project\u00a0<\/em>seems to be suggesting that a certain behavior (being conscientious) leads to changes in levels of neurotransmitters (pg. 16). I thought that this was an interesting perspective because it addresses that there is a biological difference between being and not being conscientious: the actions that we take can eventually change the biology of our brains. It also makes the concept of becoming conscientious accessible to everyone, despite it being a difficult feat.<\/p>\n

This reminded me of how this phenomenon of actions affecting neurotransmitters is present in our everyday lives. For example, after running, we get a runner’s high, our brains are flooded with endorphins. When cuddling, we are met with a burst of oxytocin. As difficult as becoming conscientious is, if it is the personality trait that is associated with living a long life, it is something that should be sought after. Furthermore, if becoming conscientious changes the biology of our brains, such as increasing our serotonin levels, then it really has no bad side to it. If striving to become conscientious means having to change our actions progressively and resulting in us living longer lives and being happier, I think that it is a meaningful and worthwhile change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I took a neuroscience course last semester, we studied mental illnesses and the potential brain differences\/ neurotransmitter differences that could explain them. We studied concepts of how too much or too little of this or that neurochemical led to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2339,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65925,59091],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chapter-2","category-fall-2017"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2339"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/healthpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}