The Mother of all Questions: Why being a mum rocks their world

Another birthday whooshes by and tick tock, there goes the media drip-feeding childless women their stream of procreative nag. Hurry, you’ve only half a dozen eggs left (and those are probably a bit iffy). But make sure you’ve got a supportive partner and cash in the bank and four walls of your own and a career that leaves the door open, okay? And get ready for Jolly Hard Work and for the decimation of your body / sleep / relationships / bank balance etc.

In light of this depressive postnatal outlook, I ask: Why should we?

Because it’s so FULFILLING, they say. It’s so REWARDING.

And that’s all we get. No intelligent ballast against the rising tide of toil that these small bundles are said to demand.

Likewise, my contemporaries who have cultivated wee ones are not hugely informative. Invariably they tell me how GREAT being a mum is, but in the spirit of the Facebook soundbite I never truly find out why.

All this gives me a negatively skewed perception of the whole breeding thing which leaves me wondering why the hell they do it.

So, I posed my dearest and most fertile friends a question. What is it about motherhood which rocks their world? And damn, do these women love talking about their bairns! They replied fully and frankly about their experiences of raising children, who range between 3 weeks and 6 years old. Not one of them told me to butt out. A few apologised for gushing, which may explain why they typically hold their tongues about the upsides of motherhood.

Using a totally unscientific approach, their stories became my data. I identified ten common themes and report most of what they said verbatim. I try to bridge the interplanetary gap between pre- and post-child worlds, and aim to reveal just what drives mothers to do their thing.

1. Pure Crazy Love

By far the largest and loudest messages focused on a ubiquitous feeling of Pure Crazy Love. Whilst this most visceral of notions does not fit neatly within the rational frame of reason and logic, my respondents managed to convey the elation of being a mum. These women have been emotionally ambushed by some heavenly version of happiness that I don’t pretend to understand. If these words came from those without babes in arms, you might look for signs of either class A-use or personality disorder. Call it hormones, oxytocin, instinct, whatever; these women are seriously Loved Up. This is what they said.

Your heart is so full of love it feels like someone is squeezing it! That love carries you through pain, tiredness, frustration and beyond.

It's weird but I can honestly say there was just feeling of love towards him at every point, even when he was screaming.

A huge one for me is just how lovely and satisfying hanging out with your child is. Cuddling, holding, playing with, and possibly most of all, breastfeeding your child feels wonderful. It is quite like being in romantic love or a warm sunshiny lying-in-a-field feeling.

For some, this love-kidnap happens as soon as baby arrives:

When your baby is born you fall so powerfully head-over-heels in love that it is actually a physical feeling. I can remember it to this day. I was lying in the intensive care, drips everywhere, in so much pain and T. was placed on me and I felt this overwhelming tingle that started at the tips of my toes and washed slowly up and over my entire body that it actually made me shudder. It was such a physical feeling of love and I had never experienced anything so powerful. And that feeling stays with you forever. Every time you look at them - even when you've had sleepless nights or you can't stop them crying - the wash of love is there as you smile at their grumpy little face.

For others it built up gradually:

It's hard to understand how much you're going to love your children. This is true even when they're not so good at interacting, but even more now when W. gives me a hug or says 'mama'. Certain studies show that your average happiness is unchanged by children, but whereas the lows after having them are boring and mundane (more housework, nappies etc), the highs are amazing.

If I’m not mistaken, all this sounds very much like infatuation:

Much of the time you won't really want to think about or talk about anyone else.

Your child becomes the centre of your universe.

And it ain’t no fly-by-night crush:

Unlike being in love with another adult, it is a feeling guaranteed to last the rest of your life.

Did you know that every family is headed by a sword-wielding, flame-throwing, kung-fu heroine? Neither did they – they said that having children gives you a package of new instincts you never thought you would have. Bonus!

You would do ANYTHING for them - and I mean die for them.

It's somehow exhilarating to feel that if a madman with a knife was heading toward your child, IN A MILLISECOND you would throw yourself in front of assailant and die for your child (and weirder still is that you actually daydream about these scenarios). No questions, no debate, no thinking about it, no weighing up the options. Although you might think you feel like this now about your parents or your partner or your friends, it's not even close to the automatic sacrifice reflex you will have for your child. In a day-to-day way, this takes all kinds of forms while juggling bags of groceries or standing on a crowded bus- but the upshot is, you won't mind experiencing pain or inconvenience or hassle if it makes your child happy. Again, this feeling of selflessness is exhilarating in a way that's hard to explain.

But should it come to that, it’s well worth all the fight. For kids are all-round life-enhancers:

When everything is shitty, H. makes it better. I know that if I didn’t have him, I would be struggling a lot more to cope with what life throws at you but he gives me reason to keep positive and happy.

I also discovered a secret maternal hobby: SLEEPWATCHING.

I am not sure why but you can watch them sleep for hours and you would forgive them anything in that moment even if they have been terrors throughout the day.

I guess in the early weeks it's the overwhelming cuteness that a newborn baby oozes - I could just watch him for hours, not doing anything in particular, but just being him.

In advanced mum-Olympics, when kids talk more and nap less, I’m told that another pastime is trying to beat them at the 'but why?' game. Brilliant!

2. Reciprocation

Not only does the mother-love dial go right up to 11, it seems it’s blasted right back at them.

Every morning when I wake up, no matter how exhausted I am or sore or stressed or cranky, I see E's little face poking up out of her bed and I just want to weep with happiness. I am sooo happy to see her every morning. And she smiles back at me in exactly the same way.

Seeing someone love you with the same heart-squeezing feeling. Z. telling me almost every day that I’m beautiful is SO cool, and the best has to be “Mummy I love you so much I could punch you”!

3. Enhanced relationships

Babies put untold strains on relationships, the papers warn. Separations peak when the child is two, they say. But from what my people said, sharing all this gloriousness mainly enhances it:

Watching your husband being a father is amazing.

In my experience, having a child will ultimately bring you closer to your partner, because you both share the same feelings of Crazy Love for the same little person.

You are also aware that you made that amazing person with your other favourite person in the world!

In some ways having a baby has made our relationship even better than it was before, though in other ways we have to work harder to make time for each other and don't always succeed.

Seeing something that S. and I created grow, develop, make us laugh, make us cry, give us love is just out of this world.

Other relationships benefit too:

The new understanding it gives you of your relationship with your own parents.

Your relationship with your own parents and family will completely change, in ways that are hard to predict. In my experience, all good.

I always think of the future too, having grown up in a big family I want to be able to repeat this and make my own family and give them the love and happiness I have had.

4. Becoming part of the community

The mighty mama-love permeates the world outside and connects mothers to extended family, friends, neighbours and strangers. New friends are made and random acts of kindness abound:

When you do manage to get out of the house with a child, you will be amazed at how many smiles you collect from strangers. Having a child connects you to most of the rest of humanity- suddenly, grumpy immigration officials or your boss or the woman at the bank will want to talk to you about your kid and compare notes with you about their children. You feel part of this huge biological, social, cultural web, especially when you travel to nonwestern countries where they make no bones about loving children.

Friends and family and neighbours suddenly start coming out of the woodwork and doing lovely favours for you. My old uni friend sent me two huge boxes of wonderful hand-me-downs from her son, out of the blue- total postage cost $150! Another friend will insist on babysitting for an evening while you go out for an anniversary dinner, a neighbour you hardly speak to will pop round with a new teddy bear.

5. Heredity

So this is why people argue about whether baby looks like cute big sister or beardy Uncle Jack – it looks like ALL of them at some point! I guess seeing yourself and your partner all mixed up in one face has got to be pretty wonderful (though there’s probably an app for it out there).

You think: My God, that's my DNA in there! Every day another relative will pop out of the little face- the baby might have your sister's smile, your father's forehead, your cousin's scowl...and it's great.

You pick out each other’s features/characteristics and you marvel at how your love made a whole new person.

6. Watching the process of learning and development

Some of my friends are in psychology. Some are in sales. No matter, they’re all lapping up that developmental data..

If you're a linguist, it is eternally fascinating to watch the child acquire language. I have to hold myself back from posting things like "Today we discovered syllable codas! Wooo!"

I love watching him grow and develop, and I find myself wondering what he’s thinking, and what’s going on in that little brain, all those neurons making connections.

It’s really interesting having a child. Obviously, I'm interested in their development, and it's great to see W. experimenting with objects or learning to walk. I'm very much looking forward to his talking.

7. The most important job in the world

Being a parent entails being a teacher/ nurse/ tailor/ cleaner/ hairdresser/ actor/ taxi-driver/ mountain-rescuer. That’s a whole load of job satisfaction..

Seeing what you do, say and teach impacting on another person and the feeling of responsibility is joyous. Knowing that only you can keep this little person alive makes you feel like superwoman!

When they hurt themselves and only you will do ('I want my Mummy!')

There will be so many rewarding moments as he grows up, and I can say that I've helped him along the way. I don't want it to sound like a project, but in a way I guess it is, working each day to nurture a child that can one day leave the nest and become independent. Part of my wanting to be a mum is selfish, but part is also to give another person a chance to experience life. I know it's not all rosy, but I hope I can help make it as rosy as possible.

8. Fun and novelty

Now I know that doing cool stuff like going to zoos and farms isn’t just for families, but sometimes feel a bit odd to be the only four-legged family on site. Children are the perfect passport for a whole world of fun, a great excuse for childish behaviour, and a legitimate reason for a noisy messy happy house.

You rediscover the most simple joys in life - making a snowman, swinging on the swings, feeding the ducks, jumping in muddy puddles - all things you could do anyway, but had stopped.

I have friends who think that having a baby prevents you from doing the things you love to do. Not at all - we're still doing everything we used to and I. comes with us! Maybe it's just us but having a baby isn't a burden and we don't want to have any time off!

We were slightly apprehensive about going on honeymoon with H. but our two weeks away was the best holiday ever and he made it so much better! Seeing him loving every moment and getting so much attention from all the staff and other guests was so great. He was famous on our resort.

Every day brings something new - a different expression, a different food to try, a new trip out, meeting people you wouldn’t normally mix with (good & bad!)

9. Cutting the crap

Childrearing is hard work, but it’s good hard work. Without exception, these women enthused about their lives and whether they’re full-time mums or splitting their time between work and family, they cherish time at home. Overtime and the unnecessary social obligations seem to melt away once kids come along.

As soon as I became pregnant, I slowed the work side of things down and did what I had to do but no more. Last year made me realise how my life and the people closest to me are most important and that I don't have to take on a hundred responsibilities in order to enjoy my job or keep me occupied. I. has definitely made me realise that as much as I love my job, I will not sacrifice the time I spend with her for it.

10. They are the most entertaining person who ever lived

Kids are funny, but who knew that (one’s own) children hold the secret of comedy?

Once the child gets to be a few months old, they become HILARIOUS. Just watching the little nipper smushing a strawberry all over his/her face or being totally absorbed with a sock or whatever will make you laugh no matter what mood you're in. And it just gets funnier and funnier the older they get.

Lots of laughter (most of the time at them, not with them).

When he smiles and laughs it makes me smile and laugh in a way no adult can make me.

***

So there I have it. Ten wonderful, complex rewards for giving all that they have to a brand new person. Authentic, intimate stories to smash the nine circles of hell that the media warn us about. It sounds like an outright madness from the outside, and I feel like a flatland dweller trying to imagine the Himalayas. In any sane, childless world these comments could come from the lips of obsessive stalkers, wacked-out hippies and nitwits. I guess you have to be there to really get it.

Of course, my mothers also told me what doesn’t rock, but that’s another story and one which for now, I’ll leave to the press. These downsides appear on our screens and pages because they are easy to quantify: you can expect to lose x hours sleep and gain xkg on the hips; you’ll spend £x on childcare and risk x% decrease in the quality of your relationship. As I was reminded, we are not so great at writing about emotions – it’s a woolly business and it doesn’t sell papers.

I also think that we don’t often get to hear all this positivity because many people are just not concerned with it, and mothers are sensitive to this (damn hyper-empathetic creatures!).

In writing this, I’ve come to realise that childbearing is not really a why question – it’s not something that can be intellectualised. By my asking about it in this way suggests I am years from getting myself up the duff. I was told again and again how hard it is to put a finger on exactly what makes it rock. So thank you to my honest and open mama-friends for describing the indescribable.

A Significant Interaction

Cognitive Science feature written for BlueSci magazine Lent 10: www.bluesci.org/images/stories/pdf/BlueSci-issue_17.pdf

Cat Davies talks to Nicola Clayton, Professor of Comparative Cognition and Fellow at Clare College, about her collaboration with the Rambert Dance Company.

As academics we are by definition specialists. With sharp skills, wise decision-making and right-place right- time luck, we find a position within our chosen niche. And so our specialism becomes even more defined, like an ID tag on our careers.

But what happens if we have two specialisms? The typical route would be to concentrate on one whilst the other nestles in the wings. Nicky Clayton, professor of comparative cognition at the Department of Experimental Psychology and an accomplished dancer, has managed to blend her two passions in her current role as scientific advisor to the Rambert Dance Company.
Nicky’s day job focuses on social and physical cognition in corvids (rooks, jackdaws, and jays), as well as on the memory and executive skills of other bird families and apes. By night she dances, teaching tango and salsa, and still takes the occasional class in ballet and a weekly jazz workout. Her work with Rambert weaves together her previously separate lives into a tailor-made position.

Nicky’s dual roles are evident in her office, where richly coloured dance photographs bookend heavy psychology volumes. As she explains aspects of avian behaviour, she rises to illustrate her points. Within minutes, you can see the scientist as choreographer and the choreographer as scientist. Through talking to Nicky, you see how working at the frontiers of both science and the arts can create something useful, something beautiful, and can highlight parallels that smash the traditional arts versus science dichotomy.

Rambert is not the only dance company to seek the expertise of academics. The British company Random Dance works with Philip Barnard, of the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit here in Cambridge, on synergies between choreographic processes and knowledge of cognitive neuroscience. So why should dance companies need scientific advisors? Dance productions draw inspiration from here and there – folk tales and mythology, historical events, great works of literature. Nature is a common theme, and there lies the need for an advisor who can explain precisely how a swan glides around a lake or (with some creative input) how a mouse king does battle.

Rambert’s latest project is The Comedy of Change, inspired by Darwin’s theories of natural and sexual selection. Through a hawk-eyed sensitivity for opportunity and an instant connection with Mark Baldwin, artistic director of the company and choreographer of Comedy, Nicky has become deeply involved with the production. As she talks about the development of the show, she explains how the artistic collaboration differs from the way teamwork unfolds in her scientific life.

“There are a lot more people involved,” she says, indicating the many facets in transforming a creative concept into a full stage production. Coupled with a more fluid structure than most university research teams, this means that Nicky’s roles are many and varied. From educational outreach, to working with the dancers and animateurs, liaising with financial backers and giving talks at the production, “the work feels a lot more diverse and a lot more outward-facing than typical scientific collaborations.”

Alongside the expected contrasts, there are many shared aspects between the artistic and scientific processes. Nicky points out that both animal cognition and dance share the challenge of conveying beautiful ideas and thoughts in the absence of language. Both Nicky, as professor of comparative cognition, and Baldwin, as world class choreographer, tease this out by capitalizing on movement; “The main difference is that my subjects have feathers and no hands,” Nicky adds.

Where the choreographer deliberates over which movements are appropriate, the professor debates which tests are best for the job in hand. There are also parallels in the relationship between the subjects and the audience; “Choreographers create something for the audience’s pleasure, but it couldn’t possibly work if the dancers weren’t comfortable with the moves. As a scientist, I have to convince the readership that my experiments are well designed and my claims are realistic, but none of that would happen without the cooperation of the birds.”

One of the principal dancers in The Comedy of Change illustrates the overlap with stunning directness; his head and neck movements mimic the courtship dance of one of the six-plumed birds of paradise. In the forests of New Guinea, and now in British theatres, the male clears his dance space of all the leaves, rises up on his toes, and shimmies across the stage. The male with the best dance and the funkiest head movements not only gets the girl, but also the solo.

So how can dry old science ever compete with the arts for space in the public psyche? As a quick measure, a Google search for scientists Colin Blakemore or Jocelyn Bell Burnell throws up about 30,000 websites. Do the same for Michael Jackson and we get 4,000 times that amount. As much as Blakemore and Bell Burnell are big news in science, they don’t touch the everyday collective consciousness.

What Nicky is really championing is the idea that the arts really can fling open the doors to science. This year in Cambridge, we have had Darwinian music, painting, comedy, and even cookery. The Comedy of Change is the latest example of the arts popularising science. I ask Nicky whether audiences come to be educated as well as entertained. Her answer underlines the subtlety with which the production conveys the science; “Only if they want to be. First and foremost, Mark’s beautiful choreography is for the audience’s pleasure, but hopefully there might be a few ideas that might inspire.” Nicky goes on, characteristically drawing biological analogies; “Our aim is not to educate the public about Darwin’s ideas, it’s about sowing a few seeds. If the public wish to let those ideas germinate, then that will inspire them about Darwin.” Clearly, the project is not a scientific mission, but a means of exposing the public to ideas about life on earth.

Eminent professor, self-confessed bird-nerd and committed dancer, Nicky attributes her enviable energy levels to good maternal genes and a supportive husband; “I recharge by dancing. I’m doing something different. My brain isn’t thinking about science, it’s busy concentrating on something else so it gets a good rest and a break from the science.”

As a schoolgirl, Nicky’s reports warned that she “could do very well as long as she doesn’t burn herself out”. It seems unlikely. From blazing trails in academia to burning up dance floors, the researcher and dancer goes on creating. Like nature’s most harmonious symbioses, such ventures between the disciplines strengthen and nourish the other to ensure continued growth and survival.

The Comedy of Change continues its tour of the UK until 30 April 2010.

Hand luggage or hamper?

Food / travel feature written for foodtripper.com, November 09: www.foodtripper.com/Articles/Article/Articles/338/Handluggageorhamper.aspx

Cat Davies looks into the rules on food imports to the UK and finds plenty of scope for bringing back Christmas treats.

If you live to eat, love to travel, and do not enjoy buying souvenirs for the sake of shopping, then it’s likely that your suitcase will have contained the odd piece of cheese and a few bottles of balsamic for our friends in the north. On my last conference trip to Salamanca, I marvelled at the sympathetic design of my presentation poster-tube and a rather weighty chorizo. Mea culpa. I knew that I was on shaky ground, but have rarely given my store-cupboard imports more thought than a token naughty shrug and protestations of doing it for love. At the top of the delights of holidaying abroad are the culinary discoveries devoured whilst on the road. Travelling tales are built around the creaminess of the yogurt or the piquancy of the spice, and images of delicate sushi or steaming street food punctuate the steady stream of sunsets presented to loved ones when the travellers return. Stories and photographs engage us to a point, but who wants to indulge vicariously? If the saucisson was so divine, sister, then let me at it.

The Department for Farming and Rural Affairs recently relaunched its Don’t Bring me Back campaign, which warns British tourists of the agricultural risks and penalties involved in bringing home food products from outside the EU. The campaign has been triggered by significant hauls for the harvest table - 85 tonnes of illegal animal products were seized by customs officers last year - and general confusion over what can and can’t be brought in. Posters at the luggage carousel featuring smudgy animals masked by a Big Red X, coupled with the current suspicion inherent in using airports means that we are walking through the green aisle with the zealous stride of a crack fiend, when in many cases we’re doing nothing wrong at all.

The guidelines for most Eurojetters are simple. You can bring back personal consignments pretty much scot-free, i.e. ‘a reasonable amount of any food on sale in any EU country’, extending to some additional European territories such as Andorra, Canary Islands, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Liechtenstein, Norway, San Marino and Switzerland. So that covers your verdant Italian olive oil and mama’s meaty protein-rich food parcel to see you through the bleak Brit-winter. If those bulging cases look to contain food for commercial purposes – or surprisingly, potatoes, even for personal use - then you may be subject to checks by the health authorities at the point of import. Just as all mothers worth their salt told their daughters never to eat anything bigger than their own head, it’s probably wise not to pack anything you couldn’t comfortably consume at a raucous dinner party between friends.

So with your conscience clean and your Euros exchanged for continental treasures, can we spend on? Well yes, with a note of caution and a nod to current affairs. It is worth checking the government guidelines when planning a trip. The regular rules may fluctuate in times of high security, e.g. egg products in times of avian flu. If you have ever had your painstakingly-sourced liquid sunshine taken away, or even a decidedly solid coarse paté confiscated due to the 100ml rule you’ll know how frustrating it can be. It’s fine if it was purchased and hermetically-sealed at the airport, or secreted inside your checked-in luggage, however.

It’s only once we travel outside of the Eurozone that things start to get foggier. That ‘reasonable amount’ now precludes any food containing products of animal origin, and those pesky potatoes (including crisps) continue to be outright forbidden.

The best advice is to check Defra’s handy searchable Import Rules. Looking at this fool’s guide to food imports at http://dontbringmeback.direct.gov.uk/index.html, I found welcome news. From America, for example, we can harvest bagels and cookies, but not cheese; from Australia, Vegemite but not powdered milk. No great sacrifices there then. Regulated amounts of maple syrup and salmon are fine from Canada to the UK as long as we promise not to risk the outlawed caribou meat, and powdered spices and mangoes are all I’m interested in from India. Having suffered a burst curry lunch box last week from home to work, I’ll pass on a repeat episode with a 60 litre backpack. Manuka honey from New Zealand, olives from Turkey and salsa from Mexico all get the green flag. What delicious joy. And concerning creatures of the deep, I can only dream of being in the position of bringing more than a spoonful of caviar, but anything over 125g requires a license due to its link to protected species. Defra also spells out restrictions on large quantities of oysters and snail meat, but with all due respect, who would waste a source of fresh quivering oysters on a long and rarefied journey when they can instead be devoured overlooking their serene natural habitat, where the sun shines on the righteous.

Defra’s database not only stipulates the yeas and the nays of food imports, it also explains the reasons for the regulations and the penalties for ignoring them. So do inform yourself about the risks of cross-contamination that rural communities are so vulnerable to, and especially when visiting foreign countries such as Australia and New Zealand which successfully protect their precious biodiversity by clear laws and practices. But as long as your amuse-bouches brought back to the UK don’t reach commercial proportions, pack in that saffron and Jamaican salt-cod, safe in your socks till it’s time for fish stew. And if you fancy s’more, you can probably get hold of it in a town not far away – a pleasure and privilege of multicultural Britain.

Summary:

From EU countries and certain other European territories, you can bring back to the UK most foods on sale, as long as they are for personal consumption.

From most non-EU countries back to the UK, personal imports of meat and dairy products are banned, with restrictions also applying to other food products, such as potatoes, fish, shellfish, eggs and egg products, honey and certain fruits and vegetables.

For further information, see: www.food.gov.uk/foodindustry/imports/imports_advice/personal_imp/ www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/food/personal-import/topics/faq.htm http://importdetails.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Location=None&Module=IDDSearch

Nasal cycling

Cognitive Science feature written for BlueSci magazine Easter 09: www.bluesci.org/images/stories/Issue_15.pdf

Nasal cycling - not an Olympic sport new for 2012, but the alternating dominance of each nostril. This is a physical phenomenon present in 85% of mammals – and that probably includes you. As we go about our business, one nostril is more open, allowing more air to flow through it than its resting partner. A few hours later, the open nostril rests and the other flares and takes control. Try it. Put a finger under your nose and you will feel a stronger, warmer sensation on one side. Remember to do it again later and you may well find the opposite.

Unsurprisingly, researchers have not been monitoring nasal cycling by sitting around with their fingers under each others’ noses. It has been studied in a number of ways: hot-wire anemometers (ouch) should perhaps remain unpacked; the Zwaardemaker method relies on a calibrated cold mirror and condensation, and a more recent technique involves participants exhaling onto a piece of glass with red dye and then observing the resultant ink bloom. The wonky love hearts which are left behind reveal a striking manifestation of our nasal asymmetry.

This alternating vasodilation and vasoconstriction of the nostrils was first documented by Kayser, a German rhinologist in 1895 and developed by Heetderks in 1927. It has since been embraced by yoga enthusiasts in the meditative practice of Pranayama. Research into nasal cycling was taken up with gusto by David Shannahoff-Khalsa at the University of California in the early 1990s leading to a number of publications, and has more recently been investigated in relation to handedness, autism and early language impairment.

So why this alternation? Looking elsewhere in the body may help explain. It has been suggested that brain lateralisation takes place to make maximum use of neural tissue, avoiding duplication of function. However, nostrils need not multitask, and do not wear out unless they have been regular conduits to substances other than air. The intriguing claim is that the nasal cycle is linked to the rhythm of alternating brain hemispheric activity, and governed by the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Using neural imaging techniques, positive correlations have been found between hemispheric activity and dominance in the opposite nostril. Surprisingly, the nose is called upon as an integral part of cognition!

We even do better in certain kinds of test when forced to breathe through the optimal nostril. Shannahoff-Khalsa and Susan Jella investigated performance in cognitive tests by forcing their undergraduates to breathe through either the left or the right nostril (crocodile-clips, anyone?). When taking the right-brain based spatial tasks, the students did significantly better during left-nostril breathing, whilst on the verbal tasks which are more closely associated with the left hemisphere, they scored higher during right nostril breathing but not significantly so (the asymmetry in significance in this case may be due to multiple brain regions mediating the skills required in the specific types of task).

Although we lag behind dolphins who have nailed the ability to let one half of their brains rest while the other keeps lookout for predators and takes charge of breathing, the evidence from nasal cycling research suggests that there may be some propensity for one side of the human brain to be more active whilst the other takes a back seat, regardless of the task at hand. Half-sleeping has been noted in other species too – we’ve all seen the ‘one-legged’ flamingo, with ducks, geese, storks and herons also making like Maasai tribesmen from time to time. Various theories abound, including the idea that these birds are resting one hemisphere at a time; the resting leg corresponding to the contralateral sleeping hemisphere. The other side supports the body and maintains a degree of alertness when the bird is in a vulnerable state. Evolutionarily, the theory is persuasive.

Although this private life of the nose initially sounds pretty weird, lateralisation of the body is widely observed. Whenever we pick up a pen, put the phone to our ear, cross our legs, interlace our fingers or tilt our heads to be kissed we are demonstrating the body’s inherent lopsidedness. Left- and right-brained tendencies are commonly cited to illustrate our strengths and weaknesses, and lateralisation of the brain is now a major topic within the cognitive sciences; there is even a cross-disciplinary international journal focused exclusively on lateralisation in human and non-human species.

Psychologists and linguists have studied brain regions and lesions in relation to language ability since the 19th century. Such research is widely respected, and what it has in common across the sub-disciplines is the top-down nature of brain governing body. So does our modest air-warming appendage really have the capacity to influence brain function? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Not necessarily, considering that the ANS and the hypothalamus are ultimately in charge here. It appears that nostril dominance originates from the brain itself, and then in turn affects cortical activity. The evidence suggests that the ANS starts the race, the nostrils cycle and the brain follows behind.

So if the story of nasal cycling is true, how should we best harness it? Plug our left nostril during that work presentation? Stick a finger in the right side during the driving test? Market an airflow detection kit for task/ brain-optimisation? As it seems that achieving ambinasality is beyond us, perhaps we’ve just got to embrace the times when we’re down with a cold, for that is when we are truly cerebrally balanced.

References
Kayser, R. (1895) Die exakte Messung der Luftdurchgängigkeit der Nase. Arch. Laryng. Rhinol. (Berl.) 8, 101-120
Shannahoff-Khalsa, D. (1993) The ultradian rhythm of alternating cerebral hemispheric activity. Int. J. Neurosci. 70, 285-298
Jella S.A, Shannahoff-Khalsa D.S. (1993) The effects of unilateral forced nostril breathing on cognitive performance. Int J Neurosci. 73, 61-8

Turtle power

The sands of Ras-al Jinz on the north-eastern tip of Oman are pregnant with thousands of little turtles. Nightly in late summer, a hundred huge mums-to-be appear from of the Arabian Sea to lay their eggs on the long stretches of coast.

We are camping on the cliffs which overlook and protect the sands below. Through the dusk the beach looks like a minefield, riddled with giant craters connected by the day-old juggernaut tracks of these prehistoric creatures, and overlaid with the criss-crossing footprints of agile desert foxes looking for an eggy feast.

At about ten o’clock we see a mountainous shell coming a-humping out of the breaking waves. Sadly, she is discouraged by our torch, so heaves herself into reverse, which makes me feel pretty awful. We switch off and decide to resume Turtlewatch at dawn.

At five, we see two beaky beasts hoisting their exhausted bulk out of their sand-holes and disappearing back into the sea, like mysterious boulders. Childbirth’s got to be a tough job no matter which species you are, but these green turtles weighing in at around 150kg leave their natural watery habitat, climb twenty metres uphill, then dig deep hollows. Mother-to-be then lays a clutch of a hundred eggs inside, deftly covers the nest with sand, and then huffs and puffs and pulls her massiveness out of the hole. And there’s more. We gape as she then sets about making an ingenious postnatal decoy to divert predators away from the eggs, which should lie in secrecy for two months. Using her paddle-like flippers, she strenuously creates a second, bigger pit to outfox the hungry scavengers. Satisfied, she turns around, entrusting her babies to this very same beach from which she was born, and returns to the sea.

As light creeps upwards from the horizon and the smile of an Islamic moon fades, an army of titchy turtles start their race for the sea. It’s inspirational, sitting on the sand, seeing these miniatures emerge from all around, scaling their first mountain just to get out of bed. It’s the toughest journey I’ve ever witnessed – up and down and in and out of the surf, but the baby turtles accept their mission with true and comic enthusiasm. We free a few prisoners from fishing nets and plonk them safely near the shore. Stunningly, their path is lit by electric blue phosphorescence.

I wonder about their lives ahead. What sub-marine chases lie in store? Would they return to this spot to lay their own eggs? Their start in life is fragile, at the mercy of crabs and gulls, and mismatched flippers, or even being run down by their battleship aunts. This part of Oman gets 20,000 adult turtles coming to nest each year, though only two or three hatchlings out of each 10,000 make it to the juggernaut-league themselves. If they get that far, they’re in for the long haul with a lifespan of over a century, full of the secrets of the deep.

On losing it

I travel rather a lot. The Lonely Planet tells me to leave only footprints, and I try. But however many bags with however many pockets I strap to myself, I leave a wealth of articles in my wake. Gadgets, sandwiches, bachelors, spatulas, medicines, names and numbers, photographed faces, souvenir palaces, gemstones, hotpants and pamphlets, they tumble behind me in a possession procession. I am the anti-klepto bride.

What does it mean to lose a possession? Inconvenience, regret, frustration? Yes, probably, and almost certainly. A restored faith in good people? Definitely. Time spent up to your armpits down the back of the sofa, retracing steps and beckoning déjà vus, cancelling virtual details, finding replacements, and marvelling at the superior skills of the right-time, right-place, right-action stranger.

My wallet has remained circulating the Tokyo subway whilst I spent an afternoon above ground amongst sakura, sake, and schoolchildren. I got it back, as full as I’d left it. That’s the Japanese, they say. But then again I’ve left my wallet on a hip-high wall in a Leeds ghetto at pub closing time. I got it back then too.

I once unwittingly dropped a package containing my passport, driving license, chequebook, credit cards, and the directions to the best curry house in all of India. My dad then received a phonecall from a shift-worker letting him know that his daughter’s vital documents were sitting on a mantelpiece in Yorkshire, ready to be picked up. Nothing shifty about strangers in this lucky case.

As a student, I rode in the back of a London cab, pockets bulging with gloves and matches and sweetiess and hankies and headphones displacing my keys onto the car seat next to me. Paid the taximan, tried to get into my flat, found I’d lost my keys, slept on a friend’s floor, the usual drill. The next day, I duly went to the university accommodation office clutching my twenty-five pounds replacement key fee, and joined the queue for the counter. On explaining the relevant episodes of the previous night to the assistant, I felt a tap on my shoulder from the next person waiting in line. A blonde girl wearing chains asked me what my keys looked like. I told her that they were attached to a small plastic strawberry-shaped key-ring. ‘Oh’, she replied blinking, as if she’d just stumbled over a mislaid pair of glasses, ‘here they are’. And pulled out of her pocket my glittering and would-be-expensive roomkeys. ‘I found them in the back of a taxi last night’.

Angels, they lot of them. Thank you.

Things lost happen in chaos. Things found are slower-paced, more reflective and provocative. That wallet, those documents, and those keys were lost to me, but of course found to another. What happened when they discovered objects thrown from another life? An abandoned teddy bear, a woollen glove, a mangled signet ring are all powerful kick-starts for speculation on what on earth led to the loss. Who’d have anticipated the potential trauma a single shoe can cast in the mind of the one who walks by? Shoes should be in pairs! The one left, upturned and saggy, is useless, but then so is the other so smart and shiny, all dressed up and nowhere to go, redundant.

As finders of these things we rarely want to be their keeper, as if value remains unfulfilled until the object reclaims its lonely heart. Empathy of loss might drive us to return to unwilling sender; if you’re a loser, like me, you’re more likely to pursue a reconciliation between things found and their owners. If the object bears no clues as to its proper place, we are most likely to place it back where we found it, hoping that the owner will retrace their steps. If we can find a distinguishing feature on the item that could lead to its other half, our inner detective wipes down its magnifying glass and sets about tracking down the owner, all the while performing complex computations regarding the object’s financial and sentimental value, likelihood of finding the owner, and how well the mission can be accommodated into our schedules. Or perhaps because of deadlines and children and everything else that makes life a full-time job, we stick the book or the locket or whatever the treasure in our pocket to consider when we have more time, and so the lost item remains forever discovered, but never refound, bound for an extended period in hiding. Must return, must return.

Bat for Lashes: Cambridge Corn Exchange, October 4th 2009

Live review written for the Cambridge News 6/10/09: www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_lifestyle_reviews/displayarticle.asp?id=454456

Bat for Lashes returned to Cambridge last night on wave of bells, beauty and some bloomin’ big drums, setting the tone for their show which ricocheted from ballerina elegance to driving tribal beats.

The night was an exercise in extremes, flipping between the male and the female, the gentle and the tough, from simple acoustic sections to heavily synthesised walls of sound. Fitting then that singer Natasha Khan drew from two albums and sang out pitch-perfect between the falsetto and the deep down low. She even made room for Pearl, her alter-ego, who duetted on The Big Sleep via a flickering video played out on a lumbering old TV.

Whilst Bat for Lashes is Natasha Khan’s moniker, the fact that fans refer to BfL as both she and they is testimony to the slick collaboration between Natasha and in her words, her amazing band.

Tracks from both albums were juxtaposed in a way that although there was little new in the way of song arrangements, the jolt from the melodic latticework of Fur and Gold to the 80’s crunch of Two Suns meant that the audience was held rapt. We even had to hold steady against the tsunami-threat that was Sarah Jones’s relentless timpani assault during Siren Song and Two Planets, not that it dislodged the composure of the rest of the band who rotated perfectly between guitars, strings and intriguing medieval instruments.

At the end, Natasha whispered Good Night in the smallest voice. I’m still braced for the inevitable howling ambush to follow.