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Amy Gahran
Is this your brain on blogs? |
Summer's here, and the holiday weekends are long. But be honest, bloggers: Did you spend Memorial Day weekend glued in front of your keyboard and screen? Did you feel guilty about not being outside and active? Do you wonder whether you're sacrificing your health with so much online communication?
Take heart, sedentary bloggers. In the May 2008 Scientific American, Jennifer Wapner declares, Blogging: It's Good for You. (Registration may be required.)
According to Wapner, "Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery."
That may be all most journalists, bloggers, and other writers need to hear. However, scientists want to discover what's happening in our neurological systems while we blog, and as blogging becomes a common activity.
Blogging may make us feel better because it acts as a substitute or placebo for real satisfaction. Or, according to one neuroscientist cited by Wapner, our limbic (primitive) brain may have an innate need to communicate -- akin to our drives for food or sex. Thus, as we blog, our bodies may release the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine.
So far, brain scans have not determined show exactly brain is doing while blogging. That's because these scans are hard to replicate and analyze systematically. One neuroanatomist is investigating whether blogging improves sleep, which in turn can improve health.
Lore from the blogosphere includes stories of bloggers who didn't sleep and had breakdowns or worse at the keyboard --"better sleep" explanation may seem far-fetched to avid practitioners. Whatever the mechanism, some hospitals are developing programs that include blogging in their pre- and post-operative care and other healthcare.
