Aquila Children's Magazine AQUILA Magazine Best Bits | Page 59

Close your eyes and listen to you Imagine you are in a very quiet place. Sit back struggle with their emotions. As many as and close your eyes. What sounds or 50 per cent of people on the autism spectrum sensations do you feel on the inside of your suffer from anxiety. Dr. Garfinkel is one of the body? Is your heart beating fast or slow? Are scientists behind this research. She explains you breathing deeply or shallowly? Do your that we can all learn to tune into how often muscles feel tense or relaxed? How does our heart beats. By doing so, we can become your stomach feel? Are there any sounds more in tune with our own emotions. Patients coming from it? This ability to ‘listen to are also hailing the success of the treatment, our bodies’ is called interoception. saying that it helps them to relax and feel more in control of their bodies and emotions. New research carried out by scientists Ultimately, patients feel happier. at Brighton and Sussex Medical School is examining how the detection of Heartbeat counting is not the only internal bodily sensations, such as your approach used. There are many others heartbeat, can shape our decision making including controlled breathing, slow and and emotional processing. The research is soft strokes on the skin and controlling the particularly useful in helping people with body’s temperature by thinking of ‘feelings’ autism spectrum disorders (ASD), who can often of coolness or warmth. The goats heard! Historical records show that our ancestors benefited from the When you think about it, none of this should come as a surprise. There are lots of similar examples in the animal kingdom. We often think of animals having a sixth sense about events in the natural world but scientific theory points us back to low frequency vibrations. Some animals have been thought to feel or hear infrasonic waves passing through the Earth in the event of natural disasters, which they then use as an early warning system. A brilliant example was the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, when birds, elephants and other animals were reported to have fled the area for higher ground hours before the actual tsunami hit the low-lying shores of the Indian Ocean. capability of animals and responded accordingly to save lives and property. In fact, there are numerous stories of animals predicting disasters – scientists working in Italy have conducted one of the first ever scientific studies relating to infrasound and animals. The team of researchers attached transmitters to goats living around Mount Etna, on the Italian island of Sicily. They then recorded the animals’ movements over several years and compared the animals’ movement profiles with volcanic activity. Incredibly, the herd of goats’ big moment arrived on 4 January 2012: at 10:20 p.m. At that precise moment Mount Etna began to spew large amounts of lava and ash into the air. The eruption took place six hours after the researchers had recorded unusual activity among the goat herd. Over the course of the study, which lasted two years, scientists could predict a total of seven major eruptions based on the goats’ movements. In another Italian city called L’Aquila (woah!) in 2009, a major earthquake occurred in April of that year, scientists noticed that five days beforehand, toads had stopped spawning and abandoned their colony completely. This evidence suggests we may have much to learn from our animal friends about tapping into our senses and listening beyond the obvious sounds we hear in the world around us. It is well known that whales, giraffes, as well as elephants, all migrate and communicate via ‘the unhearable’ infrasound. So, if you feel anxious, stressed or fearful maybe you just need to listen to your body – whether that’s by counting your heartbeats, controlling your breathing or simply employing the good old-fashioned counting of sheep. Research suggests it will make you feel better. Why not give it a try? Tuning in