The Varsity Magazine: What's on your mind?

The Varsity Magazine

What’s on your mind?

THE Varsity MAGAZINE

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Contact 21 Sussex Avenue, Suite 306 Toronto, ON, M5S 1J6 Phone: 416-946-7600 Fax: 416-946-7606 thevarsity.ca EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Tom Cardoso editor@thevarsity.ca MAGAZINE EDITOR Erene Stergiopoulos magazine@thevarsity.ca ASSOCIATE MAGAZINE EDITOR Simon Frank DESIGN EDITORS Matthew D.H. Gray Mushfiq Ul Huq design@thevarsity.ca PHOTO EDITOR Bernarda Gospic photo@thevarsity.ca

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ONLINE EDITOR Sam Bowman online@thevarsity.ca

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ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR Jenny Kim illustration@thevarsity.ca SENIOR COPY EDITOR Maayan Adar copy@thevarsity.ca COPY EDITORS Yi Qing Sim Tina Hui Elizabeth Benn Robert Boissonneault Ryan Hanney Jasmine Pauk Nikita Gill

FACT CHECKERS Laura Mitchell Murad Hemmadi Robert Boissonneault Nikita Gill

PHOTO & ILLUSTRATION Jackie Chang Wyatt Clough Bernarda Gospic Rob Leone Roxana Parsa Monika Traikov Jakob Wasikiewicz Cherry Yiu

DESIGNERS Jenny Kim Suzy Nevins Michelle Yuan

Contributors Maayan Adar, Mayce Al-Sukhni, Sam Bowman, Jill Cates, Ethan Chiel, Simon Frank, Mitchell Gauvin, Bernarda Gospic, Murad Hemmadi, Bianca Lemus Lavarreda, Ariel Lewis, Sean MacKay, Sarah Taguiam Special Thanks Mark Duncan, everyone who submitted art, P-I-Z-Z-A, Jill Cates, ‘60s Cambodian rock, and the post-magazine breakfast we’re about to enjoy at The Lakeview.

Cover Matthew D. H. Gray, Mushfiq Ul Huq, Suzy Nevins AD INQUIRIES 416-946-7604 ads@thevarsity.ca BUSINESS MANAGER Arlene Lu business@thevarsity.ca ADVERTISING EXECUTIVES Jamie C. Liu Kalam Poon Ivana Strajin

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4 How to perform a lobotomy

Is technology shortening our attention spans?

Probably not.

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4 Gettin’ high

5 How to scan a brain

12 Defining “insanity”

17 Groupthink

Internet intervention

City in the sky

An experiment in collective urban planning … for an imaginary city.

10 Study drugs

How to pull an adderall-nighter.

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23 A word to the wise

23 Quacks, hacks, and bad Rx

27 What’s on your mind?

Letter from the editor If you transcribed every single thought you had over the course of a day, you’d end up with a pretty boring piece of prose. Something like: “It’s raining again — Do I have my umbrella? — Hmm, I need coffee — How many minutes to walk to Tim Horton’s? — Remember that time three years ago when my basement flooded? — No, I totally forgot my umbrella — Maybe I don’t want to go outside — Everything is terrible — Wait, no, I’ll make cookies — Everything is amazing.”

All of those things can, and perhaps already have, flashed through your head in a matter of seconds. Now imagine what eloquent musings are to be had in 86,400 seconds.

In spite of the exceptionally mundane nature of our thoughts, our minds fascinate us. Humans are said to be one of the only species on Earth to have some awareness of their own minds. We can have knowledge of what we know, and as a result, we can know ourselves.

Our ability to introspect — to travel back in time to our memories and daydreams — is the subject of a range of human projects. René Magritte (the guy who painted green apples and pipes that weren’t pipes) claimed that his goal in art was to render thought visible. Philosophers, historians, and scientists in turn have looked to the mind and brain to make thought into a topic of academic study.

We live in a culture that’s driven to make sense of the mind, yet in our everyday conversations, we talk surprisingly little about how it actually feels to think. Perhaps we don’t have the language to do so, or maybe we just don’t share those thoughts because we assume that no one else has them. I don’t usually tell people that I clench my teeth or tap my fingers every time I step over a crack in the sidewalk. I don’t talk about that moment in that one song where it always sounds like someone just called my name from another room.

It’s only when I do tell people about these thoughts that I realize they’ve often had the same ones.

This issue of The Varsity Magazine is an attempt at capturing some of those thoughts. It takes on the perspectives of those who have set out to study the mind, be it academically or otherwise. It’s written by people who’ve had their brains scanned, people who’ve thought about what it means to be conscious, and people who’ve experienced psychosis.

Simon Frank’s piece about the Upper Toronto project looks at the collective imagination and how a hypothetical city can gave us insights on ways to change a real one. On a different note, Ethan Chiel’s intellectual history of attention weighs the evidence for and against the perils of the Internet — which some say is destroying our ability to pay attention. It’s only fitting that Sean MacKay’s compelling “Vitamin A+” investigates the world of attentionenhancing drugs and their use among U of T students who rely on them to make it through the semester.

On a lighter note, you’ll find Murad Hemmadi’s rant on seeking enlightenment in India — and the fact that you probably won’t find it there. Jill Cates teaches you how an MRI scanner works, and Sam Bowman describes the dangers of diagnosis in psychiatry.

The topics here are pretty broad — because whenever you ask someone to talk about the mind, they’ll give you an angle you’ve never considered before.

We’ve covered a lot of ground, but there’s always something more to consider.

At the very least, I hope we’ve given you something to think about.

Erene Stergiopoulos Varsity Magazine Editor, 2011–2012

Varsity Magazine production team or ‘90s alt pop band? You decide.

Playlist We’ve hand-picked a list of tunes for you to enjoy while you read this issue of The Varsity Magazine.

Instructions: Scan the box on the right using a QR-code enabled app on your smartphone. http://goo.gl/aQmkf OCTOBER 31, 2011

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This is your brain on...

A pocket guide to drugs and how they affect your neural matter

by Mayce Al-Sukhni graphics by Jakub Wasikiewicz

Marijuana

Methamphetamine

Alcohol

Ecstasy

LSD

AKA: Pot, weed, chronic.

MO: Blocks the body’s inhibitory neurotransmitters, thereby facilitating the release of dopamine, which creates a feeling euphoria.

Why people take it: Increased relaxation, release from inhibitions.

Other effects: Red eyes, dry mouth and throat, impaired attention and memory.

FYI: The body has endogenous cannabinoid receptors, which means we have natural chemicals in our bodies that more subtly mimic the sensation of marijuana.

AKA: Speed, ice.

MO: Mimics dopamine and is taken up into neurons.

Dopamine is forced out into synapses where it continues to bind to receptors, thereby over-stimulating cells.

Why people take it: Intense surge of energy, increased alertness.

Other effects: Tachycardia (racing heart), elevated blood pressure, risk of heart attack.

FYI: Amphetamine-induced psychosis can develop with regular use.

AKA: Booze, hooch.

MO: The double whammy­ – increases effects of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA and blocks excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate from leaving the cell to act on the rest of the brain.

Why people take it: Decreased inhibitions, increased relaxation.

Other (long-term) effects: Liver toxicity, cancers, heart disease, fetal alcohol syndrome (if ingested by pregnant woman), memory loss.

FYI: One of the few widely socially-acceptable drugs, despite its many negative effects.

AKA: XTC, E, hug drug, Adam.

MO: Releases catecholamines, a class of neurotransmitters, and damages serotoninproducing neurons; causes massive release of serotonin and inhibits its uptake.

Why people take it: Increased energy, increased confidence.

Other effects: Tooth grinding, sweating, anxiety, elevated blood pressure, heart arrhythmias.

FYI: May affect memory in the long-term and is often sold in impure batches that are mixed with other drugs.

AKA: Acid, blotter, John Lennon, purple haze, windowpane, northern lights.

MO: Resembles serotonin structurally and elicits its effects by binding to serotonin receptors.

Why people take it: Potent hallucinogenic, sensory distortions that can be pleasurable.

Other effects: Disturbing “trips,” anxiety, extreme mood changes, elevated blood pressure, chills, sweating, nausea.

FYI: May occasionally cause unexpected flashbacks that occur within days to over a year after taking it.

Was previously used by psychiatrists to enhance psychotherapy.

How to perform a lobotomy Diagnose.

Insert metal rod through eye socket.

Prod until cured.

illustrations by Monika Traikov

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MRI: how it work

text by Jill Cates graphics by Michelle Yuan

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI for short) is a technique for creating detailed images of the brain. A traditional MRI machine consists of a large cylindrical tube within a powerful circular magnet. A magnetic resonance image is a 2D representation of the hydrogen atoms distributed throughout the body — which makes it one of the best tools for looking inside the brain.

Interesting Cases Sports car obsession

ventral striatum anterior cingulate cortex thalamus amygdala ventrolateral area of the prefrontal cortex

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MRI is based on the magnetic property of hydrogen atoms. 80 per cent of the human body is composed of water and fat, both of which contain hydrogen atoms.

Ever wonder why some men are obsessed with sports cars? In 2002, a team of German scientists used fMRI to answer just that. Male participants observed images of various sports cars and small economy cars while inside an fMRI scanner. Compared to small cars, the images of sports cars elicited significantly more activation in the reward centres of the brain (the ventral striatum and the anterior cingulate cortex) — the part of the brain that is linked to drug addiction.

Diagnosing pedophilia A recent study looked at the brain activation patterns of pedophiles.

Pedophiles who were attracted to either prepubescent girls or boys observed a random sequence of images (either nude children or adults) while in an fMRI scanner. When presented with photographs of nude children, pedophiles showed increased activation in the thalamus and amygdala, areas involved in processing sexual arousal. When they saw photographs of nude adults, these parts of the brain were not activated in pedophiles. The fMRI data was 95 per cent accurate at detecting a “pedophilic brain,” which means that fMRI is a promising tool for diagnosing pedophilia.

Detecting lies

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No Lie MRI, a company based in California, claims that their fMRI brain scans can detect lies in court with more than 90 per cent accuracy. Research suggests that when someone lies, the ventrolateral area of the prefrontal cortex increases in activity. Several attempts to introduce fMRI lie detection into the courtroom have failed because of its shortcomings. The lie detection results have not been reproduced outside of a controlled laboratory setting, and experts doubt that fMRI is any more reliable than other lie detection techniques.

All hydrogen atoms have a “magnetic spin” that causes them to spin around a fixed axis. These little atoms are like mini planets with a south and north pole.

In nature, hydrogen atoms spin around their axis at random orientations.

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vs.

In an MRI scanner, the magnet generates a strong external magnetic field (MF). This is applied to the body and causes the hydrogen atoms to align in one direction.

Fun Facts Scientists can create 3D MRI brain models by squishing together a bunch of 2D MRI scans.

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A copper coil generates pulses of energy that are added to the MF. This energy excites the hydrogen atoms and causes them to rotate away from the MF.

The first MRI images of plant stems and a dead turkey were scanned in 1975. The first human finger was scanned in 1976, and the following year, scientists in New York conducted the first full human body scan.

MRI was originally called “Nuclear MRI” (NMRI) but because of negative associations with the term “nuclear,” it was switched to just plain MRI.

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When the energy pulse is turned off, the hydrogen atoms “relax” and return to their original state (in alignment with the MF) while emitting a signal.

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The degree to which the atom rotates to reach its resting state determines how dark the atom will appear on the image. The more the atom rotates, the darker the image. The final result is a clear, crisp magnetic resonance image.

MRI radiation is far weaker than the X-rays in CT scans, which means it won’t harm you. Awesome!

MRI magnets are powerful enough to forcefully pull metallic objects towards the scanner. Things that have been sucked into a MRI scanner include hospital monitoring equipment, vacuum cleaners, fire extinguishers, office chairs, and coins.

P.S. fMRI (or “functional MRI”) is used to visualize activation in specific brain regions. Cool!

Tissues relax at different rates, which means that we can identify the type of tissue based on its unique relaxation rate. For example, most diseases are linked to an increase in water content, so MRI is a sensitive test for detecting disease.

Magnetic Field Scale strength of neutron star

106

levitates a mouse

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levitates a frog

world’s strongest MRI magnet, located at the Magnetic Technology Centre in Yarnton, UK

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11.7

scale in Tesla, measures the MF strength

• • • •

Canada’s strongest MRI magnet, located at Robarts Research Institute in London, Ontario

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causes vertigo (the dizzy sensation of free-falling)

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average strength of a clinical MRI magnet

1.5

strength of a refrigerator magnet

0.05

strength of Earth’s MF

4x10-5

SOURCES Brown, M.A. (1995). MRI: basic principles and applications. New York, NY: Wiley-Liss.

Erk, S., Spitzer, M., Wunderlich, A.P., Galley, L., Walter, H. (2002). Cultural objects modulate reward circuitry. NeuroReport, 13, 2499-2503.

Harris, M. (2010, August). MRI Lie Detectors, IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved from: http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/imaging/mri-lie-detectors.

Ponseti, J., Granert, O., Jansen, O., Wolff, S., Beier, K., Neutze, J., Deuschl, G., Mehdorn, H., Siebner, H., Bosinski, H. (2011). Assessment of pedophilia using hemodynamic brain response to sexual stimuli. Arch Gen Psychiatry, in print.

OCTOBER 31, 2011

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can ihav eyo urat ten tion plea se

by ethan chiel

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small, highly unscientific poll (conducted by yours truly) suggests that when psychologists are asked what attention is, they will direct you to the 19th century psychologist and philosopher, William James. In his now-canonical 1890 book, The Principles of Psychology, the definition is shockingly simple: “Everyone knows what attention is.”

I’m holding out though; this is the very short answer and it feels incomplete. James goes on: “It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought … It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.”

James is certainly not the only person to give thought — academic or otherwise — to attention. A great many intellectuals have trodden along James’ original tracks, and more recently, attention has become a topic of growing popular concern.

From James’ original question, let’s fast-forward over a century to the summer of 2008. That year, The Atlantic’s July/August issue posed the question, “Is Google Making Us Stoopid?” The accompanying article by Nicolas Carr considered the ways in which the Internet might be changing our brains — for the worse. In particular, Carr posited that our ability to pay attention might be at stake. A similar, and perhaps more sombre read was Maggie Jackson’s book published in the same year, Distraction: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. Carr and Jackson are just two of a growing number of voices concerned about what new technologies and the Internet in particular are doing to our minds and attention spans. That’s not to say there’s a consensus on the topic, however; some writers claim that these concerns ignore the potential value of distraction. Jonah Lehrer, for instance, cites studies linking distractedness with creative achievement. But amid this intellectual tumult over whether computers are sapping our attention spans, it is worthwhile to return to James’ original question: what is attention in the first place?

Jay Pratt is the undergraduate chair of U of T’s psychology department, and he conducts research on visual attention. Today, researchers recognize that the topic of attention is too big to study as a whole, and as Pratt explains, there are subfields of study like visual and auditory attention. According to Pratt, “At its highest level, attention is maybe the allocation of mental resources. It’s the brain putting its energy and its resources towards certain processes.” But for Pratt, that’s the big picture, and things aren’t so simple up close. As he points out, the brain performs many attention-based processes at once, and this

makes it difficult to simply model attention as a unit that can simply increase or decrease. As a matter of fact, this is an old and oversimplified way of talking about attention that dates back to the 1950s and ‘60s during the rise of cognitive psychology. In this period, some researchers thought of attention as a pool that could be filled or emptied, grown or shrunk.

The balancing act between the environment and our own will steers attention. Elements in the environment can capture our attention, but we can also willingly shift it to items we wish to bring into mental focus.

Two different brain networks carry out these two functions. The posterior network controls what some call reflexive attention — for example, when glint of light or something else in the environment catches our eye and our attention. This is an evolutionarily older part of the brain and is critical to survival in many animals, human or otherwise. Of course, the fact that you notice a flash of light out of a window might not matter much, but it’s the same system that tells you when an oncoming car is about to hit you.

In contrast, the anterior network controls volitional attention, the attempts we make to focus on something. Susanne Ferber, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at U of T, explains that these networks are mostly located in the cerebral cortex (the wrinkly, grayish outer layer you probably think of when you picture what the brain looks like), particularly the frontal and parietal lobes. The cortex is so important, Ferber explains, that if a person’s right parietal lobe is damaged, he or she is completely unable to pay attention to the left side of his or her field of vision — each hemisphere of the brain links up to the opposite side of the body. This is a condition called spatial neglect: those who suffer from it cannot perceive, process, or interact with one side of space.

Today, experimental psychology contributes greatly to the way we think about attention, but it doesn’t make up the entire picture. Mathematical models such as the one developed

by John Senders, Professor Emeritus of industrial engineering at U of T, exist alongside current psychological ones. Senders began working on his own model of attention in the mid1950s. As part of a project with the United States Air Force, he worked on determining which parts of the cockpit pilots were focusing their visual attention on.

When asked what attention is, Senders jokes that nobody knows — except himself. His current work involves building a mathematical model of attention and draws on information theory, control theory, and queuing theory, various branches of mathematics developed in the first half of the 20th century. Senders says that looking mathematically at how we distribute our attention over different possible targets can help us determine the probability that we will look at a given target.

What is attention, and what effect has technology had on it?

Continued on page 21

OCTOBER 31, 2011

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Compiled by Bernarda Gospic, Murad Hemmadi, Bianca Lemus Lavarreda, and Ariel Lewis

Trippin’ in your head A small percentage of people don’t need iTunes or Windows Media Player to see visualizations to their music.

Sound-colour synesthesia makes people “see” music as lines on a screen in front of them. The lines, which move like those on an oscilloscope, have varying colours, height, width and depth.

Jetlag in pro sports A study by Kyle Steeland and James Deddens found that NBA teams did four points better when travelling west to east compared to east to west. The study, entitled Effect of travel and rest on performance of professional basketball players, suggested that lack of physical recovery time, rather than disruption of circadian rhythms (jetlag), contributed to decreased performance.

What’s in a worm?

The earthworm has an exceptionally small brain in proportion to the rest of its body.

The brain (or cerebral ganglion) is actually a nerve bundle found at the front of the worm. Responsible for sensing light, among other environmental conditions, the brain is a relatively useless organ — so much so that, were it removed, the worm’s behaviour would appear unchanged.

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Don’t do the locomotion?

Down the rabbit hole

Male weightlifters, like models, have to care about their appearance. The overwhelming desire to be large, however, can be a symptom of a body dysmorphic disorder called muscle dysmorphia. First labeled “reverse anorexia” or “bigorexia,” the disorder is characterized by the pathological obsession with building muscle.

F@#*ing pain A study by Richard Stephens has shown that swearing can get people through intense bouts of pain. Stephens made participants put their hands in buckets of cold water. They were divided into a swearing-accepted group and swearing-prohibited group.

Members of the swearing group endured the discomfort longer than those in the group forced to keep their dialogue rated G.

Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS) is a neurological disorder that causes sufferers to experience visual distortions analogous to those experienced

by Alice in Lewis Carroll’s novel.

Symptoms of AIWS include object size distortions, such as perceiving objects as being much smaller (micropsia) or much bigger (macropsia).

Mirror, mirror…

Mirror neurons were discovered accidentally at the University of Parma in Italy. They activate when you perform a specific action and when you see another person perform that same action. Early experiments using monkeys showed that the same neurons activated when the monkey picked up a piece of food and when he or she saw an experimenter pick up the food.

OCTOBER 31, 2011

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Hypothetical City

by Simon Frank photography by Bernarda Gospic & Wyatt Clough illustrations by Kimberly Kwan

Upper Toronto is a city in the sky where commuters, cyclists, and drivers can all have their say in how the city can suit their needs.

The best part? It’s completely imaginary.

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oronto is not a vertically-oriented city. Yes, the CN Tower is tall, but if you leave the radius of a few key blocks, you don’t run the risk of a strained neck. Cranes hover high above the city in a handful of spots, but it would take a lot before Toronto could hold a candle to New York and Tokyo. Then again, in those cities of endless skyscrapers, building up is a solution to problems of limited space and expensive real estate. It’s one thing to yearn for international prestige, but does Toronto really require upward expansion?

The answer is yes, according to the Upper Toronto project.

Upper Toronto proposes shifting the entire city to the sky, leaving its present-day incarnation to lie fallow below. The city of Upper Toronto would leave behind all the problems of its lowly counterpart. Commute times? Slashed. Public services?

Improved. The increased proximity to the sun might even make things warmer. Best of all, Upper Toronto wouldn’t be too expensive to build, mainly because it exists only in the minds of its creators.

Upper Toronto is not the gargantuan planning blunder it may appear to be at first. Instead, it’s a chance to use an impossible concept as a framework for Torontonians to ask important questions and actively engage with urban affairs. Still, it’s tempting to imagine what might occur if the sky-borne city were actually constructed. “Workers dropping wrenches from Upper Toronto, landing in baby carriages!” exclaims Jacob Zimmer, director for the Small Wooden Shoe theatre company and conceptualist behind Upper Toronto.

The project is also the brainchild of Tim Maly, founder of the architecture blog Quiet Babylon and coordinator for the Upper Toronto team. Sasha Plotnikova, who is involved in the project’s organization and management, is a recent graduate in urban studies from McGill University. Since kicking off the idea in early 2011, the organizers have been hosting consultations in public libraries, allowing people to come forward and voice their opinions on the shape that Upper Toronto should take.

After the year-long consultation stage, the organizers will synthesize citizen recommendations into a central plan. Architects and designers will work to create a visual representation of the hypothetical city. Then, the proposal will be presented in condo centres, public spaces, and arts festivals, just as a real development plan might.

At the project’s conclusion, the organizers will encourage Torontonians to write to their city council representatives to recommend the construction of Upper Toronto. Ambitiously, the organizers have planned for this to be carried out over the course of five years.

Why aim for the impossible, when the ultimate result is a simple letter to a city councillor?

“Upper Toronto, as something that we have no intention to do, is a useful construct,” explains Zimmer. “The science fiction, terrible, ‘city-inthe-sky’ idea needs to include all the people who live in this Toronto.” By creating a sphere free of expectations, financial restraints, or current government, people can unreservedly imagine what would constitute an ideal city. In the process of real-life discussions and consultations, people can begin to ponder how positive changes can be brought about in their day-to-day urban environment.

For Maly, “The whole point of the consultations is for us to learn about people in the city in ways that we don’t know about… It’s really important

we don’t end up proposing a city that appeals to, you know, middle-class creatives who live within four subway stops of Yonge and Bloor.”

Maly and Zimmer are conscious of the downtown–suburb dichotomy and share a desire for Upper Toronto to avoid such a stark contrast. Talking from the office of Small Wooden Shoe located in the Junction, Maly, Zimmer, and Plotnikova laugh at the absurdity of the idea that the neighbourhood is far from downtown Toronto. “It’s the place to be!” jokes Zimmer. Maly, more serious, adds, “When you look at a full map of Toronto, and zoom out to the full GTA, my stomping ground is this embarrassingly small area.”

The issue of transportation provides an apt example of the disparate interests requiring reconciliation in Upper Toronto.

“If I had been the sole person in charge of Upper Toronto three years ago, Upper Toronto might have been very, very bike friendly… But there’s a certain kind of privilege and being well-off that allows you to like biking,” laments Maly. “You have to live relatively close to where you work, right? You have to live downtown, probably. You have to have groceries close to where you live, and you have to have the kind of time in your day that you can afford to go to a grocery store or a fruit stand every couple of days, instead of a big shop every week or two weeks, because you just don’t have time.”

“We still haven’t talked to anyone who is like, ‘Yeah, I drive everywhere!’” Maly continues. “I need to talk to that person.”

Zimmer proposes a solution in the form of a consultation with a group of taxi drivers: “What is their understanding of the city?… What is the city in the sky that a taxi driver would think of? It’s going to be really different than mine and might be really different than a commuter’s.”

Upper Toronto may actually be more pragmatic than other

utopian movements, as Zimmer makes it clear that they’re not aiming for proclamations of “every road should be bike-only!”

The consultations for the project thus far have not been clustered south of Bloor. A recent one took place at the North York Central Library — although the organizers are quick to point out that Yonge and Sheppard isn’t that far from downtown when viewed on a larger scale. Nonetheless, the organizers were impressed with the diversity in age and cultural background of participants but were surprised to discover that everyone had arrived by TTC. “People who are going to access a library — or a service at a library [that’s] about a science fiction city — also aren’t drivers,” muses Zimmer. “There are some general things we’ll also probably find are points of agreement.”

For its most recent consultation, which took place on October 30, Upper Toronto moved further afield to the Fairview Library in Don Mills. Hearing Zimmer and Maly talk excitedly about the design of Ward 33 (the area around the library) demonstrates the breadth of their vision and enthusiasm for urban issues throughout the GTA. Hoping that this consultation will allow different voices to emerge, they wax on about the ward’s mix of subdivisions and high-rises and how stores and restaurants are all contained in a complex called “The Peanut.”

“These consultations need to be a good night out,” Zimmer points out. Spending a night discussing an imaginary city needs to be fun in order for people to get involved. The subtle performance aspect of the project is evident when people get excited and are ready to leave their disbelief at the door, with the help of introductory “spiels” and discussion facilitation. “Theatre to me is when two groups come together: one group who mostly knows what’s going to happen and one group who mostly doesn’t. That describes the consultations.”

Continued on page 22

OCTOBER 31, 2011

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CHERRY YIU, “Untitled (A Monster’s dream),” Acrylic on canvas

The evolution of “insanity”

by Sarah Taguiam

The cases that redefined mental disorder in the Canadian legal system M’Naghten Case Dating back to 1843 Britain, the case of Daniel M’Naghten put mental illness on the criminal system’s radar. A Scottish woodturner, M’Naghten shot the prime minister’s private secretary point blank, saying that the British Tories’ persecution “entirely destroyed [his] peace of mind” and compelled him to pull the trigger. He was found not guilty on grounds of insanity.

The case set a precedent that was adopted in the Canadian Criminal Code for 100 years. It defined mentally ill people as those plagued with a “natural imbecility” or “disease of the mind.” The mentally unfit were thought to be incapable of understanding the gravity of their crimes.

R. v. Swain Fast forward 140 years, Canadian Owen Swain was arrested in 1983 for a bizarre attack against his wife and children. Swain believed he was protecting his family from being assaulted by demons, matching his wife’s testimony about him “fighting the air” and speaking about spirits during the incident. After an appeal, Swain, who was in jail, was discharged.

For decades, doubts were cast on the effectiveness of the definition of insanity, but Swain’s case changed that: Bill C-30 was created to more aptly reflect the attitudes of the time.

The defence itself was changed to “mental disorder” to cover a wider range of psychiatric problems. The terms “natural imbecility” and “disease of the mind” were also struck from the definition. These changes showed society’s deliberate attempt to reduce the stigma of insanity in favour of a more neutral and sympathetic view.

1843 1800

court dates

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R. v. Chaulk

McLean v. Li

In the fall of 1985, 15-year-old Robert Chaulk and 16-year-old Francis Morrissette broke into George Haywood’s Winnipeg home and beat him to death. The teenagers reportedly suffered from paranoid psychosis, making them believe they could rule the world but would have to kill others in order to take full control. Both were convicted of murder but appealed the decision on the grounds of Section 16 in the Criminal Code.

The Supreme Court held that “wrong” meant “morally wrong” and not “legally wrong.”

By establishing this, it reaffirmed that to be deemed insane, the accused must be unable to tell right from wrong.

One of the most recent insanity cases in Canada is the Greyhound bus murder of Winnipeg resident Tim McLean. The killer, Vince Weiguang Li, beheaded and cannibalized his fellow passenger but was found not criminally responsible for the murder.

Outrage over the decision poured out especially from McLean’s family. McLean’s mother, Carol deDelley, has proposed amendments to the definition of insanity and the “not criminally responsible” designation. DeDelley continues to lobby for changing “not criminally responsible” to “not psychologically accountable,” which means that the person is still criminally responsible. The movement gained traction in its early periods but more recently has remained under the radar.

1990 1900

1991

2009 2000

This is Mark

22-years-old, 5’10”, 150 lbs Best feature: my blue eyes Enjoys: skiing, mountain biking, innertube water polo, going to the gym, and playing video games Studies: psychology, human biology, and German Something to do before I die: write a book

Something I want to learn to do: paint Favorite books: Don Quixote (fiction), Spark (non-fiction) Where you’ll find me on campus: Burwash Dining Hall, Victoria College

OCTOBER 31, 2011

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Vitamin A+

by Sean MacKay photography by Bernarda Gospic

Richard is a fourth-year arts student at the University of Toronto. Like most students, he’s had his share of extremely stressful academic periods, times when he found it difficult to cope with the workload he was expected to complete.

Toward the end of his third year he had a particularly severe “oh shit, I haven’t done anything all semester” moment — a feeling most humble undergrads can relate to. He remembers thinking that even if he studied for 10 hours a day for three weeks, he probably wouldn’t be able to do all the work he needed to finish.

The overwhelming feeling of academic stress compelled Richard to use a prescription psychostimulant to help him focus and get more work done in a shorter period of time.

Although it wasn’t prescribed to him, he had access to the drug Adderall through a friend. Richard continued using Adderall, along with similar psychostimulants, nearly every day for three weeks.

Adderall is a brand name medication composed of four amphetamine salts. Like other brand name stimulants including Ritalin and Concerta, Adderall is prescribed to treat a variety of conditions in both children and adults; the most common is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. However, on university campuses, particularly in Canada and the United States, psychostimulant use has become prevalent for non-medical reasons. The drugs not only extend periods of wakefulness but also significantly enhance the user’s ability to focus.

A widely cited University of Michigan study from 2005 found that approximately 7 per cent of American undergraduate students had taken a prescription stimulant for a non-medical purpose. Some 4.1 per cent reported use in

the past year. Considering these single-digit rates, this may not appear to be a serious problem. But Bernard Le Foll, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology calls non-medical use of these psychostimulants a “growing issue.”

As with any mind-altering substance, psychostimulants cause a variety of unwanted side effects. They can also be dangerous depending on the dosage and the user’s sensitivity to the chemicals.

One of the side effects Richard noticed when he began his self-described “three-week binge” was the desire to speak incessantly to anyone willing to listen. “After studying for two hours on Adderall, I went outside the library for a cigarette and ended up sitting down and had a conversation with these two girls I knew for about an hour,” he recalls.

“When you’re on Adderall, you have a lot to say and you never feel as if what you have to say isn’t important.”

Of course, those who aren’t in a similar state of mind might not be so enthralled by your exuberant monologue.

“I may have bored them,” he adds. “I didn’t really notice.”

Richard didn’t immediately experience any of the negative effects associated with non-medical psychostimulant use, of which the most common is the inability to sleep.

“My friend told me to do it earlier in the day or else you wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. So I think it was around 1:00 in the afternoon when I took it for the first time. That night was okay,” he says.

But after three weeks of taking stimulants almost every day, the negative effects became more apparent.

“I wasn’t sleeping at proper times. I would just be on Adderall and be up all night, then up all day. It was like, when you’re off Adderall, when you’re done studying, then you can go to sleep,” he explains. “On the days when I took it too late, like after one o’ clock, I found that I would be lying in bed and my brain just wouldn’t shut up.”

Ryan, a recent graduate, has also used prescription stimulants — chiefly Adderall — during his time at U of T. Despite his efforts to monitor his Adderall intake during intense study sessions, there were a few times, especially in his final year, when he lost track of how much he’d taken.

“If you take too much, you won’t be able to sleep,” Ryan explains. “You’ll want to take more the next day to stay awake and continue getting work done, and that will make it even more difficult to get any good sleep.”

“What really sucked,” he recalls, echoing Richard’s sentiment, “was the frustration of wanting to sleep but being unable to, and just watching the hours tick away and then seeing the sunrise. That’s the worst feeling. It’s a cycle that you can break out of if you’re smart about it, but it can be dangerous,” he concludes.

But was it worth it? Did the ability to devour chapter after chapter for hours without losing focus, while taking copious, detailed notes win out over the exasperation they felt as they lay awake, unable to fall asleep?

During Richard’s three-week binge, he wrote essays, did research, studied, and wrote an exam. “The studying worked well [on Adderall] because it was just memorization and learning concepts,” he says.

“I wrote an exam on Adderall, but I ran out of time and ended up getting probably the same mark I would have gotten had I not taken it. It was like a 76 per cent or 77 per cent. That’s below my standards, but it was decent. There was no awesome mark boost though.

“The paper was tougher to do because Adderall is almost like a single-track kind of drug,” he continues. “A thought process will go very far in one direction, but it’s really rigid. With essay writing, you can’t think like that.”

Ryan also describes having difficulty writing essays while on Adderall. “My research was a little more thorough, but it really inhibits the writing process in a weird way. It can jam you up because it makes it more difficult to be creative. That can include trying to come up with a sentence structure that doesn’t sound completely robotic.”

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Continued from previous page Although it robbed him of his ability to be creative, Ryan believes it allowed him to accomplish more in a shorter period of time. “[Adderall] has a really weird way of making you enjoy the work you’re doing,” he says. “The entire task goes from seeming impossible to surmount to something you’ll actually enjoy.”

While Ryan and Richard knew the potential negative effects before they took Adderall, at least at the time, they both thought it would be worth the risks just to be able to accomplish their schoolwork.

But it’s likely that they didn’t fully grasp all the possible negatives, mainly because no one can paint a comprehensive picture of the effects of psychostimulants when they’re used off-label.

“The use of them ‘off-label’ is a behaviour that’s not sufficiently studied,” explains Dr. Roger McIntyre, associate professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at U of T. “We have assumptions built into this that if they are beneficial in ADHD, wherein cognitive disturbances are the defining feature, they must be helpful for people who don’t have ADHD.” According to McIntyre, this assumption is completely inaccurate. “Commentary about their effectiveness is one largely based not on the available evidence but one based on impressions and anecdotes,” he says. “Keep in mind that several anecdotes don’t make data.”

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they come to the erroneous conclusion that the medication simply mitigated the cognitive problems, when in fact, the psychostimulant may have offered them an antidepressant effect.

This improves mood, but it also improves cognition. That then begs the question: are psychostimulants antidepressants?”

There is no consensus yet from the medical community, chiefly due to the fact that it hasn’t been sufficiently studied. However, McIntyre does believe that “they would not be considered by the psychiatric community as robust in their overall effect” though some individuals might do “quite well with the medication.”

There seems to be little debate as to whether a student should use a prescription stimulant for non-medical purposes, but dissuading students from using them is a more difficult task.

The stereotypical view of university students is that they have a propensity for recklessness and don’t consider the negative effects of binge drinking or recreational drug use.

Of course, this isn’t categorically true, but it’s definitely an important consideration for those working to discourage prescription drug abuse amongst university students. How far can preventative initiatives go when other unhealthy, drug-related activities are so pervasive on campus?

“I don’t think anyone is unaware of the fact that smoking cigarettes is bad for you, yet people still do it,” says Dr. McIntyre. “Many people are able to trick themselves into thinking that they’re not going to develop any consequences from smoking. The way you get people to discontinue smoking is to have them become appreciative of the consequences — not the general consequences, but the consequences to them.”

McIntyre knows most university students are more likely to rely on a testimonial from a friend than look up a research study before taking a psychostimulant. Nevertheless, he believes that educating students about the consequences of such behaviour is the key to prevention. He also emphasizes that there are alternative methods that are helpful for enhancing cognition.

“It’s turning out that one of the more effective cognitive enhancing strategies for people who have difficulty is aerobic exercise. I think we would all agree that that’s a very healthy endeavour and it’s actually one of the better ways to go,” he explains.

But for some, the unpleasant side effects are enough to deter further use of the drugs. Richard hasn’t taken Adderall since his three-week binge last year, and he doesn’t plan on using it again.

“It wasn’t worth the physical side effects,” he says emphatically. “Now I’ve realized I should stay on top of my shit. I don’t want to put myself in that position again.”

Whatever the medical community’s view of non-medical psychostimulant use may be, and regardless of the potential side effects, there’s little doubt that there will always be a market for substances like Adderall, just as there will always be a demand for coffee and energy drinks. You don’t get through university unless you’re awake and focused, but some students will go to greater lengths than others to stay that way, making themselves psychostimulant guinea pigs the process.

“If you take too much, you won’t be able to sleep.

You’ll want to take more the next day to stay awake and continue getting work done, and that will make it even more difficult to get any good sleep.”

am sitting on a bench outside Robarts Library on a cloudy October afternoon with a fourth-year political science student who would prefer to be called Stephen. It’s that time of the year — students are in the midst of the first stream of assignments and tests.

Even though a fairly intense academic period is fast approaching, Stephen isn’t trying to pull off a miraculous 11th hour cram session. He took Concerta a few hours earlier to boost his focus and confidence, but his attitude toward the drug seems more casual than what Richard and Ryan described. Stephen’s on a break from studying and has agreed to an interview with the requirement that I keep my questions brief. The peak period of productivity when you’re on Concerta is fleeting, and he wants to make the most of it.

“I don’t look up from my table. I just focus on what’s in front of me and I’m enthusiastic about it too,” he explains.

With an assignment and midterm in two and a half weeks, it certainly seems like Stephen has enough time to work on both without worrying. But as he puts it, the work is more enjoyable and he studies more effectively when he takes Concerta.

“It’s definitely fun. I enjoy the work and I feel like I’m making progress,” he says. “Not only do I feel confident in what I’m doing, but I’m experiencing the same ‘in the zone-ness’ when I’m doing any activity that requires focus like a high-intensity game.”

Stephen’s relatively casual attitude toward Concerta may

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be surprising considering the common image of a desperate student using a study drug to cram the night before an exam.

However, according to Dr. Roger McIntyre, the idea of a study drug making work more pleasurable isn’t so strange.

In his mind there are three potential explanations that aren’t mutually exclusive.

“People have pressures; they have assignments to get done. And simply the process of getting the work done effectively and efficiently would itself be stress-reducing, and that could be experienced as pleasurable,” he explains.

This isn’t the entire story though. McIntyre’s second theory centres around the stimulant’s effect on the neurotransmitter dopamine. “It’s possible that these medications are emboldening people’s capacity for pleasure,” he begins. “Dopamine is a classic neurotransmitter that’s targeted by each of these agents and it’s well known in science as the pleasure chemical. Whether you have a piece of dark chocolate or you make love or read your

favourite book — all these acts of pleasure we engage in are engaging the dopamine system.”

McIntyre’s third theory is a bit darker, and is rooted in the prevalence of undiagnosed psychiatric disorders on university campuses.

“We do know that the rate of depression, whether it’s mild, moderate or severe, is significant on college campuses,” he explains. Many people don’t know they have depression and have come to the conclusion that they’re depressed because they’re stressed and so on, but don’t realize the seriousness of the situation they’re in.

“They take a stimulant because their cognition is impaired and they’re feeling fatigued and motivation is not quite what it should be. That’s all part of depression. The medication offers them benefits. They say their cognition has improved and

The meeting of minds From fringe to fact: how we think in groups Social conformity Social conformity describes our tendency to want to blend in with the group. Muzafer Sherif helped jump-start research on social conformity in 1937 when he tested how participants in a group judged the direction of movement of a dot of light on a wall. Even though the light was actually stationary, participants tended to agree with what the group was saying, regardless of whether it was right or wrong. The influence of social conformity even extends to changes in our memory. In a study published in Science earlier this year, researchers from Israel and the United Kingdom found that participants’ initial memory of an event could become distorted since they tended to conform to the memory errors of their peers.

Mob mentality There is a darker side to thinking as a group. Zimbardo, the scientist in charge of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, cut his prison simulation study short because students in power began to exhibit brutish behaviours that dehumanized participants in subordinate roles. When mobs or riots happen, the term “mob mentality” is thrown around in the media.

These situations are characterized by outof-control groups of people who have lost their individual self-awareness.

Bystander effect The bystander effect occurs when we assume that others will take charge of the situation at hand; we shake off responsibility since we expect someone else to step up. It was first described in the case of Kitty Genovese, who was murdered in New York City in 1964.

The murder took place as 38 of her neighbours heard her blood-curdling screams over the course of 35 minutes and didn’t call the police. As a result, Genovese died at the hands of a knifewielding rapist steps from her apartment.

What’s more, Columbia University psychologists Latané and Rodin found that only 40 per cent of bystanders came to the rescue of a woman in distress when they were in a group, compared to the 70 per cent who did so when alone.

Mass psychogenic illness (MPI) When large numbers of individuals lose sight or control of their identity, this can lead to mass psychogenic illness. MPI occurs when a group of people exhibit ambiguous physical or psychological symptoms to a non-present ailment or environmental threat. For example, a whole school might believe there is gas leak and will exhibit symptoms of dizziness and nausea even when no leak is present. In 1518, hundreds of people danced themselves to death in Strasbourg, France. The cause? Possibly MPI.

by Bianca Lemus Lavarreda

The collective (un)conscious The idea of collective consciousness originates from the 19th century sociologist Emile Durkheim’s belief that society has a collective or common conscience.

Sometimes referred to as “hive mind,” this form of groupthink is commonly portrayed as a bunch of minds contributing objectives and opinions that come together and form one large abstract mentality.

Some speculate that phenomena such as fads, trends, and memes are evidence of a collective consciousness. In contrast, the collective unconscious proposed

by Carl Jung refers to the inherited ancestral memory in all human beings. It is completely separate from the individual, and its contents are symbolic fears, hopes, and dreams.

Human consciousness on a far-out scale The French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Russian philosopher Vladimir Vernadsky proposed the “noosphere” as the sphere of human thought, an analogy to the geosphere and the biosphere. They proposed that it was a phase in the development of the Earth that corresponded to the emergence of cognition. Teilhard de Chardin was intrigued by the nature of consciousness and invented the Cosmic Law of Complexity/Consciousness: as anything becomes more complex, it becomes more conscious. This theory predicted that at the “Omega Point,” humanity will reach its apex, achieving maximum complexity and consciousness. Pretty out there, eh?

Jackie Chang, 2011

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India, land of the wise?

by Murad Hemmadi There are only two ways to offend my Indian sensibilities. First, you can point out that my English is “very good.” English is the only language I speak with any degree of competence, so if my English weren’t “very good,” I wouldn’t be able to get myself understood, ever.

The second way is to tell me that you’ve “always wanted to go to India” to find yourself, discover its ancient wisdom, or some variation thereof. Let’s get one thing straight: Indian “wise” men are no wiser than any others, they’re just better at marketing.

I blame The Beatles. Sure, “enlightenment tourism,” as Professor Ritu Birla, Director of the Centre for South Asian Studies at U of T, calls it, has been around since before the Fab Four made their pilgrimage to my country in the 1960s. The idea of the mystical and ancient wisdom of the East goes back to the Orientalist school of thought that portrayed India as an exotic, romantic place of enlightenment.

India is not exotic and it’s not particularly romantic (even the Taj Mahal has a limited “wow” factor from up close). I’d argue that the country’s failure to deal with the greater-thanhalf of the population below the poverty line suggests that it’s not that institutionally wise either. There’s no storehouse of ancient wisdom that gets passed from generation to generation of Indians — or if there is, I

certainly missed out when it was my turn!

Maybe you don’t think all Indians are inherently wise — that would be racial or national stereotyping after all. But the gurus and wise men that you’re going to India to seek out aren’t really much wiser than the average Indian either; they’re just

There’s no storehouse of ancient wisdom that gets passed from generation to generation of Indians... good PR people. Salesman, marketer, entrepreneur — these labels fit the modern guru better than “spiritual teacher.” I’m a spiritual skeptic as a general rule, so I’m not going to pretend that my bias against the idea of some greater power or knowledge doesn’t play a role here.

Enlightenment tourism is an industry in and of itself in India. Foreigners swarm cities like Jaipur and Jhodpur seeking opium to lead them to “enlightenment” and a guru to show them the way. But they’re also just ordinary tourists to the hotels, restaurants, and other businesses that benefit from their presence. They’ll treat

you well, because if there’s another thing Indians are known for, it’s hospitality. These places are no different from, say, Niagara Falls. Both use their natural resources or reputation of their culture and geography to make money from tourists.

Here’s another thing: if enlightenment is possible (and a lot of people genuinely think it is), then I don’t see why you have to go to India to attain it. Sure, the “East” first named moksha and nirvana, and created a framework for explaining the need for release from the cares of everyday life. Yet nowhere in the canon of “Oriental” religions is there a requirement to “find” yourself under a tree somewhere in rural India. If you’re searching for enlightenment, you’re just as likely to get there in a subway car in Toronto as in a village on the South Asian subcontinent.

You may find India exotic, but I’ve lived there for all but two years of my life, so forgive me if the magic is a little lost on me. It’s not that I don’t feel attached to the land of my birth, but separation from it hasn’t changed my ability to look at it clearly and critically.

So do me a favour: if you want to find yourself, take the money you’re planning to use to make that trip to India and send it to an NGO working to help bring the living standards of the people there to some decent standard.

Then go outside and do something for the people of your own community — you may find that they are wiser than you think.

Bernarda Gospic/THe VArsity

The devil is in the diagnosis

by Sam Bowman The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is a document published by the American Psychiatric Association, currently being reworked into its fifth edition, which provides a set of standards and criteria by which mental disorders are to be classified and diagnosed.

For a profession centred around telling people what is wrong with them and how they should live their lives, psychiatry has a surprisingly good reputation. This article, however, isn’t about what psychiatry does inside people’s minds but rather what it does in the world outside of them. Despite

Abnormal Ethiopian Perception/Dysaethesia Aethiopica The first of two disorders identified by American physician and racist Samuel A. Cartwright, dysaethesia aethiopica was a term created in the 19th century to offer a medical explanation for what whites at the time saw as rampant laziness and “rascality” among the black population.

the complexity of the theory that underlies it, psychiatry, like all other sciences, is based on some assumptions about the world. This isn’t an issue unto itself, but it does mean that it might be wise to think about the way we approach “socially deviant behaviour.”

In short, psychiatry is, and traditionally has been, something practiced by privileged members of Western societies on people from marginalized communities. From demonic possession to the afflictions in the DSM, the labels we apply — sometimes forcefully — to some segments of society are

the fabrications of their creators and not god-given.

People in positions of privilege tend to categorize others for a reason, and generally, it’s a less than respectable one.

We must then keep in mind who is diagnosing whom; psychiatry takes place inside the office, but its effects are largely in the world outside. With this fact in mind, as well as the historical trend of medicalizing people to marginalize them, it would then probably be wise to take a closer look at the way we categorize and treat those whose behaviour doesn’t conform to societal norms.

Drapetomania

Hysteria

Homosexuality

Gender-Identity Disorder

Cartwright’s second contribution: caused by white people who “made themselves too familiar with [slaves], treating them as equals,” drapetomania was the condition that caused black slaves to imagine that a better life was possible and compelled them to flee. The prescription for drapetomania was — contain your surprise — whipping.

The catch-all diagnosis for women who, for some reason, were discontented with some aspect of men running their entire lives.

Sometimes treated with sex, masturbation, and the use of electric vibrators, this illness was removed from the DSM in 1980, but luckily for everyone, the treatments have remained.

Removed from the DSM in 1980, homosexuality was a diagnosable condition which allowed the forceful institutionalization of people who were physically attracted to those of the same gender and had the gall to express it.

Still present in the DSM, this diagnosis is for those whose gender (between their ears) does not line up with their sex (between their thighs) in a way that society finds acceptable. This diagnosis, for the time being, takes control of their bodies away from trans* individuals and puts it into the hands of (probably cisgendered) doctors.

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For instance, if you are driving along and see a sign indicating that you are near a school, you’re more likely to look for children on the road. This may seem obvious, but it suggests something important: we may be paying attention to some things because of calculations conducted in the brain.

This would make the brain something like a robot, programmed to direct itself based on what it knows about certain targets and what they usually indicate. This is simply a model, and it’s difficult to tell whether the brain is doing calculations or whether the mathematics just offer a good heuristic.

But why do we place so much value on attention in the first place? Paul North, an intellectual historian in the Germanic languages and literature department at Yale University, says that attention is tied to theological roots that persist even now.

According to North, this theological bent originated with Aristotle, who thought an attentive mind was important for getting at the essence of the world. Similarly, for Augustine, the attentive mind was a way of imitating the mind of God. God can comprehend everything at once, but humans can use attention to separate the elements of our environment and situate them in the world.

By the 18th and 19th century, the philosophical and medical institutions of the time increasingly emphasized the importance of attention. The problem, as North explains, is that attention carries some pretty ancient baggage. Namely, to be less attentive is not just to be unable to focus, but to be further from God. Today, attention is considered in parallel with our evolving technologies, which Maggie Jackson sug-

gests are the very cause for our eroding ability to pay attention.

But not everyone feels the same way. Rhonda McEwen, who studies new media at the iSchool at U of T’s Faculty of Information, criticizes this popular view. She contends that we’re thinking about new media and technologies the wrong way. “We like to think of [the allure of media and technology] as a pull… But it’s more of a push.”

In other words, we aren’t thinking about distraction in the right way. We aren’t getting worse at paying attention to other things, we’re just getting better at devoting hours and hours to smartphones, laptops, and the other new wonders that emerge from Mountain View, Cupertino, and beyond. We’re not being distracted by these technologies; we’re just always paying some sort of attention to them.

According to McEwen, one of the questions that remains is whether the Internet and other new technologies are changing us or whether they represent something we’ve developed as a preferred alternative for interacting, communicating, and learning.

As McEwen emphasizes, we should be very cautious about demonizing technology: doing so prevents us from reaping the rewards that technology yields and gets us nowhere.

Even so, the concerns of skeptics like Carr and Jackson aren’t groundless. People may in fact be focusing less on certain things and more on others. But the conception of attention they work with seems to be somewhat outmoded. We may be facing problems with our ability to pay attention, and they may well even be serious. But whether we want to be optimists or pessimists about how our minds might be changing, we need to be more attentive to attention.

NOTICE

The Varsity’s Board of Directors will be holding its monthly meeting.

Annual Saul Goldstein Memorial Lecture

When: Tuesday, November 1, 2011. 8pm.

Where: The Varsity Office, 21 Sussex Ave., 2nd floor.

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Speaker:

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Professor Faye Mishna,

Dean and Professor, Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, UofT

With each successive generation, communication technology is growing exponentially as a central fixture within our society and is dramatically changing individuals’ social interactions. Cyber space is also becoming a site for bullying, exacerbated by perceptions of anonymity and greater technological knowledge among youth.

November 16, 2011

4:30–6:30pm, Kruger Hall Commons, Woodsworth College, 119 St. George St. Reception follows lecture

Free event

Register online: www.alumni.utoronto.ca/woodsworth or Email: events.woodsworth@utoronto.ca or phone: 416-978-5301

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NT NEWS

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Any and all full-time undergraduate students are invited to attend.

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However, public consultations are only one part of the project’s plan. “The roads should be designed by engineers,” explains Zimmer. “I have some opinions about how I interface with roads, but I don’t know what the best practices are in the world.” As a result, consultations will provide direction for Upper Toronto, but architects and designers will decide the city’s eventual shape. “We can inject some imagination into the process [of design and upkeep] that is mostly about maintenance and slow change. It’s an imaginative intervention into that day-today process.”

Preserving this creative impulse is key for Upper Toronto. Sometimes consultation participants can become fixated on single specific topics, getting sidetracked from the broader picture of the city.

Maly acknowledges, “We need to figure out what the right balance is between honouring their needs and presenting a shocking new way of conceiving the city.” Plotnikova observes that it has occasionally been difficult to “get people to think in a science fiction way. And people are really stuck because there are so many problems with city politics now, with Rob Ford in office. For people, it’s hard to understand the value of imagining a new city when the city we have is already so problematic… We do want something that’s more imaginative than just small changes to people’s immediate environments.”

Although Mayor Ford’s reputation has a tendency to overshadow other urban issues, Zimmer stresses that he had been toying with the idea that would become Upper Toronto since long before Ford’s election. Upper Toronto is not an attempted escape from the reality of Toronto, but rather, a celebration of all it can be. “[The current] consultations are actually working backwards from my desire to do a presentation where we sell Upper Toronto to the population and then ask them to write to their city councillors asking for a referendum,” explains Zimmer. The original concept stemmed from the early 2000s celebratory age of “Torontopia,” but Zimmer was afraid that it would be too easy to create a play or performance on a topic that was ironic in a straightfoward way.

“I’m interested in those developer proposals as a theatre director,” says Zimmer. “The theatre project for me is this presentation of the city, in which people get up on stage, with models and videos and policy documents, and sell the people on the idea of this city that is a terrible idea … except that it’s really good. When I first had this idea, what I didn’t want was for the city to be a bad idea. Building a city in the sky and forcing everyone to relocate there is a bad idea on so many fundamental levels.”

The performance becomes far more complex if the plan of the city has been carefully developed to the point that its creators can stand behind it. As Zimmer explains, “It can be wild and crazy but also generated from an interesting place that has diverse input.”

“The key word there is ‘sell,’” Maly adds to Zimmer’s description of the final proposal. Despite the complete unfeasibility of the project, the proposal should be attractive, and those consulted should feel they have a stake in it.

The goal is “to make the familiar strange. Even if they’re not like, ‘Oh, this idea I had in this consultation for Upper Toronto could be applied, but in a non-floating sky way,’ … [They may] walk out and see a street corner, and they’ll go, ‘Huh, I wonder how that can be designed better,’” Zimmer elucidates.

The foundations for Upper Toronto are longstanding, even though the project has not taken shape in its current form until now. Zimmer acknowledges the inspiration drawn from the mid20th century French art movement, the Situationist International, for its ideas on the construction of public situations as an alternative to mass-produced forms of entertainment. Another reference point is the Situationist’s concept of psychogeography, where the city becomes radically reconfigured and inseparable from the experience of an individual walking through it.

Maly points to the work of Dutch artist Constant Nieuwenhuys as another inspiration. Personally involved with Situationist International, in 1959 Nieuwenhuys began his work on New Babylon, a series of plans and paintings for a city of the future. Captured in colourful, semi-abstract fields of intersecting planes and grids, the city was a plan to avoid the trap-

pings of contemporary society in order to fully embrace experiment and leisure.

While a physical plan for the raised city has yet to take form, Upper Toronto does possess its architectural forerunners. Maly recounts the bizarre story of 1890s Seattle, raising its downtown by two stories in order to avoid flooding. “Sidewalks had a lot of glass bricks in them so that light could still get down to the old sidewalks, and so, there was a long period where there was literally an underground economy there.”

Even more fantastical urban landscapes can be found everywhere from the towers of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis to the selfcontained vertical city modules in early versions of SimCity. In non-fiction, Chinese architect Ma Yansong is responsible for the rounded, twisting Absolute Towers currently under construction in Mississauga, but his studio has also produced plans for Beijing 2050. This hypothetical design features cloud-like bulges of glass and steel supported by thin pillars above Beijing’s central business district.

There’s a connection between the mind-defying beauty of Ma’s designs and the wonder and possibility found in Upper Toronto.

Ultimately, the project is about using casual and entertaining events to forge new ways to conceptualize and interact with the urban environment. “Upper Toronto is explicitly about being as pleasant as possible, and yet in this funny way, I think we get to challenge people without them entirely realizing that’s what is happening,” says Maly. “You don’t know this yet, but 20 minutes from now, you’re going to be having an impassioned but not totally antagonistic argument with someone who you’d otherwise never talk to about how police should interface with gangs.”

“People sort of take their cities for granted, and especially their built environment,” adds Plotnikova. “People won’t voice their opinions until there’s a problem.

I feel like Upper Toronto has immense potential to get people thinking about just their everyday lives in the city, whether or not they are problematic, and how to improve current situations, even if what they have is what they think to be a good life. So I think imagination can lead to civic engagement.”

Rox ana Parsa, “On my mind,” Ink on Pape

r

The plot is to flock dynamite stock and blow up God — Big Bang ensues with God bits blown wide, textured skies and burned flesh spots dots this black abyss.

Physics kicks in in this dimension, and flicks of consciousness infect, evolve to alight red and burn blood casts that plasters this ego.

The Plot

by Mitchell Gauvin

Flicks of consciousness blink between love interests, nerve bits burn, piercing, a rapturous arrival to a hell snowed in, frozen over in new entrenched ecstasy lacking a thrill, a sentiment, that a vehement humanity caresses your hand.

But what do you feel?

The colour red? Ingrained electricity?

Or the inescapable physicality of pigment?

You are a set design. A four-square psycho with axis in every direction.

No allure to invasion, just fervid door opening, wind walking when suddenly a flood of thoughts, of blood gushing fast, rushing past paper staining skin beneath.

I am blushing.

OCTOBER 31, 2011

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Does the bad kerni ng in t his sente nce of fend you ?

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Uncertain Futures, Imperfect Pasts Hell Witches and Pansy Boys: Media, Modernity and Queer Identity in Interwar Toronto and Today Sunday, November 6, 2-4 pm Speakers: Dr. Steven Maynard, Department of History, Queen’s University and Rob Teixeira, Phd Candidate, Sociology Department, York University Persona: Politics and Private Lives in 20th-Century Canada Tuesday, November 8, 7-9 pm Speakers: Allan Levine, author of KING: William Lyon Mackenzie King: A Life Guided by the Hand of Destiny and Toronto City Councillor Josh Matlow The Shape of History: Body Image and Diet in the 1920s and Today Sunday, November 13, 2-4 pm Speakers: Jill Andrew, founder, Bite-me Film Festival: Toronto International Body Image Film & Arts Festival and Ann McDougall, educator and museum professional Prohibition Then and Liquor Control in Ontario Today Tuesday, November 15, 7-9 pm Speakers: Mariana Valverde, FRSC, Director, U of T Centre of Criminology and Kathy Klas, a Director with the Alcohol and Gambling Commission of Ontario

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By-Law no. 1074-2010, Toronto Municipal Code 693-29. 416-280-6113. Will pay appropriate fee.

expert COpy editiNg serViCes aVailable tO graduate studeNts fOr their researCh papers aNd dissertatiONs.

A Student Symposium Thursday, November 12, 2011 8:30 AM – 5:30 PM Munk School of Global Affairs The International Relations Society and the Canadian Centre for Responsibility to Protect (CCR2P) invite you to an invigorating day of discourse, debate, and exploration between students, practitioners and leading experts of the R2P. The student symposium will investigate the normative, legal and policy dimensions of the doctrine.

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FEATURING: Naomi Kikoler, Kyle Matthew, Jillian Siskind, Hon. Bill Graham, Professor John Kirton

EDITING

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stressed Out? WaNt tO liVe life MOre deeply aNd happily?

Stressed out? Want to live life more deeply and happily? True Peace Sangha offers weekly mindfulness and meditation sessions here at University of Toronto. No charge and all are welcome. Mondays 5:30 - 7:30 pm, Multifaith Centre, second floor. www.truepeace.ca.

MeNtOrs Needed To guide one-on-one creative 5-8 graders to complete exciting self-chosen projects meeting one hour weekly for 10-12 weeks. Weekend orientation at OISE/UT. CONTACTS: LISA MALONEY (905-882-5482) or primementors. oise@utoronto.ca

Varsity Classifieds Cost $12.00 for twenty-five words. $0.25 for each additional word. Rates include one line of bold type for the ad header. No copy changes after submission. Submit ads by email, mail or phone.

Ads must be submitted at least four days prior to publication. Varsity Classifieds, 21 Sussex Ave, Suite #306, Toronto, ON, M5S 1J6. Call 416-946-7604 or email ads@thevarsity.ca.

School of Law

Start your LLB in September 2012 The School of Law is now accepting applications for its 2-year and 3-year LLB. • No prior degree required for 3-year LLB • Students with any University degree can apply for the accelerated 2-year LLB • No LSAT/LNAT A representative of the School of Law will be giving a presentation on the following dates:

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Contact: Beth Astington, School of Law, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, UK, LE1 7RH Call: 011 44 116 252 5187 Email: law@le.ac.uk Ref: Canada

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thevarsity.ca Dr. Peter Stark Dentist 1033 Bay St. Suite 217

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8 launch ways to

photography by Bernarda Gospic

How we learn to make sounds

by Maayan Adar

YOUR CAREER POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICATES IN: Event Management Financial Planning Global Business Management Human Resources Management International Development

Hold a tissue or an unfolded napkin in front of your lips so that it moves when you breathe, and then say “peak.” If you’re a native speaker of one of several varieties of English, including Canadian English, a distinct burst of air should follow your P, causing the tissue to flutter. Now, say “speak.” This time around, the tissue should stay more or less still; it’s the same deal for the P in “leap.”

In linguistics, the name for that puff of air following P is “aspiration,” and in some languages, it makes an absolute difference. In those languages, P, like in “speak,” and P with the puff of air, like in “peak,” are as distinct as P and B are in English — Thai and Hindi speakers, I’m talking about you! In English, however, P’s are P’s whether they are aspirated or not, which (if you’re interested in language) reveals something totally fascinating about sound representation in the mind.

In the language acquisition process, humans learn to group

some types of sounds categorically, so that measurably distinct sounds like a “puffy P” and the regular kind of P can be considered the same thing. Experiment after experiment shows that newborns are sensitive to all kinds of subtle linguistic contrasts like aspiration, but as those newborns become infants, their brains start to categorize sounds and focus only on the sound distinctions found in the primary surrounding language(s). So when it comes to picking up relevant sound contrasts and forming sound categories, the brain sure knows its stuff!

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TOMAS, 3RD YEAR MEDIEVAL STUDIES

“You’re on my mind, girl.”

TRIPTHI, 2ND YEAR LINGUISTICS

“My birthday!”

ALICE, 4TH YEAR NEUROSCIENCE

“What I’m doing after my undergrad.”

JOSEPH, 3RD YEAR Computational biology/ bioinformatics

“Does she like me?”

What’s on your mind? photographed and compiled by Rob Leone

“Grad school applications.”

Michelle, 4th year Linguistics and German

“My positive psychology exam.”

LAUREN, 3RD YEAR PSYCHOLOGY

“Anarchy.”

MARKO, 4th YEAR FRENCH

“Elections.”

AARON, 4th year PHILOSOPHY

OCTOBER 31, 2011

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