Digital hygiene: pandemic lockdowns and the need to suspend fast thinking

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-48
Author(s):  
David Anthony Pittaway
Keyword(s):  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Flight Response ◽  
Global Trend ◽  
Stress Levels ◽  
Sympathetic Nervous ◽  
Fight Or Flight Response ◽  
System 1 ◽  
Fight Or Flight

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the global trend towards spending increasing amounts of time online. I explore some of the potential negative consequences of lockdown-induced increases in time spent online, and I argue that the stressful context of the pandemic and lockdowns is exacerbated by being online beyond that which is required for essential purposes. Time spent online may increase stress levels by perpetuating the sympathetic nervous system's fight-or-flight response, draining a person’s energy and diminishing one’s ability to deal with illness. I frame the situation as one in which the pandemic context, combined with a mandatory need to be online more, forces many people into what Daniel Kahneman calls “System 1 thinking”, or “fast thinking”. I argue that digital hygiene requires the suspension of System 1 thinking, and that “philosophical perception” resonates with potential remedies in this regard.

Central Command Neurons of the Sympathetic Nervous System: Basis of the Fight-or-Flight Response

Science ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 270 (5236) ◽  
pp. 644-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. P. Jansen ◽  
X. V. Nguyen ◽  
V. Karpitskiy ◽  
T. C. Mettenleiter ◽  
A. D. Loewy
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Sympathetic Nervous System ◽  
Central Command ◽  
Command Neurons ◽  
Flight Response ◽  
Sympathetic Nervous ◽  
Fight Or Flight Response ◽  
Fight Or Flight

Network physiology of ‘fight or flight’ response in facial superficial blood vessels

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 014002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amin Derakhshan ◽  
Mohammad Mikaeili ◽  
Ali Motie Nasrabadi ◽  
Tom Gedeon
Keyword(s):  
Blood Vessels ◽  
Flight Response ◽  
Fight Or Flight Response ◽  
Fight Or Flight

scholarly journals Human PBMCs fight or flight response to starvation stress: Increased T-reg, FOXP3, and TGF-β1 with decreased miR-21 and Constant miR-181c levels

2018 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 1404-1411
Author(s):  
Mahsa Rahmani ◽  
Mousa Mohammadnia-Afrouzi ◽  
Hamid Reza Nouri ◽  
Sadegh Fattahi ◽  
Haleh Akhavan-Niaki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Pbmcs ◽  
Starvation Stress ◽  
Flight Response ◽  
Fight Or Flight Response ◽  
Tgf Β1 ◽  
Fight Or Flight

Environments, Past and Present

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Duckworth ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Acute Stress ◽  
The Body ◽  
Physiological Changes ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Flight Response ◽  
Fight Or Flight Response ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Fight Or Flight

For more than a century, scientists have known that acute stress activates the fight-or-flight response. When your life is on the line, your body reacts instantly: your heart races, your breath quickens, and a cascade of hormones sets off physiological changes that collectively improve your odds of survival. More recently, scientists have come to understand that the fight-or-flight response takes a toll on the brain and the body—particularly when stress is chronic rather than acute. Systems designed to handle transient threats also react to stress that occurs again and again, for weeks, months, or years. It turns out that poverty, abuse, and other forms of adversity repeatedly activate the fight-or-flight response, leading to long-term effects on the immune system and brain, which in turn increase the risk for an array of illnesses, including asthma, diabetes, arthritis, depression, and cardiovascular disease. Pioneering neuroscientist Bruce McEwen called this burden of chronic stress “allostatic load.”

scholarly journals Different paths, same destination: divergent action potential responses produce conserved cardiac fight‐or‐flight response in mouse and rabbit hearts

2019 ◽  
Vol 597 (15) ◽  
pp. 3867-3883 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lianguo Wang ◽  
Stefano Morotti ◽  
Srinivas Tapa ◽  
Samantha D. Francis Stuart ◽  
Yanyan Jiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Action Potential ◽  
Flight Response ◽  
Fight Or Flight Response ◽  
Fight Or Flight

Neural and endocrine function in the immune response to critical illness

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth L. Ackland
Keyword(s):  
Critical Care ◽  
Critical Illness ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Clinical Syndrome ◽  
Therapeutic Interventions ◽  
Endocrine Function ◽  
Flight Response ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Fight Or Flight Response ◽  
Fight Or Flight

The neurohormonal physiological response to various stressors is pivotal for maintaining homeostasis. However, the advent of modern critical care has distorted evolutionary biology by generating the entirely new (patho)physiological entity of critical illness. By extending the biological features of the ‘fight or flight’ response beyond the acute phase, distinct neurohormonal, and immune profiles have become increasingly apparent. Both direct and off-target effects of neurohormonal control on immune function are implicated in the disruption of bidirectional links between neurohormones and immune effectors that limit organ dysfunction. Iatrogenic factors introduced by critical care therapy may exacerbate neurohormonal dysregulation, further distorting the biology of the ‘fight or flight’ response. Neural mechanisms underlying this newly-characterized clinical syndrome remain poorly understood. Furthermore, the same neurohormonal responses are chronically dysregulated in pre-existing comorbidities diseases associated with an increased risk of sepsis, multi-organ failure and critical illness. Off-target local immune effects may explain the failure of clinical trials aimed at altering systemic neurohormonal physiology. Recent laboratory and translational human clinical studies, particularly in diseases characterized by chronic neurohormonal dysregulation, have provided new insights into the possibility of therapeutic interventions that could minimize the pathophysiological features of critical illness.

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