Talking about Fandom: the Feels

In fandom there is the term "feeling" which is shortened to "feels". It is that moment when you feel overwhelmed by something. You may call it sadness but it's different kind of sadness. It's just difficult to describe so we simply call it "feels".

If you want to see some examples, I once wrote a post entitled "Jleb" Harry Potter Moments. Yeah, it's quite similar to "jleb" in Indonesian.

However, no matter how overwhelming it is, we often intentionally hit ourselves with "feels". Here are two examples. Harry Potter fans know that Fred Weasley's death was sad but they still search in the internet for meme or fanfic or anything related to it, only to get struck with "feels" afterward. My Chemical Romance fans can get "feels" only by listening to any of their song but still, they listen to the songs, watch the videos on YouTube, watch past interviews, or read old articles. 

Why do we do that? Is it like when we fall in love? I mean, when we fall in love, we experience increase of dopamine and oxytocin. According to Marieb and Hoehn (2013), dopamine is "feel good" neurotransmitter; the ecstasy of romantic love may be just a brain bath of glutamate and norepinephrine, which act on the reward system to release dopamine. Oxytocin, on the other hand, promotes nurturing, couple bonding, and trust.

Questions:

1. Is our feeling in fandom similar to those of people who fall in love? Or is it just obsession?

2. If it's because of dopamine, why do we feel this strange emotion? Dopamine is supposed to make us feel good, right? Why do I feel miserable instead?

3. How long does it normally last?

Well, I guess for those who are not in fandom, it may sound like we punish ourselves. However, for people involved in fandom, it's just a normal activity. We sometimes even think, "I'm in the good mood for sad fanfic. Let me search and read. Don't disturb me while I'm suffering with this mess called 'feels'!"

Also, if you're interested in learning neurology, psychiatry, and fandom psychology, I have those three questions above. You may use it for research idea or something. 

Little Talk about Prefrontal Cortex

Prefrontal cortex is a region in the brain that is involved with intellect, recall, and personality. It's also useful in judgement, planning, and problem solving. This part of the brain develops slowly and it's fully mature at the age of 20s and the development is influenced by social environment. Read more about the changes here.
Since this region develops slowly, when my friend said, "My crush is a good guy but I think he's not mature yet," we "casually" concluded that the prefrontal cortex of my friend's crush wasn't fully mature yet.

References

Hrweb.mit.edu, (2008). Young Adult Development Project. [online] Available at: http://hrweb.mit.edu/worklife/youngadult/brain.html [Accessed 9 Mar. 2015].

Marieb, E. and Hoehn, K. (2013). Human anatomy & physiology. Boston: Pearson.

Brain Meninges: Two Mothers and a Spider

Meninges are membranes that protect central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). From external to internal, the meninges are dura mater, arachnoid mater, and pia mater. In this post, I will talk about brain meninges (spinal meninges are a little different to brain meninges).

Meninges

Dura Mater

Literally, dura mater means tough mother. It consists of two layers: periosteal and meningeal. The periosteal attaches to the cranium and the meningeal layer continues to caudal as spinal dura mater.

Arachnoid Mater

Arachnoid mater is separated from dura mater by subdural space. Arachnida means spider. Why is this membrane called arachnoid? Below arachnoid mater, there is subarachnoid space. There is spider web-like extension in this space for securing arachnoid mater to pia mater. 

Pia Mater

Pia mater means gentle mother. As the name implies, it's a gentle membrane rich with tiny blood vessels that wraps the brain.

References

Marieb, E. and Hoehn, K. (2013). Human anatomy & physiology. Boston: Pearson.

T, V. (2013). Flashcards - Ch. 13 Meninges - Meninges (3) Dura Mater (tough mother) | StudyBlue. [online] StudyBlue. Available at: https://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/ch-13-meninges/deck/9223760 [Accessed 28 Feb. 2015].

p.s. In formal academic setting, a flashcard like in studyblue can't be used as reference. However, since this is a blog and I only use the site as a picture source, I think it's fine.