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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

The Vox Box

Stressing Out, A Good Thing?

It's most likely that someone else has blogged about something like this. But I just recently found a new story about the benefits of stress.

Some might figure that anxious people tend to make batter decisions. Gregory Samanes-Larkin, a graduate student in philosophy at Stanford, ran an experiment which involved scanning the brains of healthy people without anxiety disorders and watched as the anterior insula, a part of the brain, lit up when patients anticipated losing money. The more anxious patients showed even more activity in that particular section of the brain.

The second part of the experiment brought the same people back to play a computer game for real cash. The more anxious people were better at learning how to avoid losing money.

What do you think? Have you ever felt you had the "perfect" amount of stress or anxiousness?



In 2006, then-editor Steve Smith of The Spokesman-Review had the idea of starting a publication for an often forgotten audience: teenagers. The Vox Box was a continuation of the Vox, an all-student staffed newspaper published by The Spokesman-Review. High school student journalists who staffed the Vox made all content decisions as they learn about the trade of journalism. This blog's mission was to give students an opportunity to publish their voices. The Vox Box and the Vox wrapped up in June 2009, but you can follow former staffers' new blog at http://voxxiez.blogspot.com.