Dr. Candace B. Pert, Ph.D.  neuropeptides research scientist, in her book MOLECULES OF EMOTION: on page 121, stated "(In) my lab,  I had a personal preference for hiring Italian graduate students and postdocs.  I felt that their warmth, spontaneity, and lust for life infused an element of fun as well as creativity into the lab atmosphere.  They liked to come into the lab around two in the afternoon and work all night, often peaking in rhythm around the time the evening news came on." 

OK, you Soprano Lovers, you have your concept of what reflects Italian Culture,
Dr. Pert and I, and I imagine a number of you, have OUR concept of what more accurately reflects Italian Culture!!!! 

Bob Miriani was the source for this observation, and the following information that may be a little deep, but you have already enjoyed the crux. 
=======================================================
In MOLECULES OF EMOTION:  Why You Feel the Way You Feel, by Candace B. Pert, Ph.D., this research scientist lays out her finding that neuropeptides (messengers for the body from the brain/mind) carry such things as "feelings, sensations, thoughts, drives, perhaps even spirit or soul."  

A great discovery which basically dissolved the Cartesian model of the mind and body being separate entities.  The implications are mind boggling: that our brain/mind can influence our body via these messengers (neuropeptides) and our brain/mind receives the bio(body)feedback message loop from the body peptides.  

The Indian Yogis have a couple of proverbs regarding this phenomenon, that are interesting, in that they were not discovered in the laboratory, but were discovered by them centuries ago:  "Everything in the body is in the mind, but not everything in the mind is in the body." and, "The mind and the body make excellent slaves but very poor masters."  So who dictates to the "slaves?"  And what in the mind is not present in the body?  

If Dr. Pert's research is correct (and there is no reason to doubt her fine research), the Spirit or a Soul can override the mind and body, and this "Spirit/Soul" is/are has/have a connection to our minds and is really the "ghost in the machine."  
----------------------------------       
In  MOLECULES OF EMOTION: Why You Feel the Way You Feel, Candace B. Pert, Ph.D. on page 121 stated :"My lab, like most in the Palace, hummed with activity night and day. By 1978 I was co-supervising, along with John Tallman, a staff of up to ten and getting a taste of what it meant to be in charge of the hiring and firing, the managing of people as well as resources and projects.  In the beginning, I had a personal preference for hiring Italian graduate students and postdocs.  I felt that their warmth, spontaneity, and lust for life infused an element of fun as well as creativity into the lab atmosphere.  They liked to come into the lab around two in the afternoon and work all night, often peaking in rhythm around the time the evening news came on."