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xtruss · 8 months

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Communication: Your 🧠 On Emoji. It's Complicated. And That's Good.

— By Alla Katsnelson | Nautilus

Image: eztexting

Twenty years ago, Microsoft’s instant messaging platform added a new feature: dozens of little icons users could drop into their messages, conveying happiness, surprise, confusion, or a sheep. Gradually, then all at once, emojis were here: spreading from chat platforms to SMS, email, social media, and—to the chagrin of legions of teachers—even infecting school assignments.

For years, I was an emoji hold-out. Embracing the little, cartoonish images felt like transgressing against the virtue of words. To my linguistically traditional soul, raised on Jane Austen and Isaac Babel, emojis seemed cheap and unnecessarily revealing. I resented their creep into written communication, which had long managed just fine, thank you very much, with the alphabet.

But just a few years ago, after befriending a colleague whose texts were flecked with these symbols, I had a change of heart. Our daily banter thrived on the emotional zest that emojis added, and on the sense of connection they fueled. Timidly at first, I started to thread them into my digital discourse. Now they’re woven into my communication with many people in my life, punctuating a short note or standing alone as a single message, a 💥 or 🔥 or 🌟 as a full-stop reply. What’s surprised me most is the palpable joy these flutters of icon-based interaction have added to routine exchanges.

The Effect is Like a Shot of Meaning-Making Caffeine—Pure Emotional Charge.

Valeria Pfeifer is a cognitive scientist at the University of Arizona. She is one of a small group of researchers who has studied how emojis affect our thinking. She tells me that my newfound joy makes sense. Emojis “convey this additional complex layer of meaning that words just don’t really seem to get at,” she says. Many a word nerd has fretted that emojis are making us—and our communication—dumber. But Pfeifer and other cognitive scientists and linguists are beginning to explain what makes them special.

In a book called The Emoji Code, British cognitive linguist Vyvyan Evans describes emojis as “incontrovertibly the world’s first truly universal communication.” That might seem like a tall claim for an ever-expanding set of symbols whose meanings can be fickle. But language evolves, and these ideograms have become the lingua franca of digital communication.

The story of the emoji reaches back further than early instant messaging programs. Before these graphically detailed icons were easy to display, the clunkier, character-constructed emoticon held their place.

Carnegie Mellon computer scientist Scott Fahlman is often credited with codifying these smile-and-wink punctuation constructions. After watching posters in early online bulletin boards get into skirmishes—say, when a poster’s sarcasm was misread—he suggested in 1982 that colleagues add a ":-)" or ":-(" to indicate their tone. If posters could flag when they were being funny or sarcastic, he figured, readers wouldn’t be so easily upset.

Writers and thinkers had, for decades, proposed subbing in punctuation for feelings, though many, it seems, did so in tongue-in-cheek jest. Other early potential emoticons in the wild—such as a ";)" in a transcript note describing audience reactions of “applause and laughter” during an 1862 speech by Abraham Lincoln—were likely typesetting errors or examples of looser punctuation norms of the day.

The interface of language and emotion is where the magic lies.

None of these uses took root though until the fertile conditions of the early internet arrived. And as graphical interfaces improved, the contemporary emoji was born.

The emoji didn’t initially set out to be a souped-up emoticon. When, in 1999, Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita developed a first suite of 176 of them for the cell phone company he was working for, most weren’t meant to convey a feeling at all. The majority of them were quotidian symbols he envisioned people would toss in occasionally in place of words: a house, an ear, a tennis racket, a fax sign.

It wasn’t until 2011, when Apple first made emojis accessible through a dedicated emoji keyboard on their mobile devices (and Android did the same two years later) that emojis truly started going mainstream. By 2015, more than 90 percent of internet users had deployed them, and the Oxford English Dictionary named 😂 Word of the Year. Today, the Unicode Consortium, emojis’ governing body, as it were, lists more than 3,500 of them.

The word emoji itself has nothing to do, etymologically, with emoting. It’s a blend of the Japanese words for picture (e) and character (moji)—unlike emoticon, which is an American mix of emotion and icon. This difference in origin and intention also inflected early scientific research into these new communication tools and their impact on the people using them.

Perhaps the first study of how these visual representations activate the brain was presented at a conference in 2006. Computer scientist Masahide Yuasa, then at Tokyo Denki University in Japan, and his colleagues wanted to see whether our noggins interpret abstract symbolic representations of faces—emoticons made of punctuation marks—in the same way as photographic images of them. They popped several college students into a brain scanning machine (they used functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI) and showed them realistic images of happy and sad faces, as well as scrambled versions of these pictures. They also showed them happy and sad emoticons, along with short random collections of punctuation.

The photos lit up a brain region associated with faces. The emoticons didn’t. But they did activate a different area thought to be involved in deciding whether something is emotionally negative or positive. The group’s later work, published in 2011, extended this finding, reporting that emoticons at the end of a sentence made verbal and nonverbal areas of the brain respond more enthusiastically to written text. “Just as prosody enriches vocal expressions,” the researchers wrote in their earlier paper, the emoticons seemed to be layering on more meaning and impact. The effect is like a shot of meaning-making caffeine—pure emotional charge.

It was surprising that these punctuation faces carried their emotional valence to the reader’s psyche without first being recognized as abstract faces. Back then, many researchers assumed people first pieced together the line-and-dot faces and then inferred their expression “as a bottom-up process,” Yuasa explained to me via email. But the results suggested that the emoticons were plugging into something more foundational even than face-recognition—hinting that responding to emotion in communication is a primal, even deeper drive.

A few years later, researchers in Australia reported that people were much quicker to grok smiley face emoticons ":-)" as faces than when the same symbols were typed backward: ")-:" For the lead researcher, Owen Churches, the results pointed to our brains’ amazing ability to adapt to a quickly changing world. “There is no innate neural response to emoticons that babies are born with,” he told ABC Australia. “This is an entirely culturally created neural response.”

Once the visually richer emojis proliferated, scientists had even more concepts they could interrogate to discern the real-time integration with language, communication, and feeling. And the research quickly became intriguingly nuanced. To wit: Do emojis and words have similar functions when attempting to convey irony? Irony in its most basic form is expressing the opposite of what you mean, to make a point. The incongruity it conveys is so cognitively satisfying precisely because of the layers of drama and meaning it adds to language.

Benjamin Weissman and Darren Tanner at the University of Illinois recorded patterns of brain activity as participants read simple sentences ending with different face emojis—one that aligned with the meaning of a sentence, one that diverged, and one of a wink-face emoji clearly signaling irony.

Comparing their findings to previous research on how the brain responds to ironic language, they reported—in their 2018 cheekily titled paper, “A strong wink between verbal and emoji-based irony”—that, as far as the brain is concerned, emojis and words do roughly the same job.

“There’s basically a match,” says Weissman, a cognitive scientist now at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. “As long as there is some sort of irony conveyed and interpreted, the brain response looks pretty similar to the brain response for traditional non-emoji irony.” That finding aligns with more recent, still-unpublished work Weissman did with cognitive scientist Neil Cohn at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. There, they probed how the brain responds to reading sentences in which either a word or an emoji matched the expected meaning or had an unexpected meaning:

Here, too, the brain responded to the emojis pretty similarly as to the words, with the expected ones eliciting a brain activity pattern associated with linguistic prediction, and the surprise ones yielding activity associated with processing mismatched meaning.

In a way, Weissman says, it doesn’t really matter whether we are calling to mind a concept from a word or an icon. On the whole, for higher-level cognition in which the brain is making complex meaning from inputs it receives, it can integrate all sorts of elements, including facial expressions and tone of voice, he says. And emojis are just another type of this input. “The meaning-making process can probably operate on a level independent of the modality itself,” he says.

But of course, anyone who has wielded emojis knows they are doing something more than just colorfully, jauntily standing in for words. Like their 41-year-old cousins, the emoticons, they are doing heavier lifting, too. Their ability to convey emotion does a complex dance with language. For Pfeifer, this interface is where their magic lies.

“Emojis have this ability to make the same words seem more emotional or less emotional—to seem alarming versus completely fine or joking even,” she says. These are important social functions, she adds. “Through our switch to using a more text-based communication we lost this additional layer of meaning that emojis can now provide.”

Our species and our many spoken languages emerged in the frothy cauldron of in-person communication, steeped in tone of voice, volume, facial expressions, gestures, posture, knowing glances. Even as writing forms began to emerge, such as cuneiform more than 5,000 years ago, for the majority of history their use remained largely official—government, business, religious. Interpersonal, social, cohering communication was still in-person, and often by necessity; as recently as 1960, less than half of the global population could read and write, and even in Austen’s era of the seemingly ubiquitous romantic epistle, only about half of English people older than 14 years could have penned or read a letter.

Positive Emojis Say, ‘Hey, I’m Listening.’ Negative Ones Have a Very Different Effect.

But as we stepped into the brave new digital world, the written word has taken over much of daily social and collegial correspondence. Texts and direct messages rather than social calls or phone calls. And work meetings or calls now often transmuted into dashed-off lines of keystrokes on Slack or Microsoft’s Teams.

As they say, nature abhors a vacuum, and emojis seem to have arrived at a time when a new communication niche needed filling. “The way we communicated when we all started texting or emailing seemed to be deprived of something that emojis seem to fill,” Pfeifer says.

She and her colleagues were also interested in the ways in which different emotion-evoking emojis impact social dynamics in their coloring of written statements. They found that happy emojis, such as hearts and smiling faces, added a general emotionally positive boost to a message, though not in any terribly specific capacity. Instead, these pictorial cues served more as bids of connection.

“Positive emojis are like a blinking light on a recording device,” she says. “Maybe we send this type of emoji to say, ‘hey, I’m listening,’ or ‘I’m interested in what you’re saying’—just as a way to confirm the social relationship between us,” she says. These sorts of emojis seem to be fostering social cohesion.

Negative emojis, on the other hand, affected words and interpretation differently. Recipients in their study read frowns, angry faces, and tears as indicators of a much more specific mental state, and they processed these symbols much more carefully and more in-depth, Pfeiffer says. “It is a lot more revealing from the sender’s perspective to send a negative emoji than a positive one.” And while positivity serves as a social cement holding us together—even, it appears, in emoji form—negative sentiments require plumbing the depths of a relationship or of a shared understanding to clarify their intent. And just as when we’re engaging in-person, they are more likely to spur miscommunication.

Emojis are also filling other social gaps born from our shift to a digital lifestyle. In her work, Linda Kaye, a psychologist at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk, England who is writing a book that synthesizes emoji research, has explored how these ubiquitous icons can reveal valuable clues to a person’s personality.

Interactions through social media platforms are often assumed to be opaque—and they do lack many markers that humans rely on to understand and make accurate judgements about each other. Kaye decided to test whether the way people use emojis online might help others get to know what they’re like. She and her colleagues asked a group of people with a presence on Facebook to complete a written personality questionnaire, and then they had another group look at screenshots of their profiles.

Looking at five major dimensions of personality, they found that the kinds of emojis people used in their profiles helped viewers assess two of them—open-mindedness and extraversion—with reasonably good accuracy. And while extraversion is pretty easy to judge in person, open-mindedness can be tough to gauge. “That tells us that when we are forming first impressions, actually online sometimes might give us more behavior to help us understand open-mindedness than offline targets,” Kaye says.

It turns out that a world freshly speckled with 🙂s is not really such a changed world after all. Nor as flat of a one as many might assume. “Ultimately, communication—the purpose of it and the way we do it—inherently doesn’t change all that much,” Kaye explains. “I would say it’s more about expanding our range.”

To me, as I continue on my newly emoji-strewn path, that’s an inspiring thought because it suggests we don’t need to poopoo such novel concoctions but can see them as a triumph of the dazzling adaptability of the human brain. And I will seek delight in the fact that our species can not only access conceptual and emotional language so rich as to craft resonant works of literature like Moby Dick—but also can crowd-source a full translation of it into emojis: 🐳.

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blueiight · 11 months

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Does the brain ‘stop maturing’ at 25?

In the frontal lobes, involved in planning, organizing, strategizing, and other “executive” functions, the cortical gray matter reaches its maximal thickness at 11.0 years in girls and 12.1 years in boys. Temporal lobe cortical gray matter peaks at 16.7 years in girls and 16.2 years in boys. Parietal lobe cortical gray matter peaks at 10.2 years in girls and 11.8 years in boys. …

The relatively late development of the DLPFC, not reaching adult levels until the 20s, is intriguing in light of the behavioral data presented elsewhere in this volume. The DLPFC is linked to the ability to inhibit impulses, weigh consequences of decisions, prioritize, and strategize. Speculatively, the DLPFC is still “under construction” for a decade after the throes of puberty and may therefore be related to some of the behavioral manifestations of the teen years. However, direct data on the relationship between the brain changes shown here and behavior changes of the type described for teens has not been established.

In fact, straightforward relationships between volumes of a particular structure and performance on a particular cognitive task are elusive. Even simple tasks eventually involve the majority of brain systems, and the diversity of afferent and efferent connections to the many distinct nuclei of most structures as well as the intricacy of their various neurochemical systems further complicate functional correlates of gross volume size. — Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Adolescent Brain

Among study subjects who enrolled as children, M.R.I. scans have been done so far only to age 25, so scientists have to make another logical supposition about what happens to the brain in the late 20s, the 30s and beyond. Is it possible that the brain just keeps changing and pruning, for years and years? “Guessing from the shape of the growth curves we have,” Giedd’s colleague Philip Shaw wrote in an e-mail message, “it does seem that much of the gray matter,” where synaptic pruning takes place, “seems to have completed its most dramatic structural change” by age 25. For white matter, where insulation that helps impulses travel faster continues to form, “it does look as if the curves are still going up, suggesting continued growth” after age 25, he wrote, though at a slower rate than before. — What Is It About 20 Somethings?

#yn.#neuroscience #humanity #science #☀️

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geometrymatters · 9 months

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The human brain is a complex organ responsible for various cognitive functions. Scientists from the University of Sydney and Fudan University have made a significant discovery regarding brain signals that traverse the outer layer of neural tissue and form spiral patterns. These spirals, observed during both resting and cognitive states, have been found to play a crucial role in organizing brain activity and cognitive processing.

The research study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, focuses on the identification and analysis of spiral-shaped brain signals and their implications for understanding brain dynamics and functions. The study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans of 100 young adults to observe and analyze these brain signals. By adapting methods used in understanding complex wave patterns in turbulence, the researchers successfully identified and characterized the spiral patterns observed on the cortex.

Our study suggests that gaining insights into how the spirals are related to cognitive processing could significantly enhance our understanding of the dynamics and functions of the brain. —Associate Professor Pulin Gong

#geometriccognition #cognitivegeometry #geometry #geometrymatters #research #science #academia #neural #study

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tacktrunkstudies · 18 days

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Stop with the hashtags I never took you discussing your opinions as a personal attack like it's all good.

From what you said I'm gonna assume that maybe you live in north America?

I live in france and it's heaaacvily regulated here there's noooo way in hell I'd be given a prescription to a highly regulated drug after only a 2 hour session and silly little test. The only drug that's allowed here is concerta so while it is a stimulant it's not as intense as Adderall or smth similar.

Also I'd prefer if you linked some research to support your claims about the brain thing..

I am in North America, the US, where Vyvanse, Adderall, & Ritalin are incredibly easy access and Desoxyn is still used in a lot of cases, and concerta is rarely utilized.

Here's one of the summary pieces on MRIs showing decreased divergence in patients on long term amphetamine therapy.

This is a preliminary study trying to sort out whether ADHD itself is neuroprotective, making psychostimulants not recommended for lifetime use, or if the psychostimulants are the neuroprotective agent, and their conclusion is basically that more research on long-term psychostimulant therapy is needed to assess the risk and benefits and determine causation of the neuroprotective effects seen in both untreated adhd patients and treated adhd patients.

This study is now behind a paywall, unfortunately, but if you've got institutional credentials it may be accessible, and showed that patients had strengthened attention and reward centers in the brain, and their second phase (currently ongoing) is hoping to find if these benefits are retained after cessation.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-024-01831-4

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philosopher-blog · 2 months

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العلاقة بين الدماغ والعقل كانت موضوعًا للنقاش والاستكشاف على مدى القرون، مع وجهات نظر تتراوح من الثنائية إلى المادية. في السنوات الأخيرة، قدمت التقدمات في علم الأعصاب وعلم النفس الإدراكي وجهات نظر جديدة لفهمنا لهذه العلاقة المعقدة.

من وجهة نظر علمية، يُنظر إلى الدماغ على أنه مقر للوظائف الإدراكية والعواطف والوعي. إنه عضو معقد للغاية يقوم بمعالجة ودمج المعلومات الحسية، ويتحكم في وظائف الحركة، وينظم العمليات الفيزيولوجية للجسم. قام علماء الأعصاب بخطوات كبيرة في رسم خريطة هيكل الدماغ وفهم كيفية مساهمة المناطق المختلفة في العمليات الإدراكية المختلفة وتجارب العواطف. وقد أدى ذلك إلى فهم أعمق للأساس البيولوجي للعقل وكيفية ارتباطه بوظيفة الدماغ.

سمح التقدم في تقنيات تصوير الدماغ، مثل التصوير بالرنين المغناطيسي الوظيفي (fMRI) وتخطيط الدماغ بالكهرباء (EEG)، للباحثين بمراقبة الدماغ وتتبع النشاط العصبي المرتبط بعمليات عقلية معينة. وقد قدمت هذه النقاط قيمة في استكشاف العلاقات العصبية للإدراك والتفكير والعاطفة والوعي، وهذا يشدد أكثر على الصلة بين وظيفة الدماغ والعقل.

من وجهة نظر فلسفية ونفسية، دفعت العلاقة بين الدماغ والعقل إلى النقاش حول طبيعة الوعي والتجربة الشخصية وشعور الذات. استكشف الفلاسفة وعلماء النفس الأسئلة المحيطة بمشكلة العقل والجسم، بحثًا عن توضيح كيفية أن العمليات الفيزيائية في الدماغ تولد تجارب عقلية شخصية. وقام ذلك بدفع النقاش حول طبيعة ا��هوية الشخصية والإرادة الحرة، والمسائل الأخلاقية المتعلقة بفهم العقل كنتاج للنشاط العصبي.

ظهور علم الأعصاب الإدراكي كمجال متعدد التخصصات جسر الفجوة بين الجوانب البيولوجية والنفسية للعقل، مع العمل المشترك بين العلماء في علم الأعصاب وعلماء النفس والفلاسفة وأخلاقيين. هذا التقاطع بين التخصصات أدى إلى نهج شامل لفهم العلاقة بين الدماغ والعقل، مدمجًا بين وجهات النظر البيولوجية والنفسية لاكتساب فهم شامل للعقل البشري.

علاوة على ذلك، تتجاوز الآثار المترتبة على هذا النهج المتكامل النظري إلى مواقع تطبيقية. فتفهم أعمق للعلاقة بين الدماغ والعقل يمكّن من وضع استراتيجيات علاجية للاضطرابات العصبية والنفسية، واستراتيجيات تعليمية تأخذ في الاعتبار العمليات الإدراكية الكامنة وراء التعلم، وتطوير أنظمة الذكاء الاصطناعي المستوحاة من مبادئ الإدراك البشري.

الاعتبارات الأخلاقية المتعلقة بالعلاقة بين الدماغ والعقل مهمة أيضًا. مع التعمق في فهم الأساس العصبي للسلوك والوعي، تطرح أسئلة حول الآثار الأخلاقية للتلاعب بوظيفة الدماغ، وإنشاء الوعي الاصطناعي، والحفاظ على الحرية الشخصية في مواجهة التطورات في التكنولوجيا العصبية. تتطلب هذه المعضلات الأخلاقية اهتمامًا دقيقًا وحوارًا مستمرًا بين العلماء والأخلاقيين وصانعي السياسات والجمهور العام الواسع لضمان أن التطورات في النيوروساينس وعلم النفس الإدراكي يوجهها القيم الأخلاقية والاجتماعية.

في الختام، تعتبر العلاقة بين الدماغ والعقل مجالًا معقدًا وعميقًا للبحث يمتد عبر الأبعاد العلمية والفلسفية والنفسية والأخلاقية. جمع المعرفة من هذه التخصصات المتنوعة أدى إلى تقدم كبير في فهم دور الدماغ في تشكيل العقل وفتح المجالات الجديدة للبحث والتطبيقات العملية. من خلال الاستمرار في استكشاف هذه العلاقة المعقدة بنهج متعدد التخصصات والنظر في الآثار الأخلاقية لها، يمكننا إضاءة المزيد من أسرار الدماغ والعقل، مما يؤدي إلى التقدم الذي يعود بالفائدة على الأفراد والمجتمع بأسره.

The relationship between the brain and the mind has been a topic of debate and exploration for centuries, with viewpoints ranging from dualism to materialism. In recent years, advancements in neuroscience and cognitive psychology have brought new perspectives to our understanding of this complex relationship.

From a scientific standpoint, the brain is seen as the seat of cognitive functions, emotions, and consciousness. It is a highly complex organ that processes and integrates sensory information, controls motor functions, and regulates the body's physiological processes. Neuroscientists have made significant strides in mapping the brain's structure and understanding how different regions contribute to various cognitive processes and emotional experiences. This has led to a deeper understanding of the biological basis of the mind and how it is intricately linked to the functioning of the brain.

Advances in brain imaging technologies, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG), have allowed researchers to observe the brain in action and track neural activity associated with specific mental processes. This has provided valuable insights into the neural correlates of perception, cognition, emotion, and consciousness, further solidifying the connection between brain function and the mind.

From a philosophical and psychological perspective, the relationship between the brain and the mind has prompted discussions about the nature of consciousness, subjective experience, and the sense of self. Philosophers and psychologists have explored questions surrounding the mind-body problem, seeking to elucidate how the physical processes of the brain give rise to subjective mental experiences. This has spurred debates about the nature of personal identity, free will, and the ethical implications of understanding the mind as a product of neural activity.

The emergence of cognitive neuroscience as an interdisciplinary field has bridged the gap between the biological and psychological aspects of the mind, fostering collaboration between neuroscientists, psychologists, philosophers, and ethicists. This convergence of disciplines has led to a more holistic approach to understanding the brain-mind relationship, incorporating both biological and psychological perspectives to gain a comprehensive understanding of human cognition and behavior.

Furthermore, the implications of this integrated approach extend beyond theoretical considerations. They have practical applications in fields such as mental health, education, and artificial intelligence. A deeper understanding of the brain-mind relationship can inform therapeutic interventions for neurological and psychiatric disorders, educational strategies that take into account the cognitive processes underlying learning, and the development of artificial intelligence systems that are inspired by the principles of human cognition.

Ethical considerations surrounding the brain-mind relationship are also paramount. As our understanding of the neural basis of behavior and consciousness deepens, questions arise about the ethical implications of manipulating brain function, creating artificial consciousness, and preserving personal autonomy in the face of advances in neurotechnology. These ethical dilemmas require careful consideration and ongoing dialogue among scientists, ethicists, policymakers, and the broader public to ensure that developments in neuroscience and cognitive psychology are guided by moral and societal values.

In conclusion, the relationship between the brain and the mind is a multifaceted and profound area of inquiry that spans scientific, philosophical, psychological, and ethical dimensions. The integration of knowledge from these diverse disciplines has led to significant advancements in our understanding of the brain's role in shaping the mind and has opened up new frontiers for research and practical applications. By continuing to explore this complex relationship with a multidisciplinary approach and careful consideration of its ethical implications, we can further illuminate the mysteries of the brain and the mind, leading to advancements that benefit individuals and society as a whole.

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gowns · 1 year

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Imagine that all the world’s knowledge is stored, and organized, in a single vertical Steelcase filing cabinet. Maybe it’s lima-bean green. It’s got four drawers. Each drawer has one of those little paper-card labels, snug in a metal frame, just above the drawer pull. The drawers are labelled, from top to bottom, “Mysteries,” “Facts,” “Numbers,” and “Data.” Mysteries are things only God knows, like what happens when you’re dead. That’s why they’re in the top drawer, closest to Heaven. A long time ago, this drawer used to be crammed full of folders with names like “Why Stars Exist” and “When Life Begins,” but a few centuries ago, during the scientific revolution, a lot of those folders were moved into the next drawer down, “Facts,” which contains files about things humans can prove by way of observation, detection, and experiment. “Numbers,” second from the bottom, holds censuses, polls, tallies, national averages—the measurement of anything that can be counted, ever since the rise of statistics, around the end of the eighteenth century. Near the floor, the drawer marked “Data” holds knowledge that humans can’t know directly but must be extracted by a computer, or even by an artificial intelligence. It used to be empty, but it started filling up about a century ago, and now it’s so jammed full it’s hard to open.

From the outside, these four drawers look alike, but, inside, they follow different logics. The point of collecting mysteries is salvation; you learn about them by way of revelation; they’re associated with mystification and theocracy; and the discipline people use to study them is theology. The point of collecting facts is to find the truth; you learn about them by way of discernment; they’re associated with secularization and liberalism; and the disciplines you use to study them are law, the humanities, and the natural sciences. The point of collecting numbers in the form of statistics—etymologically, numbers gathered by the state—is the power of public governance; you learn about them by measurement; historically, they’re associated with the rise of the administrative state; and the disciplines you use to study them are the social sciences. The point of feeding data into computers is prediction, which is accomplished by way of pattern detection. The age of data is associated with late capitalism, authoritarianism, techno-utopianism, and a discipline known as data science, which has lately been the top of the top hat, the spit shine on the buckled shoe, the whir of the whizziest Tesla.

[...]

It’s easy to think of the ills produced by the hubristic enthusiasm for numbers a century ago, from the I.Q. to the G.D.P. It’s easy, too, to think of the ills produced by the hubristic enthusiasm for data today, and for artificial intelligence (including in a part of the Bay Area now known as Cerebral Valley). The worst of those ills most often have to do with making predictions about human behavior and apportioning resources accordingly: using algorithms to set bail or sentences for people accused or convicted of crimes, for instance. Connelly proposes that the computational examination of declassified documents could serve as “the functional equivalent of CT scans and magnetic resonance imaging to examine the body politic.” He argues that “history as a data science has to prove itself in the most rigorous way possible: by making predictions about what newly available sources will reveal.” But history is not a predictive science, and if it were it wouldn’t be history. Legal scholars are making this same move. In “The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future” (PublicAffairs), Orly Lobel, a University of San Diego law professor, argues that the solution to biases in algorithms is to write better algorithms. Fair enough, except that the result is still rule by algorithms. What if we stopped clinging to the raft of data, returned to the ocean of mystery, and went fishing for facts?

-- "the data delusion," jill lepore, new yorker 3/27/23

#this metaphor was very compelling to me

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ramyeongif · 4 months

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Have you ever wondered what it’s like to participate in a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging fMRI study? I participated in a few when I was completing my undergrad degree (all those years ago!) and they were among the most interesting studies I participated in.

#fMRI

#funny #stories #fmri #undergrad #side hustle #lucy dot txt

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fivehundredwords · 1 year

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how is psilocybin metabolized?

To metabolize is to breakdown a chemical to its simpler component forms for cells to use. Psilocybin is a psychedelic compound found in fungi of several genera including Psilocybe, Panaeolus, and Copelandia. Inside the body, it influences the functional molecular mechanisms of several organs, mainly the brain, kidneys, and liver. On its own psilocybin is not as effective. To produce its infamous hallucinogenic effect in the brain, it must be converted to psilocin. Psilocin is the main active molecule, which is derived from the prodrug psilocybin.

There are two ways of getting these metabolites inside the body: oral ingestion (for example, eating the "magic mushrooms") and intravenous injection. When orally ingested, the mushrooms are digested in the usual way. Eventually, the psilocybin in the mushrooms reaches the liver where it is converted to psilocin. An enzyme, alkaline phosphatase, acts on psilocybin such that its phosphate group (PO₄³⁻) is replaced with a hydroxyl group (−OH). Psilocin is further acted upon by diverse enzymes to obtain products which are either excreted through urine or contribute to other functions in hepatocytes (liver cells) as psilocin metabolites.

There is a format to convert chemical equations to sentences. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that one must have the convenience of remembering their organic chemistry without having a stroke. Behold,

psilocin + monoamine oxidase = 4-hydroxyindole-3-acetaldehyde

psilocin + glucuronosyltransferase = psilocin glucoronide (PCG)

psilocin + aldehyde reductase = 4-hydroxytryptophol

psilocin + aldehyde dehydrogenase = 4-hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid (4HIAA)

The fates of each of these products are an elaborate article on their own, and I will be happy to write them should you be interested. Let me know!

Now, we remember that the primary effects due to which human beings consume psilocybin-containing mushrooms are caused by psilocin in the brain. The exact step-by-step mechanism has not yet been outlined; however, general molecular interactions have been found in studies. This psychoactive compound shows an interesting resemblance to serotonin the neurotransmitter. The psilocin binds to 5-HT2A (a molecule in a cell membrane which responds specifically to serotonin i.e., a serotonin receptor) with high affinity, which is believed to be essential for hallucinogenic effect. It also binds to other receptors with varying affinities, although their significance is yet to be understood.

Psilocybin and its metabolized products are completely removed from the body after 24 hours of consumption. The kidneys take pride in detoxifying circulating blood by creating the waste product urine; psilocin consumed can be detected in blood plasma 6-8 hours after consumption. Majority of the psilocin excreted through urine is in the form of psilocin-O-glucoronide. Psilocybin that remains psilocybin is also excreted through urine by the kidneys.

Introducing psilocybin in the body through veins produces effects of similar intensity as the former method. Whereas it remains as an active compound in the blood for a shorter duration. Turton et. al. conducted an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) study to compare the subjective experience of intravenous psilocybin injection interestingly explains how their participants’ descriptions of their experiences were influenced by the MRI scanner environment and the 1960s, when psychedelics were first introduced to western culture.

bibliography:

Passie T, Seifert J, Schneider U, Emrich HM. The pharmacology of psilocybin. Addiction biology. 2002 Oct;7(4):357-64.

Tylš F, Páleníček T, Horáček J. Psilocybin–summary of knowledge and new perspectives. European Neuropsychopharmacology. 2014 Mar 1;24(3):342-56.

Turton S, Nutt DJ, Carhart-Harris RL. A qualitative report on the subjective experience of intravenous psilocybin administered in an FMRI environment. Current Drug Abuse Reviews. 2014 Aug 1;7(2):117-27.

#psilocybe cubensis #psilocybe azurescens dried #psilocybe semilanceata #magic mushies #magic mushrooms #metabolites #mushrooms #altered my brain chemistry #psilocybin research #science side of tumblr #science side explain #science side help me

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wildmonkeysects · 5 months

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MRI machines and IsraeLies

IsraeLies again.

Do not believe anything Israel claims. It’s all yellowcake.

I’m Sirius. Either IDF planted the “weapons” they “discovered” behind an MRI machine, or they photographed the “evidence” elsewhere and claimed it was in the al-Shifa Hospital behind an MRI machine. IOW, blatantly fake evidence.

Pay attention to the science and engineering here.

Anything metal, in particular large ferromagnetic metal objects cannot be anywhere near an MRI machine due to the intense magnetic fields of an functioning MRI machine.

The internet needs to call these schmucks on their bullshit.

#gaza #palestine #israel #war crimes #genocide #apartheid #fake evidence #MRI machine #al-Shifa Hospital

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hauntedselves · 11 months

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Sorry if you've been asked this before, but can Alters (in DID) present as having separate disorders? For context, we have alters that show complete criteria for certain PDs nobody else shows symptoms of. I know symptom holders are a thing, but I really doubt we deal with that much.

this is a complicated subject, and the short answer is "sort of".

there's plenty of documentation of alters having physiological differences - alters that are vision impaired while the body isn't, and in tests their eyesight is legitimately different, to cite a well-known example (check out this 1991 journal article replicating an older study). the ISST-D DID treatment guidelines notes physiological differences between alters including "differences in visual acuity, medication responses, allergies, plasma glucose levels in diabetic patients, heart rate, blood pressure readings, galvanic skin response, muscle tension, laterality, immune function, electroencephalography and evoked potential patterns, functional magnetic resonance imaging activation, and brain activation and regional blood flow using single photon emission computed tomography and positron emission tomography among others". there's also a post here that neatly summarises this.

as for mental disorders, that's a bit tricky. most mental disorders have a biological basis. neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders (like autism) are hardwired into the brain, so it's not possible for only one alter to have a neuro disorder, though they may show symptoms that could be interpreted that way (probably more trauma linked though) (though trauma does affect your brain's structure... anyway, i digress). (in fact, van der Hart et al. note “autistic and [disabled] parts” as a type of part, that “can be regarded as more or less elaborated ANPs or EPs whose characteristics are defined by the action system(s) which mediate their functioning and which involve particular psychological defenses.”)

it's possible (and actually very common) that an alter will develop an eating disorder or self-harm while others don't. @this-is-not-dissociative has some posts on this: on PTSD, mental disorders, and a more in-depth explanation.

as for personality disorders, there's some argument as to whether PDs are hardwired or not. so it would depend on that. it's more likely that your alters are displaying trauma reactions than having full-fledged PDs. [though since most PD cases are trauma-caused, it's kind of a moot point anyway...]. (remember that trauma reactions are very varied - for example grandiosity in NPD is often a trauma reaction, but so is feeling inferior in AvPD!)

Summary: maybe! if there's no biological basis, it's most likely a trauma reaction. if there is a biological basis, it's more likely that they have that disorder - with the caveat that if it's something body-wide, like diabetes for instance, obviously all alters will have it, but they may react & present differently to symptoms, treatment, etc.

#dogasks #physical symptoms of trauma #dissociative identity disorder

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nomorerww · 9 months

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Female survivors of childhood trauma have reduced cortical thickness, study finds (psypost.org)

A neuroimaging study in Germany found that women who had endured childhood trauma exhibited decreased thickness in the cortex region of their brains. This decrease was particularly noted in the right lingual gyrus of the occipital lobe. The study further found that individuals who experienced childhood trauma and later developed borderline personality disorder had reduced cortical thickness in several additional brain areas. The study was published in Psychoneuroendocrinology.

Childhood trauma typically involves extreme, damaging events occurring before the age of 18, which could involve physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, neglect, violence, or loss of a loved one. These experiences, overwhelming for a child to cope with, can have lasting impacts on physical, emotional, and mental health, and may interfere with forming healthy relationships in adulthood.

Childhood trauma is a major risk factor for mental health disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD). Studies suggest that childhood trauma may cause an imbalance in brain systems responsible for managing stress responses. This imbalance can lead to mental health disorders.

One such system that can be affected is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal gland axis. Its disruption could raise levels of glucocorticoids, a type of steroid hormone vital for managing the body’s response to stress and other essential processes. This increase may have harmful effects on a child’s developing brain, leading to noticeable traits in the brains of individuals who have survived childhood trauma.

The research team, led by Catarina Rosada, wanted to investigate this theory further. They conducted a study looking for unique neural correlates of childhood trauma experiences. The researchers reasoned that if childhood trauma adversely affects brain development, it may result in a decrease in the cortical thickness of affected individuals. Cortical thickness refers to the thickness of the outer layer of the brain responsible for higher cognitive functions. It is typically measured as the distance between the outermost surface of the cortex and the gray matter/white matter boundary.

The study comprised 129 women, 70 of whom were healthy with no history of childhood trauma, and 59 who had experienced childhood trauma. Among these 59 women, 25 were healthy, 14 had PTSD, and 20 had BPD. Each group shared similar demographics, including age, body mass index, education level, family status, smoking habits, and hormonal contraceptive use.

Participants who had experienced childhood trauma completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, rating the frequency of various traumatic events spanning five categories – emotional abuse, physical abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect, and sexual abuse. PTSD severity was also assessed, and participants were asked to complete a depression symptom assessment. All participants underwent a magnetic resonance imaging scan of their brain.

The results indicated that the cortex in the right lingual gyrus of the occipital lobe and the left lateral occipital lobe was thinner in healthy participants who had experienced childhood trauma compared to those who had not. Trauma survivors with BPD had even thinner cortices in several additional brain areas compared to healthy participants.

The study’s authors concluded that the thickness of the cortex in specific brain areas is associated with childhood trauma and could influence the risk of developing mental health issues in adulthood. The researchers suggest that these findings could be used to help individuals with BPD understand their emotional and behavioral difficulties.

However, while the study adds to our understanding of the brain’s response to childhood trauma, it has its limitations. The number of trauma survivors was small, and all participants were women. Also, the study design does not allow for any definitive cause-and-effect conclusions to be drawn from the results.

The study, “Childhood Trauma and Cortical Thickness in Healthy Women, Women with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Women with Borderline Personality Disorder”, was authored by Catarina Rosada, Martin Bauer, Sabrina Golde, Sophie Metz, Stefan Roepke, Christian Otte, Claudia Buss, and Katja Wingenfeld.

#so 'BPD' in women is a symptom of trauma #basically. as I've thought for years #whenever i think of it my mind wanders to those plebbit subs about 'bad' MiLs/mothers/wives etc #some of those people need to be in good group therapy and to stop pathologizing and blaming women as always #antipsych

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teasetmonster · 2 months

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A new study has been published where they were very carefully selected 17 ME/CFS patients who've been sick for less than 5 years (probably for clarity of deconditioning cause?) and don't have any other health issues that could possibly be blamed for any of their symptoms--and 21 healthy controls--, and then did fMRIs, analyzed spinal fluids, did immune testing, and other tests.

(To give you a sense of time scale, this study was started in 2016, the year I was diagnosed. It did take longer than usual to finish and publish due to the pandemic though.)

“This in-depth study of a small group of people found a number of factors that likely contribute to their ME/CFS. Now researchers can test whether these findings apply to a larger patient group and move towards identifying treatments that target core drivers of the disease.”

“Results from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans showed that people with ME/CFS had lower activity in a brain region called the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ), which may cause fatigue by disrupting the way the brain decides how to exert effort”

“They also analyzed spinal fluid collected from participants and found abnormally low levels of catecholamines and other molecules that help regulate the nervous system in people with ME/CFS compared to healthy controls. Reduced levels of certain catecholamines were associated with worse motor performance, effort-related behaviors, and cognitive symptoms.”

"Immune testing revealed that the ME/CFS group had higher levels of naive B cells and lower levels of switched memory B cells—cells that help the immune system fight off pathogens—in blood compared to healthy controls."

the study:

"Post-infectious myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (PI-ME/CFS) is a disabling disorder, yet the clinical phenotype is poorly defined, the pathophysiology is unknown, and no disease-modifying treatments are available. We used rigorous criteria to recruit PI-ME/CFS participants with matched controls to conduct deep phenotyping. Among the many physical and cognitive complaints, one defining feature of PI-ME/CFS was an alteration of effort preference, rather than physical or central fatigue, due to dysfunction of integrative brain regions potentially associated with central catechol pathway dysregulation, with consequences on autonomic functioning and physical conditioning. Immune profiling suggested chronic antigenic stimulation with increase in naïve and decrease in switched memory B-cells. Alterations in gene expression profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells and metabolic pathways were consistent with cellular phenotypic studies and demonstrated differences according to s*x. Together these clinical abnormalities and biomarker differences provide unique insight into the underlying pathophysiology of PI-ME/CFS, which may guide future intervention."

#mecfs #health #rambling robins

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wayti-blog · 10 months

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"Mysterious, spiral signals have been discovered in the human brain, and the scientists who found the swirls think they could help to organize complex brain activity.

The signals, which appeared as swirling spirals of brain waves across the outer layer of the brain, were discovered in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans of 100 young adults, and appeared both when they were resting and working on tasks.

The exact purpose of these vortices is unknown, but their discoverers think the spiral signals might be used to link different parts of the brain and help process information faster. These vortices may even be impaired by brain diseases such as dementia, and could serve as inspiration for advanced computers that emulate the complex processes of the human mind. The researchers published their findings June 15 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour."

article

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tawdryqueen · 4 months

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Well, this was an interesting article.

More under the cut. [intermittent fasting, obesity, food addiction]

Intermittent Fasting Seems to Result in Dynamic Changes to The Human Brain

HEALTH27 December 2023

By DAVID NIELD

Scientists looking to tackle our ongoing obesity crisis have made an important discovery: Intermittent fasting leads to significant changes both in the gut and the brain, which may open up new options for maintaining a healthy weight.

Researchers from China studied 25 volunteers classed as obese over a period of 62 days, during which they took part in an intermittent energy restriction (IER) program – a regime that involves careful control of calorie intake and fasting on some days.

Not only did the participants in the study lose weight – 7.6 kilograms (16.8 pounds) or 7.8 percent of their body weight on average – there was also evidence of shifts in the activity of obesity-related regions of the brain, and in the make-up of gut bacteria.

"Here we show that an IER diet changes the human brain-gut-microbiome axis," says health researcher Qiang Zeng from the Second Medical Center and National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases in China.

"The observed changes in the gut microbiome and in the activity in addiction-related brain regions during and after weight loss are highly dynamic and coupled over time."

Right now it's not clear what causes these changes, or whether the gut is influencing the brain or vice versa. However, we do know that the gut and the brain are closely linked, so treating certain regions of the brain could be a way to control food intake.

The changes in brain activity, spotted via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, were in regions known to be important in the regulation of appetite and addiction – including the inferior frontal orbital gyrus.

What's more, the gut microbiome changes, analyzed via stool samples and blood measurements, were linked to particular brain regions.

For example, the bacteria Coprococcus comes and Eubacterium hallii were negatively associated with activity in the left inferior frontal orbital gyrus, an area involved in executive function, including our willpower when it comes to food intake.

"The gut microbiome is thought to communicate with the brain in a complex, two-directional way," says medical scientist Xiaoning Wang from the State Clinic Center for Geriatrics in China.

"The microbiome produces neurotransmitters and neurotoxins which access the brain through nerves and the blood circulation. In return the brain controls eating behavior, while nutrients from our diet change the composition of the gut microbiome."

More than a billion people worldwide are now thought to be obese, which leads to an increased risk for a multitude of different health issues, from cancer to heart disease. Knowing more about how our brains and guts are dependent on each other could make a huge difference in effectively preventing and reducing obesity.

"The next question to be answered is the precise mechanism by which the gut microbiome and the brain communicate in obese people, including during weight loss," says biomedical scientist Liming Wang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"What specific gut microbiome and brain regions are critical for successful weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight?"

The research has been published in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.

#ed behaviour tw #tw restrictive ed #tw disordered eating #ed relapse #bullimic #ed not sheeren #ana trigger #ed vent #ed disorder #tw mia #adult ana

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