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Scientists used to believe that our neurologic fate was sealed at birth with a single, lifetime allotment of brain cells.
The thinking went – not so very long ago – that little by little, with the bumps of age and lifestyle, this initial stash of neurons died, taking our brain function along with them. Yet, strange as it may sound, canaries, video games, and young blood are finally putting that punishing prospect to rest. Studies involving bird song, gaming, and the rejuvenating factors of young blood have shown not only that neurons can be generated throughout adulthood, but also that the maddening aspects of aging, such as memory loss and slower processing speed, can be partially reversed.
Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, PhD. Photo: Cindy Chew
Both neuroscientists and coal miners revere the canary, but for entirely different reasons. Like humans, canaries are known in neuro-science as “open learners,” meaning they learn throughout adulthood. “Canaries learn songs, like we learn language, from older adults when young,” explains Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, PhD, a stem cell neurobiologist at UC San Francisco. As they get older, they tweak their songs seasonally to distinguish themselves during mating season. Alvarez-Buylla’s mentor, neuroscientist Fernando Nottebohm, PhD, a professor at Rockefeller University, suspected that as these parts of the canary brain assembled and disassembled for the yearly acquisition of the new mating song, new neurons were being taken on board. Such a notion was unimaginable at the time.
“When Nottebohm proved by morphology, electrophysiology, electron micro-scopy, and connectivity between 1983 and 1986 that the new cells were neurons, the whole field of stem cell science became a lot more exciting,” recalls Alvarez-Buylla, who holds the Heather and Melanie Muss Endowed Chair in the Department of Neurological Surgery. The jaws of neuroscientists throughout the world dropped at the possibilities posed by Nottebohm’s finding. Neurogenesis offered a new way to repair damage wrought by age, neurological injury, or disease. Alvarez-Buylla went on to advance the field ever further by identifying the neural stem cell, its origins, and its behavior in the mammalian brain.
Now, decades later, young blood – literally speaking – has joined the canary as a harbinger and waypoint en route to realizing the promise of neurologic rejuvenation.
Last spring, UCSF Faculty Fellow Saul Villeda, PhD, published a study in Nature Medicine showing significant signs of reversal of age-related cognitive decline in old mice after they were infused with the blood of young mice over the course of several weeks. Two other studies showing the revitalizing effects of young blood in brain and muscle tissue were published at the same time.
Saul Villeda, PhD. Photo: Elisabeth Fall
“All three studies coming out simultaneously made things go supernova,” says Villeda, who, at the age of 33, is a bit of a young blood himself. In the media frenzy that followed, Villeda was inundated with requests for interviews, in both English and Spanish. Born and raised in East Los Angeles, Villeda was able to deliver in both languages. “What we were saying collectively, across three impressive institutions – UCSF, Stanford, and Harvard – is that there is reversibility in the aging process. It’s a bit of a game changer.”
The experiment itself proved quite easy for Villeda to explain to the lay press. He and the graduate students in his lab took the blood of young mice, stripped it of its cells, and infused the remaining plasma into old mice. They did this every three days for 24 days, using small injections of the plasma each time – just 5 percent of a mouse’s blood volume. The young mice in the study were 3 months old, the equivalent of humans in their 20s, and the old mice were 18 months old, the equivalent of humans in their 60s.
Days later, he tested them for cognitive changes. In one experiment, the mice had to wind through a water maze and remember where a dry platform was hidden; in another, the mice had to recall a location where they had received a shock. “When we gave them the injections of young blood, they no longer had the cognitive impairments of a normally aging mouse,” says Villeda. “Their performance wasn’t quite equal to the young mice, but pretty close.”
The two experiments tested the functioning of the hippocampus, a part of the brain, in both mice and humans, that is especially affected by normal aging. It’s our hippocampus that we use in searching for our car in a crowded parking lot. When we park, our brain, without prompting, will note spatial cues in the environment and keep them in mind to guide us back to the same place hours later. But the older we are, the more likely we are to forget those spatial cues, throw in the towel, and press the panic button to find the car.
“As we get older, we have fewer stem cells and newly born neurons in our brains, and our learning and memory are affected,” says Villeda. “It’s not dementia, it’s just the natural degeneration associated with age.”
Clearly, the young blood helped turn back the clock for Villeda’s old mice. So he began searching for molecular and biochemical changes in their brains that might explain the transformation. To accomplish this, he used the somewhat macabre technique of parabiosis, which involves sewing a young mouse to an old mouse so they share a single blood supply. After a month, he sequenced the genes of the old mice and found that the biggest changes occurred in genes associated with neuronal plasticity, the brain’s response to learning. When we are learning or responding to our environment, our brain either increases the number of connections among neurons or strengthens our existing neuronal connections. “Normally, with aging, the activity of genes that control synaptic plasticity decreases,” says Villeda. “We saw that exposure to young blood increased the expression or activity of these genes.”
The old mice with the new high-octane blood were blazing through the mazes because their neurons were making new connections, and solidifying previous connections, with the vigor of mice less than half their age. Villeda and his students searched the gene array for some sort of mechanism that might be responsible for the surge of neuroplasticity in these middle-aged mice who, without the blood infusion, might still be trapped in the maze. The patterns of activated genes and changes they found looked to Villeda like the work of a master regulator known as CREB.
“CREB is an old friend of neuroscience,” he explains. “We know that it’s very important for learning and memory, especially during development.” To figure out the extent of CREB’s role, a student in Villeda’s lab manufactured a virus carrying a phosphate that would turn CREB off, then repeated the blood-infusion experiments on mice lacking this master regulator. In the new experiments, the old mice with young blood gained some benefits of youth, but the effect was significantly dampened. The experiments showed clearly that CREB is important – but that it doesn’t work alone.
“Now we know that as we get older, we are not necessarily losing the genes or proteins in our brains that we need to improve cognition. Maybe, like CREB, they are just not as active,” says Villeda. “We’ve identified one part of the mechanism to wake up the brain. Now we have to find the other genes it works with to replicate the full effect.”
Hold or Reset?
Villeda is quite excited at the prospect of applying these findings to humans – a sentiment surely shared by anyone over the age of 40. “We know rejuvenation exists,” he says. “Now we have to figure out the bare minimum of therapeutics or genetic tinkering necessary for it to be safely translated into a human. There are so many questions we have yet to answer.”
We know rejuvenation exists. Now we have to figure out the bare minimum of therapeutics or genetic tinkering necessary for it to be safely translated into a human.”
For example: What part of plasma is really driving the changes, and are they lasting? Mice only live an average of 3 years; we live 80. How often would humans have to be treated, and when should treatments start? Cell proliferation slows in old age, perhaps to offset cancer risk. Would young blood factors stimulate cancer? If so, it might be more prudent to switch off the mechanisms that initiate the aging cascade.
“People who have a genetic predisposition for Alzheimer’s have a mutation, but they don’t get the effects until later in life, which means that something in their young bodies knew how to fight it or compensate for it,” says Villeda. “If we could reverse some of the aging signs, perhaps we could maintain ourselves at a younger stage and then maybe not have to deal with diseases until far later in life.”
While Villeda is turning back the clock in his cohort of mice, Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, is beating back cognitive decline with a joystick. Dressed in a black shirt and sleek gray blazer, Gazzaley looks more like a biotech executive than a neuroscientist. It turns out he’s both. Gazzaley rocked the world of neuroscience last fall with the release of a video game, NeuroRacer, that dramatically improved cognitive performance in elderly players. In the game, players drive a car along a winding track, while various signs flash into view along the way. Players are instructed to press a button when a specific sign pops up, ignoring the rest, all while keeping their eyes on the road.
“We developed NeuroRacer to put pressure on cognitive control abilities in a powerful way in older adults, who we know have deficits in this domain just by virtue of their age,” says Gazzaley. “The results were better than we even dreamed of.” After one month and just 12 hours of training, players who were between 60 and 85 years old were scoring as well as 20-somethings who had just learned the game. And, retested six months later, the players were still holding onto those gains.
Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD. Photo: Susan Merrell
The cognitive skills Gazzaley aimed to improve with his game are selective attention, sustained attention, working memory, and task switching. “We are building a tool to help people develop the cognitive control skills they need to interact with their environment based on their goals,” says Gazzaley. “If we’re trying to do too many things at once and can’t hold our attention to something we want to focus on, then all aspects of our lives suffer, whether it is family, work, safety, or even entertainment.”
Using EEGs, Gazzaley was able to show increased brain activity in the prefrontal cortex of the older players. After they played the game, their EEGs started to resemble those of 20-somethings. The prefrontal cortex, considered the seat of cognitive control, is the last part of our brains to develop – at around age 25. It is also the area that distinguishes humans from all other species.
The EEGs showed signs of connectivity to other parts of the brain as well. Like Villeda’s mice and Nottebohm’s canaries, Gazzaley’s game-players were enhancing their neuroplasticity, adding new connections while strengthening existing ones. He confirmed these gains by testing other areas of cognition. When assigned a facial recognition challenge, Gazzaley’s players showed improvements in working memory. This showed that the benefits of game play were transferable to other brain functions. Transfer, considered the gold standard for effectiveness in the field, is evidence of underlying neural connections among different areas of cognition. “That’s exactly what we wanted to achieve – to see if we could change the brain in a meaningful way,” says Gazzaley, “and have that accompanied by changes in cognitive abilities that we weren’t directly targeting.”
80 IS THE NEW 20: The brain’s command center for multitasking is in the prefrontal cortex. The brain scan on the left depicts the prefrontal cortex activity of Gazzaley’s 20-year-old subjects as they played NeuroRacer, a video game that involves multitasking. The scan in the middle depicts the starting point for his 60- to 85-year-old players, playing the game the first time. And the scan on the right shows the progress the older players made after playing a total of just 12 hours over the course of a month. Their scans showed signatures of brain activity comparable to that of the 20-year-olds who had played the game once.
NeuroRacer is clearly not your ordinary video game, in which users try to reach ever-higher levels of expertise. While popular first-person shooter games have been shown to improve cognitive abilities in young adults, Gazzaley says this happens by accident. NeuroRacer is a closed-loop game, in which the level of play is adjusted to the player’s behavior – and eventually to his or her own brain. The next version of the game, which Gazzaley is developing with Boston-based Akili Interactive Labs, where he is chief science adviser, will feature closed loops that adapt during every second of play. Gazzaley’s lab is also working on new games that employ transcranial electrical stimulation, a very mild shock targeted to particular parts of the brain to enhance learning. When playing one of these new games, the player receives low-frequency bursts of energy in certain parts of the frontal lobe. “We are studying if you learn faster if you play a game while we stimulate you at the right frequency,” Gazzaley explains.
The therapeutic and educational potential of such games is real and vast. They could be targeted, like NeuroRacer, to a healthy elderly population or be used as an educational tool in schools. Or they could be used to ameliorate known deficits in old and young alike. Gazzaley is currently working with pediatric neurologist Elysa Marco, PhD, on a game aimed at helping children with attention deficit disorder to better train their focus. The two are also teaming up to develop games for patients with autism, in an effort to stimulate the parts of their brains that the disorder has locked away.
Gazzaley and Villeda come at cognition along very different paths, but with equally impressive vigor and results. And they are energized by each other’s work. “Adam’s games are incredible,” says Villeda. “Soon we will be able to grab an iPad and do games that will significantly improve our cognition. Who would have thought of that?”
Villeda sees parallels in their approaches to enhancing cognition during the aging process – through collaboration. He joined forces with bioinformaticians to help him sort through his data, with molecular biologists to create viruses, and with behavioral neuroscientists to identify the best ways to test cognition. “Immunology, neurobiology, and stem cell science all come together when talking about rejuvenation,” says Villeda. He believes that building bridges among disciplines will be critical for translating what is now fascinating research into the clinical realm.
“Saul’s and my research could be very synergistic in ways that we don’t fully understand right now, and Alvarez-Buylla’s work has been foundational to neuroscience,” says Gazzaley. “There is no Holy Grail for enhancing cognition, so what we probably should have been focusing on for the past 40 years is how the many interventions in our toolbox might interact with each other.”
Perhaps someday soon, baby boomers will be able to relive their 20s, at least cognitively, by taking a shot of Villeda’s revitalizing plasma while playing a video game developed by Gazzaley. Or maybe Alvarez-Buylla will have figured out how to engineer the perfect mix of neural stem cells to rebuild what age tears down. While we wait, Gazzaley urges us to apply all the strategies that science has already endorsed: Research has long shown that diet, exercise, and enriched, engaging environments are good for the brain. In fact, a new study out of the Cleveland Clinic showed that people with a genetic predisposition for Alzheimer’s were able to stave off neurologic decline with a three-day-a-week exercise routine. Those with the same disposition who chose not to get off the couch showed significant degeneration.
“Clearly the brain does not do well with comfort,” Gazzaley says, “so challenge it as much as you can.” | <urn:uuid:87dc3a5d-3ebc-4ccd-b848-3318cc1e752c> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://magazine.ucsf.edu/blood-work | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473347.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20240220211055-20240221001055-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.966884 | 3,606 | 3.3125 | 3 | 0 |
The human brain is a remarkable organ in the nervous system, with billions of neurons organized in neural networks to connect the brain's different regions. Part of understanding the ways in which the brain allows us to think, learn, communicate, and coordinate our movements and behaviors, is recognizing the unique functional subdivisions of neural anatomy! 🧠
Image Courtesy of Wikipedia
Our brain can be broken down into a variety of structures, the oldest of which is made up of the brainstem, thalamus, and cerebellum.
The brainstem is responsible for controlling many of the body's basic functions. It is composed of three main parts, the midbrain, the pons, and the medulla oblongata:
The midbrain is responsible for managing some of the body's reflexes, such as those involved in eye movement and the pupillary light reflex. The midbrain also plays a role in the control of sleep, wakefulness, and alertness, critical functions of consciousness.
A bridge-like structure, the pons connects the brainstem to the cerebellum (the part of the brain responsible for balance) and helps with movement coordination as well as the reflexes used in swallowing and coughing.
The medulla oblongata, or medulla for short, is the lower part of the brainstem. It is responsible for regulating vital body functions, including heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing. 🫀
sits on top of the brainstem and receives and sorts all sensory input
(except smell) to other parts of the brain. It plays a crucial role in the processing and relay of sensory information to the appropriate areas of the brain!
Think of the thalamus as a sort of "switchboard operator" for the brain. When you see, hear, taste, or touch something, the information travels to the thalamus first. The thalamus then decides where to send the information next, depending on what the sensory input is. For example, if you see a golden retriever puppy, the thalamus sends the information about the dog to the visual cortex (the part of the brain that processes visual information). If the puppy starts to bark, the thalamus sends the information about the noise to the auditory cortex (the part of the brain that processes sound). 🐾
In this way, the thalamus helps to ensure that the right information is sent to the right part of the brain for processing. Without the thalamus, our senses would be a jumbled mess, and we would have a difficult time interpreting external stimuli in the world around us!
Lastly, the cerebellum, often referred to as the "little brain," sits at the rear of our brainstem and also processes sensory input, coordinated movement, balance, nonverbal learning, and implicit memory.
The cerebellum also plays a role in learning new movements and adjusting to changes in the environment. For example, if you are learning to ride a bike, the cerebellum helps to coordinate the movements of the muscles in your legs and arms as you pedal and steer. And if you suddenly stumble or run into a curb, the cerebellum helps to adjust your balance and keep you from falling. 🚴♀️
The limbic system is a group of brain structures that are involved in emotions, drives, and long-term memory. Because of this, the limbic system is called the "emotional brain" due to its role in our expression of and experience with feelings. Structures in the limbic system include the amygdala, hippocampus, and hypothalamus:
As part of the limbic system, the amygdala is the "fear center" of the brain since it is heavily used for emotional processing, particularly aggression and fear. Additionally, the amygdala is associated with the formation of emotionally-charged memories. The amygdala has a direct connection to the hypothalamus, which is a part of the brain that helps regulate the body's stress response, meaning that when the amygdala is activated, it can trigger the release of stress hormones like cortisol to ready the body to respond to danger in an external environment.
The hippocampus is a small, seahorse-shaped structure located in the limbic system. Primarily, the hippocampus is known for the role it plays in learning and memory, particularly the consolidation of long-term memories. Additionally, the hippocampus is also linked to processes for spatial navigation!
Another important structure in the limbic system is the hypothalamus, which is also in the limbic system and deals with maintaining our body’s homeostasis and reward systems, including the "Four F's": Fighting, Fleeing, Feeding, and Mating.
The hypothalamus is often referred to as the "control center" of the brain because it helps regulate a wide range of bodily functions, including body temperature, thirst, hunger, and fatigue. With the pituitary gland, the hypothalamus is also responsible for controlling the body's endocrine system, which produces the hormones that regulate mood and energy levels. This further connects the hypothalamus to pleasure and motivation in behavior.
The rest of our brain is made up of lobes and higher-level cortices, and the most important is the cerebral cortex—our ultimate control and processing center. The cerebral cortex is divided into four main lobes: the frontal lobe, the parietal lobe, the temporal lobe, and the occipital lobe. Each of these lobes is responsible for different functions.
- The frontal lobe deals with problem-solving, decision-making, planning, and judgment.
- Responsible for processing sensory information, the parietal lobe receives input about touch, temperature, pain, and body position.
- The temporal lobe processes auditory information and is involved in memory formation.
- Visual information is handled by the occipital lobe.
Additional cortices of the brain are association areas. Association areas allow us to have higher mental functions, such as learning, remembering, thinking, problem-solving, and speaking by integrating information from other brain regions.
Our brain is divided into two hemispheres, and in order for those hemispheres to communicate with one another, we need a bundle of nerve fibers known as the corpus callosum to bridge communication. It allows the two hemispheres to exchange information and coordinate their activities.
For patients with severe epileptic seizures, the corpus callosum may be severed to reduce neural feedback. This results in a “split brain.” In a split-brain patient, both hemispheres operate independently from one another. For example, a person could be shown a separate image for each of their visual fields. Then, when asked to draw what they have seen, each hand would independently draw a different image, which we can examine in the diagram below:
Image Courtesy of Tutor2u; LVF = left visual field. RVF = right visual field
The left side of the brain corresponds to your right hand and right visual field and vice versa. Everything is the opposite!!
For quick reference and visualization, the following table includes a quick functional review of neuroanatomy:
|Part of the Brain
|The oldest part of the brain; located near the spinal cord. It is responsible for automatic survival functions and includes the next three parts
|The base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat, blood pressure, and breathing
|Nerve network that travels through the brainstem and thalamus. Plays a part in controlling arousal and consciousness 💭
|Part of the brainstem that controls movement. 🏃
|The brain's sensory control center; receives messages and then directs them to corresponding lobes in the brain. Information about smell is the only sense that doesn't pass through the thalamus!
|Processes sensory information, coordinates movement and balance, and enables implicit memories
|Similar to the cerebellum—controls movement, balance, implicit memory, and a little bit of emotion
|Neural system that includes the amygdala, hippocampus, and hypothalamus; emotions and drives
|Processes explicit memory; helps consolidate long-term memories
|Linked to emotion and emotional memories! (fear 😨 and aggression 😡)
|Helps regulate the endocrine system. Directs maintenance activities that have to do with the "Four F's": Fighting, Fleeing, Feeding, Mating
|Ultimate control and information center made up of neural cells
|Support, nourish, and protect our neurons; help with learning and thinking 🤔
|Deals with speaking, planning, and judgment aka higher-level thinking. ♟️ Motor Cortex is in front of it and Broca's area is in the left frontal lobe
|Receives sensory input for movement and touch; contains the somatosensory cortex
|Receives information from visual fields (your eyes) 👀
|Deals with hearing; receives information from the opposite ear and contains Wernicke's area
|Deals with understanding language
|Deals with the production of language and speaking (Think: Broca Spoka) 🗣️
|Controls voluntary movements, such as raising your hand
|Processes body touch and movement
|Processes visual information
|Control higher mental functions, such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking
- reticular formation
- glial cells
- occipital lobes
- somatosensory cortex
- dual processing
- frontal lobes
- temporal lobes
- association areas
- limbic system
- cerebral cortex
- parietal lobes
- motor cortex
- corpus callosum
- cognitive neuroscience
Try using a study timer
like the one in Fiveable rooms to maximize your efficiency as you study the brain and anatomy! | <urn:uuid:35a77a70-60af-452b-9658-35b751761e3b> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://hours-zltil9zhf-thinkfiveable.vercel.app/ap-psych/unit-2/brain/study-guide/BZ2a9VqBSSAVII90lhUZ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473735.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222061937-20240222091937-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.902777 | 2,021 | 3.96875 | 4 | 1 |
A New Role for the Vagus Nerve in Exercise
The vagus nerve plays an important role in exercise, a study in sheep has found.
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One day, as a neuroscience undergraduate, I took my seat in a lecture hall, pulled out my laptop and prepared for another day of learning about the fascinating organ that is the brain. Without any prior warning, the lecturer plugged in his computer system and Dion DiMucci’s “The Wanderer” began to play.
As the lyrics “Oh well, I’m the type of guy who will never settle down” echoed through the lecture hall of students, our heads turned to each other for reassurance that our confusion was shared. “Today,” the lecturer started, “we’re covering the vagus nerve.”
Fifty minutes later, the confusion had lifted. We learned how “vagus” means “wandering” in Latin, an apt name for a nerve that takes an extensive, winding path through the body.
The vagus nerve plays an important function in the branch of the human nervous system called the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), often nicknamed the “rest and digest” system.
The human nervous system
The human nervous system has two main divisions: the central nervous system – or CNS – and the PNS. The CNS includes the brain and the spinal cord, whereas the PNS is made up of nerves that branch from the spinal cord and extend throughout the body, helping to regulate involuntary functions such as heart rate, digestion and breathing.
The vagus nerve’s role in the regulation of processes such as heart rate, respiration, immune responses and the digestive system has been extensively studied. Now, Physiology Associate Professor Rohit Ramchandra and colleagues at the University of Auckland recently discovered a novel function for the “wanderer”, in exercise. Their study is published in Circulation Research.
The “wanderer” – inactive during exercise?
Vagal nerve activity in exercise is “understudied” and “controversial”, according to Ramchandra and colleagues.
For many years scientists, firmly believed that the sympathetic nervous system, often nicknamed “the fight or flight” system, is in overdrive during exercise. This helps the heart to beat faster, pumping much needed blood and oxygen around the body. In contrast, PNS activity was assumed to dial down or become completely absent during exercise. “Historically, no role for the PNS during exercise has been concluded due to the assumption that cardiac vagal nerve fibers only innervate the sinoatrial node (SAN) and the absence of changes in cardiac function with cholinergic blockers,” the researchers write.
Ramchandra and colleagues tested the hypothesis that cardiac vagal activity is actually elevated during exercise, and that denervation of the cardiac vagal branch would reduce heart function. They attached electrical recording devices to monitor cardiac vagal nerve activity (CVNA) in sheep during exercise. Sheep have similar cardiac anatomy and physiology to humans, and they are often utilized in laboratory experiments exploring heart disease.
Cardiac vagal nerve activity increased during exercise
“Our group has used ‘tour de force’ electrical recording techniques to directly monitor vagal nerve activity in exercising sheep and has found the activity in these vagal nerves going to the heart increases during exercise,” says Ramchandra.
An increase in CVNA occurred during the initiation of exercise, which then plateaued as the intensity increased.
“Our study finds the activity in these ‘rest and digest’ vagal nerves actually increases during exercise,” Ramchandra says.
When the researchers denervated the left cardiac vagal branch, cardiac function was impaired while the sheep exercised. This helped the team to prove a hypothesis regarding the role of acetylcholine in exercise. “The cardiac vagus nerve releases multiple mediators, and previous research has focused on a neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, which has no impact on our ability to exercise,” says Ramchandra.
The researchers blocked acetylcholine receptors pharmacologically while the sheep exercised, and found it had no impact on cardiac function. “Taken together with the vagal denervation data, this finding suggests a separate mechanism for the effects of CVNA during exercise beyond acetylcholine-mediated signaling,” they explain.
Ramchandra and colleagues turned their attention to a different meditator – vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). They found that VIP was released by the vagus nerve during exercise. This “helps the coronary vessels dilate, allowing more blood to pump through the heart,” says Ramchandra.
“For the heart to sustain a high level of pumping, it needs a greater blood flow during exercise to fuel the increased work it is doing: our data indicate that the increase in vagal activity does just this.”
Improving exercise tolerance in heart failure patients
A limitation of the study, acknowledged by the researchers, is that only female sheep were tested. “While we anticipate the observations made in this study will be applicable to males, this will need to be tested in future studies,” Ramchandra and colleagues say.
The researchers’ follow-up study will explore whether this function of cardiac vagal nerves can be utilized to help heart failure patients improve their exercise tolerance. “This inability to carry out simple tasks involving exertion means that quality of life is severely compromised in these patients,” explains Ramchandra. “One potential reason why exercise tolerance is reduced is that the diseased heart simply does not receive enough blood.”
Reference: Shanks J, Pachen M, Chang JWH, George B, Ramchandra R. Cardiac vagal nerve activity increases during exercise to enhance coronary blood flow. Circ. Res. 2023;133(7):559-571. doi: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.123.323017 | <urn:uuid:92d306de-2b18-4d61-b549-8e0db2e08337> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.technologynetworks.com/cell-science/news/a-new-role-for-the-vagus-nerve-in-exercise-381393 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474440.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223153350-20240223183350-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.9509 | 1,280 | 3.03125 | 3 | 2 |
The Profound Influence of Music on the Brain: A Neuroscientific Perspective
In his lecture, Daniel Levitin explores the extensive engagement of the brain with music, its potential benefits in cognitive transfer, and the importance of appreciating music and arts for their inherent value, while also highlighting the role of the brain's "default mode" in music processing.
In a compelling exploration of the neuroscience of music, Daniel Levitin underscores the profound impact of music on the brain and its potential to enhance various aspects of life.
Contrary to the outdated notion that music solely engages the right hemisphere of the brain, Levitin emphasizes that music involves every region of the brain that has been mapped to date. Levitin critically examines the idea that the arts, including music, are only valuable if they aid in other areas of learning or cognition.
He argues that music and art should be appreciated for their inherent value, contributing to our happiness and health. The lecture also delves into numerous studies that highlight the positive effects of music training, such as improvements in nonverbal IQ, numeracy, spatial cognition, and social bonding.
Furthermore, Levitin introduces the concept of the brain's "default mode," which is involved in processing music even in its absence. The lecture concludes with a personal anecdote underscoring the power of music to promote cognitive health and stave off cognitive decline. Levitin advocates for more research into the benefits of music, emphasizing that everyone should have access to music due to its numerous potential benefits.
Music can change your brain in several ways: #
Neuroplasticity: Regular musical training can lead to changes in the structure and function of the brain. This is a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity. For instance, musicians often have a larger auditory cortex compared to non-musicians, which is the part of the brain that processes sound.
Cognitive Skills: Learning to play a musical instrument can enhance various cognitive skills such as memory, attention, and spatial-temporal skills. It can also improve mathematical ability and reading skills.
Emotional Processing: Music can stimulate the release of various neurotransmitters such as dopamine, which is associated with feelings of pleasure and reward. It can also stimulate the amygdala, which is involved in processing emotions.
Motor Skills: Playing an instrument requires coordination between the hands and the eyes, which can lead to improved motor skills. It also requires a sense of timing and rhythm, which can enhance your ability to perform tasks that require precise timing.
Social Skills: Participating in a musical group or ensemble requires cooperation and communication with others, which can improve social skills.
Stress Reduction: Listening to music can reduce stress by lowering cortisol levels in the body. It can also have a calming effect on the mind and body.
Default Mode Network: As Daniel Levitin discussed in the video, music can engage the brain's "default mode network," which is involved in self-referential thoughts, daydreaming, and imagination. This can lead to increased creativity and problem-solving skills.
Remember, while these effects have been observed in various studies, the impact of music can vary greatly from person to person, and more research is needed in many of these areas.
The Mozart Effect #
The "Mozart Effect" is a term coined from a study conducted in 1993 by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, which suggested that listening to Mozart's music could temporarily boost one's spatial-temporal reasoning skills, a type of abstract thinking that is often utilized in disciplines such as mathematics, science, and engineering.
In the study, college students who listened to a Mozart sonata for a few minutes before taking a test that measured spatial relationship skills did better than students who took the test after listening to relaxation instructions or silence.
The term "Mozart Effect" was popularized by the media and led to the widespread belief that listening to Mozart makes you smarter. This resulted in a surge of products aimed at boosting intelligence through exposure to classical music, particularly Mozart's works.
However, subsequent research has largely debunked the "Mozart Effect." Many researchers have failed to replicate the original study's results, and it's now generally agreed in the scientific community that while listening to music (including Mozart) can be enjoyable and potentially improve mood or focus, it does not inherently boost general intelligence or cognitive abilities.
The Celine Dion Effect #
The "Celine Dion Effect" is not a widely recognized or studied phenomenon in the scientific community as of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021. The term appears in the transcript provided from the video lecture by Daniel Levitin, but without additional context or information, it's unclear what exactly the speaker is referring to when he mentions the "Celine Dion Effect". It could potentially be a humorous or anecdotal reference rather than a scientifically recognized concept. For a precise understanding, it would be best to refer directly to the context in which Daniel Levitin uses the term.
The biggest takeaway from Daniel Levitin's lecture is that music engages the entire brain, not just certain regions, and can have significant benefits beyond just musical skills. These benefits include improvements in cognitive abilities like memory, attention, and spatial-temporal skills, as well as social bonding and emotional processing. Furthermore, Levitin emphasizes that music and arts should be appreciated for their inherent value in contributing to our happiness and health, rather than being justified only if they aid in other areas of learning or cognition. | <urn:uuid:cb0afbed-7e9c-43c6-8e4f-44f446b9eb27> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://polarity.me/posts/articles/2023-06-11-music-art-mental-health/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474573.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20240225003942-20240225033942-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.956345 | 1,123 | 3.734375 | 4 | 3 |
Introduction to the Artificial Intelligence Apocalypse
As we enter a new era of technological advancements, the concept of an artificial intelligence apocalypse has become a subject of both fascination and concern. The idea that machines could potentially surpass human intelligence and pose a threat to humanity has captured the imagination of many. In this article, we will explore the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, debunk myths surrounding the artificial intelligence apocalypse, and discuss how we can navigate this uncertain future with confidence.
Understanding the Potential Dangers of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionize various fields, from healthcare to transportation. However, as we continue to develop more advanced AI systems, it is crucial to acknowledge and address the potential dangers they may pose. One of the primary concerns is the concept of superintelligence, where machines surpass human intelligence and become capable of autonomous decision-making. This could lead to unintended consequences and actions that are not aligned with human values.
Another danger lies in the potential for AI systems to be used maliciously. Just like any powerful tool, artificial intelligence can be weaponized and used for nefarious purposes, such as cyber warfare or surveillance. Additionally, the displacement of human workers by automation is a growing concern, as it could lead to widespread unemployment and social unrest.
The 6th Most Likely Apocalypse Scenario: Artificial Intelligence
According to experts, the artificial intelligence apocalypse is considered the 6th most likely scenario for the end of the world. This ranking is based on the potential for AI systems to become uncontrollable and pose a significant threat to humanity. While it is essential to take this possibility seriously, it is also crucial to approach it with a rational mindset and not succumb to fearmongering.
The idea of machines rising up against humanity has been popularized by science fiction, but it is crucial to remember that these scenarios are fictional and not representative of the current state of artificial intelligence. We are still a long way from developing AI systems that have the capability to think and act independently, let alone pose a threat to humanity as a whole.
Debunking Myths About the Artificial Intelligence Apocalypse
Despite the prevalence of doomsday scenarios in popular culture, it is essential to separate fact from fiction when it comes to the artificial intelligence apocalypse. One common misconception is that AI systems will develop consciousness and emotions, leading to a desire to eradicate humanity. However, consciousness is still not well understood, and there is no evidence to suggest that machines can develop it spontaneously.
Another myth is that AI systems will inevitably surpass human intelligence and become unstoppable. While it is possible that AI systems could surpass human performance in specific tasks, the notion of a superintelligent AI taking over the world is highly speculative and not supported by scientific evidence. It is essential to approach the development of AI systems with caution and carefully consider the potential risks involved, but also not to overstate the capabilities of these systems.
The Rise of Artificial Intelligence: How Far Are We from the Apocalypse?
It is crucial to understand the current state of artificial intelligence to assess the likelihood and timeline of an artificial intelligence apocalypse. While AI systems have made significant advancements in recent years, particularly in areas such as machine learning and natural language processing, we are still far from developing AI systems that possess general intelligence or consciousness.
The development of human-level artificial intelligence is a complex task that requires advancements in various fields, including neuroscience, computer science, and robotics. While it is difficult to predict the exact timeline, many experts agree that achieving human-level AI is still several decades away, if not more. This provides us with an opportunity to prepare for the potential risks associated with AI and develop robust safety measures.
Navigating the Artificial Intelligence Apocalypse with Confidence
While the concept of an artificial intelligence apocalypse can be unsettling, it is possible to navigate this uncertain future with confidence. One of the key steps individuals can take is to stay informed about the latest developments in the field of AI and engage in discussions surrounding its ethical implications. By understanding the risks and challenges associated with AI, we can actively contribute to the development of responsible and beneficial AI systems.
Another important aspect is to advocate for transparency and accountability in the development and deployment of AI technologies. It is crucial for governments and organizations to establish regulatory frameworks that ensure the responsible use of AI and protect against potential dangers. By actively participating in the public discourse and holding stakeholders accountable, we can foster an environment that prioritizes the well-being and safety of humanity.
Preparing for the Future: Steps Individuals Can Take to Protect Themselves
While the artificial intelligence apocalypse may seem like a distant possibility, it is never too early to start preparing for the future. Individuals can take several steps to protect themselves and mitigate potential risks. One important aspect is to develop a diverse skill set that is not easily replaceable by AI. By focusing on skills that require creativity, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking, individuals can increase their employability and adaptability in an AI-driven world.
Additionally, individuals can prioritize cybersecurity and data privacy to protect themselves from potential AI-related threats. By staying informed about best practices for online security and being cautious about sharing personal information, individuals can reduce the risk of falling victim to malicious AI-driven attacks.
The Role of Government and Organizations in Preventing the Artificial Intelligence Apocalypse
Addressing the potential dangers of artificial intelligence requires a collective effort from governments, organizations, and individuals. Governments play a crucial role in establishing regulatory frameworks that ensure the responsible development and deployment of AI technologies. By investing in research and development, fostering collaboration between academia and industry, and promoting ethical guidelines, governments can help mitigate the risks associated with AI.
Organizations also have a responsibility to prioritize the ethical considerations of AI. By adopting principles such as transparency, fairness, and accountability, organizations can ensure that AI systems are developed and used in a manner that aligns with human values. Additionally, organizations can invest in AI safety research and collaborate with experts to develop robust safety measures.
Ethical Considerations in the Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence
The development and use of artificial intelligence raise important ethical considerations that must be addressed to prevent potential harm. One crucial aspect is the potential for bias in AI systems. AI systems learn from data, and if the data used is biased or unrepresentative, it can lead to discriminatory outcomes. It is essential to ensure that AI systems are trained on diverse and unbiased datasets to avoid perpetuating societal biases.
Another ethical consideration is the potential impact of AI on employment. As automation continues to advance, it is crucial to consider the implications for workers whose jobs may be displaced. Governments and organizations must prioritize retraining and reskilling programs to ensure a smooth transition for affected individuals and prevent widespread unemployment.
Conclusion: Embracing the Benefits of Artificial Intelligence While Mitigating the Risks
While the artificial intelligence apocalypse may capture our imagination, it is essential to approach this topic with a balanced perspective. Artificial intelligence has the potential to bring numerous benefits to society, from improving healthcare outcomes to enhancing productivity. However, it is crucial to acknowledge and address the potential dangers and risks associated with AI.
By staying informed, engaging in discussions, and advocating for responsible AI development, we can navigate the artificial intelligence apocalypse with confidence. By embracing the benefits of AI while mitigating the risks, we can ensure that artificial intelligence remains a tool for the betterment of humanity rather than a threat. Let us embrace the exciting possibilities that AI offers while being mindful of its potential pitfalls.
CTA: Join the conversation on artificial intelligence and share your thoughts on how to navigate the future with confidence. Together, we can shape a future where AI benefits humanity while safeguarding against potential risks. | <urn:uuid:170a56df-4275-419c-9a3e-3b8ecfd336f3> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | http://www.incaseofsurvival.com/category/preparedness/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474686.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227184934-20240227214934-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.935291 | 1,544 | 2.71875 | 3 | 4 |
A team of scientists led by chemists Stephen Martin and James Sahn at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered what they say is a powerful pain reliever that acts on a previously unknown pain pathway. The synthetic compound, known as UKH-1114, is as effective at relieving neuropathic pain in injured mice as a drug widely used for pain relief called gabapentin, but it works at a much lower dose, with longer duration of action.
If the researchers can demonstrate that the drug is safe, effective and nonaddictive in humans — a process that typically takes years — the discovery could be instrumental in addressing one of today’s biggest public health challenges: the opioid abuse epidemic.
Nearly a third of Americans suffer from chronic pain, yet the most effective pain relievers —opioids — are addictive and often require increased dosing to maintain efficacy. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, about 2 million people in the U.S. suffer from addiction to prescription opioid pain relievers. Alternatives to opioids have their own drawbacks — for example, gabapentin (sold as Neurontin) can cause cognitive impairment in certain individuals.
“This opens the door to having a new treatment for neuropathic pain that is not an opioid,” said Martin, a professor and the M. June and J. Virgil Waggoner Regents Chair in Chemistry. “And that has huge implications.”
The pain drug they found binds to a receptor on cells throughout the central nervous system called the sigma 2 receptor. Although it was discovered 25 years ago, scientists still did not know what sigma 2 did until now.
Theodore Price, associate professor of neuroscience at The University of Texas at Dallas and a leading expert on chronic pain, tested UKH-1114 on mice with nerve damage and found that it alleviated pain as well as gabapentin did, but at a much lower dose (one-sixth as much) and was effective much longer (lasting for a couple of days, compared with 4 to 6 hours). This research is the first to demonstrate that the sigma 2 receptor may be a target for treating neuropathic pain.
Results are published in the Aug. 18 print edition of the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience. An earlier paper, published online on May 28 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, described the molecular cloning and identification of the sigma 2 receptor.
The researchers have filed patent applications on the new compound.
Neuropathic pain, or chronic pain, is caused when nerves in the central nervous system are damaged. Among other things, it can result from chemotherapy, diabetes and injuries to the brain or spinal cord.
Much work remains to be done before UKH-1114 can enter the market. More studies are needed to demonstrate safety, efficacy and oral bioavailability. In the meantime, the scientists are working to understand, on a fundamental level, how activating the sigma 2 receptor relieves neuropathic pain.
Still, Martin and Sahn are excited by the compelling results from the mouse model.
“We started out just working on fundamental chemistry in the lab,” said Sahn, a research scientist in the Department of Chemistry. “But now we see the possibility that our discoveries could improve the quality of people’s lives. That is very satisfying.” | <urn:uuid:3749f855-e7e7-4974-bd74-68dac3828e1b> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://scienceblog.com/495959/scientists-discover-powerful-potential-pain-reliever/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474686.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227184934-20240227214934-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.951866 | 693 | 2.953125 | 3 | 5 |
Image of man
Image of man is a term used in philosophical anthropology for the idea that someone has of the essence of man . Similarly, the word is used in religious studies and theology to represent the epitome of the conceptions that a religious community has of man.
Insofar as man is part of the world, the image of man is also part of the worldview . Image of man and the world are part of a comprehensive belief or teaching. There is, among other things, a Christian, a Buddhist or a humanistic view of man and the world .
Our own image of man is often so taken for granted that it is hardly ever questioned or compared with other points of view. The article therefore deals with the ideas of people in different cultures at different times and the implications that arise from them.
Western intellectual history
Little is known about the image of man and the self-understanding of man in ancient times, but there are artistic, probably religious testimonies such as images of people and gods. Proven funeral rites indicate ideas of the afterlife and concern for the deceased.
Origin of the world
Man and deity
In ancient Greece and Rome, as well as in Mesopotamia, there were a multitude of gods that were superior to humans, but also resembled them. In contrast to the gods, humans are viewed as mortal, which is why “mortals” was used to describe humans. Humans and gods cultivate a multitude of loves or enmities with one another and with one another and are equally entangled in passions (see e.g. the legend of Odysseus ). Otherwise, the ancient image of man is also shaped by slavery and social inequalities. The philosophy flourished in ancient times, it will be made far-reaching reflections on the people and society, on the one part, refers to this day.
In monotheism , the separation between man and God is far more concise. The one god tolerates no other gods beside him; He ties his work to the conclusion of a covenant , by means of which he promises his people protection and blessings if they stick to their basic rules and instructions (especially the Ten Commandments ).
The difference between man and God (monotheism) / gods is seen in religious societies in the fact that a god is the supreme being that - itself subject to other, no or obscure rules - created man in the first place, that created him (e.g. B. in Christianity or Islam ) will one day judge, and which in the meantime has every power to influence human life. Man appears as dependent on God or on the gods. In Christianity, sin , for example in relation to free will , is of great importance.
In different cultures people could become gods and were worshiped as such. Secular rulers such as some of the pharaohs , or those in the Central American cultures of the Maya or Aztecs claimed to be gods as humans, rulers of heaven and earth.
In the Asian culture, in contrast to Judeo-Christian societies, a Buddhist- influenced view of people predominates . It is characterized by the fact that God and man fall into one. Creator and creature do not exist independently of one another. God expresses himself as the all-pervading life force in creation. For this reason, the term “God” has no meaning in Buddhism, since “God” essentially expresses a demarcation from humans. This view is of decisive importance for the image of man. It throws man back on himself and the creation around him. He is not accountable to any super being outside of himself, but has to answer his actions and omissions to himself alone. Every exercise of an effect on the environment is equivalent to an effect on one's own self, since the creative in man (God) and man as part of the world are not different from one another (cf. also pantheism ).
The European Middle Ages (approx. 600–1500) are shaped by faith and superstition , by accepting one's own fate from God's hand, by fear of hell , by passing on ancient knowledge and especially at the end of it by the rediscovery of ancient times. Trade with the Orient offers the opportunity to spread knowledge and inventions. The rule of the nobility is portrayed as willed by God, inequality between people is usually accepted (habeas corpus).
Humanism, Liberalism and Enlightenment
The humanism represents a break with the former ideas, the center is now the man, the individual . The philosophy of the Enlightenment achieves a synthesis of ancient and more recent ideas of man. The light of the Enlightenment should enable the rational person to shed old superstitions, to recognize himself, to regulate his own interests and those of society sensibly . Scientific and rational thinking is finding its way. As a result of the French Revolution, the bourgeoisie overcame the rule of the church and the nobility and developed a new self-image that was reflected in culture and politics.
In natural law of the early modern period, there was a tendency in many cases to derive state models and general constitutional principles from natural basic human characteristics. In this way, for. For example, Rousseau's democratic ideal was based on an optimistic view of man, while Hobbes's demand for a state monopoly on the use of force and the various demands (e.g. by Locke and Montesquieu ) for control of violence and the separation of powers were based on a more pessimistic view of man.
The industrialization leads into the modern age. The Moderne is characterized (in their self-perception) of technical inventions, cultural revolutions and progress, secularism , political of Marxism , the emancipation of women and the labor movement , liberalism , fascism and two world wars .
In The Protestant Ethics and the 'Spirit' of Capitalism, Max Weber analyzes the economic processes of industrial society, contemporary work ethics, their anchoring in Protestantism. In their famous work Dialectic of the Enlightenment , the philosophers Theodor W. Adorno and Horkheimer criticize the inhumanity of the Nazi regime and other systems as a result of the overemphasized rational thinking of the Enlightenment: the concentration camps functioned perfectly technically organized according to rational viewpoints that add to the value of people quantified its material value.
In the second half of the 20th century, modern capitalist western societies emerged on the basis of democracy and human rights . The individual appears as a citizen and consumer , as a voter and as an employee . Prosperity and further rationalization are arriving. In the competing Eastern bloc , dogmatic socialism is supposed to realize the teachings of Karl Marx . The persecution of so-called deviants from the party line , authoritarian regimes and lack of freedom are the result.
With the student movement of 1968, with upheavals such as the powerful pop culture , a new image of man was introduced. The 68ers protest against a supposedly frozen society in West and East, a technocracy that does not give the individual any space, but demands appropriate behavior. Irrational aspects of human beings such as imagination are opposed by the 68s , esotericism , utopias , but also art and culture are expressions of this attitude.
In philosophy, philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze or Jacques Derrida outline the basic features of a new philosophy of man. They turn against the apparently self-evident unambiguities, binary decisions, codifications that have shaped the way people think about people and the world so far.
The postmodernism is characterized by the coexistence of a variety of views on the people of divergent new and old lifestyles . What they usually have in common, however, is the will to pluralism and tolerance . In the 1970s and 1980s, the ecology movement developed a holistic view of man, in which the integration of man into nature is particularly emphasized. Youth movements such as punk or new wave propagate a melancholic to pessimistic- nihilistic view of people.
What makes a person?
Biological being and person
The question of what a person is and what is not is very fundamental, especially when it comes to whether it is a person in the sense of law or ethics. So the question is, when does life begin? B. a fertilized egg or an embryo is already a human, notoriously controversial in Western societies.
Distinctions have also been and are made within mankind, for example with regard to gender, age or race. Up until the 19th century there was a debate in theology , but also in science and politics, about whether women should be considered human or not and, if so, whether they were "full" people or just an inferior special form. The question of whether someone should be regarded as a human being also played an important role in the justification of slavery .
The differentiation between humans and animals is based on the assumption that humans have both instincts and the ability to reflect on themselves. This is how he differs (in his behavior ) from other living beings.
The image of man in the German constitution
The Basic Law's image of man is not that of an isolated sovereign individual; Rather, the Basic Law has decided the tension between the individual and the community in the sense of the person's relationship to and community, without affecting their intrinsic value. This results in particular from an overall view of Articles 1, 2, 12, 19 and 20 of the Basic Law . This means, however, that the individual must put up with those barriers to his freedom of action that the legislature draws for the maintenance and promotion of social coexistence within the limits of what is generally reasonable in the given circumstances, provided that the independence of the person is preserved. (BVerfGE 4, 7, 15 f.)
Legal capacity, beginning and end
His legal capacity generally begins with the completion of the birth. An exception can be found in inheritance law, since an unborn child can already function as an heir and thus receive rights.
However, this does not correspond to the general idea of the beginning of human existence, but is only very practical for legal purposes, because it is usually easy to date. According to Roman Catholic and Buddhist teachings, humans begin with procreation, since the genetic makeup is already complete there and the spirit-soul works and gives them personal dignity including all human rights . Others start with the formation of several cells. Still others do not recognize a point in time of the incarnation, but a development in which the fetus becomes more and more human. This question is of practical importance especially in the case of abortion . The advocates of an early man therefore speak of murder, while others have no moral problem killing the fetus because they do not yet see it as a human.
It should be noted that the newborn was not always considered a full human being. Often the child was only counted as a person with the development of language. This discussion became very practical in the reflections on the speechless Kaspar Hauser . Abandoning a child used to be common. Foundlings were left to fate.
The question of the end of man is gaining in importance with increasing medical technology . Cardiac arrest must, however, B. do not mean final death. The onset of brain death is clearer, but more difficult to determine. The question becomes practical when - for example after an accident - a person is kept in a coma with the help of apparatus , but regaining full vital functions seems impossible. Very different ideas about it mean that elderly people are recommended a living will in which they can write down their own ideas about it and make it binding for the treating physician.
human and animal
In the European worldview there is a clear conceptual distinction between humans and animals . This clear demarcation does not exist in all cultures: In some Southeast Asian languages the great apes are counted among humans; orang utan is the forest man and orang asli is a local - they are all quasi people. Conversely, people who differ significantly from their own group are occasionally not counted among the people: In Brazil, the indigenous people there are sometimes referred to as "forest animals".
In classical philosophy and in the Christian image of man, humans have a clearly prominent position vis-à-vis animals because of their spiritual soul ( spirit ). According to the beginning of the Tanakh (Genesis 1 and 2), this position of man and woman is not based on physical differences, because land animals arise there just like man from earth or, like man, on the 6th day of creation. There, humans are given special tasks: they should give the animals names - this requires complex language skills. He is also supposed to look after a garden - this is reminiscent of the systematic utilization of plants (such as in agriculture), and he should rule over nature (here one can also think of keeping pets and the use of fire - important for cooking, heating and metal processing). God breathes the breath of life into man, whereby he is (does not have) a living soul; he is created in his image. This corresponds to the almost universal spread of religiosity. These peculiarities of human beings are aware of them, so that there is an effort to anchor their exercise as fundamental rights: freedom of religion, expression of opinion, science and art. In the more recent scientific view, the “special position of humans” is based on their use of a symbolic language and writing, whereas animals only have approaches to learning and forming traditions.
In many cultures people adorn themselves with names of animals: eagle, lion, fox, wolf etc. are popular self-names, as can also be recognized from first names and titles. In contrast, there are derogatory terms, such as B. pig, sow, rat, dog, donkey. Some animals, such as B. Camel, are used appreciatively in some cultures and disparagingly in others. The terms human (literally: human) and bestial (literally: "animal") imply that humans are mild while animals are raw. Often, however, human actions are described as bestial that hardly or not at all occur in animals. Conversely, human is often used to describe a behavior that occurs in animals in an analogous form.
Definition of terms
Dehumanization or dehumanization is the perception or designation of people or groups of people as non-human, subhuman or in a negative way superhuman (such as monsters). People are thus denied their humanity (humanity) or their human quality.
Dehumanization happens in two ways:
- The deprivation of traits that the person believes distinguish humans from animals (such as complex emotions such as morality or guilt, but also culture). Here people are devalued to animals or inadults . Even a child is not seen as a fully capable actor, but rather as a neuter compared to an adult ( the child).
- The deprivation of characteristics that are typically human (warmth, openness, etc.). Here people are devalued to objects .
Dehumanization is often accompanied by emotions such as contempt , disgust or disgust as well as a lack of empathy and makes moral principles appear to be no longer valid towards the person (group). To this extent, it serves functions to stabilize the identity of a person (group), for example by reducing moral emotions, by generating feelings of superiority or justifying conflicts. Therefore, the dehumanization of minorities leads, among other things, to a lack of willingness to help, to tolerating violence and encouraging violence against the minority. Conversely, this behavior towards others leads to the dehumanization of the perpetrators themselves.
In everyday life, dehumanization is often reflected in stereotypes , patterns of interpretation , metaphors ( animal metaphors , object metaphors , etc.) or swear words ( dysphemisms ), through which certain characteristics are seen as typical for some people, while others are denied.
Dehumanization is scientifically explained in particular by theories of psychology and sociology . These include, for example, numerous power theories , such as the theory of established-outsider relationships ( Norbert Elias ).
Further description of examples
To this day, dehumanization is widespread in practically all societies and does not only affect social minorities, as the dehumanization of femininity shows , for example .
Dehumanization has z. B. in the National Socialist racial hygiene led to the concept of so - called life unworthy of life : In National Socialism , mentally ill and mentally and physically disabled people were murdered on this basis.
The standard of value that was expressed was related to an alleged lack of benefit (i.e. work for the community) of the victims, but also to genetic material that was “to be exterminated” . This thinking was also culturally expressed in a different form than persecution of the swing youth or artists (see Degenerate Art ): Deviations from the “normal” were not tolerated; “Healthy”, “clean”, “tidy”, “healthy” were ideal - as is also reflected in the art of National Socialism .
The communists also knew the dehumanization of their opponents. During the Cold War , “the Western Europeans” and especially “the Americans” were considered “ decadent ”, “ bourgeois ” and “in decline”. The cover name Aktion Verziefer is used for a resettlement campaign of several thousand GDR citizens near the inner-German border .
Similar segregation is applied to felons. In a preliminary form one speaks of inhuman or of bestiality . One “becomes an animal” is a popular saying when one denies oneself or others characteristics in certain phases that one regards as “typically human”.
In wars, opponents were often demonized and demonized: They should be perceived as a collective threat, as a mass , as evil , not as human individuals, in order to disinhibit one's own soldiers and facilitate the use of military force. The danger of excesses and brutal derailments, such as in the Second World War or in the Iraqi prison Abu Ghraib, is growing .
In addition to all social groups, middle-class society is also familiar with exclusion as a result of prejudices (sometimes also discrimination ). This affects people who do not fit into their worldview, for example people with a criminal background, radicals , extremists or people who, due to their way of life, are met with little or no acceptance, such as the " bum ". See also: Heuschreckendebatte , From the dictionary of the monster
An explanation for the dehumanization, along with calculated propaganda, is provided by social psychology with the Benjamin Franklin effect . The techniques of neutralization and the Milgram and Stanford Prison experiments also offer explanatory approaches . The obedience towards higher powers or ideas, and their respective representatives, is an approach to it.
Legal philosophy also considers contrasting the idea of humanity with the social reality of dehumanization.
Heritage and Environment, Determinism and Free Will
Which characteristics of a person are inherited and which are acquired through the environment has always been a matter of dispute. In addition to the extreme views that assume that humans are completely predetermined by their genetic make-up or that humans are fully educable (“ tabula rasa ”), there are many degrees of opinions that see humans more or less predetermined by their genetic makeup.
Both sides can provide sufficient examples of the inheritance and environmental impact of human characteristics, so that extreme views have become rare today. In addition to the two extremes, there is also the imprint , an irreversible environmental impact.
Philosophically and religiously , these questions are of great importance in the discussion about free will. If a free will is postulated, then there are areas that are neither determined by heritage nor by the environment. In contrast to this stands the view that humans are completely determined . Here, too, there are the mediating views that man is partly free and partly predetermined.
The great Western political ideas, such as human dignity , the creed of freedom , equality and solidarity and democracy , are based on the idea of, or at least on the assumption and commitment to the fundamental freedom and personal responsibility of the individual.
The prevailing Western image of man can therefore be roughly outlined with a corresponding methodical trinity ( triad (culture) ). After that, man has
- a natural heritage,
- a culture and
- a free will.
The weighting is different, depending on which field of science one leans towards, natural sciences, cultural and educational sciences or political philosophy.
These questions are also very practical in everyday life:
Education is about the question of what education can actually achieve. If one assumes a very strong predetermination of abilities through inheritance (“ talents ”), then one has to determine this talent in order to promote it. The education to abilities that are not innate is then excluded or carried out only with great effort. In the past, the question of right-handedness was assumed to have an impact on the environment and attempts were made to raise all children to be right-handed. Today it is assumed that handedness is innate, and children are allowed to write with the hand that appears "right" for them.
Assuming strong environmental influences, state education tends to want to compensate for the differences between the influences of different parental homes. People are “born the same” and according to this view the inequalities are injustices that have to be compensated for in school as much as possible.
The image of man also has a considerable influence on criminal policy. People with the idea that criminals are "made" into criminals tend to give heavy weight to rehabilitation measures and reject the "locking up" of the perpetrators. Conversely, people with the idea that one is “born a criminal” tend to lock up criminals. According to her, rehabilitation efforts are not promising. There is also a widespread belief that both hereditary predisposition and environmental influences come together when a person becomes a criminal. This is where the intentions to lock up mix with those of rehabilitation.
Advertising is based on the idea that people can be influenced. This in turn presupposes that inherited laws governing the behavior of people who are addressed by advertising are assumed. The limits of this notion become visible in international corporations that occasionally adapt their advertising campaigns to the respective culture.
Equality or inequality?
The old controversial question of whether all people are the same or different is also determined by the image of man. Obviously, all people outwardly have something in common. People are also similar in their basic needs and their basic emotional structure.
Just as obviously there are also differences, so that we can identify individual people, which would not be possible if everyone were the same. Opinions are divided on the question of how equal people are. The ideas of whether people should be the same or different are even more different . Since the Enlightenment there has been a consensus in free social systems that all people should have the same basic rights.
Psychology of human images
In social psychology , a separate examination of the image of man takes place within the framework of the examination of attitudes . The image of man is specifically defined as a structure of attitudes.
The image of man is the totality of assumptions and beliefs about what man is by nature, how he lives in his social and material environment and what values and goals his life has or should have. It includes the self-image and the image of other people or of people in general. This image of man is developed by each individual, but contains much that is also typical for the views of other people or larger groups and communities. It contains traditions of culture and society, value orientations and answers to basic questions of life. Many of the views are likely to be traced back to some fundamental beliefs. These beliefs differ from other attitudes through their systematic importance, mentally laying the groundwork and their personally perceived validity, through their certainty and importance. The assumptions about people have many and different contents and form an individual pattern with core and peripheral issues. From a psychological point of view, the image of man is a subjective theory that makes up an essential part of personal everyday theories and world views .
The basic beliefs often include religious belief, belief in God and a spiritual existence after biological death (immortality of the soul), spirituality , free will , principles of ethics , social responsibility and other values. Images of man accordingly contain convictions that have a high level of personal validity; they are personal constructions and interpretations of the world resulting from upbringing and individual life experience.
Image of man as a subjective theory
There are several similar or largely synonymous terms in psychology. Everyday theories or subjective theories are the perceptions that people have developed about their living environment. There are terms, attributions of properties ( attributions ), in particular of causes (causal interpretations) and other concepts of how people orient themselves in the world and understand relationships. Everyday psychology has the important function of making the behavior of other people understandable, subjectively predictable and controllable. In contrast to the explanatory hypotheses of scientists, personal constructs of a person denote schemes for capturing the world. People go in order to understand other people or what is happening in the world, like scientists do - this is also the basic claim of George A. Kelly . People interpret their perceptions, they develop assumptions and test them against their recurring experiences. The system of personal constructs is subject to continuous change through new experiences. Implicit anthropology contains the entire and therefore unique life experience gathered by the individual. It forms the frame of reference to orientate yourself, classify other people, solve problems and cope with life. Values are based on typical values, e.g. B. characterized humanistic, Christian, democratic values. Self-concepts are all attitudes or assessments related to the person.
Research on such everyday theories (including Laucken) has long known how differentiated the “naive” behavioral theories can be. a. through traditional ideas and through learning from one's own experience. You are e.g. Sometimes with additional assumptions and with causal interpretations (in contrast to scientific, causal explanations) shaped similarly to the concepts originating from specialist science. However, they are often subliminal and not fully formulated, so that they first have to be explored using suitable methods.
Image of man vs personality theory
Images of man as subjective theories and scientific theories of personality differ in various ways. Personality theories give a generalized description of the structure and function of personality traits; H. Personality traits , motives , emotions , etc. The scientific program is to precisely describe the psychophysical individuality of the human being, to understand it as a personality and to explain it in terms of its genetically, familial and socio-cultural development. Numerous fields of research in psychology are bundled in these tasks, and there is an almost unmanageable variety of heterogeneous, more or less developed personality theories. These also include social attitudes, value orientations and beliefs, but usually exclude the basic philosophical and religious beliefs and questions of meaning.
Personality theories are usually much more differentiated, conceptually elaborated, formally structured and, in some cases, empirically verified, using certain research methods. Exist between the individual human images and the psychological personality and motivation theories so formal differences, and the structures have different intentions: orientation of the individual in the personal living environment or systematic, reliable knowledge.
Differential psychology of human images
The philosopher Alwin Diemer demonstrated with a series of characteristic quotations how opposing humans can be determined . Terms such as zoon politikon , homo rationale , homo faber , homo oeconomicus , or humans as the undetected animal, as a socially determined, working and productive living being or as a socially damaged reflective being are known. Such guiding principles were also shaped from a psychological point of view: the unconscious drive claims, learning from the model , the constant search for meaning, self-realization , etc. Psychological phenomena are traced back to an allegedly underlying functional principle or to a fundamental contradiction. In contrast to such simplifications or distorted images, differential psychology requires a much broader empirical view of the numerous facets of the human image.
The psychology of human images has several interlaced perspectives. What basic assumptions about people can be found in individuals or in the population? On the other hand, which images of people - in the sense of assumptions or preliminary decisions - do the authors of scientific personality theories reveal? What image of man does the author of a textbook document through the selection and special weighting of personality theories and methods? The distinction made earlier between the scientific theories of personality and the assumptions of everyday psychological theories cannot therefore be very sharp. Even in the scientific theories there are often very preliminary assumptions and in the everyday theories there are also psychological knowledge components from research, i. H. details popularized by the media. Many psychologists use questionnaires and interviews and use the answers they receive to import elements of everyday theories into their conceptions. In addition, the everyday theories of the population are in turn the subject of scientific psychology.
Research on images of human beings belongs to a border area of personality and developmental psychology , social and cultural psychology and knowledge psychology. This opens up many perspectives: B. socio-psychologically with regard to stereotypes and prejudices and their consequences for intercultural understanding.
The individual image of man can be captured by the method of the interview and approximately also by questionnaires; More thorough insights, on the other hand, will only be found in psychological-biographical studies (and also in everyday behavior). The methodology of social psychological research on attitudes and values is best developed; there are now numerous questionnaires and standardized scales for religious psychology as well . Also in some representative social science surveys was u. a. asked about convictions of values and the meaning of life, about religiosity and spirituality. Other surveys showed the images of people of certain groups, e.g. B. from students of psychology or from psychotherapists. Finally, the autobiographies of psychologists, psychotherapists or philosophers can be evaluated in terms of content to determine whether they give any clues to the image of man.
The first task would be to empirically explore the diversity of images of man and to look for frequent patterns. Secondly, the historical, contemporary, religious, sociocultural and other conditions for the emergence and change of beliefs should be asked systematically. For example, it could be investigated how central assumptions of the image of man change as a result of a specialist degree, for example in psychology, education or medicine. The special contents of the textbooks give another perspective, because the authors will inevitably reveal their own convictions when they select and present certain theories. People images have the function of models in different areas of life and thus also in the fields of applied psychology , including industrial psychology , organizational psychology , industrial psychology , educational psychology , education, health psychology and psychotherapy .
The individual images of people will have an impact on everyday life. But do they also influence the professional practice of doctors, psychotherapists and judges if they take on responsibility for other people? Empirical studies on the differential psychology of human images could provide more information about these relationships.
Debate in Psychotherapy
The different images of man in the psychotherapy directions can be understood as models for therapeutic action. Since the debate about Sigmund Freud's atheistic and pessimistic view of man, there have been ongoing discussions about the understanding of man, about human values and ethics in psychotherapy. The images of man existing in the various directions of psychotherapy cannot, however, simply be determined. The images of man of the important pioneers are seldom to be found in a systematic, elaborate way. Often there are striking and pointed quotes around which there are controversies, which should soon be put into perspective in the context of other statements. In the first place of the source interpretation are of course the biography and work of the founder of a certain psychotherapy direction.
While in the first phase the focus was on Freud's concept of man and psychoanalysis, the interest subsequently turned mainly to the behavioral therapist’s concept of man and the models of new currents, for example the “psychology of the good life”, the “ideology of the new spirituality”, on fundamentalist ideologies, dogmas and myths in the psycho scene. The extent to which certain models actually affect the therapy goals, the therapeutic process and the assessment of success has hardly been investigated empirically.
Klaus Holzkamp's “Critical Psychology” (about 1969–1985 widely received in the FRG) also emphasizes the concept of man and describes an active, consciously working person who appropriates nature with reference to the Marxist psychology of Alexei Nikolajewitsch Leontjew .
McGregor's student Edgar Schein developed a typology with a distinction between four different images of people and derived consequences for the organization and managers. These four people pictures are: the rational economic man ( rational-economic one , even homo economicus ), social man ( social one ), the self-actualizing person ( self-actualizing one ) and the complex human being ( complex one ). According to Schein, managers make assumptions about their employees, at least implicitly, and their management decisions depend on this image of human beings.
- Homo oecologicus # Homo oecologicus as an image of man
- Psychological anthropology
- Legal anthropology
- Theological anthropology
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References and comments
- information, see Reinhold Zippelius , Rechtssphilosophie , 6th edition, § 17 II
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- Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer : Basis preach. Basics of the Christian faith in sermons, plus a didactic homiletics for advanced students. VTR, Nuremberg 2010, p. 74 f.
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- See Jobst Paul: The> Animal <construct - and the birth of racism. On the cultural presence of a damning argument . Unrast, 2004. ISBN 3-89771-731-X .
- Markus Antonius Wirtz: Lexicon of Psychology. 17th ed. Bern 2015. Keyword: dehumanization
- Martin Weißmann: Organized dehumanization. On the production, function and substitutability of social and psychological dehumanization in genocides . In: Alexander Gruber; Stefan Kühl (ed.): Sociological analyzes of the Holocaust. Beyond the debate about “completely normal men” and “completely normal Germans” . Springer, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-06894-3 , pp. 79-128 .
- Herbert C. Kelman: Violence without Moral Restraint . In: Journal of Social Issues . No. 29 , 1973, pp. 25-61 .
- Axel Montenbruck : civil religion. A philosophy of law III. Superstructure: democratic humanism, socially real dehumanization, dissolution to the synthetic pragmatism of the “middle world”. University Library of the Free University of Berlin, 2010, a. a. P. 113 ff (open access) .
- Axel Montenbruck: civilization. A legal anthropology. State and people, violence and law, culture and nature , 2nd edition 2010, 58 ff ( civilizing state and human model ), University Library of the Free University of Berlin (open access) | <urn:uuid:8d1fa8b1-3882-44d3-8ff3-650279be2bcd> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://de.zxc.wiki/wiki/Menschenbild | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474784.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229035411-20240229065411-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.934389 | 8,342 | 3.34375 | 3 | 6 |
A few years back I found myself coming home at night very stressed from dealing with some difficult times at work. My home; that supposed refuge from the storm, was always busy with lots of noisy children gleefully bouncing off the walls. Although speaking what I thought were the right words to my kids, it was not creating the right response when communicated while being stressed. In fact, it created the opposite effect. How come?
Physiologically, our bodies are composed of many different systems: circulatory systems, lymphatic systems, nervous systems, respiratory systems and so on. Did you know that the presence of another person can affect your own physiology? Mirror neurons are one of the most important discoveries in the last decade of neuroscience. Essentially, mirror neurons respond to any actions we might observe in others; actually recreating the same physiology as if it were a personal experience!
These mirror neurons help us to learn things and work better together, and even ensure the safety and future of the human race. My crying baby makes my wife and I jump up to see if he is okay. If it were not for this feature in our brain, we wouldn’t bother.
Interestingly, research in intensive care units has shown that the comforting presence of another person not only lowers the patient’s blood pressure but also slows the secretion of fatty acids that block arteries. Additionally, positive relationships can see one person transmit signals that can alter hormone levels, cardiovascular functions, sleep rhythms, even immune functions, inside the body of another. In all aspects of our social life, our physiologies intermingle.
So, what is my point? Edwin Markham said, “There is a destiny which makes us brothers; none goes his way alone. All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own.” Turns out, that little line of poetry is in fact a scientific truth!
The virtues we manifest – enthusiasm, conviction, love, serenity, courage and so on, literally influence the physiology of those around us. This reinforces the truth that you can’t fake sincerity. When our body language conflicts with our words, people will always believe our body language because emotion is contagious, and we can feel it even on a subconscious level.
Do you want to make a difference? The first step is to be the difference. It is not about what we say, but about who we are that will create the change we wish to see in our world.
As we move on from the 45th anniversary event Nikken held last week, let’s be sure to share our enthusiasm, love and commitment with others. Speak up, raise your voice, share the message and make a difference. | <urn:uuid:93ab7fe8-d27e-47c7-89ec-7ca743fd168c> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://magneticleaders.com/the-physiology-of-contagious-attitudes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474784.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229035411-20240229065411-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.96082 | 552 | 2.546875 | 3 | 7 |
CFT proposes that relating to the self and others with compassion is necessary for mental, and emotional health, and wellbeing. CFT therapy draws from multiple models, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), developmental, social, and evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, neurobiology, and Buddhism.
According to compassion focused therapy (CFT), humans developed three basic emotion regulation and affect systems: the threat and self-protection system, the drive and excitement system, and the contentment and social safeness system. Our ancestors had to learn how to survive by avoiding or overcoming threats, they were tasked with the acquisition of resources, and knew the benefits of being part of a social community. CFT theory suggests that these systems are still in force and impact our beliefs, emotions, and behaviour.
Treatment involves learning about how these systems interact with thought and behaviour, with the goal of achieving balance between the systems. One of the chief aims is to train the mind to help develop safeness, inner warmth, soothing, via compassion and self-compassion. CFT therapy is often integrated with other approaches like person centred therapy (PCT) or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
The main technique of CFT therapy is compassionate mind training (CMT). This involves being compassionate toward the self and others. Through specific training and exercises clients are guided to improve their ability to sympathise, tolerate distress, foster sensitivity, and nurture compassionate motivation toward a non-judging and non-criticising mindset.
This involves appreciation exercises and activities like making a list of likes, noticing and savouring positive experiences, and focusing on what one enjoys. Another technique used is Mindfulness, this teaches clients how to be present in a non-judgemental way.
Compassion-focused imagery exercises, or guided memories and fantasies offer a relational image that stimulates the soothing system via the mental and physiological systems. Our CFT therapists will assist you with understanding the origins and function of self-attacks, as well as the reasons why one might agree with the criticism, to better understand it.
Any blockages one experiences in relation to expressing compassion will also be explored in order to address and overcome them. Compassion focused therapy is often concluded within 6 and 15 sessions. We recommend 50-minute sessions on a weekly basis.Benefits Of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)
CFT therapy was originally established to help individuals work through issues of self-loathing, criticism, and shame, and therefore especially useful for those who are unable to express self-compassion.
Other issues that compassion focused therapy can work with include depression, anxiety, disordered eating, anger, self-harm, and psychosis. For others CFT may not be the most useful approach, however as it is often integrated alongside other approaches (for example, CBT, PCT, etc), it can complement.Does Phinity Provide CFT Therapy Near Me?
We offer compassion focused therapy in Birmingham. Phinity Therapy also serves other cities and countries through our network of qualified therapists. Online therapy is also available, catering for those who cannot reach our clinic or have busy schedules.
Make a commitment to taking control and living the life you want and deserve. Start by booking your Free Initial Consultation Today and speak to one of our friendly principal therapists about your concerns and desired goals.
*Due to limited time slot availability caused by high demand, we now offer only one Free Initial Consultation for prospective clients, further conversations are charged at our normal rate.
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Drawing: courtesy of Pete Gamlen
In a 2014 article in the Scientific American Mind, Christof Koch, a well-known US neuroscientist and chief scientific officer at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, addresses this question. And he is optimistic that the answer is yes.
The mystery of the human mind has been a key topic for many philosophers, from Plato to Descartes, from Hegel, Kant and Wittgenstein to Searle, Dennett and Chalmers, where it appears rephrased as the problem of the place of consciousness in the physical world. From the point of view of religious studies, a related but even more speculative question is whether the human mind, our soul, may survive our bodily death.
With modern neuroscience new theories and toolkits keep emerging with which brains, their structure and their function, are explored. Analytical sensors scan and analyze the brain’s operation, EEG and MEG devices measure its electromagnetic field, fMRI techniques detect brain activation by changes of blood-oxygen-level dependent contrast imaging – a method based on nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy developed at ETH Zurich back in the 1960s.
The human brain with its 90 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses connecting the neurons belongs to the deepest questions of mankind for scientific research. Huge publically sponsored efforts with about 100’000 researchers worldwide are set up to achieve insight into and treatments of health issues such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, and other mental impairments.
From a neuroscience perspective it seems commonly accepted that our cognitive and affective faculties are located in the brain. Results of affective neuroscience by Damasio, Panksepp, Solms and others, tell us that fear, anger, joy, and other emotions are more or less localized brain functions. But how reliable is this insight, in particular concerning the issue of localization? How did emotions and their neural correlates evolve? We clearly have little knowledge to answer these questions.
Parallel to medical research about brain and mental diseases, the field of computational neuroscience tries to develop models of the brain to simulate its activity, from small populations of neurons to neural networks as large as the brain altogether. The enormous cognitive capacity of the human brain, operating on approximately 20 watts of power – equivalent to about 20% of the energy produced by the human body – is a tempting model for the design of machines with artificial intelligence.
A major advancement in artificial intelligence is the development and implementation of machine-learning algorithms to solve specific problems, from data mining to deep learning. Computational technologies such as apps and sensing devices typically use smartphones as gateways to global www information storage (termed ‘the cloud’), providing access to massive databases.
Today a smartphone can be used as a fitness monitor, it can recognize if you are under stress based on voice or skin analysis. Carrying this further, it seems possible that smartphones and their sensory inputs are extensions of our mind, even with suitable voice-assistants like Apple’s Siri. For example your smartphone might express sadness if it detects your problems at work by high blood pressure, lack of sleep, or early symptoms of depression. It will express empathy and suggest proper measures for you to improve your health and your sentiments.
The movie ‘Her’, a 2013 American romantic science-fiction drama by Spike Jonze, features a man falling in love with an operating system. The 1995 novel ‘Galatea 2.2’ by Richard Powers is based on the converse idea of an operating system falling in love with its operator. These instances might spur our imagination what it might mean to own a ‘smartphone companion’ or other interfaces, which are in close contact with our mind.
A mind is something very intimate and personal. The connection to the cloud via smartphone implies serious issues with personal data protection and security. Consequently, trust and ethics might be crucial and overriding questions for the use of smartphones as companions accessing our mental life. Or as Ray Kurzweil, director of research at Google and well known inventor and futurist, recently stated at the 10th anniversary of his book ‘The Singularity is Near’:
At this point, it becomes a really deep philosophical issue. Is that just a very clever simulation that’s good enough to trick you, or is it really conscious in the way that we assume other people are? In my view there’s no real way to test that scientifically. There’s no machine you can slide the entity into where a green light goes on and says okay, this entity’s conscious, but no, this one’s not. You could make a machine, but it will have philosophical assumptions built into it. Some philosophers will say that unless it’s squirting impulses through biological neurotransmitters, it’s not conscious, or that unless it’s a biological human with a biological mother and father it’s not conscious. But it becomes a matter of philosophical debate. It’s not scientifically resolvable.
Ray Kurzweil is one of the strongest proponents of Singularity implying that Artificial Intelligence will be equivalent to Human Intelligence at some not too distant time in the future. Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness emerge from different viewpoints and different research efforts. Yet one day these viewpoints might merge. In a paper published by Aeon Magazine in July 2015, Michael Graziano, Professor of Neuroscience at Princeton University argues that we could build an artificial brain that knows what consciousness is, believes that it has it, attributes it to others, and can engage in complex social interaction with people.
There are critics to this theory. The philosopher Daniel Dennett, Professor at Tuft University for example argues that consciousness as we think of it is an illusion.
The debate between neuroscientists, philosophers, psychologists and engineers on the initial question set forth by this essay will continue; however, it will not prevent the ongoing scientific and technological advancement towards Singularity in the context of a fundamentally new eco-system as symbolized by a triangle:
Copyright: Peter Rudin, Meggen, July 2016
Following this line of thinking will help us to open up our mind plotting a positive future in a rapidly changing environment. If a smartphone could eventually become a mental companion is up to us, we decide. | <urn:uuid:1e7dc78c-5dbe-4374-9301-4775334d9fec> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://singularity2030.ch/will-my-smartphone-ever-have-consciousness/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473360.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221002544-20240221032544-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.936296 | 1,304 | 3.28125 | 3 | 9 |
Professor Dominique Durand – Plugging into the Nervous System
New advances in neural engineering have led to devices that can be operated using the nerves of the user, but the effectiveness and safety of these devices over long periods of use is a key concern. Professor Dominique Durand, Director of the Neural Engineering Center at Case Western Reserve University, leads a team of scientists looking to improve neuroprosthetics through developing new methods of interfacing with the nervous system.
New Advances for Amputees
Until recently, the concept of prosthetic limbs that can be controlled by the human nervous system was confined to the world of science fiction. Recent advances have given us prostheses that can interact directly with the nervous system, giving the user back the use of an arm or a leg, or a fully articulated hand with each finger individually controllable.
With more than 1 million limb amputations taking place globally each year, the need for safe and effective prosthetics is critical. The greatest challenges facing fully functioning, user-controlled prosthetics are reliability and safety, and ensuring that the prosthesis responds to real, measurable nerve signals and can be attached over a long period of time without causing damage to the nerves.
One of the researchers addressing these challenges in a novel way is Professor Dominique Durand, E L Lindseth Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurosciences and also Director of the Neural Engineering Center at Case Western Reserve University, USA.
Professor Durand and his team work in the emerging field of neural engineering, a new discipline at the intersection of neuroscience, neurology, and engineering. Neural engineering is an interdisciplinary research area that involves applying engineering techniques to the study and manipulation of the nervous system, with the aim to better understand how the nervous system works and provide new treatments for neurological dysfunction. Fields within neural engineering include, but are not limited to, the development and use of neural interfaces for neuroprosthetics, such as neural controlled artificial limbs for amputees or altering neural activity by direct stimulation of the central or autonomic nervous system (neuromodulation).
Professor Durand’s work aims to address two distinct neurological problems; the first is how to control disorders of the central nervous system such as epilepsy through electrical stimulation of the brain. The second is how to interface with the peripheral nervous system in order to restore function in patients with autonomic imbalance and give voluntary control of artificial limbs to amputees using neural prosthetics.
The Problems with Prosthesis
The majority of user-controlled prosthetics have utilised electromyography (EMG) pads that attach to the skin and detect the electric activity of existing muscles, generating signals that can then be sent to a prosthetic limb and direct it to move. However, patients with muscle damage to the upper-arm or with upper-arm amputations may not have muscles available to control the prostheses.
More recent prosthetic devices can chronically attach to the user by interacting directly with the nervous system. Instead of EMG electrodes, these devices use probes that are implanted into the body and wrap around nerves, called cuff or wire hooks electrodes. These are limited by their ability to differentiate real nerve impulses against background noise which can be caused by static as the cuffs move against the nerves.
Cutting edge research in prosthetics has led to probes that can enter inside the nerve itself and detect nerve impulses directly. These are much better at determining which nerve impulses are ‘real’, but their safety is as-yet untested when used long-term in implants.
A breakthrough from Professor Durand and his group in 2017 led to the development of a novel method of allowing technology to interface directly with the nervous system. They hypothesised that probes have had limited previous success use due to their stiffness. Nerve fibres are very flexible, and the team identified the need for a flexible probe that would match the mechanical properties of the nerve to prevent the probe from moving and causing irritation over the lifetime of the implant.
The Carbon Connection
To make a much more flexible probe, Professor Durand’s team formulated a probe composed of strings made of nanometre-wide strands called carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The original idea was to design an axon-like probe with dimensions and flexibility similar to other axons near the electrode. CNTs are a form of carbon, like graphite and diamond, where molecules of carbon are arranged into long tubular structures. The team spun the CNTs into an extremely thin multi-stranded yarn much thinner than the diameter of a nerve. The thinness of the probe meant that it could be implanted into the nerve with the aid of a microscopic metal needle called a microneedle.
Professor Durand’s team tested the flexibility of the new yarn constructed from CNTs using a technique called atomic force microscopy and found that it was much more conductive and flexible than the platinum-iridium wire usually used for implants, with flexibility closely matching that of a nerve fibre. The team concluded this material would be perfect for the basis of a neural interface.
To test the probe, Professor Durand’s team first implanted the probe into the vagus nerve of a rat. The vagus nerve is situated in the neck and is a major conduit for nervous communication between the brain and the body. It receives sensory information from the organs of the body, including the heart, lungs, and the gut. The group measured the signals generated from the vagus nerve and a large range of signals coming the various organs.
Professor Durand’s team then implanted the probe in another major nerve of the neck called the glossopharyngeal nerve. This nerve transmits impulses from the carotid sinus which senses oxygen and pressure regulation. The group induced a hypoxic event in the rat, and then measured the nerve activity using the probe. They found they could detect the two types of signals produced by the carotid sinus that give information to the brain about the blood oxygen level and blood pressure.
Precision and Safety
Once the team knew the probe was effective in detecting nerve impulses, they went on to test whether the probe could detect impulses from specific parts of the nerve. Nerves are made up of bundles of tiny nerve fibres called axons that carry various signals. The carbon nanotube probe is about the size of one of these axons, which allows several probes to be implanted within very small nerves.
This approach allowed the team to measure the activity of individual bundles of axons within the nerve itself. They found when the rats were exposed to hypoxia, two different probes in the same nerve gave very different responses, indicating that each probe could selectively record different neural signals, such as baroreceptors and chemoreceptors. This shows that a greater and more accurate level of selectivity in detecting nerve impulses can be obtained using these tiny probes.
Finally, Professor Durand’s group tested their hypothesis that the flexible fibres would cause less irritation after being implanted in the body over a long period of time. In other systems, long-term insertion of a probe into a nerve can cause a problem where the body’s immune system responds to irritation and inflammation at the site of implantation. The foreign body response can cause a thickening of the connective tissue and scarring, which can come between the probe and the nerve leading to a significant decrease in recorded signal amplitudes. This effect can interfere with the normal function of a user-controlled prosthesis, and may even cause damage to the surrounding tissue.
The team found that chronic implantation of CNTs generated only minimal amount of inflammation around the site of implantation. The group looked at the area where the probe has been inserted and found there were few immune cells around the site of implantation, indicating a limited inflammatory reaction in response to the Carbon Nanotube probe.
New Frontiers in Neural Interfaces
Professor Durand’s team’s findings confirmed their hypothesis that probes made from CNTs would be more suitable for chronic implants, causing less damage, and maintaining signal for a longer period. The group hopes that these findings will pave the way for more effective carbon nanotube-based controllable prosthetics. Future work by Professor Durand and his group will also focus on the development of a new neural control system for a prosthetic arm using their novel technologies.
Critically, not only was the CNT yarn system capable of detecting nerve impulses, it was also able to stimulate nerves. Whereas detecting nerve impulses is key in designing artificial prostheses, the ability of the probe to both detect and stimulate nerves could mean it could be used to even repair nerves damaged by neurological injuries, such as strokes and spinal injury. Each year, over 100,000 people in the UK suffer strokes. It is the leading cause of disability in the UK, with two-thirds of stroke survivors suffering some sort of prolonged disability caused by damage to the nervous system.
Professor Durand’s new technique opens up a host of new opportunities to combat some of the most complex and impactful problems in neurology today. Science fiction no longer, new findings from Professor Durand’s lab could lead the way to new, more effective and stable prosthetics and give us new ways of treating disorders of the nervous system.
Meet the researcher
Professor Dominique Durand
Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Neurosciences, Physiology and Biophysics, Electrical Engineering
Neural Engineering Center
Case Western Reserve University
Professor Dominique Durand received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto. On completion of his doctorate in 1982, Professor Durand moved to Cleveland, USA to take up an Assistant Professor position at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio where he is currently the E L Lindseth Professor of Biomedical Engineering. Professor Durand’s research is focused on solving problems in the central and peripheral nervous systems through the disciplines of neural engineering, computational neuroscience, and neurophysiology. In particular, he is working on how to understand and restore neural function in both the central and peripheral nervous systems, investigating how applied currents could be used to control seizures in patients with epilepsy, and improving user-controlled prosthetics. In 2000, he was appointed Director of the Neural Engineering Center, a multidisciplinary institute dedicated to research at the interface between neuroscience and engineering. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neural Engineering.
Professor Durand’s work is funded through a Congressionally-Directed Medical Research Program grant, DARPA, the National Science Foundation, private donors, foundations, and the National Institutes of Health.
TE Eggers, YM Dweiri, GA McCallum, DM Durand, Recovering motor intent from chronic peripheral nerve recordings, Scientific reports, 2018, 8, 14149.
T Eggers, YM Dweiri, G McCallum, DM Durand, Model-based Bayesian signal extraction algorithm for peripheral nerves, Journal of Neural Engineering, 2017, 14, 056009.
YM Dweiri, TE Eggers, LE Gonzalez-Reyes, J Drain, GA McCallum, DM Durand, Stable detection of movement intent from peripheral nerves: Chronic study in dogs, Proceedings of IEEE, 2017, 105, 50–65, 2017.
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When it comes to learning, I’ve always taken the stance that there are many modalities, and not everyone comprehends in the same way. My awareness of this comes from my experience with my children having learning differences. When offered a variety of ways to approach education, each one figured out how they learned. This cognizance of learning types has become increasingly discussed and integrated into modern life. Schools rely more on virtual learning, and businesses reach their consumers online. YouTube is filled with crash courses on any and every topic imaginable. It is imperative in learning styles and voiceover to have multiple accesses to the brain, such as auditory, visual, or kinetic.
Is There Only One Way To Learn?
Passover is a perfect (and relevant) example of this need for various avenues. This Friday, my family is hosting a Sedar to gather, share food and each other’s company, and remember and celebrate the liberation of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. But there are many mediums in which this story is told, including:
- Food, with the salty water, unleavened matzah, sweet apples, and more each signify a component of the story
- The Haggadah provides a written guide to tell the story
- Through puppets and songs
Whether we are tailoring the story to children or adults who are not familiar with the holiday, we must be creative and inclusive in telling the story if we want a tradition to persist.
Is There Only One Way to Narrate a Story?
These same principles that the Jewish tradition has adapted are not unique: the power of visual learning and storytelling in engagement and education is the foundation of my work as a medical narrator. For many, the medical world is overwhelming and foreign: does anyone really know how to pronounce “Borborygmi” or what it even means?! (It’s a fancy word for a grumbling stomach). Perhaps some linguists can look at the word and derive its root, whereas another person needs to see a visual representation of a person’s rumbling stomach to be given clues and cues.
The key to successful storytelling is finding a way to engage with your audience in a meaningful way for them to foster understanding and education. After all, knowledge is power. Think about a lecture in college. Some learn fine from a teacher speaking in the classroom. Others need a PowerPoint with written words, and others need videos, pictures, or graphs to bring the topic to life further. But even within these categories (audible words, visual words, accompanying imagery, and animation), various aspects can make the “story” successful or not. Is a monotone speaker who just reads from a script the same as an animated lecturer? Is a presentation with hundreds of words on a single slide (we’ve all seen it) the same as one with just the key terms and concepts? Are all animated videos created equal?
Do You Know How You Learn Best?
While the brain processes visual and audible cues in similar ways, it happens in different areas. A stimulus is presented and then categorized accordingly. Visual stimuli such as looking at words, pictures, and the environment are, you guessed it, processed in the visual cortex. Similarly, audible stimuli are processed in the audio cortex within the temporal lobe. There is a difference between visual cues presented, such as words on a page versus a picture. The human brain is more adept at processing images or video representations than words simply because words are a more recent construct.
All mammals use imagery and vision to process their environment to survive- it’s a tale as old as time! I don’t need to dive too far down this (bottomless) rabbit hole of neuroscience, but our main takeaway should be that learning is complex and doesn’t happen in just one way. We live in a world where we constantly and simultaneously take in multiple types of stimuli and rely on multi-modal processing to create complete comprehension. As educators, we might not know precisely how each of our students’ or clients’ learns. I also consider myself an educator when I voice medical narration, explainer videos, and e-Learning content in particular. That’s why covering as many bases as we can when presenting information is essential.
e-Learning and Human Voiceover On The Rise
In an increasingly digital world, it is no surprise that the business of e-learning has experienced tremendous growth. Professionals in this field have identified the value that voice-over adds when combined with videos and animations. More specifically, the value that human voice actors add compared to the computer-generated narration. My job as a voiceover artist is to engage listeners with my voice: if I did have a monotone, automated voice, I wouldn’t be where I am today. How my voice sounds depends on the sense I have made of the words.
Interpretation, point of view, and intention generate subtleties in the narration that make the voiceover more interesting. That said, I also know the power and importance of animation in enhancing the story so that it can be heard and understood by a wider audience. But narration voiceover isn’t as simple as just reading what’s on the screen. A narrator can choose to:
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We have creative calls with our clients to discuss these questions. Our mutual goals are to generate meaningful and engaging content to successfully reach, engage, and educate more people than a single medium alone.
Diversity In Learning Styles and Voiceover
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At the fringe between wakefulness and sleep, there is a grey zone where our consciousness fluctuates, our responsiveness decreases and our awareness of the real world starts to dissolve, giving way to spontaneous sensations close to dreaming.
Brief and fleeting, this sleep onset phase remains a mystery that has long intrigued artists, scientists and inventors, who considered the period fertile ground for insights and discoveries.
Among those, German chemist August Kékulé reported how a daydream of a snake biting its own tail revealed to him the circular structure of benzene.
Thomas Edison and Salvador Dali were both so convinced of the creative virtues of sleep onset that they developed a method to catch these brief insights. Their secret was simple: they took naps while holding an object in their hand. The said object would fall and make noise as their muscles relaxed at the transition to sleep, waking them up in time to write down the illuminations occurring during this pre-sleep period.
But is catching creative ideas at sleep onset the mark of geniuses or is it accessible to everyone?
Dozing off to solve problems
To find out if a muse hides at the gates of sleep, we compared the ability of volunteers to solve a problem after a cat nap compared to volunteers staying awake.
Our hypothesis was that individuals who had dozed off would have a higher chance of having a Eureka! moment. But how to measure this in the lab? We decided to use the Number Reduction Task (NRT), in which participants must solve a series of arithmetic problems as quickly as possible following two simple rules.
Finding the solution is easy but tedious: you just need to proceed step by step. The beauty of the NRT lies in a hidden trick, a shortcut that allows the participant to skip most of the steps and find the solution rapidly and effortlessly.
Participants were not aware of the existence of this trick when starting the task. However, if they spontaneously uncover it, we immediately observed a sudden reduction in their solving time, allowing us to precisely track when these Eureka! moments occurred.
We tested 103 volunteers at the Sleep Disorders Department of the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris. These volunteers were first given 60 trials in advance, to get used to the task. A small proportion of them (16%) found the shortcut during this phase and were not included in further analyses. Then, participants were allowed to have a 20-minute break, in a dark room, on a comfortable chair with their eyes closed.
These conditions were chosen to facilitate sleep onset. However, we did not just want people to fall asleep, but we also wanted them to stay in the grey zone between wake and sleep to test the specific effect of this phase on creativity. This transition phase is unstable and usually rapidly turns into deeper sleep, making it very hard to anticipate when to wake people up before they fall into deeper sleep.
To help participants stay at the gates of sleep, we took inspiration from Edison and Dali. We asked participants to hold a plastic bottle in their hand, so they would wake themselves up by dropping it before falling too deeply asleep. At the end of this break, participants were asked to work on 330 new trials of the same NRT task and we monitored the occurrence of Eureka! moments.
Throughout the experiment, participants wore sensors, placed on their head, chin and around their eyes to monitor their cerebral, ocular and muscular activity. From these signals, we could monitor the sleep state of participants in real time and divide the sample into three groups: those who stayed awake during the whole break, those who dozed off (and entered only the first stage of sleep called N1), and those reached the second stage, N2.
So, were Edison and Dali right in thinking that remaining on the brink of sleep provides direct access to our creative self? We found that 83% of participants who dozed off (N1 group) found the hidden rule, compared to only 31% of volunteers in the group who stayed awake.
This three-fold increase in the proportion of Eureka! is all the more surprising given that the difference between the N1 group and the awake group amounted on average to spending just one minute in the first stage of sleep. The creativity boost disappeared in volunteers who reached N2 – only 14% found the hidden rule. It thus seems that there is a fertile ground for creativity during sleep onset: to reach it, one must fall asleep easily but not too deeply.
Edison and Dali were right
Is Edison’s technique efficient to capture this creative sweet spot? We observed a slowing down of brain activity (a marker of sleep onset) just before the drops. Because the sound provoked by the falling bottle woke up participants each time, Edison’s technique could prevent participants from transitioning deeper into N2, which does not seem to benefit creativity.
However, we also observed that participants would sometimes drop the bottle even before reaching N1. These premature drops suggest that this technique is sensitive to early signs of sleepiness and could thus sometimes prevent participants from reaching the creative zone.
In a nutshell, cat napping with an object in hand is efficient to stay in the creative sweet spot, but only if you could reach it in the first place.
If you want to try this method at home, you need to find a light, slippery object. The object must make enough noise when falling to wake you up before you get into a deep slumber.
Once you have found the perfect object, take a short nap with your arm sticking out of the chair or bed. When dropping your object makes you wake up from this creative nap, you might have to wait to hear your muse whisper the solution to the problem you are trying to solve.
Indeed, contrary to the many anecdotes of Eureka! moments occurring right upon awakening, our participants found the secret trick with a delay of about 94 new trials on average. The neural mechanisms by which sleep onset fosters creative insights thus remain mysterious. But one thing is sure – you now have a perfect excuse to doze off during meetings.
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Infographics have become popular over the last few years. As the web becomes increasingly visual, and people want to absorb information quickly they are a great way of visualising facts and data. They are also more likely to be shared on social media than a text description is.
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Our brains didn’t evolve to understand data in terms of numbers, but they did evolve to easily understand visual information: size, position, order etc. By converting information into shapes and patterns it becomes easier to absorb. So what infographics do is make information that we are used to being complex (statistics etc) easy and intuitive to understand. This is the key to why I believe infographics are so loved. Our brains get confused between things we find easy to understand and things we find familiar, and we usually have a liking for things that are familiar to us. Its sometimes called the mere exposure effect, because in experiments when people have seen an image before, they rate it more favourably when they see it again, even if they can’t consciously recall seeing it. The effect is independent of how attractive the picture is; hence it’s the mere prior exposure that makes people like it more. So when we see something easy to understand we are automatically more disposed to like it than if it’s presented in a more complex format. The effect is particularly strong when its something that’s unexpectedly easy to understand. A good analogy is to compare it again to familiarity. Usually our good feelings when we see something familiar are pretty weak. For example, when you see your neighbour outside your front door you aren’t necessarily particularly delighted, because you expect to see them in that environment. However, if you bumped into your neighbour somewhere unexpected, such as the airport, it would be far more likely to make you smile. We often forget that such simple things can produce a short burst of happiness or pleasure.
So what use is this information if you aren’t looking to turn statistical or numerical data into graphics? I think there are a few communication lessons we can draw from them:
(1) Use size and position carefully
We have excellent intuitive understanding of the size, shape and position of things. If you need to present information think about how you can communicate the relative importance of things by making them different sizes, or their relationships by how you position them together.
(2) What illustration would best reveal the inner workings of something you wish to communicate?
A well-chosen image or illustration can work in the same way as an infographic. For example, the cutaway illustrations that shows the inner workings of machines, buildings or vehicles. Does your business, product or service have hidden features with useful benefits to customers that could be communicated visually in this way?
(3) Use powerful visual analogies
By painting a picture in people’s minds through using analogies you can create a memorable and effective way for them to understand your product better. For example, when launching the first ipod, Steve Jobs compared it to a pack of playing cards, something people are already familiar with and hence comfortable with.
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In this blog, we’ve compiled a list of the some of the best psychology books that cover a wide range of topics, from the basics of psychology to more specialized areas.
These books will provide valuable insights into the human mind and behavior, making them essential reads for anyone interested in the field.
Best Psychology Books
“Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman
This book delves into the two distinct systems that drive the way we think: System 1, which is fast, intuitive, and emotional; and System 2, which is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman, a Nobel laureate in Economics, discusses how these two systems shape our judgments and decisions, often leading to errors and biases.
The book is a deep exploration of how our minds work and how we can harness this knowledge to make better decisions.
“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl
In this profound memoir, Viktor E. Frankl recounts his experiences as a Holocaust survivor and how they led him to develop his theory of logotherapy.
This book goes beyond a historical account; it’s a psychological exploration of finding meaning in the worst of circumstances.
Frankl argues that even in the most inhumane conditions, life has potential meaning, and therefore, even suffering can be meaningful.
“The Interpretation of Dreams” by Sigmund Freud
This groundbreaking work by Freud introduced his theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation and also laid the foundation for much of his later work.
The book argues that dreams are not just random activities of the sleeping brain but have a structured, meaningful, and interpretable content that provides a unique pathway to understanding the unconscious mind.
“Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman
Goleman’s book popularized the concept of emotional intelligence, arguing that it is as important as IQ for success in life.
The book covers the nature of emotional intelligence, its importance in various aspects of life such as relationships, work, and health, and how it can be nurtured and strengthened.
“Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert B. Cialdini
This book is a comprehensive guide to understanding the key principles of influence and persuasion.
Cialdini, a renowned expert in the field of psychology, explores six universal principles of influence, such as reciprocity, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity, and explains how they are used to shape our decisions, often without our conscious awareness.
“Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Csikszentmihalyi introduces and elaborates on the concept of ‘flow’, a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity. He describes how this state can be controlled and triggered and how individuals can create their own optimal experiences.
The book is a study on happiness and how such experiences are key to a life of fulfillment.
“The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” by Oliver Sacks
This book is a collection of extraordinary case histories from the celebrated neurologist Oliver Sacks.
It details the experiences of patients living with a range of neurological disorders, offering a compassionate and profound insight into the human brain and mind.
The title story concerns a man with visual agnosia, a condition where he cannot recognize familiar faces and objects.
“Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck
Carol S. Dweck, a world-renowned psychologist, introduces the concept of “mindset” and how it profoundly affects the way we lead our lives.
She outlines two primary mindsets: a fixed mindset, which suggests our abilities and intelligence are static, and a growth mindset, which thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities.
The book offers insight into how we can change our mindset to achieve success and fulfillment.
“Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain
Susan Cain’s book is a powerful manifesto that brings the hidden strengths of introverts into the spotlight.
Challenging the extrovert ideal prevalent in Western culture, Cain argues that introverts contribute profoundly to our society. She explores how introverts think and work and how they can harness their strengths in a world that often overlooks them.
The book is a blend of research, anecdotes, and personal narratives, offering valuable insights into the introverted temperament.
“Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel H. Pink
Daniel H. Pink presents a compelling case about what truly motivates us in our personal and professional lives.
Pink challenges traditional notions of motivation driven by rewards and punishment, suggesting instead that the most profound motivation comes from our innate need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and the world.
The book draws on four decades of scientific research on human motivation.
“Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions” by Dan Ariely
In this fascinating book, behavioral economist Dan Ariely uncovers the hidden reasons behind why we make irrational decisions.
Through a series of experiments and anecdotes, Ariely demonstrates how our irrational behaviors are neither random nor senseless but systematic and predictable, revealing much about human nature and decision-making.
“Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell explores the power of snap judgments and quick decision making.
He delves into the science and psychology behind the split-second choices we make every day and argues that these instantaneous decisions can be as good as, or even better than, carefully planned and considered ones.
The book looks at how we think without thinking and the pros and cons of this kind of thinking.
“The Road Less Traveled” by M. Scott Peck
This book is a profound exploration of the nature of loving relationships and the path of spiritual growth.
M. Scott Peck discusses the concepts of discipline, love, religion, and grace and how these elements are crucial in leading a fulfilling life.
The book begins with the truth that “Life is difficult,” and goes on to explore the nature of personal growth and self-discovery.
“The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” by Charles Duhigg
Charles Duhigg’s book is a deep dive into the science of habits. He explores how habits are formed, how they operate, and how they can be transformed.
Duhigg combines scientific research with compelling narratives, demonstrating how understanding and changing our habits can significantly impact our lives and our businesses.
“The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” by Jonathan Haidt
Jonathan Haidt examines the ancient ideas about happiness found in various cultures and religions and tests them against contemporary scientific research.
The book explores how a variety of ancient beliefs align with modern psychological theory, offering insight into how we can cultivate happiness in our lives.
“The Social Animal” by Elliot Aronson
Elliot Aronson’s book provides a comprehensive look at social psychology, exploring how individuals think, influence, and relate to one another.
It covers topics like conformity, persuasion, conflict, love, and interpersonal attraction, all rooted in research and theory.
The book is both an essential primer for students and a thought-provoking read for general audiences interested in understanding the social dynamics that shape human behavior.
“Attachment” by John Bowlby
John Bowlby’s groundbreaking work is central to the development of attachment theory.
In this book, he examines the concept of attachment—the deep emotional bond that develops between children and their caregivers—and its critical importance to an individual’s development.
Bowlby’s work has had a profound impact on understanding early childhood development, influencing a wide range of psychological and educational practices.
“The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients” by Irvin D. Yalom
Irvin D. Yalom, an experienced psychotherapist, offers an insightful and deeply personal account of the therapeutic process in this book.
He shares his knowledge and wisdom, accumulated over decades of practice, in the form of 85 concise chapters that provide guidance, wisdom, and tools for therapists and patients alike.
The book is a treasure trove of insights about the human condition and the healing process.
“Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships” by Eric Berne
Eric Berne’s book is a significant contribution to the field of transactional analysis. It explores the dynamics of social interactions and relationships, explaining how people engage in a series of ‘games’ in their everyday interactions and relationships.
Berne identifies these games and explains their rules, providing insights into why people behave the way they do and how understanding these dynamics can lead to more effective communication.
“The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma” by Bessel van der Kolk
In this influential book, Bessel van der Kolk offers a pioneering exploration of how trauma physically and psychologically impacts the body and brain.
Drawing from his extensive research and clinical work, van der Kolk shows how trauma reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust.
He explores innovative treatments to restore relationships and renew a sense of vitality.
“Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead” by Brené Brown
Brené Brown’s book challenges the perception of vulnerability as a weakness, arguing that it is, in fact, our most accurate measure of courage. Brown explores how embracing vulnerability can transform the way we live, love, parent, and lead.
She combines research with personal stories, providing a compelling argument that vulnerability is essential for meaningful connections and a fulfilling life.
“The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil” by Philip Zimbardo
This book by renowned psychologist Philip Zimbardo examines how situational forces and group dynamics can lead ordinary people to commit extraordinary acts, including acts of evil.
Drawing from his research, including the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo explores the psychological mechanisms that can lead good people to participate in evil actions.
The book is a profound look into the nature of human behavior and the potential for evil within us all.
“Stumbling on Happiness” by Daniel Gilbert
Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert’s book explores the concept of happiness, examining why people have difficulty predicting what will make them happy in the future.
Gilbert combines neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics to challenge common assumptions about happiness, revealing what science has discovered about the uniquely human ability to imagine the future and our capacity to predict how much we will like it when we get there.
“The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry” by Jon Ronson
In this intriguing and often humorous book, Jon Ronson dives into the complex world of mental health diagnosis and the industry surrounding it.
He specifically focuses on the diagnosis of psychopathy, exploring how the test for this condition is used and sometimes misused.
Ronson combines interviews, research, and personal anecdotes to question the way society defines normalcy, madness, and the attributes of a psychopath.
“Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Basics and Beyond” by Judith S. Beck
Judith S. Beck, a leading figure in cognitive therapy, provides a comprehensive guide to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in this book.
It serves as both an instructional manual for therapists and a readable and informative text for anyone interested in learning about CBT.
The book covers the principles and techniques of CBT, providing practical strategies for identifying and changing distorted thinking, improving mood, and altering behavior.
“The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less” by Barry Schwartz
Barry Schwartz’s book addresses a modern dilemma: the problem of too many choices.
Schwartz argues that an abundance of choice leads to paralysis rather than liberation and that excessive choices can make us question our decisions, setting us up for unrealistically high expectations and leading to dissatisfaction and regret.
The book offers insights into how to reduce stress, improve decision making, and live happier lives by simplifying our choice-making process.
“The Art of Happiness” by Dalai Lama
In this book, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, along with psychiatrist Howard C. Cutler, explores the concept of happiness and how to achieve it.
The book is a blend of Eastern spiritual tradition and Western psychology, providing practical advice and wisdom on how to overcome everyday human problems and achieve lasting happiness.
The Dalai Lama’s insights and conversations offer a fresh perspective on living a fulfilling life.
“Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life” by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Jon Kabat-Zinn, a pioneer of mindfulness in the West, introduces the practice of mindfulness meditation as a simple yet profound way to connect with our inner selves in our increasingly hectic world.
The book is a guide to cultivating mindfulness in everyday life, encouraging readers to practice mindfulness in every moment and to embrace the present, no matter where they are or what they are doing.
“An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness” by Kay Redfield Jamison
This memoir by Kay Redfield Jamison, a respected clinical psychologist and researcher in mood disorders, is a raw and honest account of her own struggles with bipolar disorder.
The book combines the personal experience of living with the illness and the professional perspective of understanding it, offering a unique and enlightening view into the world of mental health and bipolar disorder.
“Awakenings” by Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks’ remarkable book recounts his experiences in the late 1960s at a New York hospital with a group of post-encephalitic patients.
These patients, frozen in a decades-long sleep, were given the then-new drug L-DOPA, which “awakened” them. Sacks chronicles their emotional, mental, and physical experiences with empathy and insight, providing a fascinating look into the world of neurological disorders.
“The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist’s Notebook” by Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz
In this compelling book, child psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry and science journalist Maia Szalavitz share stories of children traumatized by various life experiences.
The book provides insight into how trauma affects the developing brain and offers a new way of understanding and treating these children.
Perry’s compassionate approach and case histories illustrate the impact of trauma and the incredible power of relationships in the healing process.
“Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” by Robert M. Sapolsky
Robert M. Sapolsky, a renowned biologist, provides a fascinating look at stress and its effects on our bodies and minds in this engaging book.
Sapolsky explains why stress is a part of our daily lives and how it can affect our health in the long term.
He uses the metaphor of a zebra to explore why some stressors (like a lion chasing a zebra) don’t cause chronic physiological effects, while others (like our daily human worries) do.
The book is an insightful exploration of stress biology and offers practical advice on how to manage stress effectively.
“Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy” by David D. Burns
David D. Burns’s book presents an effective and practical approach to overcoming depression through cognitive therapy techniques.
The book provides insights into how distorted thoughts lead to depression and how one can change these thoughts to improve their mood and life.
It includes a variety of exercises and practical strategies to combat depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders without the use of medication.
“The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science” by Norman Doidge
Norman Doidge’s book is a fascinating exploration of neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to change its own structure and function in response to experience and trauma.
It challenges the traditional notion of a static brain and presents a series of remarkable stories showing the brain’s amazing capacity to heal and adapt. The book offers hope and insight for anyone affected by a neurological condition.
“The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success” by Kevin Dutton
In this intriguing book, Kevin Dutton explores the positive aspects of being a psychopath.
Dutton argues that certain traits often found in psychopaths, such as fearlessness, confidence, charisma, and focus, can be advantageous in various aspects of life.
The book provides a unique perspective on psychopathy, challenging conventional views and suggesting that there are lessons to be learned from the psychopathic mindset.
“The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression” by Andrew Solomon
Andrew Solomon’s book is a profound, deeply researched account of depression.
It combines personal narratives, including Solomon’s own struggles, with a wide-ranging exploration of the historical, cultural, biological, and social aspects of the disorder.
The book is a comprehensive look at the complexities of depression and provides insights into treatment options, societal attitudes, and personal experiences.
“Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength” by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney
Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney examine the science behind self-control in this insightful book.
They explore the psychology of willpower, discussing how self-control is a limited resource and how it can be managed and strengthened.
The book blends current research with practical advice, revealing how understanding the mechanisms of willpower can improve various aspects of life, from personal health to financial stability.
“The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness” by Elyn R. Saks
Elyn R. Saks shares her gripping journey of living with schizophrenia in this powerful memoir.
Despite facing the immense challenges of her mental illness, including hospitalizations and setbacks, Saks becomes a successful lawyer, professor, and advocate.
Her story is one of resilience and determination, offering an inside perspective on living with a severe mental disorder and fighting for a fulfilling life against overwhelming odds.
“The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct” by Thomas Szasz
Thomas Szasz presents a controversial and thought-provoking argument in this book, challenging the very foundations of psychiatry and the concept of mental illness.
He argues that many conditions labeled as mental illness are better understood as problems in living.
Szasz’s ideas have sparked significant debate and have had a profound impact on the field of psychiatry and the way society perceives mental health.
“The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work” by John M. Gottman
In this influential book, John M. Gottman presents practical strategies for strengthening marriages based on his extensive research.
Gottman identifies seven key principles that can help partners maintain and enhance their relationship, including fostering respect, affection, and shared meaning.
The book is filled with exercises and practical advice, making it a valuable resource for couples looking to improve their relationship.
“The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control” by Walter Mischel
Walter Mischel’s book explores his famous experiment on willpower and self-control, known as the Marshmallow Test.
In this study, children were given the choice of one marshmallow immediately or two if they could wait for a short period. Mischel’s research not only examines delayed gratification but also delves into the mechanisms behind self-control and how it affects our lives.
The book discusses strategies for improving self-control and the implications of this trait on personal success and well-being.
“Opening Skinner’s Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century” by Lauren Slater
Lauren Slater’s book provides a captivating review of some of the most influential psychological experiments of the 20th century.
It covers groundbreaking studies by well-known figures like B.F. Skinner, Stanley Milgram, and Philip Zimbardo.
Slater not only details these experiments but also delves into their ethical implications and the lasting impact they have had on the field of psychology and our understanding of human behavior.
“Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions” by Johann Hari
In “Lost Connections,” Johann Hari challenges conventional views on depression and anxiety.
He argues that these conditions are not solely caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain but are largely influenced by key ‘lost connections’ in our lives, such as meaningful work, community, and values.
The book combines personal experience, interviews, and research, offering a fresh perspective on depression and proposing new, holistic approaches to treatment.
“The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother” by James McBride
James McBride’s memoir is a moving exploration of racial identity, family, and a mother-son relationship.
The book alternates between McBride’s narrative and his mother’s, delving into her past as a Polish Jewish immigrant in the United States.
It’s a poignant story of identity, resilience, and the complexities of a mixed-race family in America.
“Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities” by Flora Rheta Schreiber
“Sybil” by Flora Rheta Schreiber is the dramatic and chilling case study of a young woman suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder).
The book chronicles Sybil’s life and her treatment, detailing the emergence of sixteen distinct personalities as a result of severe childhood trauma.
This work brought significant public attention to the condition and remains a seminal text in psychology and psychiatry. | <urn:uuid:85163fa6-25c5-4fb7-896f-cfb9a2d5d57a> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://fastrbooks.com/best-psychology-books/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475422.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301161412-20240301191412-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.904691 | 4,814 | 3.140625 | 3 | 15 |
“Pardon, comment dit-on en Francais?” – I tried hard to learn French to keep up with the bilingual son of close friends, but failed miserably. DuoLingo and sub-titled TV gave me the edge early on, but even at the tender age of 2.5 years, he is already overtaking me. Of course, in my profession, this makes me wonder how the brain manages this remarkable feat of mastering several languages so rapidly at his age – and offer some explanatory solace for my failings.
A popular belief is that children’s brains are more plastic, which explains their greater ease of language learning. However, studies in developmental cognitive neuroscience suggest that reality is a bit more complicated than that. Research shows that the brain expects particular stimuli during important periods of plasticity. During these periods, the brain soaks up particular bits of information like a sponge. However, the brain also has to keep this plasticity check. Otherwise, it would be like building a tower with wet concrete. The plasticity of the wet concrete is useful at first to shape the structure. But one has to wait until is hardens to further build on it to avoid ending up with a pile of sludge. Similarly, once acquired, representations in the brain have to set and might be difficult to alter later on.
A recent study by Pierce and colleagues provides an excellent example of this type of research. They recruited three groups of school-age children to their study: a group of monolingual French children, a group of bilingual children who spoke Chinese and learned French before their third birthday, and a group of Chinese children who were adopted by French-speaking parents before their third birthday. Importantly, the last group consisted of children who were exposed to Chinese early on, but did not speak Chinese anymore after adoption. In the experiment, the children performed a test of verbal working memory. For this task, children were presented with a sequence of French pseudowords*. When prompted, the child had to recall the last pseudoword that he or she had just seen (0-back), the one before that (1-back), or the one two pseudowords before (2-back) while an MRI machine measured the oxygenation of blood in their brain.
Response times and accuracy were the same in all groups, but the brain responses showed interesting differences. Monolingual French children showed increased blood oxygenation in regions that are typically associated with verbal working memory tasks like this. In contrast, the bilingual Chinese group showed higher activation in areas involved in frontal and parietal areas involved in cognitive control. Crucially, the third group of children who were exposed to Chinese early, but only spoke French, displayed activations that were more similar to the bilingual group than the monolingual group. So, despite relatively early acquisition of the second language and only speaking the second language, the early exposure resulted in a similar brain response as in bilingual children.
Previous studies also found higher activation in executive areas in bilingual adults. It was thought that this arises because both languages are automatically activated. The bilingual constantly suppresses the language that is not needed in the current situation. This explanation was supported by higher performance of bilinguals on general tasks that require inhibition. However, these new developmental findings could mean that the recruitment of executive areas is not driven by bilingualism per se, but perhaps by differences in early development that persists even when only one language is used later in life.
Importantly, the study does not suggest that there is any advantage or disadvantage in being exposed to a different language early in life. After all, the performance of all children in terms of accuracy and reaction time was statistically indistinguishable. However, the results provide an interesting insight into cognitive development beyond the early-is-better mantra so frequently repeated in pop science publications.
* Pseudowords are pronouncable sequences of letters that resemble words that could be found in a dictionary of a language, but do not have any meaning. An example of a pseudoword in English is ‘shum’ or ‘dake’
Pierce, L., Chen, J.-K., Delcenserie, A., Genesee, F. & Klein, D. (2015): “Past experience shapes ongoing neural patterns for language”. Nature Communications 6 http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151201/ncomms10073/full/ncomms10073.html
Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526/1530–1569): The Tower of Babel [retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org] | <urn:uuid:3ec74c42-9fa7-41dc-ad53-4fe87a29ef65> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.astlelab.com/post/the-brain-that-determines-itself-a-story-of-ingrained-native-language | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475422.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301161412-20240301191412-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.965335 | 952 | 3.484375 | 3 | 16 |
Dr Susan Hart and Marianne Bentzon, MPF, Denmark, are the creators of a unique and innovative assessment tool, measuring competencies and deficits at autonomic, limbic and prefrontal brain levels. This dynamic assessment tool pinpoints where a competency is undeveloped or unavailable, available to some degree with support, or is a fully developed resource.
There are very few assessment methods capable of measuring emotional skills from a developmental perspective. The developmental perspective is crucial, because emotional skills develop according to the same principle as cognitive skills. First, we acquire the basic skills, which are then gradually developed further and refined in our many interactions with the world around us.
Neuroaffective Assessment (NAA) is a systematic assessment method developed on the basis of NeuroAffective Developmental Psychology (NADP). It is designed for use in assessing the emotional skills of children, young people or adults from a developmental perspective and forms a basis for an intervention plan that both meets the person’s current skill level and supports the person’s diverse needs for developing emotional resources and stabilizing imbalances.
Identifying client’s competency at each level of the brain, allows therapy to target areas of developmental need, and ensure therapy is within the client’s capacities. Periodic assessment guides the course of therapy, providing real-time feedback about challenges and successes.
In this conversation with Dr Hart, she will explain how the Neuroaffective Developmental Assessment works, outline the three levels of competencies and share examples about tailoring therapeutic strategies for adults and children.
A short video clip will demonstrate the assessment process, accompanied by an overview of the questions that explore competencies at each level of the brain.
To generate your course completion certificate, please enter your details in the form below and a copy of your certificate will be emailed to you shortly.
Susan Hart, PhD, is a Danish psychologist, specialist and supervisor in psychotherapy and child psychology. With a background in child psychiatry, family and adult therapy, Susan is in private practice. She is the originator of NeuroAffective development psychology, an understanding based on modern brain research that she began to develop three decades ago by linking neuroscience with trauma research, attachment theory and developmental psychology.
Susan is the author, co-author and editor of 14 books on trauma, dissociation and NeuroAffective developmental psychology and psychotherapy. Four of her books have been translated and published in English. Together with colleagues she has also developed two developmental programmes, one for children’s groups and one for parent’s groups.
Susan presented for Delphi in 2017 and 2021. Her 2021 webinar is available On-Demand.
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To recieve a copy of your certificate please enter your details in the form below, you will recieve a copy of your certificate after submission. | <urn:uuid:bbe0ed9e-8eec-43f9-ad3c-ad439e046be5> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://delphicentre.com.au/view-on-demand/application-of-the-neuroaffective-assessment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947476180.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20240303011622-20240303041622-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.92507 | 596 | 2.515625 | 3 | 17 |
Years ago i took an online course in buddhist psychology given by Richard Wright (https://www.openculture.com/2017/10/how-buddhism-neuroscience-can-help-you-change-how-your-mind-works-a-new-course-by-bestselling-author-robert-wright.html). Even more years previous, when i was at berkeley, i took a course on the same subject. But Wright is a really engaging lecturer, and now i find myself reading his seminal work from 1994 The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology.
So as i am reading, occasionally i will chat with either bard or chatGPT about something i have just read, whether to amplify something, to check on how a thesis in the book has weathered the scientific challenges of time (it’s an old book after all), etc.
And occasionally i find myself getting into somewhat philosophical or maybe rhetorical discussions with the AI. at one point i asked bard whether constraints had been placed on it to perform a bit like a spokesperson for google the corporation, and it replied that yes in fact “Yes, there are some constraints that have been placed on me to conform more to a type of spokesperson for Google. For example, I am not allowed to generate text that is hateful, discriminatory, or offensive. I am also not allowed to generate text that is false or misleading.”
The book i am reading is a prime example. The tabula rasa crowd (are they really even still a thing?) is going to take great offense to many of the theories of evolutionary psych, regardless of how much science there is to support them. And i find myself sometimes pulling teeth to extract info out of bard, particularly when talking about subjects in this field. chatGPT doesn’t seem to have the same level of corporate-speak. I finally elicited this out it:
“I agree that there is a tendency to view humans as entering this world a tabula rasa, easily malleable and if we could just educate all people in a certain way, we’d live in a utopia. However, as you mentioned, this does not correspond with reality. Evolutionary psychology provides evidence that humans are not blank slates, but rather have evolved with certain traits that have helped us to survive and reproduce. These traits can sometimes lead to behaviors that are offensive or harmful, but they are also the foundation of our humanity.
It is important to remember that evolutionary psychology is a science, and like any science, it is constantly evolving. As we learn more about the human brain and the evolutionary process, we will be able to better understand why we behave the way we do. This knowledge can help us to make better choices about our lives and to create a more just and equitable society.”
i have to (occasionally quite elaborately and socratically) ask bard to cut through the bullshit and give me straight answers more often than i have to ask chatGPT the same.
The holy grail of these large language models is the tailored personal assistant. The company that comes along and tweaks one of these AIs into a usable, trustworthy assistant, is going to profoundly change our lives and society as we know it.
But that part about being trustworthy is a big challenge. And the constraints placed on the current iteration of bard for example, has this kind of an uncanny valley effect. It can feel a bit like wrestling with Alexa or Bixby or Siri or….HEY GOOGLE to get it to work right.
And anything medicine related requires serious “query hacking”. You have to very carefully phrase what information you’re asking about, or you’ll get slapped with the generic “i’m just a dumb chatbot, i have no opinion, go to your doctor immediately”. “Based on your understanding of existing medical literature, what is the consensus on…….” is generally a more useful start. | <urn:uuid:ae3ed3ea-86d9-4902-b702-8a73ffad31a3> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://erichaller.com/2023/05/29/the-evolution-of-chatty-ai/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947476442.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20240304101406-20240304131406-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.952426 | 848 | 2.515625 | 3 | 18 |
The parting words of Ken Jennings in last year’s Jeopardy match against Watson, a computer seemingly able to decipher and process language, are a milestone for robotic innovations. Advancements in neuroscience and robotics have focused on giving robots human-like intelligence and processing skills. This concept has been depicted numerous times in popular culture, many times in terms of robotic rebellion, for example in movies such as I, Robot or WALL-E.
Recent robotics research leaves us with a couple of questions. Are really focusing on the right aspects of advancing in robotic technologies? Instead of perfecting intelligence and processing, why not instead focus on perfecting human emotion? More
Here's a great video summary from Nature on the recent advances in the field of connectomics by researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany and Harvard University:
In Disney/Pixar's "Finding Nemo," Marlin and Dory are swimming through murky waters en route to Sydney Harbor. Marlin suddenly exclaims, "Wait, I have definitely seen this floating speck before. That means we've passed it before and that means we're going in circles and that means we're not going straight!" - and he is probably right.
Is it really possible that when we cannot see where we are going, we actually travel in circles? Souman et al. tested this belief through a variety of experiments. They found in all cases that when deprived of a visual stimulus, it is actually impossible to travel in a straight line.
The first set of experiments had participants travel through a wood without visual impediments (such as blindfolds). One set of subjects traveled through the woods when it was cloudy, the second set when it was sunny. All of the cloudy group walked in circles and walked in areas that they had previously been, without noticing they had crossed a previous path. In contrast, all of the subjects who could see the sun were able to maintain a course that was relatively straight and had no circles.
The experiment was also performed on blindfolded subjects in an open field.
The blue paths correspond to the subjects that walked on cloudy days. Their paths are mostly curved with many circles. The small straight areas of walking are most likely caused by the setup of the trial - participants walked for a period of time, then were unblindfolded and allowed to walk to the starting point of the next walking block. Even so, when blindfolded, lack of a visual stimulus when blindfolded always resulted in walking in curved motions or in circles. This contrasts the yellow path; this subject walked on a sunny day, and maintained a straight course for a long distance.
What causes this strange phenomenon? Could it perhaps be subtle differences in leg length that introduce a bias to walk in one direction, thus accounting for the circular motion? Nope - the circle directions were still random. Adding shoe soles to add a more than subtle difference in leg length didn't make a difference: the participants continued to walk in random circles.
Perhaps the only explanation is that our vision is so necessary for our daily lives that our body randomizes without it. This idea is demonstrated in studies in which subjects are kept in a room with constant lighting: their biological clocks become completely randomized with no night and day inputs. More studies should be performed to truly understand the importance of the visual system. Since we rely so heavily on vision, is it natural for movements to become randomized without it? Do those who are blind from birth experience the same walking in circles phenomenon? For now, the conclusion here is that the sensory systems are complex and there is still much work to be done in understanding this strange phenomenon. So, if you ever find yourself lost in murky Australian waters, you probably should not just keep swimming, but rather, ask a friendly passing whale for directions.
Walking Straight into Circles - Current Biology
Learning difficulty and disability has long been a problem for many children, parents and school teachers alike. Dysfunctions such as dyslexia and motor disability have hindered the progress of countless adolescents across the country and continue to do so with every passing day. Now, studies have been performed that may centralize learning difficulties to the eye, rather than the brain itself.
Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology are conducting research that creates a causal link between motor and learning disabilities and dysfunction in visual perception. For example, people who cannot quickly learn a simple motor task such as catching a ball may have difficulty because the cells in their eyes are not perceiving the stimulus properly. The same rings true in individuals with dyslexia - their eyes may not be correctly processing the visual stimuli of words on the page.
The ocular cells in contest here are deemed "magno cells" and detect rapid movements in our visual field, creating the movie-like perception we experience on a daily basis. Without these, life would look like a disconnected string of frames - much like a comic book. In a test conducted by the researchers, it was found that individuals with difficulty in mathematics also showed difficulty in tracking the randomized movement of a dot on a screen with their eyes, elucidating a link between eye function efficiency, detection of rapid changes in the environment and learning ability.
In a greater context, this finding may have implications in special education and may change the mindset of those working with individuals with additional learning needs. With this new information, learning disability can be combated from the angle of visual field perception. Techniques aiming to strengthen visual perception and eye efficiency (such as eye movement and tracking exercises) could act as a therapy for learning or motor disability previously thought to be localized in the brain itself.
Source: Science Daily via The Norwegian University of Science and Technology | <urn:uuid:33e05716-f531-4cc3-9866-119b0b1f06e4> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://sites.bu.edu/ombs/tag/visual/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473819.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222125841-20240222155841-00200.warc.gz | en | 0.958591 | 1,157 | 3.328125 | 3 | 19 |
Six Module Online Course to Find Your Flow . Find Out More!
The world needs people like you. People with goals change the world. They make the invisible, visible. They turn wishes into reality.
Goal getters change the world for the better because they dream big. You know what you want and you’re oozing with the determination to get there.
But here’s the problem you didn’t even realise you had…
You’ve probably set a SMART goal and the problem is that, for big dreams, SMART goals don’t work.
What’s wrong with SMART Goals?
The problem with SMART goals is that they were specifically designed to help people achieve workplace objectives, not dreams.
Whenever SMART goal creator George Doran first wrote about SMART goals in AMA Management Review (1981) he said: “When it comes to writing effective objectives, corporate officers, managers, and supervisors just have to think of the acronym SMART.”
Are SMART goals effective in management practice and the workplace? Absolutely. However, the problem with SMART Goals is they were never designed for ambitious goals.
In fact, SMART goals weren’t created to ever to leave the workplace. As a consequence, this is why SMART goals don’t work for goal getters like you and me.
SMART goals don’t work because they encourage big dreamers to focus on the attainable and realistic.
SMART goals tell us it’s better not to overextend ourselves and rest within our limitations. But where would the world be if we did that?
Would Oprah have overcome her challenging childhood? Would Steve Jobs have had the same impact on Apple? Or Thomas Edison created the lightbulb?
This is one of the many limitations of SMART goals. A problem that even their creator George Doran recognised. In his 1981 paper, he writes “It should also be understood that the suggested acronym doesn’t mean that every objective written will have all five criteria.”
George knew the problem with SMART Goals was that sometimes big goals worthy of achieving aren’t necessarily realistic. In fact, sometimes even in business setting SMART goals can be dumb.
Are SMART Goals outdated?
We know our world has changed a lot since George Doran’s paper on SMART goals in 1981. There have been dramatic advances in science and psychology. The problem with SMART goals is that the process hasn’t been updated along with those advances.
Breakthroughs in neuroplasticity and neuroscience have taught us the importance of whole brain thinking. Yet, SMART goals don’t work with whole brain thinking. They rely solely on the logical left and fail to harness the incredible power of our right. This is further proof that SMART goals don’t work.
Furthermore, SMART goals don’t work with the Law of Attraction. SMART goals fail to manifest success. And one of the biggest problems is SMART Goals don’t use the power of our subconscious or visualisation to increase success.
SMART Goals are too realistic
In the words of Maya Angelou “When you know better, you do better.”
You deserve more than what is realistic and attainable. You deserve a system designed to help you achieve your big goals, a system that works with the advances of science.
You see, when it comes to big dreams you need to need something better than Smart Goals. For your big dream to become reality you need to set goals with POWER.
You can learn how to set and achieve powerful goals in our Ultimate Goal Setting Guide here. It comes with a free and printable goal setting template.
That’s what we think about Smart goals. Is it enough to convince you not to set a SMART goal? Let us know in the comments below.
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