问:
Techniques to combat sexism at school level
I am from India, and if you take a glance at the daily news you will see a lot of gruesome gangrapes and murders. Nirbhaya,  Kathua rape case and the Hathras gangrape
There are other such incidents all around the globe.
Unfortunately, the masses in India are still loyal believers in sexism and all the "rules and regulations on women "it entails.

And unfortunately the sex education taught to us at middle school and high school mostly focuses on that these changes as puberty are normal, and why it is wiser to not get pregnant at the age of 15 years. Various contraceptive methods ,venereal diseases .A very short ,glossed over mention of sexual crimes and no explanation why it's wrong.

There are many ways proposed to change the rape culture and in bringing the rapists and victims to justice ,like police reforms, law enforcements , death penalty, fast track courts for child rapists.
Even school workshops, seminars have been conducted, along with workplace training against sexual abuse.
But sex and its related topics are still seen as a taboo topic and the school centered education isn't very effective.

Coming from a place where non consensual sex is glorified and pop culture depict it too often,I know that rape is about both power and sex. What I think could be a step towards eradicating this is by teaching the real life stories of rape survivors and how they bounced back, just like the biography of any famous person.

I know that there are many informational videos available on the internet, but many parents are still against such content, for fear of "polluting" their innocent children's minds. Moreover, many parts of rural India don't have much access to the internet.

So my main question is that have such approach to introduce sexual assault into literature tried out before? Or any other methods? how have these worked out? What are the underlying basis for such methods?

If any relevant research articles are available, please provide links. Eager to read up any articles.

P.S:I know that very few users are from India and I didn't find any specific Stack Exchange site for teaching methodology in general, so I am posting this question in this site.


问:
Can memory span be increased with training?
It is known that the average person can only hold 7 ± 2 items in their short term memory.

Can this number be increased with training without the use of mnemonics (for example the major system or the method of loci)? What is the consensus of possible improvements of memory span (or digit span) by training?

I only found this paper, whose results

... support that working memory is limited by a fixed number of items.

ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0


问:
Is practice effect on matrix-based IQ tests largely attributable to question feedback?
I took the TRI-52, which is strongly correlated with other cognitive ability tests. When I first took it, I was tired, my mind was foggy, and my ADD was acting up -- I got a score of 116. The following day, I took it while well rested & with improved concentration, and got a score of 125. I did not receive any feedback on any of the questions, so I've no idea which questions I got right or wrong; this might mitigate the impacts of the practice effect. Which is a more accurate representation of my score? My first attempt, even though I took it in suboptimal conditions, or my second attempt, which might be susceptible to practice effect?</p>


问:
Research on the psychopathology of rapists
Since not all sexual assaulters are psychopaths or sadists as the media often chalks them up to ,there is scope to at least mend the thinking of some of the rapists, or any which haven't yet given in to the temptation.

I have also read up a bit on different types rapists. Most alarming are juvenile rapists and their reasoning.
There are short films such as this
I am trying to understand this topic more deeply,as a means to educate people as I asked here.

Any further research on this topic and related articles with links are deeply appreciated.


问:
A new kind of optical illusion?
By accident, I stumbled over this optical illusion:

It is not a strong one, and maybe you don't experience it, but I see the size of the circles in the second last row decrease from left to right. I don't see this in all the other rows.

Maybe it's only the illusion of an illusion, but in case it's a real illusion (which you experience, too) I wonder:

Does it belong to a class of optical illusions which already is quite
well understood? If so: Under which name and where can I learn more
about this class of optical illusions? If not so: Has anyone an idea
how to explain it?

Note that the illusion may depend on the angle of view. I have the impression it does but did not investigate it systematically. I also may depend on the size of the image - on small displays it might not "work".

Title: A new kind of optical illusion?


问:
What is the difference between a clinical inventory and personal inventory?
I was looking at different phyc products online and notice that some inventories are called personal inventories and some are called clincal. This made me wonder if this was just the name the publishing company gave them or if these were really two different classes of inventory and also if the latter, what is the difference? The example I came across was the Minnesota Multi-phasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI) instrument. Please note that I am asking this about psychological intruments as whole subject rather than these specific intruments.</p>


问:
Retest-Reliability of index "Working Memory" in Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV)
I am desperately researching the retest-reliability of the index "working memory" in the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV). Unfortunately, I don't have the original manual at hand and the internet sources I found just report ranges for all indexes, i.e. here.
I would be glad, if someone could post the retest-reliability value here and — if existing — an accessible source.</p>


问:
Is there any correlation between conection and function?
I have been searching why different functions exist in even a similar structure cortex.

The first reason is differences in cortical neuron density.

The neuronal density contour plot (Fig. 1D) reveals the approximate boundaries of V1, V2, and other extrastriate areas and makes it possible to distinguish somatosensory cortex from surrounding areas. (Collins, et. al., 2010).

And then, naturally, the second reason is differences in cortical connections.
For example, it might to have a paper that the division by connectome matches that of Broadman. However, I couldn't find the paper.

Please let me know if I've missed something, or if the connectome itself is not yet mature enough to do it.

References

Collins, C. E., Airey, D. C., Young, N. A., Leitch, D. B., & Kaas, J. H. (2010). Neuron densities vary across and within cortical areas in primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(36), 15927-15932. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1010356107


问:
What are the benefits or pitfalls of including an aggregate score (sum or average) for 3 measures of well-being?
I am asking this question to assist with my work in the setting described below, and am  working on the below mentioned spreadsheet as I write this. I thought this could be an interesting question to get others' thoughts about the benefits or pitfalls of an aggregate score.

Background: My colleagues and I are measuring three aspects of weekly well-being or functioning among our clients who are brain injury survivors. We are doing this as part of the weekly case note or SOAP note process. We chose three measures of weekly coping (non-scientifically and without reference to prior known work, measures, or conceptual frameworks--we just thought these would work for our purposes). We did this because we wanted to have a way to keep track of these clients' general mental well-being during Covid-19 Zoom classes (vs. prior in-person classes when we did not collect this data and when they were presumably under less stress). The 3 aspects we are rating each week are: Mood, Coping, and Engagement. Our observed scores on these are being recorded weekly in an excel spreadsheet. 1 = poor/low, 2=fair/moderate, 3=good/high, 4=excellent/very high.

Question: What are the benefits or pitfalls of having an aggregate score, such as an average (or sum)?

I am looking for clinical opinions/thoughts on this and/or input from those with more measurement experience.

At first blush, I am thinking that the amount of variance or overlap between mood, coping, and engagement, plus the fact that people may score high on one but low on another, may not warrant drawing any kind of insight from an aggregate score. That said, I tried averaging one person's scores across a number of weeks and it seemed to be useful in that I could see that her lower average week was a week that she also had a cold, for instance.


问:
Are well-written warnings more likely to be heeded?
I claim that "warnings are more likely to be read and taken seriously, if they are well-written, without errors".  Is this claim supported by psychological science?

Like, a warning on a video showing risky extreme sports activities, to not try to imitate. If the warning is poorly written in English, is it more likely to be ignored and not taken seriously, and thus less effective? That is my hunch, but is it really supported by science?


问:
What is the size, volume, dimensions etc. of the central lateral nucleus in the anterior intralaminar thalamus in humans?
I have been searching extensively on the internet and journal articles for the size, volume, dimensions, etc. of the central lateral nucleus in the anterior intralaminar thalamus in humans but have not been to find any information? Could anybody point me to a source that contains this information or anything relevant (e.g., about the anterior intralaminar nuclei in general)?

Thanks!


问:
Connectome Datasets Related to Consciousness
I am a mathematics student currently looking for connectome datasets specifically related to consciousness research. I have mainly looked at the following sites:

https://neurodata.io/

https://db.humanconnectome.org

But, either I am terrible at searching, or there does not seem to be much there, or the pure graphs are not available, and I'd have to construct them myself from MRI data, which is out of scope for my project.

I'm interested in datasets in the form of functional connectivity networks (in some standard format like .graphml or just adjacency matrices), specifically related to consciousness research such as DoC, sleep, or possibly on mindfulness meditation.

I should add that my knowledge of connectomics and MRI data is very limited.

Question(s): Could and would anyone refer me to databases or research where such datasets might possibly be obtained?


问:
How would we classify it when an adult developed a neurocognitive disorder leading to learning disability?
Quote from DSM-5:

C. Onset of intellectual and adaptive deficits during the developmental period
(Page 33: Diagnostic criteria for Intellectual Disability [Intellectual Development Disorder]).

[...] In acquired forms, the onset may be abrupt following an illness such as meningitis or encephalitis or head trauma occurring during the developmental period.
(Page 38: Development and Course)


问:
Confusion about Marr's "computational level" and computational neuroscience
I'm writing my masters thesis in the field of computational neuroscience (using a spiking model). One of my supervisors is a cognitive scientist, who likes to use Marr's 3 levels of analysis.
Marr's 'computational level' is the highest of the three, describing 'what does the system do?'. Confusingly, it seems to me that the field of computational neuroscience actually operates at Marr's lowest level (the 'hardware' level), and ironically, it is actually cognitive models that operate at Marr's computational level.
How do I reconcile/explain this in my paper? Am I missing something or am I correct that this is confusing/contradictory?</p>


问:
Interpreting FURA depolarization/calcium assay
I did a depolarization experiment that compared a mock-treated cell line with a treated line. One part of the results are easy to interpret: Treatment resulted in lower 350/380 ratios along the length of the response curve. That's easy, the treatment probably reduced calcium transport. However, in addition to this, the treatment also significantly shifted each inflection in the curve earlier in number of cycles. How could this be interpreted?</p>


问:
Why is the effectiveness of treatments for abusers and offenders low?
When there is an abuse happening, usually the perspectives of each side are:

Police and social worker: How to protect the victim?

The abuser: How to get out of trouble?

These goals are different, but not incompatible. The process of getting the children out of harm's way might involve court-ordered parenting classes, anger management, or other skills-building; it might involve supervised visits or group therapy; there are all kinds of things that would potentially raise their awareness, give them other options, model reasonable parenting styles, etc. However, even though the abuser does learn that acting that way will have legal consequences, there is still a possibility that they might never learn awareness that what they do is harmful (said by a clinical social worker). This reflects in the effectiveness of batterers' intervention programs, and the effectiveness of sex offender treatment programmes: the former is "modesty", and the latter is even slightly reverse.

I wonder why this happened. My hypothesis is that after being released they don't live in a healthy, respectful environment? I don't see a single instance of mentioning this in any material I read, even though I admit I haven't read much. In addition, I think friends and family of abusers may have developed learned helplessness in supporting and intervening bad behaviors, so they just turn a blind eye on them.

An example from that social worker: there is a man who had been an abused child, bounced through jails and psychiatric hospitals his whole life, but ended up in a nursing home environment where everyone cared for him. When he arrived, he would hit people out of the blue because it's what he expected to happen to him. With firm boundaries and a gentle environment, he stopped hitting people. But he had low intellectual functioning and a lifetime in the system, so he couldn't engage in hypothetical or multi-stage thinking about the consequences of his actions. He had to have a changed environment because he couldn't change himself.

Is this correct?


问:
Experience organised by concepts - relevant science?
It seems like experience is organised by the abstract concepts or categories that we know - the more we know, the more we perceive. The world is an undifferentiated whole, and we use concepts and categories to make sense of it in a way that seems pre-rational and not necessarily entirely verbal, but for sure to a high degree facilitated by language. Where my daughter sees "a bunch of guitars", I see one electrical bass, two stratocasters, one telecaster, one semi-hollow ES-335 copy, one acoustic and one classical guitar.

I think most people have the experience that as we learn something new, suddenly we see things in the world that we didn't see before. We have learned a new way of looking at the world, of organising our sensory input into new categories, and we therefore see things that we couldn't see before.

I have no doubt that this phenomenon has been studied extensively in cognitive science, and I would like some references for where I could read more about this. I'm interested in the way that our concepts influence our experience and how this leads to habits that make us take our concepts as truth.

My main purpose is to use such scientific literature to support an argument that diagnostic categories in psychiatry aren't "true" (i.e. natural categories) even if they "feel" true to us clinicians (I work as a psychiatrist), because as least to some extent, they're the result of having been socialised into a certain way of organising our clinical experience.


问:
Is there a reading comprehension theory that suggests simple reading questions are best solved via simple text analysis, and vice versa?
My main field is not Linguistics/reading comprehension so what I am asking might sound a bit silly or not make a lot of sense. My question could certainly be better-phrased.

Is there a theory in reading comprehension that says something like: "The simple reading questions are best answered via simple text analyses, whereas more difficult reading questions are best answered with more complex text analyses"?

I think this intuitively makes sense, since for example, if a person over-analyzes (over-thinks through) the simple reading questions from Grade 1 classes, such a practice can introduce unnecessary complications in deriving the correct answer for the questions.

PS: I guess by saying "elementary (easy/simple) reading questions" vs. "advanced (difficult) reading questions", I am referring more to their readability/difficulty as depicted in the English classes of different grade levels. For example, the reading questions of the Kindergarten/Grade 1 classes are considered much easier than the ``advanced'' reading questions that are from college-level English classes.

PPS: I think I need to be more precise on what I mean by simple text analysis'' and complex text analysis''. When school teachers try to teach students on how to analyze texts, they refer to the theory like the "three levels of reading" (literal, inferential, critical). In this context, simple text analysis'' would be the analyses that focus on literal comprehension whereas complex text analysis'' would be the analyses that focus on critical comprehension.

Thank you, :S


问:
Is it possible to become less reliant on emotional reasoning?
This article in Psychology Today discusses problems associated with 'emotional reasoning'.  The article also proposes the use of several psychological therapies intended to overcome and/or reduce the impact of emotional reasoning.

Questions:

Is emotional reasoning a real thing?

Are the proposed therapies efficacious for mitigating the negative aspects of emotional reasoning?

Is it possible to change someone’s beliefs without using counter-emotional tactics (i.e. generate a counter emotion to change the person's belief)?


问:
Single neuron dominates for all input patterns using STDP in simple LIF SNN
I have been reading latley on SNN and decided to try and implement myself some simple simulation.
So I wrote a simple MATLAB simulation using simple LIF current based model and I try using STDP to classify unsupervised MNIST data such as here:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncom.2015.00099/full#

(So, images converts to poisson spike train by intensity)

I'm using simple window based STDP updates and most of the times I'm getting that a single same neuron in the hidden layer spikes for any input sample that I feed in (i.e. only neuron #50 spikes for any given input).

I would really appreciate if anyone can clarify the following for me:

Is there a way to normalize/regularize the weights updates such that this neuron dominance won't happen?

Any general tips on how to monitor/verify the STDP convergence? max/min of weights? positive STDP update larger than negative STDP update?

Again, would really appreciate any help.
Thanks


问:
Is there a neurological explanation of acquired tastes?
People acquire tastes through exposure. This includes the "mere exposure effect" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect). Also, music heard more often are more likely to sound pleasing to the ear (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374342/).

While there is ample behavioral evidence of such "familiarity increases preference* phenomenon, I have failed to find clear neurological explanations. Are there neurological explanations?


问:
Explanation for the "spinal energy" and other "Kundalini awakening" symptoms?
Lots of people have been sharing first-hand reports of their personal experience of the so-called "Kundalini awakening". The following are a few illustrative anecdotes:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
taken from YouTube and the subreddit on Kundalini.

Marjorie Woollacott, PhD and professor of Neuroscience and Human Physiology at the University of Oregon, has devoted part of her time to the research of the "Kundalini awakening" phenomenon. In her recent paper titled Investigation of the phenomenology, physiology and impact of spiritually transformative experiences - kundalini awakening (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32753262/), she makes the following claim:

The rationale for this study was that though there are many scientific articles published on stress reduction and increased mental function related to meditation, yoga and other tools that come from spiritual traditions, peer-reviewed research on energetic or kundalini awakenings is rare. This may be due to the phenomenology of this awakening, which does not easily fit into the current materialist scientific paradigm. Nor is it easily amenable to traditional means of scientific experimentation and measurement.

To understand why Woollacott claims this, let's look at the typical symptoms of the "Kundalini awakening" syndrome.

The most frequent and distinctive one appears to be the feeling of an "energy" or "electric current" moving up the spine toward the crown of the head. Here is a quote about this from Woollacott's paper:

Energetic awakenings are often accompanied by physiological experiences. Historical texts [6,7] and modern research [22] concur that as part of the awakening and transformative process, many individuals feel energy moving up the spine toward the crown of the head, or centered in the heart. This is frequently associated with inner sounds or an experience of radiant light, a sense of joy, or a sense of deep interconnectedness with others.

The Wikipedia article on Kundalini seconds this:

The Kuṇḍalinī experience is frequently reported to be a distinct feeling of electric current running along the spine.[8][9][10]

Other symptoms and results of the "Kundalini awakening" syndrome are summarized in the following tables and figures from the paper:

Tables

Figures

Other people holding reputable credentials who acknowledge the "Kundalini awakening" as a real phenomenon are Bonnie Greenwell (PhD) and Lawrence Edwards (PhD). Here are a couple of interviews with them: 1, 2.

Also, here is an interview Marjorie Woollacott gave to Jeffrey Mishlove, in which they discuss different aspects of the Kundalini awakening and the main conclusions of Woollacott's paper.

Bonnie Greenwell wrote a PhD dissertation titled "KUNDALINI: A STUDY OF EASTERN AND WESTERN PERSPECTIVES AND EXPERIENCES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOTHERAPISTS" (available here). She describes the phenomenon as follows:

This dissertation explores in depth the experience of kundalini awakening, a complex spiritual, psychic and physiological phenomenon which may occur in individuals spontaneously or as a result of certain spiritual practices or therapeutic processes, and discusses theories and methods which may be useful to transpersonal psychotherapists who have clients involved in this experience. People are commonly misdiagnosed and inappropriately treated by therapists and physicians when having this experience.

The dissertation identifies seven major ways in which kundalini phenomena is manifest, usually over a period of years---samadhi experiences; pranic activity which includes a wide range of body movements, vibrations, and temperature changes; spontaneous production of yogic postures or hand movements, yogic breaths, mantras or other sounds and symbols; sudden apparent physical illnesses, pains and eating difficulties; emotional upheavals, often accompanied by fear of death or insanity; seeing visions or hearing inner voices and sounds; and acquiring of psychic abilities or other occult powers.

The study reviews classical yogic literature on kundalini, and presents facts and commentaries on 23 case histories, 14 from Eastern and Western literature and 9 obtained from in-depth interviews with Western people who appeared to experience kundalini awakening.

QUESTION: What is a scientific explanation for the symptoms of the "Kundalini awakening" syndrome, such as the feeling of an "energy" moving up along the spine, vibrations, electric currents, heat, euphoria / bliss, spontaneous yogic postures, among others?


问:
What is the medullary bulb transition?
Does "medullary bulb transition" make sense in neuroanatomy internattionally or is it a Brazilian invention and there is no term like that in English? What is then the difference of the "medullary bulb transition" and the "medullo-pontine junction"?

I am trying to translate an MRI report for social security reasons.

It reads:

Discovered a lesion affecting supra and infratentorial compartments to the right of the midline, measuring about 6,4 x 5,4 x 4,0 cm, showing hyposignal on T1 and heterogeneous signal on T2, with cystic areas and highlight markedly heterogeneous by the contrast, mass effect of which deforms the brainstem and the IV ventricle, contralateraly bypassing there structures and causing an insinuation of the cerebellar tonsils toward the foramen magnum, compressing the medullary bulb transition. It is observed that the basilar artery and a portion of the right vertebral artery intracranial transit are wrapped by the lesion.

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEA_enGR828GR828&sxsrf=ALeKk026hx-mS3zBxB_mzf3yskD-wp6KyQ%3A1604840622814&ei=ruynX8qfMY7MaOrLvsAH&q=%22Medullary+Bulb+Transition%22&oq=%22Medullary+Bulb+Transition%22&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIHCCMQrgIQJzoECAAQR1DDKFjCQGD8QWgAcAJ4AIAB3QGIAfkCkgEFMC4xLjGYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6yAEIwAEB&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjKrvmZgfPsAhUOJhoKHeqlD3gQ4dUDCA0&uact=5

A google search shows that there are only 5 papers (or even less as some are doubles) in English language with this term from University of São Paulo and some other Spanish speaking Professors.

Just an educated guess.
An exam states

causing an insinuation of the cerebellar tonsils towards the foramen
magnum, compressing the medullary bulb transition

How confident would you be that the "medullary bulb transition" is the transition bettween spinal cord (from medula spinalis) and medulla (same times called bulb) inside the foramen magnum (a kind of medullo-bulbar juction)?

OwnerDisplayName: George Ntoulos

Title: What is the medullary bulb transition?


问:
Biological Neural Network Modification to Unlearn Understandings
Lets assume that a person grows up thinking that religion X is true religion. So he builds up a profile in ones head and when notion of religion X appears the neurons that is related are fired, giving sensation of God and related stuff.

Lets us also assume that later in life he learns that religion X was not correct, then does "realization" of this fact happens by modifying old neural networks or a new profile is created for religion X and old profile gets deleted?

In other words do neurons associated with sensation that religion X was true religion "modified" or a new network is created giving a new sensation that religion X was not true religion along!

In my general understanding modification of old network could be challenging assuming that they are surrounded by other neurons associated with other stuff, a certain modification by having more or less neurons would result in borrowing neighboring neurons and wiring them to create a modification or loosing some connections to create a modification, which doesn't seem efficient.


问:
Deriving Fourier transform of auto correlation function from probability distribution
I am self studying a book "Neuronal Dynamics" https://neuronaldynamics.epfl.ch/online/index.html

And I found this very challenging to derive this from p_0

https://neuronaldynamics.epfl.ch/online/Ch7.S5.html#Ch7.E45

Until (7.37) was OK, but after that seems really difficult.

Anyone knows how this equation is derived?


问:
Why is a low threshold necessary for generating an action potential?
On page 32 of "Principles of Neural Science," it sates that, "...the initial segment of the axon has the highest density of voltage-sensitive Na+ channels and therefore the lowest threshold for generating an action potential..."</p>


问:
From the following paragraph, why would the input or the initial condition not matter in the output?
On pg.37 of “Principles of Neural Science,” they state that “...in systems with feedback circuits it is the dynamic activity of the system that determines the outcome of computation, not inputs or initial conditions” (37). What do they exactly mean in this sentence?
I apologize for the follow-up question, but how would a feedback connection even look in a neural network?</p>


问:
To what extent are testimonies of "spiritual experiences" reliable?
After reading/watching hundreds of testimonies of people sharing their own personal spiritual experiences, and after analyzing how different skeptics react to these testimonies, I've come to the conclusion that there are two extremes that in my opinion should be equally avoided: 1) believing 100% of what a testimony says and 2) dismissing 100% of what a testimony says. The reason is that testimonies typically present an account of personal experiences entangled with the individual's own interpretation of those experiences. The experiences themselves, devoid of any interpretation, are the "raw data" of the testimony, whereas the interpretation parts are biased by the individual's previous beliefs.

Take for example a person relaying their own personal experience of the Kundalini awakening. The "raw data" of the testimony would be the experiences themselves, e.g. feeling an intense vibration/electric current running up the spine, feeling bliss, ecstasy, etc. On the other hand, claims such as "I opened my heart chakra", "I awakened the Kundalini energy", etc. would be part of the individual's own interpretation of those experiences.

My current personal opinion is that testimonies can provide valuable insights if we are careful enough to distinguish between these two aspects. However, I'm saying this based on the assumptions that people are generally 1) honest and 2) more or less reliable when it comes to reporting raw personal experiences, e.g. their emotions, their symptoms, their physical sensations, what they heard, what they saw, etc. (again, making sure to remove as much "biased interpretations" from the reports as possible and just keeping the "raw experience" parts).

Are my assumptions accurate? Are there psychological studies discussing the reliability of witnesses when it comes to reporting their own personal experiences? What about reporting their own "spiritual experiences"? Under which circumstances are testimonies of spiritual experiences more reliable?

* Note: a possibly related question for the interested reader.


问:
Sleep/Dream and Logical Decisions
I discovered that sleep tends to mitigate the 'stress' that one gets by trying to deal with logical problems like work related tasks and general daily life tasks. Does sleep do this by removing the tendency for human to think logically as when we see dreams, they are highly illogical such as "fork made with orange peels!"

Is it the fact that in sleep the parts associated with stress i.e. logical reasoning part of the brain is being shutoff that results in weird dream contents?

Title: Sleep/Dream and Logical Decisions


问:
What is the study design for 2 samples measured at different times that can be considered independent?
I am trying to figure out the name for a design study in the following scenario. Imagine a hospital where patients with a certain condition (say bacteria infection) are treated with a certain medication (say antibiotic A). At some point in time, there was a decision to change the antibiotic used to treat the condition to another medication (Antibiotic B). A sample were drawn from time1 (with use of Antibiotic A) and another sample from time2 (after change to Antibiotic B). The samples can be considered independent and differences can be investigated using either Independent samples t-test or chi-square. I am not sure what type of study design this is:

The following are my thoughts so far:

Causal-Comparative or Ex post facto [but since I can change the treatment (antibiotic), I am not sure this is right].

Quasi-experimental - My doubt with this is that this is an observational study and the change in practice (antibiotics) was not due to experimentation but change in operation.

A combination of retrospective and prospective study as stated here, however, the page and every example of this that I saw seems to suggest that this design is used on THE SAME cohort.

I saw a question about similar design here but there was no mention of the study design.

I also asked this question here and the responses seem to be between natural-experimental and quasi-experimental. However, I am not sure it is either of the two.

All assistances are welcome.


问:
How useful are the psychological profiles of serial killers?
Recently I've watched Netflix's "Mindhunters" show where the agents do "criminal-personality profiling" on serial killers to try and predict what they are going to do next. I'm wondering if this technique is still done today, and if so, is it seen as credible?

It seems like there is obviously no causal evidence on what motivates a person to become a serial killer, so at best, we're left with observational evidence which would need to be extrapolated from to create the post-hoc narrative and "psychological insights" about what the killer is going to do next.

Are tells like teenage bed-wedding or torturing small animals as a kid actually predictive of becoming a serial killer or are these insights just communicating that early-life PTSD is a possible cause?


问:
SAD Therapy Light Specifications?
I keep running into alternative theories and facts about what specification of light to use in sun lamps for light therapy treatment.

Many actual afflicted people seem to just swear by just pumping as much light as humanly possible onto a person's eyes. I am talking up to thousands of watts, commercial LED flood lights. Other articles seem to place more importance on the color, and sometimes even on the exact frequency graph. And all consumer products seem to be small tablets you place about 6 inches from your face.

What, according to research, is the best setup for treating SAD? Is there an optimal color and intensity or is it just about increasing light available?

Title: SAD Therapy Light Specifications?


问:
Are measures for Isolation and Frustration of Need for Relatedness interchangeable?
I am looking to measure satisfaction/frustration of the psychological need for relatedness (self-determination theory) at work. Have seen the scales by Van den Broeck et al. (2010), Longo et al (2016), and Chen et al. (2015) in this regard.

But, scales measuring isolation, e.g., Orhan et al. (2016), seem a better fit for the situation.

Can I use the presence/absence of isolation as a stand-in for frustration/satisfaction of need for relatedness? Are they interchangeable?

Please advise.

References:

Chen, B., Vansteenkiste, M., Beyers, W., Boone, L., Deci, E. L., Van der Kaap-Deeder, J., ... & Ryan, R. M. (2015). Basic psychological need satisfaction, need frustration, and need strength across four cultures. Motivation and emotion, 39(2), 216-236.

Longo, Y., Gunz, A., Curtis, G. J., & Farsides, T. (2016). Measuring need satisfaction and frustration in educational and work contexts: The Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (NSFS). Journal of Happiness Studies, 17(1), 295-317.

Orhan, M. A., Rijsman, J. B., & Van Dijk, G. M. (2016). Invisible, therefore isolated: Comparative effects of team virtuality with task virtuality on workplace isolation and work outcomes. Revista de Psicología del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones, 32(2), 109-122.

Van den Broeck, A., Vansteenkiste, M., De Witte, H., Soenens, B., & Lens, W. (2010). Capturing autonomy, competence, and relatedness at work: Construction and initial validation of the Work‐related Basic Need Satisfaction scale. Journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 83(4), 981-1002.


问:
Why is it so hard to let go of our insecurities?
It is very common to think about how people think about you, how you look, how you sound, and how you can display your best towards others. But more often or not delving too much into these feeling and trying to act upon them can instead hurt you in the long run instead of helping you. Like for instance trying too hard to crack a joke only for it to fall face first into awkwardness, or trying too hard to get someone's attention only for you to make them feel uncomfortable.

Question:

At times with insecurities, even when though you know you have them, why is it so hard for some people to let go of their shortcomings?


问:
If exactly one neuron magically disappeared from my brain, would my thoughts be significantly different?

If exactly one neuron magically disappeared from my brain, would my thoughts be significantly different?

One can ask an analogous question about a single neuron (and/or its synapses) being magically displaced.

I would like to know how "sensitive to initial conditions" or, rather, to fine details of structure is the activity of human brain.

This could lead to a philosophy of mind version of the old ship of Theseus philosophical thought experiment.

Also:

Has this version of the ship of theseus already appeared in the philosophy of mind literature?


问:
Is there literature support for the 'pop' claim that people "marry their parent"/choose a partner with traits similar to their parent(s)?
I have read multiple times that we tend to marry one of our parents. Some even claim there is no way around it. I don't really see it. There are some aspects that are similar between my spouse and my parent, but since a character has very many facets, I could find some similar facets to any person.

Obviously, a person is influenced by their surrounding, especially their close relationships, like their parents. And also, obviously, we tend to stick with what we know - including people that are similar to us and what we know. But that basically just means we tend to marry someone who is similar to us and the milieu we grew up with. I don't see any need for arguing that we marry one of our parents.

What is the evidence and accompanying reasoning for the claim that we marry our parents?

Examples of such claims:

https://www.quora.com/What-do-marriage-counselors-mean-by-we-marry-our-parents-or-we-marry-at-our-level-of-dysfunction-How-can-we-make-sure-not-to-do-that

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/tech-support/201405/why-your-partner-may-be-your-parent

https://www.tesh.com/articles/why-do-we-marry-people-who-are-similar-to-our-parents/


问:
How does neural synchronization happen and what if it doesn’t work like it should in healthy people?
How does neural synchronization happen and what results/shows up if it doesn’t work like it should like described here:

Moreover, chaotic behavior stemming from self-organization processes in the human brain could explain “randomness” in neural synchronization related to cognitive functions and consciousness and also in mental disorganization related to psychopathological phenomena such as schizophrenia [14]. In addition, it has been argued that epilepsy is an example of chaos in the human brain [15]. Besides, some researchers think about the dreaming brain as a brain in which some self-organizing processes occur and exhibit chaos-like stochastic properties that are highly sensitive to internal influences [16].

and how can  "a failure to integrate the activity of local and distributed neural circuits" be described in Layman's terms and without I specifically referring to schizophrenia?

.. it has been proposed that the cognitive and affective impairments associated with schizophrenia may be related to a failure to integrate the activity of local and distributed neural circuits


问:
Reliable sources for society trust score?
It seems like that the general public [1,2,3] and some academics [4,5] believe that China is an exemplar society of low-trust. Most of my friends share the same beliefs. However, one data source claims that China has the highest social trust score: https://ourworldindata.org/trust. See also: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2011.00909.x.

From my limited experience, people in China don't trust commercials, agents, or anyone who wants your money; but commoners are often trustable.

I tried to find several academic papers [6,7,8,9] but none of them directly compare the trust level in China and a Western country.

Do you have some reliable reference?

[1]https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/china-has-a-high-yield-but-low-trust-society-says-author-of-age-of-ambition-1.321115

[2]https://asiasociety.org/switzerland/social-credit-scores-low-trust-society

[3]https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseHistory/comments/86vss4/has_china_always_been_a_low_trust_society/

[4]https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_gUmC7iCfiAJ:https://www.econjobrumors.com/topic/low-trust-societies-can-only-thrive-under-authoritarian-governments+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

[5]https://www.jstor.org/stable/26384944?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

[6]https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0095555

[7]https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/39972/wp586.pdf?sequence=3

[8]https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12939-016-0469-7

[9]http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTotal-JJYJ200210007.htm


问:
Has anyone tried using functional near-infrared spectropathy to quantitively measure sodium concentrations in the brain?
Functional near-infrared spectropathy "fNIRS", is a biophysics/medical technique that uses the near-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum (around 680nm to 810nm in wavelength) to image the blood oxygenation level dependent "BOLD" effect in the brain to image brain function for more on BOLD look here. Recently, in 2018 a study was done link to study showing that High-field MRI could be used to functionally image sodium quantitively in the brain.
I'm wondering if the same thing (functional sodium imaging) can be done with fNIRS or an Infrared spectropathy type deal.

Does anyone know if this has been attempted?


问:
Is there an example of a major mental handicap being rectified similar to Awakenings, the 1990 film and 1973 nonfiction book?
For those born with cognitive impairment, could technology progress to a point where their disability is rectified to a level of regular human faculty? In the movie and memoir, Awakenings, a new drug L-Dopa is applied to patents suffering from the sleeping sickness. They are temporarily brought out of a coma-like state, and become regular functioning people.

I hope this question isn't too speculative to be off topic. Although, I think there are a few glimmers of evidence out there:

Drug to Treat a Type of Mental Retardation Shows Promise: Study.

As recently as 10 years ago, the idea of reversing mental retardation was unthinkable. That's because many of these conditions result from genetic glitches that derail brain development even before birth. But recent studies with mice and other animals have given researchers hope that it may be possible to develop treatments that improve cognition and behavior in conditions like Fragile X syndrome, in which a mutation to a gene on the X chromosome makes part of the chromosome look unusually thin, and Rett syndrome, another common cause of mental retardation.

New Innovations: Therapeutic opportunities for Intellectual disabilities

Intellectual disability, the currently accepted American term (replacing mental retardation), is socially, rather than scientifically derived, and limited in its precision. The new International Classification of Diseases (ICD11) categorization recommends “intellectual developmental disorder” 6. Our understanding of how learned memories are stored in the brain is still fragmentary7–9 but learning processes appear to converge upon the ability to appropriately develop and modulate synaptic junctions in the brain.

Jacquemont, S., et al. (2011). Epigenetic Modification of the FMR1 Gene in Fragile X Syndrome Is Associated with Differential Response to the mGluR5 Antagonist AFQ056. Science Translational Medicine, 3(64), 64ra1–64ra1. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.3001708


问:
The research on dishonesty
This question is in regard to the explanation power of the conducted experiments to prove the self-concept maintenance theory in Mazar et al.'s "The Dishonesty of Honest People?" (Verschuere, et al. 2018).

Am I correct in thinking that the experiments are not controlled enough and their claim that one result might be consistent to their theory does not mean that the motives behind the behaviours observed in the results cannot be due to other forces?

In one experiment where they they claim to test the hypothesis directly that one is aware of it's dishonest behaviour, but because of the cognitive mechanism one is able to maintain ones self concept is actually full of flaws. E.g. we do not know whether it was controlled for individual differences, since the sample size is small, randomization might still lead to heterogeneity between groups.

References

Verschuere, Meijer, Jim, Hoogesteyn, Orthey, McCarthy, Skowronski, ..., Ezgi. (2018). Registered Replication Report on Mazar, Amir, and Ariely (2008). Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science. 1(3), 229—377. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515245918781032

Title: The research on dishonesty


问:
From a general perspective, why are we more likely to remember wanting to do something, but not specifically what it is?
I have experienced several mind pops and instant recalls based on triggered events, and some might come suddenly, or they might gradually appear.

Sometimes, though, I remember something that I would like to write down or look up on-line, but sometime later, when I am reminded about it, all I can remember was that I wanted to write it down or look it up, but I wouldn't be able to remember what it was.

So, what theories or hypotheses might suggest for why this happens frequently?


问:
Why do people tend to put stigma on victims of offences against the person such as rape or bullying?
Introduction:

Blame against victims, regarding offences against the person, such as rape or bullying, seems to be a generally consistent social phenomenon, regardless of cultural or historical context.

It is usually the victim who feels deep shame and embarrassment (to the extent of committing suicide or going insane) and it is also the public who also put them to shame and embarrassment in either explicit or implicit ways.

Question:

But why does the victim feel shame? Why is the public response insulting the victim for being a victim?

Some thoughts:

My own hypothesis is that being a victim of a humiliating offence is unconsciously perceived (on an evolutionary psychology level) as a major weakness of the individual, to the extent of becoming a vulnerability (or liability, if you will) for the whole social group.

(In contrast, the perpetrator of humiliating offence seems to be generously spared retribution by the social group and probably there are evolutionary psychology perspectives on this?)

All this being speculations, of course, I am looking for scientific research of victim blaming in the context described.


问:
When learning a subject by working on a problem set, what is the optimal amount of time to spend on a problem?
In STEM courses, students solve problems in problem sets, as a way to learn through practice. Answers are often provided for some problems (e.g., the odd numbered problems in a textbook) and not for others. When a student is working on a problem that they have an answer for, they have a choice about how long to work on it before looking at the answer. If the goal is to learn as efficiently as possible for long-term understanding, what is the optimal amount of time to spend on a problem before looking at the answer?

Another way to think about this question: Imagine that a student has access to a problem bank with an unlimited supply of questions and answers. So at any point they can look at a solution and move on, without ever running out of questions. If they have a fixed amount of time to practice, will they achieve a better understanding of the subject if they set a shorter time limit and cover more questions, or set a longer limit and spend more time struggling with the more difficult problems? Assume that the problems are moderately difficult (not just "plug numbers into a formula" problems), but are not open-ended research problems or tricky challenge puzzles. I.e., They are written for the purpose of teaching fundamental results or techniques.

The answer to this question may depend on how you value the benefit of students struggling with a problem and discovering their own insights, compared to the benefit of learning the "correct" procedure for solving a problem, and going on to practice that procedure on other problems. An argument for the latter point of view is that by spending too much time on each problem, students risk not having enough time to discover and practice the range of problem types they need to learn the class material. An argument for the former point of view is that struggling with problems is more important for understanding in the long run. I don't know which argument is better supported by evidence.

Some references:

When to give up on a hard math problem? (Math Stack Exchange). I think there may be a distinction between problems where the difficulty is inherent to the problem, which is more what this MSE question is about, and problems that are hard due to lack of experience or knowledge.

Keith Devlin's concept of mathematical thinking. Devlin is opposed to math instruction that emphasizes procedures for solving problems. I think he would favor a longer duration for each problem, since his goal for students is to learn how to think mathematically, not learn "correct" procedures.

There are many similar Quora questions -- e.g., How long should I stay working on a math problem I am stuck on before asking?, How long should one attempt to solve a math problem before looking at a solution?, and How long should I keep trying to solve a maths problem before asking for help? I'm hoping for a more evidence-based answer.


问:
When people get over their fears, do they get over it, or do they just get used to it?
When people fear something, and then at a later time don't, have they just gotten used to the feeling of fear, or are they actually less scared? If it varies by which fear we are talking about, then for the fear of darkness specifically and also for all other fears.

I was discussing it with a friend today, and they said, that people just get used to their fears, but it doesn't seem to make sense, and they couldn't explain to me why that would be the case.


问:
Are some latitudes or climates more conducive to human happiness than others?

Background

The 19th century Chinese political philosopher and dissident Kang Youwei wrote that among the more severe miseries of this life are: premature death, mutilation, slavery, and living outside of China. And Kang was hardly an innovator in this respect; indeed, he seems to have drawn on a long tradition in Chinese thought which holds that it's only really possible to live a happy, civilised life on Chinese soil.

I've only ever set foot in China twice - both were very brief visits - and I can't say I was much persuaded to Kang's point of view. But such naked "geographical chauvinism", as I'll call it, makes me question my own attitudes to distant lands. As an Englishman, writing at a latitude of 53 degrees north, it seems incredible to me that the fourth largest city in Europe is Saint Petersburg, at a latitude of 60 degrees north, where the sun doesn't rise until after ten o'clock in the depths of winter. Likewise, as a younger man I served with the British navy in the Persian Gulf; it seemed incredible to me then that so many millions of people could withstand such an intense, coruscating bombardment of sunlight. Are these sentiments just an Englishman's reproduction of Kang's fallacy? Or is there some concrete evidence to support my intuitions?

Prior Research

Measuring a nation's happiness is, of course, an impossibly thorny matter, both methodologically and philosophically, so much so that I won't even bother to discuss the various national happiness scores, such as the Human Happiness Index. However, there do seem to be a couple of plausible ways to measure unhappiness: suicide rates and consumption of antidepressants.

According to an authoritative-looking list of countries by consumption of antidepressants, Iceland consumes more per capita than any other country, and by a comfortable margin. Iceland is also the most northerly country in the world as measured by the latitude of its capital city. (An interesting side-note: Greenland, currently under Danish sovereignty, is even further north, and has been called 'The Suicide Capital of the World'.) The next most northerly country, Finland, is the eleventh highest consumer of antidepressants, and, with the exception of the post-Soviet states, the ten most northerly countries are all within the top fifteen consumers. These data, of course, need to be interpreted with a great deal of caution. For one thing, antidepressant consumption only measures how frequently a particular kind of treatment for depression is used; populations in other countries might be just as depressed, but, due to poverty, culture, etc, might not receive treatment, or might receive another kind of treatment.

The figures for rates of suicide seem to tell a slightly different story. There does seem to be a modest correlation between latitude and suicide rate; more northerly (or more southerly, in the southern hemisphere) countries do seem to have, on average, somewhat higher rates. But the epicentre for suicide is northeastern Europe, and not Scandinavia. And then there is the massive anomaly of India, which has quite a high suicide rate, is very much in the global south, and which accounts for a sixth of the world's population. The Mediterranean factor, on the other hand, seems to support the hypothesis that some climates are more conducive to human happiness than others; almost every country with a Mediterranean coastline has a low suicide rate. (I was also struck by the seeming lack of a correlation between poverty and suicide, whereas I had expected there to be a strong link.)

Countries of the world by suicide rate in 2012. Higher rates correspond to darker colours.

What I'd Like to Know

Is there are any interesting research on the relationship between latitude and extreme unhappiness (i.e. suicide, depression, etc)? If so, what does the consensus seem to be?

Is there any interesting research on the relationship between climate and extreme unhappiness?

Is there any interesting research on the relationship between latitude and climate on the one hand, and the more nebulous concept of human happiness on the other?


问:
Are there any ways to naturally speed up my reaction speed without any drugs?
I play a lot of video-games and did some research online and came to the conclussion that a certain set of things are linked to an above average reaction speed and an general improved cognitive function.

Drinking coffee. I never drunk coffee but when I heard about it's benefits I started implementing it into my diet.

Playing FPS or fast paced shooter games helps improve your overall reaction times?

Watching 3D films

Meditation I don't think I need to provide sources for that since everyone knows about it.

Sleep Self evident.

Colder temperature improves mental performance in males but not in females, it's the opposite for women

And certain types of foods including those rich in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids.

Now many of those tips most people know about but are there any other secret ways that can get you to the next level that the average person doesn't know about?


问:
Is there research to support the idea that social networking sites could be improved to "feel more" in order to avoid "online disinhibition effect"?
Is there research to support the idea that social networking sites could be improved to "feel more" in order to avoid "online disinhibition effect"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_disinhibition_effect

That is, having e.g. videos instead of static pictures of people? In order to emphasize that they're real?


问:
Why does sadness exist as a separate emotion?
I tried looking up an answer to this question, but all I got were links to depression hotlines. Gotta love Google :)

Why is sadness as a separate emotion beneficial? Sadness seems mostly to be associated with loss, or a severe change in one's future. Not getting a job, losing a loved one to death or breakup, regret for a decision made or event occurred that can't be undone. It seems in all of these cases that simple pain would suffice just as well, and yet there exists a dedicated emotion for it.

What is the benefit of feeling sadness as a distinct emotion from pain?


问:
In the behaviorism it is argued that we learn behavior, but (how) does this influence our way of thinking?
I'm currently learning psychological approaches and social psychology, and this question popped into my head. The book on the approaches is: Glassman, W., Hadad, M. (20130116). Approaches to Psychology,  6th Edition.

If we look at a child, from the viewpoint of behaviorism, the child copies the behavior of the parents. Unlike the parents the child does not understand why certain behaviour is exhibited, because they don't understand the world. Could you say that someone's way of thinking is "shaped" by seeing and associating the behavior he / she sees as a child?

In other words, that a child is looking at the behavior of the parents and that he / she grows up to be a very analytical person or a very impulsive person. The thing that brought me to this was that as a child you resemble your mother in some areas and your father in others. That the mother takes an analytical approach to these specific situations, where the father might be impulsive.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this, did I go wrong somewhere?


问:
Is it possible to feel an emotion and simultaneously observe it? Are there studies regarding this, and terms related to it?
I’ve been thinking about this in regards to empathy, or trying to understand someone. You have to put yourself in that person’s position and imagine yourself going through that same experience. But it doesn’t seem like you can analyze the feelings you get while at the same time feeling them. But this isn’t just about empathy, but really imagining any emotion. When I think of observing,I’m thinking of nonfeeling. Of course, I don’t think you can never feel any emotion. But if I think of meditation,  I’m thinking about observing my breathing,my heart rate,the environment around me. This is the act of observing,if you consider observing an act. But now I want to imagine something exciting. So I imagine myself on a rollercoaster. And I feel the excitement from it. It doesn’t seem like I can fully immerse myself in this scenario while simultaneously trying to observe myself, observe how it makes me feel.</p>


问:
Change in perceived direction of body when laying in bed
Sometimes when I lie in bed, with my eyes closed, I get the sense that my head is actually at the bottom of the bed, where my feet usually are, when I know it is still resting on the pillow on the top pat of the bed. Sometimes, I get the sense that my head is turned towards one side of the room, when I know is turned to the other side of the room.

Basically, there is a disconnect between my conscious knowledge of my head's direction, and what my "senses" are telling me. If I open my eyes, I am never laying in the direction my senses told me. Sometimes, I can induce this effect, by just visualizing myself laying in a different direction than the one I know I'm laying in.

What could be the cause of this effect? Is it a malfunction of proprioception, a corruption of memory, a near-sleep phenomenon, a malfunction of magnetoception (although that hasn't been proven to be human sense last I checked), or something else? Is this even a phenomenon that anybody knows about?

EDIT: I asked this questions on three different subreddits, and a lot of people had some very interesting speculations on the subject.

r/neuroscience

r/Cogsci

r/neuro


问:
Long term memories - the molecular mechanism?
I know people who can instantaneously remember many events from 50 years ago. Moreover, there are savants who have memorized thousands of books and can instantly read off paragraphs from any page of these books, what is the molecular mechanism of long term memory storage that satisfied two competing requirements:

Instantaneous retrieval

Stable long term storage

I see that there are number of school of thoughts. C.R. Gallistel is of the opinion that plastic synapsis cannot account for storage 1. He argues for storage in the cellular matter akin to DNA. I am looking for comprehensive and up to date readings on this topic.


问:
Are people more likely to use words they've heard recently in conversation?
I have noticed before that if I use a somewhat uncommon word like "doubtlessly" in conversation, my conversation partner is more likely to say the word again later.
Am I falling prey to a frequency illusion or is this a real phenomenon?
I would be interested if anyone knows any research or studies on this subject.</p>


问:
What research suggests that people grasp information better when arranged in groups of three?
The author didn't cite any source for this "Research into communications theory".

      Why should you aim for two or three major points? Research into
communications theory suggests that people grasp information better
when it is arranged in groups of three. While you need not adhere
to this rule slavishly, a three-tiered argument gives the appearance
of balance and strength.7 In addition, it is unlikely that all seven or
eight points will really stand alone: no fact pattern is that complex.
It is much more likely that some of those points can be combined
in some way and those that cannot are either mere spectres or too
minor to merit a mention.

Page 17. Stacie Strong BA English literature (UC Davis 1986), MPW (USC 1990), JD (Duke 1994), PhD Law (Cambridge 2002), DPhil (Oxford 2003). How to Write Law Essays & Exams 5th Edition (2018).  p 47.


问:
Do all neurons have a "job", or are some waiting to be assigned for a novel stimuli to appear?
Do all neurons have something to do (i.e. all are activated for some known stimuli), and when a novel stimuli appear some of them change in some way so we can learn it? Or is it that we have "new"/"unused" neurons (i.e. do not fire for any known stimuli), and when a novel stimuli appear, they can continue the chain of neurons and "learn" it (i.e. activated when it appears)?

If it's the former, how do only some of the neurons change (in comparison to all) to be activated for the novel stimuli, and what is that change?

If it's the latter, do the unused neurons compete for the novel stimuli? How do the unused neurons "know" to "pick up" the novel stimuli? i.e. be activated for it

I understand that if neuron A is activated very often with neuron B, at some point it's very likely that they will have a connection (Hebbian theory). But how would novel knowledge be incorporated? i.e. a new neuron that we never had before, or an existing one that somehow decides to change, be suddenly activated for the novel input, and form a synapse with an existing neuron?


问:
Do neurons have a single transmitters vesicle per synapse they have?
Do neurons have a single transmitters vesicle per synapse they have? So when they will be activated, each transmitter vesicle is going to one synapse.

Or is it that neurons release some amount of transmitters using some number of vesicles when they are activated, and then the transmitters are being divided between all of their synapses?


问:
Term for inability to relate to struggle due to privelege?
Is there a word or term that identifies the inability of those who have lived a privileged life to relate or understand those who have had to struggle to get where they are?</p>


问:
Where to find modern theories on how the brain computes inputs and information
I am a software engineer with a special interest in machine/deep learning and I have a fair amount of experience in this space. In (supervised) machine learning, you are tuning a (very) large data structure called a neural network by subjecting it over and over again with pictures/sounds/inputs that contain a particular "thing" you want it to learn and letting it analyze the characteristics of each input. Every time you show it a new input that contains this "thing" it tweaks the configuration of the network a bit more, and after many (hundreds; thousands; tens of thousands) of examples, this network converges ("learns") into a final state that is capable of recognizing the "thing" on new inputs that it has not yet seen.

I'm trying to do some research in some new areas of machine learning and I'm interested in what some of the predominant modern theories are on how the brain "works" as a possible source of inspiration. It is my belief that humans have inadvertently been building computers and software in a way that mimics the human body, probably because nature perfected the recipe a long time ago, and its probably the best recipe! So by having some decent understanding of what our top dogs in neuroscience believe with respect to have the brain "works", I might be able to think outside the box here and solve some problems that I wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

By "how the brain works" I mean:

Theories on how the brain converts inputs (vision, sound, smells, tactile sensations/pressure/heat/pain, tastes, etc.) into a form that it can then process and make informed decisions with

Theories on how the brain actually makes these decisions; how we think and uses stored information to decide to do something

Theories on how the brain stores and fetches memories and information (how I can recall my social security number, name or birth date, or how I know what a cat looks like; as well as how I store new info like remembering a new co-worker's name)

Theories on why our brains are all so different and people have different likes/interests/aversions than others (why I like writing software and hiking and other people like skydiving or eating spicy food, etc.)

Again I'm interested in what the modern and "predominant" theories are (by that I mean: gaining lots of traction/legitimacy within the appropriate scientific communities) for all these things. Knowing what those are will help me sift through the ocean of blogs, white papers and articles that might very well mislead me or take me down roads on theories that were relevant 20 years ago but have long-since been abandoned or replaced, etc. Thanks in advance for any-and-all steering here!


问:
What is the cause for the Japanese people’s exemplary civility?
Japanese people should certainly be commended for their exemplary displays of civility, I’m sure this doesn’t require debating (this scholarly source including examples like respecting subway stair lanes, leaving a lost shopping bag beside a tree and a hotel apologizing for a 4-am 1-minute Internet shortage). However, I am genuinely curious what the psychological cause for said civility would be. Has there perhaps been a time in Japan’s history when this wasn’t the case from which we could infer an origin for such high and seemingly nationwide standards?


问:
Psychology of dogpiling
What is the Psychological explanation behind hoards of people turning on someone, unfairly and unreasonably simply because others have turned on that person? It's like that hate just keeps gaining momentum, facts and logic be damned. Why are people like this? I would take a wild guess that there's some mix of a bystander effect going on and tribal in-group favoritism. If there's a thread where someone's just getting unfairly dogpiled on, I always make an effort to support them. I've been on the receiving end of these dogpiles, it's really the fastest way to lose compassion for humanity, you realize the truth to them is just whatever others in their vicinity think and they they will use strategies of insults, hypocrisy and gaslighting to shut you down.</p>

Title: Psychology of dogpiling


问:
How does the brain interpret electrical brain stimulation?
I believe I understand the natural path, in which stimuli appear and by neural plasticity our brains "learn" these stimuli.

I recently learned about electrical brain stimulation and I was wondering what is the mechanism that allows the brain to take these stimulated/activated neurons, and either convert them to, or detect which original stimuli shaped them. Whether it was an image, a memory, or some other stimuli that shaped them. That is, the "reverse" way of the natural path.


问:
Mental/psychiatric illnesses/disorders: natural or social kinds?

What is the stance (i.e., that which is most prevalent across the psych "community" —both research and applied) on whether mental illnesses are inventions, discoveries, or some combination thereof?

Is there or has there been much debate or critical analysis on this; if so, by or between whom, when, and to what affect on the field?


问:
Practical Suggestions for Ambiguous Stimuli for Categorization Experiment
Does anyone have a suggestion of the kind of stimuli I could use for a categorization experiment that needs a range of clearly defined and a range of ambiguous stimuli?

I need to produce both a range of single stimuli, and a way to combine multiple stimuli in a set which shares this characteristic of having both clearly defined ranges and an ambiguous one.

Some Context on the General Goal

I am currently conducting an experiment where I want my participants to learn two different schemata aiming to test whether people will implicitly assume details from the whole scene based on what schema better accommodates the given stimuli. For that reason, I need some ambiguity to be solved through contextual cues, so I can check whether the same stimuli might be interpreted in different schemata and compare whether or not different participant groups assume different implicit information based on that. So each schema will be composed of a character, an action (a verb, executed by the character), a simple noun for an object and a collective noun for a set of objects, which will be part of the action.

What I am looking for is a possible kind of stimuli that might either fall clearly into one of two categories or be ambiguous and hard to categorize into one of the categories. I need to be able to combine them into sets of 3 where I might make the set: (a) clearly belonging to a collective category, by combining all the 3 stimuli from items also clearly from that category, (b) completely ambiguous, by having all the 3 stimuli ambiguous, and (c) intermediate degrees, by combining 1 ambiguous + 2 unambiguous; 2 ambiguous + 1 unambiguous for both sides.

What I've Tried So Far

I'll show you with an example of what I have tried so far. I have two categories, 'namu' and 'bonho' (both 2-sylleble pseudo-words of Portuguese):

As you can see, those stimuli vary in angle. Every line with an angle between 1 and 59 degrees is certainly a namu, and every line with an angle between 121 and 179 degrees is certainly a bonho. But between 60 and 120 degrees we have the ambiguous zone and the stimuli might be both namu and bonho (chosen at random).

What I have in mind here is a kind of "semistructured" categorization: something that combines both deterministic/structured and probabilistic/unstructured categorization.

Furthermore, as like I said, I need to be capable of combining multiple stimuli to form sets made of stimuli of the first categories, like this:

As you can see, the idea is that a 'namel' is a set of 'namus', and a 'bonhal' is a set of 'bonhos'. Both sets have 3 of its basic constituents. To be categorized a namel, every constitnuent of the set must be a namu, and to be a bonhal every constituent is required to be a bonho. But when all the constituents are ambiguous the whole set is ambiguous.

I have made a single test with the 1-stimulus form (namu vs bonho), but it does not meet my goals so I never tried the combined 3-stimuli form.

Problems with those stimuli

The problem with the mentioned strategy is that both my niblings, which tested the task for me, and even myself when testing it, followed the strategy of answering according to the highest side: if the highest side was the left side we answered 'namu', for instance, even though there were some errors this rule of thumb worked most of the times with random stimuli uniformly distributed between 1 and 179 degrees. I thought about changing the distribution to a normal one with mean in 120 degrees and a standard deviation of 40, so the majority of the stimuli would be ambiguous, but then too few would be clear and it doesn't seem like it's going to work.

Does anyone have a suggestion of the kind of stimuli I could use for this purpose? As far as I researched, I have found nothing in the literature about this kind of situation. I have found about both unstructured and structured (rule-based) categorization tasks, but nothing about a mixed range. But a reference of this kind would also be a good answer to my question.


问:
Do humans have a natural tendency of feeling ashamed when not wearing clothes?
I was surprised to read on https://youtu.be/4_k5HuDTk3Q?t=2795 (Uncontacted Tribes documentary):

The individual in the picture is part of an Amazonian tribe that was contacted a few months/years before the shooting was made

Do humans have a natural tendency of feeling ashamed when not wearing clothes?

I couldn't tell whether the statement was made as a result of his contacts with clothed people.


问:
Do toddlers have to learn what they feel?
In Thomas Metzinger's book Being No One, he claimed at the start of section 6.3.3

Have you ever seen a child, who has just learned to walk, run toward a set of two or three stairs much too fast and then fall on its face in an unprotected way, which might have caused considerable injury had it been an adult? The child, now lying face down, lifts its head, turns around, and searches for its mother. It does so with a completely empty facial expression, showing no kind of emotional response. It looks into its mother’s face to find out how it is actually now feeling itself. How bad was it really? Should I cry or should I laugh?

Is that real? I've never seen it. Has this been documented in the literature?


问:
We should not publicly say our goals to everyone. But how far it can be actually applied?
In context of the research* (reference) by Gollwitzer, that was of When intentions go public, which states that: saying your goal publicly will reduce our efforts to do it,

I want to ask the meaning of some specific terms, as well as a one paragraph simplified version of that that research (maybe in 50-100 words) and simple words, and terms, instead of the terms used in it. Because, most of us aren't able to deduce much from the research paper. Some difficult terms are identity-relevant , behavioral-impact , etc. They should be simplified in an easily understandable english sentences.

But my question is more focused on below questions:

To what extent we can push this concept?

For example: When our parents ask, what do you want to pursue? and we reply:

I want to learn football from Cambridge Football Club, in order to be a good football player

If we don't disclose the above, our parents might not be convinced sending us to Cambridge; they might think that I'm going there to date a girl maybe!

Does wishing or making any weak commitment- such as a daily habit, but not the goal itself- in front of others, will it harm the efforts we make to achieve our goals?

For example, if I said to my friends:

I am running 100m in morning daily...

I think that:

The degree to which our goal realization is ruined by a weak commitment is less than that of straightforward saying our goals;

*Research in refrence: Gollwitzer, P. M., Sheeran, P., Michalski, V., & Seifert, A. E. (2009). When intentions go public: Does social reality widen the intention-behavior gap? Psychological Science, 20, 612–618. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02336.x

But, this CNBC Article, which tells facts opposite to the research. It says, "When the study participants shared their target goal [...], they were more likely to reach their goal. On the flip side, those who relayed their goals to the individual who they believed was a community college student did not perform better. Similarly, the group who didn’t tell their goal to anyone also didn’t see any improvement."


问:
Do stronger emotions take longer to process with dreams?
One theory of dreams is they help us process strong experiences. So I wondered whether one needs a longer sleep after some strong experiences partly to give the brain longer to complete the healing/rewiring process.</p>


问:
Convenient CBT Questionnaires
I have recently done CBT and I am finding a lot of value in the ABCD detective method for myself
https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/-/media/CCI/Consumer-Modules/Back-from-The-Bluez/Back-from-the-Bluez---06---Detective-Work-and-Disputation.pdf

ABCD is not the only questionnaire or data collection method that is useful for CBT, but I only seem to find these forms in pdf format, which is not very convenient to fill in and doing the calculations for multiple choice scoring forms at the end seems fully automatable.

I was wondering if there are any recommended websites or apps that provide a service, where these forms are convenient to fill in and does automatic score calculation?

Title: Convenient CBT Questionnaires


问:
Why do people find certain, but not all, forms of discrimination wrong?
Discrimination can be understood as “making judgment based on general, rather than case-specific, information”. For instance, racial discrimination is making judgments based on one’s race (general information) rather than one’s own merits (case-specific information).

However, people often find certain types of discrimination morally acceptable. For instance, it is usually okay for an employer to outright reject job applicants without college degrees even if it is possible that some without a degree are more qualified. People are often also okay with employers giving more consideration to those who went to better schools, even though some students from lower ranked schools can be better.

There are many such examples. Human beings cannot spend infinite time to acquire information in each task, so they use shortcuts which, usually, involve some kind of discrimination.

The question is: why do people find certain types of discrimination unacceptable but others acceptable?


问:
Term/theory of psychological effect: asking for counter-arguments without (ever thinking of) considering them in decision
Is there a known psychological effect or theorie that describes and explains this phenomenon:
Someone facing a (buying)decision asks another person about the cons of buying, but instead of evaluating the list of cons deeply, in an affirmative manner the list psychologically just serves to corroborate the decision to buy ("Glad you mentioned that, but …"). As the person being asked, you got a strong feeling that the decision was already made before asking the cons and you serve as a kind of dummy.


问:
Rate of Change in Neural Plasticity
I read that children brain has more neural plasticity compared to adults, with the possible explanation as appeared in this question, pertaining to synaptic changes, where if you learn something, the synapse change occurs in structure to reflect the new learned stuff. I am curious to know if there is a method/research that perhaps quantifies this, in other words an adult can potentially acquire/learn new things daily, does that mean that the rate of change quantifying neural plasticity is few hours or perhaps one day in adults?</p>

Title: Rate of Change in Neural Plasticity


问:
The BOOM of social media, related with new features of self-promotion, rather than chats to engage with others?
I was involved in a group project were we were connecting people with a PenPal, by receiving their stories. Unfortunately, people were being driven away because of PenPal idea. We changed the project and we were met with an increase number of submission, now people only have to share their own story, the PenPal was removed.
Is there any studies that can help me interpret this reaction, since the project ways also aimed to people between 16-25 years old. Are they more likely to be more interested in self-promoting, than engaging in conversation with others.</p>


问:
Email per day - mental practitioner
How many emails per day does a mental practitioner receive per day?
I do not find an estimate. There are anecdotal accounts, such as here and here; here answers go from 50 to 200 emails per day.
There is a nice APA report from 2015, but it does not discuss this aspect.
I am looking at the general population of workers as well, although this approach implies an increase in the variance, and thus in the uncertainty on whether the answer I could get is similar to the answer I would get from practitioners; here it seems that office workers receive 40 email per day.
My curiosity started after I read some articles (e.g. this one) on ethical concerns about emails, so I started to wonder how much a mental practitioner might spend per day reading emails.

I am not a psychologist or neuroscientist, but I reading on this topic for some research on time consumption in the occupation.

Any insight or reading reference would be very welcomed!

Title: Email per day - mental practitioner


问:
What is the correlation between posting GIFs in group chats and IQ
recently several major Telegram channels I am member of have been heavily ostracizing people posting gifs in such channels, and claiming that it's a sign of retardation. I would not want to jump to such conclusions too fast, so I got curious, maybe there have been any research on this issue?</p>


问:
Do solutions for complicated problems ripe during long breaks?
I often solve complicated problems by thinking about the problem for maybe 15 minutes, then taking a break for one or two hours, and then think for another 15 minutes. This often leads to much better solutions than working on the problem for 2 or 3 hours straight.

This is particularly evident for problems that have both an analytical and a creative part. It somehow seems that the solution matures or ripes unconsciously during the break.

Two questions to this:

First of all, is this hypothesis that the solution somehow "ripes" unconsciously true/plausible? Or is it rather caused by the refreshed brain after the break?

Second, does this phenomenon have a name under which more literature could be found?


问:
Does lack of social-economic opportunities for self-realisation and personal growth explain homophobia (at least partly)?
There is strong correlation between acceptance of LGBT in countries and the economic prosperity of the respective countries. As far as I have checked the literature then the mainstream research trend is to estimate the economic output of LGBT acceptance or cost of homophobia, there is accepted view that homophobic/acceptance norms (in law) create additional cost/growth in economy.

But are there any research that tends to uncover the reciprocal direction of this: how lack of social-economic opportunities for self-realisation and personal growth fuel homophobia? One can imagine the following vignette: some politicians strive for anti-homophobic laws but they ignore the funding necessities of educational or re-skiing systems. Clearly - such activities can create or increase the homophobia for those for whom the assistance for personal growth is the top priority in life.

I have checked https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21599165.2020.1733983 and this is another article that misses this reciprocal link in the opposite direction.

It is hard to say - whether such reciprocal links is my imagination and not the observed fact in field studies. Or maybe the research trends are biased a bit. I can say that Western European countries have far more opportunities for their people for getting education or mentoring or good jobs than in Eastern European countries. And the homophobia is correlated.

My question arises with the current developments in one country - one social liberal party have inner deliberation about preserving the governing coalition in the face of homophobic law proposed by right-wing party of the same coalition. From the internal discussions I can say that social liberal party is almost ready to accept the proposed culture war and leave the coalition. I disagree with this position - my viewpoint is that lack of social-economic opportunities is the decisive factor in homophobia and it could be more beneficial for the LGTB community if the party stays in the coalition and continues the creation of those social-economic opportunities (as much as the coalition dynamics allow it) and hence continues to create the beneficial social-economic environment for the acceptance of LGBT to emerge. I would like to go into the internal party discussions with these arguments about social-economic factors. But I have not academic literature that can provide the research background to my senses. So - this my question is about the existence of such research trends! Hope, that someone can provide those social-economic arguments and hence - we could channel them into political debates.


问:
What's the difference between how a person with NPD views social hierarchies versus a non-disordered person?
Out of the FOG (a website on personality disorders) claims that NPDers manipulate social hierarchies in an entirely self-serving way that non-NPDers don't (which comes with the admission, of course, that all societies have an invisible social hierarchy written into them).

Is perceiving a hierarchy and acting upon it in subconscious ways considered neurotypical behavior? (Ex: stereotypes, striving for an upper class life, etc.) Can empathy (a lack of which is one of the classifying factors for NPD in the DSM-V) be retained while viewing a person as "lower" than you?

Thank you!


问:
Different plasticity mechanisms in different species
Are the neural plasticity mechanisms behind learning essentially the same across different species? For instance, is STDP assumed to be a standard mechanism in almost anything with a brain, or is it only found in mammalian brains? Cephalopods seem like they have vastly different neural architectures at a macro-level - but are things pretty much the same at the synaptic/neural level?</p>


问:
Is there any evidence that people follow crowds less at a certain age?
A while back I saw a chart of psychological development milestones, and it said around the age of 28 people tend to think less in a collective and more on their own. I can't find the chart nor can I find anything backing up that claim since. Is there any evidence that this is true?</p>


问:
Evidence for differences in resilience between generations
There is a lot of talk of younger generations being "softer" but is there any evidence for differences in resilience or hardiness between generations?</p>


问:
Square root transformation of Poisson process. How Var[P(sqrt(lambda))] ~ 1/4?
I am working on Kaggle Neural data challenge.

A number of spikes given a stimulus are Poisson distributed as

$$Y_i \sim P(\lambda_i)$$

The mean and variance of any Poisson process is given as

$$E[P(\lambda_i)] = Var[P(\lambda_i)] = \lambda_i$$

In order to normalize the data, the square root transformation is applied on mean and variance as,

$$E[\sqrt{P(\lambda)}] \approx \sqrt{\lambda}$$

$$Var[\sqrt{P(\lambda)}] \approx \frac{1}{4}$$

I do not understand how the variance becomes constant by square root transformation?

Update: Received an answer at Statistics


问:
Are the personality tests (specifically, the big five test) in open source psychometric project reliable?
Are the personality tests (specifically, the big five test) in open source psychometric project reliable?

Link : https://openpsychometrics.org/


问:
Resources on understanding the Orchestrated objective reduction
I was trying to understand the mathematics behind the theory of Orchestrated objective reduction, and clearly, first I read the original paper of Penrose & Hameroff. Then I tried some other related papers (reviews, critics, etc.), yet, I could not find any straightforward math behind this theory in any of my searchings.

Are there any references and resources on the mathematics of Orchestrated objective reduction?


问:
Is there an upper bound on signals ascending from the sensory nerves through the medulla?
I'm starting to go down a research path related to haptic and embodied cognition. Though I haven't taken a deep dive into neuroanatomy (only a 300 level undergrad cognitive neuroscience course's worth and a good amount of self study), it seems pretty apparent the complexity of the of the mechanoreceptors is greater than that of the fibers ascending the spinal tracts up through the medulla.

Since the sensory nerves bifurcate into seemingly more (please correct me if I'm wrong) nerve endings than the bundles of fibers they send signals up through, I wonder: is there a limit to the amount of somatosensory percepts someone can be aware of at one time?

I thought about looking in the literature for things like, why someone might go into shock when jumping into ice-cold water. Hopefully asking here could bring me closer to an answer or at least a direction to look into.

Thanks,

Holly


问:
Free will and neuron firing
I have been reading a lot about free will and the most recent neuroscience experiments in that field. However, one way question troubles me to which I have never been able to find any study.

We know that neurons fire when depolarization occurs, phenomenon that we call action potential.

Depolarization occurs following a stimulus. Stimuli mostly come from chemical synapses, sensory neurons or pacemaker potentials.

In a deterministic view of the brain, one that does not involve free will (in the common sense of the term), stimuli coming from chemical synapses would always be explainable. By explainable, I mean that they could be predicted based on the electrochemical state of synapses before giving rise to them. For the purpose of my thinking, I won't refer to sensory neurons nor pacemaker potentials as for the first ones the origin of the stimuli is deterministic since caused by an external factor (e.g.: a sound or a touch) and in the second the stimuli were initially programmed at cell level to happen at a certain rate, so deterministic as well.

In light of the above, if free will does exist (in the sense that it can create indeterministic behaviours and that those indeterministic behaviours are not generated randomly by let's say quantum activity within neurons but rather by a true free will), we should, I guess observe stimuli occurring without any underlying causes. That's to say, either:

Internal stimuli coming from synapses that could not be explained by the electrochemical state of the synapses before giving rise to the stimuli; or

Changes in the electrochemical state of the synapses that could not be explained by their initial state.

Is my reasoning flawed?

Are any of you aware of any research about that?

Thanks for reading.

Title: Free will and neuron firing


问:
Does our body affect our personality?
Some may argue that our body is independent from our personality, and whether you are taller, shorter, black, white, etc does not have any influence on how your mind works and interprets the world. Are there any shreds of evidence to prove this argument wrong?

Could it be said that how our body is composed, its aspect, and how
it reacts to its environment would affect our personality and the way
of acting in the world or those are isolated and our personality does
not react to how our body is made?

For instance, two twins with different personalities, could it be said that their body affected their personality in different manners, and having had different body both of them, they would have had two other personalities, different between them as well?

Is there any aspect of psychology studying this?

Title: Does our body affect our personality?


问:
Does meditation have and effect on Priming?
I’m reading Think Fast And Slow and am learning about the priming effect. Has anyone studied how meditation affects this phenomenon?  Are folks who meditate any less likely to respond to being primed?</p>


问:
How do psychedelics work?
I realize my question is more of a pharmacological one than a neuroscientific one, but I didn't know where else to ask this question.

As far as I've read, there's two components to how psychedelics work:

Psychedelics agonise serotonin 2A receptors. This causes an over-saturation of serotonin in the brain, which causes the effects.

Psychedelics reduce blood flow to the DMN (default mode network), which reduces its supply of oxygen, and therefore its activity. That makes the brain redirect the neural activity out to the "fringes" of the brain, which causes signals to travel new paths. These new paths often involve different parts of the brain that wouldn't usually communicate. This causes synesthesia, new perspectives and a generally just a very altered mental and visual perception.

Now, is it so that both, neither or only one of these explanations are correct? Perhaps it is the over-saturation of serotonin that reduces the blood flow to the DMN?

Title: How do psychedelics work?


问:
Does the desynchronization of some bands mean an increase in the prevalence of the other bands?
In this article, Broadband Cortical Desynchronization Underlies the Human Psychedelic State, this sentene is said:

Psilocybin reduced spontaneous cortical oscillatory power from 1 to 50 Hz in posterior association cortices, and from 8 to 100 Hz in frontal association cortices.

I'll abbreviate posterior association cortices to PAC, and frontal association cortices to FAC.

As found out in this question, the above sentence really means that after psilocybin intake, the brain waves present in the PAC are high-level gamma frequencies, and the brain waves present in the FAC are delta and theta frequencies. They are the ones left, since the other bands were desynchronized away.

Now, since these are the bands left, does that mean that they are more prevalent? Does that mean that the PAC will be operating fully on high-level gamma frequencies and therefore there'll be more of these frequencies in the PAC than usually?

If so, does this mean that the senses of which the PAC is responsible for, will be heightened, since the gamma frequency is a higher frequency, meaning more information is passed in less time? And does that mean that the senses of which the FAC is responsible for, will be diminished, since the delta and theta frequencies are the lowest?


问:
Why is intensive mental activity so tiring if it just spends a bit more energy than in relax?
As far as I know intense mental activity supposes spending about 1% more energy than what you would spend by basically making no real effort in any mental activity.

If that's the case, why is so tiring? In comparison a 1% extra activity from being quiet all day done with any other part of the body, would be way less tiring than that 1% extra activity from the brain.


问:
Losing self-control during drug rehab
Is there any research or theories which can prove that exercising too much self control can lead to losing one's self-control regardless the work or activity a person engages into? From an article in The Psychologist I understand that self-control is a limited resource.

If there are self-control theories proving this fact, I'm specifically interested if it holds true for addicts especially when they are in the maintenance stage where they decide that they want to leave drugs and take a path of sobriety and relapse again if they exercise too much too self-control and losing self-control?

Title: Losing self-control during drug rehab


问:
Is there any evidence for/against the existence of Jungian archetypes?
I was shocked to be unable to find any systematic reviews on the relevance of Jung and particulary his archetypes. In my search, I usually encountered criticism based on definitions too loose to be properly debunked but I think the concept of archetypes as "distinct universal personalities in our brain" is quite a falsifiable one.

I find Tom Boardsman's SE answer to a theoretical question on the archetypes really interesting and I think it does provide an argument against the archetypes as Jung described them - as literal images - from what I've gathered, automatic visual detection is pretty rare in humans and can be found only in a few areas such as face recognition or snake detection. Jung's idea of such images made a lot more sense to me when I found out it was likely influenced by lamarckism. But - of course - my layman notion is far from a proof.

However, I imagine Jung's archetypes could be best put to a test by a cross-cultural comparison of dreams. Sadly, I haven't found any study that would take this challenge seriously. A bit less exact way could be cross-cultural comparison of narratives for behavioral patterns. In that regard, I have only found mentions of criticism of the remarks on the very non-Western cultures that influenced Jung.

So are there any studies which would provide some basic evidence for or against the existence of Jungian archetypes?


问:
How far into the future can humans accurately predict a periodic event?
I know the question is ambiguous, so let me elaborate: imagine that you're given a task (e.g., read a text) while subjected to a series of auditory stimuli, e.g., a train of noise bursts of the same length separated by the same amount of time as the length of an individual burst (for example, 30 s of noise, 30 s of silence, etc.).

Would you be able to predict/anticipate (I'm not sure of the correct term here) an upcoming onset/offset of the noise and modify your behavior so that this is reflected in the task you were given?
Predicting this seems to be easy if the auditory stimuli are separated a fraction of a second and even perhaps seconds. But, if one keeps separating them (e.g., 30 s as in the previous example), how far can the auditory stimuli be separated so that a subject can still anticipate their onset/offset?