I currently work in a cardiovascular and Diabetes lab conducting human trials of metabolism and cardiovascular modifying medications and am attempting to transition into graduate school. I will post about; Science, Art, Film, History, Literature, Fashion, Music, and what's going on in my life. I will likely steer clear of political related posts, as I've become utterly disenchanted.
Social interactions and daily tasks involved in being a successful member of the human species can sometimes feel automated and depersonalizing. Sometimes others appear as malfunctioning machines, repeating the same maladaptive or just menial behaviors. . .and thats when sometimes philosophy is the only consolation, well that and laughing and maybe a mountain hike.
My Statement: I believe we humans live in an environment surrounded by biology and technology, yet a majority of us focus merely on short sighted effects of those things. Contemporary discoveries in science and advances in technology describe an existence in a much more mechanistic way than any of us could have imagined. Being able to incorporate this information into our conscious while maintaining respect for human creativity and emotion will be important for future human technological advancements and environmental management. I also believe life extension "200 years +" via bio-physiological modification is well within the grasp of my generation, and I'll do my best to participate in these efforts.
"V'tosh Ka'tur"
Location: U.S. Denver
Education: B.S. in Psychology, Minors in Art History and Biology
Political Views: Libertarian Transhumanism
Religious Views: Agnostic
Myers-Briggs: INTJ
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
In Neil, I trust.
(Source: astrodidact)
Terminal Lucidity
I was introduced to this concept last week while I was attending the funeral of someone who was thought to have experienced this during his last day alive. I visited the home where he passed away and was told that the nurses and family members were in awe of his passing because he had become “another person” during his last days of life. Some aspects of his memory seemed to have come back and he was more lively that he had been in awhile. I had never heard of such phenomena and decided to look into it. Below are some of the things I found.
Terminal lucidity refers to the unexpected return of mental clarity and memory shortly before death in patients suffering from severe psychiatric and neurological disorders. This return of mental clarity usually occurs in the last minutes, hours of days before the patient’s death. Examples include case reports of patients suffering from tumors, strokes, meningitis, dementia or Alzeheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and affective disorders. This is particularly striking considering that many of these disorders are caused by degeneration and degradation of the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and other brain areas that are involved in memory and cognition processes.
Several accounts suggest that during terminal lucidity, memory and cognitive abilities may function by neurologic processes that differ from those of the normal brain. So far the assumption is that the improvement of brain disorders or dysfunctions is caused by the altered brain physiology of the dying. There are two ways in which terminal lucidity is thought to exist: the severity of mental disturbance can improve slowly in conjuction with the decline of body vitality (typically schizophrenia cases) or full mental clarity may appear abruptly and unexpectedly shortly before death (more common in dementia cases). Although terminal lucidity has not been attributed to a specific medical cause, some authors have suggested that a high fever prior to dying might induce terminal lucidity.
Although terminal lucidity has been reported for around 250 years, it has received little medical attention because of its complexity and transience. Not to mention the ethical guidelines for the responsible conduct of research and the fact that these patients are already mentally ill, making it even more difficult to include them in empirical studies. Academic interest in terminal lucidity declined after the mid-19th century. However, in 1975, Turetskaia and Romanenko published a detailed article concerning 3 cases of schizophrenic patients in a medical journal. According to Nahm and Greyson, this article is the only publication on terminal lucidity and mental disorders in medical journals throughout the 20th century. However, within the last few years interest in terminal lucidity in mental disorders has increased again due to recent case reports published by Brayne et. al (2008) and Grosso (2004) (see reviews below).
The authors’ goal is to stimulate research on the pathophysiology of terminal states. For example, research on terminal lucidity could help elucidate the factors influencing the relationship between the mind and the brain, particularly as the brain deteriorates. Moreover, it could further understanding of memory and cognition processes and facilitate the development of new therapies aimed towards reversing the loss of memory and cognitive function in these patients.
Sources:
Nahm, M., Greyson, B., Kelly, EW., & Haraldsson, E. (2012). Terminal Lucidity: A review and case collection. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 55:138–142.
Nahm, M., and Greyson, B. (2009). Terminal Lucidity in Patients With Chronic Schizophrenia and Dementia: A survey of the literature. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 197 (12): 942-4.
she encounters her desire as the Other. …The hysteric’s narcissism is linked to her desperate attempt for certainty: what she seeks is the Other that would … give her answers as of who she is
renata salecl (via jujutsu-with-zizek)
i miss this show. steve coogan as tommy saxondale.
i remember laughing so hard i’d cry (and occasionally hyperventilate) at his anger management class tangents. plus, this one features matt berry.
p.s. steve coogan does the absolute best alan rickman impression ever (which has nothing to do with saxondale, i was just so impressed i feel the need to mention this factoid any time he comes up).
lol this was ridiculous. I used to facilitate groups like this, I wish someone would’ve made up a story like that.
Oh actually, the one time something did happen like this was when we were having a training day and had to make up stories about being drug addicts. One of the counselors asked another if he had gotten lost in a blizzard and he asked if that was a coke reference, aww good times.
Pavlov was a physiologist though.
(Source: rojoscurocasinegro13)
The least interesting sound in the universe, probably, is the sine wave. It’s the sound of nothing happening. It’s the sound of perfection, and it’s boring. As David Byrne said in his song, Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Brian Eno, H/T s33light (via psydoctor8)
Check out this animated short on how language evolved as well as the original podcast from Stuff You Should Know. This is my favorite podcast out of the ones I listen to. Very funny and informative.
Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.
Carl Jung (via pattopet)
(Source: rabbitinthemoon)
Interactive robot trains kids with autism
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A humanoid robot shows promise for teaching a basic social skill called joint attention to children with autism spectrum disorder.
Aiden, who is three and a half years old, has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). NAO (pronounced “now”) is the diminutive “front man” for an elaborate system of cameras, sensors, and computers designed specifically to help children like Aiden learn how to coordinate their attention with other people and objects in their environment.
Typically developing children learn joint attention naturally. Children with autism, however, have difficulty mastering it and that inability can compound into a variety of learning difficulties as they age.
Mechanical engineers and autism experts have developed the system and used it to demonstrate that robotic systems may be powerful tools for enhancing the basic social learning skills of children with ASD.
Writing in the March issue of the IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, the researchers report that children with ASD paid more attention to the robot and followed its instructions almost as well as they did those of a human therapist in standard exercises used to develop joint attention skill. The finding indicates that robots could play a crucial role in responding to the “public health emergency” that has been created by the rapid growth in the number of children being diagnosed with ASD. (via Futurity.org – Interactive robot trains kids with autism)
The Nazca lines seem to show that the less we understand about history, the greater our propensity towards mythology.
Not Strictly Human-centric: Um, English Isn't The Only Language With Filler Words
Did you know that the often unconscious compulsion to say “um,” “like,” and “you know,” occurs across all languages? Filler words are neutral words or sounds that signal a pause in speech so a speaker can maintain a conversation’s flow. Some people pepper their conversation…
Sometimes I say “like” so much it’s embarrassing.
I don’t get people who say they have no regrets. The amount of denial involved in saying that is a warning sign to me, it’s like they can’t cope with having to regret something.
This made me want to point out that mental illness of any kind is a legitimate “illness” as well. I think cases like this aren’t as common because a “physical” illness is seen as not being in control of the person suffering, but many people turn to religion instead of mental therapy. I wonder if there’s a statistic out there ” if it can be accounted for” on the percent of people that have tried praying their depression away and ended up committing suicide.
Meme Engine: A Thought Experiment and Double-Determinism
- Imagine that somehow, sometime not too far in the future, humanity creates a computer program able to think with the speed and abstraction of a normal human.
- Imagine humanity does not reveal itself to this program… it is left in whatever world it inhabits having to work things out for…
Is American English more "moody" than British English?
We report here trends in the usage of “mood” words, that is, words carrying emotional content, in 20th century English language books, using the data set provided by Google that includes word frequencies in roughly 4% of all books published up to the year 2008. We find evidence for distinct historical periods of positive and negative moods, underlain by a general decrease in the use of emotion-related words through time. Finally, we show that, in books, American English has become decidedly more “emotional” than British English in the last half-century, as a part of a more general increase of the stylistic divergence between the two variants of English language.Begin by studying emotional valence of words in English, end by providing evidence of “British Restraint?”
