by Ben Atlas on 12.15.2009.9:47pm
F. Ernest Jackson, Study of a sleeping cat
Toxoplasmosis or Toxo is a parasite often carried by cats. It’s estimated that 1/3 of humans might be infected. The Stanford Professor Robert Sapolsky suggesting in an interview with the Edge that Toxo could drastically alter the human neurology, perhaps even play a part in schizophrenia. Fascinating, especially for people who hang around cats.
P.S. This pretty much solves the riddle of women with cats. Are they crazy so they live with three cats or are they crazy because they live with three cats. Might explains the global mishugas emanating from Jerusalem, the city infested with cats.
By seriously, did you notice the nonchalant comment about the “free will” at the opening of the interview? Remember those si-fi films where an alien parasite takes over and controls a human body? This is what Robert Sapolsky is actually saying, shocking.
Image licensed courtesy of Picture Library of the Royal Academy of Arts
by Ben Atlas on 12.13.2009.6:01am
Timothy Sandefur links to the video about Stephen Wiltshire, the autistic savant memorizing Rome. I have seen and linked to this video years back but Timothy makes an interesting point:
“The one thing I would challenge is the term “beautiful mind.” Wiltshire’s ability is breathtaking, to be sure, but the capacity to forget, and to not be fixated by tedious detail, is crucial to the function of a normal human mind.”
So really, we all have the latent capacity to remember as good as that of Stephen Wiltshire, but we also have the more important capacity to forget, to sort and prioritize information. This is different from what Tyler Cowen calls in his book “autistic cognitive strengths”. Tyler means “channeling”, concentrating on a certain area, or more precisely tuning out of multiple channels.
I am not sure what Timothy refers to with a “normal human mind”, but for whatever reason we evolved to forget. So if forgetfulness makes us “normal” shouldn’t the ideal education teach us how to forget instead of how to remember?
This is an amazing story. A man assumed to be in coma after an accident in Belgium lost control of his body and his abilities to express himself but his brain was fully functional all along. He could only move his eyes but was unable to respond to any questions even though his was fully conscious. Witnessed being diagnosed and assumed to be in coma but was unable to signal that he was awake for 23 years. Now he has been given a typing pad and he is able to type and communicate with the pad. The doctor said there are many patients who are assumed to be in coma but have a functional brain.
“Asked how he passed the time for 23 years, he said: “I meditated – I dreamt myself away.”
I want to glimpse the dreams, can a yogi do that? The story and video in the Times.
Simon Baron-Cohen (Sacha’s brother) writes in the NYT on the proposed inclusion of Aspergers diagnosis in general Autism – The Short Life of a Diagnosis:
“So what should we do about Asperger syndrome? Although originally described in German in 1944, the first article about it in English was published in 1981, and Asperger syndrome made it only into the fourth version of the manual, in 1994. That is, the international medical community took 50 years to acknowledge it. In the last decade thousands of people have been given the diagnosis. Seen through this historical lens, it seems a very short time frame to be considering removing Asperger syndrome from the manual.”
And here is the most interesting admission that psychiatry knows nothing about the causes of any of the disorders and just goes about guessing based on the infinite range of symptoms:
“Part of the reason the diagnostic manual can move the boundaries and add or remove “mental disorders” so easily is that it focuses on surface appearances or behavior (symptoms) and is silent about causes. Symptoms can be arranged into groups in many ways, and there is no single right way to cluster them. Psychiatry is not at the stage of other branches of medicine, where a diagnostic category depends on a known biological mechanism. An example of where this does occur is Down syndrome, where surface appearances are irrelevant. Instead the cause — an extra copy of Chromosome 21 — is the sole determinant to obtain a diagnosis. Psychiatry, in contrast, does not yet have any diagnostic blood tests with which to reveal a biological mechanism.”
So here is what I propose, why name a condition after some 1944 Nazi? Since you already admitted that there is an infinite range of symptoms, than give diagnosis based the name of an individual patient. Like this nut case has a case of Shemtovatis, this one has case of advanced Schneersonatis, this one suffers from McCarthyism or something, you get the idea. Everyone is crazy in his or her own special way. Problem solved.
Finally it’s been clinically proven that a man with half a brain and no emotional apparatus is the happiest creature on earth. There is a paper about a man named Roger from Iowa who lost most of his “limbic system” due to a rare viral lesion, neuroskeptic describes it.
“Limbic system” is an old, vague, but still popular term for a collection of brain structures located deep in the centre of the brain … It’s often thought of as the “primitive”, “emotional” part of the brain, and there is some truth to this. Roger’s limbic system was profoundly damaged on both sides; on the right side, the lesion included the whole temporal lobe and most of the ventral prefrontal cortex as well.”
Remarkably Roger is functional, although he is unable to remember anything that happed since the loss 28 years ago. From the paper:
“He has virtually no episodic memories for any events that have transpired over the past three decades. For example, he has no recollection of 9/11, and when shown pictures of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center he often responds with bewilderment, speculating that Russia must be attacking America.”
Neuroskeptic writes:
“His IQ is above average; his speech and language abilities are excellent; his vision and hearing are normal, although he has no sense of taste or smell. His short term (working) memory, attention, and reasoning abilities are unimpaired. His motor abilities are fine – he is reportedly an excellent bowler – and he is able to improve motor skills through practice. And his recall of things which happened before the infection is largely preserved, although the few years just before the infection are partially lost.”
But most interestingly Roger is actually always happy:
“Roger appears remarkably unconcerned by his condition. He hardly ever complains and, in general, shows little worry for anything in life. Both of his parents and his sister fervently claim that “Roger is always happy,” an observation that is consistent with our own impression. Moreover, based on his family’s report, Roger is paradoxically happier now than he was before his brain damage. … His premorbid disposition of being somewhat reserved and introverted has shifted to being outgoing and extroverted…
Most conversations with Roger involve animated speech that is replete with prosody, gesture, and, often times, laughing. He readily displays signs of positive emotion including happiness, amusement, interest, and excitement. As previously noted, Roger’s positive mood has remained essentially unchanged over nearly three decades.”
I have been writing about this numerous times. And finally there is a scientific basis for Hugh MacLeod’s motto and his book title – Ignore Everybody. The experiment by Prof. Gregory Berns of Emory University involved financial decisions, I am certain this applies to any kind of advice. It appears that listening to an expert has an effect of turning off precisely the areas of brain responsible for making the right choices. I am sure this broadly is the mechanics of a guidance or indoctrination. Alon Nir writes on Dan Ariely’s blog Predictably Irrational – The value of advice:
“Berns recorded his subjects’ brain activity with an fMRI machine while they made simulated financial decisions. Each round subjects had to choose between receiving a risk-free payment and trying their chances at a lottery. In some rounds they were presented with an advice from an “expert economist” as to which alternative they consider to be better.
The results are surprising. Expert advice attenuated activity in areas of the brain that correlate with valuation and probability weighting. Simply put, the advice made the brain switch off (at least to a great extent) processes required for financial decision-making. This response, supported by subjects’ actual decisions in the task, are troublesome, perhaps even frightening. The expert advice given in the experiment was suboptimal – meaning the subjects could have done better had they weighted their options themselves.”
A momentous moment!
