#cognitive mapping

[jbfly46]

How the stage works:

Team Trump knows there will be an assassination attempt, the approximate caliber that will be used, and the approximate line of fire, but not who will be the shooter, nor the exact date. They know that after certain events occur, an assassination will be ordered.

[usa-journal]

Breakthrough in Fly Brain Research Paves Way for Understanding Human Cognition

Scientists have achieved a monumental breakthrough by mapping the fly brain, revealing the position, shape, and connections of all its 130,000 cells and 50 million intricate connections. This research represents the most detailed analysis of an adult animal's brain to date and is being hailed as a "huge leap" in understanding human cognition.

The fly's brain, though tiny, supports a range of complex behaviors, including walking, hovering, and even producing mating songs. Dr. Gregory Jefferis, a leader in the research from the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, emphasizes that this mapping could illuminate the mechanisms behind thought processes in humans. He noted the lack of understanding about how brain cell networks facilitate our interactions with the world.

Despite humans having a million times more neurons than the fruit fly, the new wiring diagram, or connectome, will aid scientists in deciphering cognitive functions. Published in the journal Nature, the imagery showcases a stunningly complex structure that reveals how a small organ can perform powerful computational tasks.

Dr. Mala Murthy, co-leader of the project from Princeton University, stated that this connectome will be transformative for neuroscientists, allowing for a better understanding of healthy brain function and the potential to compare it with malfunctioning brains.

Dr. Lucia Prieto Godino from the Francis Crick Institute supports this view, highlighting that while simpler organisms like worms and maggots have had their connectomes mapped, the fly’s intricate wiring is a significant achievement. This success paves the way for mapping larger brains, potentially leading to a human connectome in the future.

The research team has successfully identified separate circuits for various functions, illustrating how movement-related circuits are positioned at the base of the brain, while those responsible for vision are located on the sides. The study not only identifies these circuits but also explains their connections, enhancing our understanding of neural processing.

Interestingly, researchers are already applying these circuit diagrams to understand why flies are so hard to catch. The wiring related to vision quickly processes incoming threats, sending signals to the fly's legs to jump away faster than conscious thought.

To create the wiring diagram, researchers used a technique involving slicing the fly brain into 7,000 incredibly thin pieces, photographing each slice, and digitally reconstructing the whole. They employed artificial intelligence to analyze neuron shapes and connections, correcting over three million errors manually.

Dr. Philipp Schlegel from the Medical Research Council highlights that this data serves as a comprehensive map of brain connectivity, akin to a detailed Google Maps for the neural networks. This combined information will facilitate countless discoveries in neuroscience in the coming years.

While a human connectome remains elusive due to the complexity of the human brain, researchers believe that advancements in technology may allow for such mapping in about three decades. The fly brain research marks a significant step toward unlocking the mysteries of human cognition and understanding our own minds better.

The study was conducted by the FlyWire Consortium, an international collaboration of scientists dedicated to advancing neuroscience.

[russellmoreton]

Landscape, asperity/kinship/collage/photogram by Russell Moreton Via Flickr: russellmoreton.blogspot.com/ The Unfolded Garment Embracing Subjectivity Pierced Assemblage on Photogram What is Philosophy? Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari Their book is a profound and careful interrogation of what it might mean to be a 'friend of wisdom', but it is also a devastating attack on the sterility of what has become, when 'the only events are exhibitions and the only concepts are products which can be sold'. Philosophy, they insist, is not contemplation, reflection or communication, but the creation of concepts www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0860916863/ref=pe_2724401_140...

[dxxtruction]

///

[linguisticdiscovery]

The many senses of run

How do you define the word run? You probably think of something like ‘fast pedestrian motion’, but what about the use of run in these examples? There are three boats that run from the mainland to the Island On my way to the elevator, I ran into Pete the bench, which numerous times rebuked the Attorney General for letting his witnesses run on The tears ran down my face Colors on the towels…

[whentherewerebicycles]

therapy was “helpful” and I “liked it” and sigh I’ll “keep going”

[ploppythespaceship]

Guys. You know it's okay for multiple things to share an abbreviation. Right? Or to have the same acronym. Nobody is "stealing" anything. There are only so many words and letters in the alphabet. It's okay to have overlap and figure out which thing is meant in the moment by context clues. It's okay.

[laiamiret]

An eternal light pollinates the night, permanent sun blinds the unknown.

On Earth, the moon, Mars and at home.

Vulnerable rocks, eroded terrain data. Piled up, heavy intimate stones.

Arthritis, hypericum. Arnica, analgesic. Nerve endings. Nerve beginnings? Not knowing, knot knowing.

Reduced visibility, unprotected foot plant, unrestricted touch, insect attractant.

Soft excrements, voluminous excrements, dried excrements, moisturising smell.

Right path, left path, good path, bad path. My path, their path, our path, not our path.

Is there a path?

Incalculable, unknown, sensual discrepancy.

When

Nobody clicks me, nobody drags me, nobody drops me. Nobody feels me. I touch myself and nobody asks,

But is there a path? Translucent, I can see it.

Once in darkness, I round my lips to tell you that O is 0.

More: https://laiamiret.com/Alternative-Explorer

[hyperlexichypatia]

ok this has always been a question in the back of my mind regarding autonomy - "what if someone needs help and wants it, but for any reason, never explicitally communicates they want it?" or "what if someone is in a mindset where they dont want help, but after/before they always want help/wish someone would help?"

because ive seen posts like "even if someone is in critical state, unless they explicitly state they want help, then you shouldnt interfere", something along the lines of that.

its affecting how i approach others, especially those who arent doing well mentally (and even myself)... because sometimes, we DONT know what we want, or whats best for ourselves. I can attest to that. I dont know what i need or what i want a lot until i gravely mess up or i miss out etc. Sometimes I say yes when i mean no, and no when i mean yes. Sometimes i reject help both when i actually want it, and when i feel as if i dont need it if I'm not well (psychosis, ocd etc...)

The thing everyone says about "you know yourself best always" and "never intervene on others actions even if theyre not okay if they reject outside help." it... assumes everyone is in a state to know themselves well. amnesia comes to mind, or any cognitive condition where someone will struggle to know what they want/need, or how they feel, and how to communicate such.

Maybe im overthinking and nobody has ever said ppl cant intervene in special cases.. but ive never seen anyone explicitly say they can, either.. so idk what people think about it.

We're all here to overthink, so that's a good thing. I think there are a few issues to overthink here. First of all, what is "help"? I mean this in both a specific and an abstract way. Specifically, what are you considering doing for someone that they haven't asked for and you think they need? Is it something where if you're wrong and they really don't want it, it's no big deal (like giving someone a coffeepot they have no real use for but accept to be polite), or is it something where if you're wrong and they really don't want it, you're severely harming them by imposing something on them against their will (like forced drugging, which is what most policy advocates mean by "getting someone help")? And more abstractly, how can you be sure that what you want to do for someone is actually helpful? The premise of "You know yourself best always" doesn't mean "You know yourself perfectly always." No one has complete self-knowledge. It is absolutely possible for you to be wrong about what's best for you. It's absolutely possible for you to make a decision and regret it -- maybe immediately, maybe years later. And to think "Why did I make such a bad decision? What was I thinking? Why didn't someone stop me?" But you still know yourself best always, not because you know what's best always or never make bad decisions (that's not true of anyone, and is an unreasonable standard!) but because you know yourself better than anyone else can, because no one else can have the lived experience of being you and knowing how you feel and what you need. Or put another way: However bad, unwise, or regrettable your decisions about your own body/mind/life are, anyone else's would inherently be worse. So moving on to the specific: What if someone needs help in a way that they can't communicate due to awareness/communication related disabilities? This definitely happens to me! For example, I have a real problem remembering to eat and remembering that I'm hungry. It's helpful for me when someone reminds me that I haven't had lunch yet, and that's probably why I'm spacy. For yourself, if you know you're prone to bouts of poor bodily awareness, try to ask for help in advance. If you have a willing friend or partner, you can ask them in advance "If I get spaced out, please remind me to eat/ drink/ take medicine/ go outside." For more complicated things, you can look into some of the advance plans and templates suggested by the Fireweed Collective: https://fireweedcollective.org/crisis-toolkit For trying to help other people who haven't asked for it -- or rather, trying to intervene in a way that you think is helpful even though they haven't asked for it -- I would recommend some broad guidelines.

Ask first, and be willing to take "no" for an answer. If someone says no, but seems really disoriented, you might try asking again later, but still be willing to accept a no.

Offer basic things: Food, water, and the opportunity to leave the environment. If the person only eats certain foods, bring them that food. You may need to physically bring it to them if they are too disoriented to get it themselves or even answer whether they want it.

IF you know that they take a medication regularly, and you think it's possible that their disorientation could be caused by a missed dose, offer to bring them their medicine. Do NOT try to get them to start a medical regimen if they're not already on them. DO NOT encourage them to take medication if you know, or have reason to believe, that they're foregoing medication as an intentional choice rather than simply forgetting a dose.

If possible, try to reduce environmental stressors like noise. Turn down music, fans, flashing lights.

If the person is communicating in a way you don't understand, listen respectfully. Don't bombard them with questions. If you don't understand, say so. You can always come back to the topic later.

Offer alternate ways to communicate. If someone isn't speaking well, try typing or another form of AAC.

Be humble. They may not appreciate your offers, nor do they have any obligation to. They might be annoyed or angry by your offers (especially if they've already said "no"), and they have every right to be. Accept this fact going in.

These are some general suggestions for trying to help someone who has not specifically requested your help, but you have reason to believe may be disoriented or otherwise unable to communicate their wants/needs, while still respecting their bodily autonomy. It's not foolproof, but it might be a start.

[geometrymatters]

How are neural representations of conceptual information structured such that people may deduce relationships they have never seen or classify fresh examples? It has been argued that a viable format for encoding physical space during navigation is a representation that resembles a map. Previous research showed distance mapping in a feature space that was significant for concept learning as well as directional coding during navigation across a continuous stimulus feature space. In contrast to a broad feature-based environment, Stephanie Theves et al. present the first evidence in their study for a hippocampus representation of a conceptual space.

We provide the first unambiguous evidence for a hippocampal representation of the actual concept space, by showing that the hippocampal distance signal selectively reflects the mapping of specifically conceptually relevant rather than of all feature dimensions.

The researchers displayed common items that have previously been linked with particular values on three continuous feature dimensions while fMRI scanning 32 human subjects (21 females). Importantly, prior concept learning was only important across two dimensions. In contrast to distances in a space defined along all feature dimensions, they discovered that hippocampus responses to the objects reflect their relative distances in a space defined along cognitively significant dimensions. According to these results, the hippocampus aids in the acquisition of knowledge by dynamically storing data in a space that is spanned along dimensions that are important for defining ideas.

Continue Reading

[art-of-mathematics]

[monriatitans]

Does Having ADHD Make You More Creative?

How to ADHD

[orcelito]

ok so i know in the trigun manga, vash's hair turning black signifies him using up his powers (and is in general bad for him?? what ive picked up from fanfic at least). a part of me is like "MAN he's got like half black hair at the start of trimax, that's so EARLY to be that much gone!" but then i remembered he literally blew a giant crater in the fucking moon so maybe it's not That weird actually

[mergist]

There is no reason to believe that cognitive maps are like iconic maps except, rather than being inscribed in the dirt, or on a rock, or imprinted on paper, they are somehow inscribed in neural tissue. They seem to be more like lists of significant places intertwined with bearings and headings between one place and another. The vital significance of these places is part and parcel of the map; the "map" is not a neutral spatial substrate to which vital significance is later attached. The space of cognitive maps is not merely about physical position; it is about needs and satisfiers, vantage points and opportunities for action.

-William Benzon, Reading Graphs Maps and Trees: Responses to Franco Moretti, pg. 57

[jcmarchi]

Neuroscientists create a comprehensive map of the cerebral cortex

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/neuroscientists-create-a-comprehensive-map-of-the-cerebral-cortex/

Neuroscientists create a comprehensive map of the cerebral cortex

By analyzing brain scans taken as people watched movie clips, MIT researchers have created the most comprehensive map yet of the functions of the brain’s cerebral cortex.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, the research team identified 24 networks with different functions, which include processing language, social interactions, visual features, and other types of sensory input.

Many of these networks have been seen before but haven’t been precisely characterized using naturalistic conditions. While the new study mapped networks in subjects watching engaging movies, previous works have used a small number of specific tasks or examined correlations across the brain in subjects who were simply resting.

“There’s an emerging approach in neuroscience to look at brain networks under more naturalistic conditions. This is a new approach that reveals something different from conventional approaches in neuroimaging,” says Robert Desimone, director of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research. “It’s not going to give us all the answers, but it generates a lot of interesting ideas based on what we see going on in the movies that’s related to these network maps that emerge.”

The researchers hope that their new map will serve as a starting point for further study of what each of these networks is doing in the brain.

Desimone and John Duncan, a program leader in the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge University, are the senior authors of the study, which appears today in Neuron. Reza Rajimehr, a research scientist in the McGovern Institute and a former graduate student at Cambridge University, is the lead author of the paper.

Precise mapping

The cerebral cortex of the brain contains regions devoted to processing different types of sensory information, including visual and auditory input. Over the past few decades, scientists have identified many networks that are involved in this kind of processing, often using fMRI to measure brain activity as subjects perform a single task such as looking at faces.

In other studies, researchers have scanned people’s brains as they do nothing, or let their minds wander. From those studies, researchers have identified networks such as the default mode network, a network of areas that is active during internally focused activities such as daydreaming.

“Up to now, most studies of networks were based on doing functional MRI in the resting-state condition. Based on those studies, we know some main networks in the cortex. Each of them is responsible for a specific cognitive function, and they have been highly influential in the neuroimaging field,” Rajimehr says.

However, during the resting state, many parts of the cortex may not be active at all. To gain a more comprehensive picture of what all these regions are doing, the MIT team analyzed data recorded while subjects performed a more natural task: watching a movie.

“By using a rich stimulus like a movie, we can drive many regions of the cortex very efficiently. For example, sensory regions will be active to process different features of the movie, and high-level areas will be active to extract semantic information and contextual information,” Rajimehr says. “By activating the brain in this way, now we can distinguish different areas or different networks based on their activation patterns.”

The data for this study was generated as part of the Human Connectome Project. Using a 7-Tesla MRI scanner, which offers higher resolution than a typical MRI scanner, brain activity was imaged in 176 people as they watched one hour of movie clips showing a variety of scenes.

The MIT team used a machine-learning algorithm to analyze the activity patterns of each brain region, allowing them to identify 24 networks with different activity patterns and functions.

Some of these networks are located in sensory areas such as the visual cortex or auditory cortex, as expected for regions with specific sensory functions. Other areas respond to features such as actions, language, or social interactions. Many of these networks have been seen before, but this technique offers more precise definition of where the networks are located, the researchers say.

“Different regions are competing with each other for processing specific features, so when you map each function in isolation, you may get a slightly larger network because it is not getting constrained by other processes,” Rajimehr says. “But here, because all the areas are considered together, we are able to define more precise boundaries between different networks.”

The researchers also identified networks that hadn’t been seen before, including one in the prefrontal cortex, which appears to be highly responsive to visual scenes. This network was most active in response to pictures of scenes within the movie frames.

Executive control networks

Three of the networks found in this study are involved in “executive control,” and were most active during transitions between different clips. The researchers also observed that these control networks appear to have a “push-pull” relationship with networks that process specific features such as faces or actions. When networks specific to a particular feature were very active, the executive control networks were mostly quiet, and vice versa.

“Whenever the activations in domain-specific areas are high, it looks like there is no need for the engagement of these high-level networks,” Rajimehr says. “But in situations where perhaps there is some ambiguity and complexity in the stimulus, and there is a need for the involvement of the executive control networks, then we see that these networks become highly active.”

Using a movie-watching paradigm, the researchers are now studying some of the networks they identified in more detail, to identify subregions involved in particular tasks. For example, within the social processing network, they have found regions that are specific to processing social information about faces and bodies. In a new network that analyzes visual scenes, they have identified regions involved in processing memory of places.

“This kind of experiment is really about generating hypotheses for how the cerebral cortex is functionally organized. Networks that emerge during movie watching now need to be followed up with more specific experiments to test the hypotheses. It’s giving us a new view into the operation of the entire cortex during a more naturalistic task than just sitting at rest,” Desimone says.

The research was funded by the McGovern Institute, the Cognitive Science and Technology Council of Iran, the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge, and a Cambridge Trust scholarship.

[diaryofaphilosopher]

"The shift from the Afro-Caribbean zombie to the U.S. zombie is clear: in Caribbean folklore, people are scared of becoming zombies, whereas in U.S. narratives people are scared of zombies. This shift is significant because it maps the movement from the zombie as victim (Caribbean) to the zombie as an aggressive and terrifying monster who consumes human flesh (U.S.). In Haitian folklore, for instance, zombies do not physically threaten people; rather, the threat comes from the voduon practice whereby the sorcerer (master) subjugates the individual by robbing the victim of free will, language and cognition. The zombie is enslaved."

— Justin D. Edwards, "Mapping Tropical Gothic in the Americas" in Tropical Gothic in Literature and Culture.

Follow Diary of a Philosopher for more quotes!