# Question
Title: Which part of the brain is not working optimally if an individual is unable to understand scientific concepts and mathematics?
I have often observed that while I can understand concepts related to Finance and Literature very easily I find it extremely difficult to understand scientific topics related to Physics, Maths or Chemistry.

If it is due to a certain part of my brain not working optimally, then which part of the brain is it?

# Answer
Almost every area of your brain would be involved in learning and understanding such high-level topics, so any perceived inability to learn a specific topic is very unlikely to be due to a particular area of your brain not working optimally.

Learning new things can take a lot of time and practice. A lot of times people don't see as much improvement as they would like and this discourages them from continuing to practice. If you can easily understand Finance and Literature, then I believe that you have the ability to catch on with Physics and Math. Just keep reading and trying and eventually you will see improvement.
> 3 votes

# Answer
Even though it is true that most of the brain is involved in complex tasks, there is some research to suggest that there are specific areas that are more important for problem solving or maths. This is indicated in core deficits in certain individuals. Those are people with low performance in specific areas compared to other areas (what's called a dissociation). However, the number of people that show such a deficit is rare. Brian Butterworth argued that such a core deficit exists for Maths ability. People with this true dyscalculia show a deficit even in very simple comparisons of different numbers of dots, but are in the typical range for other abilities, e.g. verbal reasoning. There is a network of brain regions that corresponds to this, comprising the angular gyrus, the superior parietal lobule, and the intra-parietal sulcus.

There is an excellent introduction to these topics (also including a discussion of general reasoning and the brain) in this book:

Mareshal, Butterworth (editors) (2013): 'Educational Neuroscience', 1st edition, Wiley-Blackwell
> 1 votes

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Tags: learning, problem-solving, brain-development
---


# Question
Title: How do reward signals strengthen synaptic connections in the human brain?
In a vast simplification, the mid-brain sends reward signals (for example through dopaminergic neurons) that tell the rest of the brain whether it succeeded at fulfilling the needs of the organism. If there are certain activities in the brain that lead to a successful action, then these activities should have a higher probability of occurring again (since that is useful for achieving the organism's needs in future).

To increase the probability of the occurrence of an activation pattern as a response to a certain history of sensory input, the neurons that were involved to produce this pattern will need to adapt their synapses such that they become more sensitive to this input.

I'm wondering, how are the reward signals thought to affect the neurons that were involved in the previous actions of the organism at the synaptic level?

# Answer
dopamine release changes the nature of synaptic long term potentiation (ltp) thought to underly long term memory. see http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627305003971 for a paper i am familiar with, for an entry point to that field

for a review article:
http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v5/n6/abs/nrn1406.html
see section titled "Dopamine and memory at the cellular level"
> 1 votes

---
Tags: reinforcement-learning, reward
---


# Question
Title: Why do many parents prevent children from being exposed to anything sex-related?
We remove children from anything that is sex related, including talks and photos. When I think about it, it seems deeply and morally wrong to not do it.

When I first thought about that, I thought that it might be because we don't want to encourage them to become sexual. But we also don't want them to be violent, and no one thinks it's wrong to send a 5 year old to a martial arts class. For any other aspect of life, we let them, to some degree, experience.

That made me think that it might be something more than cultural. Of course the definition of "child" may vary depending on the society, but not the moral code of that ruling.

# Answer
> 1 votes
If I were to guess, the reason is probably something to the effect of: because children would not understand since they lack the same (or same level of) sexual urges that adults have. Another thought that comes to mind is maybe parents are afraid (or even ashamed) of their children seeing them (the parents) acting essentially like non-human animals. Sexual intercourse activities are usually very animalistic compared to most of the things we do in everyday life of modern society. For a similar reason, many parents probably would not want their kids seeing the parents drunk or otherwise acting uncivilised. In a way, it is like the parents are trying to hide from the kids the fact that adults are in many ways just big babies who are good at hiding it. The idea that humans are supposed to be civilised and clean is somewhat unnatural, yet common culture seems to view this idea as highly important.

On the topic of war and violence, my guess as to why these are often considered okay for children to see is because awareness of danger and the threat of violence are necessary even for a child, while knowledge of sex and sexuality really is not that essential at a young age.

# Answer
> -1 votes
It is based around the age the average human goes through puberty.The body transforms and certain chemicals are increased causing the brain to induce thoughts of breeding involuntary.The human female is now able to produce offspring after puberty and at this stage the birth of a healthy child is at its climax.Sex is now a normality in lifestyle.Every human goes through this stage and knows the typical age when this occurs.A parent knows after their child forgoes puberty adulthood soon follows and all information and knowledge of how to produce life through breeding is now accepted and no longer suppressed but now taught.If puberty took place during the ages of 3-5 yrs old in humans,information related to breeding to a 3-5 yr old child would be accepted.Certain behaviours in humans are involuntary kept private and less likely to be performed in public due to the programing of the human brain and sometimes what is considered norm in the society the human is raised in.

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Tags: sexuality, moral-psychology, evolutionary-psychology
---


# Question
Title: Cognitive Techniques to train Working Memory?
What are some practical techniques/methods which can be used to train/improve your working memory and what studies have been done on this subject?

# Answer
There are a few commercial packages that provide training for verbal and visuo-spaital working memory. The most well-known is CogMed (http://www.cogmed.com). Another popular one is Jungle Memory (http://junglememory.com). Both of these packages have been used in research studies (comment about these results below) There is also a myriad of online working memory games that promise to improve working memory, e.g. some games in Luminosity (http://www.lumosity.com). The content of these games is very similar, but there are fewer independent scientific studies of them as far as I'm aware.

As a caveat, the scientific evidence about the benefit of WM training is mixed at best. Training on WM tasks improves performance on them. This improvement also transfers to similar tasks (near transfer). However, there is currently little evidence for transfer to other tasks or improvements in everyday function (far transfer). For example, have a look at this report from a randomised control trial of working memory training in children: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.12068/full
> 3 votes

# Answer
In recent news, Lumosity has paid a $2 million fine to the FTC for unsubstantiated claims about the benefits of its training. I've heard CogMed recommended by practicing neuro rehab professionals. Apparently, there is science to back its claims. It gets a bit pricey, however.
> 1 votes

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Tags: cognitive-neuroscience, reference-request, working-memory
---


# Question
Title: Is there any way to calculate the cumulative width of synaptic clefts?
It's my understanding there are 150 trillion synapses in the human brain (give or take). Is there a way to calculate the cumulative width of all synaptic clefts associated with the synapses? I would expect that some would be shared by several synapses. At 20-40nm per synaptic cleft, 150 trillion of them would add up to a sizeable distance, which seems implausible, given the size of the brain's surface.

Anyone have any suggestions on the best way to calculate this -- if there is one?

# Answer
Mathematically, you're correct to think that ***linearly*** the total distance would be sizable, however don't forget the third axis, depth.

**Given the following:**

> **The adult human brain is estimated to contain from 100–500 trillion synapses.** *(Drachman D (2005). "Do we have brain to spare?".)*

Let's go with 150 from your example

... and ...

> **Every cubic millimeter of cerebral cortex contains roughly a billion of them.** *(Alonso-Nanclares L, Gonzalez-Soriano J, Rodriguez JR, DeFelipe J (September 2008). "Gender differences in human cortical synaptic density")*

**Let's calculate the total volume these synapses occupy:**

150,000,000,000,000 / 1,000,000,000 = 150,000 cubic mm =\> 150 cubic cm *( You can picture this as a cuboid 15cm wide by 10cm tall which is roughly the size of a **butter bar** )*

So if all synapses can fit in a 15cm x 10cm cuboid then the clefts could all fit in a significantly less space.

If you want to calculate **linear** distance for, let's say an average of 30nm clefts then:

150,000,000,000,000,000 * 30nm = 4,500,000,000,000,000nm =\> 4500km
> 1 votes

---
Tags: neuroscience
---


# Question
Title: How to install MARSBAR toolbox in SPM12?
I am trying to install MARSBAR toolbox into SPM12, but I am running into different problems. Initially they were all related to directory ownership and permissions (using Ubuntu 14.04), which I managed to correct, but then matlab wouldn't find the script files (extension .m). I added them manually to the path, and that worked out.

Finally, and here is the point I can't go through, when I run `marsbar` in MATLAB I keep running into:

```
>> marsbar
MarsBaR analysis functions prepended to path
Undefined function or variable 'marmoire'.

Error in marsbar (line 125)
  o = marmoire;

Error in marsbar (line 57)
marsbar('on');

```

Even though the function marmoire that it is complaining about IS on the path and with proper permissions! **\<- Actually not, see below.**

Googling the error took me to a lot of different complaints from users that had difficulties about running it on SPM12  , however none were quite the same as the problem I've been facing.

Also, the documentation for the toolbox is quite outdated now, it seems.

Any light here would be greatly appreciated!

**UPDATE 6.1.16** As per suggestion in the comments I added two lines before marsbar calls marmoire.

Now the error is:

```
>> marsbar
MarsBaR analysis functions prepended to path
Undefined function or variable 'marmoire'.

Error in marsbar (line 125)
  which marmoire

Error in marsbar (line 57)
marsbar('on');

```

Which means that marmoire is not actually in the proper path, however I copied it to the same directory as marsbar:

And the problem persists.

# Answer
> 2 votes
Thanks for the comments, @serk1. The answer to this question is that that is a bug, it seems.

I gave up editing the scripts myself and decided to reinstall Matlab and Marsbar, and it properly recognized the path and the permission for the files after that.

I will leave the question here, in case someone run into similar problems.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Try inserting the lines:

```
which marmoire
pause

```

into marsbar just before Line 125.

This would help you verify for sure that marmoire is on the path when that line is being called.

---
Tags: neuroimaging, spm
---


title: Text-to-brain literature?

text:
# Question
Title: Text-to-brain literature?
Herff et. al. demonstrate in "Brain-to-text: decoding spoken phrases from phone representations in the brain" a brain-to-text system to map intracranial electrocorticographic recordings to text.

I've been looking for literature attempting to go the other direction, text-to-brain, but have not had much luck finding anything on Springer, Google Scholar, and related services.

For someone in the know, what's the current state of the text-to-brain problem?

# Answer
> 2 votes
We don't have a well tested or accepted model of how specific items are encoded in the cortex, so text to brain is still far off. However, it is possible to send information to the brain.

Ramirez et al. 2013. Creating a False Memory in the Hippocampus

This study (in mice) involved creating a false sense of fear associated with a particular context. This implanted information is much higher level than just text, but it is still information.

# Answer
> 1 votes
pretty simple: through direct electromagnetic stimulation of photoreceptors in the retina in patterns corresponding to letter shapes, transduced through layers of processing there, passed through the optic nerve to the lgn of the thalamus and from there to visual cortex, eventually you get a complete neural representation of the text. alternatively, you could use direct stimulation of the chochlea via pressure waves in the ear canal transduced by the bones of the inner ear. the auditory cortex will then do most of the heavy lifting.

seriously, though, that paper's achievement was pretty limited: "With 10 words in the dictionary, 75% of all words are recognized correctly." That is just over 3 bits of information being conveyed. And that is after training the classifier.

Training the brain to classify direct inputs is at about the same level of a few bits. www.nature.com/articles/srep01319

see What research has been done on brain-to-brain interfaces?

---
Tags: reference-request, brain-computer-interface, language-processing
---


# Question
Title: What is the current status of neuroeducation?
How can we apply the cognitive neuroscience in the classroom? What is a good general reference discussing the current status of neuroeducation?

# Answer
The general is that neuroeducation or educational neuroscience holds great promise for the future, but is in a very early stage of development. There is great interest in the topic, which is evident in scientific journal, textbooks, and science centres dedicated to the topic that have recently been created. These are good sources of reference as well.

Journals:

Educational Neuroscience: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/educational-neuroscience/journal202455

Trends in Neuroscience and Education: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/trends-in-neuroscience-and-education/

Book:

Educational Neuroscience: http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1119973198.html

Scientific centres:

These centres will often organise seminars, workshops, or other events and have a list of their research output and current projects on their websites.

http://www.educationalneuroscience.org.uk http://www.cne.psychol.cam.ac.uk

As an introduction, I recommend the following Opinion Article:

Goswami, U. (2006). Neuroscience and education: from research to practice? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7(5), 406–413. doi:10.1038/nrn1907

Please note that this is not a comprehensive list, but just some resources that I can recommend as someone working in a related field.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: cognitive-neuroscience, educational-psychology, neuropsychology
---


title: EEG correlates of handedness

text:
# Question
Title: EEG correlates of handedness
Can any one suggest a good article about features of EEG of left-handed people?

I was surprised when find that there are only few old articles about it. I find only one new article by Propper, Ruth E., et al. (2012). Maybe I miss something.

> Propper, R. E., Pierce, J., Geisler, M. W., Christman, S. D., & Bellorado, N. (2012). Asymmetry in Resting Alpha Activity: Effects of Handedness. Open Journal of Medical Psychology, 1(4), 86-90.

# Answer
> **Abstract**
>
> **Background**
>
> According to decades of research on affective motivation in the human brain, approach motivational states are supported primarily by the left hemisphere and avoidance states by the right hemisphere. The underlying cause of this specialization, however, has remained unknown. Here we conducted a first test of the Sword and Shield Hypothesis (SSH), according to which the hemispheric laterality of affective motivation depends on the laterality of motor control for the dominant hand (i.e., the “sword hand," used preferentially to perform approach actions) and the nondominant hand (i.e., the “shield hand," used preferentially to perform avoidance actions).
>
> **Methodology/Principal Findings**
>
> To determine whether the laterality of approach motivation varies with handedness, we measured alpha-band power (an inverse index of neural activity) in right- and left-handers during resting-state electroencephalography and analyzed hemispheric alpha-power asymmetries as a function of the participants' trait approach motivational tendencies. Stronger approach motivation was associated with more left-hemisphere activity in right-handers, but with more right-hemisphere activity in left-handers.
>
> **Conclusions**
>
> The hemispheric correlates of approach motivation reversed between right- and left-handers, consistent with the way they typically use their dominant and nondominant hands to perform approach and avoidance actions. In both right- and left-handers, approach motivation was lateralized to the same hemisphere that controls the dominant hand. This covariation between neural systems for action and emotion provides initial support for the SSH.

Citation: Brookshire G, Casasanto D (2012) Motivation and Motor Control: Hemispheric Specialization for Approach Motivation Reverses with Handedness. PLoS ONE 7(4): e36036. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036036
> 3 votes

# Answer
Propper RE, et al. 2012. Asymmetry in Resting Alpha Activity: Effects of Handedness

The authors found differences in resting state alpha power depending on degree of handedness.

> **ABSTRACT**
>
> **Study Aim**: Frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha band power during rest shows increased right, and/or decreased left, hemisphere activity under conditions of state or trait withdrawal-associated affect. Non-right-handers (NRH) are more likely to have mental illnesses and dispositions that involve such withdrawal-related affect. The aim of the study was to examine whether NRH might be characterized by increased right, relative to left, hemisphere activity during rest.
>
> **Methods**: The present research investigated that hypothesis by examining resting EEG alpha power in consistently-right-handed (CRH) and NRH individuals.
>
> **Results**: In support of the hypothesis, NRH demonstrated decreased right hemisphere alpha power, and therefore increased right hemisphere activity, during rest, compared to CRH.
>
> **Conclusions**: The study demonstrates further support for an association between increased right hemisphere activity and negative affect via an association between such EEG activity and NRH.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: cognitive-neuroscience, motor, neuroimaging, eeg, lateralization
---


# Question
Title: How useful are neural circuits in psychology?
We can identify many kinds of patterns of how neurons connect such as lateral inhibition, negative/positive feedback, convergence, divergence, and facilitation. But have any of these circuits been used to make claims about how a cognitive or psychological phenomena is computed? Is that even possible, given its complexity? In which context is neural circuitry useful?

# Answer
Contrary to one of the other answers, I will have to respectfully disagree. Neural circuity is both the pinnacle and future of cognitive neuroscience. We already know the large areas of the brain are associated with specific cognitive processes, for example the NAc shell is associated with desire to seek out motivational objects such as food, but this could just as easily facilitate gaming, dancing or sex. The problem comes with investigating these behaviours in humans. We can easily test circuits on animals, but humans are far more difficult as we can only use scanning equipment like EEG and fMRI. While scanning equipment has improved the spatial or temporal resolution makes studying these circuits in humans difficult. However animal research supplements this and can show us circuits that are involved in particular cognitions, while the patterns of neural firing tell indicate particular activity. For instance we know the visual pathways in great detail how light engages neural activity in the retina, and how this information is transmitted to the occipital cortex to create a representation spread across the neural activity of the occipital cortex. In fact we understand this so well now that cognitive neuroscientists can take an EEG recording of activity while you sleep and interpret the neural activity into an image under specific circumstances. This fascinating method is called neural decoding, and it was developed out from our understanding of neural patterns of activity and mapping of neural networks developed over decades. Of course the same neural activity can be used to map networks and model neural activity in computational models which mimic cognitive processes.

Of course this is easier for vision, hearing and somatic perception as these are straightforward cognitive processes which are generating virtual representations of the world we experience. What is far more difficult to assess are the memories and experiences that are recalled and how these influence decision making relative to the environment you find yourself in. However this is all being investigated, research starts with large neural structures like the NAc shell and then moves down to more specific areas followed by the circuits connecting it to other parts of the brain relative to particular cognitions. An example may help, motivation like hunger drives you to eat this is used by both information coming from your environment and internal changes. For instance once food has been consumed our brains assess the value of the food, did we like it? was the food more or less pleasurable than last time? did it make us happy? This activates the pACC, PAG, OCC, lOFC, rACC. The areas mentioned largely deal with attention, affective assessment (feelings), and pleasure. The activation of these areas helps an individual to make future decisions about consuming food. In rats the order of area activation is well understood, in humans there is still work to be done. But overall the fundamental mechanisms are the same, and can be modelled computationally. Understanding how the fundamental structures and there activity in context for both people and animals is essential in understanding disorders ranging from schizophrenia to obesity, and helps other researchers to develop assessments and interventions, such as drugs or government legislation. Or for companies to taylor their products to their consumers needs. Crucially, to the question at least, this information can be used to predict behaviour, in fact that basically the role of any computational model.

Fundamentally our hard wiring is relatively similar, it is this that we investigate, and it is these hard wired mechanisms that have the greatest impact on our behaviour and cognition. Cognitive scientists use the activation patterns of neutrons as a means of mapping these cognitive processes in neural circuitry. Finally I will say that overall the brain isn't really so complicated, its quiet simple really if you consider it from an evolutionary perspective. We and all other animals have developed by means of natural selection to survive long enough to pass on our genes, both our behaviour and neural development demonstrate this. The extra complications in behaviour are merely complexities that enhance gene survival, until they are lost or supersede within the same selection process.
> 3 votes

# Answer
Check out \[http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002328\] The Contribution of Network Organization and Integration to the Development of Cognitive Control by Scott Marek,Kai Hwang,William Foran,Michael N. Hallquist,Beatriz Luna

Just Published on PLOS Biology: December 29, 2015 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002328

> Cognitive control, which continues to mature throughout adolescence, is supported by the ability for well-defined organized brain networks to flexibly integrate information. However, the development of intrinsic brain network organization and its relationship to observed improvements in cognitive control are not well understood.

It's a fascinating read about how brain function may "top out" at a certain point, but the increasing integration of networks contribute to increased cognitive control.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: cognitive-psychology, neuroscience, cognitive-neuroscience, neural-network
---


title: What is subvocalization good for?

text:
# Question
Title: What is subvocalization good for?
While reading, I tend to subvocalize what I have read. I feel this as disturbing, but as many people do this, there must be a reason why the brain does this. So, what is subvocalization good for?

# Answer
> 0 votes
It should be pointed out that subvocalisation while reading is not necessarily of the same cause or purpose as subvocalisation while doing other activities. Many people are able (or accustomed) to comprehending written language only by converting it to spoken language mentally. This allows the interpretation process to share the same brain regions, as opposed to using one modality for reading and another for listening. Naturally some people are more prone to logical (read: serialised) thinking while others are more prone to visual (read: parallel) thinking. Those individuals prone to logical thinking are more likely to subvocalise while reading since this allows the reading process to correspond well with one's usual way of thinking. The reverse should be true for those accustomed to visual thinking.

The act of subvocalising while doing non-reading activities is probably similar in that it may allow the thinking to be of one's usual modality (logical). Taking it further, however, subvocalisation is a way of putting thoughts into words. It is common knowledge that when you put an understanding into your own words you are more likely to develop a lasting memory. This is presumably because explaining something in words requires that the ideas be organised in a coherent fashion, as opposed to possessing merely a superficial glimpse of awareness. To think about it another way, putting thoughts into words creates durable mental objects that can then be stored away into memory.

---
Tags: cognitive-psychology
---


# Question
Title: What do depressants treat? Are they used in bipolar to treat mania?
I don't understand the Wikipedia article on depressants.

This is what I have gathered:

1. Depression and anxiety disorders are treated by antidepressants.
2. Narcolepsy, ADHD, obesity, smoking addiction, lethargy are treated by stimulants.
3. The opposite class drug of a depressant is a stimulant not an antidepressant.

So what do depressants treat? Bipolar? Mania? Impulse control disorders? I couldn't find any articles on treating bipolar with depressants. What I have found are Lithium and mood stabilisers.

The Wikipedia article said depressants can treat OCD, anxiety or depression. Why? This seems a little odd for terminology. Depression is treated with a depressant?

# Answer
> 1 votes
*Depressants* belong to a general class of drugs that decrease activity in one or more parts of the nervous system. *Depression* in the usual sense of the word comprises a particular subset of *depressed* states, particulars as it refers to lack of happiness or drive. Not all depressed states are considered depression in the common sense of the word. Similarly, not all stimulated states are the opposite of this depression. Different parts of the brain can be depressed or stimulated, and the *affects* of these *effects* come in many forms and resulting psychological states. Generally speaking, a depressant can be used to treat a condition if that particular depressant decreases activity in a part of the nervous system that is overactive in that condition. Anxiety, as you have mentioned, is a prime example condition where one part of the brain is overactive, for which certain depressant drugs can calm that part of the brain to effect relief from the anxiety. If a particular case of depression is caused by overactivity in one or more brain regions, then it could in theory be possible to treat that depression using depressants that decrease activity in those particular brain regions. The key thing to keep in mind here is that mental depression can be caused by over or underactivity in various brain regions, so there is a possibility of using either specific types of stimulants or specific types of depressants to effect relief.

---
Tags: abnormal-psychology, terminology, depression, bipolar-disorder, medication
---


title: Chunking and learning vocabulary

text:
# Question
Title: Chunking and learning vocabulary
Learning vocabulary seems to be efficient if the words are learned in a fixed sequence, but it seems to be harder to recall these words in a different sequence then the learning sequence.

I wonder which theory can explain this effect, is it "chunking"?

Some definitions define chunking as a process where facts are organized in groups "chunks" that can be better memorized then the single facts.

In other definitions, it is described as an effect, where the elements of a chunk can be better predicted, because the probability of the occurrence of an element following another element is higher. Or in other words, we learn, that in the context of a special chunk an 'a' is mostly followed by an 'b' and so we can memorize the chunk 'ab' better.

# Answer
I think you've got a reasonable handle on why learning vocabulary in a single, fixed order is probably not a great idea. You may also be interested in what is called context-dependent memory, where you recall things best in a context similar to that which you learned those things in (shitty sentence, but you know what I mean).
> 1 votes

---
Tags: cognitive-psychology, learning, linguistics
---


# Question
Title: How large is a neurotransmitter? Max and min sizes?
What size(s) are neurotransmitters? What is their size relative to the synaptic cleft? Relatively speaking, can we tell how far they must travel to cross the gap? Twice their own length? More?

I reallize this calls for gross oversimplification, and there are bound to be infinite variations, but I am building a conceptual model to understand relationship between the neurotransmitters and their respective "milieux".

# Answer
> 3 votes
From the textbook *Neuroscience. 2nd edition*:

> Neuropeptides are relatively large transmitter molecules composed of 3 to 36 amino acids
>
> Individual amino acids, such as glutamate and GABA, as well as the transmitters acetylcholine, serotonin, and histamine, are much smaller than neuropeptides and have therefore come to be called small-molecule neurotransmitters

Large proteins are around 10nm, because the amino acids wrap around each other.

This means that a good estimate of the size of neurotransmitters would be from around 0.5 to 5 nanometers.

Typical synaptic cleft distance is around 20 nanometers

---
Tags: neuroscience
---


# Question
Title: What are threshold symptoms and sub-threshold symptoms?
I've come across these terminologies—*threshold symptoms* and *sub-threshold symptoms*—in one of the papers in psychology where *delayed reactions* are introduced:

> Empirical studies that have mapped PTSD symptoms over time in fact observed what appear to be delayed elevations in the direction of threshold symptoms...

However, I don't have any ideas what those words are all about.

# Answer
> 1 votes
I believe that the concept of 'subthreashold symptoms' refers to a situation where a client clearly presents with symptoms of a given condition but, crucially, they present with too few symptoms to meet the diagnostic criteria.

This link, which hopefully also satisfies Seanny123's request for a document, states:

> Although DSM-IV acknowledged the clinical significance of some subthreshold forms of unipolar depression, such as minor depression (MinD) and recurrent brief depression (RBD), clinicians continued to struggle with the concept of "subthreshold" depression. A substantial number of patients continued to present with depressive symptoms that still did not satisfy any DSM-IV diagnosis. Generally, these patients failed to complain of anhedonia and depressed mood, a criterion that DSM-IV mandates for any diagnosis of depression.

---
Tags: clinical-psychology, psychology, ptsd
---


# Question
Title: Can hate to same gender parent cause homosexualism?
I know a girl who is (or claims to be) lesbian. I also know that big part of her childhood (12-now years) she hated her mother. Her father left family when she was infant (1-2 years). I dont know what she thinks about her father. She is 17 now.

I wonder, is it possible that by not-accepting her mother, she does not accept her own gender? Or is it more likely that not having a father, influenced her sexual orientation? Was any documented research conducted, that would confirm/reject that? Any other thoughts on that?

## EDIT

I should have mention about it earlier but somehow I forgot about that. I know that she had experiance when she got home earlier one day, and saw her mother with her lover having sex. She told it my sister. More or less after that, she started to dress like a man and (I think) she lost this 'little girl/child' identity. She become more serious and her marks at school rised very high. She is the best in class now but before that experience she was one of the worst.

I dont know if this is relevant, but she consider herself as a loner and watches a lot of anime now. I think this is all what I know about her.

I feel confused. I always thought that only small percent of people are really homosexual (because of chromosome mutation), and the rest just believes (because many possible reasons) that they are.

# Answer
> 2 votes
Gender is not, despite what others might say, a social construct, and neither is sexuality, just google David Rimmer to see what happens when researchers have messed with these. While we don't understand what causes homo-sexuality fully, typically speaking sexuality seems to be influenced by hormone exposure in the womb, when a human is a foetus. Although studies have found that roughly 5-10% of people have had same-sex sexual experiences, this appears to be relatively common in adolescence although it does happen later in life too. Speculatively its possible that this partly comes from people learning about themselves and their sexuality. However despite people having these same-sex experiences only 1-3% of people identify as homo or bisexual. Why do people have these experiences? There are a a multitude of reasons, some people are homosexual, while some may be curious or undecided, or perhaps some other reason.

Ignoring the sexuality side and looking at group identification: people have all sorts of reasons for identifying with particular groups or demographics. While relationships with parents are certainly cause for being rebelliousness, its not going to turn anyone homosexual who isn't already inclined. There seems to be **no recent evidence** about parenting style and sexuality, apart from on religious websites that have no place here, although stonewall say that there is no relationship. However the research linking the two is absent, which usually suggests either it hasn't been researcher properly or, more likely, that there is no relationship at all.

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, sexuality, gender
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# Question
Title: Can anyone provide a modern source for the average college student IQ of 115?
I've read in various places that the average college student IQ is about 115, and the various estimations of IQ by college major reached by converting SAT to IQ all use 115 as the starting point for college students. However, the most recent source for this number is The Bell Curve, which was in the early 1990s. It is also just about the only source of the last 40+ years. Can anyone provide a more recent documentation of the average IQ of college students? (that isn't just a reference to an older study)

# Answer
Ok I finally found the official demographic norming data from the WAIS-IV on page 104 of this book:

"WAIS-IV Clinical Use and Interpretation: Scientist-Practitioner Perspectives"

You can see a preview of this book at http://tinyurl.com/z3vr44e.

The answer to my question is: **Some college: 102.28 College graduates: 110.77**
> 3 votes

# Answer
If you search for "IQ students" on google scholar since 2012 you will find plenty of literature. However, the problem will be that there are many different "standardised intelligence tests", and not all of them call themselves "IQ". You might want to restrict your search to a specific test like the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale which is one of the most used. The norms for such tests are published, organised into age/socioeconomic groups, so that may be the "original" source. For Wechsler the citation is: Wechsler, D. (2008). Wechsler adult intelligence scale-fourth. San Antonio: Pearson.

For a recent other example, this paper used this scale with 42 college students and found a mean of 105 which they (reasonably) conclude is "close to national norms": http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3389807/

You don't specify, but I am assuming you are talking about average US college students.

Since you are interested in the relationship between IQ and SATs, this recent paper might also be of interest, although it focuses on grade 8 students: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/25/3/736.full
> 1 votes

# Answer
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232514979\_The\_IQ\_of\_the\_average\_college\_student

I found this article that seems to answer your question in the abstract. I didn't bother to sign up and read the whole thing though.
> -1 votes

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Tags: measurement, reference-request, iq
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title: Can you override priming?

text:
# Question
Title: Can you override priming?
Assume that you are using priming as a technique to improve your performance in a specific area. Ex: When I am sleepy in the morning I use more alert music to get my mind up to speed. If I want to stay focused I try to visualize a focused person or I try to focus on an object for a few minutes. With these I am trying to used the ideomotor link (as Khaneman calls it) and to increase the concentration power directly or indirectly.

Now let's assume that I want to go back and get out of being focused and staying alert and I expose myself to stimuli that would send me in the opposite direction. Would the initial priming be an obstacle in this direction?

Note: in Kahneman's example imagining yourself smiling will actually improve your mood. Same way, imagining yourself concentrating on something should improve your focus.

# Answer
> -2 votes
> Would the initial priming be an obstacle in this direction?

Yes. But not an exceedingly difficult one to overcome since you manage to prime yourself into being focused in the first place.

Personality plays a vital role of course. If you're a natural hyperactive person it would obviously be an easier task to prime yourself into being alert than to enter a state of complete focus and calmness.

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Tags: priming
---


# Question
Title: How can neuronal networks with local learning rules predict their future inputs?
Local learning rules like Contrastive Hebbian Learning, XCAL, etc. are based on the idea of strengthening edges when the neurons they connect fire simultaneously. This causes frequent patterns in the input stream to be encoded in the layers.

I understand how this attracts similar input patterns into learned activation states. However, I fail to see how this memory can be used to predict the future input. How is it possible for neurons to predict future input streams under local learning rules?

From: Introduction Hebbian learning (2005)

# Answer
> 1 votes
see Lisman, J. E. and Otmakhova, N. A. (2001), Storage, recall, and novelty detection of sequences by the hippocampus: Elaborating on the SOCRATIC model to account for normal and aberrant effects of dopamine. Hippocampus, 11: 551–568. doi: 10.1002/hipo.1071: http://wwww.bio.brandeis.edu/lismanlab/pdf/socratic.pdf for one proposed mechanism.

in short, local learning rules can develop connections between items that occur sequentially. if you have one network that pattern completes (i.e. identifies) the input, you can pass that identification to a second network which learns temporal associations between items.

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Tags: cognitive-neuroscience, learning, theoretical-neuroscience, neural-network, perceptual-learning
---


# Question
Title: Limitations of Neural Engineering Framework (NEF)
All frameworks have limitations. Although I ask a lot of questions on this site in regards to the advantages of the Neural Engineering Framework (NEF), there must be significant limitations. What are they?

# Answer
The limitations of the NEF fall into three main categories.

# 1. Simplistic Use of Neurotransmitters

The NEF uses neurotransmitters and their rate of propagation to set a time constant on an exponential low-pass filter for spikes, as well as for modulation of learning rules (dopamine). This is currently the only use of neurotransmitters in the NEF, despite their being many functions that they could serve in terms of signalling and modulation.

# 2. Limitations When Using Complex Neuron Models

Although different filters are being investigated by Aaron Voelker, the vast majority of filters used, as mentioned in the last point, still rely on the single time constant and on linear decoding. More complex neural models, although easily included in a feed-forward connection, usually have multiple time constants and non-linear synpatic effects, which make it very difficult to capture their dynamics. This is covered in chapter 4 of Bryan Tripp's PhD thesis.

# 3. Lack of Developmental Explanation

This last problem may be more of a reflection on the state of neuroscience, than an actual limitation of the NEF.

The NEF describes fully formed, adaptive, but non-developmental networks. Although the NEF can learn functions, it does not describe how certain structures such as the Basal Ganglia came to be formed. Neither does it give any description of how neurogenesis might occur within the framework, although it is easy to imagine how it might be leveraged to increase accuracy of certain populations.

# Conclusion

Although the NEF is the only framework I know of that tries base behaviour on a biologically plausible substrate, it is not the silver bullet of theoretical neuroscience. It is very much a zeroth-order guess at the computations that the brain my perform.
> 0 votes

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Tags: theoretical-neuroscience, nef
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# Question
Title: Are a lot of highly logical people (such as mathematicians) prone to depression?
In my mathematics and physics classes, half the students are seeing, or have seen, psychologists because of depression. Based on my experience, I feel that there is a huge correlation between logical people doing mathematics, physics, informatics, programming, making computer games and depression. Is this just a personal opinion or is it more widespread? Does anybody have an explanation for this?

# Answer
Overall, based on my limited research it appears there is no evidence that people who are more logical are more likely to experience depression. There is a theory that people who see the world more accurately (of which rationality would be a component) are more likely to become depressed. It is called depressive realism {1}. However, the theory doesn't seem to be well researched or supported.

Rather that high levels of logical thinking supporting depression it may well be that factors that predict logical thinking also predict depression. One of these is introversion which, based on some research {e.g., 2}, *may* be correlated with intelligence (which is related to logical thought) and appears to be correlated with depression {3}.

Also, and this is just my opinion, I think that it is possible that the relationship that between maths, physics and programming students and depression might actually be explained by link between introversion and depression as all of these types of careers are probably more commonly associated with introverts.

**References**

{1} Ackermann, R. and R. J. DeRubeis (1991). "Is depressive realism real?" Clinical psychology review 11(5): 565-584.

{2} Furnham, A., et al. (1998). "Personality and intelligence." Personality and Individual Differences 24(2): 187-192.

{3} Janowsky, D. S., et al. (2002). "Myers Briggs Type indicator personality profiles in unipolar depressed patients." The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry 3(4): 207-215.
> 5 votes

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Tags: reference-request, clinical-psychology, depression, mathematical-ability, correlation
---


# Question
Title: Anonymity creates an environment full of bullies?
The Stack Exchange websites has people anonymously up vote or down vote whether questions and answers are good or bad and everyone builds their reputation based on this alone. I saw a question on the mathematics board that was not off topic but, in the beginning, was being down voted due to either being too elementary or perceived as what I consider people to be saying as a "stupid question". Do you think that removing this shawl of anonymity would change the way people interact with each other on Stack Exchange? For better or For Worse?

# Answer
> 1 votes
I have had the same question a while back when I observed similar behavior in a forum on a language learning website (I know that the question here is specific about stack-overflow).

There were two things I noticed- One with regards to my own behavior. I started giving my votes without having to worry that I will offend or please someone. -Two was that I have seen people downvote some of the questions which were relevant to the topic.. while some irrelevant content was upvoted.

So I believe the anonymity works both ways- good and bad.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Of course it would change the way people interact with one another. Social and situational settings strongly affect behaviour.

It's funny you see it this way. One can argue that it's exactly the opposite! Like with parliamentary elections, anonymity means that people act based on their own beliefs without **being swayed by social pressure**.

What's more without anonymity, people may start keeping score, which will further bias the objectivity of the votes.

When it comes to services like Stack Exchange, the general idea is that the various opinions will eventually regress to the mean - so the majority has it. Sure, for this to happen you need quite a lot of votes, but my experience is that usually gross down/up votes are justified.

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Tags: decision-making, language, bias, communication
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# Question
Title: To what extent do individuals vary in their ability to mentally visualise?
**Background:** Yesterday I was shocked when a friend of mine told me that he can see **only** "completely black darkness" **when he closes he eyes**. When I close my eyes, I can see some images or "movies" of what I'm thinking of just now. I don't see the real world. I can "imagine" anything I would like, e.g., a car crash or a sunshine or someone who I know or who I do not. I also can control them in any way: change colors, action, everything. I was sure that anybody on Earth can do it. Indeed, when I asked him if he could "see" even a simple figure, e.g., a circle - he couldn't. He said he could not see anything.

**Questions:**

* What is this "phenomenon" called where a person cannot mentally visualise images when they close their eyes?
* Are there many people who can't see anything with closed eyes?

# Answer
> 10 votes
Short answer: there appears to be a whole range of ability at the task of mental visualization. Based on what I have found on the Web, your own level of ability is fairly unusual. Your friend's level of ability, by contrast, seems to be fairly common. Sources I found on this were fairly sparse, though, and my conclusions should not be relied on too heavily.

The Wikipedia article on "Closed-eye hallucination" seems to have some problems, but is helpful on this question. It describes five distinct levels of "Closed-eye visualization."

* Levels 1 and 2 correspond to very little visual information.
* Level 3 is "patterns, motion, and color."
* Level 4, "objects and things," appears to correspond to your experience.
* Level 5 describes impressions not immediately distinguishable from reality.

> Level 1 and 2 are very common, and often happen every day. It is still normal to experience level 3, and even level 4, but only a small percentage of the population do this without psychedelic drugs, meditation or extensive visualization training.

Wikipedia also links an old paper in Psychological Review that studied variations in the ability to willfully shape closed-eye perception, describing what seems to be a wide distribution of ability:

> Of the sixteen persons experimenting with themselves, four only reported no success; nine had a partial success which seemed to increase with practice and which they considered undoubtedly dependent directly upon volition; and with the remaining three the success was marked and really phenomenal.

I seem to remember that there was an early debate in psychology about whether it was possible to mentally visualize images. Some scholars insisted that it was, others were adamant that it wasn't. Today we can dissolve the debate because we know it is possible for some but not for others. Unfortunately, I can't find a source for this story online.

There is also an old debate in philosophy over the role mental imagery plays in cognition. For some early thinkers, an "idea" was a visual mental image; other philosophers questioned whether actual images were so important. For an overview of the debate you can consult the topic "Mental Imagery" in Stanford's Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The mental imagery debate is not really the same thing as what you're asking about, but participants sometimes seemed to be debating whether it was even possible to "see" mental images.

# Answer
> 5 votes
The phenomenon of not being able to visualise has recently been dubbed "aphantasia" by Adam Zeman at Exeter: see the university's press release Can’t count sheep? You could have aphantasia. They had a year-long project which finished a few days ago called The Eye's Mind to study people at both ends of the ability spectrum. One of their objectives is to produce a meta-analysis of the research that has examined what happens in the brain when we visualise, searching for consistent patterns in the varied and sometimes conflicting results of previous studies.

More anecdotally, if you read this Reddit thread, you'll discover that quite a few people can't visualise. It's an informative thread, which shows that visualisers and non-visualisers are often unaware of each other's existence. Look also at this MetaFilter thread and this blog post. Googling phrases such as "I can't mentally visualise" will turn up more discussions on the same theme, including suggested "cures".

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Tags: perception, vision, aphantasia
---


# Question
Title: Does nlp have a dependency on a subject having strong visualisation skills?
I have read a few books on Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) and, it seems that a corner stone of NLP is strong inner visualisation skills.

Is there any research that looks at the correlation between visualisation ability and the effectiveness of NLP?

Are there any scientifically proven techniques for measuring and improving visualisation skills?

# Answer
> 6 votes
NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) is a pseudoscience at worst, and not a science, but "an approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy" at best. There is little scientific research, and no reliable scientific findings, supporting the effectiveness of NLP, and the evidence is probably best interpreted as speaking against the effectiveness and veracity of NLP <sub>, , </sub>.

In non-scientific venues, there are indeed sometimes claims that NLP can help with visualisation as understood by NLP, e.g. here. In contrast, a recent experimental finding that is actually scientific disconfirmed NLP claims about the nature of visualization as conceptualized by NLP.

It should be noted that there seems to be little overlap between visualization - if assumed to refer to the same concept as *mental imagery* \- as employed by vision researchers and cognitive scientists studying vision, and the NLP concept of visualization. The latter instead vaguely resembles some concepts in cognitive linguistics (e.g. research into metaphors such as those by George Lakoff).

I also want to emphasize that Neurolinguistic Programming is *not* neurolinguistics, which is a legitimate subfield of cognitive science: the study of how the brain implements language. In contrast, NLP can most likely justifiably called quackery.

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, linguistics, neuro-linguistic-prog
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# Question
Title: What is known about the information that's passed upwards within the neocortex?
The neocortex is likely to process sparse representations in a hierarchy with information close to the raw sensor input appearing in lower levels and abstract concepts being appearing in higher levels. However, I'm interested in the exact nature of information being passed upwards.

1. There are some gating mechanisms in the neocortex. I could imagine that they prevent obvious information from being passed up. For example, since it was already reported and didn't changed. Much like workers within corporate hierarchies only report the same status once.
2. Similarly, it would make sense to pass up information that a lower layer doesn't understand and can't handle itself. This would also be comparable to workers at a company who ask their managers for decision they can't make.
3. If planning happens within the hierarchy of the neocortex, higher layers might hand down high levels options for the lower levels to unroll and simulate. In that case, the result might be passed up afterwards.
4. Encoding continuous input streams, attractor patterns are likely to emerge within levels of the hierarchy. I could imagine that the type of information send upwards changes when a level settles in a stable pattern.

Is there any evidence for or against these guesses? What else know about the nature of information that's passed up within the neocortex?

# Answer
Your guess 1 basically sounds like habituation:

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

Per your clarification in your comment, 2 sounds like you are generally talking about the role of prediction error in learning. There's a lot of work on this. Neural network models generally learn by modifying the connection strengths in response to error. The most well-known algorithm for this is known as backpropagation. Although this is an error signal propagating *down* a network, not up it, as you proposed. There's also the Rescorla-Wagner model of learning, another example of error-driven learning.

3 sounds like top-down processing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-down\_and\_bottom-up\_design#Neuroscience\_and\_psychology

Regarding 4, neural firing patterns definitely settle into attractors. This has been pretty extensively modeled:

http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Attractor\_network
> 2 votes

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Tags: cognitive-neuroscience, theoretical-neuroscience, cognitive-modeling
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title: Are axons in the brain weighted?

text:
# Question
Title: Are axons in the brain weighted?
Is it known whether the connection strength of synapses is important to the functioning of the brain or does just the binary existence of a synapse matter? Also, how widely do the strengths of synapses change, if any?

# Answer
> 4 votes
Check it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term\_potentiation

In other words, yes, the strength of synapses matters. A synapse that has been potentiated means that the postsynaptic neuron will fire more readily as a function of the stimulation from the presynaptic neuron.

As for how widely the strengths vary, I have to admit I'm not quite sure how to answer that...

# Answer
> 5 votes
> Is it known whether the connection strength of synapses is important to the functioning of the brain or does just the binary existence of a synapse matter?

I think it's safe to say that neuroscience, as a field, would stand behind this statement from neurobiologist David Sweatt, in his excellent 2003 (1st edition...2nd is probably even more current) book, *Mechanisms of Memory*, which he refers to as a "general hypothesis of memory storage":

> Memories are stored as alterations in the strength of of synaptic connections between neurons in the CNS.

So, yes, variations in synaptic strength is thought to be fundamental to the functioning of the human brain and, in fact, all nervous systems. And it need not be seen purely in terms of a learning & memory paradigm. Any well-tuned network will need to have synaptic strengths set accordingly to produce a desired input-output function, so even if the strengths are hard-wired and unchangeable, they would still need to vary. It's important to note that synaptic strengths will vary over *all* types of synapses--classical excitatory and inhibitory synapses, and neuromodulatory synapses.

As of today, there appear to be 3,381 papers that are brought up when the search term "long term potentiation" (or "LTP", one of the most studied phenomena in synatpology) is put into PubMed as appearing in the title, and 935 with the words "long term depression"--and these are just two of the approaches to studying changes in synaptic strength. Habituation, sensitization, synaptic scaling, synaptic depression and facilitation (short time scale), and other mechanisms are also described. Looking at changes in synaptic strength is one of the biggest subcategories of cellular neuroscience research.

> Also, how widely do the strengths of synapses change, if any?

A classic LTP graph will typically display synaptic strength changes of about 200-250% of initial synaptic strength (or 1-1.5x *more* than you started with. If this were weightlifting and you started lifting 100 lbs, after you could lift 200 to 250 lbs). For an example of this displayed on a classic LTP style graph, see this graph.

And if you Google "LTP graph", you can quickly scan many such graphs. Most of these have similar amounts of potentiation (strengthening). But the range is likely more than just 2-2.5x strength, because these same synapses can be depressed from their baseline synaptic strength to below baseline, and in the intact animal's brain, the range of changes could (I'd guess) be larger.

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Tags: neuroscience, cognitive-neuroscience, neuroanatomy
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# Question
Title: Why do pupils dilate in response to emotional state?
I just came across an article on the internet stating that,

> Pupils dilate when we find someone or something attractive.

So, as far as I know, this kind of dilation doesn't seem to have any effect on attractiveness of subject, does it?

***For example:***

Suppose if a one person A in love with person B, and pupils of A tend to dilate when seeing B, What effect does it have on B? Any psychological effect perhaps?

P.S. I'm not sure if this should be on Cog.Sci

# Answer
The dilation of the pupil is under control of the sympathetic nervous system. The main role of the sympathetic nervous system is to get the body ready for fast response. The typical example is the 'fight-or-flight' response, but that can also occur in the presence of a potential sexual partner. Therefore, dilated pupils can be a sign of sexual arousal. Now, that's the response of the person showing the dilated pupils, but your question related to the effect on the other person. People with more dilated pupils are rated as more attractive by observers unaware of this manipulation Tombs & Silverman, 2004 \- at least for males looking at females. As an aside, people in ancient Egypt are said to have used atropine, which is a poison extracted from the belladonna plant, as a cosmetic to artificially dilate their pupils.
> 4 votes

# Answer
Pupil dilation is a reflection of sympathetic arousal, and it seems to be related specifically to **prediction error** (Braem et al., 2015; Lavin et al., 2013; Preuschoff et al., 2011) and consequently predicts your learning rate (Nassar et al., 2012).

In the case where you see an attractive person amidst a sea of average faces, this violates your predictions--you have prediction error (or "surprise"). You expected to see an average face, not an attractive face, and your pupils dilate in response. If you are continually exposed to this attractive person, your pupil dilation will decrease over time.

This is true with emotions more generally--when you feel negative or positive this usually indicates prediction error (or success), which then up- or downregulates your learning rate, respectively (e.g., Joffily & Coricelli, 2013).

**Why is pupil dilation associated with prediction error?** The sphincter (contracts the eye) and dilator (dilates the eye) are innervated by acetylcholine and noradrenaline, respectively. Noradrenergic activity in the locus coeruleus might encode "unexpected uncertainty," which interacts with antagonistic cholinergic activity. Interestingly, dilating the pupil on one task can increase the learning rate on another, unrelated task (Nassar et al., 2012), which might be mediated by incidental activation of noradrenergic activity in the locus coeruleus.

Hmmmm, I don't actually seem to know enough about this such that I can explain all of it clearly! But hopefully this provides some insight into your question.
> 4 votes

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Tags: psychology
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# Question
Title: What computerized EEG analysis algorithms are there?
I got a commercial-grade EEG headband and am trying to look at the data it outputs. The headband quantifies raw EEG signal from a single forehead dry sensor into a range of EEG bands (alpha, beta, etc). The issue that I'm running into is that the values of the EEG bands jump rather significantly from one data point to the next (0.05 second reading intervals). Additionally, there are eye-related artifacts.

**I would like to apply some sort of algorithm or statistical analysis to see how the EEG bands behave over some time interval**. I'm hoping to see if some EEG band statistically rises or is suppressed over 5-15min time period. Seeing instantaneous jumps in individual readings does not convey this information.

For example, I know that for Actigraphic studies, there are sleep scoring algorithms, like one by Cole that looks at the previous 4 minutes, the current minute and 2 minutes in the future to score a minute of actigraphy data:

```
 SleepScoreConstant*
(550*4minAgo + 378*3minAgo + 413*2minAgo + 699*1minAgo
+1736*CurrentMinute  +
287*1minAhead + 309*2minAhead)

```

Are there some similar algorithms for EEG band analysis?

Alternatively, it would help if you can suggest the realistic time window over which EEG bands may be statistically analyzed in awake subjects: is it 20 seconds? 5 minutes? 90 minutes?

# Answer
http://sccn.ucsd.edu/eeglab/

http://chronux.org

are two libraries with tons of functions for analyzing eeg and emg data
> 6 votes

# Answer
Also FieldTrip for Matlab, and MNE for Python
> 3 votes

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Tags: neuroscience, measurement, neuroimaging, eeg
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# Question
Title: Why are people so attached to their possessions?
Why do people "set great store" by their things? If for example photos are lost or damaged, why is this a big deal? It seems to me that relationships are the only really important thing, and because we never know if the person will come home from work alive, all we can do is deal with "the person standing in front of us at the time."

# Answer
I think it's a primal need that is built in via natural selection. Those that had attachments to places and things outpased those who didn't. The affection a child shows for a favorite toy or a teenager shows for a favorite pair of shoes. Also, when a possession has been won over a great hardship, it has intrinsic meaning. This has a social and mental advantage when connecting to others. Social animals (like humans) must succeed in interactions to remain prosperous and leads to groupings of individuals for the overall benefits.
> 0 votes

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Tags: emotion
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# Question
Title: Do we pick partner most similar to opposite-sex parent?
Do we pick partner most **similar** to opposite-sex parent? Do men pick life partner who is similar to their mother? Does it apply to women too? By similar, I mean mostly character/mental features. I dont consider appearance, but It would be interesting to know if that matters.

If yes, is it possible that man (for example) would look for/pick a partner who has character **opposite** to his mother? What could be scientific reason for that?

# Answer
Good question. Here is what I found.

People may be attracted to the physical features that our opposite sex parent posses {1,2} However, the jury is out as to whether people are more likely to be attracted to people who share the mental traits of parents {3,4}. As an example of this {3} write

> "Much of the current research on parental identification and mate selection is contradictory and inconclusive. The studies that are available suggest a similarity between partner choice and parental similarity, although the results for similarity between partner choice and parent vary by gender. Various theories suggest that individuals choose mates based on some type of similarity with their partners. Such similarities include values, religion, physical attractiveness, or expressiveness (Bailey et al., 1994; Boyden, Carroll, & Maier, 1984; Howard et al., 1987; Murstein, 1976). Parental identification research also is inconclusive, with some studies finding same-sex parent identification and others finding opposite-sex parent or both parent identification (Geher, 2000; von der Lippe, 1965)"

I am happy to go into more detail about any of this, if you want me to.

**References:**

{1} Little, A., et al. (2003). "Investigating an imprinting-like phenomenon in humans: partners and opposite-sex parents have similar hair and eye colour." Evolution and Human Behavior 24(1): 43-51.

{2} Perrett, D. I., et al. (2002). "Facial attractiveness judgements reflect learning of parental age characteristics." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 269(1494): 873-880.

{3}van Eeden-Moorefield, B. and E. W. Lindsey (2005). "Intergenerational Effects of Parental Personality and Relationship Traits on Mate Choice Among Gay Male and Lesbian Offspring." Journal of Homosexuality 49(1): 123-143.

{4} Strokoff, Johanna, "Parental influence on romantic attraction with simulated online dating profiles." (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2232. Retrieved from
> 2 votes

# Answer
From personal experience, we pick partners of many types for many reasons... But we work best with someone who is similar to our parents. We were "trained" to get along in a similar fashion and when our partner matches the same upbringing, it clicks better. We also pick partners from completely different upbringings and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Attraction can be physical, sexual, friendship, even shared difficulties or a thousand other reasons. Parents are familiar territory, finding someone who shares the sames values and goals is a powerful attraction in itself.
> 1 votes

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, social-psychology
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title: Is gambling hereditary?

text:
# Question
Title: Is gambling hereditary?
I heard that gambling tendencies may be inherited from parents. I am not sure about that so I posted this question. Is that true? Has any researches been done on that?

# Answer
It could be to some extent, for example, because gambling behaviour is mediated by traits like impulsiveness {1,2} which are heritable {3}.

**References**

{1} Steel, Z. and A. Blaszczynski (1998). "Impulsivity, personality disorders and pathological gambling severity." Addiction 93(6): 895-905.

{2} Michalczuk, R., et al. (2011). "Impulsivity and cognitive distortions in pathological gamblers attending the UK National Problem Gambling Clinic: a preliminary report." Psychological Medicine 41(12): 2625-2635.

{3} Bezdjian, S., et al. (2011). "Genetic and environmental influences on impulsivity: A meta-analysis of twin, family and adoption studies." Clinical psychology review 31(7): 1209-1223.
> 3 votes

# Answer
Besides any brain markers that might say "yes", there is a huge amount of influence on upbringing. How parents behave and the way they look at "chance/risk" in life can affect how a child might be raised. Addictive personalities breed addictive traights in others such as overeating.
> 0 votes

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Tags: cognitive-psychology
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# Question
Title: What is the psychology behind addictive video games?
Is the psychology the same as in casino games? where the person is addicted because winning is so unpredictable?

Are RPG games addictive by Gestalt theory, where players mind likes to see things organized and being whole and completed as opposed to being fractioned and incomplete?

# Answer
> Is the psychology the same as in casino games? where the person is addicted because winning is so unpredictable?
>
> Are RPG games addictive by Gestalt theory, where players mind likes to see things organized and being whole and completed as opposed to being fractioned and incomplete?

I think that both of these factors play a role. As people react to media much like reality (1), a video game is really just like a particular social situation that people are placed within.

In any situation where individuals get rewards, unpredictable rewards are likely to be the most effective (2).

Likewise many people express a desire for closure (3), which

In addition to these factors video games also provide several other rewards that can foster addiction, such as (see 4):

1. Status
2. Social interaction
3. Social acceptance
4. Escape from negative realities (e.g., day to day life)
5. A sense of progression
6. Accumulation of resources
7. Challenges that they can overcome
8. Learning experiences

It is worth pointing out that one of the main reasons that video games may be so addictive is the fact that "real" life may be so isolating and unrewarding for people (5).

**References:**

1 Reeves, B. and C. Nass (1996). The media equation: how people treat computers, television, and the new media like real people and places. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge University Press.

2 Berns, G. S., et al. (2001). "Predictability modulates human brain response to reward." The Journal of Neuroscience 21(8): 2793-2798.

3 Webster, Donna M., and Arie W. Kruglanski. "Individual differences in need for cognitive closure." Journal of personality and social psychology 67.6 (1994): 1049.

4 Werbach, K. and D. Hunter (2012). For the win: How game thinking can revolutionize your business, Wharton Digital Press.

5 Alexander, B. K. "Healing Addiction Through Community: A Much Longer Road Than it Seems?".
> 1 votes

# Answer
People play games for different reasons - check out the Bartle test which describes some motivations behind actions in games, particularly multiplayer RPGs.

I've written an ebook on video game addiction, and will attempt to illustrate factors that contribute to a game being "addictive".

There are a few types of most addictive video games

* Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games (MMORPG like World of Warcraft)
* Competitive shooters. (like Call of Duty or World of Tanks)
* "Build and steal" strategy games (like Clash of Clans)
* Purely social/achievement driven games (like FarmVille)

For example World of Warcraft, has been described as a "**theme park** MMORPG" - playera can do a variety of activities and if they get bored, they can do something else. The **social component** is a big part of a person wanting to return to this kind of games.

Then there are shooter games that are played in short matches, for example World of Tanks, War Thunder. Games like these depend on persistent RPG character progression to **artificially create inequality** among players. For example in a 32 player tank you can be driving the weakest tank, pretty much being prey for everyone else. This creates a feeling of "this is unfair!"

Part of the addictive nature of these games is that **player is forced to "grind"** \- play the game over and over again, frequently without any enjoyment. This is a way to get better tanks/planes/guns/etc.

The way "grinding" is done in competitive games is by playing **short matches** (3-7 minutes), typically **very adrenaline driven engagements**. Once an engagement is over, a player is left in a state of imbalance - the player wants to experience the rush of victory again or is dissatisfied with defeat and wants to win instead. It's difficult to get off this cycle, which is why such games are called addictive. A player can spend entire day doing these short matches while looking forward to a more powerful tank/plane/gun/etc.

In some ways, this random element with inequality and short matches can be compared to a casino slot machine on steroids. **Instead of pulling the handle, a player presses the "Battle" button**, which is results in the player placed in a random battle.

Finally there are a number of simple "build and steal" kind of games, like Clash of Clans (smart phone games). A player builds a settlement, but resources are very scarce. A player is encouraged to steal resources by raiding neighboring settlements. These games also thrive on the feeling of inequality among players The inequality gap between players can be lessened by **paying real money - "Pay to Win (P2W)" model**.\**

**"Pay to Win" is very much like gambling**, and companies like Apple and Clash of Clans developers are taking heat for allowing 12 year olds spend real money in games to cover the inequality. It has been calculated that to buy everything in a game like Clash of Clans, a person **would have to spend 11000 $$USD** or close to a year of real time waiting for the resources to build up (all the while being raided by stronger players). Top of the line planes or tanks can cost up to 200$.

Once real money are invested, different mechanics come to play - it's hard to abandon a game where you invested hundreds of hours or dollars.

Most of this post is based on my own observations and analysis, as there isn't much mainstream interest in understanding the addictive nature of video games.
> 0 votes

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Tags: video-games
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# Question
Title: Do school teachers demand more from their children than other students?
Lets assume that there is a group of students and one teacher (typical school situation).

Child of the teacher is in that group.

Is there any evidence, that school teachers demand more from their children than other children?

Is there any evidence, that children who are taught by parent-teacher achieve better/worse results than other students in same group?

# Answer
> 3 votes
From Personal Experience, teachers will demand more from their child if their child is in that class for a couple of reasons: To show the rest of the class that there is no favoritism towards the child, as well as to ensure that the child performs exceptionally in the class.

Whether they achieve better/worse results is dependent on the level that this "extra demand" is taken to. For example a child may feel like he's being treated unfairly, and act out as a result, or become overwhelmed by the amount of work. But if it is a reasonable increase in demand, then the student will surely benefit.

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Tags: social-psychology, sociology
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# Question
Title: Which paper or book from cognitive science do you think everyone should read or know about, and why?
I have created a community wiki question to encourage/enable users to share the books or paper from cognitive science that you think is most important for others to read and know about. Please just give one suggestion per answer and please make sure that you explain why it is important that people understand this reading and what it explains.

Note that you can suggest more several pieces of content if you think that they are all equally essential but this is generally discouraged.

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I note that a previous question, which I have voted to reopen, asked for the must know papers of cognitive science and was closed for being too broad. If that policy of closing these sorts of "polls" remains in place then I am happy to remove or modify my question.

However, I would suggest that the question be left open as I have seen similar questions (, ) being very well received on other stackexchange forums and attracting considerable interest and engagement.

While some of these question have since been closed, I oppose that policy as I accord with the view from here, that "'must read books' questions are pretty much my favourite part of every stackexchange site – Damon Mar 9 '11 at 17:48"

# Answer
> 1 votes
Ok, I will start. I don't necessarily know if these are definitely the best three books I have read, but they are three of the best. If I think of better ones then I will add them.

1. Thinking, Fast and Slow
2. Predictably Irrational
3. Influence: Science and practice

My interest in cognitive science is about i) understanding my own irrationality and ii) understanding how to change behaviour (e.g., persuasion, influence etc) to help people to have better lives. My three choices reflect this.

As related to this, I think that these books would be valuable for anyone to read as they could help you to better understand how to i) make better decisions, ii) help other people to make better decisions.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Chomsky's review of Skinner's book Verbal Behavior. This review helped kick off both modern linguistics and the cognitive revolution.

Marr and Poggio (1976). Here is where Marr's famous levels of analysis of information processing systems are detailed. These levels provide a framework for organizing all of cognitive science research, in my and many others' opinion.

EDIT: My girlfriend (another psych PhD student) suggested a book that I agree is pretty foundational in cogsci: Jerry Fodor's 1983 monograph Modularity of Mind. Here's the precis. This is basically a thesis about how the mind is organized: into functionally specialized 'modules'. The modularity thesis makes a number of other claims about the qualities of these modules, including informational encapsulation (modules are not sensitive to all potentially relevant information) and domain-specificity (they work only on certain inputs).

EDIT 2: Okay, once I got started on Fodor, I couldn't stop. Just as important as knowing about modularity is knowing about Fodor's language of thought hypothesis. I haven't read his 1975 book in which he lays out these ideas, but the gist is that thought takes place via a mental language with its own syntax and semantics. Check out the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on the LoT.

# Answer
> 0 votes
My answer is going to be super skewed, I think, toward my interests. Nonetheless, I'd consider these papers "revolutionary," and I think their legacy will be long-lasting and their impact expansive (across all domains of psychology).

1. Are emotions natural kinds? (Barrett, 2006). This paper upends many decades of thinking about what emotions are and has sparked a huge debate and a paradigm shift.
2. Whatever next? Predictive brains, situated agents, and the future of cognitive science. (Clark, 2013). If this paper doesn't blow your mind, I don't know what will. Predictive coding is gradually taking over psychology…
3. Oh gosh…I'll have to come up with a third one later. :)

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, reference-request
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title: Conducting brain stimulation at home

text:
# Question
Title: Conducting brain stimulation at home
Given articles like this, and their associated research {1}, I am developing an interest in transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), and other forms of brain stimulation as they appear like they may have. I might be interested in trying it at home.

As a result I would like ask for evidence to help me answer one or more of the following questions:

1. What is the best headset for brain stimulation that a normal person can buy or build? I am aware of these, but would like the opinion of an expert.
2. What are the best online communities, or sources of information for conducting brain stimulation at home?
3. How should I engage in brain stimulation at home? A guide, or link to one would be appreciated
4. Is it safe to conduction brain stimulation at home? If there is evidence that one type of brain stimulation, and/or headset is safe then please provide evidence of this.

**Reference**

{1} Santarnecchi, E., et al. (2016). "Individual differences and specificity of prefrontal gamma frequency-tACS on fluid intelligence capabilities." Cortex 75: 33-43.

# Answer
At the moment, there are no TMS/tDCS protocols that were approved for the home use in USA or EU. So, please, don´t. Fortunately, TMS devices are quite expensive and cannot be used by a single man. tDCS is easier, but decent companies on the market like NeuroConn or Neuroelectrics will not sell an equipment to a private person. Foc.us device, by the way, was proved to impair the memory \[1\].

1.Steenbergen, Laura, et al. "“Unfocus” on foc. us: commercial tDCS headset impairs working memory." Experimental brain research (2015): 1-7.
> 4 votes

# Answer
In addition to the previous answer: A recent meta-analysis of the 59 transcranial direct current simulation (tDCS) studies in healthy volunteers found no evidence for any benefit of stimulation on cognitive performance . There is a possibility that tDCS might have some benefit in specific populations, e.g. for training motor tasks in post-stroke rehabilitation . However, even within the scientific community, the question of stimulation parameters that might substantially influence the effectiveness of tDCS are not settled. This includs placement of sensors, duration, frequency, and polarity. Studies also find that there is substantial variability in the response to tDCS between participants, which is purely understood at the moment. The group of Prof. Andrea Antal, University of Göttingen, conducts some detailed research on this .

A further concern is safety. Even though it is fairly easy to put a tDCS device together, this is strongly discouraged: There is little evidence for any benefits and little research on possible negative effect of longer-term use. So, please refrain from risking your health. When the science behind tDCS is better understood, it might become more widely available.
> 1 votes

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Tags: cognitive-neuroscience, eeg
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# Question
Title: Neuroanatomical mapping of production compilation
ACT-R and Spaun map their production rule system onto the the basal ganglia and thalamus. However, I haven't been able to find how ACT-R maps production rule compilation onto the basal ganglia or thalamus. Does a mapping exist in ACT-R or in other cognitive architectures?

# Answer
Given that all production rules reside in the Basal Ganglia and Thamalus, although it is not explicitly stated, the only place the rule compilation could feasibly take place is in the Basal Ganglia and Thalamus.
> 0 votes

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Tags: cognitive-modeling, theoretical-neuroscience, spa, act-r
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# Question
Title: How do memories come up for no apparent reason? Is this evidence that we remember everything?
As I was driving, all of a sudden the name "Holden Caufield" came to my mind. It sounded really familiar. I googled the name and it was the main character in The Catcher in the Rye. The last time I even read that book was in 2005. I had no reason to even remember this book because I thought it was boring.

* Yet how did I seem to recall the name "Holden Caufield?"
* Is this proof that we basically remember everything, we just have to find ways to access the memories?

# Answer
Within the limbic system the hippocampus and amygdala processes memory. The hippocampus processes declarative memory, the memory recalled in the form of thought. The amygdala processes emotional memory.

*hippocampus*

> Hippocampal integrity plays a crucial role in intact memory functioning. Research has demonstrated that normal hippocampal development continues into early adulthood . Investigators specifically examining the development of the hippocampus have suggested that the hippocampal formation undergoes a steep increase in volume until approximately the second year of life, then the volume slowly increases throughout adolescence. 1

*amygdala*

> ...here is extensive evidence that the amygdala is involved in affectively influenced memory. The central hypothesis guiding the research reviewed in this paper is that emotional arousal activates the amygdala and that such activation results in the modulation of memory storage occurring in other brain regions. 2

*involuntary memory*

> Involuntary autobiographical memories are conscious and unintended recollections of personal ex- periences. ...
> involuntary retrieval, more fre- quently than word-cued memories, accesses memories of specific episodes and involves more mood impact and bodily reaction to the remembered events...
> Using a double-cuing methodology, Chu and Downes (2002) found that memories cued by smells were more vivid and detailed than memories cued by verbal labels and photographs of the sources of the odors. Herz and Schooler (2002) found that odor cues yielded more emo- tional memories than did verbal and visual cues 3

Many cues can trigger involuntary memory. Memories triggered by smell, general evoke a larger emotional response with that memory as opposed to visual or verbal cues.

1. Abnormal Hippocampal Development in Children with Medulloblastoma Treated with Risk-Adapted Irradiation Bonnie J. Nagela,g, Shawna L. Palmera, Wilburn E. Reddickb,f, John O. Glassb, Kathleen J. Heltonb, Shengjie Wuc, Xiaoping Xiongc, Larry E. Kunb, Amar Gajjard,e and Raymond K. Mulherna
2. Involvement of the amygdala in memory storage: Interaction with other brain systems James L. McGaugh, Larry Cahill, and Benno Roozendaal
3. Memory & Cognition 2004, 32 (5), 789-803 The episodic nature of involuntary autobiographical memories DORTHE BERNTSEN and NICOLINE MARIE HALL University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark
> 8 votes

# Answer
In the human brain, information is not stored like cars in a parking lot, with no relation between them, where you can drive away with one car without touching any of the others, but as knots in a network. Thus, a name is stored with connections reaching out to everything that you felt was connected to that name: the tasty italian cookies you ate while you read the book; the body memory of your leg in plaster; the red horse on the cover; etc.

When you happen upon any of the information that is connected to that name – when you eat the same cookies or see someone with a broken leg –, the name will be activated in your memory. The intensity of the activation and if it reaches your consciousness, depends on the strength and uniqueness of the network connection. The color red will be connected to a lot of things and the activation of this particular know will probably be to weak for this memory to reach your consciousness. But someone mentioning Italian pastries on the radio, or getting a whiff of a similar smell, might bring back the memory of your reading.

To know why *you* remembered the name Holden Caulfield *at that moment*, we would need to have more information about you at that moment, and about what you did, thought and felt while you read the book. Obviously there was a cue in the moment of remembrance that was stored with the name at the moment of reading or while you thought about the book after reading it. It could have been something you thought about while you were driving and totally unrelated to the actual driving; it could have been a feature you saw (heard or smelled) outside the car; it could have been something on the radio or something your passengers said.

Examples: Someone on the radio says "I'm forever beholden to you." You don't actively listen, but the word is processed subconsciously. Or: You thought about how boring the book was while eating an apple; now you eat an apple and think about how boring the drive is.

Since we do not have that information, all that we can say is that the same cue appeared in both situations.

That you remembered something you had not thought of for eight years does not prove anything about how much information your memory holds. It just proves that the book impressed you in some way – enough to remember the name of the protagonist. Which is why I voted to undo Taal's edit of your question, in which he deleted your characterisation of the book as "strange": "I had no reason to even remember this book because I thought it was boring. It was strange." If you find something strange, then it is out of the ordinary. It intrigues you. And you remember it. Quite simple, actually. (Please undo your edit, Taal.)
> 5 votes

# Answer
I just wanted to add to the current answers, that this idea of one element of a network results in the entire network becoming active (aka a smell triggers the memory) is thought of as a Hebbian cell assembly. Donald Hebb introduced the idea of "neurons that fire together, wire together". And with that in becomes easier to think of how one spark (for whatever reason that may be) will activate the whole network, or only the strongest parts.
> 1 votes

# Answer
Nearly everything that goes on in our minds happens "for no apparent reason" because we are only conscious of a small part of our mental activity. If it were not so, we would have too much to attend to, and could not think rationally. "Life without filters would be overwhelming."

It has been shown in the split brain research that we can have two entire separate consciousnesses in one brain (if the corpus callosum is severed), and it is easily possible to have many unrelated "bubbles" of awareness / mental activity going on at once.

One time, when I was about to get in to a boating accident (I narrowly missed hitting a piling at night) I had 4 separate conscious thoughts speak in my mind at one time, while I was trying to see ahead AND my body was turning the wheel so hard that the boat went up on its side. I reacted before I could see what I was going to hit, and had thoughts about the outcome and other things going on (a huge meteor went across low in the sky right in front of me right then) before I had even averted the collision.

The wonder is that we spend so much time "*alone in our heads without adult supervision*" that we are not more aware of the many levels of simultaneous perception, memory, reaction, deciding and responding which go on all the time. But it is Ego which suppresses all of that, in favor of narrating life to itself. I am not surprised at all when some lower-priority thought interrupts with something important, interesting, relevant or just unfathomable to my pitiful self-awareness at that moment.

Do we "remember everything"? No, I don't think so, but there is a lot more in memory than we are aware of. *Salient* things come back to our recall. I had a dream once of being in a house, and I held on to many details of the dream when I woke up. I wondered if it was the house my family moved out of when I was 3, which I have no significant memories of. I described what I had seen in the dream to my parents (I was about 45 at the time) and they confirmed that it accurately described the house. So, the memory was there, I just didn't have a consciously available 'handle' to retrieve it. Dreaming brings up many things that do not arise in waking consciousness.
> 0 votes

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Tags: memory, cognitive-neuroscience
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