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Here are some tips on how to eat to preserve your memory and keep your brain healthy.
Key Points
Limiting candy in your diet may support brain health, as high added sugar intake could increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
A brain-healthy lifestyle includes regular exercise, managing chronic diseases, staying socially engaged and following diets like the MIND diet.
Making mindful dietary and lifestyle choices can enhance cognitive health and overall well-being over time.
More than 55 million people have dementia worldwide, with Alzheimer’s disease being the most common form, contributing to 60% to 70% of dementia cases. Having Alzheimer’s disease means living with a progressive disorder that causes brain cells to degenerate and die, leading to a continuous decline in memory, thinking skills and the ability to perform everyday tasks. Sadly, as the disease progresses, even basic activities and communication become challenging.
Several factors influence the risk of developing dementia, with some being completely beyond your control. Aging is the most significant risk factor, as individuals over the age of 65 are more susceptible. Genetics also play a crucial role, with specific genetic mutations directly linked to Alzheimer’s disease. However, along with unchangeable factors, certain lifestyle choices can help lower the risk of cognitive decline, with diet being a pivotal piece of the puzzle. “Some of the best foods for brain health are antioxidant-rich wild blueberries, salad greens for B vitamins, salmon for its anti-inflammatory fatty acids, fiber-rich black beans, and walnuts, the best source of plant-based omega-3 ALA among nuts,” says Maggie Moon, M.S., RD. There are some foods you should avoid when focusing on brain health support too, with candy being the #1 food on that list.
Why You Should Limit Candy for Brain Health
Taking steps to reduce dementia risk is one positive step for brain health. While there isn’t one food that will cause dementia, high-added-sugar candy tops the list of foods that should be limited on a brain-healthy diet.
“Candies are not your brain’s friend,” Moon says. She points to a study that found that eating too much added sugar more than doubled the risk for dementia. “That includes added sugar from candies, as well as other sweets like pastries, sweetened café drinks and sodas,” she says. Researchers think that high blood sugar and insulin levels are risk factors for Alzheimer’s because insulin resistance may also occur in the brain, which may impact memory.
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Of course, everything can be eaten in moderation in a healthy, balanced eating plan. “While fine once in a while, research has found that a diet that is consistently high in added sugar may increase the amyloid plaque buildup in the brain,” says Laura M. Ali, M.S., RDN. "These plaques disrupt the communication system in our brain, and scientists have found that people with Alzheimer’s disease tend to have more of these plaques.”
In fact, says Ali, one study found that every 10 grams of added sugar consumed per day (equivalent to 2½ teaspoons of sugar or 8 gummy candies) was associated with a 1.3% to 1.4% increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Those with the highest daily added sugar intake had 19% higher odds of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
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Other Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Dementia
Limiting sweetened candy doesn't guarantee that you won't get dementia, but it is a positive step forward. Along with limiting added sugar in your diet, here are some other ways to reduce your dementia risk:
Exercise by participating in both aerobic activity and resistance exercise.
If you smoke cigarettes, take the first steps to quit.
Limit alcohol intake. If you regularly drink alcohol, try to do so in moderation. Excessive drinking is linked to cognitive decline. Moderate drinking means two drinks or less in a day for men and one drink or less in a day for women.
Stay socially engaged. Maintaining social connections builds your cognitive reserve to maintain good brain function with age.
If you have chronic diseases, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, make sure you’re managing these well. Stiffness in arteries and blood vessels can damage the brain. If you need help or individualized advice, reach out to a healthcare professional.
Include brain-healthy foods in your diet. The MIND diet emphasizes foods like whole grains, nuts, berries, vegetables and olive oil, which research shows may help support brain health. “The brain-healthy MIND diet limits foods high in saturated fats and added sugars because both are linked to oxidative stress, inflammation and the brain plaques and tangles associated with Alzheimer’s disease,” says Moon. She clarifies that this diet limits—but does not eliminate—fried foods, pastries and sweets, red meat, whole-fat cheese and butter.
Our Expert Take
Nothing will guarantee that you will live a life free from dementia. But certain steps may help reduce your risk, with your dietary choices being one factor. And along with eating brain-healthy foods, limiting your candy intake can help keep you cognitively sharp. Enjoying a small handful of candy corn on Halloween or conversation hearts on Valentine’s Day won’t “cause” dementia. “It’s important to remember that no single food eaten once, or even once in a while, is going to make or break your brain health,” Moon adds.
8 Sources:
World Health Organization. Dementia.
Alzheimer’s Association. What is Alzheimer’s Disease?
National Institute on Aging. Thinking about your risk for Alzheimer’s Disease? Five questions to consider.
Dhana K, James BD, Agarwal P, Aggarwal NT, et al. MIND Diet, Common Brain Pathologies, and Cognition in Community-Dwelling Older Adults. J Alzheimers Dis.;83(2):683-692. doi: 10.3233/JAD-210107.
Agarwal P, Ford CN, Leurgans SE, Beck T, Desai P, Dhana K, Evans DA, Halloway S, Holland TM, Krueger KR, Liu X, Rajan KB, Bennett DA. Dietary sugar intake associated with a higher risk of dementia in community-dwelling older adults. J Alzheimers Dis. 2023;95(4):1417-1425. doi:10.3233/JAD-230013
Liu L, Volpe SL, Ross JA, Grimm JA, Van Bockstaele EJ, Eisen HJ. Dietary sugar intake and risk of Alzheimer's disease in older women. Nutr Neurosci. 2022 Nov;25(11):2302-2313. doi:10.1080/1028415X.2021.1959099
Alzheimer’s Association. Risk reduction.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dietary guidelines for alcohol.
Thanks everyone for all your encouragement, things have been pretty dark for me lately and life has been in one of those rough patches that come up for everyone
occasionally, so thanks to everyone that has been so thoughtful and encouraging. I appreciate it so much..
I shot this same shot last week but I had to recreate it because I decided to use it as my shot for a flickr contest group and It was 1 damn day to old. It is almost the same...I think I got pretty close, there are a few differences but I don't mind.
Another play around with the zoom lens using the wheel on a tripod to rotate a lit sphere and then zooming in a small amount spinning the wheel and uncapping the lens for a second or so, each time zooming in a bit more. I had already set up the camera rotator on a tripod in front of the epitrochoid machine and had pre-focused a 28mm Minolta Rokkor lens. I Rotated the camera at 90 degree intervals and span the spinny thingy each time. Another night of madness.
_PDS5923
A juvenile Guinea baboon called Wasabi bites a leaf wile gazing at the camera.
The wrinkles on the juveniles' faces are unique. Therefore, the primatologists use the wrinkles to identifiy the young individuals, while older baboons usually have other visible characteristics that make them easier to distinguish.
This photo was taken in the wild, in Niokolo-Koba National Park, Senegal, during a visit to the Centre de Recherche de Primatologie Simenti, founded by the Cognitive Ethology Lab (Göttingen, Germany).
More information: www.dpz.eu/en/cognitive-ethology
Now I know a man with tattoo can be very kind.....
Tokwawan, Hong Kong. By Rolleiflex2.8E2, Expired RDPIII
Congratulations to Intel on their acquisition of Nervana. This photo is from the last board meeting at our offices; the Nervana founders — from right to left: Naveen Rao, Amir Khosrowshahi and Arjun Bansal — pondered where on the wall they may fall during M&A negotiations.
We are now free to share some of our perspectives on the company and its mission to accelerate the future with custom chips for deep learning.
I’ll share a recap of the Nervana story, from an investor’s perspective, and try to explain why machine learning is of fundamental importance to every business over time. In short, I think the application of iterative algorithms (e.g., machine learning, directed evolution, generative design) to build complex systems is the most powerful advance in engineering since the Scientific Method. Machine learning allows us to build software solutions that exceed human understanding, and shows us how AI can innervate every industry.
By crude analogy, Nervana is recapitulating the evolutionary history of the human brain within computing — moving from the logical constructs of the reptilian brain to the cortical constructs of the human brain, with massive arrays of distributed memory and iterative learning algorithms.
Not surprisingly, the founders integrated experiences in neuroscience, distributed computing, and networking — a delightful mélange for tackling cognitive computing. Ali Partovi, an advisor to Nervana, introduced us to the company.
We were impressed with the founding team and we had a prepared mind to share their enthusiasm for the future of deep learning. Part of that prepared mind dates back to 1989, when I started a PhD in EE focusing on how to accelerate neural networks by mapping them to parallel processing computers. Fast forward 25 years, and the nomenclature has shifted to machine learning and the deep learning subset, and I chose it as the top tech trend of 2013 at the Churchill Club VC debate (video). We were also seeing the powerful application of deep learning and directed evolution across our portfolio, from molecular design to image recognition to cancer research to autonomous driving.
All of these companies were deploying these simulated neural networks on traditional compute clusters. Some were realizing huge advantages by porting their code to GPUs; these specialized processors originally designed for rapid rendering of computer graphics have many more computational cores than a traditional CPU, a baby step toward a cortical architecture. I first saw them being used for cortical simulations in 2007. But by the time of Nervana’s founding in 2014, some (e.g., Microsoft’s and Google’s search teams) were exploring FPGA chips for their even finer-grained arrays of customizable logic blocks. Custom silicon that could scale beyond any of these approaches seemed like the natural next step. Here is a page from Nervana’s original business plan (Fig. 1 in comments below).
The march to specialized silicon, from CPU to GPU to FPGA to ASIC, had played out similarly for Bitcoin miners, with each step toward specialized silicon obsoleting the predecessors. When we spoke to Amazon, Google, Baidu, and Microsoft in our due diligence, we found a much broader application of deep learning within these companies than we could have imagined prior, from product positioning to supply chain management.
Machine learning is central to almost everything that Google does. And through that lens, their acquisition, and new product strategies make sense; they are not traditional product line extensions, but a process expansion of machine leaning (more on that later). They are not just playing games of Go for the fun of it. Recently, Google switched their core search algorithms to deep learning, and they used Deep Mind to cut data center cooling costs by a whopping 40%.
The advances in deep learning are domain independent. Google can hire and acquire talent and delight in their passionate pursuit of game playing or robotics. These efforts help Google build a better brain. The brain can learn many things. It is like a newborn human; it has the capacity to learn any of the languages of the world, but based on training exposure, it will only learn a few. Similarly, a synthetic neural network can learn many things.
Google can let the Brain team find cats on the Internet and play a great game of Go. The process advances they make in building a better brain (or in this case, a better learning machine) can then be turned to ad matching, a task that does not inspire the best and the brightest to come work for Google.
The domain independence of deep learning has profound implications on labor markets and business strategy. The locus of learning shifts from end products to the process of their creation. Artifact engineering becomes more like parenting than programming. But more on that later; back to the Nervana story.
Our investment thesis for the Series A revolved around some universal tenets: a great group of people pursuing a product vision unlike anything we had seen before. The semiconductor sector was not crowded with investor interest. AI was not yet on many venture firms’ sectors of interest. We also shared with the team that we could envision secondary benefits from discovering the customers. Learning about the cutting edge of deep learning applications and the startups exploring the frontiers of the unknown held a certain appeal for me. And sure enough, there were patterns in customer interest, from an early flurry in medical imaging of all kinds to a recent explosion of interest in the automotive sector after Tesla’s Autopilot feature went live. The auto industry collectively rushed to catch up.
Soon after we led the Series A on August 8, 2014, I found myself moderating a deep learning panel at Stanford with Nervana CEO Naveen Rao.
I opened with an introduction to deep learning and why it has exploded in the past four years (video primer). I ended with some common patterns in the power and inscrutability of artifacts built with iterative algorithms. We see this in biology, cellular automata, genetic programming, machine learning and neural networks.
There is no mathematical shortcut for the decomposition of a neural network or genetic program, no way to “reverse evolve” with the ease that we can reverse engineer the artifacts of purposeful design.
The beauty of compounding iterative algorithms — evolution, fractals, organic growth, art — derives from their irreducibility. (More from my Google Tech Talk and MIT Tech Review)
Year 1. 2015
Nervana adds remarkable engineering talent, a key strategy of the first mover. One of the engineers figures out how to rework the undocumented firmware of NVIDIA GPUs so that they run deep learning algorithms faster than off-the-shelf GPUs or anything else Facebook could find. Matt Ocko preempted the second venture round of the company, and he brought the collective learning of the Data Collective to the board.
Year 2. 2016 Happy 2nd Birthday Nervana!
The company is heads down on chip development. They share some technical details (flexpoint arithmetic optimized for matrix multiplies and 32GB of stacked 3D memory on chip) that gives them 55 trillion operations per second on their forthcoming chip, and multiple high-speed interconnects (as typically seen in the networking industry) for ganging a matrix of chips together into unprecedented compute fabrics. 10x made manifest. See Fig. 2 below.
And then Intel came knocking.
With the most advanced production fab in the world and a healthy desire to regain the mantle of leading the future of Moore’s Law, the combination was hard to resist. Intel vice president Jason Waxman told Recode that the shift to artificial intelligence could dwarf the move to cloud computing. “I firmly believe this is not only the next wave but something that will dwarf the last wave.” But we had to put on our wizard hats to negotiate with giants.
The deep learning and AI sector have heated up in labor markets to relatively unprecedented levels. Large companies are recently paying $6–10 million per engineer for talent acquisitions, and $4–5M per head for pre-product startups still in academia. For the Masters students in a certain Stanford lab, they averaged $500K/yr for their first job offer at graduation. We witnessed an academic turn down a million dollar signing bonus because they got a better offer.
Why so hot?
The deep learning techniques, while relatively easy to learn, are quite foreign to traditional engineering modalities. It takes a different mindset and a relaxation of the presumption of control. The practitioners are like magi, sequestered from the rest of a typical engineering process. The artifacts of their creation are isolated blocks of functionality defined by their interfaces. They are like blocks of magic handed to other parts of a traditional organization. (This carries over to the customers too; just about any product that you experience in the next five years that seems like magic will almost certainly be built by these algorithms).
And remember that these “brain builders” could join any industry. They can ply their trade in any domain. When we were building the deep learning team at Human Longevity Inc. (HLI), we hired the engineering lead from the Google’s Translate team. Franz Och pioneered Google’s better-than-human translation service not by studying linguistics, grammar, or even speaking the languages being translated. He focused on building the brain that could learn the job from countless documents already translated by humans (UN transcripts in particular). When he came to HLI, he cared about the mission, but knew nothing about cancer and the genome. The learning machines can find the complex patterns across the genome. In short, the deep learning expertise is fungible, and there are a burgeoning number of companies hiring and competing across industry lines.
And it is an ever-widening set of industries undergoing transformation, from automotive to agriculture, healthcare to financial services. We saw this explosion in the Nervana customer pipeline. And we see it across the DFJ portfolio, especially in our newer investments. Here are some examples:
• Learning chemistry and drug discovery: Here is a visualization of the search space of candidates for a treatment for Ebola; it generated the lead molecule for animal trials. Atomwise summarizes: “When we examine different neurons on the network we see something new: AtomNet has learned to recognize essential chemical groups like hydrogen bonding, aromaticity, and single-bonded carbons. Critically, no human ever taught AtomNet the building blocks of organic chemistry. AtomNet discovered them itself by studying vast quantities of target and ligand data. The patterns it independently observed are so foundational that medicinal chemists often think about them, and they are studied in academic courses. Put simply, AtomNet is teaching itself college chemistry.”
• Designing new microbial life for better materials: Zymergen uses machine learning to predict the combination of genetic modifications that will optimize product yield for their customers. They are amassing one of the largest data sets about microbial design and performance, which enables them to train machine learning algorithms that make search predictions with increasing precision. Genomatica had great success in pathway optimization using directed evolution, a physical variant of an iterative optimization algorithm.
• Discovery and change detection in satellite imagery: Planet and Mapbox. Planet is now producing so much imagery that humans can’t actually look at each picture it takes. Soon, they will image every meter of the Earth every day. From a few training examples, a convolutional neural net can find similar examples globally — like all new housing starts, all depleted reservoirs, all current deforestation, or car counts for all retail parking lots.
• Automated driving & robotics: Tesla, Zoox, SpaceX, Rethink Robotics, etc.
• Visual classification: From e-commerce to drones to security cameras and more. Imagen is using deep learning to radically improve medical image analysis, starting with radiology.
• Cybersecurity: When protecting endpoint computing & IOT devices from the most advanced cyberthreats, AI-powered Cylance is proving to be a far superior and adaptive approach versus older signature-based antivirus solutions.
• Financial risk assessment: Avant and Prosper use machine learning to improve credit verification and merge traditional and non-traditional data sources during the underwriting process.
• And now for something completely different: quantum computing. For a wormhole peek into the near future, our quantum computing company, D-Wave Systems, powered a 100,000,000x speedup in a demonstration benchmark for Google, a company that has used D-Wave quantum computers for over a decade now on machine learning applications.
So where will this take us?
Neural networks had their early success in speech recognition in the 90’s. In 2012, the deep learning variant dominated the ImageNet competitions, and visual processing can now be better done by machine than human in many domains (like pathology, radiology and other medical image classification tasks). DARPA has research programs to do better than a dog’s nose in olfaction.
We are starting the development of our artificial brains in the sensory cortex, much like an infant coming into the world. Even within these systems, like vision, the deep learning network starts with similar low level constructs (like edge-detection) as foundations for higher level constructs like facial forms, and ultimately, finding cats on the internet with self-taught learning.
But the artificial brains need not limit themselves to the human senses. With the internet of things, we are creating a sensory nervous system on the planet, with countless sensors and data collecting proliferating across the planet. All of this “big data” would be a big headache but for machine learning to find patterns in it all and make it actionable. So, not only are we transcending human intelligence with multitudes of dedicated intelligences, we are transcending our sensory perception.
And it need not stop there. It is precisely by these iterative algorithms that human intelligence arose from primitive antecedents. While biological evolution was slow, it provides an existence proof of the process, now vastly accelerated in the artificial domain. It shifts the debate from the realm of the possible to the likely timeline ahead.
Let me end with the closing chapter in Danny Hillis’ CS book The Pattern on the Stone: “We will not engineer an artificial intelligence; rather we will set up the right conditions under which an intelligence can emerge. The greatest achievement of our technology may well be creation of tools that allow us to go beyond engineering — that allow us to create more than we can understand.”
-----
Here is some early press:
Xconomy(most in-depth), MIT Tech Review, Re/Code, Forbes, WSJ, Fortune.
Persistent vegetative state
SpecialtyNeurology
A persistent vegetative state (PVS) is a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness. After four weeks in a vegetative state (VS), the patient is classified as in a persistent vegetative state. This diagnosis is classified as a permanent vegetative state some months (three in the US and six in the UK) after a non-traumatic brain injury or one year after a traumatic injury. Today, doctors and neuroscientists prefer to call the state of consciousness a syndrome,[1] primarily because of ethical questions about whether a patient can be called "vegetative" or not.[2]
Contents
1Definition
1.1Medical definition
1.2Lack of legal clarity
1.3Vegetative state
1.4Persistent vegetative state
2Signs and symptoms
2.1Recovery
3Causes
4Diagnosis
4.1Diagnostic experiments
4.2Misdiagnoses
5Treatment
5.1Zolpidem
6Epidemiology
7History
8Society and culture
8.1Ethics and policy
8.2Notable cases
9See also
10References
11External links
Definition[edit]
There are several definitions that vary by technical versus layman's usage. There are different legal implications in different countries.
Medical definition[edit]
A wakeful unconscious state that lasts longer than a few weeks is referred to as a persistent (or 'continuing') vegetative state.[3]
Lack of legal clarity[edit]
Unlike brain death, permanent vegetative state (PVS) is recognized by statute law as death in very few legal systems. In the US, courts have required petitions before termination of life support that demonstrate that any recovery of cognitive functions above a vegetative state is assessed as impossible by authoritative medical opinion.[4] In England and Wales the legal precedent for withdrawal of clinically assisted nutrition and hydration in cases of patients in a PVS was set in 1993 in the case of Tony Bland, who sustained catastrophic anoxic brain injury in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.[3] An application to the Court of Protection is no longer required before nutrition and hydration can be withdrawn or withheld from PVS (or 'minimally conscious' – MCS) patients.[5]
This legal grey area has led to vocal advocates that those in PVS should be allowed to die. Others are equally determined that, if recovery is at all possible, care should continue. The existence of a small number of diagnosed PVS cases that have eventually resulted in improvement makes defining recovery as "impossible" particularly difficult in a legal sense.[6] This legal and ethical issue raises questions about autonomy, quality of life, appropriate use of resources, the wishes of family members, and professional responsibilities.
Vegetative state[edit]
The vegetative state is a chronic or long-term condition. This condition differs from a coma: a coma is a state that lacks both awareness and wakefulness. Patients in a vegetative state may have awoken from a coma, but still have not regained awareness. In the vegetative state patients can open their eyelids occasionally and demonstrate sleep-wake cycles, but completely lack cognitive function. The vegetative state is also called a "coma vigil". The chances of regaining awareness diminish considerably as the time spent in the vegetative state increases.[7]
Persistent vegetative state[edit]
Persistent vegetative state is the standard usage (except in the UK) for a medical diagnosis, made after numerous neurological and other tests, that due to extensive and irreversible brain damage a patient is highly unlikely ever to achieve higher functions above a vegetative state. This diagnosis does not mean that a doctor has diagnosed improvement as impossible, but does open the possibility, in the US, for a judicial request to end life support.[6] Informal guidelines hold that this diagnosis can be made after four weeks in a vegetative state. US caselaw has shown that successful petitions for termination have been made after a diagnosis of a persistent vegetative state, although in some cases, such as that of Terri Schiavo, such rulings have generated widespread controversy.
In the UK, the term is discouraged in favor of two more precisely defined terms that have been strongly recommended by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). These guidelines recommend using a continuous vegetative state for patients in a vegetative state for more than four weeks. A medical determination of a permanent vegetative state can be made if, after exhaustive testing and a customary 12 months of observation,[8] a medical diagnosis is made that it is impossible by any informed medical expectations that the mental condition will ever improve.[9] Hence, a "continuous vegetative state" in the UK may remain the diagnosis in cases that would be called "persistent" in the US or elsewhere.
While the actual testing criteria for a diagnosis of "permanent" in the UK are quite similar to the criteria for a diagnosis of "persistent" in the US, the semantic difference imparts in the UK a legal presumption that is commonly used in court applications for ending life support.[8] The UK diagnosis is generally only made after 12 months of observing a static vegetative state. A diagnosis of a persistent vegetative state in the US usually still requires a petitioner to prove in court that recovery is impossible by informed medical opinion, while in the UK the "permanent" diagnosis already gives the petitioner this presumption and may make the legal process less time-consuming.[6]
In common usage, the "permanent" and "persistent" definitions are sometimes conflated and used interchangeably. However, the acronym "PVS" is intended[by whom?] to define a "persistent vegetative state", without necessarily the connotations of permanence,[citation needed] and is used as such throughout this article. Bryan Jennett, who originally coined the term "persistent vegetative state", has now recommended using the UK division between continuous and permanent in his book The Vegetative State, arguing that "the 'persistent' component of this term ... may seem to suggest irreversibility".[10]
The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council has suggested "post coma unresponsiveness" as an alternative term for "vegetative state" in general.[11]
Signs and symptoms[edit]
Most PVS patients are unresponsive to external stimuli and their conditions are associated with different levels of consciousness. Some level of consciousness means a person can still respond, in varying degrees, to stimulation. A person in a coma, however, cannot. In addition, PVS patients often open their eyes in response to feeding, which has to be done by others; they are capable of swallowing, whereas patients in a coma subsist with their eyes closed (Emmett, 1989).
Cerebral cortical function (e.g. communication, thinking, purposeful movement, etc) is lost while brainstem functions (e.g. breathing, maintaining circulation and hemodynamic stability, etc) are preserved. Non-cognitive upper brainstem functions such as eye-opening, occasional vocalizations (e.g. crying, laughing), maintaining normal sleep patterns, and spontaneous non-purposeful movements often remain intact.
PVS patients' eyes might be in a relatively fixed position, or track moving objects, or move in a disconjugate (i.e., completely unsynchronized) manner. They may experience sleep-wake cycles, or be in a state of chronic wakefulness. They may exhibit some behaviors that can be construed as arising from partial consciousness, such as grinding their teeth, swallowing, smiling, shedding tears, grunting, moaning, or screaming without any apparent external stimulus.
Individuals in PVS are seldom on any life-sustaining equipment other than a feeding tube because the brainstem, the center of vegetative functions (such as heart rate and rhythm, respiration, and gastrointestinal activity) is relatively intact (Emmett, 1989).
Recovery[edit]
Many people emerge spontaneously from a vegetative state within a few weeks.[10] The chances of recovery depend on the extent of injury to the brain and the patient's age – younger patients having a better chance of recovery than older patients. A 1994 report found that of those who were in a vegetative state a month after a trauma, 54% had regained consciousness by a year after the trauma, whereas 28% had died and 18% were still in the vegetative state. But for non-traumatic injuries such as strokes, only 14% had recovered consciousness at one year, 47% had died, and 39% were still vegetative. Patients who were vegetative six months after the initial event were much less likely to have recovered consciousness a year after the event than in the case of those who were simply reported vegetative at one month.[12] A New Scientist article from 2000 gives a pair of graphs[13] showing changes of patient status during the first 12 months after head injury and after incidents depriving the brain of oxygen.[14] After a year, the chances that a PVS patient will regain consciousness are very low[15] and most patients who do recover consciousness experience significant disability. The longer a patient is in a PVS, the more severe the resulting disabilities are likely to be. Rehabilitation can contribute to recovery, but many patients never progress to the point of being able to take care of themselves.
There are two dimensions of recovery from a persistent vegetative state: recovery of consciousness and recovery of function. Recovery of consciousness can be verified by reliable evidence of awareness of self and the environment, consistent voluntary behavioral responses to visual and auditory stimuli, and interaction with others. Recovery of function is characterized by communication, the ability to learn and to perform adaptive tasks, mobility, self-care, and participation in recreational or vocational activities. Recovery of consciousness may occur without functional recovery, but functional recovery cannot occur without recovery of consciousness (Ashwal, 1994).
Causes[edit]
There are three main causes of PVS (persistent vegetative state):
Acute traumatic brain injury
Non-traumatic: neurodegenerative disorder or metabolic disorder of the brain
Severe congenital abnormality of the central nervous system
Medical books (such as Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins. (2007). In A Page: Pediatric Signs and Symptoms) describe several potential causes of PVS, which are as follows:
Bacterial, viral, or fungal infection, including meningitis
Increased intracranial pressure, such as a tumor or abscess
Vascular pressure which causes intracranial hemorrhaging or stroke
Hypoxic ischemic injury (hypotension, cardiac arrest, arrhythmia, near-drowning)
Toxins such as uremia, ethanol, atropine, opiates, lead, colloidal silver[16]
Trauma: Concussion, contusion
Seizure, both nonconvulsive status epilepticus and postconvulsive state (postictal state)
Electrolyte imbalance, which involves hyponatremia, hypernatremia, hypomagnesemia, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, hypercalcemia, and hypocalcemia
Postinfectious: Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM)
Endocrine disorders such as adrenal insufficiency and thyroid disorders
Degenerative and metabolic diseases including urea cycle disorders, Reye syndrome, and mitochondrial disease
Systemic infection and sepsis
Hepatic encephalopathy
In addition, these authors claim that doctors sometimes use the mnemonic device AEIOU-TIPS to recall portions of the differential diagnosis: Alcohol ingestion and acidosis, Epilepsy and encephalopathy, Infection, Opiates, Uremia, Trauma, Insulin overdose or inflammatory disorders, Poisoning and psychogenic causes, and Shock.
Diagnosis[edit]
Despite converging agreement about the definition of persistent vegetative state, recent reports have raised concerns about the accuracy of diagnosis in some patients, and the extent to which, in a selection of cases, residual cognitive functions may remain undetected and patients are diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state. Objective assessment of residual cognitive function can be extremely difficult as motor responses may be minimal, inconsistent, and difficult to document in many patients, or may be undetectable in others because no cognitive output is possible (Owen et al., 2002). In recent years, a number of studies have demonstrated an important role for functional neuroimaging in the identification of residual cognitive function in persistent vegetative state; this technology is providing new insights into cerebral activity in patients with severe brain damage. Such studies, when successful, may be particularly useful where there is concern about the accuracy of the diagnosis and the possibility that residual cognitive function has remained undetected.
Diagnostic experiments[edit]
Researchers have begun to use functional neuroimaging studies to study implicit cognitive processing in patients with a clinical diagnosis of persistent vegetative state. Activations in response to sensory stimuli with positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and electrophysiological methods can provide information on the presence, degree, and location of any residual brain function. However, use of these techniques in people with severe brain damage is methodologically, clinically, and theoretically complex and needs careful quantitative analysis and interpretation.
For example, PET studies have shown the identification of residual cognitive function in persistent vegetative state. That is, an external stimulation, such as a painful stimulus, still activates "primary" sensory cortices in these patients but these areas are functionally disconnected from "higher order" associative areas needed for awareness. These results show that parts of the cortex are indeed still functioning in "vegetative" patients (Matsuda et al., 2003).
In addition, other PET studies have revealed preserved and consistent responses in predicted regions of auditory cortex in response to intelligible speech stimuli. Moreover, a preliminary fMRI examination revealed partially intact responses to semantically ambiguous stimuli, which are known to tap higher aspects of speech comprehension (Boly, 2004).
Furthermore, several studies have used PET to assess the central processing of noxious somatosensory stimuli in patients in PVS. Noxious somatosensory stimulation activated midbrain, contralateral thalamus, and primary somatosensory cortex in each and every PVS patient, even in the absence of detectable cortical evoked potentials. In conclusion, somatosensory stimulation of PVS patients, at intensities that elicited pain in controls, resulted in increased neuronal activity in primary somatosensory cortex, even if resting brain metabolism was severely impaired. However, this activation of primary cortex seems to be isolated and dissociated from higher-order associative cortices (Laureys et al., 2002).
Also, there is evidence of partially functional cerebral regions in catastrophically injured brains. To study five patients in PVS with different behavioral features, researchers employed PET, MRI and magnetoencephalographic (MEG) responses to sensory stimulation. In three of the five patients, co-registered PET/MRI correlate areas of relatively preserved brain metabolism with isolated fragments of behavior. Two patients had suffered anoxic injuries and demonstrated marked decreases in overall cerebral metabolism to 30–40% of normal. Two other patients with non-anoxic, multifocal brain injuries demonstrated several isolated brain regions with higher metabolic rates, that ranged up to 50–80% of normal. Nevertheless, their global metabolic rates remained <50% of normal. MEG recordings from three PVS patients provide clear evidence for the absence, abnormality or reduction of evoked responses. Despite major abnormalities, however, these data also provide evidence for localized residual activity at the cortical level. Each patient partially preserved restricted sensory representations, as evidenced by slow evoked magnetic fields and gamma band activity. In two patients, these activations correlate with isolated behavioral patterns and metabolic activity. Remaining active regions identified in the three PVS patients with behavioral fragments appear to consist of segregated corticothalamic networks that retain connectivity and partial functional integrity. A single patient who suffered severe injury to the tegmental mesencephalon and paramedian thalamus showed widely preserved cortical metabolism, and a global average metabolic rate of 65% of normal. The relatively high preservation of cortical metabolism in this patient defines the first functional correlate of clinical–pathological reports associating permanent unconsciousness with structural damage to these regions. The specific patterns of preserved metabolic activity identified in these patients reflect novel evidence of the modular nature of individual functional networks that underlie conscious brain function. The variations in cerebral metabolism in chronic PVS patients indicate that some cerebral regions can retain partial function in catastrophically injured brains (Schiff et al., 2002).
Misdiagnoses[edit]
Statistical PVS misdiagnosis is common. An example study with 40 patients in the United Kingdom reported 43% of their patients classified as PVS were believed so and another 33% had recovered whilst the study was underway.[17] Some PVS cases may actually be a misdiagnosis of patients being in an undiagnosed minimally conscious state.[18] Since the exact diagnostic criteria of the minimally conscious state were only formulated in 2002, there may be chronic patients diagnosed as PVS before the secondary notion of the minimally conscious state became known.
Whether or not there is any conscious awareness with a patient's vegetative state is a prominent issue. Three completely different aspects of this should be distinguished. First, some patients can be conscious simply because they are misdiagnosed (see above). In fact, they are not in vegetative states. Second, sometimes a patient was correctly diagnosed but is then examined during the early stages of recovery. Third, perhaps some day the notion itself of vegetative states will change so to include elements of conscious awareness. Inability to disentangle these three example cases causes confusion. An example of such confusion is the response to a recent experiment using functional magnetic resonance imaging which revealed that a woman diagnosed with PVS was able to activate predictable portions of her brain in response to the tester's requests that she imagine herself playing tennis or moving from room to room in her house. The brain activity in response to these instructions was indistinguishable from those of healthy patients.[19][20][21]
In 2010, Martin Monti and fellow researchers, working at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge, reported in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine[22] that some patients in persistent vegetative states responded to verbal instructions by displaying different patterns of brain activity on fMRI scans. Five out of a total of 54 diagnosed patients were apparently able to respond when instructed to think about one of two different physical activities. One of these five was also able to "answer" yes or no questions, again by imagining one of these two activities.[23] It is unclear, however, whether the fact that portions of the patients' brains light up on fMRI could help these patients assume their own medical decision making.[23]
In November 2011, a publication in The Lancet presented bedside EEG apparatus and indicated that its signal could be used to detect awareness in three of 16 patients diagnosed in the vegetative state.[24]
Treatment[edit]
Currently no treatment for vegetative state exists that would satisfy the efficacy criteria of evidence-based medicine. Several methods have been proposed which can roughly be subdivided into four categories: pharmacological methods, surgery, physical therapy, and various stimulation techniques. Pharmacological therapy mainly uses activating substances such as tricyclic antidepressants or methylphenidate. Mixed results have been reported using dopaminergic drugs such as amantadine and bromocriptine and stimulants such as dextroamphetamine.[25] Surgical methods such as deep brain stimulation are used less frequently due to the invasiveness of the procedures. Stimulation techniques include sensory stimulation, sensory regulation, music and musicokinetic therapy, social-tactile interaction, and cortical stimulation.[26]
Zolpidem[edit]
There is limited evidence that the hypnotic drug zolpidem has an effect.[27] The results of the few scientific studies that have been published so far on the effectiveness of zolpidem have been contradictory.[28][29]
Epidemiology[edit]
In the United States, it is estimated that there may be between 15,000 and 40,000 patients who are in a persistent vegetative state, but due to poor nursing home records exact figures are hard to determine.[30]
History[edit]
The syndrome was first described in 1940 by Ernst Kretschmer who called it apallic syndrome.[31] The term persistent vegetative state was coined in 1972 by Scottish spinal surgeon Bryan Jennett and American neurologist Fred Plum to describe a syndrome that seemed to have been made possible by medicine's increased capacities to keep patients' bodies alive.[10][32]
Society and culture[edit]
Ethics and policy[edit]
An ongoing debate exists as to how much care, if any, patients in a persistent vegetative state should receive in health systems plagued by limited resources. In a case before the New Jersey Superior Court, Betancourt v. Trinitas Hospital, a community hospital sought a ruling that dialysis and CPR for such a patient constitutes futile care. An American bioethicist, Jacob M. Appel, argued that any money spent treating PVS patients would be better spent on other patients with a higher likelihood of recovery.[33] The patient died naturally prior to a decision in the case, resulting in the court finding the issue moot.
In 2010, British and Belgian researchers reported in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that some patients in persistent vegetative states actually had enough consciousness to "answer" yes or no questions on fMRI scans.[34] However, it is unclear whether the fact that portions of the patients' brains light up on fMRI will help these patient assume their own medical decision making.[34] Professor Geraint Rees, Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, responded to the study by observing that, "As a clinician, it would be important to satisfy oneself that the individual that you are communicating with is competent to make those decisions. At the moment it is premature to conclude that the individual able to answer 5 out of 6 yes/no questions is fully conscious like you or I."[34] In contrast, Jacob M. Appel of the Mount Sinai Hospital told the Telegraph that this development could be a welcome step toward clarifying the wishes of such patients. Appel stated: "I see no reason why, if we are truly convinced such patients are communicating, society should not honour their wishes. In fact, as a physician, I think a compelling case can be made that doctors have an ethical obligation to assist such patients by removing treatment. I suspect that, if such individuals are indeed trapped in their bodies, they may be living in great torment and will request to have their care terminated or even active euthanasia."[34]
Notable cases[edit]
Tony Bland – first patient in English legal history to be allowed to die
Paul Brophy – first American to die after court-authorization
Sunny von Bülow – lived almost 28 years in a persistent vegetative state until her death
Gustavo Cerati – Argentine singer-songwriter, composer and producer who died after four years in a coma
Prichard Colón – Puerto Rican former professional boxer and gold medal winner who spent years in a vegetative state after a bout
Nancy Cruzan – American woman involved in a landmark United States Supreme Court case
Gary Dockery – American police officer who entered, emerged and later reentered a persistent vegetative state
Eluana Englaro – Italian woman from Lecco whose life was ended after a legal case after spending 17 years in a vegetative state
Elaine Esposito – American child who was a previous record holder for having spent 37 years in a coma
Lia Lee – Hmong child who spent 26 years in a vegetative state and was the subject of a 1997 book by Anne Fadiman
Haleigh Poutre
Karen Ann Quinlan
Terri Schiavo
Aruna Shanbaug – Indian woman in persistent vegetative state for 42 years until her death. Due to her case, the Supreme Court of India allowed passive euthanasia in the country.
Ariel Sharon
Chayito Valdez
Vice Vukov
Helga Wanglie
Otto Warmbier
See also[edit]
Anencephaly
Brain death
Botulism
Catatonia
Karolina Olsson
Locked-in syndrome
Process Oriented Coma Work, for an approach to working with residual consciousness in patients in comatose and persistent vegetative states
References[edit]
^ Laureys, Steven; Celesia, Gastone G; Cohadon, Francois; Lavrijsen, Jan; León-Carrión, José; Sannita, Walter G; Sazbon, Leon; Schmutzhard, Erich; von Wild, Klaus R (2010-11-01). "Unresponsive wakefulness syndrome: a new name for the vegetative state or apallic syndrome". BMC Medicine. 8: 68. doi:10.1186/1741-7015-8-68. ISSN 1741-7015. PMC 2987895. PMID 21040571.
^ Laureys S, Celesia GG, Cohadon F, Lavrijsen J, León-Carrión J, Sannita WG, Sazbon L, Schmutzhard E, von Wild KR, Zeman A, Dolce G (2010). "Unresponsive wakefulness syndrome: a new name for the vegetative state or apallic syndrome". BMC Med. 8: 68. doi:10.1186/1741-7015-8-68. PMC 2987895. PMID 21040571.
^ Jump up to: a b Royal College of Physicians 2013 Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness: National Clinical Guidelines, www.rcplondon.ac.uk/resources/prolonged-disorders-conscio...
^ Jennett, B (1999). "Should cases of permanent vegetative state still go to court?. Britain should follow other countries and keep the courts for cases of dispute". BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.). 319 (7213): 796–97. doi:10.1136/bmj.319.7213.796. PMC 1116645. PMID 10496803.
^ Royal College of Physicians 2013 Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness: National Clinical Guidelines
^ Jump up to: a b c Diagnosing The Permanent Vegetative State by Ronald Cranford, MD
^ PVS, The Multi-Society Task Force on (1994-05-26). "Medical Aspects of the Persistent Vegetative State". New England Journal of Medicine. 330 (21): 1499–1508. doi:10.1056/NEJM199405263302107. ISSN 0028-4793. PMID 7818633.
^ Jump up to: a b Wade, DT; Johnston, C (1999). "The permanent vegetative state: Practical guidance on diagnosis and management". BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.). 319 (7213): 841–4. doi:10.1136/bmj.319.7213.841. PMC 1116668. PMID 10496834.
^ Guidance on diagnosis and management: Report of a working party of the Royal College of Physicians. Royal College of Physicians: London. 1996.
^ Jump up to: a b c Bryan Jennett. The Vegetative State: Medical facts, ethical and legal dilemmas (PDF). University of Glasgow: Scotland. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
^ Post-coma unresponsiveness (Vegetative State): a clinical framework for diagnosis. National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC): Canberra. 2003. Archived from the original on 2006-08-20.
^ Jennett, B (2002). "Editorial: The vegetative state. The definition, diagnosis, prognosis and pathology of this state are discussed, together with the legal implications". British Medical Journal. 73 (4): 355–357. doi:10.1136/jnnp.73.4.355. PMC 1738081. PMID 12235296. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
^ "New Scientist". 2014-02-02. Archived from the original on 2017-07-11. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
^ Nell Boyce (July 8, 2000). "Is anyone in there?". New Scientist: 36.
^ Schapira, Anthony (December 18, 2006). Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience. Mosby. p. 126. ISBN 978-0323033541.
^ Mirsattari SM, Hammond RR, Sharpe MD, Leung FY, Young GB (April 2004). "Myoclonic status epilepticus following repeated oral ingestion of colloidal silver". Neurology. 62 (8): 1408–10. doi:10.1212/01.WNL.0000120671.73335.EC. PMID 15111684.
^ K Andrews; L Murphy; R Munday; C Littlewood (1996-07-06). "Misdiagnosis of the vegetative state: retrospective study in a rehabilitation unit". British Medical Journal. 313 (7048): 13–16. doi:10.1136/bmj.313.7048.13. PMC 2351462. PMID 8664760.
^ Giacino JT, et al. (2002). "Unknown title". Neurology. 58 (3): 349–353. doi:10.1212/wnl.58.3.349. PMID 11839831.
^ Owen AM, Coleman MR, Boly M, Davis MH, Laureys S, Pickard JD (2006-09-08). "Detecting awareness in the vegetative state". Science. 313 (5792): 1402. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.1022.2193. doi:10.1126/science.1130197. PMID 16959998.
^ "Vegetative patient 'communicates': A patient in a vegetative state can communicate just through using her thoughts, according to research". BBC News. September 7, 2006. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
^ Stein R (September 8, 2006). "Vegetative patient's brain active in test: Unprecedented experiment shows response to instructions to imagine playing tennis". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-09-26.
^ Willful Modulation of Brain Activity in Disorders of Consciousness at nejm.org
^ Jump up to: a b Richard Alleyne and Martin Beckford, Patients in 'vegetative' state can think and communicate,Telegraph (United Kingdom), Feb 4, 2010
^ Cruse Damian; et al. (2011). "Bedside detection of awareness in the vegetative state: a cohort study". The Lancet. 378 (9809): 2088–2094. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.368.3928. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61224-5. PMID 22078855.
^ Dolce, Giuliano; Sazbon, Leon (2002). The post-traumatic vegetative state. ISBN 9781588901163.
^ Georgiopoulos M, et al. (2010). "Vegetative state and minimally conscious state: a review of the therapeutic interventions". Stereotact Funct Neurosurg. 88 (4): 199–207. doi:10.1159/000314354. PMID 20460949.
^ Georgiopoulos, M; Katsakiori, P; Kefalopoulou, Z; Ellul, J; Chroni, E; Constantoyannis, C (2010). "Vegetative state and minimally conscious state: a review of the therapeutic interventions". Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery. 88 (4): 199–207. doi:10.1159/000314354. PMID 20460949.
^ Snyman, N; Egan, JR; London, K; Howman-Giles, R; Gill, D; Gillis, J; Scheinberg, A (2010). "Zolpidem for persistent vegetative state—a placebo-controlled trial in pediatrics". Neuropediatrics. 41 (5): 223–227. doi:10.1055/s-0030-1269893. PMID 21210338.
^ Whyte, J; Myers, R (2009). "Incidence of clinically significant responses to zolpidem among patients with disorders of consciousness: a preliminary placebo controlled trial". Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 88 (5): 410–418. doi:10.1097/PHM.0b013e3181a0e3a0. PMID 19620954.
^ Hirsch, Joy (2005-05-02). "Raising consciousness". The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 115 (5): 1102. doi:10.1172/JCI25320. PMC 1087197. PMID 15864333.
^ Ernst Kretschmer (1940). "Das apallische Syndrom". Neurol. Psychiat. 169: 576–579. doi:10.1007/BF02871384.
^ B Jennett; F Plum (1972). "Persistent vegetative state after brain damage: A syndrome in search of a name". The Lancet. 1 (7753): 734–737. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(72)90242-5. PMID 4111204.
^ Appel on Betancourt v. Trinitas
^ Jump up to: a b c d Richard Alleyne and Martin Beckford, Patients in 'vegetative' state can think and communicate, Telegraph (United Kingdom), Feb 4, 2010
This article contains text from the NINDS public domain pages on TBI. [1] and [2].
External links[edit]
Sarà, M.; Sacco, S.; Cipolla, F.; Onorati, P.; Scoppetta, C; Albertini, G; Carolei, A (2007). "An unexpected recovery from permanent vegetative state". Brain Injury. 21 (1): 101–103. doi:10.1080/02699050601151761. PMID 17364525.
Canavero S, et al. (2009). "Recovery of consciousness following bifocal extradural cortical stimulation in a permanently vegetative patient". Journal of Neurology. 256 (5): 834–6. doi:10.1007/s00415-009-5019-4. PMID 19252808.
Canavero S (editor) (2009). Textbook of therapeutic cortical stimulation. New York: Nova Science. ISBN 9781606925379.
Canavero S, Massa-Micon B, Cauda F, Montanaro E (May 2009). "Bifocal extradural cortical stimulation-induced recovery of consciousness in the permanent post-traumatic vegetative state". J Neurol. 256 (5): 834–6. doi:10.1007/s00415-009-5019-4. PMID 19252808.
Connolly, Kate. "Car crash victim trapped in a coma for 23 years was conscious", The Guardian, November 23, 2009.
Machado, Calixto, et al. "A Cuban Perspective on Management of Persistent Vegetative State". MEDICC Review 2012;14(1):44–48.
A 20 year line-up of ASIMO humanoids... The early models look like a variety of Star Wars droids.
In this video clip video from the Honda labs, ASIMO looks like a child reaching out for a toy.
From Cognitive Computing ’07 in Berkeley today:
“Cognitive Computing is about engineering the mind by reverse engineering the brain.”
I ended my talk with a quote from Danny Hillis in The Pattern on the Stone:
“We will not engineer an artificial intelligence; rather we will set up the right conditions under which an intelligence can emerge. The greatest achievement of our technology may well be creation of tools that allow us to go beyond engineering – that allow us to create more than we can understand.”
Quotes from the Honda Research Institute talk, my favorite of the morning:
• for Honda, intelligence is a technology
• the essence of brain-like intelligence lies in the global organisation and self-referential control of processing
• following the analysis by synthesis principle, we verify our large scale hypotheses on our demonstrators in direct interaction with their environment
• in our strategy we approach the problem on several different levels of system organisation: macroscopic, mesoscopic, microscopic, microscopic & developmental
• first results confirm our approach to brain-like intelligent systems
• Open question: what is the role of the substrate? How close must a successful interpretation of the brain (in a technical sense) be to its underlying bio-chemical processes
Intelligence is a technology and a strategy for
• robust and flexible problem solving
• under resource limitations (time, energy)
• in complex environments (natural and artificial)
• the brain is the only intelligent system that we know of
• robots with rich environmental interaction provide us for the 1st time with the
means to study and verify large-scale hypotheses on brain-like intelligence
• our approach is to build the brain to understand the brain – the analysis by synthesis principle
• the brain is the most complex structure ever investigated by science
• it is not suitable to the most successful scientific analysis by decomposition
• the brain exhibits structural, chemical, plastic and dynamical complexity all intertwinned on different levels
• all processes in the brain are a result of information processing in a bio-chemical environment
• understanding the brain means unravelling the meaning of ourselves(related to cosmology)
brain = control system for organizing behavior
1) animals without cortex: autonomous systems (reflex automatons)
• genetically encoded reflex hierarchy with the limbic system at the top
• value system = genetically encoded mapping of sensory trigger features to behavioral prototypes
2) animals with cortex: flexible autonomous systems (learning systems)
reflex automaton +
• general memory architecture for storing experience
• genetically encoded self-referential control architecture
The stack [like OSI stack]:
A)Evo/Devo
Function:
• task embedded controlled cellular growth
• evolvable structures of spiking neural systems
• evolution of learning
• extract principles of simple brain evolution
Principles:
• co-evolution of genetic control and information expression
• evolutionary situated design
• selection driven interaction between evolution and learning
• major structural transitions of the co-evolution of early nervous systems and morphology
B) Microscopic Control Level
Function:
• elementary cortical processor
• rapid forward processing
• mixing prediction into afferent stream
• epochs of clocked, within asynchronous processing
Principles:
• spiking neurons
• cortical columnar architecture
• relative latency encoding
• rhythmic control of spike processing
Cortical development
• System architecture develops top-down.
• The basic control structure of the final system is present from the beginning.
• Development is marked by increasing sensory resolution and specialization of analysis, representation and control.
Self-referential Control Architecture
Minicolumn as elementary cortical processor
• mediates mixing of experience into afferent stream
• generates and synchronises rhythmic control for self-referential decomposition and learning
• relative spike latency encoding to control association width
The interplay between cortex and hippocampus increases memory capacity.
How does the cortex learn with:
• high memory capacity,
• fast retrieval speed, and
• high noise tolerance?
1. Store association A→B with HC (low memory capacity)
2. HC replays A→B to induce structural plasticity in cortex
3. Association A→B is stored in high-capacity cortical connections.
⇒ Structural plasticity leads to
- 10-20x memory capacity
- faster recall
- sparse connectivity
Short term memory is photographic — limited and inefficient — for a limited number of objects. Transferred to long term with more efficient and robust encoding.
C) Mesoscopic Control Level
Exploring, Learning and Understanding Visual Scenes
Function:
• active vision: fixation, saccading, tracking
• robust recognition and autonomous learning
• working memory and internal simulation
• self-organization of knowledge representation
Principles:
• columnar organization of multi-layered networks
• integration of different sensory analysis pathways
• stacked associative memories
• flexible selection of best-performing modular processing architecture (prediction, system monitoring)
• knowledge representation in task-related metric
Active Vision
• Decompose the sensory input into features & objects
• Use motion to distinguish foreground and background
• Compose a description of a scene
• Fixation by bottom-up & top-down attention
• Scan path & tracking
• Segmentation & prediction from movement
• Dynamic scene memory
D) Macroscopic Control Level
Function:
• self-development of practical intelligence
• autonomous interaction with environment
• a system that evolves itself from few innate abilities towards an autonomous and socially compliant partner
Principles:
• macroscopic architecture of the human brain
• child-like developmental strategy of learning
• integration of system components in a growing architecture
• self-referential control of learning
• a priori value system shaped by experience
Developing Intelligence
• Child-like Acquisition of Representation and Language
Crossing the Levels
A-B) evolution of spiking neural systems
B-C) mixing of top-down prediction into afferent signal stream and active sensing and
online learning
A-D) evolutionary optimisation of functional modules
This research team in Frankfurt: 36 full time scientists + 52 students and interns
Q&A:
Q: How about building in a heart, or the machines will destroy us?
A: With emotion: we show our internal state
Value system. Map unknown input to output. Interaction with environment
Q from Stanford Prof. about vision:
A: We take several views of a 2D representation instead of building a 3D model
Q from Lloyd Watts: Do you use a spiking neuron model?
A: No. Open question: spiking neuron model, is it important? We are limited by computational resources.
Q from IBM Almaden: Can’t Asimo can use better arithmetic engines than the human brain
A: Hmmm…. We have not thought about teaching Asimo arithmetic. Good question. I will keep it in mind and pose the question to the robot.
Honda’s History of Humanoids provides a slider linking to great photos of their 20 year developmental effort.
Two Guinea baboons (Papio papio) are eating fruits in their natural habitat in Niokolo-Koba National Park, Senegal.
The one in the front, a male with long canines and big fur on his shoulders, has a broken finger. I had to capture this humorous moment when he seemed to give me the finger while impudently biting his fruit.
Interestingly, although males have large and sharp canines, they still use their incisors to open fruit.
This picture was taken during a visit to the Centre de recherche de Primatologie Simenti, founded by the Cognitive Ethology Lab, Germany, in 2007. Since then, primatologists have been conducting long-term behavioural and ecological research there.
More information: www.dpz.eu/en/cognitive-ethology
Watercolor on cotton paper
Although not rigidly programatic, this work was named after and inspired by a piece of music from roscoe Mitchell's album
Spectrum.
(close up detail of stone wall w/moss)
In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort (psychological stress) experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values. The occurrence of cognitive dissonance is a consequence of a person performing an action that contradicts personal beliefs, ideals, and values; and also occurs when confronted with new information that contradicts said beliefs, ideals, and values.
In A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957), Leon Festinger proposed that human beings strive for internal psychological consistency in order to mentally function in the real world. A person who experiences internal inconsistency tends to become psychologically uncomfortable, and is motivated to reduce the cognitive dissonance. This is done by making changes to justify their stressful behavior, either by adding new parts to the cognition causing the psychological dissonance, or by actively avoiding social situations and/or contradictory information likely to increase the magnitude of the cognitive dissonance.
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diptych (back & front cover, internal iconography) published in
Cognitive capitalism (인지자본주의) - Joe Jeong Hwan (조정환) (Publisher: Galmuri Press)
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diptych published in
Y SIN EMBARGO magazine #23
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Outlining a Theory of General Creativity . .
. . on a 'Pataphysical projectory
Entropy ≥ Memory ● Creativity ²
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Study of the day:
« ... Dans quel sens, dans quel sens ira-t-on ? De quel coté tout va-t-il basculer, se plier ou se déplier ? ... La bouche, non pas seulement comme une zone orale superficielle, mais comme l’organe des profondeurs, comme bouche-anus, cloaque introjetant et projetant tous les morceaux ; le cerveau, non pas seulement comme organe corporel, mais comme inducteur d’une autre surface invisible, incorporelle, métaphysique où tous les événements s’inscrivent et symbolisent. C’est entre cette bouche et ce cerveau que tout passe, hésite et s’oriente. Seule la victoire du cerveau, si elle se produit, libère la bouche pour parler, la libère des aliments excrémentiels et des voix retirées, et la nourrit de toutes les paroles possibles. »
( Gilles Deleuze - Logique du sens )
« ... Which way should one take ? On which side is everything going to tumble down, to fold or unfold ? ... The mouth is only a superficial oral zone but also the organ of depths, the mouth-anus, the cesspool introjecting and projecting every morsel. The brain is not only a corporeal organ but also the inductor of another invisible, incorporeal, and metaphysical surface on which all events are inscribed and symbolized. Between this mouth and this brain everything occurs, hesitates, and gets its orientation. Only the victory of the brain, if it takes place, frees the mouth to speak, frees it from excremental food and withdrawn voices, and nourishes it with every possible words. »
( Gilles Deleuze - The Logic of Sense )
« ... ¿En qué sentido, en qué sentido se va a ir? ¿De qué lado va a inclinarse todo, plegarse o desplegarse? ... La boca, no sólo en tanto que zona oral superficial, sino también en tanto que órgano de las profundidades, como boca-ano, cloaca que introyecta y proyecta todos los pedazos; el cerebro, no sólo en tanto que órgano corporal, sino también en tanto que inductor de otra superficie invisible, incorporal, metafísica donde todos los acontecimientos se inscriben y simbolizan. Entre esta boca y este cerebro es donde todo ocurre, duda y se orienta. Únicamente la victoria del cerebro, sí se produce, libera la boca para hablar, la libera de los alimentos excremenciales y de las voces retiradas, y la alimenta una vez con todas las palabras posibles. »
( Gilles Deleuze - Lógica del sentido )
__________________________________________
| . rectO-persO . | . E ≥ m.C² . | . co~errAnce . | . TiLt . |
The basic version of the problem asks people to imagine that they see five passengers on a runaway trolley, headed for certain destruction. They can save these five by throwing a switch that would divert the trolley to a safe course, saving the five passengers, but the diversion will end up killing one bystander who happens to be standing on the safe route. The problem thus asks people if they will act in a way that kills one but saves five. Most people struggle, but agree that they would divert the trolley. But if the hypothetical is altered so that the only way to stop the trolley is by pushing a portly individual off of a footbridge onto the tracks so as to stop the trolley, fewer agree to sacrifice the one to save the five. The hypothetical is designed to illustrate the greater moral dilemma associated with direct, forceful action. Moral Heuristicsis not such a piece. It brings some psychological research to bear on legal issues, but the piece is more ambitious than that. It provides a new way for both psychologists and legal scholars to think about the concept of heuristics. It then uses this new approach to challenge the basic epistemological assumptions of contemporary moral philosophy. The basic thesis of Moral Heuristics is that people rely on simple habits of the mind when thinking about moral issues. As in many areas of life, they do not adhere to principles of deductive logic. They resist relying on broad-based optimization strategies (such as cost-benefit analysis) as a means of addressing hard moral questions in favor of simple rules of thumb. For example, Sunstein argues that people avoid making decisions that they know will result in the death of another person. This is a good principle to follow, of course, but blind application of it can lead to paradox because some fatalities are more invisible than others. The principle can produce condemnation of those who account for less visible, indirect fatalities, as happens in cost-benefit analysis. Cost- benefit analysis makes indirect fatalities transparent, thereby making those who rely on it seem callous, even if they are trying to minimize the total fatality rate. Intuitions about moral issues, he contends, are no more apt to be coherent than intuitions about probability theory. Therefore, founding a normative theory of moral philosophy upon intuition is just as misguided as founding mathematics on intuition. And yet, that is exactly what contemporary moral philosophers undertake. The primary methodological approach at the time was to study the ways that memory and perception might go astray. For example, psychologists studying memory found that when they presented people with lists of words to memorize, people more easily remember them. From this pattern, psychologists inferred that memory includes a short-term storage buffer with limited capacity. At the beginning of the list, the short-term buffer is not yet fully engaged, and hence, it can be used for active rehearsal of the words. At the end of the list, the buffer is not clouded with subsequent words and can be used to facilitate the transfer of the words into long-term storage. The errors in memory, in effect, guide the cognitive theory ofhow memory works. Cognitive psychologists assumed that human memory does not work the same way as a tape recorder, but they also reasoned that the departures from the concept of human memory as a tape recorder could provide insights into the underlying cognitive systems supporting memory. Likewise, cognitive psychologists studying human judgment and choice rejected the idea that human judgment and choice perfectly followed deductive logic and rationality, but they also reasoned that departures from this vision of human judgment would give clues as to how these systems actually worked. And thus, the methodology that produced insights into
the understanding of memory and perception should produce insights into understanding ofjudgment and choice as well. The heuristics and biases approach to assessing human judgment has extraordinary strengths. It provides a simple, inexpensive methodology for studying human judgment and decision making. It also capitalizes on the enormous success of the cognitive psychology of memory and perception in documenting how the brain functions. But, it also inspires criticisms. It arguably fails to account for variations in human ability in judgment, fails to account for motivated reasoning processes, and simply makes people seem too inept. People with different cultural worldviews may well experience betrayal in different settings. The idea that people react negatively to betrayal itself allows for such variations, making it easier to see how this heuristic is compatible with the research on cultural cognition than the representativeness heuristic. Handgun owners might not feel the betrayal of a gun accident (or they might feel more betrayed because they see the gun as a precaution not as a weapon), whereas handgun opponents might deem a handgun accident an ironic betrayal (or might feel that the owner got what was expected). Research on the representativeness heuristic suggests that to the extent to which activities resemble dangerous undertakings, people treat them as if they are dangerous, regardless of the underlying risk. But such treatment fails to account for variations in how individuals assess risk. Betrayal aversion, by contrast, has variation built in. Furthermore, the idea of betrayal aversion is one that proponents of ecological rationality can support much more easily than the representativeness heuristic. Evolutionary psychologists, in particular, argue that humans have an ancestral need to be highly vigilant against betrayal. Cooperation was essential to the survival of hunter- gatherer bands of human ancestors, but cooperative undertakings are vulnerable to exploitation by a defector. Human ancestors who were known to react strongly and punish betrayal aggressively likely deterred defection, therebyfacilitating productive cooperation within their group. Ancestors known to tolerate defection would attract defectors who would destroy group cohesiveness. Such accounts might be little more than "just so" stories, but the idea of a universally strong reaction to betrayal at least seems to have some advantages in social settings. Thus, it is easier to square with an ecological rationality than some of the more general heuristics. Koehler and Gershoff, Like betrayal aversion, the prohibition against deliberately causing another's death fits well with ecological rationality. Only in a vastly more interconnected modem world do humans face the moral consequences of indirectly causing each other harm through action (voting for a political candidate who starts a war that produces collateral injury to civilians) and inaction (failing to donate to charity that cannot save lives as a consequence of lack of funding). The human brain evolved to process a much smaller social universe than we face today. But in ordinary social settings, the prohibition against directly causing death functions as a sensible way of deciding how to act. It has been a great puzzle for psychologists studying judgment and choice, in fact, that intuition about probability and deductive logic deviates so markedly from logical principles. The discrepancy between the answers people's intuition produces and the teachings ofdeductive logic underlies some ofthe backlash against the early literature on heuristics and biases. It has led many to embrace ecological rationality, as discussed above. But most have simply accepted that intuition and deductive logic are not the same, and conclude that it is extremely difficult to develop a unified theory of human judgment and choice that is both descriptively accurate and normatively logical. If that is correct, then relying on intuition to construct a system of logic, probability, or mathematics would be deeply misguided.
scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1...
Following up on last year’s IBM Almaden Institute, I went to visit Paul Rhodes at Evolved Machines.
This whiteboard with RC ladders and diff eq’s looked strangely familiar (tickling the EE in this geek).
To more accurately model neuronal signaling, the dendrite is broken up into a finite element model of adjacent segments. Somewhat like a coax cable, the dendrite has an inner core of conductive ions surrounded by a lipid layer that insulates the signal from the common ground of the intercellular fluid. In addition to static membrane capacitance and axial resistance, the myriad ion channel pores penetrating the lipid insulator provide rich non-linear dynamics (modeled as a battery and voltage-regulated resistor). Conformal proteins in the channel dynamically regulate sodium and potassium current, with positive feedback accelerating the local rise of voltage above a threshold, and then reversing to rapid negative feedback (creating a classic neuronal voltage spike).
The voltage spike will propagate, with gain, along the dendrite, from one finite element region to the neighbor, not as a free flow of electrons, but as a bucket brigade of opening and closing ion channels, like fingers cascading down a very long flute.
The dendrite with myriad branches is a fundamental locus of computation, not just the neuron cell body.
I am looking forward to Cognitive Computing 2007 at Berkeley.
The most precious things of life are near at hand, without money and without price. Each of you has the whole wealth of the universe at your very door. All that I ever had, and still have, may be yours by stretching forth your hand and taking it.
Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual satisfaction.
Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius.
Edward O. Wilson, Biologist
“Hey look, Santa brought me my umpteenth pair of red Dr Martens for Christmas.”
And we are off.
“I’ve been wearing this brand for years,” he says.
We have come together to talk about why the footwear means so much and he is forthright.
“These shoes are symbolic of my story, how I came to be the man that I am.”
How could a commercial brand achieve all of that, I inquire?
“I started wearing these shoes when my cousin gave me a pair of Cherry Red docs, dyed black. They were too big but the love was instant. I liked the shape. They held my feet comfortably and securely. They were good for a boot in football and decent in a fight too, if necessary.
“They were probably the first brand I owned too. My parents weren’t poor but they weren’t rich either. I see kids these days in the latest Nike or Adidas trainers and I'm amazed. My parents always hid behind the excuse that I was growing and there was no point in buying me new and expensive shoes every four months.”
He smiles before his tone darkens.
“As a 12-year old, Dr Martens were just shoes. A year later, they were the footwear of the people who didn’t want me and my family to stay in the country.”
The United kingdom was a dark and different place in the late 1970s. The National Front was a political force, its poison affecting and infecting every aspect of British culture (www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxL-FoE6mzw).
Mrs Thatcher, as leader of the Conservative Party, had incorporated some of the NF rhetoric into her own public speeches (www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR9X6FkkOeY). Immigrants were discussed only in terms of their drain on the nation’s resources, their ‘innate’ criminality (www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCda7RDY9JM) and the circumstances and conditions of their departure from Great Britain.
“Things change and things remain the same,” he says with a wink.
“I watched the NF marches on tv and some of the white lads were wearing my boots. For a while, I did change my own social uniform to show solidarity with my community but I still wore my Docs to school.
“Then, fortunately, Ska and TwoTone music (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueMDcBp5tQU)exploded into the public consciousness (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av__SIM59-Y) and my docs were now part of a new youth culture that embraced multi-racial Britain as it was and not the nostalgia theme park that some wanted it to be.
“By the age of 15, I was wearing Doc loafers with tassels (www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SWBfM7KOUM), my white socks and drainpipe trousers.”
By the time he got to university, the boots had been traded in for black Doc shoes, a pillar of metrosexual London chic.
Delving deeper, I understand that the wearing of docs was also a ‘political choice.’ In the 1980s, British black culture had fallen for the ‘Nike Supremacy’ of Air Jordans et al. His choice of Docs was an act of rejection and realignment.
“Yes, I think the shoes did represent the non-conformity of my identity,” he confirms.
He then laughs nervously. “Dr Martens are the visible sign of my cognitive dissonance. Who would have thought that shoes could mean this much.”
He adds: “Immigrants are always hearing that they are a burden, that they are unwanted. How could people who worked every day, owned a house and were decent, be a problem for Great Britain?
“Irish people were not a problem, even though there was a terrible war in Northern Ireland for 25 years. But black people were constantly talked down. Even Eric Clapton, ‘Mr Bluesman’ himself wanted us out (www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYccj2PmraQ)!
“But where was I to go? The Caribbean was just food, family and who you supported during the cricket season (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XD5W_z4k-U) but England was my home.
“I was totally conflicted. Looking back, I think that by my 20s, I was sick of being in Britain but not of it. I wanted to feel part of the country and at ease. I needed to belong somewhere.
“So … maybe … I created a place in my mind where I was comfortable and where my identity as a black Briton was accepted.
“To put it simply … I like reggae and fish and chips. I am black and I am British too. I am not special and I shouldn’t be a target because I am black. I am always forced to think about my identity because everyone ..and I mean everyone - black and white - is obsessed by it.
“I am nothing more than a mixture of two heritages that have been intertwined for five centuries. Slavery and colonialism were terrible but my parents chose to migrate to the United Kingdom and I am shaped by that choice. The way i have turned out - in equal parts black and British leaves me with no choice but to be British and black. Both are compatible. My identity makes perfect sense and it shouldn’t be the subject of constant inquiry, debate or criticism.
“You can’t hate what you are without paying a terrible price.
“So .. yeah … when I step out wearing my red Dr Martens, I’m the me that I want to be!
It is said that old age brings wisdom! at times it comes alone, but more often than not it comes with Alzheimer, Parkinson, cognitive and emotional problems over which we and medical science have limited control! these medical conditions can be managed with medications that can have some nasty side effects affecting our judgement
There is a pattern emerging with elderly leaders! we all remember the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre under the rule of 85 years Deng Xiaoping!
We can't forget the endless list of Robert Mugabe's crimes against humanity in Zimbabwe
One need not be a Medical Doctor to see that 69 year old Putin's brain is receiving only 50% of oxygen required because of a compromised cardio-pulmonary vascular system; this is normal and expected, we’re all in the same “ship”, our body cells mutate from the moment the fertilised egg start dividing and DNA becomes altered with each and every cell division: mutations are irreversible but is the main reason why we age, get sick and eventually die whether we’re rich or poor, powerful or powerless etc
Most seniors his age are on blood pressure medication, blood thinners and cholesterol lowering lipitor which don't work too well with "vodka"
Should a sick, unfit, unwell Putin, who has threatened the West of illegal nuclear war and killed over 500+ innocent men, women and children including the shelling of maternity hospitals, be allowed to remain in power? of course not! this is absolutely insane! that’s where our system fail: our inability to remove a “sick man” out of office
Don’t we have a responsibility of care to our children and their children and planet to make all necessary effort to stop “insanity” turning into an "incurable tragic catastrophic disaster”- nuclear armament is no deterrent to war!
Old folks like myself with only a couple of years to live have no problems dying now, younger folks should do all they can to stop nuclear war at all costs and stop old fools like Putin giving the order “FIRE!"
There's no shadow of a doubt at all that Old Putin is homicidal, therefore he should be removed from "Office" and taken to a "Mental Asylum" for treatment ASAP before he kills millions of us
Beloved and famous Grand Teton Grizzly Bear
Sow 399 and new set of triplet cubs made their debut yesterday to the delight of many.
399 gained her identity in 2001 when, as a five-year-old sow, she was caught in a research trap and fitted with a special collar that emitted signals. During the summer of 2004, 399 had a single cub, but the youngster disappeared, probably from a deadly encounter with an adult male grizzly which are known to kill cubs because sow grizzlies with cubs do not breed.
After losing her collar in May 2005 399 was recaptured and collared again. In late November of that year, she denned up in the Teton Wilderness north of Grand Teton National park for hibernation. The following spring, she emerged with three cubs in tow. Almost immediately, the four-hundred-pound grizzly sow and cubs drew large crowds. They became a sensation, unlike any Jackson Hole grizzly in modern memory.
We photographers and wildlife watchers of Jackson Hole and Yellowstone who have assumed the role of amateur cognitive ethologogists have concluded that 399’s predilection for frequenting areas rife with humans may be purposeful. Our ethological-projection is merely guesswork by amatures but we surmise that 399 has determined that as annoying as we humans are, we are not dangerous. Male grizzlies steer clear of human congestion therefore conjested national park habitat may be safer than truly wild grizzly habitat.
399 is remarkably attentive, passing on the instincts of survival taught by her mother and necessary to survive in a crowded human world. One of the cubs of her 2006 litter now has two cubs of her own this spring and is roaming another part of Grand Teton National Park where she is frequently seen.
All the cubs 399 delivered in 2006 reached adulthood, which is a statistical anomaly, which rarely happens in nature. Grizzly sow 399 my know what she is doing.
© Daryl L. Hunter - The Hole Picture - Stock Photography for the Yellowstone region.
I also publish The Greater Yellowstone Resource Guide. I also lead "The Hole Picture Wildlife Safaris
Photos For Sale Buy Prints Here
If you look carefully, you can see a map of Greenland, North America, Central America, South America, and the Gulf of Mexico. That's called pareidolia.
Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Pareidolia is a specific but common type of apophenia (the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things or ideas).
Common examples include perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations; seeing faces in inanimate objects; or lunar pareidolia like the Man in the Moon or the Moon rabbit. The concept of pareidolia may extend to include hidden messages in recorded music played in reverse or at higher- or lower-than-normal speeds, and hearing voices (mainly indistinct) or music in random noise, such as that produced by air conditioners or by fans.[3][4] Face pareidolia has also been demonstrated in rhesus macaques.[5]
Etymology
The word derives from the Greek words pará (παρά, "beside, alongside, instead [of]") and the noun eídōlon (εἴδωλον, "image, form, shape").[6]
Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum introduced the German term Pareidolie in his 1866 paper "Die Sinnesdelierien"[7] ("On Delusion of the Senses"). When Kahlbaum's paper was reviewed the following year (1867) in The Journal of Mental Science, Volume 13, Pareidolie was translated into English as "pareidolia", and noted to be synonymous with the terms "...changing hallucination, partial hallucination, [and] perception of secondary images."[8]
Link to other conditions
Pareidolia correlates with age and is frequent among patients with Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.[9]
Explanations
Pareidolia can cause people to interpret random images, or patterns of light and shadow, as faces.[10] A 2009 magnetoencephalography study found that objects perceived as faces evoke an early (165 ms) activation of the fusiform face area at a time and location similar to that evoked by faces, whereas other common objects do not evoke such activation. This activation is similar to a slightly faster time (130 ms) that is seen for images of real faces. The authors suggest that face perception evoked by face-like objects is a relatively early process, and not a late cognitive reinterpretation phenomenon.[11]
A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in 2011 similarly showed that repeated presentation of novel visual shapes that were interpreted as meaningful led to decreased fMRI responses for real objects. These results indicate that the interpretation of ambiguous stimuli depends upon processes similar to those elicited by known objects.[12]
Pareidolia was found to affect brain function and brain waves. In a 2022 study, EEG records show that responses in the frontal and occipitotemporal cortexes begin prior to when one recognizes faces and later, when they are not recognized.[13] By displaying these proactive brain waves, scientists can then have a basis for data rather than relying on self-reported sightings. [clarification needed]
These studies help to explain why people generally identify a few lines and a circle as a "face" so quickly and without hesitation. Cognitive processes are activated by the "face-like" object which alerts the observer to both the emotional state and identity of the subject, even before the conscious mind begins to process or even receive the information. A "stick figure face", despite its simplicity, can convey mood information, and be drawn to indicate emotions such as happiness or anger. This robust and subtle capability is hypothesized to be the result of natural selection favoring people most able to quickly identify the mental state, for example, of threatening people, thus providing the individual an opportunity to flee or attack preemptively.[14] This ability, though highly specialized for the processing and recognition of human emotions, also functions to determine the demeanor of wildlife.[15][self-published source?]
Pareidolia and creative thinking
Pareidolia plays a significant role in creative cognition, enabling artists and viewers to perceive novel forms and meanings in ambiguous stimuli.[16] Joanne Lee highlights that this phenomenon has been harnessed in artistic practices for centuries (Da Vinci for example).[17] The phenomenon was particularly important to surrealism, where artists like Salvador Dali, influenced by André Breton, embraced pareidolic ambiguity to challenge rationalist perceptions and provoke new ways of seeing.[18]
Examples
Mimetoliths
A more detailed photograph taken in different lighting in 2001 clarifies the "face" to be a natural rock formation.
A mimetolithic pattern is a pattern created on rocks that may come to mimic recognizable forms through the random processes of formation, weathering and erosion. A well-known example is the Face on Mars, a rock formation on Mars that resembled a human face in certain satellite photos. Most mimetoliths are much larger than the subjects they resemble, such as a cliff profile that looks like a human face.
Picture jaspers exhibit combinations of patterns, such as banding from flow or depositional patterns (from water or wind), or dendritic or color variations, resulting in what appear to be miniature scenes on a cut section, which is then used for jewelry.
Chert nodules, concretions, or pebbles may in certain cases be mistakenly identified as skeletal remains, egg fossils, or other antiquities of organic origin by amateur enthusiasts.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Japanese researcher Chonosuke Okamura self-published a series of reports titled Original Report of the Okamura Fossil Laboratory, in which he described tiny inclusions in polished limestone from the Silurian period (425 mya) as being preserved fossil remains of tiny humans, gorillas, dogs, dragons, dinosaurs and other organisms, all of them only millimeters long, leading him to claim, "There have been no changes in the bodies of mankind since the Silurian period... except for a growth in stature from 3.5 mm to 1,700 mm."[19][20] Okamura's research earned him an Ig Nobel Prize (a parody of the Nobel Prize) in biodiversity in 1996.[21][22]
Some sources describe various mimetolithic features on Pluto, including a heart-shaped region.[23][24][25]
Clouds
Seeing shapes in cloud patterns is another example of this phenomenon. Rogowitz and Voss (1990) showed a relationship between seeing shapes in cloud patterns and fractal dimension.[clarification needed] They varied the fractal dimension of the boundary contour from 1.2 to 1.8, and found that the lower the fractal dimension, the more likely people were to report seeing nameable shapes of animals, faces, and fantasy creatures.[26] From above, pareidolia may be perceived in satellite imagery of tropical cyclones. Notably hurricanes Matthew and Milton gained much attention for resembling a human face or skull when viewed from the side.[27]
Mars canals
Map of Martian "canals" by Percival Lowell
Main article: Martian canals
A notable example of pareidolia occurred in 1877, when observers using telescopes to view the surface of Mars thought that they saw faint straight lines, which were then interpreted by some as canals. It was theorized that the canals were possibly created by sentient beings. This created a sensation. In the next few years better photographic techniques and stronger telescopes were developed and applied, which resulted in new images in which the faint lines disappeared, and the canal theory was debunked as an example of pareidolia.[28][29]
Lunar surface
Pareidolias in the moon
Many cultures recognize pareidolic images in the disc of the full moon, including the human face known as the Man in the Moon in many Northern Hemisphere cultures[30][31] and the Moon rabbit in East Asian and indigenous American cultures.[32][33] Other cultures see a walking figure carrying a wide burden on their back,[31] including in Germanic tradition,[34] Haida mythology,[35] and Latvian mythology.[36]
Projective tests
The Rorschach inkblot test uses pareidolia in an attempt to gain insight into a person's mental state. The Rorschach is a projective test that elicits thoughts or feelings of respondents that are "projected" onto the ambiguous inkblot images.[37] Rorschach inkblots have low-fractal-dimension boundary contours, which may elicit general shape-naming behaviors, serving as vehicles for projected meanings.[26]
Banknotes
Owing to the way designs are engraved and printed, occurrences of pareidolia have occasionally been reported in banknotes.
One example is the 1954 Canadian Landscape Canadian dollar banknote series, known among collectors as the "Devil's Head" variety of the initial print runs. The obverse of the notes features what appears to be an exaggerated grinning face, formed from patterns in the hair of Queen Elizabeth II. The phenomenon generated enough attention for revised designs to be issued in 1956, which removed the effect.[38]
Literature
Renaissance authors have shown a particular interest in pareidolia. In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, for example, Prince Hamlet points at the sky and "demonstrates" his supposed madness in this exchange with Polonius:[39][40]
HAMLET
Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in the shape of a camel?
POLONIUS
By th'Mass and 'tis, like a camel indeed.
HAMLET
Methinks it is a weasel.
POLONIUS
It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET
Or a whale.
POLONIUS
Very like a whale.
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a short story called "The Great Stone Face" in which a face seen in the side of a mountain (based on the real-life The Old Man of the Mountain) is revered by a village.[41]
Art
The Jurist by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1566. What appears to be his face is a collection of fish and poultry, while his body is a collection of books dressed in a coat.
Salem by Sydney Curnow Vosper (1908), a painting notorious for the belief that the face of the devil was hidden in the main character's shawl
See also: Hidden face
Renaissance artists often used pareidolia in paintings and drawings: Andrea Mantegna, Leonardo da Vinci, Giotto, Hans Holbein, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and many more have shown images—often human faces—that due to pareidolia appear in objects or clouds.[42]
In his notebooks, Leonardo da Vinci wrote of pareidolia as a device for painters, writing:
If you look at any walls spotted with various stains or with a mixture of different kinds of stones, if you are about to invent some scene you will be able to see in it a resemblance to various different landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys, and various groups of hills. You will also be able to see divers combats and figures in quick movement, and strange expressions of faces, and outlandish costumes, and an infinite number of things which you can then reduce into separate and well conceived forms.[43]
Salem, a 1908 painting by Sydney Curnow Vosper, gained notoriety due to a rumour that it contained a hidden face, that of the devil. This led many commentators to visualize a demonic face depicted in the shawl of the main figure, despite the artist's denial that any faces had deliberately been painted into the shawl.[44][45]
Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí would intentionally use pareidolia in their works, often in the form of a hidden face.
Architecture
Illusory woman in the Niğde Alaaddin Mosque portal
Two 13th-century edifices in Turkey display architectural use of shadows of stone carvings at the entrance. Outright pictures are avoided in Islam but tessellations and calligraphic pictures were allowed, so designed "accidental" silhouettes of carved stone tessellations became a creative escape.
Niğde Alaaddin Mosque in Niğde, Turkey (1223), with its "mukarnas" art where the shadows of three-dimensional ornamentation with stone masonry around the entrance form a chiaroscuro drawing of a woman's face with a crown and long hair appearing at a specific time, at some specific days of the year.[46][47][48]
Divriği Great Mosque and Hospital in Sivas, Turkey (1229), shows shadows of the three-dimensional ornaments of both entrances of the mosque part, to cast a giant shadow of a praying man that changes pose as the sun moves, as if to illustrate what the purpose of the building is. Another detail is the difference in the impressions of the clothing of the two shadow-men indicating two different styles, possibly to tell who is to enter through which door.[49]
Religion
Further information: Perceptions of religious imagery in natural phenomena
There have been many instances of perceptions of religious imagery and themes, especially the faces of religious figures, in ordinary phenomena. Many involve images of Jesus,[37] the Virgin Mary,[50] the word Allah,[51] or other religious phenomena: in September 2007 in Singapore, for example, a callus on a tree resembled a monkey, leading believers to pay homage to the "Monkey god" (either Sun Wukong or Hanuman) in the monkey tree phenomenon.[52]
Publicity surrounding sightings of religious figures and other surprising images in ordinary objects has spawned a market for such items on online auctions like eBay. One famous instance was a grilled cheese sandwich with the face of the Virgin Mary.[53]
During the September 11 attacks, television viewers supposedly saw the face of Satan in clouds of smoke billowing out of the World Trade Center after it was struck by the airplane.[54] Another example of face recognition pareidolia originated in the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, when a few observers claimed to see Jesus in the flames.[55]
While attempting to validate the imprint of a crucified man on the Shroud of Turin as Jesus, a variety of objects have been described as being visible on the linen. These objects include a number of plant species, a coin with Roman numerals, and multiple insect species.[56] In an experimental setting using a picture of plain linen cloth, participants who had been told that there could possibly be visible words in the cloth, collectively saw 2 religious words. Those told that the cloth was of some religious importance saw 12 religious words, and those who were also told that it was of religious importance, but also given suggestions of possible religious words, saw 37 religious words.[57] The researchers posit that the reason the Shroud has been said to have so many different symbols and objects is because it was already deemed to have the imprint of Jesus prior to the search for symbols and other imprints in the cloth, and therefore it was simply pareidolia at work.[56]
Computer vision
Further information: Hallucination (artificial intelligence)
Given an image of jellyfish swimming, the DeepDream program can be encouraged to "see" dogs.
Pareidolia can occur in computer vision,[58] specifically in image recognition programs, in which vague clues can spuriously detect images or features. In the case of an artificial neural network, higher-level features correspond to more recognizable features, and enhancing these features brings out what the computer sees. These examples of pareidolia reflect the training set of images that the network has "seen" previously.
Striking visuals can be produced in this way, notably in the DeepDream software, which falsely detects and then exaggerates features such as eyes and faces in any image. The features can be further exaggerated by creating a feedback loop where the output is used as the input for the network. (The adjacent image was created by iterating the loop 50 times.) Additionally, the output can be modified such as slightly zooming in to create an animation of the images perspective flying through the surrealistic imagery.
Auditory
In 1971 Konstantīns Raudive wrote Breakthrough, detailing what he believed was the discovery of electronic voice phenomena (EVP). EVP has been described as auditory pareidolia.[37] Allegations of backmasking in popular music, in which a listener claims a message has been recorded backward onto a track meant to be played forward, have also been described as auditory pareidolia.[37][59] In 1995, the psychologist Diana Deutsch invented an algorithm for producing phantom words and phrases with the sounds coming from two stereo loudspeakers, one to the listener's left and the other to his right, producing a phase offset in time between the speakers. After listening for a while, phantom words and phrases suddenly emerge, and these often appear to reflect what is on the listener's mind.[60][61]
Deliberate practical use
Medical education, radiology images
Cross-section of nematode worm Ascaris
Medical educators sometimes teach medical students and resident physicians (doctors in training) to use pareidolia and patternicity to learn to recognize human anatomy on radiology imaging studies.
Examples include assessing radiographs (X-ray images) of the human vertebral spine. Patrick Foye, M.D., professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Rutgers University, New Jersey Medical School, has written that pareidolia is used to teach medical trainees to assess for spinal fractures and spinal malignancies (cancers).[62] When viewing spinal radiographs, normal bony anatomic structures resemble the face of an owl. (The spinal pedicles resemble an owl's eyes and the spinous process resembles an owl's beak.) But when cancer erodes the bony spinal pedicle, the radiographic appearance changes such that now that eye of the owl seems missing or closed, which is called the "winking owl sign". Another common pattern is a "Scottie dog sign" on a spinal X-ray.[63]
In 2021, Foye again published in the medical literature on this topic, in a medical journal article called "Baby Yoda: Pareidolia and Patternicity in Sacral MRI and CT Scans".[64] Here, he introduced a novel way of visualizing the sacrum when viewing MRI magnetic resonance imaging and CT scans (computed tomography scans). He noted that in certain image slices the human sacral anatomy resembles the face of "Baby Yoda" (also called Grogu), a fictional character from the television show The Mandalorian. Sacral openings for exiting nerves (sacral foramina) resemble Baby Yoda's eyes, while the sacral canal resembles Baby Yoda's mouth.[65]
In popular culture
See also: Among Us § Memes and mods
Many Internet memes about the online game Among Us exploit pareidolia, by showing everyday items (in this case, a trashcan) that look similar to characters from the game.
In January 2017, an anonymous user placed an eBay auction of a Cheeto that looked like the gorilla Harambe. Bidding began at US$11.99, but the Cheeto was eventually sold for US$99,000.[66]
Starting from 2021, an Internet meme emerged around the online game Among Us, where users presented everyday items such as dogs, statues, garbage cans, big toes, and pictures of the Boomerang Nebula that looked like the game's "crewmate" protagonists.[67][68] In May 2021, an eBay user named Tav listed a Chicken McNugget shaped like a crewmate from Among Us for online auction. The Chicken McNugget was sold for US$99,997 to an anonymous buyer.[69]
Related phenomena
A shadow person (also known as a shadow figure, shadow being or black mass) is often attributed to pareidolia. It is the perception of a patch of shadow as a living, humanoid figure, particularly as interpreted by believers in the paranormal or supernatural as the presence of a spirit or other entity.[70]
Pareidolia is also what some skeptics believe causes people to believe that they have seen ghosts.[71]
See also
Clustering illusion – Erroneously seeing patterns in randomness
Conspiracy theory – Attributing events to improbable causes (another example of apophenia)
Eigenface – Set of eigenvectors used in the computer vision problem of human face recognition
Hitler teapot – Kettle perceived to resemble Adolf Hitler
Madonna of the Toast – 2007 book about pareidolia
Mondegreen – Misinterpretation of a spoken phrase
Musical ear syndrome – similar to auditory pareidolia, but with hearing loss
Optical illusion – Visually perceived images that differ from objective reality
Perceptions of religious imagery in natural phenomena
Signal-to-noise ratio – Ratio of the desired signal to the background noise
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External links
Look up pareidolia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Pareidolia
at Wikipedia's sister projects
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
Data from Wikidata
Skepdic.com Skeptic's Dictionary definition of pareidolia
A Japanese museum of rocks which look like faces
Article in The New York Times, 13 February 2007, about cognitive science of face recognition
Article in Scientific American, 25 March 2022, "Does This Look like a Face to You?"
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With Matt Marshall and Jody Holtzman, SVP of AARP yesterday.
Here are some of the points I shared:
The 50+ market is huge and a large untapped opportunity for entrepreneurs. In the U.S. alone, there are 100 million people over 50, and that number grows by 10,000 every day. By 2025, the entire nation will look like Florida does today. Demographics is destiny — the aging population is a perfectly predictable dynamic that will have massive economic repercussions. They already represent a disproportionate 45% of U.S. consumer spending, and healthy aging is already a $515 billion business (Furlong).
The boomers are qualitatively different as well, both from the generations that preceded them, and from common assumptions. Advertisers often focus on the 18-34 year old segment to find adopters of new products. Let’s compare that to the 50+ segments. The 50+ spend 2.5x as much, and dominate the entire market for some segments (60% of all CPG and automobiles, 80% of leisure travel). But are they laggards? They are 3x as likely to buy online as the 18-34 segment. They buy the most hybrid cars, iPads and even online dating services.
But are they looking to retire? Learn new tricks? Boomers are actually the most entrepreneurial age cohort. The per capita company formation rate for people over 50 is double that of 20-somethings and 30% higher than 30-somethings. Many of these businesses feed into the eBay economy, and in the future, when crowdsourcing companies like servio help create a marketplace for information services, then boomers could be America’s outsourcing alternative to off-shoring. (I testified to the White House Conference on Aging on that topic)
Matt asked me how we have invested in this segment. I mentioned Posit Science which reverses age-related cognitive decline with games that promote neural plasticity, especially in the sensory cortex (since that generalizes to many improvements in memory and cognition, since noisy inputs degrades the higher level constructs). They have found an average reversal of 10 years of cognitive decline, and in an auto insurance study, a 50% reduction in at-fault crashes!
And as I looked around the room, I pointed out that for those of us over 30, we are already in the long dive of cognitive decline (evolutionarily, there was not selection pressure for a life extended much beyond the breeding years, and our healthcare advances have done more for the body than the mind).
By almost every physical measure of brain function, the slope of cognitive decline is the same in the 30’s as in the 80’s. We just notice more accumulated decline as we get older, especially when we cross the threshold of forgetting most of what we try to remember.
But we can affect this progression. Prof. Merzenich at UCSF has found that neural plasticity does not disappear in adults. It just requires mental exercise. We will look back to the current day and marvel that we thought we could stay mentally fit without exercise. We will look at it like we do physical fitness. Few modern careers offer the degree of physical and mental exercise required to remain fit.
But the form of exercise differs. Physical exercise is repetitive; mental exercise is eclectic. Do something new. (Here’s my short HBR article on this). Lifelong learning is not just about enlightenment; it’s an economic imperative.
And since it was DEMO after all, I have to share a link to the beta version of the BrainHQ for anyone who read this far and would like to demo the latest from Posit Science. =)
Top photo by Stephen Brashear of DEMO.
Déformation professionnelle (French: [defɔʁmasjɔ̃ pʁɔfɛsjɔnɛl]) is a tendency to look at things from the point of view of one's own profession rather than from a broader perspective. It is often translated as "professional deformation" or job conditioning though French déformation can also be translated as "distortion". The implication is that professional training, and its related socialization, often result in a distortion of the way one views the world.1. Introduction
There is no unanimous understanding of professional deformation within Russian or any other school of
psychological thought. The term is generally used in connection with situations of destructive changes in one’s
professional performance, changes in the existing structure of one’s personality adversely affecting labor
efficiency and co-worker interaction, adverse effects of practicing the same profession for a long period of time
such as low productivity, emergence of undesirable professional qualities, changes in professional conduct and
behavior, as well as changes in mental structure and personality traits caused by execution of professional duties.
2. Method
The aim of the present study is to perform theoretical analysis, to synthesize and compile definitions of
professional deformation used in works of Russian and other psychologists in their studies of professional
activities’ influence on personality.
3. Results and discussion
In her studies A.K. Markova identified six risk factors that hinder professional development:
1) Changes caused by, and associated with, aging;
2) Long-term psychological stress caused by poor working conditions.
3) Crisis of professional development;
4) Monotony of work, resulting in boredom, loss of interest in work, low productivity, getting easily irritated,
reduction in mental capacity and cognitive activity, short attention span, and constant fatigue syndrome.
5) Professional fatigue - a temporary reduction in one’s physical and cognitive productivity as a result of
exhaustion of one’s internal resources and of the mismatch in the systems guiding activities;
6) Professional deformation
Summarizing results of scientific works of Russian and foreign psychologists, E.F. Zeer indicates that the
psychology of labor extensively covers problems of labor efficiency and reliability, issues of aging, and stress
caused by poor working conditions. However, he writes, "To a lesser degree professional deformation is studied
from the standpoint of a person, despite the fact that S.G. Gellershteyn wrote: "... the essence of professional
work lies not only in the performance of an employee, in a set of active and reactive actions, but also in the
adaptation of the organism to the specific characteristics of a profession, that requires such acts. There is a
constant interaction between the working environment and the body of the worker. It often affects not only the
body (curvature of the spine, short-sightedness of office workers) but also the mind and behavior
(obsequiousness of clerks, flattery of waiters) of people of various professions" Zeer [2 p.197-200].
Professional deformation of the personality is a sum of changes in cognitive structures, personality traits,
behavior, methods of communication, stereotypes of perception, one’s nature, values, and such caused by the
execution of one’s professional duties.
Describing changes in personality occurring during professional development, E.F. Zeer emphasizes that:
1) “Professional development is as much loosing as acquiring, and becoming a professional in some line of
work is not only about improving, but also about loosing some qualities" . Professional failure thus can be viewed as complete or partial non-compliance with special requirements for cognitive capacities and personality traits to perform specific professional activities . (There is an understanding of professional degradation as a backward movement – de-adaptation, decline in professional development, loss of required professional qualities and skills);
2) "Throughout their professional careers (as understood by the author (O. P.) – from the choice of a
profession to decision to leave it, people of many occupations are going through stages of professional destruction (destruction as in disturbance of the normal structure of something) [2, p. 197-200].
Therefore, according to the concept of cumulative reasons, researchers study the interactions between a number
of different personal qualities, often difficult to diagnose, external influences, including indirect ones, which
combined cause a particular mental phenomena, namely the professional deformation. While the mind has the
ability to sort and process situations, there is a certain cumulative, or “stockpile” effect when factors, each of
which taken separately may not cause certain mental conditions, combined result in a particular outcome
(B.F. Lomov). At this, according to the concept of cumulative-factorial causes, the combination of various
stimuli and influences can cause certain cognitive phenomena when a main factor (s) interacts (s) cumulatively
with (a) minor ones which initiates mental phenomena and affects one’s behavior.
3) Professional deformation – a "destructive personality changes accompanying execution of professional
duties" [2, p. 49-51] (may be a so-called professional disharmony - a mental state characterized by a mismatch of
certain mental functions, personality traits, special features of behavior, both between themselves and in relation
to the higher-level system, with respect to professional situations); "changes in the existing structure and
activities of an individual, negatively affecting productivity of their labor and interaction with other participants
of the working process" [2, p. 197-200]. (and, as a consequence of possible social deprivation, which can lead to
the loss of social and psychological orientation); "destruction resulting from practicing the same profession for a
long time that adversely affects efficiency of work, produces qualities detrimental to profession, changes
professional conduct" [2, p.200-201]; "disruption of habitual ways of life, loss of acquired competencies, the
emergence of cliché’s in professional behavior and difficulties embracing new technologies, professions or
occupation, changes in personality structure during the transition from one stage to another in professional
development" [2, p.200-201].
The term “mental burnout” was introduced in western psychology in the late 1970’s, and today this problem
is widely studied within the context of occupational stress.
Burnout, in a broad sense, is a "long lasting stressful reaction occurring as a result of prolonged occupational
stress of medium intensity" [10, p.443-463].
Originally the term mental burnout was understood as a state of exhaustion with a feeling of worthlessness.
Only in 1974, when the term burnout was introduced for the first time by an American psychiatrist
H.J. Freundenberger, it got its definition - a “characteristic of the psychological state of healthy people who are
in an intense and close contact with customers in an emotionally laden, saturated atmosphere at giving them
professional help” .
N.E. Vodopiyanova writes: "Researchers are increasingly associating burnout syndrome with psychosomatic
well-being, relating it to the state of pre-disease" [10, p.443-463].
In 1981, American psychologists C. Maslach and S. Jackson noted that mental burnout is common only to
professions connected with person-to-person communication , which partially resolves the dispute
about the nature of the phenomenon (for professions involving direct person-to-person interaction [10], [15].
C. Maslach and W. Schaufeli stressed that syndrome of emotional burnout should be viewed within a larger
concept of personal deformation caused by occupational stress [16].
N.E. Vodopiyanova and E.S. Starchenkova note that the burnout syndrome is caused by personal emotional
difficulties or tensions one faces in daily interpersonal professional communication, that have negative impact on
professional activity, and therefore burnout syndrome could be directly related to the defense mechanism of
preservation of mental health and stability, ensuring execution of professional skills in the long run
Analyzing the works of Russian and foreign psychologists, N.E. Vodopiyanova and E.S. Starchenkova also note
that the difficulties in studying the syndrome lie in the uncertainty, multiple factors, their descriptive
characteristics and the lack of adequate measuring tools. Currently, about 100 researchers identify mental burnout
in terms of such symptoms as aggressive behavior, depression, insomnia, alcohol abuse, negative attitude, guilt,
various addictions, psychosomatic manifestations, and other .
282 Olga Polyakova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 146 ( 2014 ) 279 – 282
The category of "professional deformation", in our opinion, calls for the use of scientific language, while
terms built on metaphors such as "burn" are more suitable in descriptions of emotional and/or physical
exhaustion, as defined in works of H. Selye .
4. Conclusion
The category of professional deformation includes phenomena of destructive changes in person’s
performance, cognitive structure and activities that negatively affect productivity of labor and the interpersonal
communication in the workplace; adverse effects resulting from practicing the same profession for a very long
time that affect efficiency and produce professionally undesirable qualities; changes in professional conduct,
one’s mental structure, personality traits influenced by execution of professional duties.
ac.els-cdn.com/S1877042814047831/1-s2.0-S1877042814047831...
Dualism in cosmology is the moral, or spiritual belief that two fundamental concepts exist, which often oppose each other. It is an umbrella term that covers a diversity of views from various religions, including both traditional religions and scriptural religions.
Moral dualism is the belief of the great complement of, or conflict between, the benevolent and the malevolent. It simply implies that there are two moral opposites at work, independent of any interpretation of what might be "moral" and independent of how these may be represented. Moral opposites might, for example, exist in a worldview which has one god, more than one god, or none. By contrast, duotheism, bitheism or ditheism implies (at least) two gods. While bitheism implies harmony, ditheism implies rivalry and opposition, such as between good and evil, or light and dark, or summer and winter. For example, a ditheistic system could be one in which one god is a creator, and the other a destroyer. In theology, dualism can also refer to the relationship between the deity and creation or the deity and the universe (see theistic dualism). This form of dualism is a belief shared in certain traditions of Christianity and Hinduism.[1] Alternatively, in ontological dualism, the world is divided into two overarching categories. The opposition and combination of the universe's two basic principles of yin and yang is a large part of Chinese philosophy, and is an important feature of Taoism. It is also discussed in Confucianism.
Many myths and creation motifs with dualistic cosmologies have been described in ethnographic and anthropological literature. These motifs conceive the world as being created, organized, or influenced by two demiurges, culture heroes, or other mythological beings, who either compete with each other or have a complementary function in creating, arranging or influencing the world. There is a huge diversity of such cosmologies. In some cases, such as among the Chukchi, the beings collaborate rather than competing, and contribute to the creation in a coequal way. In many other instances the two beings are not of the same importance or power (sometimes, one of them is even characterized as gullible). Sometimes they can be contrasted as good versus evil.[2] They may be often believed to be twins or at least brothers.[3][4] Dualistic motifs in mythologies can be observed in all inhabited continents. Zolotaryov concludes that they cannot be explained by diffusion or borrowing, but are rather of convergent origin: they are related to a dualistic organization of society (moieties); in some cultures, this social organization may have ceased to exist, but mythology preserves the memory in more and more disguised ways.[5]
Moral dualism[edit]
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Moral dualism is the belief of the great complement or conflict between the benevolent and the malevolent. Like ditheism/bitheism (see below), moral dualism does not imply the absence of monist or monotheistic principles. Moral dualism simply implies that there are two moral opposites at work, independent of any interpretation of what might be "moral" and—unlike ditheism/bitheism—independent of how these may be represented.
For example, Mazdaism (Mazdean Zoroastrianism) is both dualistic and monotheistic (but not monist by definition) since in that philosophy God—the Creator—is purely good, and the antithesis—which is also uncreated–is an absolute one. Zurvanism (Zurvanite Zoroastrianism), Manichaeism, and Mandaeism are representative of dualistic and monist philosophies since each has a supreme and transcendental First Principle from which the two equal-but-opposite entities then emanate. This is also true for the lesser-known Christian gnostic religions, such as Bogomils, Catharism, and so on. More complex forms of monist dualism also exist, for instance in Hermeticism, where Nous "thought"—that is described to have created man—brings forth both good and evil, dependent on interpretation, whether it receives prompting from the God or from the Demon. Duality with pluralism is considered a logical fallacy.
History[edit]
Moral dualism began as a theological belief. Dualism was first seen implicitly in Egyptian religious beliefs by the contrast of the gods Set (disorder, death) and Osiris (order, life).[6] The first explicit conception of dualism came from the Ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism around the mid-fifth century BC. Zoroastrianism is a monotheistic religion that believes that Ahura Mazda is the eternal creator of all good things. Any violations of Ahura Mazda's order arise from druj, which is everything uncreated. From this comes a significant choice for humans to make. Either they fully participate in human life for Ahura Mazda or they do not and give druj power. Personal dualism is even more distinct in the beliefs of later religions.
The religious dualism of Christianity between good and evil is not a perfect dualism as God (good) will inevitably destroy Satan (evil). Early Christian dualism is largely based on Platonic Dualism (See: Neoplatonism and Christianity). There is also a personal dualism in Christianity with a soul-body distinction based on the idea of an immaterial Christian soul.[7]
Duotheism, bitheism, ditheism[edit]
When used with regards to multiple gods, dualism may refer to duotheism, bitheism, or ditheism. Although ditheism/bitheism imply moral dualism, they are not equivalent: ditheism/bitheism implies (at least) two gods, while moral dualism does not necessarily imply theism (theos = god) at all.
Both bitheism and ditheism imply a belief in two equally powerful gods with complementary or antonymous properties; however, while bitheism implies harmony, ditheism implies rivalry and opposition, such as between good and evil, bright and dark, or summer and winter. For example, a ditheistic system would be one in which one god is creative, the other is destructive (cf. theodicy). In the original conception of Zoroastrianism, for example, Ahura Mazda was the spirit of ultimate good, while Ahriman (Angra Mainyu) was the spirit of ultimate evil.
In a bitheistic system, by contrast, where the two deities are not in conflict or opposition, one could be male and the other female (cf. duotheism[clarification needed]). One well-known example of a bitheistic or duotheistic theology based on gender polarity is found in the neopagan religion of Wicca. In Wicca, dualism is represented in the belief of a god and a goddess as a dual partnership in ruling the universe. This is centered on the worship of a divine couple, the Moon Goddess and the Horned God, who are regarded as lovers. However, there is also a ditheistic theme within traditional Wicca, as the Horned God has dual aspects of bright and dark - relating to day/night, summer/winter - expressed as the Oak King and the Holly King, who in Wiccan myth and ritual are said to engage in battle twice a year for the hand of the Goddess, resulting in the changing seasons. (Within Wicca, bright and dark do not correspond to notions of "good" and "evil" but are aspects of the natural world, much like yin and yang in Taoism.)
Radical and mitigated dualism[edit]
Radical Dualism – or absolute Dualism which posits two co-equal divine forces.[8] Manichaeism conceives of two previously coexistent realms of light and darkness which become embroiled in conflict, owing to the chaotic actions of the latter. Subsequently, certain elements of the light became entrapped within darkness; the purpose of material creation is to enact the slow process of extraction of these individual elements, at the end of which the kingdom of light will prevail over darkness. Manicheanism likely inherits this dualistic mythology from Zoroastrianism, in which the eternal spirit Ahura Mazda is opposed by his antithesis, Angra Mainyu; the two are engaged in a cosmic struggle, the conclusion of which will likewise see Ahura Mazda triumphant. 'The Hymn of the Pearl' included the belief that the material world corresponds to some sort of malevolent intoxication brought about by the powers of darkness to keep elements of the light trapped inside it in a state of drunken distraction.
Mitigated Dualism – is where one of the two principles is in some way inferior to the other. Such classical Gnostic movements as the Sethians conceived of the material world as being created by a lesser divinity than the true God that was the object of their devotion. The spiritual world is conceived of as being radically different from the material world, co-extensive with the true God, and the true home of certain enlightened members of humanity; thus, these systems were expressive of a feeling of acute alienation within the world, and their resultant aim was to allow the soul to escape the constraints presented by the physical realm.[8]
However, bitheistic and ditheistic principles are not always so easily contrastable, for instance in a system where one god is the representative of summer and drought and the other of winter and rain/fertility (cf. the mythology of Persephone). Marcionism, an early Christian sect, held that the Old and New Testaments were the work of two opposing gods: both were First Principles, but of different religions.[9]
Theistic dualism[edit]
In theology, dualism can refer to the relationship between God and creation or God and the universe. This form of dualism is a belief shared in certain traditions of Christianity and Hinduism.[10][1]
In Christianity[edit]
The Cathars being expelled from Carcassonne in 1209. The Cathars were denounced as heretics by the Roman Catholic Church for their dualist beliefs.
The dualism between God and Creation has existed as a central belief in multiple historical sects and traditions of Christianity, including Marcionism, Catharism, Paulicianism, and other forms of Gnostic Christianity. Christian dualism refers to the belief that God and creation are distinct, but interrelated through an indivisible bond.[1] However, Gnosticism is a diverse, syncretistic religious movement consisting of various belief systems generally united in a belief in a distinction between a supreme, transcendent God and a blind, evil demiurge responsible for creating the material universe, thereby trapping the divine spark within matter.[11]
In sects like the Cathars and the Paulicians, this is a dualism between the material world, created by an evil god, and a moral god. Historians divide Christian dualism into absolute dualism, which held that the good and evil gods were equally powerful, and mitigated dualism, which held that material evil was subordinate to the spiritual good.[12] The belief, by Christian theologians who adhere to a libertarian or compatibilist view of free will, that free will separates humankind from God has also been characterized as a form of dualism.[1] The theologian Leroy Stephens Rouner compares the dualism of Christianity with the dualism that exists in Zoroastrianism and the Samkhya tradition of Hinduism. The theological use of the word dualism dates back to 1700, in a book that describes the dualism between good and evil.[1]
The tolerance of dualism ranges widely among the different Christian traditions. As a monotheistic religion, the conflict between dualism and monism has existed in Christianity since its inception.[13] The 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia describes that, in the Catholic Church, "the dualistic hypothesis of an eternal world existing side by side with God was of course rejected" by the thirteenth century, but mind–body dualism was not.[14] The problem of evil is difficult to reconcile with absolute monism, and has prompted some Christian sects to veer towards dualism. Gnostic forms of Christianity were more dualistic, and some Gnostic traditions posited that the Devil was separate from God as an independent deity.[13] The Christian dualists of the Byzantine Empire, the Paulicians, were seen as Manichean heretics by Byzantine theologians. This tradition of Christian dualism, founded by Constantine-Silvanus, argued that the universe was created through evil and separate from a moral God.[15]
The Cathars, a Christian sect in southern France, believed that there was a dualism between two gods, one representing good and the other representing evil. Whether or not the Cathari possessed direct historical influence from ancient Gnosticism is a matter of dispute, as the basic conceptions of Gnostic cosmology are to be found in Cathar beliefs (most distinctly in their notion of a lesser creator god), though unlike the second century Gnostics, they did not apparently place any special relevance upon knowledge (gnosis) as an effective salvific force. In any case, the Roman Catholic Church denounced the Cathars as heretics, and sought to crush the movement in the 13th century. The Albigensian Crusade was initiated by Pope Innocent III in 1208 to remove the Cathars from Languedoc in France, where they were known as Albigesians. The Inquisition, which began in 1233 under Pope Gregory IX, also targeted the Cathars.[16]
In Hinduism[edit]
The Dvaita Vedanta school of Indian philosophy espouses a dualism between God and the universe by theorizing the existence of two separate realities. The first and the more important reality is that of Shiva or Shakti or Vishnu or Brahman. Shiva or Shakti or Vishnu is the supreme Self, God, the absolute truth of the universe, the independent reality. The second reality is that of dependent but equally real universe that exists with its own separate essence. Everything that is composed of the second reality, such as individual soul (Jiva), matter, etc. exist with their own separate reality. The distinguishing factor of this philosophy as opposed to Advaita Vedanta (monistic conclusion of Vedas) is that God takes on a personal role and is seen as a real eternal entity that governs and controls the universe.[17][better source needed] Because the existence of individuals is grounded in the divine, they are depicted as reflections, images or even shadows of the divine, but never in any way identical with the divine. Salvation therefore is described as the realization that all finite reality is essentially dependent on the Supreme.[18]
Ontological dualism[edit]
The yin and yang symbolizes the duality in nature and all things in the Taoist religion.
Alternatively, dualism can mean the tendency of humans to perceive and understand the world as being divided into two overarching categories. In this sense, it is dualistic when one perceives a tree as a thing separate from everything surrounding it. This form of ontological dualism exists in Taoism and Confucianism, beliefs that divide the universe into the complementary oppositions of yin and yang.[19] In traditions such as classical Hinduism (Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika and the later Vedanta schools, which accepted the theory of Gunas), Zen Buddhism or Islamic Sufism, a key to enlightenment is "transcending" this sort of dualistic thinking, without merely substituting dualism with monism or pluralism.
In Chinese philosophy[edit]
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The opposition and combination of the universe's two basic principles of yin and yang is a large part of Chinese philosophy, and is an important feature of Taoism, both as a philosophy and as a religion, although the concept developed much earlier. Some argue that yin and yang were originally an earth and sky god, respectively.[20] As one of the oldest principles in Chinese philosophy, yin and yang are also discussed in Confucianism, but to a lesser extent.
Some of the common associations with yang and yin, respectively, are: male and female, light and dark, active and passive, motion and stillness. Some scholars believe that the two ideas may have originally referred to two opposite sides of a mountain, facing towards and away from the sun.[20] The yin and yang symbol in actuality has very little to do with Western dualism; instead it represents the philosophy of balance, where two opposites co-exist in harmony and are able to transmute into each other. In the yin-yang symbol there is a dot of yin in yang and a dot of yang in yin. In Taoism, this symbolizes the inter-connectedness of the opposite forces as different aspects of Tao, the First Principle. Contrast is needed to create a distinguishable reality, without which we would experience nothingness. Therefore, the independent principles of yin and yang are actually dependent on one another for each other's distinguishable existence.
The complementary dualistic concept seen in yin and yang represent the reciprocal interaction throughout nature, related to a feedback loop, where opposing forces do not exchange in opposition but instead exchange reciprocally to promote stabilization similar to homeostasis. An underlying principle in Taoism states that within every independent entity lies a part of its opposite. Within sickness lies health and vice versa. This is because all opposites are manifestations of the single Tao, and are therefore not independent from one another, but rather a variation of the same unifying force throughout all of nature.
In traditional religions[edit]
Samoyed peoples[edit]
In a Nenets myth, Num and Nga collaborate and compete with each other, creating land,[21] there are also other myths about competing-collaborating demiurges.[22]
Comparative studies of Kets and neighboring peoples[edit]
Among others, also dualistic myths were investigated in researches which tried to compare the mythologies of Siberian peoples and settle the problem of their origins. Vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov compared the mythology of Ket people with those of speakers of Uralic languages, assuming in the studies, that there are modelling semiotic systems in the compared mythologies; and they have also made typological comparisons.[23][24] Among others, from possibly Uralic mythological analogies, those of Ob-Ugric peoples[25] and Samoyedic peoples[26] are mentioned. Some other discussed analogies (similar folklore motifs, and purely typological considerations, certain binary pairs in symbolics) may be related to dualistic organization of society—some of such dualistic features can be found at these compared peoples.[27] It must be admitted that, for Kets, neither dualistic organization of society[28] nor cosmological dualism[29] has been researched thoroughly: if such features existed at all, they have either weakened or remained largely undiscovered;[28] although there are some reports on division into two exogamous patrilinear moieties,[30] folklore on conflicts of mythological figures, and also on cooperation of two beings in creating the land:[29] the diving of the water fowl.[31] If we include dualistic cosmologies meant in broad sense, not restricted to certain concrete motifs, then we find that they are much more widespread, they exist not only among some Siberian peoples, but there are examples in each inhabited continent.[32]
Chukchi[edit]
A Chukchi myth and its variations report the creation of the world; in some variations, it is achieved by the collaboration of several beings (birds, collaborating in a coequal way; or the creator and the raven, collaborating in a coequal way; or the creator alone, using the birds only as assistants).[33][34]
Fuegians[edit]
See also: Fuegians § Spiritual culture
All three Fuegian tribes had dualistic myths about culture heros.[35] The Yámana have dualistic myths about the two [joalox] brothers. They act as culture heroes, and sometimes stand in an antagonistic relation with each other, introducing opposite laws. Their figures can be compared to the Kwanyip-brothers of the Selk'nam.[36] In general, the presence of dualistic myths in two compared cultures does not imply relatedness or diffusion necessarily.[32]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualistic_cosmology
In spirituality, nondualism, also called non-duality, means "not two" or "one undivided without a second".[1][2] Nondualism primarily refers to a mature state of consciousness, in which the dichotomy of I-other is "transcended", and awareness is described as "centerless" and "without dichotomies". Although this state of consciousness may seem to appear spontaneous,[note 1] it usually follows prolonged preparation through ascetic or meditative/contemplative practice, which may include ethical injunctions. While the term "nondualism" is derived from Advaita Vedanta, descriptions of nondual consciousness can be found within Hinduism (Turiya, sahaja), Buddhism (emptiness, pariniṣpanna, nature of mind, rigpa), Islam (Wahdat al Wujud, Fanaa, and Haqiqah) and western Christian and neo-Platonic traditions (henosis, mystical union).
The Asian ideas of nondualism developed in the Vedic and post-Vedic Upanishadic philosophies around 800 BCE,[3] as well as in the Buddhist traditions.[4] The oldest traces of nondualism in Indian thought are found in the earlier Hindu Upanishads such as Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, as well as other pre-Buddhist Upanishads such as the Chandogya Upanishad, which emphasizes the unity of individual soul called Atman and the Supreme called Brahman. In Hinduism, nondualism has more commonly become associated with the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Adi Shankara.[5]
In the Buddhist tradition non-duality is associated with the teachings of emptiness (śūnyatā) and the two truths doctrine, particularly the Madhyamaka teaching of the non-duality of absolute and relative truth,[6][7] and the Yogachara notion of "mind/thought only" (citta-matra) or "representation-only" (vijñaptimātra).[5] These teachings, coupled with the doctrine of Buddha-nature have been influential concepts in the subsequent development of Mahayana Buddhism, not only in India, but also in East Asian and Tibetan Buddhism, most notably in Chán (Zen) and Vajrayana.
Western Neo-Platonism is an essential element of both Christian contemplation and mysticism, and of Western esotericism and modern spirituality, especially Unitarianism, Transcendentalism, Universalism and Perennialism.Etymology[edit]
When referring to nondualism, Hinduism generally uses the Sanskrit term Advaita, while Buddhism uses Advaya (Tibetan: gNis-med, Chinese: pu-erh, Japanese: fu-ni).[8]
"Advaita" (अद्वैत) is from Sanskrit roots a, not; dvaita, dual, and is usually translated as "nondualism", "nonduality" and "nondual". The term "nondualism" and the term "advaita" from which it originates are polyvalent terms. The English word's origin is the Latin duo meaning "two" prefixed with "non-" meaning "not".
"Advaya" (अद्वय) is also a Sanskrit word that means "identity, unique, not two, without a second," and typically refers to the two truths doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism, especially Madhyamaka.
One of the earliest uses of the word Advaita is found in verse 4.3.32 of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (~800 BCE), and in verses 7 and 12 of the Mandukya Upanishad (variously dated to have been composed between 500 BCE to 200 CE).[9] The term appears in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in the section with a discourse of the oneness of Atman (individual soul) and Brahman (universal consciousness), as follows:[10]
An ocean is that one seer, without any duality [Advaita]; this is the Brahma-world, O King. Thus did Yajnavalkya teach him. This is his highest goal, this is his highest success, this is his highest world, this is his highest bliss. All other creatures live on a small portion of that bliss.
— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.32, [11][12][13]
The English term "nondual" was also informed by early translations of the Upanishads in Western languages other than English from 1775. These terms have entered the English language from literal English renderings of "advaita" subsequent to the first wave of English translations of the Upanishads. These translations commenced with the work of Müller (1823–1900), in the monumental Sacred Books of the East (1879).
Max Müller rendered "advaita" as "Monism", as have many recent scholars.[14][15][16] However, some scholars state that "advaita" is not really monism.[17]
Definitions[edit]
See also: Monism, Mind-body dualism, Dualistic cosmology, and Pluralism (philosophy)
Nondualism is a fuzzy concept, for which many definitions can be found.[note 2]
According to Espín and Nickoloff, "nondualism" is the thought in some Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist schools, which, generally speaking:
... teaches that the multiplicity of the universe is reducible to one essential reality."[18]
However, since there are similar ideas and terms in a wide variety of spiritualities and religions, ancient and modern, no single definition for the English word "nonduality" can suffice, and perhaps it is best to speak of various "nondualities" or theories of nonduality.[19]
David Loy, who sees non-duality between subject and object as a common thread in Taoism, Mahayana Buddhism, and Advaita Vedanta,[20][note 3] distinguishes "Five Flavors Of Nonduality":[web 1]
The negation of dualistic thinking in pairs of opposites. The Yin-Yang symbol of Taoism symbolises the transcendence of this dualistic way of thinking.[web 1]
Monism, the nonplurality of the world. Although the phenomenal world appears as a plurality of "things", in reality they are "of a single cloth".[web 1]
Advaita, the nondifference of subject and object, or nonduality between subject and object.[web 1]
Advaya, the identity of phenomena and the Absolute, the "nonduality of duality and nonduality",[web 1] c.q. the nonduality of relative and ultimate truth as found in Madhyamaka Buddhism and the two truths doctrine.
Mysticism, a mystical unity between God and man.[web 1]
The idea of nondualism is typically contrasted with dualism, with dualism defined as the view that the universe and the nature of existence consists of two realities, such as the God and the world, or as God and Devil, or as mind and matter, and so on.[23][24]
Ideas of nonduality are also taught in some western religions and philosophies, and it has gained attraction and popularity in modern western spirituality and New Age-thinking.[25]
Different theories and concepts which can be linked to nonduality are taught in a wide variety of religious traditions. These include:
Hinduism:
In the Upanishads, which teach a doctrine that has been interpreted in a nondualistic way, mainly tat tvam asi.[26]
The Advaita Vedanta of Shankara[27][26] which teaches that a single pure consciousness is the only reality, and that the world is unreal (Maya).
Non-dual forms of Hindu Tantra[28] including Kashmira Shaivism[29][28] and the goddess centered Shaktism. Their view is similar to Advaita, but they teach that the world is not unreal, but it is the real manifestation of consciousness.[30]
Forms of Hindu Modernism which mainly teach Advaita and modern Indian saints like Ramana Maharshi and Swami Vivekananda.
Buddhism:
"Shūnyavāda (emptiness view) or the Mādhyamaka school",[31][32] which holds that there is a non-dual relationship (that is, there is no true separation) between conventional truth and ultimate truth, as well as between samsara and nirvana.
"Vijnānavāda (consciousness view) or the Yogācāra school",[31][33] which holds that there is no ultimate perceptual and conceptual division between a subject and its objects, or a cognizer and that which is cognized. It also argues against mind-body dualism, holding that there is only consciousness.
Tathagatagarbha-thought,[33] which holds that all beings have the potential to become Buddhas.
Vajrayana-buddhism,[34] including Tibetan Buddhist traditions of Dzogchen[35] and Mahamudra.[36]
East Asian Buddhist traditions like Zen[37] and Huayan, particularly their concept of interpenetration.
Sikhism,[38] which usually teaches a duality between God and humans, but was given a nondual interpretation by Bhai Vir Singh.
Taoism,[39] which teaches the idea of a single subtle universal force or cosmic creative power called Tao (literally "way").
Subud[25]
Abrahamic traditions:
Christian mystics who promote a "nondual experience", such as Meister Eckhart and Julian of Norwich. The focus of this Christian nondualism is on bringing the worshiper closer to God and realizing a "oneness" with the Divine.[40]
Sufism[39]
Jewish Kabbalah
Western traditions:
Neo-platonism [41] which teaches there is a single source of all reality, The One.
Western philosophers like Hegel, Spinoza and Schopenhauer.[41] They defended different forms of philosophical monism or Idealism.
Transcendentalism, which was influenced by German Idealism and Indian religions.
Theosophy
New age
Hinduism[edit]
"Advaita" refers to nondualism, non-distinction between realities, the oneness of Atman (individual self) and Brahman (the single universal existence), as in Vedanta, Shaktism and Shaivism.[42] Although the term is best known from the Advaita Vedanta school of Adi Shankara, "advaita" is used in treatises by numerous medieval era Indian scholars, as well as modern schools and teachers.[note 4]
The Hindu concept of Advaita refers to the idea that all of the universe is one essential reality, and that all facets and aspects of the universe is ultimately an expression or appearance of that one reality.[42] According to Dasgupta and Mohanta, non-dualism developed in various strands of Indian thought, both Vedic and Buddhist, from the Upanishadic period onward.[4] The oldest traces of nondualism in Indian thought may be found in the Chandogya Upanishad, which pre-dates the earliest Buddhism. Pre-sectarian Buddhism may also have been responding to the teachings of the Chandogya Upanishad, rejecting some of its Atman-Brahman related metaphysics.[43][note 5]
Advaita appears in different shades in various schools of Hinduism such as in Advaita Vedanta, Vishishtadvaita Vedanta (Vaishnavism), Suddhadvaita Vedanta (Vaishnavism), non-dual Shaivism and Shaktism.[42][46][47] In the Advaita Vedanta of Adi Shankara, advaita implies that all of reality is one with Brahman,[42] that the Atman (soul, self) and Brahman (ultimate unchanging reality) are one.[48][49] The advaita ideas of some Hindu traditions contrasts with the schools that defend dualism or Dvaita, such as that of Madhvacharya who stated that the experienced reality and God are two (dual) and distinct.[50][51]
Vedanta[edit]
Main article: Vedanta
Several schools of Vedanta teach a form of nondualism. The best-known is Advaita Vedanta, but other nondual Vedanta schools also have a significant influence and following, such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta and Shuddhadvaita,[42] both of which are bhedabheda.
Advaita Vedanta[edit]
Main article: Advaita Vedanta
Swans are important figures in Advaita
The nonduality of the Advaita Vedanta is of the identity of Brahman and the Atman.[52] Advaita has become a broad current in Indian culture and religions, influencing subsequent traditions like Kashmir Shaivism.
The oldest surviving manuscript on Advaita Vedanta is by Gauḍapāda (6th century CE),[5] who has traditionally been regarded as the teacher of Govinda bhagavatpāda and the grandteacher of Adi Shankara. Advaita is best known from the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Adi Shankara (788-820 CE), who states that Brahman, the single unified eternal truth, is pure Being, Consciousness and Bliss (Sat-cit-ananda).[53]
Advaita, states Murti, is the knowledge of Brahman and self-consciousness (Vijnana) without differences.[54] The goal of Vedanta is to know the "truly real" and thus become one with it.[55] According to Advaita Vedanta, Brahman is the highest Reality,[56][57][58] The universe, according to Advaita philosophy, does not simply come from Brahman, it is Brahman. Brahman is the single binding unity behind the diversity in all that exists in the universe.[57] Brahman is also that which is the cause of all changes.[57][59][60] Brahman is the "creative principle which lies realized in the whole world".[61]
The nondualism of Advaita, relies on the Hindu concept of Ātman which is a Sanskrit word that means "real self" of the individual,[62][63] "essence",[web 3] and soul.[62][64] Ātman is the first principle,[65] the true self of an individual beyond identification with phenomena, the essence of an individual. Atman is the Universal Principle, one eternal undifferentiated self-luminous consciousness, asserts Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism.[66][67]
Advaita Vedanta philosophy considers Atman as self-existent awareness, limitless, non-dual and same as Brahman.[68] Advaita school asserts that there is "soul, self" within each living entity which is fully identical with Brahman.[69][70] This identity holds that there is One Soul that connects and exists in all living beings, regardless of their shapes or forms, there is no distinction, no superior, no inferior, no separate devotee soul (Atman), no separate God soul (Brahman).[69] The Oneness unifies all beings, there is the divine in every being, and all existence is a single Reality, state the Advaita Vedantins.[71] The nondualism concept of Advaita Vedanta asserts that each soul is non-different from the infinite Brahman.[72]
Advaita Vedanta – Three levels of reality[edit]
Advaita Vedanta adopts sublation as the criterion to postulate three levels of ontological reality:[73][74]
Pāramārthika (paramartha, absolute), the Reality that is metaphysically true and ontologically accurate. It is the state of experiencing that "which is absolutely real and into which both other reality levels can be resolved". This experience can't be sublated (exceeded) by any other experience.[73][74]
Vyāvahārika (vyavahara), or samvriti-saya,[75] consisting of the empirical or pragmatic reality. It is ever-changing over time, thus empirically true at a given time and context but not metaphysically true. It is "our world of experience, the phenomenal world that we handle every day when we are awake". It is the level in which both jiva (living creatures or individual souls) and Iswara are true; here, the material world is also true.[74]
Prāthibhāsika (pratibhasika, apparent reality, unreality), "reality based on imagination alone". It is the level of experience in which the mind constructs its own reality. A well-known example is the perception of a rope in the dark as being a snake.[74]
Similarities and differences with Buddhism[edit]
Scholars state that Advaita Vedanta was influenced by Mahayana Buddhism, given the common terminology and methodology and some common doctrines.[76][77] Eliot Deutsch and Rohit Dalvi state:
In any event a close relationship between the Mahayana schools and Vedanta did exist, with the latter borrowing some of the dialectical techniques, if not the specific doctrines, of the former.[78]
Advaita Vedanta is related to Buddhist philosophy, which promotes ideas like the two truths doctrine and the doctrine that there is only consciousness (vijñapti-mātra). It is possible that the Advaita philosopher Gaudapada was influenced by Buddhist ideas.[5] Shankara harmonised Gaudapada's ideas with the Upanishadic texts, and developed a very influential school of orthodox Hinduism.[79][80]
The Buddhist term vijñapti-mātra is often used interchangeably with the term citta-mātra, but they have different meanings. The standard translation of both terms is "consciousness-only" or "mind-only." Advaita Vedanta has been called "idealistic monism" by scholars, but some disagree with this label.[81][82] Another concept found in both Madhyamaka Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta is Ajativada ("ajāta"), which Gaudapada adopted from Nagarjuna's philosophy.[83][84][note 6] Gaudapada "wove [both doctrines] into a philosophy of the Mandukaya Upanisad, which was further developed by Shankara.[86][note 7]
Michael Comans states there is a fundamental difference between Buddhist thought and that of Gaudapada, in that Buddhism has as its philosophical basis the doctrine of Dependent Origination according to which "everything is without an essential nature (nissvabhava), and everything is empty of essential nature (svabhava-sunya)", while Gaudapada does not rely on this principle at all. Gaudapada's Ajativada is an outcome of reasoning applied to an unchanging nondual reality according to which "there exists a Reality (sat) that is unborn (aja)" that has essential nature (svabhava), and this is the "eternal, fearless, undecaying Self (Atman) and Brahman".[88] Thus, Gaudapada differs from Buddhist scholars such as Nagarjuna, states Comans, by accepting the premises and relying on the fundamental teaching of the Upanishads.[88] Among other things, Vedanta school of Hinduism holds the premise, "Atman exists, as self evident truth", a concept it uses in its theory of nondualism. Buddhism, in contrast, holds the premise, "Atman does not exist (or, An-atman) as self evident".[89][90][91]
Mahadevan suggests that Gaudapada adopted Buddhist terminology and adapted its doctrines to his Vedantic goals, much like early Buddhism adopted Upanishadic terminology and adapted its doctrines to Buddhist goals; both used pre-existing concepts and ideas to convey new meanings.[92] Dasgupta and Mohanta note that Buddhism and Shankara's Advaita Vedanta are not opposing systems, but "different phases of development of the same non-dualistic metaphysics from the Upanishadic period to the time of Sankara."[4]
Vishishtadvaita Vedanta[edit]
Ramanuja, founder of Vishishtadvaita Vedanta, taught 'qualified nondualism' doctrine.
See also: Bhedabheda
Vishishtadvaita Vedanta is another main school of Vedanta and teaches the nonduality of the qualified whole, in which Brahman alone exists, but is characterized by multiplicity. It can be described as "qualified monism," or "qualified non-dualism," or "attributive monism."
According to this school, the world is real, yet underlying all the differences is an all-embracing unity, of which all "things" are an "attribute." Ramanuja, the main proponent of Vishishtadvaita philosophy contends that the Prasthana Traya ("The three courses") – namely the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutras – are to be interpreted in a way that shows this unity in diversity, for any other way would violate their consistency.
Vedanta Desika defines Vishishtadvaita using the statement: Asesha Chit-Achit Prakaaram Brahmaikameva Tatvam – "Brahman, as qualified by the sentient and insentient modes (or attributes), is the only reality."
Neo-Vedanta[edit]
Main articles: Neo-Vedanta, Swami Vivekananda, and Ramakrishna Mission
Neo-Vedanta, also called "neo-Hinduism"[93] is a modern interpretation of Hinduism which developed in response to western colonialism and orientalism, and aims to present Hinduism as a "homogenized ideal of Hinduism"[94] with Advaita Vedanta as its central doctrine.[95]
Neo-Vedanta, as represented by Vivekananda and Radhakrishnan, is indebted to Advaita vedanta, but also reflects Advaya-philosophy. A main influence on neo-Advaita was Ramakrishna, himself a bhakta and tantrika, and the guru of Vivekananda. According to Michael Taft, Ramakrishna reconciled the dualism of formlessness and form.[96] Ramakrishna regarded the Supreme Being to be both Personal and Impersonal, active and inactive:
When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive – neither creating nor preserving nor destroying – I call Him Brahman or Purusha, the Impersonal God. When I think of Him as active – creating, preserving and destroying – I call Him Sakti or Maya or Prakriti, the Personal God. But the distinction between them does not mean a difference. The Personal and Impersonal are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness, the diamond and its lustre, the snake and its wriggling motion. It is impossible to conceive of the one without the other. The Divine Mother and Brahman are one.[97]
Radhakrishnan acknowledged the reality and diversity of the world of experience, which he saw as grounded in and supported by the absolute or Brahman.[web 4][note 8] According to Anil Sooklal, Vivekananda's neo-Advaita "reconciles Dvaita or dualism and Advaita or non-dualism":[99]
The Neo-Vedanta is also Advaitic inasmuch as it holds that Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, is one without a second, ekamevadvitiyam. But as distinguished from the traditional Advaita of Sankara, it is a synthetic Vedanta which reconciles Dvaita or dualism and Advaita or non-dualism and also other theories of reality. In this sense it may also be called concrete monism in so far as it holds that Brahman is both qualified, saguna, and qualityless, nirguna.[99]
Radhakrishnan also reinterpreted Shankara's notion of maya. According to Radhakrishnan, maya is not a strict absolute idealism, but "a subjective misperception of the world as ultimately real."[web 4] According to Sarma, standing in the tradition of Nisargadatta Maharaj, Advaitavāda means "spiritual non-dualism or absolutism",[100] in which opposites are manifestations of the Absolute, which itself is immanent and transcendent:[101]
All opposites like being and non-being, life and death, good and evil, light and darkness, gods and men, soul and nature are viewed as manifestations of the Absolute which is immanent in the universe and yet transcends it.[102]
Kashmir Shaivism[edit]
Main articles: Shaivism and Kashmir Shaivism
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Advaita is also a central concept in various schools of Shaivism, such as Kashmir Shaivism[42] and Shiva Advaita.
Kashmir Shaivism is a school of Śaivism, described by Abhinavagupta[note 9] as "paradvaita", meaning "the supreme and absolute non-dualism".[web 5] It is categorized by various scholars as monistic[103] idealism (absolute idealism, theistic monism,[104] realistic idealism,[105] transcendental physicalism or concrete monism[105]).
Kashmir Saivism is based on a strong monistic interpretation of the Bhairava Tantras and its subcategory the Kaula Tantras, which were tantras written by the Kapalikas.[106] There was additionally a revelation of the Siva Sutras to Vasugupta.[106] Kashmir Saivism claimed to supersede the dualistic Shaiva Siddhanta.[107] Somananda, the first theologian of monistic Saivism, was the teacher of Utpaladeva, who was the grand-teacher of Abhinavagupta, who in turn was the teacher of Ksemaraja.[106][108]
The philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism can be seen in contrast to Shankara's Advaita.[109] Advaita Vedanta holds that Brahman is inactive (niṣkriya) and the phenomenal world is an illusion (māyā). In Kashmir Shavisim, all things are a manifestation of the Universal Consciousness, Chit or Brahman.[110][111] Kashmir Shavisim sees the phenomenal world (Śakti) as real: it exists, and has its being in Consciousness (Chit).[112]
Kashmir Shaivism was influenced by, and took over doctrines from, several orthodox and heterodox Indian religious and philosophical traditions.[113] These include Vedanta, Samkhya, Patanjali Yoga and Nyayas, and various Buddhist schools, including Yogacara and Madhyamika,[113] but also Tantra and the Nath-tradition.[114]
Contemporary vernacular Advaita[edit]
Advaita is also part of other Indian traditions, which are less strongly, or not all, organised in monastic and institutional organisations. Although often called "Advaita Vedanta," these traditions have their origins in vernacular movements and "householder" traditions, and have close ties to the Nath, Nayanars and Sant Mat traditions.
Ramana Maharshi[edit]
Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) explained his insight using Shaiva Siddhanta, Advaita Vedanta and Yoga teachings.
Main article: Ramana Maharshi
Ramana Maharshi (30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) is widely acknowledged as one of the outstanding Indian gurus of modern times.[115] Ramana's teachings are often interpreted as Advaita Vedanta, though Ramana Maharshi never "received diksha (initiation) from any recognised authority".[web 6] Ramana himself did not call his insights advaita:
D. Does Sri Bhagavan advocate advaita?
M. Dvaita and advaita are relative terms. They are based on the sense of duality. The Self is as it is. There is neither dvaita nor advaita. "I Am that I Am."[note 10] Simple Being is the Self.[117]
Neo-Advaita[edit]
Main article: Neo-Advaita
Neo-Advaita is a New Religious Movement based on a modern, western interpretation of Advaita Vedanta, especially the teachings of Ramana Maharshi.[118] According to Arthur Versluis, neo-Advaita is part of a larger religious current which he calls immediatism,[119][web 9] "the assertion of immediate spiritual illumination without much if any preparatory practice within a particular religious tradition."[web 9] Neo-Advaita is criticized for this immediatism and its lack of preparatory practices.[120][note 11][122][note 12] Notable neo-advaita teachers are H. W. L. Poonja[123][118] and his students Gangaji,[124] Andrew Cohen,[note 13], and Eckhart Tolle.[118]
According to a modern western spiritual teacher of nonduality, Jeff Foster, nonduality is:
the essential oneness (wholeness, completeness, unity) of life, a wholeness which exists here and now, prior to any apparent separation [...] despite the compelling appearance of separation and diversity there is only one universal essence, one reality. Oneness is all there is – and we are included.[126]
Natha Sampradaya and Inchegeri Sampradaya[edit]
Main articles: Nath, Sahaja, and Inchegeri Sampradaya
The Natha Sampradaya, with Nath yogis such as Gorakhnath, introduced Sahaja, the concept of a spontaneous spirituality. Sahaja means "spontaneous, natural, simple, or easy".[web 13] According to Ken Wilber, this state reflects nonduality.[127]
Buddhism[edit]
There are different Buddhist views which resonate with the concepts and experiences of non-duality or "not two" (advaya). The Buddha does not use the term advaya in the earliest Buddhist texts, but it does appear in some of the Mahayana sutras, such as the Vimalakīrti.[128] While the Buddha taught unified states of mental focus (samadhi) and meditative absorption (dhyana) which were commonly taught in Upanishadic thought, he also rejected the metaphysical doctrines of the Upanishads, particularly ideas which are often associated with Hindu nonduality, such as the doctrine that "this cosmos is the self" and "everything is a Oneness" (cf. SN 12.48 and MN 22).[129][130] Because of this, Buddhist views of nonduality are particularly different than Hindu conceptions, which tend towards idealistic monism.
In Indian Buddhism[edit]
The layman Vimalakīrti Debates Manjusri, Dunhuang Mogao Caves
According to Kameshwar Nath Mishra, one connotation of advaya in Indic Sanskrit Buddhist texts is that it refers to the middle way between two opposite extremes (such as eternalism and annihilationism), and thus it is "not two".[131]
One of these Sanskrit Mahayana sutras, the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra contains a chapter on the "Dharma gate of non-duality" (advaya dharma dvara pravesa) which is said to be entered once one understands how numerous pairs of opposite extremes are to be rejected as forms of grasping. These extremes which must be avoided in order to understand ultimate reality are described by various characters in the text, and include: Birth and extinction, 'I' and 'Mine', Perception and non-perception, defilement and purity, good and not-good, created and uncreated, worldly and unworldly, samsara and nirvana, enlightenment and ignorance, form and emptiness and so on.[132] The final character to attempt to describe ultimate reality is the bodhisattva Manjushri, who states:
It is in all beings wordless, speechless, shows no signs, is not possible of cognizance, and is above all questioning and answering.[133]
Vimalakīrti responds to this statement by maintaining completely silent, therefore expressing that the nature of ultimate reality is ineffable (anabhilāpyatva) and inconceivable (acintyatā), beyond verbal designation (prapañca) or thought constructs (vikalpa).[133] The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, a text associated with Yogācāra Buddhism, also uses the term "advaya" extensively.[134]
In the Mahayana Buddhist philosophy of Madhyamaka, the two truths or ways of understanding reality, are said to be advaya (not two). As explained by the Indian philosopher Nagarjuna, there is a non-dual relationship, that is, there is no absolute separation, between conventional and ultimate truth, as well as between samsara and nirvana.[135][136] The concept of nonduality is also important in the other major Indian Mahayana tradition, the Yogacara school, where it is seen as the absence of duality between the perceiving subject (or "grasper") and the object (or "grasped"). It is also seen as an explanation of emptiness and as an explanation of the content of the awakened mind which sees through the illusion of subject-object duality. However, it is important to note that in this conception of non-dualism, there are still a multiplicity of individual mind streams (citta santana) and thus Yogacara does not teach an idealistic monism.[137]
These basic ideas have continued to influence Mahayana Buddhist doctrinal interpretations of Buddhist traditions such as Dzogchen, Mahamudra, Zen, Huayan and Tiantai as well as concepts such as Buddha-nature, luminous mind, Indra's net, rigpa and shentong.
Madhyamaka[edit]
Main articles: Madhyamika, Shunyata, and Two truths doctrine
Nagarjuna (right), Aryadeva (middle) and the Tenth Karmapa (left).
Madhyamaka, also known as Śūnyavāda (the emptiness teaching), refers primarily to a Mahāyāna Buddhist school of philosophy [138] founded by Nāgārjuna. In Madhyamaka, Advaya refers to the fact that the two truths are not separate or different.,[139] as well as the non-dual relationship of saṃsāra (the round of rebirth and suffering) and nirvāṇa (cessation of suffering, liberation).[42] According to Murti, in Madhyamaka, "Advaya" is an epistemological theory, unlike the metaphysical view of Hindu Advaita.[54] Madhyamaka advaya is closely related to the classical Buddhist understanding that all things are impermanent (anicca) and devoid of "self" (anatta) or "essenceless" (niḥsvabhāvavā),[140][141][142] and that this emptiness does not constitute an "absolute" reality in itself.[note 14].
In Madhyamaka, the two "truths" (satya) refer to conventional (saṃvṛti) and ultimate (paramārtha) truth.[143] The ultimate truth is "emptiness", or non-existence of inherently existing "things",[144] and the "emptiness of emptiness": emptiness does not in itself constitute an absolute reality. Conventionally, "things" exist, but ultimately, they are "empty" of any existence on their own, as described in Nagarjuna's magnum opus, the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (MMK):
The Buddha's teaching of the Dharma is based on two truths: a truth of worldly convention and an ultimate truth. Those who do not understand the distinction drawn between these two truths do not understand the Buddha's profound truth. Without a foundation in the conventional truth the significance of the ultimate cannot be taught. Without understanding the significance of the ultimate, liberation is not achieved.[note 15]
As Jay Garfield notes, for Nagarjuna, to understand the two truths as totally different from each other is to reify and confuse the purpose of this doctrine, since it would either destroy conventional realities such as the Buddha's teachings and the empirical reality of the world (making Madhyamaka a form of nihilism) or deny the dependent origination of phenomena (by positing eternal essences). Thus the non-dual doctrine of the middle way lies beyond these two extremes.[146]
"Emptiness" is a consequence of pratītyasamutpāda (dependent arising),[147] the teaching that no dharma ("thing", "phenomena") has an existence of its own, but always comes into existence in dependence on other dharmas. According to Madhyamaka all phenomena are empty of "substance" or "essence" (Sanskrit: svabhāva) because they are dependently co-arisen. Likewise it is because they are dependently co-arisen that they have no intrinsic, independent reality of their own. Madhyamaka also rejects the existence of absolute realities or beings such as Brahman or Self.[148] In the highest sense, "ultimate reality" is not an ontological Absolute reality that lies beneath an unreal world, nor is it the non-duality of a personal self (atman) and an absolute Self (cf. Purusha). Instead, it is the knowledge which is based on a deconstruction of such reifications and Conceptual proliferations.[149] It also means that there is no "transcendental ground," and that "ultimate reality" has no existence of its own, but is the negation of such a transcendental reality, and the impossibility of any statement on such an ultimately existing transcendental reality: it is no more than a fabrication of the mind.[web 14][note 16] Susan Kahn further explains:
Ultimate truth does not point to a transcendent reality, but to the transcendence of deception. It is critical to emphasize that the ultimate truth of emptiness is a negational truth. In looking for inherently existent phenomena it is revealed that it cannot be found. This absence is not findable because it is not an entity, just as a room without an elephant in it does not contain an elephantless substance. Even conventionally, elephantlessness does not exist. Ultimate truth or emptiness does not point to an essence or nature, however subtle, that everything is made of.[web 15]
However, according to Nagarjuna, even the very schema of ultimate and conventional, samsara and nirvana, is not a final reality, and he thus famously deconstructs even these teachings as being empty and not different from each other in the MMK where he writes:[41]
The limit (koti) of nirvāṇa is that of saṃsāra
The subtlest difference is not found between the two.
According to Nancy McCagney, what this refers to is that the two truths depend on each other; without emptiness, conventional reality cannot work, and vice versa. It does not mean that samsara and nirvana are the same, or that they are one single thing, as in Advaita Vedanta, but rather that they are both empty, open, without limits, and merely exist for the conventional purpose of teaching the Buddha Dharma.[41] Referring to this verse, Jay Garfield writes that:
to distinguish between samsara and nirvana would be to suppose that each had a nature and that they were different natures. But each is empty, and so there can be no inherent difference. Moreover, since nirvana is by definition the cessation of delusion and of grasping and, hence, of the reification of self and other and of confusing imputed phenomena for inherently real phenomena, it is by definition the recognition of the ultimate nature of things. But if, as Nagarjuna argued in Chapter XXIV, this is simply to see conventional things as empty, not to see some separate emptiness behind them, then nirvana must be ontologically grounded in the conventional. To be in samsara is to see things as they appear to deluded consciousness and to interact with them accordingly. To be in nirvana, then, is to see those things as they are - as merely empty, dependent, impermanent, and nonsubstantial, not to be somewhere else, seeing something else.[150]
It is important to note however that the actual Sanskrit term "advaya" does not appear in the MMK, and only appears in one single work by Nagarjuna, the Bodhicittavivarana.[151]
The later Madhyamikas, states Yuichi Kajiyama, developed the Advaya definition as a means to Nirvikalpa-Samadhi by suggesting that "things arise neither from their own selves nor from other things, and that when subject and object are unreal, the mind, being not different, cannot be true either; thereby one must abandon attachment to cognition of nonduality as well, and understand the lack of intrinsic nature of everything". Thus, the Buddhist nondualism or Advaya concept became a means to realizing absolute emptiness.[152]
Yogācāra tradition[edit]
Asaṅga (fl. 4th century C.E.), a Mahayana scholar who wrote numerous works which discuss the Yogacara view and practice.
Main article: Yogacara
In the Mahayana tradition of Yogācāra (Skt; "yoga practice"), adyava (Tibetan: gnyis med) refers to overcoming the conceptual and perceptual dichotomies of cognizer and cognized, or subject and object.[42][153][154][155] The concept of adyava in Yogācāra is an epistemological stance on the nature of experience and knowledge, as well as a phenomenological exposition of yogic cognitive transformation. Early Buddhism schools such as Sarvastivada and Sautrāntika, that thrived through the early centuries of the common era, postulated a dualism (dvaya) between the mental activity of grasping (grāhaka, "cognition", "subjectivity") and that which is grasped (grāhya, "cognitum", intentional object).[156][152][156][157] Yogacara postulates that this dualistic relationship is a false illusion or superimposition (samaropa).[152]
Yogācāra also taught the doctrine which held that only mental cognitions really exist (vijñapti-mātra),[158][note 17] instead of the mind-body dualism of other Indian Buddhist schools.[152][156][158] This is another sense in which reality can be said to be non-dual, because it is "consciousness-only".[159] There are several interpretations of this main theory, which has been widely translated as representation-only, ideation-only, impressions-only and perception-only.[160][158][161][162] Some scholars see it as a kind of subjective or epistemic Idealism (similar to Kant's theory) while others argue that it is closer to a kind of phenomenology or representationalism. According to Mark Siderits the main idea of this doctrine is that we are only ever aware of mental images or impressions which manifest themselves as external objects, but "there is actually no such thing outside the mind."[163] For Alex Wayman, this doctrine means that "the mind has only a report or representation of what the sense organ had sensed."[161] Jay Garfield and Paul Williams both see the doctrine as a kind of Idealism in which only mentality exists.[164][165]
However, it is important to note that even the idealistic interpretation of Yogācāra is not an absolute monistic idealism like Advaita Vedanta or Hegelianism, since in Yogācāra, even consciousness "enjoys no transcendent status" and is just a conventional reality.[166] Indeed, according to Jonathan Gold, for Yogācāra, the ultimate truth is not consciousness, but an ineffable and inconceivable "thusness" or "thatness" (tathatā).[153] Also, Yogācāra affirms the existence of individual mindstreams, and thus Kochumuttom also calls it a realistic pluralism.[82]
The Yogācārins defined three basic modes by which we perceive our world. These are referred to in Yogācāra as the three natures (trisvabhāva) of experience. They are:[167][168]
Parikalpita (literally, "fully conceptualized"): "imaginary nature", wherein things are incorrectly comprehended based on conceptual and linguistic construction, attachment and the subject object duality. It is thus equivalent to samsara.
Paratantra (literally, "other dependent"): "dependent nature", by which the dependently originated nature of things, their causal relatedness or flow of conditionality. It is the basis which gets erroneously conceptualized,
Pariniṣpanna (literally, "fully accomplished"): "absolute nature", through which one comprehends things as they are in themselves, that is, empty of subject-object and thus is a type of non-dual cognition. This experience of "thatness" (tathatā) is uninfluenced by any conceptualization at all.
To move from the duality of the Parikalpita to the non-dual consciousness of the Pariniṣpanna, Yogācāra teaches that there must be a transformation of consciousness, which is called the "revolution of the basis" (āśraya-parāvṛtti). According to Dan Lusthaus, this transformation which characterizes awakening is a "radical psycho-cognitive change" and a removal of false "interpretive projections" on reality (such as ideas of a self, external objects, etc).[169]
The Mahāyānasūtrālamkāra, a Yogācāra text, also associates this transformation with the concept of non-abiding nirvana and the non-duality of samsara and nirvana. Regarding this state of Buddhahood, it states:
Its operation is nondual (advaya vrtti) because of its abiding neither in samsara nor in nirvana (samsaranirvana-apratisthitatvat), through its being both conditioned and unconditioned (samskrta-asamskrtatvena).[170]
This refers to the Yogācāra teaching that even though a Buddha has entered nirvana, they do no "abide" in some quiescent state separate from the world but continue to give rise to extensive activity on behalf of others.[170] This is also called the non-duality between the compounded (samskrta, referring to samsaric existence) and the uncompounded (asamskrta, referring to nirvana). It is also described as a "not turning back" from both samsara and nirvana.[171]
For the later thinker Dignaga, non-dual knowledge or advayajñāna is also a synonym for prajñaparamita (transcendent wisdom) which liberates one from samsara.[172]
Other Indian traditions[edit]
Buddha nature or tathagata-garbha (literally "Buddha womb") is that which allows sentient beings to become Buddhas.[173] Various Mahayana texts such as the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras focus on this idea and over time it became a very influential doctrine in Indian Buddhism, as well in East Asian and Tibetan Buddhism. The Buddha nature teachings may be regarded as a form of nondualism. According to Sally B King, all beings are said to be or possess tathagata-garbha, which is nondual Thusness or Dharmakaya. This reality, states King, transcends the "duality of self and not-self", the "duality of form and emptiness" and the "two poles of being and non being".[174]
There various interpretations and views on Buddha nature and the concept became very influential in India, China and Tibet, where it also became a source of much debate. In later Indian Yogācāra, a new sub-school developed which adopted the doctrine of tathagata-garbha into the Yogācāra system.[166] The influence of this hybrid school can be seen in texts like the Lankavatara Sutra and the Ratnagotravibhaga. This synthesis of Yogācāra tathagata-garbha became very influential in later Buddhist traditions, such as Indian Vajrayana, Chinese Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism.[175][166] Yet another development in late Indian Buddhism was the synthesis of Madhymaka and Yogacara philosophies into a single system, by figures such as Śāntarakṣita (8th century). Buddhist Tantra, also known as Vajrayana, Mantrayana or Esoteric Buddhism, drew upon all these previous Indian Buddhist ideas and nondual philosophies to develop innovative new traditions of Buddhist practice and new religious texts called the Buddhist tantras (from the 6th century onwards).[176] Tantric Buddhism was influential in China and is the main form of Buddhism in the Himalayan regions, especially Tibetan Buddhism.
a little lost - some kinda cognitive dissonance re "unlocking" the bulb/ custom specs a la polaroid app with this polaroid now+ ... is it just me? gonna stay true to the on-camera functions & thank g for the tripod mount & dual focus (& i don't know if this is a planned obsolescence fuck up or a third party company that made that filter kit incompatible with the first gen polaroid now so it's a GOOd thing i just tape my filters on anyway u capitalist dick riders I SEE U)
starburst filtered double exposure w black frame i-type 600 film shot on polaroid now+
MIT cognitive scientist Deb Roy exemplifies the power of Big Data in his latest TED Talk: harvesting big insights from "the largest home video collection ever made" to understand the process of how a child learns language.
In this example, Deb Roy's team captures every time his son ever heard the word water along with the the context he saw it in. They then used this data to penetrate through the video, find every activity trace that co-occurred with an instance of water and map it on a blueprint of the apartment. That's how they came up with wordscapes: the landscape that data leaves in its wake.
Candid shot, Blackdown Beer and Music Festival.
The first drug that can stop Alzheimer's in its tracks 'could be available within five years' after medical breakthrough with medication normally used to treat diabetes
* Tests at Aarthus University in Denmark shows Liraglutide stops progress
*Drug, usually used to treat diabetes, even improved brain function in some
*UK is now trialing new drug on 206 Alzheimer's patients across 20 hospitals
* They ended in 2015 and leading doctor hopes it will be licensed in 5 years
Tests have shown that a cheap drug commonly used to treat diabetes called Liraglutide stopped the brain disease from advancing and in some cases even gave sufferers a cognitive boost.
No study has ever before shows such dramatic results, and it could mean those who detect the disease at an early stage could live a lifetime of normal brain function.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3563033/First-drug-stop-...
www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsI...
www.ibtimes.co.uk/world-alzheimers-day-2015-liraglutide-c...
www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/diabetes-drug-could-influenc...
news.joindementiaresearch.nihr.ac.uk/liraglutide-study-al...
#2889 - 2015 Day 332: Some things in my mind are clear but others are degraded by static and interference ...
WELCOME to the NEW SPACE AGE!
Inspired by the real space stations, this imaginary minifig-scale space outpost is the place for all variety of crew members working together and expanding the human frontier- the moon, Mars, and beyond!
The set idea includes a robot arm manipulator- grab an object with surgical precision in zero-G! Use your situational awareness and 3-dimensioanl cognitive skills!
Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon Portugal
Charles Correa Associates designed this research and diagnostic centre located in Lisbon. It is a state-of-the-art facility guided by some of the best scientist in the world. The site, where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean, is steeped in history. It is the site where Henry the Navigator, Vasco de Gama and other great Portuguese left on their journeys into the unknown—a perfect metaphor for the discoveries of contemporary science today. The 3 units that constitute the project are:
•the largest for the doctors and scientist,
•the second for the theatre, the exhibition hall, the foundation offices, etc,
•the third is an open-air amphitheatre for the city.
They have been arranged to create a 125m long pathway leading diagonally across the site, towards the open seas. This pathway is ramped up at a gentle slope of 1:20, so as you ascend, you see only sky ahead of you. At the end of the ramp are two stone monoliths, straight from the quarry. When you reach the highest point, you begin to see a large body of water, which seemingly connects (i.e. without any visual break) to the ocean beyond. In the centre of this water body, just below the surface of the water, is an oval shaped object—made of stainless steel and slightly convex, so that it reflects the blue sky and passing clouds above.
Beyond its scientific importance, the centre’s design has also caught the attention of architects around the world. The bid to design the site was won by Indian architect Charles Correa, who also designed the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The centre features a large interior rainforest connecting clinics and laboratories, chemotherapy suites with gardens, and many areas open for public use, including exhibition halls, an outdoor amphitheatre and landscaped walking areas. It is hoped that the location of the centre in the heart of Lisbon, as well as the openness of the site to the public, will encourage awareness of the centre and the Champalimaud Foundation, as well as the health and medical issues that their work is aiming to address.
Student mixed media painting on paper, Howell HIgh School.
Working with Students with Cognitive impairment.
Teaching artist: Diane M Kramer
photos By Diane M Kramer
Serving Spring 2014 Teaching Residency with VSA of Michigan ((Please to see more of the student work you can flip through prior 12 posts of go to the set " VSA teaching Res at Howell High Spring 2014"
Created using the Fractal Science Kit fractal generator. See www.fractalsciencekit.com/ for details.
I don't usually like to talk about VC topics, but NPR Marketplace just posted an interview by Molly Wood (such a cool name).
minute 11 — team size and scaling limits
minute 15 — seven year cycles from feedback lag
minute 18 — the cognitive diversity bonus
I recently learned that I am quoted in Scott Page's new book on Diversity pp.124-5. (text below) At a philanthropy gathering last month, he reminded me that when I first met him at a conference lunch, I got all excited about the SFI research showing diversity being more important than ability in certain contexts, and I quoted him before I knew he was him. I'm glad I got the attribution right there!
Please view on Lightbox (press 'L').
Playing around with refraction again, this time using a CD to place the water droplets on. The refracted rings (or cogs) which can be seen in the drops are the refracted image of my LED macro ring.
Canon EOS 60D - Canon 100mm Macro f2.8 USM.
Thanks for taking the time to view, comment or favourite any of my photos. I always try to recipricate with a visit to your photostream.
All aging humans will develop some degree of decline in cognitive capacity, usually including the following symptoms:
forgetfulness,
decreased ability to maintain focus,
decreased problem solving capacity,
If left unchecked, symptoms oftentimes progress into more serious conditions, such as dementia and depression, or even Alzheimer’s disease.
Fortunately, proactive lifestyle changes, cognitive training, and nutritional interventions such as phosphatidylserine and glyceryl phosphoryl choline have been shown to decrease the rate of intellectual decay and potentially reverse age-related cognitive decline.
(Getting old is a ... ... ... damn I can't remember).
www.lifeextension.com/Protocols/Neurological/Age-Related-...