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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!
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.
Cada uno vera lo que quiera ver, dependiendo de lo sucia o limpia que tenga la mente? O de lo bien o mal que me funcione el experimento (Manelada).
Ilusión óptica es cualquier ilusión del sentido de la vista, que nos lleva a percibir la realidad erróneamente. Éstas pueden ser de carácter psicológico asociados a los efectos de una estimulación excesiva en los ojos o el cerebro (brillo, color, movimiento, etc como el encandilamiento tras ver una luz potente) o cognitivo en las que interviene nuestro conocimiento del mundo (como el Jarrón Rubin en el que percibimos dos caras o un jarrón indistintamente).
Entender estos fenómenos es útil para comprender las limitaciones del sentido visual del ser humano y la posibilidad de distorsión, ya sea en lo relativo a la forma, el color, la dimensión y la perspectiva de lo observado.
Everyone will see what you want to see, depending on how dirty or clean I get the mind? Or how well I run the experiment (Manelada).
Optical illusion is any illusion of the sense of sight, which leads us to mistakenly perceive reality. These may be psychological effects associated with excessive stimulation of the eyes or the brain (brightness, color, movement, etc as glare after seeing a bright light) or cognitive involved in our knowledge of the world (such as Rubin vase in which we see two faces or a vase interchangeably).
A course photo from a Cognitive Edge Helsinki course on complexity, #Cynefin, narrative and sense-making.
Award-winning photojournalist, Karim Ben Khelifa, is widely known for his coverage of the Middle East conflicts, especially the Iraq and Afghan wars, where he covered the insurgent sides. While a Fellow at the Open Documentary Lab at MIT, Ben Khelifa designed and prototyped his latest project The Enemy. This immersive installation uses VR to bring the audience into conversations between enemies within longstanding global conflicts. During his residency, he collaborated with Fox Harrell of the Imagination, Computation and Expression (ICE) Laboratory, to integrate concepts from cognitive science and Artificial Intelligence-based interaction models into the project to engender empathy.
Learn more at arts.mit.edu
All photos ©Karim Ben Khelifa
Please ask before use
The Beginning
Something profound has occurred to me within the last few weeks. That is what this entire book is about. My fathers unexpected death was, I believe, the catalyst for this. That was the most painful two weeks of my entire life. I began thinking more about death, life, existence in general. I'll start at the beginning, so you can understand where I am coming from. Also, let me note, I have no degrees or any specialized training in philosophy, religion or science. I'm a regular guy, 25 years old, putting my worldview down in ink.
You see, I had always been kind of a spiritual thinker, since about the age of fourteen. I questioned religion -- well, the more rigid, dogmatic, exoteric side of religion. This change in my cognitive thought process and worldview came about entirely because of my mother. At that age, I really didn't know any better, so I would just listen and soak in whatever she would tell me. She was coming from a very strong new age influence, she had read books and declared that she was a new and completely different person. Apparently, this had been going on for several years, I just didn't know about until that point in my life.
I started reading through the bible, my mom even bought me a new one and I was able to inscribe my name onto it. I strongly believed what my mom was telling me and felt like I was on the right path. I probably know what you're thinking at this point. If he was questioning dogmatic religion, why is he reading the bible? You're right. Again, at that age, I didn't know any better. Later in life, I realized the information my mom was feeding me was misconstrued and inaccurately mixed up with other various forms of thought, she was giving me an inconsistent, contradictory mess of a philosophy, declaring it was "the truth". This was mainly because of things concerning her mental state but I won't get into that. Some things from Deepak Chopra, certain passages from the bible, this guy she saw on TV and whatever felt right in her mind. So I was on this path for maybe a year or two before I decided to do my own research on the side. I found some authors and books that felt inspiring to me. Dipping my toes in the waters of Eastern religion and philosophy. And I liked what I was absorbing.
I was getting very comfortable in this new age, pluralistic worldview I was developing. Oh, wow, I see, everybody can be right, there is no one answer. I felt like I had really figured life out. Then I had stumbled upon that popular book, The Secret. Yeah. I fell for that, too. Completely misunderstanding science and how the physical world worked while also misinterpreting spiritual practices, belief structures and consciousness itself. I rode that train for a little while, feeling good about myself. As I got older, of course, I found some schools of thought that differed from what I was reading, and books online that shattered my original viewpoint. I then began gaining a better, proper understanding of science and the physical world, as well as esoteric religion and spirituality.
For example, I had learned that the famous Chinese concepts of yin and yang were actually representative of non-duality, instead of what I thought previously, which is that it was representative of necessary duality. I was discovering so many things that were contradicting beliefs I had in earlier points of my teenage life. Then I became kind of obsessed. Really delving deep into existentialism, quantum physics, Hinduism, Zen, Christian mysticism. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Spinoza, Alan Watts, Ken Wilber. Phenomenology, metaphysics, hermeneutics. Every day I was feeding myself information, buying books, glued to YouTube videos, listening to interviews and podcasts. Going through what I learned in my mind, over and over and over, trying to understand every variable, every equation, every loophole, every possible answer and contradiction. I was on a mission for the truth, I didn't care where it took me.
Some bad things began happening in my life, mainly depression. That began pulling me away from all of this. I slowly felt more comfortable categorizing myself as an atheist, but still, with a slight interest in spirituality. And then ultimately, I just decided that the big bang was everything. Whatever that was, whatever happened, that's my "god", I'll just believe in that. That worked for me. Life went on, other more important things began to hold my attention and I kind of fell out of that constantly-searching state of mind.
Then we went into the year of 2014, which happens to be the year in which I am writing this book. It's November. I can say without a doubt that this year has been the single most important year of my entire life. I was a completely different human-being just 10 months prior to now. I had been laid off twice, once from a completely, disgusting workplace filled with atrocious, two-faced people. I've had three different addresses, being starved because I didn't have money to eat. My sister had an abusive ex-fiance and a stroke along with other financial problems. My depression was at it's worst this year. I took myself to a hospital for a psych evaluation and began the process of therapy and medication. And then my father died. That has lead me to where I am at this very moment.
Identity
Who are you? That is a very important question. I don't think we ask ourselves that very much. When asked, you may get the very typical, "I'm just me". Others may just point to themselves, "Need I say more?" Well, you aren't your human body. The body is just a body, it is not you. So, who are you? You might then be tempted to say, "Well, my name is Korey, I'm a husband and father, a construction worker, a Christian, I'm funny and outgoing, I'm a good person just trying to live my life the best way I know how". Okay. Concepts and ideas. We use concepts and ideas that we attach ourselves to, and think of them as our personality, thus giving us identity. But that's all they are, concepts and ideas in our own mind that we cling to. Right there, we've broken through the first wall. Those are thoughts and abstractions, being examined or looked at, in your own mind. We take anger, fatherhood, job title, personality traits, mood, temperament, put it all in a big bag and slap your name on it. That's your identity. Who is examining them?
You see, if you can see an object, you're not the object. You are the subject observing the object. You've dissociate yourself from that object. You can look at another human-being and know that they are them, and you are you. You're observing something outside of yourself, physically. You can do the same thing with an inanimate object. But in your own mind, you're repeating the same procedure. In your mind, picture a red apple. You're not the apple, obviously, you're seeing it. But what is seeing it? Who is aware of this apple? "I am!". Well, who is "I"? And you might feel inspired to say something like, "My identity is my personal experience, my business. If I want to identify with a concept I can and you have no right trying to tell me what my identity is". You're right, your identity can be whatever you want it to be. But that does not disprove anything I have said. You cannot deny that "motherhood" or being "introverted" are concepts. Obviously you can't take them out and slap them down on the table for everyone to see. You're aware of these ideas in your mind.
Now just keep peeling back the layers. You're seeing thoughts, so you must not be those thoughts. Of course, there are biological correlates in your brain firing off in various directions when you think. Neurons are not too complex when considered on their own, and no single neuron can be said to contain any knowledge. Although, when these neurons are large in number, their immeasurable reciprocal action grant rise to something truly stunning apart from themselves: thought and self-awareness. In other words, consciousness. That statement does not entirely work, however, given that it seems to indicate something physical in your brain "creates" something non-physical like consciousness, but we'll get to that later on. What's inside a neuron? A nucleus. What's inside a nucleus? RNA, fluid, proteins -- basically it's DNA. But what does that tell us about identity? About consciousness? Because apparently, we'll just keep going deeper and deeper and deeper, into smaller and smaller objects. Essentially, nothing that can seem to explain this monumental phenomena. Keep peeling away.
That leaves us with really only one thing left. I hope you know what it is. It's consciousness. Awareness. That empty, still, ever-present awareness, that does not change, multiply or mutate. You are that which witnesses everything that is arising moment to moment. You are a mirror. Thoughts, concepts, ideas, are all reflections. Now the reflections are temporary, they go in and out, pop up and down, they're inconsistent. What is consistent, is that which allows the reflections to even exist. It is the page that the words are written on. You are the page, not the words. And you know that for an absolute fact. Right now, you are conscious and aware, aware of yourself in your body, reading this book. No human-being on the entire planet can tell you otherwise. Now think about that for a moment. Because that is absolutely, incredibly profound and beautiful. The one thing in this universe that is aggravatingly impossible to observe and talk about, is the very same thing that you know for an absolute fact is the most real, important and consistent thing in existence.
Truth
Now let's discuss consciousness for a moment. I know just said it's aggravatingly impossible to talk about, but it is colorful wordplay, so just humor me for a minute. It really is the most important thing in human existence. We take it for granted but it's been with you your entire life. You cannot remember a single fragment of a moment that it was not there. It really is magic. You cannot, see, taste, touch, hear or smell it, but you know without a doubt that it exists, that is incontrovertible. That is powerful. Consciousness is what allows you to see that red apple in your mind, but when someone cuts your brain open and peeks around, they won't find an apple. One may be a bit dubious about the state of their consciousness, but one can never be dubious about having it. It is the mirror that reflects all images.
Now, yes, using dualistic, finite terminology to discuss consciousness can get messy. It's like using the color red to describe the color blue. The only thing you can do is give a vague description, that kind of sums it all up, but ultimately, it is a 1st person, intersubjective experience. When we use words like "location, weight, length," and so on, we are using 3rd person, objective terms to discuss something "out there" or "over there". Something you can physically see and point at, or hear, or smell, or touch, or taste. Hopefully, you can do all five. These terms only apply to objective, 3rd person things, so it is completely useless to use them when trying to discuss consciousness....something that is not a 3rd person, objective experience. You can't use the word location in reference to something that does not have a location.
Consciousness cannot have a location. First you would need to be able to see it, before you could ever make such a judgement. You can fight it all you want to, you will never be able to disprove that. "Well we know for a fact that consciousness is located in the brain." False! No, you do not. You're assuming it is. That's your first mistake. You immediately take that assumption to heart and then go from there, not realizing that the foundation in which all of this consciousness-research is piled on might be untrue. So it's only going to cause more problems, create more confusion, and leave a bigger trail of inaccuracies. smj12.com/truth-theory/
ODC Our Daily Challenge: More
My wish: constant learning in the sense of cognitive but also emotional knowledge and experience
Title: 11 Wyman Street
Creator: City of Boston
Date: 1982
Source: Boston Landmarks Commission image collection, 5210.004
File name: 5210004_010_639
Rights: Copyright City of Boston
Citation: Boston Landmarks Commission image collection, Collection 5210.004, City of Boston Archives, Boston
DON'T MISTAKE OLD FOR SENILE !
We've all misplaced keys, blanked on an acquaintance's name, or forgotten a phone number. But because memory loss is not an inevitable part of the ageing process it's important to distinguish between what's normal when it comes to memory loss and when you should be concerned. The first step to staying mentally sharp as you age is to understand the difference between normal forgetfulness that may be due to stress or other factors and serious memory problems.
The brain is capable of producing new brain cells at any age, so significant memory loss is not an inevitable result of ageing. But just as it is with muscle strength, you have to use it or lose it. Your lifestyle, health habits, and daily activities have a huge impact on the health of your brain. Whatever your age, there are many ways you can improve your cognitive skills, prevent memory loss, and protect your grey matter.
Furthermore, many mental abilities are largely unaffected by normal ageing, such as:
Your ability to do the things you’ve always done and continue to do often
The wisdom and knowledge you’ve acquired from life experience
Your innate common sense, Your ability to form reasonable arguments and judgements.
Imagine having a searchable video recording of everything that happens in every room of your house.
MIT cognitive scientist Deb Roy started the recording when his first child arrived home, and has kept recording for 5.5 years now.
He now has a 200TB archive, with a 70-million-word transcript, and can do a virtual 3D fly through any moment across all rooms. He can view all developmental milestones, from baby’s first steps to the mastery of any spoken word. He can roll back and see what verbal and physical interactions preceded the acquisition of language. He can draw movement traces through the house of all caregivers and their proximity to his son. From these traces, he can see the social hotspots of interaction. See examples below.
“You are looking at a piece of what is by far the largest home video collection ever made.”
His TED Talk went online today. It is one of my favorites.
read each of the statements and select the one which discribes how you feel / discribe
psychosocial therapies are part of the standard management of schizophrenic illnesses, but have not been subjected to systematic evaluation and are therefore not included in this guideline. This does not imply that they are not essential components of good practice.
The remainder of this section describes the evidence for the effectiveness of Education Programmes, Family Interventions, and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy in the management of schizophrenia. Section 3 provides recommendations for the application of these interventions in clinical practice, according to the phase of the illness.
Education programmes
Education Programmes are directed at either patients or carers/family members and have several aims. Improvement in knowledge of schizophrenia and its course and in compliance with treatment has been shown. There is also evidence of greater satisfaction with services provided. Some programmes go beyond the provision of information and take an educational approach to skills training or problem solving.
Education Programmes for patients may be undertaken in individual or in group settings. Simple information-giving is less effective than interactive sessions. The focus includes giving information about the course and management of the illness, including the importance of compliance with medication and the management of stress.
Providing carers and family members with information on the likely course of the illness, the treatments available, the importance of compliance and the services available is an essential element of good practice It may be undertaken as part of a Family Intervention programme
Specific techniques, e.g. use of homework or video, have not been shown to improve the assimilation of information, but a group setting has advantages
Family interventions
The aims of 'Family Intervention' include reduction of frequency of relapse into illness and reduction of hospital admissions, reduction in the burden of care on families and carers, and improvement in compliance with medication.
Some Family Intervention Programmes have targeted families where there are high levels of criticism, hostility and over-involvement. 'High expressed emotion' is a measure of these features and programmes which reduce this or reduce the amount of 'face to face' contact between the patient and family members have been shown to reduce the frequency of relapse. However, the measurement of expressed emotion is a research technique which is not practical for everyday use. Family Intervention Programmes which are not derived from this theoretical background have been shown to be effective.
Most intervention strategies contain more than one technique. Separating and defining the effects of the components of an intervention strategy is not possible at present as few studies examine the effect of a single technique and only a general description of interventions used in research studies is usually given. However, a number of practice guides have been published which give detailed descriptions of the techniques employed in some studies. Family Intervention has been shown to be effective with some variation in the components of the programme, but family sessions to address the problems identified in the analysis may not be effective if the patient is not included. Social skills training and vocational rehabilitation were included in some studies. These are not covered as separate interventions in the guideline.
Cognitive behaviour therapy
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for psychosis is a modification of standard cognitive behavioural therapy. The aim is to modify symptoms (e.g. delusions, hallucinations) or the consequences of the symptoms which may be cognitive, emotional, physiological or behavioural. The treatment programme is intensive (involving about 20 hours of individual treatment) and based on an individually tailored formulation which provides an explanation of the development, maintenance and exacerbation of symptoms and of pre-morbid mood, interpersonal and behavioural difficulties.
There is now good evidence that treatment resistant symptoms (delusions, hallucinations) can be substantially reduced in a significant proportion of those who complete therapy. It is not yet clear who is most likely to benefit from treatment and many patients may be unwilling to participate. The treatment is well tolerated. However, reduction of symptoms has not been shown to lead to significant social or lifestyle improvements.
A combination of the following techniques has been shown to be most effective in lessening symptoms of psychosis resistant to other forms of treatment:
◦enhancement of cognitive behavioural coping strategies5
◦developing a rationale to explain symptoms28◦realistic goal setting
◦modification of delusional beliefs29◦modification of dysfunctional assumptions.
A number of these techniques are a refinement of normal good practice using a systematic approach.
'Early Intervention Studies' have aimed to identify prodromal symptoms or the 'signature' preceding relapse. The approach is not a form of cognitive therapy, but early intervention with medication or Cognitive Behaviour Therapy may be facilitated
Different version of the photo i uploaded yesterday. I don't know which one I like more.
I'm really proud of this. Its so meaningful to me in more ways than one. Maybe I'll start a series with this mask and tell a story...
Model: Amanda Cooper
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Uploading from the Almaden Institute on Cognitive Computing…
I’m sitting next to Jeff Hawkins who just posted a white paper (PDF) on the Hierarchical Temporal Memory framework. Hawkins writes: “The brain does not ‘compute’ the answers to problems; it retrieves the answers from memory… The entire cortex is a memory system. It isn’t a computer at all.”
(aside: I blogged a bit about the developmental trajectory of electronics recapitulating the evolutionary history of the brain. Specifically, both are saturating with a memory-centric architecture.)
In this photo, you see Henry Markram from EPFL showing complex neuronal visualizations and movies from the BlueBrain project. This is a single neuron with a color-coded map of synaptic connections to other neurons.
Some notes:
No brain wiring is the same, even in clones. Structural topology and functional spike train variation is immense. There are over 300 types of neurons in neocortex that are structurally and electrically different. And they each have ~200 ion channels from a pool of 20-40 variations. Looking at possible neuronal connections, it’s an all:all structure that is in place. But only 10% of the connections will grow a synapse.
Nobelist Gerald Edelman: “Every perception is an act of creation. Every memory is an act of imagination.”
He also referenced Posit Science founder and UCSF Prof. Merzenich’s research on rapid recruitment of neurons, a form of neural plasticity. If you cut the nerve to a thumb, the cortical sensory map changes within 1 hour.
“We are at a remarkable juncture… We are at the brink of understanding what had only been in domain of philosophers.”
Neurosurgeon Keith Black at Google's Solve for X:
“We are facing a healthcare tsunami because of cognitive decline. A child born in the U.S. today has a 1 in 3 chance of living to 100. But without a cure, Alzheimer’s alone will bankrupt the healthcare system.”
“Alzheimer’s silently starts developing 20 years before the diagnosis. We wait for symptoms, and by then 50% of the brain cells are lost. But the Beta Amyloid protein develops in the brain 20 years before we become symptomatic. How can we detect that? PET scans are low resolution, expensive and radioactive. Spinal taps to get CNS fluid are invasive and unlikely to be a standard screen. What about the retina? It’s an extension of the brain embryonically. “
“Turmeric is an Indian spice rich in the protein curcumin. Curcumin binds to the toxic beta amyloid AB42 protein, and it is brightly fluorescent.”
And it works! He showed cadaver, then animal, then human trials.
“We should give this 20 minute non-invasive test to everyone over 50. Imagine you did not treat diabetes until you had kidney failure. It would be too late. We could start treatments earlier, and study the progression in clinical trials. Perhaps the GRAS (Generally Accepted as Safe) practices could make a difference if started earlier: turmeric, green tea, coffee, physical and mental exercises. Turmeric may be good as a therapy as well as a diagnostic. There is an lower incidence of Alzheimer’s in India, and so it warrants some study. If we can just slow the progression enough, perhaps the aging population could miss the clinical phase of the disease altogether.”
This is a very personal post which really belongs on a private blog not flickr but as I'm still trying to get one up and running I've decided to post it here, and besides, tempus fugit and I'd like you to meet my mum, so please read on...
I took this photograph of my 80 year old mum last week, two days after she was diagnosed with Dementia. She's in the early stages of it but the deterioration of her memory and cognitive abilities is gathering speed at an alarming rate. She will be having a brain scan very soon in order to help the dementia specialist determine a course of drug therapy that will halt or dramatically slow down the rate of deterioration, tho, it won't cure her. But, at this moment in time, she's totally aware of herself and the world around her, interacting with it and dealing with it, although she does have major problems with short term memory loss, numbers, understanding the concept of time and dates, and dealing with technology. Sadly, she is fully aware of what's happening to her mind, and as strong and resilient as she is she has moments where the fear breaks through and all I can do is just silently hold her in my arms as she cries. Fortunately, those moments are few and far between. As a family we're making the necessary adjustments for mum to have a decent quality of life and to lessen the impact on her of her memory loss.
Mum's dementia has had a profound impact on mine, Tim and Sue's (my brother and sister) lives. We are each dealing with it in our own ways emotionally. I've veered from compassion to 'fist shaking at the sky' anger, from bitterness to resignation, from depression to deep love and just about every emotion in between. My early unwillingness to accept her condition has resulted in behaviour I'm shocked and ashamed of. Equally, as the past two years have gone by, I've found depths within myself and inner reserves of strength that I never knew I had, and it's also brought me closer to my friends (some of whom are going through the same thing as me), whose understanding and compassion humbles me, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for being there.
But, this post isn't about me and my siblings, it's about my mum. To Tim, Sue and myself she's our mother but she is so much more than that. Having divorced my father shortly after Tim was born she raised the three of us on her own with no input, financial or otherwise, from him. With very little support in the way of benefits from the government she would sometimes be working three part time jobs a week including evening work, all to make sure that we had a good, healthy and happy childhood. Throughout the trials and tribulations of growing up mum was always there for the three of us, she was the rock upon which the vicissitudes of life would break and be found wanting, she was supporting and nurturing, protecting and defending, our lioness. As a mother – like all mothers – she had many roles to play; a doctor, nurse, teacher, artist, a cuddlesome sanctuary from nightmares and thunder, a playmate, banker, gardener, decorator, engineer, spider and goldfish catcher, bill payer, diplomat, spiritual guide, etc, etc, truly a woman for all seasons. She took on any and every role that was required of her, all the while teaching us about respect and self-respect, honour and trust, paying our way in the world and to stand on our own two feet, to have an open mind when it came to religion, politics and people, and to seek and not to yield when it came to finding our place in the world, our bliss. Above all things she taught us to be true to ourselves, to appreciate each moment we're alive.
When I asked her recently if she had just one regret from the life she'd led bringing up a family, and what would it be, she chided me, saying that at no point in all those years did she have second thoughts or rue the life she'd chosen. She seemed genuinely mystified that I'd asked such a question of her. To her, Tim, Sue and myself were all she could've asked for from life. In her eyes, fame, wealth, power, possessions couldn't hold a candle to having children, and as for having adventures, there was nothing that could compete with the adventure of having a family and raising kids. She is one very contented lady. Of course she would have liked more money than she had to make life easier for herself and her children but, although the life we had may have been hard at times, very hard in fact, it was good in every way that matters, and I look back fondly on all of it, the rough and the smooth.
Behind those eyes, and within the brain that's slowly but surely deteriorating, is my mum, an amazing, adventurous, complex, profoundly deep woman, who is so much more than just my mum. If she read what I'm writing here she'd be embarrassed (she's a very private woman) and would probably give me a clip behind the ear for it, because she would be the first to admit to her own faults, quirks and foibles, plus, she has no time for pity or people thinking she feels sorry for herself, she's always been a fighter never a victim. As children we tend to forget that our parents, our mums and dads, are people, individuals in their own right, with facets and depths too numerous too mention, hidden from view most of the time but there nonetheless. For myself, if when I die, I'm only half the person my mother is now, I'll be more than happy and consider my life a success.
In response to my question about her having any regrets, she did eventually say that if there was one thing she wished she'd done then it was to have travelled the world, to have seen all its wonders and meet all the different people and cultures, for her curiosity for life, the universe and everything was, and still is, boundless. And so we come to my real motivations for this post; 1) to honour her by creating a memory of her that won't fade, as hers will, and thereby let the world know she existed, 2) she will never get to fulfil that dream of travelling the world but by my posting this image and telling her story, and through the wonder of cyberspace she can travel the world, you can get to meet her, and her you, my dear flickr friends, who are as varied, wonderful and exotic a group of people as anyone could ever hope to meet, residing all over this amazing planet...so, my friends, let me introduce you to Joan Grice, my magnificent mother, my guiding light and my hero.
On a walk around the city on a grey cold day in December 2022. Christchurch New Zealand.
In 1998, SCAPE Public Art began to revolutionise the open spaces of Ōtautahi Christchurch – and public arts practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. SCAPE Public Art installs free-to-view contemporary public art in Central Christchurch, engaging the community through exciting work that is celebrated around Aotearoa and the world.
www.scapepublicart.org.nz/about-scape-public-art/
Cognitive Reorientation:
Using the Danish television police drama Forbrydelsen (The Killing) as a jumping-off point, Clemens investigates the unseen labour involved in the spectacle of television, as well as the televisual clichés we have come to understand as representative of successful detective work. Focusing on a crime scene that occurs in the first episode of the first season, which shows a car being pulled from a river, Cognitive Reorientation is a deconstruction and reconstruction of the scene’s various elements in the centre of Christchurch, providing a glimpse behind the scenes into the often-clunky production of mass entertainment.
Sited in the basement of the former Price Waterhouse Coopers building, which housed a carpark, pool, and gym, Cognitive Reorientation relates to the imperfections and fallibility of memory. Like a great deal of the city that was destroyed or demolished following the 2010-11 earthquake sequence, the Price Waterhouse Coopers building was once a place of significance for many. The remnants of the building will eventually be removed, leaving no trace and forcing those who knew it to rely purely on their memories without visual cues.
A great deal of Clemens’ previous work has engaged with the mechanics of cinema and television production, using original and recreated props and video clips from Terminator 2, Blade Runner, and Nightmare on Elm Street to produce complex installations that weave fiction and non-fiction together. There is reverence in these works, but also an implicit questioning. In Cognitive Reorientation, Clemens asks: Where does artistic fabrication begin and end? What is a clue? A sign? Proof? What is the status of evidence when our methods of replication have advanced so rapidly?
A Cybernetic Thought :::
=====================================
The creation of negative entropy through
complimentary forces of energy.
=====================================
Yin --- Yang
0 --- 1
abdomen --- back
absorbing --- penetrating
acidity --- alkalinity
affective --- cognitive
afternoon --- morning
akasha --- prana
autumn --- spring
back --- front
backward --- forward
belly --- head
below --- above
black --- white
bottom --- top
broken --- solid
calm --- chaos
center --- extreme
centripetal force --- centrifugal force
chills --- fever
cinnabar --- lead
clockwise --- counter-clockwise
cold --- hot
contracting --- expanding
copper--- tin
darkness --- light
death --- life
diffuse --- focused
down --- up
earth --- sky
eight --- nine
emotional --- logical
empty --- full
end of motion --- beginning of motion
even --- odd
expands --- contracts
fat --- muscle
feeling --- knowledge
female --- male
feminine --- masculine
flexible --- firm
fluid --- static
follower --- leader
forgiveness --- anger
freezing water --- boiling water
fruits --- cereals
heart --- brain
introvert --- extrovert
intuitive --- logical
involuntary --- voluntary
inner --- outer
inward --- outward
left --- right
liquid --- solid
low --- high
magnetic --- electrical
me --- I
minus --- plus
momentum --- position
moon --- sun
mother --- father
negative --- positive
new testament --- old testament
night --- day
non-action --- action
north --- south
northwest --- southeast
off --- on
open --- close
orange --- azure
passion --- reason
passive --- active
passivity --- aggressiveness
potassium --- sodium
process --- structure
pull --- push
quiet --- loud
receiving --- giving
receptive --- projecting
relaxed --- tense
salt --- pepper
sensitivity --- firmness
short --- tall
six --- seven
slow --- fast
small --- large
soft --- hard
spiritual --- physical
static --- energetic
stillness --- motion
subconscious --- conscious
subjective --- objective
submissive --- dominant
sugar --- salt
sunset --- sunrise
sweet --- sour
taking --- giving
tiger --- dragon
tranquil --- active
valley --- mountain
venus --- jupiter
water --- ice
weak --- strong
west --- east
wet --- dry
winter --- summer
wisdom --- intelligence
woman --- man
xue-blood --- qi-energy
yielding --- aggressive
yin --- yang
zero --- one
====================================================
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdD80MkLEE4&list=PLGm3KNNHzSQ...
====================================================
A Haiku Note:
===========================
The Way of the Tao
with the help of Yin and Yang
will give you Wu Wei
===========================
Award-winning photojournalist, Karim Ben Khelifa, is widely known for his coverage of the Middle East conflicts, especially the Iraq and Afghan wars, where he covered the insurgent sides. While a Fellow at the Open Documentary Lab at MIT, Ben Khelifa designed and prototyped his latest project The Enemy. This immersive installation uses VR to bring the audience into conversations between enemies within longstanding global conflicts. During his residency, he collaborated with Fox Harrell of the Imagination, Computation and Expression (ICE) Laboratory, to integrate concepts from cognitive science and Artificial Intelligence-based interaction models into the project to engender empathy.
Learn more at arts.mit.edu
All photos ©Hélène Adamo
Please ask before use
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
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
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
This UCSF Memory and Aging Center graph shows that our cognitive abilities remain relatively constant until they reach a breakpoint, and then decline at a constant rate. The pace of cognitive decline is the same in our 40’s as in our 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.
(Posit Science used to host this graph, and I needed an online version for my blog on Celebrating the Child-Like Mind, and Childish Scientists.)
At the age of 2 to 3 years old, children have 10x the synapses and 2x the energy burn of an adult brain.
I just finished the Clean Meat book, and I found the closing chapter on the psychology of meat consumption the most fascinating. It explains why vegetarians have been roughly the same percentage of the population for 30 years now, and why we should not expect continued evangelism and “education” to start converting the unconverted, unless something else changes. I think the availability of economically-attractive meat without animal suffering will be that change. I’ll share some of the research results and my own personal journey as a meat eater in remission.
Summary: We rationalize the cognitive dissonance of how we generally empathize with animal welfare (in wild animals, pets, laboratory animals) versus that special subset of animals we regard as food. For those animals we eat — wherever we draw the line (fish, chicken, red meat) — we discount the intelligence of edible animals and imagine that they do not suffer in their growth and harvesting. (I looked up the original research and posted excerpts below).
For the first time, I can see my rationalizations shifting. I can also see the contradictory thoughts in myself more clearly as I slowly change the foods that I eat, marching down the neuron-count in the karmic hierarchy of edible life forms (a framework from Todd).
Five years ago, it was obvious to me that I would eat fish but not dolphin if it were a food. Dolphins are just too smart. A couple years ago, Genevieve and I stopped eating octopus for the same reason. As for mainstream meat, I could see how my future self would condemn my present self, and yet, I could not make a change, not even a little bit, like “meatless Mondays.” I continued to eat meat at almost every meal.
But now I will be giving up red meat, and I can feel myself becoming more open minded to the suffering of pigs and cows, something I could not quite face head on before.
How did I make a change? It was in a dare to a life-long smoker — if she gave up all nicotine for 6 months, I would give up meat. I did it for her. I was willing to make this great sacrifice to hopefully rid her of a deep addiction. I don’t think I would have done it for myself (before slaughter-free alternatives were widely available).
And my meatless experiment was fascinating. I first noticed how my deeply-held beliefs of how hard this would be were dead wrong. Food tastes great. I have plenty of variety. I feel full between meals and have plenty of energy. It did not matter that vegetarian friends have been saying this for years; I could not internalize the logic or their happy existence proofs — I assumed giving up meat for 6 months was going to be the toughest thing I ever did.
And then a more subtle realization dawned on me — I was receptive to the social media rants of vegetarian friends and articles on animal welfare. In the past, I would look past them. I would not lean in, and I did not internalize their messages.
Most of us ignore the vegetarian prophets. The annoyance of their strident messages should be a clue as it triggers something we do not like in ourselves, that we want to shelter from scrutiny. Ignorance is our bliss.
I know that I will give up slaughtered chicken next when Memphis Meats grows clean meat without the animal. And then fish. Invertebrates like crabs and lobster will be the last to go (P.S. when other groups adjudicated on animal welfare and their capacity to suffer, it is interesting that both the lab research laws and the NAR rules for living payloads in hobby rockets draw the line at invertebrates — you can do whatever you want with them).
My thoughts and beliefs followed my actions, not the other way around.
This reminded me of a recent podcast with Adam Grant: “there’s all this research on behavioral integrity, which says that you’re basically supposed to practice what you preach. And I have been wondering lately if we’ve got that backward. And if, instead, what we should be doing is only preaching things that we already practice?”
The morality of animal welfare will likely lag the economic shift, just as it did with slavery and whale-hunting for blubber. After kerosene provided an economic alternative, we advanced our morality and outlawed whale hunting. The fifth-largest industry in America was quickly decimated, and our moral outrage followed.
This is why clean meat will be so catalytic to change. In 2012, I wrote a FB post about my investment thesis and the search for a cellular ag company that can scale (long before the founding of Memphis Meats or my investment in them):
“I believe that in a few years we will look back and marvel at the barbarism and stunning environmental waste of meat harvesting today.
Our circle of empathy generally expands over time, but sometimes as a retrospective rationalization. We don’t typically discuss the meat industry in polite conversations because we don’t want to face the inevitable cognitive dissonance (because bacon tastes so good). We don’t really want to know why USDA meat inspectors become vegetarian.
I think all of that will change when viable meat products are grown from cell cultures, not in the field. We will switch, and marvel at our former selves.”
The vegetarian preachers tried, for 30 years now. Once we change our practices, we can finally hear their pleas and join them, preaching what we practice.
I never imagined learning about my unconscious biases with Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, and his management team. It was fascinating.
Harvard Prof. Mahzarin Banaji (center) is the author of Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, and she led the group through her implicit bias test — a timed word association test. We did the test on gender-career associations, where a series of words flash on the screen, and our task is quickly sort them into Career vs Family buckets while also sorting names into Male vs Female buckets. It is a simple task, but wildly enlightening when stereotypical gender biases are inverted — the cognitive load (measured in time taken to do the sort properly) skyrockets. I strongly encourage you to take this test yourself; instructions below.
Prof. Banaji took the test herself and shared the results. She was just like us. She also shared the stories of Feminist Studies academics and activists for women’s rights who strongly believed they were devoid of stereotypical gender bias. These people — who have spent their whole career trying to address and redress gender discrimination — were shocked to discover that they too harbored unconscious bias on gender issues.
This struck me as a very effective way to start a conversation on gender bias. By revealing the near-universality of implicit biases (once you test for gender, race, age and religion), Banaji can bypass the defensiveness and cognitive dissonance that often arises when people are challenged to confront their biases. When asked about bias in the workplace, I can imagine many managers protesting “I am not biased” and little progress is made from a place of denial. Once we accept the existence of our biases, we can decide how to proceed to overcome them. We need not be governed by unconscious bias, and it becomes so much easier to do so once we move past denial to acceptance and cognitive transcendence. By analogy, we all have primitive limbic reflexes to certain provocations, but we can choose to override them and consciously choose to live a non-violent life.
You can take her Implicit Association Test (IAT) here. To take the same test we took, click the “proceed” link at the bottom of the first page, and then select the Gender-Career IAT blue button. Then, there are 23 pages of demographic questions, but if you just want to jump to the test for now, choose “Decline to Answer” in the bottom right corner of each page.
I have finally settled on leaving it like this. had a doodle of the idea literally interpeting cognitive in notebook and this is the outcome. Not illustrated for a while so had to get these urges out.
purchase a copy here: www.clockworkgallery.co.uk/?p=1&a=CW&w=CW09
100 x 60 cm
(approx.) £24.95 per Edition
($ 35.72, € 26.88)
With flying vehicles we can save you from the flood
Why look me this way?
.......
Every time the prophecy failed you
Only strengthened your belief in us
Now we are here！
and you guys acting like we interrupt your perfect pathetic miserable lifes！
no more!
We are done here, let's bail.
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
Cognitive neuroscientists consider memory as the retention, reactivation, and reconstruction of the experience-independent internal representation. The term of internal representation implies that such definition of memory contains two components: the expression of memory at the behavioral or conscious level, and the underpinning physical neural changes. The latter component is also called engram or memory traces. Some neuroscientists and psychologists mistakenly equate the concept of engram and memory, broadly conceiving all persisting after-effects of experiences as memory; others argue against this notion that memory does not exist until it is revealed in behaviour or thought .
One question that is crucial in cognitive neuroscience is how information and mental experiences are coded and represented in the brain. Scientists have gained much knowledge about the neuronal codes from the studies of plasticity, but most of such research has been focused on simple learning in simple neuronal circuits; it is considerably less clear about the neuronal changes involved in more complex examples of memory, particularly declarative memory that requires the storage of facts and events.
Encoding. Encoding of working memory involves the spiking of individual neurons induced by sensory input, which persists even after the sensory input disappeares. Encoding of episodic memory involves persistent changes in molecular structures that alter synaptic transmission between neurons. Examples of such structural changes include long-term potentiation (LTP) or spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP). The persistent spiking in working memory can enhance the synaptic and cellular changes in the encoding of episodic memory (Jensen and Lisman 2005).
Working memory. Recent functional imaging studies detected working memory signals in both medial temporal lobe (MTL), a brain area strongly associated with long-term memory, and prefrontal cortex (Ranganath et al. 2005), suggesting a strong relationship between working memory and long-term memory. However, the substantially more working memory signals seen in the prefrontal lobe suggest that this area play a more important role in working memory than MTL (Suzuki 2007).
Consolidation and reconsolidation. Short-term memory (STM) is temporary and subject to disruption, while long-term memory (LTM), once consolidated, is persistent and stable. Consolidation of STM into LTM at the molecular level presumably involves two processes: synaptic consolidation and system consolidation. The former involves a protein synthesis process in the medial temporal lobe (MTL), whereas the latter transforms the MTL-dependent memory into an MTL-independent memory over months to years (Ledoux 2007). In recent years, such traditional consolidation dogma has been re-evaluated as a result of the studies on reconsolidation. These studies showed that prevention after retrieval affects subsequent retrieval of the memory (Sara 2000). New studies have shown that post-retrieval treatment with protein synthesis inhibitors and many other compounds can lead to an amnestic state. These findings on reconsolidation fit with the behavioural evidence that retrieved memory is not a carbon copy of the initial experiences, and memories are updated during retrieval.
Causes
The fears of enclosed spaces is an irrational fear. Most claustrophobic people who find themselves in a room without windows consciously know that they aren’t in danger, yet these same people will be afraid, possibly terrified to the point of incapacitation, and many do not know why. The exact cause of claustrophobia is unknown, but there are many theories.
Amygdalal
The red structure is the amygdala.
The amygdala is one of the smallest structures in the brain, but also one of the most powerful. The amygdala is needed for the conditioning of fear, or the creation of a fight-or-flight response. A fight-or-flight response is created, when a stimulus is associated with a grievous situation. Cheng believes that a phobia’s roots are in this fight-or-flight response.
In generating a fight-or-flight response, the amygdala acts in the following way: The amygdala’s anterior nuclei associated with fear communicate with each other. Nuclei send out impulses to other nuclei, which influence respiratory rate, physical arousal, the release of adrenaline, blood pressure, heart rate, behavioral fear response, and defensive responses, which may include freezing up. These reactions constitute an ‘autonomic failure’ in a panic attack.
Brain synapse
A study done by Fumi Hayano found that the right amygdala was smaller in patients who suffered from panic disorders. The reduction of size occurred in a structure known as the corticomedial nuclear group which the CE nucleus belongs to. This causes interference, which in turn causes abnormal reactions to aversive stimuli in those with panic disorders. In claustrophobic people, this translates as panicking or overreacting to a situation in which the person finds themselves physically confined.
Classical conditioning[edit]
Claustrophobia results as the mind comes to connect confinement with danger. It often comes as a consequence of a traumatic childhood experience,[7] although the onset can come at any point in an individual’s life. Such an experience can occur multiple times, or only once, to make a permanent impression on the mind.[6] The majority of claustrophobic participants in an experiment done by Lars-Göran Öst reported that their phobia had been "acquired as a result of a conditioning experience." In most cases, claustrophobia seems to be the result of past experiences.
Conditioning experiences
A few examples of common experiences that could result in the onset of claustrophobia in children (or adults) are as follows:
A child (or, less commonly, an adult) is shut into a pitch-black room and cannot find the door or the light-switch.
A child gets shut into a box.
A child is locked in a closet.
A child falls into a deep pool and cannot swim.
A child gets separated from their parents in a large crowd and gets lost.
A child sticks their head between the bars of a fence and then cannot get back out.
A child crawls into a hole and gets stuck, or cannot find their way back.
A child is left in their parent's car, truck, or van.
The term ‘past experiences,’ according to one author, can extend to the moment of birth. In John A. Speyrer’s ‘’Claustrophobia and the Fear of Death and Dying,’’ the reader is brought to the conclusion that claustrophobia’s high frequency is due to birth trauma, about which he says is "one of the most horrendous experiences we can have during our lifetime," and it is in this helpless moment that the infant develops claustrophobia.[9]
In an MRI, the patient is inserted into the tube.
Magnetic resonance imaging, or the MRI, has been attributed to the onset of claustrophobia. Since a patient has to be put into the center of a magnet to optimize imaging, the patient finds themselves in a narrow tube for an extended period of time. In a study involving claustrophobia and the MRI, it was reported that 13% of patients experienced a panic attack during the procedure. The procedure has been linked not only to the triggering of ‘preexisting’ claustrophobia, but also to the onset in some people. These panic attacks during the procedure make it so the patient is unable to adjust to the situation, and therefore the fear remain.
The conditions inside a mine
S.J. Rachman tells of an extreme example citing the experience of 21 miners in the Claustrophobia section of ‘’Phobias: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Treatment.’’ These miners were trapped underground for 14 days, during which six of the miners died of suffocation. After their rescue, ten of the miners were studied for ten years. All but one were greatly changed by the experience, and six of those developed phobias, phobias that involved "confining or limiting situations." The only miner who did not develop any noticeable symptoms was the one who acted as leader.
Another factor that could cause the onset of claustrophobia is "information received." As Aureau Walding states in ‘’Causes of Claustrophobia,’’ many people, especially children, learn who and what to fear by watching parents or peers. This method does not only apply to observing a teacher, but also observing victims. Vicarious classical conditioning also includes when a person sees another person exposed directly to an especially unpleasant situation. This would be analogous to observing someone getting stuck in a tight space, suffocated, or any of the other examples that were listed above.
Prepared phobia[edit]
There is research that suggests that claustrophobia isn’t entirely a classically conditioned or learned phobia. It is not necessarily an inborn fear, but it is very likely what is called a prepared phobia. As Erin Gersley says in ‘’Phobias: Causes and Treatments,’’ humans are genetically predisposed to become afraid of things that are dangerous to them. Claustrophobia may fall under this category because of its "wide distribution… early onset and seeming easy acquisition, and its non-cognitive features." The acquisition of claustrophobia may be part of a vestigial evolutionary survival mechanism, a dormant fear of entrapment and/or suffocation that was once important for the survival of humanity and could be easily awakened at any time.[15] Hostile environments in the past would have made this kind of pre-programmed fear necessary, and so the human mind developed the capacity for "efficient fear conditioning to certain classes of dangerous stimuli."
Rachman provides an argument for this theory in his article: ‘’Phobias.’’ He agrees with the statement that phobias generally concern objects that constitute a direct threat to human survival, and that many of these phobias are quickly acquired because of an "inherited biological preparedness.]" This brings about a prepared phobia, which is not quite innate, but is widely and easily learned. As Rachman explains in the article: "The main features of prepared phobias are that they are very easily acquired, selective, stable, biologically significant, and probably [non-cognitive]." ‘Selective’ and ‘biologically significant’ mean that they only relate to things that directly threaten the health, safety, or survival of an individual. ‘Non-cognitive’ suggests that these fears are acquired unconsciously. Both factors point to the theory that claustrophobia is a prepared phobia that is already pre-programmed into the mind of a human being.
Treatment
Cognitive therapy
Cognitive therapy is a widely accepted form of treatment for most anxiety disorders. It is also thought to be particularly effective in combating disorders where the patient doesn’t actually fear a situation but, rather, fears what could result from being in such a situation.[17] The ultimate goal of cognitive therapy is to modify distorted thoughts or misconceptions associated with whatever is being feared; the theory is that modifying these thoughts will decrease anxiety and avoidance of certain situations.[17] For example, cognitive therapy would attempt to convince a claustrophobic patient that elevators are not dangerous but are, in fact, very useful in getting you where you would like to go faster. A study conducted by S.J. Rachman shows that cognitive therapy decreased fear and negative thoughts/connotations by an average of around 30% in claustrophobic patients tested, proving it to be a reasonably effective method.
In vivo exposure.
This method forces patients to face their fears by complete exposure to whatever fear they are experiencing.[17] This is usually done in a progressive manner starting with lesser exposures and moving upward towards severe exposures. For example, a claustrophobic patient would start by going into an elevator and work up to an MRI. Several studies have proven this to be an effective method in combating various phobias, claustrophobia included. S.J. Rachman has also tested the effectiveness of this method in treating claustrophobia and found it to decrease fear and negative thoughts/connotations by an average of nearly 75% in his patients. Of the methods he tested in this particular study, this was by far the most significant reduction.
Interoceptive exposure
This method attempts to recreate internal physical sensations within a patient in a controlled environment and is a less intense version of in vivo exposure. This was the final method of treatment tested by S.J. Rachman in his 1992 study. It lowered fear and negative thoughts/connotations by about 25%. These numbers did not quite match those of in vivo exposure or cognitive therapy, but still resulted in significant reductions.
Other forms of treatment that have also been shown to be reasonably effective are psychoeducation, counter-conditioning, regressive hypnotherapy and breathing re-training. Medications often prescribed to help treat claustrophobia include anti-depressants and beta-blockers, which help to relieve the heart-pounding symptoms often associated with anxiety attacks.
Studies
MRI procedure
Because they can produce a fear of both suffocation and restriction, MRI scans often prove difficult for claustrophobic patients.[18] In fact, estimates say that anywhere from 4–20% of patients refuse to go through with the scan for precisely this reason.[19] One study estimates that this percentage could be as high as 37% of all MRI recipients. The average MRI takes around 50 minutes; this is more than enough time to evoke extreme fear and anxiety in a severely claustrophobic patient.
This study was conducted with three goals: 1. To discover the extent of anxiety during an MRI. 2. To find predictors for anxiety during an MRI. 3. To observe psychological factors of undergoing an MRI. Eighty patients were randomly chosen for this study and subjected to several diagnostic tests to rate their level of claustrophobic fear; none of these patients had previously been diagnosed with claustrophobia. They were also subjected to several of the same tests after their MRI to see if their anxiety levels had elevated. This experiment concludes that the primary component of anxiety experienced by patients was most closely connected to claustrophobia.
This assertion stems from the high Claustrophobic Questionnaire results of those who reported anxiety during the scan. Almost 25% of the patients reported at least moderate feelings of anxiety during the scan and 3 were unable to complete the scan at all. When asked a month after their scan, 30% of patients (these numbers are taken of the 48 that responded a month later) reported that their claustrophobic feelings had elevated since the scan. The majority of these patients claimed to have never had claustrophobic sensations up to that point. This study concludes that the Claustrophobic Questionnaire (or an equivalent method of diagnosis) should be used before allowing someone to have an MRI.
Use of virtual reality distraction to reduce claustrophobia
The present case series with two patients explored whether virtual reality (VR) distraction could reduce claustrophobia symptoms during a mock magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scan. Two patients who met DSM-IV criteria for specific phobia, situational type (i.e., claustrophobia) reported high levels of anxiety during a mock 10-min MRI procedure with no VR, and asked to terminate the scan early. The patients were randomly assigned to receive either VR or music distraction for their second scan attempt. When immersed in an illusory three-dimensional (3D) virtual world named SnowWorld, patient 1 was able to complete a 10-min mock scan with low anxiety and reported an increase in self-efficacy afterwards. Patient 2 received "music only" distraction during her second scan but was still not able to complete a 10-min scan and asked to terminate her second scan early. These results suggest that immersive VR may prove effective at temporarily reducing claustrophobia symptoms during MRI scans and music may prove less effective.[20]
Separating the fear of restriction and fear of suffocation[edit]
Many experts who have studied claustrophobia claim that it consists of two separable components: fear of suffocation and fear of restriction. In an effort to fully prove this assertion, a study was conducted by three experts in order to clearly prove a difference. The study was conducted by issuing a questionnaire to 78 patients who received MRIs.
The data was compiled into a "fear scale" of sorts with separate subscales for suffocation and confinement. Theoretically, these subscales would be different if the contributing factors are indeed separate. The study was successful in proving that the symptoms are separate. Therefore, according to this study, in order to effectively combat claustrophobia, it is necessary to attack both of these underlying causes.
However, because this study only applied to people who were able to finish their MRI, those who were unable to complete the MRI were not included in the study. It is likely that many of these people dropped out because of a severe case of claustrophobia. Therefore, the absence of those who suffer the most from claustrophobia could have skewed these statistics.
A group of students attending the University of Texas at Austin were first given an initial diagnostic and then given a score between 1 and 5 based on their potential to have claustrophobia. Those who scored a 3 or higher were used in the study. The students were then asked how well they felt they could cope if forced to stay in a small chamber for an extended period of time. Concerns expressed in the questions asked were separated into suffocation concerns and entrapment concerns in order to distinguish between the two perceived causes of claustrophobia. The results of this study showed that the majority of students feared entrapment far more than suffocation. Because of this difference in type of fear, it can yet again be asserted that there is a clear difference in these two symptoms.
Probability ratings in claustrophobic patients and non-claustrophobics
This study was conducted on 98 people, 49 diagnosed claustrophobics and 49 "community controls" to find out if claustrophobics' minds are distorted by "anxiety-arousing" events (i.e. claustrophobic events) to the point that they believe those events are more likely to happen. Each person was given three events—a claustrophobic event, a generally negative event, and a generally positive event—and asked to rate how likely it was that this event would happen to them. As expected, the diagnosed claustrophobics gave the claustrophobic events a significantly higher likelihood of occurring than did the control group. There was no noticeable difference in either the positive or negative events. However, this study is also potentially flawed because the claustrophobic people had already been diagnosed.[citation needed] Diagnosis of the disorder could likely bias one’s belief that claustrophobic events are more likely to occur to them.