Hans de Vries

Non hippocampal neurogenesis for stroke or TBI or other types of neurological damage

1. If the serotonin hypothesis of aggression is not true, what are alternate explanations?

2. I have read that oxytocin is implicated in emotional empathy? How strong is this association?

On 11/18/2021 at 7:53 PM, CharonY said:

There are some newer studies out there, but fundamentally the strongest link is seen in cases of severe deficiencies where impulse aggression seems to be elevated. Outside of extremes the evidence points to perhaps a slight inverse relationship, but it is certainly not a simple quantitative correlation.

That, btw. is a common finding in human subjects. For complex traits there is rarely a simple quantitative relationship between a given trait/behaviour/psychological state and a given marker. In some cases changes are more indicative (e.g. increase or decrease of certain hormones as opposed to their absolute values) but almost always the situation is complex. It is likely also for many animals, but we lack the ability to define nuances that we can do with humans, as we can simply talk to folks.

Are there alternate neurobiological hypotheses of anger?

CharonY mentioned relationship between serotonin and anger/aggression.

How strong is the relationship? Is the effect size huge? Is is a clear case that levels of anger and agression drop with increased levels of serotonin?

On 10/10/2021 at 2:14 AM, CharonY said:

Well, if you are wondering about that, perhaps you need to figure out what neurodivergence means in a given context. Is there for example a classification system? A second thing to look into is whether any of the trait scores correlate with that measure. 

Neurodivergence is the state when someone's brain functions in a way that is in one or more ways, significantly different than typical.

Normally it is used to describe individuals with Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia and a few other disorders - but when you take just the definition it could apply to other things as well.

Does a brain with someone who is in 10th highest percentile in both Extraversion and Agreeableness significantly different from average? IMO it is

The personality trait conscientousness involves being hard working and doing things that aren't intristically interesting.

What motivates people to do that? Is the reward system active in highly conscientous people just as it is during pleasant things?

I mean extreme scores of the Big Five traits.

Someone who scores lets say in the 10th highest percentile in Extraversion and 20th percentile in Openness is not disabled but their needs and preferred lifestyle are very different compared to an average person and trying to squeeze them into mainstream society would be quite difficult. 

What do you think about the ideas of Jordan Peterson? More precisely the idea that history of human society is that of dialogue between conservatives and liberals and that if conservatives and liberals can agree on something, then it's likely a good thing to do. In other words too much conservatism is bad and too much liberalism is also bad

Let's say you start with something simple like dandelions.

You want dandelions that are 2x larger than normal. There are 10k people each of them grows 200 dandelions

How fast can crops be bred for certain traits assuming we start with wild plants?

Can 1% increse in average mass or speed of growth per decade be achieved if there are 10,000s or 100,000 of people breeding that crop and it is annual?

On 9/18/2021 at 4:13 PM, Peterkin said:

There's lots in Alaska. I think, as far as water is liquid - it's a really hardy plant.

Poor. I had some in a small pond, years ago. As the pond dried up, the bullrushes retreated. By the third year, they had all died out. It more commonly propagates through rhizomes, so you could dig some up from a roadside ditch to have a stand of them sooner. But they do need mud.

Do you know whether cattails react well to organic fertilizer like dung or compost?

Which regions of the Prefrontal Cortex underline response inhibition/stop signal tasks and why are they underactive in some people?

1. How far north does cattail grow?

2. I I put a great number of seeds in the ground without water, are there any chances that I get cattail growing on land?

5 minutes ago, iNow said:

Why wouldn't it be?

No idea IMO it is

5 minutes ago, Peterkin said:

Of course it should be. But, there is a catch: only the people who can already do the math understand what that would cost and how it might be funded - and only a small fraction of those people are willing to make the necessary adjustments and contributions or to extend their access to knowledge to their less fortunate compatriots. In order to bring about such a change, the general public would need to know what the privileged know and won't share. Meanwhile, forces among the privileged oppose any reform with might, fury and unlimited financial backing. As things stand politically, it can't be done, any more than universal public health insurance could be done. The opposition is overwhelming. 

One stopgap measure that could perhaps be implemented, is far more government support for public broadcast media, civics course and educational outlets in all geographic regions. (Not that they're likely to be heard over the Sinclair Group.... but it's worth a try.)

Is taxing the rich an option?

With US having lots of problems with student debt and such, do you think the free model of higher education like in Europe should be implemented/

Amerindians have always lacked a proper draft/riding animal. Caribou could have filled that role. 

Do you think domesticated Caribou could be selectively bred to a size similar to that of horses and provide a viable alternative to horses in North America?

Raindeer were domesticated and raindeer and caribou are practically the same. 

IF two human siblings have a child, what is the average risk of it having a genetic disorder? 

What exactly is this? I saw it refered to several times but no explanation as to what it is.

Why are some people mostly interested in people in their closest vicinity like family and neighboors while others have a much wider circle of firnds/

Does Extraversion and Openness have something to do with this?

Some people have naturally very low reward sensitivity and are less motivated by reward or punishment

In case of neurotic disorders the goal is to strengthen activity in the Prefrontal Cortex and hippocampal neurogenesis with things such as ketamine, allopregnanolone or regular SSRIs even.

How do we do the same with reward system?

MBTI is not scientific, it was created by two women with no experience in psychometrics. Big 5 and HEXACO are created by professional psychologists and have been in use for several decades now but MBTI is much more used by businesses and is more popular.

7 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

Any test that's limited to only 5 aspects of an infinate range, is more likely to exclude than include; it's almost like it was designed that way.

Humans do not have 100s or 1000s of personality traits. You may create a test with 100 traits but all or most of them will be variations of those 5.

There is stuff that is not covered by the Big Five but could be added - Systemizing Quotient, Theory of Mind Quotient (i.e. cognitive empathy) and a few things