Hans de Vries

There are people like Terence Tao, Ed Witten, Grigori Perelman, Lennard Ng and probably 1000s of others areound the world who are super smart. Any clues of what distinguishes their brains from the brain of an average person from the street? There is some degree of correlation between intelligence and cortical thickness as well as brain volume. What else?

A lot of people with autism mask their behaviors. This sort of recovery happens for a very small minority of people even among those who receive therapy from an early age. https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/children-who-leave-autism-behind/

Could we say that social interaction and gossip is a special interest of neurotypical people?

What if there was an individual that had a hypoconnected Default Mode Network but more strongly connected Task Positive Network? What would mental and psychological characteristics of such an individuum be?

What brain areas are active when one experiences positive emotions? If of course amygdala is involved in negative emotions but not all nuclei IIRC. What about positive ones?

Do things like psychopathy/ASPD reverse on their own for some percentage of people/ Such reversal does sometimes happen with autism in a few percent of cases. There are kids who go from being completely non-verbal to no longer meeting diagnostic criteria for autism. Does it also happen with other neurodevelopmental conditions?

They never did. But could they do this in right circumstances?

I do two things 1. I replace my entire DNA in the brain with that of someone else, let's say it's Obama. In order to prevent rejection I undergo autologous bone marrow transplant. 2. To destroy the existing gray matter structure I use some kind of technology to kill neurons in my brain and turn them into glial scars. Then I use glia to neuron conversion technology to turn those scars back to functioning neurons. Would I get a brain structure fundamentally simialr to that of Obama?

As Carl Sagan would say well... maybe

More like brain hacking IMO. The issue with psychopathy/ASPD is that even if the individual is not violent, he/she can still cause a ton of psychological harm to others. I would not envy someone to have a boss or a co-worker who is a psychopath. Mind that psychopaths make some 5% of CEOS even though their prevelence in general population is approx. 1% There are already significant insights into the pathophysiology of ASPD like abnormal opioid system in the brain and abnormal glucose metablism which IIRC predicts psychopathy with better accuracy than psychological tests do.

Research is ongoing. In the future we may be able to reverse the deficits of empathy. White matter in certian regions could be strengthened or weakneed, gray matter volume modified, chemsitry of the brain could also be changed.

We know there are inhibitory projections from PFC to the amygdala which calms it and extinguishes anxiety/fear/anger etc. But there are also bidirectional projections between PFC and amygdala. What do they do?

If a cure for psychopathy is available, should people be forcibly subjected to it? Not all psychopaths are violent. A lot of high functioning psychopaths are business executives, politicians, surgeons as well as successful soldiers and policemen. All activities that require lack of empathy and calmness under pressure.

Which parts of the brain are responsible for predicting consequences ofactions? Dysfunction of what parts can cause disturbances to this ability? Like dangerous behavior or careless heath related behavrioe?

I've just read it's the insula but there may be more to it... probably is.

What brain regions/network are involved in disgust recognition? Like, the ones that make you feel revulsion while touching one's poop or any other similarily disgusting stuff?

Does it warrant a larger trial in your opinion? 100-150 participants?

Reduction of core symptoms of autism by 47% is a huuge thing. This is a condition that previously had no effective treatment options.

What do you think is the future of this treatment? Example - autism symptoms reduced 47% 2 years after Fecal Microbiota Transfer: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190409093725.htm

What is your opinion of this? It was said to reset some aging related markers by 54% https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200615115724.htm

This seems way too high. AShkenazi Jews descend from a group of approx 350 individuals and although they have slightly increased risk of some diseases, they aren't unhealthy as a group overall. The Amish more so but their founding population was lower.

Has anyone here read Neil deGrasse Tyson's books? How good are they?

What is the minimum population of humans that is necessary to maintain a stable population without significantly increased rate of genetic defects? I do know that the Amish are descended from a group of 200-something individuals and Ashkenazi Jews descend from a group of some 350 individuals.

What causes them? Are they caused more by structural changes in the brain or more by neurotransmitter abnormalities? A drug that was to be the first to target negative symtoms of schizophrenia (roluperidone) has just failed phase 3 trials.

Comparing Islam with Christianity is like comparing rodents to cephalopods. Both are animals and derived from a common ancestor but this is about as much in terms of their similarity.. Jesus was a man of peace. His apostles were a peaceful folk. There is no account of them engaging in attempts to spread their religion by force. Christianity was created in an environment that was extremely hostile - the Roman Empire. Under these conditions resorting to sword would very quickly put an end to entire religion. Quietly spreading the Gospel was the only way to go. Furthermore, the Christian religion very quickly *bu the time of Paul of Tarsos) became influenced by Greek philosophy and drifted away from Judaism and it's strict legalistic framework. Muhammad was neither peaceful nor persecuted. To the contrary - he was the one who persecuted others. He became the absolute ruler of Arabia (would a peaceful prophet really want this much power?) and was extremely harsh towards even the slightest criticism of himself or his religion. The Quran tells Muslims to strive to be like Muhammad - and his successors (the first the "sahaba") immediately attacked Byxantium and Persia and achieved great military success within 10 years of Muhammad's death.