The ADHD "Natural Fix"

NYT:

Normally, when someone is unfocused and at rest, there is synchrony of activity in brain regions known as the default mode network, which is typically more active during rest than during performance of a task. (In contrast, these brain regions in people with A.D.H.D. appear functionally disconnected from each other.) Dr. Mattfeld found that adults who had had A.D.H.D as children but no longer had it as adults had a restoration of the normal synchrony pattern, so their brains looked just like those of people who had never had it.

WE don’t yet know whether these brain changes preceded or followed the behavioral improvement, so the exact mechanism of adult recovery is unclear.

But in another measure of brain synchrony, the adults who had recovered looked more like adults with A.D.H.D.

In people without it, when the default mode network is active, another network, called the task-positive network, is inhibited. When the brain is focusing, the task-positive network takes over and quiets the default mode network. This reciprocal relationship is necessary in order to focus.

Both groups of adult A.D.H.D. patients, including those who had recovered, displayed simultaneous activation of both networks, as if the two regions were out of step, working at cross-purposes. Thus, adults who lost most of their symptoms did not have entirely normal brain activity.

The Wake of Destruction Caused by Fundamentalist Capitalism

Monbiot summarizes the effects of our religiously-flavored free-market devotion:

By the mid-1990s, the doctrine of market fundamentalism – also known as neoliberalism – had almost all governments by the throat. Any politicians who tried to protect the weak from the powerful or the natural world from industrial destruction were punished by the corporate media or the markets. This extreme political doctrine – that governments must cease to govern – has made direct, uncomplicated action almost unthinkable. Just as the extent of humankind’s greatest crisis – climate breakdown – became clear, governments willing to address it were everywhere being disciplined or purged. Since then, this doctrine has caused financial crises and economic collapse, the destruction of livelihoods, mountainous debt, insecurity and the devastation of the living planet. It has, as Thomas Piketty demonstrates, replaced enterprise with patrimonial capitalism: neoliberal economies rapidly become dominated by rent and inherited wealth, in which social mobility stalls. But despite these evident failures, despite the fact that the claims of market fundamentalism have been disproven as dramatically as those of state communism, somehow this zombie ideology staggers on.

And the problems are going to get worse. When corporations and the rich control so much of our government, the problems affecting the majority of us are ignored for the problems that directly affect the rich and powerful. As more and more cash flows directly from the wealthy to the government, and Republicans work harder to pry open those floodgates a little more each day, it will accelerate the decay.

Dismal Disconnect

I read the other day that 80-some percent of college graduates do not have a job lined up after May. This is not surprising. Today I was reading that solutions to this problem look far and away, since colleges, students, and employers do not share the same perspectives:

"Busteed said that 96 percent of the college provosts Gallup surveyed believed their schools were successfully preparing young people for the workplace. “When you ask recent college grads in the work force whether they felt prepared, only 14 percent say ‘yes,’ ” he added. And then when you ask business leaders whether they’re getting enough college grads with the skills they need, “only 11 percent strongly agree.” Concluded Busteed: “This is not just a skills gap. It is an understanding gap.” ...the success stories shared a lot of the same attributes that Gallup found to be differentiating. In successful programs, said Auguste, “students got as much applied, hands-on experience as possible, whether in a classroom or on a job site. Schools, colleges and training centers had close partnerships with regional employers, industry groups and skilled trade unions to stay up to date on job-relevant skills. And students or working learners got a lot of coaching and guidance to understand how to trace a direct path between their training today and careers tomorrow.”

Pretty discouraging...

Florida Physicians' Freedom to Practice Limited

It's amazing to me how selective conservatives are with "regulations" and "state interference"...besides the obvious issues of gay marriage and abortion, the issue of guns makes conservatives, well, confused about how involved government should be in restricting peoples' rights.

On the one hand, they'll complain that government should "stay out of" health care entirely. On the other hand, they'll ask the government to impose restrictions on physicians. Keep in mind that most of Florida (northern, western panhandle, central) is "lower Georgia" with all the attendant Southern GOP mentality.

Follow the money

It's still amazing that people want to use the "they both do it" excuse to blame politicians of both parties for being in the pocket of big-monied interests. The disparity between the parties is amazing, and the fact that the GOP has pushed hard for unlimited, anonymous campaign donations, while Democrats have pushed back with campaign finance reform laws, tells the whole story.

Follow the money, and you'll find the truth.

In financial terms, the Republican Party and its candidates are now more in line with their ties to corporate America and the rich. They have turned increasingly to large contributors — donors who make gigantic donations to “super PACs” and “social welfare” organizations that claim tax exempt status under the 501(c)4 provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. So far, 501(c)4 committees have successfully avoided publicly identifying their donors. No matter how used to all this we’ve all become, the numbers are striking. The amount of money flowing into federal campaigns — for Congress and the presidency — has been growing rapidly, doubling from $3.1 billion in 2000 to $6.3 billion in 2012. While overall spending increased by more than 100 percent from 2000 to 2012, spending by secretive political nonprofits, which do not disclose donors, has exploded 13-fold, from $24.9 million in 2000 to $335.7 million in 2012. Four out of every five dollars, or $269.5 million, raised by tax-exempt groups, most of which claim to be “social welfare organizations,” go to pro-Republican and conservative groups. These political nonprofits have become a key source of indirect support for Republican candidates. As Figure 2 shows, spending by conservative nonprofits has grown from $2.5 million in 2000 to $269.5 million in 2012. Liberal nonprofit spending has gone from $21.9 million in 2000 to $58.5 million in 2012.

Some disturbing trends are already emerging about the inability to regulate coordination between lobbyists, ultra-wealthy donors and campaigns. The influence of this money is more worrisome by the fact that the FEC can't seem to keep up with campaign finance disclosures anymore. A lot of this stuff comes down to common sense. If you vote for the party who is now helping billionaires to buy elections, you're contributing to the problem. Why is there even a "debate" on whether or not the Koch's SuperPAC is corrosive to our democracy?

Intelligence & Genius, cont'd

Nancy Andreasen has a great piece in The Atlantic from a few weeks back, outlining her case that mental illness and creativity are correlated. On the other hand, she establishes that IQ and creativity are not correlated beyond ~120, and using "Terman's termites" and some other studies to support it. This isn't the first time I've pondered the link between genius and depression, and I've been thinking a lot about intelligence, neuroscience and creativity lately. Although gifted is far more PC, I love the word genius, which is apparently akin to the idea of a mental muse.

In that sense, then, you can't be a genius so much as you can have a genius. And having genius, like having depression, must be related to brain function overall. There is some evidence that the right side of the brain is more involved in feelings of unhappiness, while the left side is more involved in feelings of happiness. This comports with the idea that left-handers are overrepresented in creative fields of the arts and music, and some people make the case that left-handedness often associates with intelligence generally.

If you aren't lucky enough to be born left-handed, you could always meet (and marry) the right partner, as the case is often made that creatives require dialectic co-opetition. If you are as lucky as Lolita's author, you can join many creatives in marrying an inspiring partner, like Vera Nabokov. Genius authors like Nabokov generally have to be able to see, to perceive, and to relate that vision through fluent prose and dialog.

I don't know what I aspire to, but I know I have a partner with whom I share the yin-yang sympatico, and she definitely makes me a happier, better person, whose chances at creative output are far, far higher than if I was without her.

Brain Science Stuff

In the NYT's The Trouble with Brain Science, the author repeats some points on complexity that I made in April 2013. For example, the author laments that biology cannot hope for a Grand Unified Theory of neuroscience in the same way that physics can for particles. In going on, the article states: