o o c || brainytime reference
Notes about brains for my personal reference.
- enlarged hippocampus
- better sense of self in spatial relation to the environment
- possibly where the psychic ability and increased awareness originates
- frequencies v. probabilities: baseline = working on prediction through basic analysis of frequencies as a default; being psychic = more adept and defaults to prediction through probabilities
- fluent processing: "the parahippocampal gyrus (part of the limbic system, adjacent to the hippocampus in the temporal lobe)"..."damage to temporal lobe regions impair both recognition and recall memory;” false fluency and/or inability to consciously register true fluency with some objects and memories
- enlarged amygdala
- size linked to creative ability and original thinking
- size and effect on regulation of fear response possibly impeded new hippocampal modality (psychic) development
- not removed (“they stripped her amygdala,” does not imply amygdalectomy but a severing of the nodes from the rest of the temporal lobe); instead, the glial connection to the rest of the limbic system (specifically the hippocampus) was either destroyed or compromised
- most damage on the left side (consistent with the diagnosis of schizophrenia; schizophrenic patients have a size discrepancy between the left (smaller) and right (larger) amygdalae)
- treatment
- focus either on temporary restoration of amgydalae connection to the rest of the temporal lobe or medication that will replicate some basic amygdal functions, specifically with regard to those involved in the release of (chemicals) needed to regulate the processing of emotional stimuli
- some of these connections could possibly already be bypassed through Academy meddling (specifically those connections related to reflexes)
- from wiki: “The amygdala sends impulses to the hypothalamus for activation of the sympathetic nervous system, to the thalamic reticular nucleus for increased reflexes, to the nuclei of the trigeminal nerve and the facial nerve, and to the ventral tegmental area, locus coeruleus, and laterodorsal tegmental nucleus for activation of dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine.”
- propranolol: a drug that prevents physiological arousal by blocking beta-adrenegic receptors (preventing increase in heart rate and release of adrenaline, essentially cutting off emotional stimuli)
- Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Geodon, Haldol, Thorazine, Stelazine and Clozaril (re-research effects, side-effects, average doses)
- horizon of simultaneity
- touch can enhance visual discrimination (one example of cross-modality; still applies to other combinations of modalities) as long as they happen within the same time (400ms??) to constitute having witnessed a true event
- coupled with attention issues, probably helped by experiencing events through two modalities (leads to fun creepy staring and touching things)
- resolution of attention and visual short term memory
- increased capacity limit (baseline is around four, I doubt she’d be much higher than that; maybe ten at the very most) combined with an inability to consciously choose how to regulate attention means that inattention blindeness is more severe and noticeable
- everything (almost) is brought to conscious attention, but without the ability to consciously or subconsciously prioritize, the sheer amount of stimuli being pulled up in any given situation will max out the limits of attention and those not currently being processed will be ignored completely
- brings up the issues like foregoing normal routines (meals, hair brushing, social interaction when in a social setting, etc.) unless someone is able to bring those things to her attention long enough for them to take hold and prioritize themselves almost by force
- attentional blink: considerably shortened, meaning all stimuli is “noticed,” if only briefly given conscious attentional resources
- common fate: grouping of events leads to false positives on true connections between them; mostly due to inability to properly delegate attentional resources; additionally, distance between objects/timing is less of a hindrance to understanding cause/effect relationship between them
- priming and association: "that which we noticed, even briefly and then forgot, influences both what we think /and/ what we notice in the future;" memories/thoughts from others will play a large role in what/how she thinks even after their immediate influence is gone (linear effect: stronger the thought, the faster and more powerfully it will command attention and pull up associations, but will plateau once all attentional resources are maxed out)
- neural plasticity
- some amygdal functions could possibly become the secondary functions of other regions of the brain; either other areas of the temporal lobe and limbic system or within the occipital lobe
- related to age: adults don’t exhibit the same level of neural plasticity as children
- the learning problem
- Academy solution: implantation of neural signatures (mostly related to objects affordances (guns and other weapons) during set sleep cycles; same process used to implant triggers needed in basic behavioral conditioning and other assorted subliminally actioned modes of thought
- current solution: new memories and neural signatures still formed naturally, though less will be based in fear/classic conditioning unless coming in from found thoughts or other outside sources
- memory without appropriate context: possible additional confusion with memories of the same type that either share neural signature or exist in the brain without a distinct neural signature as those properly learned
- other possible damage
- frontal lobe/dorsal stream: connected to impulse control (damage to the frontal lobes/dorsal stream may result in an inability to control impulses regarding acting on objects (object memory is stored concurrently with memory of what action that object requires; damage leads to an inability to separate the two))
- tempero-parietal junction: connected to the loss of ego-centric point of view (damage leads to intermittent inability to distinguish between ego-centric (through the eyes) point of view and a limited kind of out of body experience)
- broken escalator phenomenon
- the brain automatically disassociates between conscious knowledge and its control of motor function
- heightened; disassociation becomes a particularly disorienting experience and occurs more often
- perception of willed movement
- insight and conscious will for many actions truncated; related to overtaxed attentional resources and impulse control
- confabulation
- "damage to the posterior occipital cortex...[may] cause insistent confabulation by...damage to the motivational system"..."damage to the brain region warps this mechanism so all memories are marked [as "pertains to now"]. Any memory brought to consciousness is accompanied by a deep subjective feeling of relevance."
- leads to false connections seeming true and found memories taking precedence over those more relevant but unable to take up attentional resources
- the hypnagogic state
- "cause[s] a reduction in normal perception filtering, resulting in loosely connected thoughts and unusual experiences."
- occurs pre-sleep, a state of the progressive defocusing of attention
- with River, a similar state possibly occurs during normal waking hours, especially at times when medicated with anything that dampens sensory input or any kind of barbituate and is made even more confusing while around others experiencing a natural state of hypnagogia
- damage to the limbic system and socially coordinated emotions
- leads to trouble controlling emotions in a way that will reliably afford her the ability to coordinate with those around her and the psychic influence leads to, instead of natural coordination, a kind of emotional mimicry of those around her
- enlarged hippocampus
- better sense of self in spatial relation to the environment
- possibly where the psychic ability and increased awareness originates
- frequencies v. probabilities: baseline = working on prediction through basic analysis of frequencies as a default; being psychic = more adept and defaults to prediction through probabilities
- fluent processing: "the parahippocampal gyrus (part of the limbic system, adjacent to the hippocampus in the temporal lobe)"..."damage to temporal lobe regions impair both recognition and recall memory;” false fluency and/or inability to consciously register true fluency with some objects and memories
- enlarged amygdala
- size linked to creative ability and original thinking
- size and effect on regulation of fear response possibly impeded new hippocampal modality (psychic) development
- not removed (“they stripped her amygdala,” does not imply amygdalectomy but a severing of the nodes from the rest of the temporal lobe); instead, the glial connection to the rest of the limbic system (specifically the hippocampus) was either destroyed or compromised
- most damage on the left side (consistent with the diagnosis of schizophrenia; schizophrenic patients have a size discrepancy between the left (smaller) and right (larger) amygdalae)
- treatment
- focus either on temporary restoration of amgydalae connection to the rest of the temporal lobe or medication that will replicate some basic amygdal functions, specifically with regard to those involved in the release of (chemicals) needed to regulate the processing of emotional stimuli
- some of these connections could possibly already be bypassed through Academy meddling (specifically those connections related to reflexes)
- from wiki: “The amygdala sends impulses to the hypothalamus for activation of the sympathetic nervous system, to the thalamic reticular nucleus for increased reflexes, to the nuclei of the trigeminal nerve and the facial nerve, and to the ventral tegmental area, locus coeruleus, and laterodorsal tegmental nucleus for activation of dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine.”
- propranolol: a drug that prevents physiological arousal by blocking beta-adrenegic receptors (preventing increase in heart rate and release of adrenaline, essentially cutting off emotional stimuli)
- Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Geodon, Haldol, Thorazine, Stelazine and Clozaril (re-research effects, side-effects, average doses)
- horizon of simultaneity
- touch can enhance visual discrimination (one example of cross-modality; still applies to other combinations of modalities) as long as they happen within the same time (400ms??) to constitute having witnessed a true event
- coupled with attention issues, probably helped by experiencing events through two modalities (leads to fun creepy staring and touching things)
- resolution of attention and visual short term memory
- increased capacity limit (baseline is around four, I doubt she’d be much higher than that; maybe ten at the very most) combined with an inability to consciously choose how to regulate attention means that inattention blindeness is more severe and noticeable
- everything (almost) is brought to conscious attention, but without the ability to consciously or subconsciously prioritize, the sheer amount of stimuli being pulled up in any given situation will max out the limits of attention and those not currently being processed will be ignored completely
- brings up the issues like foregoing normal routines (meals, hair brushing, social interaction when in a social setting, etc.) unless someone is able to bring those things to her attention long enough for them to take hold and prioritize themselves almost by force
- attentional blink: considerably shortened, meaning all stimuli is “noticed,” if only briefly given conscious attentional resources
- common fate: grouping of events leads to false positives on true connections between them; mostly due to inability to properly delegate attentional resources; additionally, distance between objects/timing is less of a hindrance to understanding cause/effect relationship between them
- priming and association: "that which we noticed, even briefly and then forgot, influences both what we think /and/ what we notice in the future;" memories/thoughts from others will play a large role in what/how she thinks even after their immediate influence is gone (linear effect: stronger the thought, the faster and more powerfully it will command attention and pull up associations, but will plateau once all attentional resources are maxed out)
- neural plasticity
- some amygdal functions could possibly become the secondary functions of other regions of the brain; either other areas of the temporal lobe and limbic system or within the occipital lobe
- related to age: adults don’t exhibit the same level of neural plasticity as children
- the learning problem
- Academy solution: implantation of neural signatures (mostly related to objects affordances (guns and other weapons) during set sleep cycles; same process used to implant triggers needed in basic behavioral conditioning and other assorted subliminally actioned modes of thought
- current solution: new memories and neural signatures still formed naturally, though less will be based in fear/classic conditioning unless coming in from found thoughts or other outside sources
- memory without appropriate context: possible additional confusion with memories of the same type that either share neural signature or exist in the brain without a distinct neural signature as those properly learned
- other possible damage
- frontal lobe/dorsal stream: connected to impulse control (damage to the frontal lobes/dorsal stream may result in an inability to control impulses regarding acting on objects (object memory is stored concurrently with memory of what action that object requires; damage leads to an inability to separate the two))
- tempero-parietal junction: connected to the loss of ego-centric point of view (damage leads to intermittent inability to distinguish between ego-centric (through the eyes) point of view and a limited kind of out of body experience)
- broken escalator phenomenon
- the brain automatically disassociates between conscious knowledge and its control of motor function
- heightened; disassociation becomes a particularly disorienting experience and occurs more often
- perception of willed movement
- insight and conscious will for many actions truncated; related to overtaxed attentional resources and impulse control
- confabulation
- "damage to the posterior occipital cortex...[may] cause insistent confabulation by...damage to the motivational system"..."damage to the brain region warps this mechanism so all memories are marked [as "pertains to now"]. Any memory brought to consciousness is accompanied by a deep subjective feeling of relevance."
- leads to false connections seeming true and found memories taking precedence over those more relevant but unable to take up attentional resources
- the hypnagogic state
- "cause[s] a reduction in normal perception filtering, resulting in loosely connected thoughts and unusual experiences."
- occurs pre-sleep, a state of the progressive defocusing of attention
- with River, a similar state possibly occurs during normal waking hours, especially at times when medicated with anything that dampens sensory input or any kind of barbituate and is made even more confusing while around others experiencing a natural state of hypnagogia
- damage to the limbic system and socially coordinated emotions
- leads to trouble controlling emotions in a way that will reliably afford her the ability to coordinate with those around her and the psychic influence leads to, instead of natural coordination, a kind of emotional mimicry of those around her