Observational learning promotes hippocampal remote awake replay toward future reward locations
Heh. This year has felt like non-stop confirmation bias, it’s genuinely getting spooky. One of my more controversial assertions this year (IMO) is that non-“autistic” people do not have the ability to learn most types of information without a social (CA2) bind. Specifically, unless someone is (certain pheotypes of) “autistic”, then they cannot create behavioral programs based purely on data. This seems likely to be a mechanic of the hippocampal transform which allows social species to bias external social/behavioral information. There’s still a bunch of questions left here, like whether those who can create behavioral programs without the bind do so as biological mechanic or adaptive feature. Can it be “trained” or is there a structural pre-requisite to this type of adaptation?
I’m trying to track down this study which was one of the first EEG studies I was ever able to replicate(ish). The study involved having an observer in a chair watching another person, humanoid robot, and some rectangular object (don’t remember what it was exactly) as it went around the room. One of the things they noticed was that theta would spike when approaching a boundary in almost exactly the same fashion whether the individual was an observer or walker. This effect decreased with each level of abstraction away from anthropocentric representation.
That study was the genesis of this whole model, which is based on the singular construct we have two concurrent cognitive streams, one based on an “internal” representation and one based on an “external” representation. These representations are data swapped versions of the same representation, and the integration of these two is what we experience as “consciousness”. From this understanding we can view conscious cognitive function as an artifact of integration between these two streams, and all subsequent perceived states as the result of this integration.
Huge step in the right direction, even if I’m uncomfortable with the setup. Will be keeping an eye on this.
A) Epigenetics is bullshit. B) Wow. We know this intuitively I suppose, which is why we have such a focus on ECE but the implication here is that societies literally “grow” the necessary functional constituents. Ed Wilson dying brought me back to thinking about sociobiological contexts recently, specifically how do societies maintain the type of specialization diversity necessary to sustain itself and continue decreasing entropy?
There’s a pretty significant body of work which alludes at correlation between development and environment, but socially we’ve always carried the idea that agency can somehow overcome biology. I’ve posited that certain phenotypes of what are lumped into “autism” are specifically resistant to this type of social “grooming” of neurological function as a backstop against society grooming in behaviors which might harm competitiveness. I hadn’t actually considered it was quite so systemic, all the way down to the basic sensory level.
Dendritic and Spine Heterogeneity of von Economo Neurons in the Human Cingulate Cortex
This is an “oldie” but this really triggers some questions about the function of rosehip neurons for me. I’m including this more because of the preprint thread this week which contains a study that notes information density is homogeneous. This suggests that specialization in the cingulate cortexes is an artifact of engram complexity. Is this how the differential process works, VEs are subtracted from rosehip and the difference is computed into the hippocampus (perceived as “conscious awareness”)?
Ketamine Action on Astrocytes Provides New Insights into Rapid Antidepressant Mechanisms
So, my first reaction is well, duh why didn’t I realize this. My second round is one of bemusement about the absolute certainty about how drugs work on which neurotransmitters and neuron types in what regions to produce which effect. And it turns out, it was astrocytes all along. Even SSRIs. These last two years have just been absolutely amazing in uncovering the mechanics of brains.