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Questions of Psychology and Neurology


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I am ignorant in these subject matters but have some questions derived from a context. While in the hospital they had neurologists look at me, I am not 'neural typical' and I don't have brain damage (which is why they looked at me, they wanted to be sure given toxins were in my system so long). 

What is the spectrum everyone speaks of? Is this a slang term or an actual thing? Is it like a set of neural topologies correlated with disorders or is it more like a category that notes relations between sets of behavior and disorders? 

What do SC members whom have basic knowledge about this kind of stuff think would be likely for someone like myself given observations of me? 

As much information as possible would be nice, I am trying to get into these subjects more and am merely using myself as a jumping off point. I wanted to ask here because some of you seem very familiar with the relevant information. 

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Sounds like they think you are autistic? Not kidding. I am actually a psychotherapist. You can ask me some things, but maybe you should ask the doctors why they are testing you? Also autism/ADHD never interested me, so I just know the basics. You can read about it on wikipedia better.

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Are most psychological disorders simply descriptive, or do they have physiological explanations?

Posts: 968
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last edit on 11/28/2020 6:12:48 PM
Posts: 842
0 votes RE: Questions of Psychology...

Are most psychological disorders simply descriptive, or do they have physiological explanations?

Your stomach isn't referred to as the second brain for nothing. What you eat has a direct impact on your mood, and shitty diet can lead to mental health issues. Also dental health is linked to mental wellbeing. So, the body and mind are very much connected

Posts: 4346
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I'm guessing you mean the autism spectrum?

If so, it seems to go something like this:

<---Low-functioning autism-----High-functioning autism--Asperger's syndrome---Neurotypical--->

Originally the models were based on behavior. Then later down the road came examination of how the autistic brain develops and is wired, how the brains work differently on tasks in an fMRI, etc. Neural topology also supports the idea of a spectrum. Asperger's Syndrome seems to be discrete somehow, but still a meaningful part of the spectrum.

Autism is a complicated topic and I don't want to bore by writing an essay about it, so I'll try to keep it short but meaningful. It seems that human cognition has all sorts of variances and tradeoffs. Mood disorders, for example, have a correlation with creativity.

In the case of autism, it seems like the tradeoff is specificity and attention to detail at the cost of some global integration. Even their brains reflect this—people with autism have stronger local processing brain and less global processing. Can't see the forest for the trees, but they can see the trees really damn well. Studies have shown that families that have people on the spectrum in them are more likely to have STEM scientists.

The cost-benefit view of autism is just my preferential way of looking at it. Simon Baron-Cohen created a pretty neat theory around an idea called the "empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory." Basically, women should have higher empathy relative to lower systematizing, men should be the inverse of that, and people with autism should be the extreme of a typical male. He focuses on how autistic people seem compelled to organize things mentally. The test might be worth a try, if you're curious. https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/EQSQ.php

Posts: 2266
0 votes RE: Questions of Psychology...

I'm guessing you mean the autism spectrum?

Idk, I hear everyone talk about a spectrum and if I am not neurotypical I assumed I'm on the spectrum. 

If so, it seems to go something like this:

<---Low-functioning autism-----High-functioning autism--Asperger's syndrome---Neurotypical--->

Originally the models were based on behavior. Then later down the road came examination of how the autistic brain develops and is wired, how the brains work differently on tasks in an fMRI, etc. Neural topology also supports the idea of a spectrum. Asperger's Syndrome seems to be discrete somehow, but still a meaningful part of the spectrum.

Autism is a complicated topic and I don't want to bore by writing an essay about it, so I'll try to keep it short but meaningful. It seems that human cognition has all sorts of variances and tradeoffs. Mood disorders, for example, have a correlation with creativity.

In the case of autism, it seems like the tradeoff is specificity and attention to detail at the cost of some global integration. Even their brains reflect this—people with autism have stronger local processing brain and less global processing. Can't see the forest for the trees, but they can see the trees really damn well. Studies have shown that families that have people on the spectrum in them are more likely to have STEM scientists.

The cost-benefit view of autism is just my preferential way of looking at it. Simon Baron-Cohen created a pretty neat theory around an idea called the "empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory." Basically, women should have higher empathy relative to lower systematizing, men should be the inverse of that, and people with autism should be the extreme of a typical male. He focuses on how autistic people seem compelled to organize things mentally. The test might be worth a try, if you're curious. https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/EQSQ.php

 Posted Image

 

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Welcome to the club, Alice. 

In terms of intelligence, it should be like this.

<---Low-functioning autism----------------------------High-functioning autism=Neurotypical----------Asperger's syndrome>

Posts: 4346
0 votes RE: Questions of Psychology...

Those are some pretty skewed scores, Alice. They may just reflect your personality, but it might be worth a look into. If you find yourself interested in the topic, Simon Baron-Cohen has some good talks on YouTube.

Posts: 2266
0 votes RE: Questions of Psychology...

Those are some pretty skewed scores, Alice. They may just reflect your personality, but it might be worth a look into. If you find yourself interested in the topic, Simon Baron-Cohen has some good talks on YouTube.

 I'm having a hard time interpreting results. 

Based on one of the papers I read I guess this puts me in the Super S group? 

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