Adaptive technology

[Munchenhausen]

'Simply Brailliant'!

"God fucking damnit! This is high-tech, life changing equipment that we are trying to sell here! Who the fuck let Terry do the annotations?!"

[bhtooefr]

Well, I wasn't expecting to put mental health treatments in this thread, but...

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/28/57580 ... treat-ptsd

[Potato]

Well, I wasn't expecting to put mental health treatments in this thread, but...

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/28/57580 ... treat-ptsd

Wonder if they could rewire the shitty damaged parts of my brain so that the non-defective part takes over that workload. Or rig up some brain-repairing nanobots.

Can we just reroute all the world's money to DARPA? They make all the good shit anyway. Hell, they funded the creation of the internet at one point.

[Forever_ambivalent]

Well, I wasn't expecting to put mental health treatments in this thread, but...

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/28/57580 ... treat-ptsd

Yea they are doing this a lot nowadays. You can fix a lot of mental disabilities using chips such as these. I think the chip to cure Alzheimer is already ready. It's just too expensive and unreliable ATM to be used. I doubt chips for mental disabilities such as MDD and agnosia will be coming out anytime soon.

Emi needs that. It would save Hisao a lot of trouble.

[Forever_ambivalent]

Well, I wasn't expecting to put mental health treatments in this thread, but...

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/28/57580 ... treat-ptsd

Wonder if they could rewire the shitty damaged parts of my brain so that the non-defective part takes over that workload. Or rig up some brain-repairing nanobots.

Can we just reroute all the world's money to DARPA? They make all the good shit anyway. Hell, they funded the creation of the internet at one point.

Will do some more research on DARPA as a whole but if you desire to have some functioning problems fixed than I doubt something similar to a PTSD fix chip would help.
My knowledge of neurology is really rusty (haven't checked it out for almost 8 months now) but I think PTSD is more of an emotional disorder. Therefore the chip will probably be playing with the heat or electricity in certain parts of your brain. I doubt playing with heat or electricity in more emotional parts of the brain will improve any functioning problems.
Although this is all of the top of my head and I really need to go back to researching this shit. Neurology is the most fun thing to research ever after all.

[bhtooefr]

Mind you, that article does mention some drug therapies (that is, involving a controlled administration of the drug as part of a therapy session) that could be permanent for PTSD, too, without surgical implants. (I suspect that's the more promising approach, if we can get past some puritan attitudes...)

[SpunkySix]

Mind you, that article does mention some drug therapies (that is, involving a controlled administration of the drug as part of a therapy session) that could be permanent for PTSD, too, without surgical implants. (I suspect that's the more promising approach, if we can get past some puritan attitudes...)

I've never understood the thing people have against drugs in general. Drugs and chemicals. Both terms have stigmas about them, yet are ridiculously broad and are found in really common stuff anyways.

Emi needs that. It would save Hisao a lot of trouble.

And free his girlfriend from a crippling mental block of pain in the process, of course...

[Potato]

Well, I wasn't expecting to put mental health treatments in this thread, but...

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/28/57580 ... treat-ptsd

Wonder if they could rewire the shitty damaged parts of my brain so that the non-defective part takes over that workload. Or rig up some brain-repairing nanobots.

Can we just reroute all the world's money to DARPA? They make all the good shit anyway. Hell, they funded the creation of the internet at one point.

Will do some more research on DARPA as a whole but if you desire to have some functioning problems fixed than I doubt something similar to a PTSD fix chip would help.
My knowledge of neurology is really rusty (haven't checked it out for almost 8 months now) but I think PTSD is more of an emotional disorder. Therefore the chip will probably be playing with the heat or electricity in certain parts of your brain. I doubt playing with heat or electricity in more emotional parts of the brain will improve any functioning problems.
Although this is all of the top of my head and I really need to go back to researching this shit. Neurology is the most fun thing to research ever after all.

I dunno about neurology but the article said the chip was also for monitoring purposes. "The chip would monitor electrical signals in the brain and send data wirelessly back to scientists in order to gain a better understanding of psychological diseases...Circuits that appear to drive pathology would be rewired..." (Though it would also be a delivery system for electrical impulses as suggested.)

If they can rewire the circuits in there, presumably that could include ones with functional problems.

@bhtooefr: A lot could be accomplished if we got past puritan attitudes. I don't see how drugs could be much more promising than actually going in and rewiring things though. Plus that's still hindered by the whole being illegal thing...I, for one, can't wait until I can work drugs being horribly demonized into a Pepperidge Farms meme.

[bhtooefr]

Well, the MDMA and LSD therapies are essentially, as I understand, putting the brain into a state where it doesn't fall back on existing pathways to evaluate traumatic memories, and then intentionally triggering the memories, while allowing the brain to create new connections regarding those memories that don't trigger the anxiety response. So, it's essentially getting the brain to rewire itself.

That said, this is certainly still useful research for quite a few reasons.

[AaronIsCrunchy]

Well, the MDMA and LSD therapies are essentially, as I understand, putting the brain into a state where it doesn't fall back on existing pathways to evaluate traumatic memories, and then intentionally triggering the memories, while allowing the brain to create new connections regarding those memories that don't trigger the anxiety response. So, it's essentially getting the brain to rewire itself.

That said, this is certainly still useful research for quite a few reasons.

Quite frankly, if it can help people to deal with PTSD, which can easily adversely affect somebody for life, then I'm all for the research into this. Obviously, just using it recreationally can cause problems in the future negatively, so it's not just something Emi can decide to have a tab of one day.

[bhtooefr]

Yeah, it's something that needs to be administered in a controlled environment to work. It's a tool to allow the brain to be receptive to therapy, not a "take this and your problems go away" pill.

[Forever_ambivalent]

Would Emi actually consider taking it though? She is so ridiculously stubborn about any of her problems that I doubt she would even consider the fact that's she has PTSD.
Poor Hisao can't help the one he loves If he even tries to talk to her about her PTSD I can imagine Emi going into a huge fit and hurting Hisao again. Even if he somehow manages to get her to acknowledge it, he will than have to convince her to go and take some therapy which will start up another one of Emi's furious fit's.
I feel sorry for Hisao in Emi's path. Poor guy.

[bhtooefr]

Especially considering that we're talking about Japan, there's also strong societal pressure to not pursue mental health treatment, as I understand.

[brythain]

Especially considering that we're talking about Japan, there's also strong societal pressure to not pursue mental health treatment, as I understand.

Indeed. The concept of the 'right mind in the right body' (I guess 'mens sana in corpore sano' in the West) is very strong. So the Japanese are quite okay with feats of bodily suffering and strength, but very uneasy about psychotropic or hypnagogic drug-taking, psychological trauma or relative abnormality, and so on.

[AaronIsCrunchy]

Especially considering that we're talking about Japan, there's also strong societal pressure to not pursue mental health treatment, as I understand.

Why would that be? I've always been a bit confused by this.