The brain is a complex structure and but can be organised according to several principles. One approach is to characterise the brain regions according to the microscopic properties of these regions.  More specifically the neurons are organised differently between regions. Some regions may contain unique types of neurons. This approach to understanding the organisation of the brain was proposed by the German Neuropathologist Korbinian Brodmann and resulted in the eponymously named Brodmann Area. There are 52 areas in all and I have covered other Brodmann Areas elsewhere in this Blog. This is the second in a series on one of these areas – Brodmann Area 22. A simple search strategy was adopted. The term ‘Brodmann Area 22′ was used to search in Medline using the PubMed interface. Relevant results were identified and included.

In an EEG study, a specialised method Electromagnetic Tomography was used to create a model of the source of discharges observed on the EEG in 22 subjects during and after a period of running on a treadmill. Fifteen minutes after the end of the exercise, BA22 was one of the regions showing a decrease in Alpha-2, Beta-1 and Gamma activity. The researchers in this study used depth electrode recording and an analysis of functional connectivity to characterise the responses of different areas to amplitude modulation. The researchers concluded that BA22 amongst other areas displayed evidence of response to amplitude modulation in both hemispheres (see also a study freely available here). In this study, researchers looked at people undergoing surgery for Temporal Lobe epilepsy using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to examine the functional connectivity between brain regions. They found that higher preoperative coupling between the Hippocampus and BA22 was associated with a postoperative reduction in verbal learning.

People with Schizophrenia were compared to controls in an fMRI study in which the researchers investigated changes in neural activity with an overlearning task. When the tasks become automatic, there are corresponding reductions in the activity in relevant brain regions. The researchers found this characteristic reduction in both controls and the people with Schizophrenia in a number of regions including BA22 suggesting that this method of learning is intact although changes in working memory in people with Schizophrenia have been identified in some studies. Advanced Glycation end products are compounds which accumulate in the brain with aging. In one study, the accumulation of AGE’s in BA22 was assessed in people who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease compared to a control group. The researchers found the characteristic accumulation of AGE’s in the former group compared to the control group and this accumulation progressed through the early, middle and later stages of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Appendix

Brodmann Area 22: A Brief Review of the Literature – Part 1

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

In a study at Princeton, researchers surveyed 1,100 students and found that having a family history of psychiatry conditions had a significant correlation with a student’s choice of studies (Benjamin et al, 2012). The researchers found that a student of the humanities was twice as likely to report having a family member with a history of a mood disorder while a student of science or a technical subject were three times more likely to report a sibling with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

In one study looking at a model of Rett Syndrome, an X-linked neurodevelopment condition affecting girls researchers found that Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) was markedly reduced in the brainstem. Since BDNF is needed for maintenance and growth of neurons, the researchers suggest this may be a significant factor in the development of Rett Syndrome. However further research will be needed to test this hypothesis.

There is a very interesting scheme in the West Midlands to raise awareness of Dementia. Dr Kaarim Saad, Clinical and Social Care Lead for Dementia at NHS West Midlands unveiled a series of videos designed as a training tool to help teachers in the West Midlands raise awareness of Dementia in schools. More details can be found at the site above including the videos and presentations.

New guidelines on the neuropathological assessment of Alzheimer’s Disease (Bradley et al, 2012) have been published and are freely available here.

In a longitudinal study published in Neurology, the researchers followed up 1450 older adults over 3 years and found that 72/1000 men developed Mild Cognitive Impairment over this period compared to 56/1000 women (Roberts R et al 2012).

References

Benjamin C. Campbell, Samuel S.-H. Wang. Familial Linkage between Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Intellectual Interests. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (1): e30405 DOI:

Bradley T. Hyman et al. National Institute on Aging–Alzheimer’s Association guidelines for the neuropathologic assessment of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. Volume 8, Issue 1 , Pages 1-13, January 2012.

Roberts R et al. The incidence of MCI differs by subtype and is higher in men: The Mayo Clinic Study of Aging. Neurology published ahead of print January 25, 2012,

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

Hypertext Links

Hypertext links are described as a key mechanism for harnessing of collective intelligence in the original article.The use of hypertext links enables people to create links between sites – essentially an online network. To use this Blog as an example – on the right of the screen is a Blogroll which links to other Blogs of relevance. The reader who is interested in the contents of this site will likely be interested in the contents of some of the other Blogs that are linked to. The reader is guided through a ‘path’ on the Web simply by clicking from one Blog to the other. If the other Blog has a Blogroll link then the reader is likely to be guided along a a restricted path. Out of all of the billions of pages on the Web, the ‘path’ followed by clicking on the links between Blogs shuts out a lot of the Web and lets the reader focus on their area of interest. This path is created not just on this blog but through the efforts of all the bloggers represented along the readers chosen pathway. In this way the reader is able to draw on the experience of many bloggers to make sense of the vast Web space.

In some senses this is similar to the experience of undertaking a survey of the research literature. If I wanted to undertake research on a subject I would conduct a search on Medline for articles of relevance. I would be making use of the search engine to identify abstracts of papers which are indexed with tags relevant to my search. Once I have identified the papers, I would then be able to use a secondary manual method which is to search through the citations in the paper as they should be very relevant to the subject and may not have turned up in the original search. Of course, once I have located these articles I can repeat the process to find citations within those articles and so on. Thus I would again be drawing on the experiences of researchers to make sense of the vast research literature that dates back over several centuries. There is a difference with the Web though. In the Web, it is very much easier for a person to publish those links and very much easier for the reader to follow the links. There is therefore a much greater probability that the reader will see what it is that the author is wanting to share. However the author will not be constrained by the space limitations of mainstream publishing and will be able to link to more of the relevant literature if necessary.  In the original article, trackbacks are mentioned also but I think they are too similar to the hypertext links to merit a separate discussion.

Crowdsourcing

The topic of crowdsourcing was discussed a book by Jeff Howe (Howe, 2008) and follows the coining of the term Web 2.0. Although crowdsourcing wasn’t mentioned explicitly in the original O’Reilly article in 2005 it was certainly hinted at by reference to Wikipedia. While there may be a broader overlap between Howe’s description of crowdsourcing and O’Reilly’s description of the Web 2.0, I would argue that crowdsourcing is roughly equivalent to ‘harnessing collective intelligence’  – one of the main characteristics of O’Reilly’s Web 2.0. Arguing for this equivalence can help to better clarify the nature of Web 2.0 and distinguish it from other elements within the Web 2.0 paradigm. Although this may appear to be nothing more than semantics, there is a great potential to influence the developing Web. If theory influences practice then these definitions are not merely a passive play on words but can serve as the dynamic drivers for an evolving paradigm.

Augmented Intelligence

As well as people collaborating through networks there is another possibility. People can be supported by artificial intelligence to augment their decision making. There are various examples of this from trading software through to software which interprets Electrocardiograms. Rather than a collaboration of people analysing data or contributing knowledge, there is the possibility of people interacting with artificial intelligence solutions to look at complex datasets and then contribute to a collective work.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence solutions including Expert Systems, Genetic Algorithms and Neural Networks approximate characteristics of human intelligence and biological systems including reasoning, adaptation and learning. The use of artificial intelligence to contribute to the solution of a group problem would add an interesting dimension to the paradigm. Using the web as platform, software can run continuously and respond to new data in real time. However the use of artificial intelligence would require a clear understanding of the goals of the collective project. SETI is an example of software that makes use of hardware to solve a common problem without the need for human intervention other than to provide the distributed processing platform needed for completion of the project.

Conclusions

There are many approaches to harnessing collective intelligence and many of these approaches would have been present in the original conception of the Web. Nevertheless the Web has evolved and collaboration both supported and unsupported by artificial intelligence solutions has resulted in new products and services that have transformed the way people perceive and use the Web. The infrastructure of the Web can be further refined by these approaches and it is important to recognise that the Web is continuously developing. This has implications for every area of our life but also the way in which science is conducted.  The emerging Science 2.0 movement is still defining its identity but many of the approaches above have found application in fields as diverse as Astronomy and the study of Alzheimer’s Disease.

References

Crowdsourcing. Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business. Jeff Howe. 2008. Crown Business.

Appendix

Doing Science 2.0. Deconstructing the Web 2.0. The Web as Platform.

Doing Science 2.0. Part 1. What is Science 2.0?

Doing Science 2.0. Web 2.0

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

Brodmann Area 22, Derived from Gray’s Anatomy 20th Edition 1918 Lithograph Reproduction, Public Domain

BA22 is the Superior Temporal Cortex also referred to as part of the Auditory Association Cortex. In this review, the PubMed interface for Medline was searched using the term ‘Brodmann Area 21′ (without parentheses). Articles of relevance to the search were retrieved and included in the brief literature review below. This is broadly divided into physiological and pathological studies.

In an fMRI study, the researchers found that stimulation of the right ear resulted in bilateral activation in BA22 in 15 subjects with intact hearing. The researchers propose that BA22 is amongst the areas that responds to changes in the middle ear and that BA22 may also be involved in a hypothetical reflex which facilitates speech. Linguistic inference recruited BA22 in this fMRI study which was not the case for logical inference. Stimulation of BA22 with repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation was associated with a reduction in the loudness of Tinnitus in this study.

In a post-mortem study of people diagnosed with Schizophrenia compared to a control group, researchers looked at the expression of genes in Brodmann Areas 22 and 10 n the two groups. Approximately twice as many of the disease associated transcription factors were age associated in BA10 compared to BA22. The researchers characterised further differences between the two areas. In a post-mortem study of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease or Schizophrenia, researchers found that there was a similarly high dysregulation of expression of genes in BA22 compared to a control group leading the researchers to suggest a common pathology to the two illnesses in BA22.Reduction in grey matter volume was identified in BA22 in people with Bipolar Disease or Schizophrenia in this structural MRI study. Grey matter reduction in BA22 differentiated people with schizophrenia with predominantly negative symptoms from those with schizophrenia without in this structural MRI study. Grey matter volume was greater in older adults with Schizophrenia than in a group of people with Alzheimer’s Disease but less than an older adult control group in this structural MRI study. However the researchers found that BA22 was one of the areas in which the grey matter volume in the older adults with Schizophrenia and people with Alzheimer’s Disease was similar.  The right BA22 was one of the areas with reduced perfusion in people with Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy (CAA) (which predisposes to intracerebral haemmorhage) in this SPECT study comparing people with CAA with a control group. In a study comparing people with traumatic brain injury with a control group the researchers found that the latter group were more likely to activate BA22 during a cognitive test – the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Tests (PASAT) which is effective in picking up subtle cognitive difficulties.

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

This edition of the News Roundup is in Video Format Above

There is an interesting write-up on two studies finding that Schizophrenia can be related to Circadian rhythms (via @Maria Page). In the first study from the British Journal of Psychiatry, the researchers found that there was a disruption in sleep in people with Schizophrenia that was independent of the effects of medication being taken to treat the illness. These included phase-changes in the circadian rhythm. In the second study, the researchers investigated the function of the SNAP 25 gene in a murine model. The SNAP-25 protein is a component of the SNARE complex which mediates the release of the contents of intracellular vesicles (vesicles can act as storage structures within the cell). For instance, these could be the neurotransmitters that are released by a neuron.

Snare Complex, Danko Dimchev Georgiev (M.D), Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons 3.0 License

When the SNAP 25 gene was not expressed, the researchers found that the circadian rhythm was altered. The Suprachiasmatic Nucleus is an important structure in the brain that regulates circadian rhythms – effectively it acts as a clock.

The Suprachiasmatic Nucleus, Justin Marley, Creative Commons License 2.0

The researchers found that although the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) was functioning there was a disruption of the signals between the SCN and other organs. They suggest that with sleep disturbances occurring in many mental illnesses alterations in the SCN’s signals should be investigated further and may offer novel lines of inquiry for therapeutics.

In a study of 3, 725 same-sex twins, researchers found that the risk of autism in one twin was significantly correlated with lower birth weight. The researchers were using a cut-off limit of a 15% difference in birth-weight between twins. They found that lower birth-weight was associated with a 13% increase in the risk of Autistic Spectrum Disorder for every 100g reduction in birth weight. However the research also shows that other factors are likely to be important as well.

There is a video here about the experiences of a caregiver for a parent with Dementia.

Psychiatry 2.0

Researchers have identified a correlation between the citation rate for a sample of Science and Nature articles and their citation count on Google Scholar and the Web of Science. However the researchers note it is a correlation and causality would need to be investigated further. The Department of Health has stated a commitment to the 3 Million Lives project which aims to improve the lives of 3 million people over the next five years through Telehealth and Telecare. There’s a very interesting write-up by Thomas Lin in the New York Times on the Open Science movement that is taking pace and Lin takes a look at ResearchGate an online portal that is bringing scientists together.

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

As unlikely as it might sound, there thought to be a tenuous link between detection of movement and emotions. The James-Lange theory of emotions states that emotions result from physiological responses of the body to the environment. The diametrically opposite theory is the Cannon-Bard theory of emotions which states that physiological responses in the body occur subsequent to emotional experiences. The Williams-Lange theory has been refined by A Craig (see here, here and here). In Craig’s model our sense of our own body – interoception – is an important part of emotional experience and he suggests that emotions and interoceptive information are integrated in the Insular Cortex. The model is elaborated on and it is well worth reading Craig’s original works.

So detecting movements in our arms – a type of interoception might be an important component of our emotional experience. However it’s not too far-fetched when you think of the fight-or-flight response. With a lion fast approaching, the sensation of rapid movement in your arms and legs as you exit the scene complements the ‘there’s a Lion right behind me’ thought and the associated anxiety you are experiencing. So now we get onto the slightly more technical bit. How do we detect movements in our body. Well the answer is through mechanoreceptors. These are receptors in the body which are deformed in response to various changes in the body including movements.

So if we want to understand what’s going on as we’re running away from the Lion, part of the picture is provided by considering the movements of our arms. It turns out that our arms are covered in these tiny mechanoreceptors and in this post I am looking at a special type of receptor known as the Ruffini end-organ or Ruffini receptor.

Since they are so tiny, they are usually visualised with a microscope or with special types of staining. In anatomical studies, specimens are obtained post-mortem, prepared using special techniques and then examined using microscopy. It turns out from a review of the literature that this very specialised area of research consists of a very small number of studies which show that the Ruffini endings are found throughout the arm.

Glenohumeral Joint, Gray’s Anatomy, 1918, 20th Edition, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Ruffini end organs were identified in the Inferior, Middle, Superior and Posterior Glenohumeral Ligaments in this study (Vangsness et al, 1995). Ruffini endings were not found in the Glenoid Labrum and the researchers didn’t report the identification of Ruffini endings in the Subacromial Bursa. The researchers suggest that removal of an inflamed bursa may also reduce pain signals from this part of the shoulder.

Flexor Tendons of the Hand, Gray’s Anatomy, 1918, 20th Edition, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

In a histological study, flexor tendons of the hand were examined (Zimny et al, 1989). The researchers identified Ruffini endings but these were outnumbered by Pacinian corpuscles and Golgi Tendon organs.

In an immunohistological study researchers examined the index finger of donors and were able to identify only a single Ruffini corpuscle (Paré et al, 2003). They concluded that human glabrous skin was not well supplied with Ruffini endings. In another study, the researchers examined 10 hands using immunofluorescence techniques and looked at the thumb ligaments – the Dorsal, Posterior and Anterior Oblique, Central, Carpometacarpal and Ulnar Collateral Ligaments (Lee et al, 2011). They found evidence of Ruffini endings in the ligaments.

Volar Aspect of Interphalangeal Joints of the Finger, Gray’s Anatomy, 20th Edition, 1918, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

The researchers in this immunohistochemical study examined 12 right index finger distal interphalangeal joints and surrounding structures (Chikenji et al, 2011). The specimens were divided into three regions longitudinally these being proximal, middle and distal and these areas were further subdivided. Although other types of endings were more prevalent – the researchers identified type I endings which includes Ruffini Endings. The same research team also studied the 12 right index finger proximal interphalangeal joints and surrounding structures (Chikenji et al, 2010). The specimens were again divided into three regions longitudinally (proximal, middle and distal) and these areas were further subdivided. The researchers found that type I endings (e.g Ruffini-like endings) were more prevalent in the volar plate of the proximal interphalangeal joints.

References

Chikenji T, Suzuki D, Fujimiya M, Moriya T, Tsubota S. Distribution of nerve endings in the human proximal interphalangeal joint and surrounding structures. J Hand Surg Am. 2010 Aug;35(8):1286-93. Epub 2010 Jul 13.

Chikenji T, Berger RA, Fujimiya M, Suzuki D, Tsubota S, An KN. Distribution of nerve endings in human distal interphalangeal joint and surrounding structures. J Hand Surg Am. 2011 Mar;36(3):406-12.

Lee J, Ladd A, Hagert E. Immunofluorescent Triple-Staining Technique to Identify Sensory Nerve Endings in Human Thumb Ligaments. Cells Tissues Organs. 2011 Aug 10.

Paré M, Behets C, Cornu O. Paucity of presumptive ruffini corpuscles in the index finger pad of humans. J Comp Neurol. 2003 Feb 10;456(3):260-6.

Vangsness CT Jr, Ennis M, Taylor JG, Atkinson R. Neural anatomy of the glenohumeral ligaments, labrum, and subacromial bursa. Arthroscopy. 1995 Apr;11(2):180-4.

Zimny ML, DePaolo C, Dabezies E.Mechano-receptors in the flexor tendons of the hand. J Hand Surg Br. 1989 May;14(2):229-31.

Appendix

New video on Ruffini Endings

What does the Insular Cortex Do Again?

Insular Cortex Infarction in Acute Middle Cerebral Artery Territory Stroke

The Insular Cortex and Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Developing a Model of the Insular Cortex and Emotional Regulation Part 1 Developing a Model of the Insular Cortex: A Recap

The Relationship of Blood Pressure to Subcortical Lesions

Pathobiology of Visceral Pain

Interoception and the Insular Cortex

A Case of Neurogenic T-Wave Inversion

Video Presentations on a Model of the Insular Cortex

MR Visualisations of the Insula

The Subjective Experience of Pain*

How Do You Feel? Interoception: The Sense of the Physiological Condition of the Body

How Do You Feel – Now? The Anterior Insula and Human Awareness

Role of the Insular Cortex in the Modulation of Pain

The Insular Cortex and Frontotemporal Dementia

A Case of Infarct Connecting the Insular Cortex and the Heart

The Insular Cortex: Part of the Brain that Connects Smell and Taste?

Stuttered Swallowing and the Insular Cortex

YouTubing the Insular Cortex

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

So what does this mean? I offer here my own interpretation.

The reader will no doubt be familiar with the traditional software package which is purchased off-the-shelf and installed on the computer. A person may own their machine and the license for the software they own and install on it. The software and computer are their ‘possessions’ and they have a ‘space’ in which to operate. In contrast, with the web a person has access to a vast network of computers. They can do the same things in different ways. With the web as a platform they can

- Direct many distributed computers towards the same task (e.g SETI).

- Access more powerful computers than their own to run the programs (e.g Google search)

- Choose from a wide array of software programs to run on computers on the web (e.g Google applications)

- Contribute to web-based communities hosted on web servers (e.g Wikipedia)

- Combine the data from different computer-software pairings (e.g see Programmable Web site)

Having the web as a platform is a move away from a personal space and personal ‘possession’ to a global technological community that creates in a shared space. There are drivers for this. While commerce is a strong driver in any environment, the possibilities that are opened up mean that many types of community come together to work towards their goals. These goals are defined by shared values and in the context of Web 2.0 offer a structure to the collaboration of the community members.

The web as a platform is not a cliche but a perspective that is best understood through reflection.

Appendix

Doing Science 2.0. Part 1. What is Science 2.0?

Doing Science 2.0. Web 2.0

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

Introduction

The audiobook reviewed here is ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ by Thomas Kuhn. In the preface, Kuhn tells us that he began the work as a way of explaining to himself and his friends why he chose to study the history of science. In the preface he describes the work as an essay and that he had hoped to include additional material in order to compile a book. He mentions the many people that influenced his thinking and amongst these were Paul Feyerabend. It was perhaps unsurprising that Feyerabend would have been an influence as they were based at the same university and shared common interests. However for the most part I have been a little skeptical of the ideas presented in Feyerabend’s ‘Against Method’ and have made some attempt to address these in an essay (see here and here). The sharing of some similar themes is evident later in the book. Already in the preface, Kuhn approaches a very sensitive subject area by marking out the social sciences as opposed to the natural sciences for special attention.

‘Both history and acquaintanence made me doubt that practitioners of the natural sciences possess firmer or more permanent answers to such questions than their colleagues in social science. Yet somehow the practice of astronomy, physics, chemistry or biology normally fails to evoke the controversies over fundamentals that today often seem endemic amongst say psychologists or sociologists. Attempting to discover the source of that difference led me to recognise the role in scientific research of what I have since called paradigms‘

However here he makes clear that the practitioners of the two share similarly ‘permanent answers’ to the questions posed within their science while in the same paragraph drawing attention to ‘controversies over the fundamentals’. Such controversies however are more a reflection of the relative simplicity of the ‘fundamental’ phenomenon being described in each of the disciplines. While in the fundamentals of one branch of physics – mechanics, there is consideration of the motion of bodies in an idealised environment in psychology or sociology the fundamentals are concerned not with inanimate idealised objects but richly complex human beings. That fundamentals should be arrived at all is testimony to the skill of the practitioners in those fields where matters are complicated not only by volition but also by the complex genetic coding resulting from 3 billion years of evolution, multilayered environmental influences and the interplay between all of these not just in the individual but in group and society settings. Perhaps the benefits to society of the technological advances informed by the natural sciences are the real reason why the natural and social sciences are separated. To propagate the arguments within the social sciences, various distribution media are needed – the printing press, the internet, the radio and so on. These medium however are impossible without the associated manufacturing facilities which in turn are directly dependent on an understanding of branches of physics or chemistry. Thus rather ironically one might suggest that the wider debate in social sciences can take place only because of the success of the natural sciences. This in turn can be reduced to ‘what can your science do on a practical level’.

While there have been innumerable successes in the social sciences, wherever we turn in the modern world we are faced with the end-results of an understanding of the natural sciences – bricks, paint, plastics, paper, ceramics, artificial light, electronics, metals, telecommunication, automobiles. Many of these have existed for millenia but in the current age an understanding of the natural sciences is necessary for the mass manufacturing of such items for large populations. On the other hand, the ‘evidence’ of the success of the social sciences is abundant but altogether more subtle in manifestation and more effort must be made to find this evidence. To reiterate however, this dichotomy is altogether different from the ‘process’ of doing science in these two branches of science which I would argue reduces to a combination of empiricism and rational, systematic investigation. Although ‘creative’ methods and intuition can be used to arrive at solutions more quickly, it is the error-checking rational, systematic and empirical investigation that validates the results and enables the foundations to be formed and built upon.

There is thus a difficulty in focusing on such a dichotomy in the preface – even before the book is properly begun. Such debates occur continue rather artificially in various guises (e.g see here) but the generalisations necessary are such that the accuracy of statements is exchanged for the expediency of the immediate discussion. However unlike Feyerabend, Kuhn contextualises his statement by suggesting that his consideration of the issues led to him formulating the concept of paradigms in scientific research and indeed this becomes a central tenet of the subsequent work.

 Chapter 1

Having listened to the audiobook version of  Thomas Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ (Kuhn, 2009) several times it has left me with the impression that this is a profound piece of work. Although Kuhn was very much influenced by Paul Feyerabend having comparing this work with Feyerabend’s ‘Against Method‘ I found that many common themes are more fully developed in Kuhn’s work. I also found that Kuhn’s profound interpretation of science as a social function not only has authenticity but that Kuhn’s perspective offers the possibility of further interpretations from a number of different perspectives. Chapter 1 is a relatively brief chapter or essay as he refers to it. In this chapter Kuhn sets the scene. He hints at the validity of historical scientific paradigms which might be considered redundant in a progressive and iterative model of science. This in itself is sufficient for the reader to examine one of the common assumptions about science and ‘progress’. Indeed such a perspective offers interesting insights into historical examples of scientific understanding. Kuhn also introduces the reader to the concept of ‘normal science’ as separate from the science that constitutes the paradigm shifting ‘scientific revolution’. By this means he is able to point us towards the tensions that often occur when the ‘scientific revolution’ meets ‘normal science’. By suggesting that the revolution itself does not occur at a certain point in time but is instead a gradual process Kuhn helps the reader to avoid obvious pitfalls. What I also found interesting here was Kuhn’s suggestion that the revolution doesn’t take place without a conflict between two opposing camps. This itself is reminiscent of the Hegelian Dialectical. However in this chapter Kuhn is merely setting the scene and it is in the later Chapters that his arguments are elaborated upon.

Chapter 2 – The Route to Normal Science

In this chapter or essay as he refers to it, Kuhn writes about what he considers to be the route to normal science. In this chapter he elaborates on his distinction between normal and revolutionary science and it makes for interesting reading. Early in the chapter Kuhn suggests that textbooks offer scientists a medium through which they can arrive at a consensus. He also notes that the road to a research consensus is ‘extraordinarily arduous’. The textbook states the common problems facing a research community. There were two features he suggests are necessary for revolutionary science

1. Unprecedented findings which were sufficient to draw people away from other areas of study suggesting that there was a competitive element to the process.

2. That revolutionary science would be sufficiently open-ended to enable others to develop theories from this. In other words they could become ‘stakeholders’ in the process.

I applied the ‘Darwin test’ on this. What I mean by this is that Darwin’s theory of natural selection is so robust that for any philosophy of science should make predictions which can be tested and would hold true when applied to Darwin’s theory of natural selection. For the points above, I hope the reader will agree that Darwin’s work ‘On the Origin of Species’ was both unprecedented, produced a very strong following and also gave rise to an entire field of study which has been occupying scientists for the past 150 years.

Kuhn then goes on to discuss revolutionary science in physical optics and with regards to electrical phenomenon. In both cases he provides the reader with evidence that prior to the ‘revolution’ there were many small areas of research founded on different assumptions or attempting to explain different phenomenon. What comes after the ‘revolution’ in Kuhn’s interpretation is very interesting and I thought was very authentic. Thus he suggests that a language arises which can be readily understood by those outside of the research community although this changes very rapidly. After a time the community develop a specialised language. Those who ignore the revolutionary paradigm are ‘bred out of the profession’. The research community develops more specialised equipment to investigate every more specialised questions.

He also has some interesting things to say about different branches of science. Thus for the social sciences he suggests that the revolutionary paradigm may be occuring today (although this would have been some time ago when the book was originally written). However such a grand statement should be qualified with more specific examples to support his argument. Another possibility is that the social sciences may operate differently to the natural sciences in terms of how research communities are organised, behaviours within the communities and even the nature of the questions that are being posed. I would argue therefore that a much closer examination needs to be made in order to justify even simple statements of this type. The strength of his book lies in how he guides the reader from examples through to his conclusions and there is no reason why this should be abandoned when discussing a very complex branch of science. When he refers to medicine however he makes an interesting observation that this is strongly driven by an external social need. He also suggests that in astronomy the first paradigms arose in ‘prehistory’ and no doubt he implies that navigation by the stars was a necessary skill for hunter-gatherers. He also notes that technology assists in gathering data necessary for the development of a science.

For me Kuhn’s framing of the paradigm has another implication. My interpretation of Kuhn’s paradigm is that it is a function of the ‘minds’ of the scientists rather than a function of the underlying properties of the universe. In other words revolutionary thinking isnt so much about a better understanding of the world but rather one that is more successful in engaging the scientific community.

Chapter 3

In Chapter 3 of Thomas Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ he focuses on the ‘nature of normal science’ and interestingly gives due consideration both to qualitative and quantitative approaches.  The core essence of this chapter lies in three tenets:

1. That ‘normal science’ within a paradigm establishes significant facts

2. That ‘normal science’ attempts to relate facts to theory

3. That ‘normal science’ aims to expand upon theory

These key features of Kuhn’s concept of ‘normal science’ also pre-empt his later discussion of scientific revolutions. What is also interesting about this chapter is that Kuhn again relates scientific paradigms to social structures within the scientific community. For example a successful paradigm will address some of the acute problems faced by the scientific community. Kuhn also makes a point about the complexity of nature being made to ‘fit’ into the relatively rigid structure of a paradigm. While on the subject it is also tempting to apply the same argument to Kuhn’s approach to paradigms in the sense that this is a generalisation about quite complex activities in a vast range of different sciences. This in itself deserves further reflection as it would mean that the concepts of paradigms, normal science and revolutionary science can be subject to the same iterative process he suggests to apply to science itself although strictly speaking this is philosophy. Kuhn has some interesting comments about those that do not work in paradigms and how such scientists are generally ignored by the scientific community unless they are part of a revolutionary movement. As with previous chapters Kuhn offers the reader much to reflect on.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 in Thomas Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ is a fairly brief chapter or essay as he also refers to it. In this chapter, Kuhn suggests that a scientific community solves puzzles. These puzzles are problems that need to be solved within a framework of rules. Kuhn suggest that the scientific community chooses puzzles that they think are solvable. Thus there are the explicit clearly articulated central problems lying within the informal framework of rules. As a result seemingly straightforward amendments of solutions to problems do not work in the scientific community if they do not also address the surrounding framework of rules. Kuhn gives the example of a suggested amendment to Newton’s inverse square law of gravitation which would have enabled researchers to derive the orbit of the moon from Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation. The amendment was ignored by the research community and other findings eventually enabled the derivation to occur without this move away from the central paradigm. Kuhns ideas here form a profound basis for consideration of scientific activities. Such questions can be turned to specific branches of science. We can begin to ask about the rules that govern research in certain areas of psychiatry for instance or reflect on the meaning of the open science movement. We can also ask use these concepts to differentiate science from other social activities.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 in Thomas Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ is titled ‘The Priority of Paradigms’. In this essay as he refers to it, Kuhn elaborates on the relationship between rules paradigms and ‘normal science’. I thought this essay was less articulate than the previous essays although he introduces some important concepts which he develops in later chapters. Kuhn suggests that rules govern a research tradition and that there is a common understanding within the research community that forms the research paradigm. However he thinks that scientists are often unaware of the specifics of the research paradigm and instead rely on an intuitive understanding much akin to that proposed by Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein proposed that we know a game by its family of properties. Even if a game doesn’t have all of the properties we identify with a game, we will still be able to recognise it as such through these flexible recognition mechanisms. He goes on to describe science as a ‘ramshackle structure’ with little coherence arguing that if we consider the physical sciences we will see a big difference between related sciences. He gives the example of a chemist and a physicist being asked whether helium is a molecule and giving two entirely different answers. The explanation for this is that the scientists were using different paradigms even though both branches were derived using quantum mechanics.

I found many of Kuhn’s suggestions profound. He suggests for instance that the scientist may undertake research quite separately from any explicit consideration of the underlying paradigm. This thought is quite remarkable as it suggests that a scientist may dissociate a rational approach used in their experimental study from an irrational approach to the wider context of the research paradigm in which their study is operating. In other words if there is an obvious flaw in the underlying assumptions of a research paradigm then it doesn’t matter how many well designed studies are undertaken within that paradigm, the conclusions will still be erroneous because of the mistaken assumptions several layers down. Kuhn would presumably have recommended a healthy scepticism towards the research paradigm although this is not explicitly mentioned within the essay. I can’t help but think that in describing the research paradigm, Kuhn is actually describing in a roundabout way, the characteristics of a social group. These characteristics remain invariant regardless of whether it is science we are talking about or any group activity. The group will form an identity and this identity is developed through a shared language and culture.  The culture itself may develop from a decision to solve specific problems whereupon there is a ccncerted drive to use a systematic approach to achieve this end. In science this results in the research paradigm. However this will also be repeated in other parts of society froming the impetus for social change across a wide variety of fields.

Chapter 6

The sixth chapter in Kuhn’s book ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ is titled ‘Anomaly and the Emergence of Scientific Discoveries’. Kuhn gives the example of Thomas Priestley and his ‘discovery’ of Oxygen. The discovery of Oxygen is undoubtedly an important one. Kuhn playfully moves around the history of the discovery of Oxygen showing the futility of pinning it down to the discovery at a certain point in time by means of a simple act. Instead he argues that there must be another means of conceptualising this. The identification and characterisation of Oxygen occurred not in isolation but in the context of contemporary theory. It was through the change in theory that the significance of Oxygen came to be appreciated. In effect it was a network of scientists that collectively brought about the discovery of Oxygen combining both the experimental and conceptual elements necessary for this accomplishment. Kuhn gives other examples. Continuing with his division of science into normal science and revolutionary science, he argues that normal science restricts the focus of the scientist towards confirmation. However this very process highlights anomalies and it is these anomalies that form the basis for revolutionary science. Revolutionary and normal science can be considered to be activities at different levels of a theoretical hierarchy. The implication is that even when activities are geared towards one level of that hierarchy they lead necessarily to changes at other layers of the hierarchy (and perhaps in an unpredictable way). Kuhn gives the example of an experiment involving the presentation of playing cards to subjects. One of the playing cards would be distinct but unless they were looking for this, the subjects didn’t register it consciously. When they were challenged on this after the presentation a small minority of the subjects would become confused about what they had seen and Kuhn hints at what is to come later in the book. By looking at the material in this way, Kuhn offers us insights into the underlying mechanisms of science as well as offering the potential to look at alternative approaches.

Chapter 7

The 7th Chapter In Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’  is titled ‘Crisis and the Emergence of Scientific Theories’, in which Kuhn elaborates on the conditions which he suggests lead to scientific revolutions. He identifies several historically important scientific theories and examines the circumstances surrounding their acceptance in detail. Kuhn’s poses the question of how new theories are accepted in the place of older more well established theories. He gives the example of Newtonian mechanics and the occurrence of early advocates against an absolute model of space in favour of a relativistic model. However what is interesting is that these criticisms were apparent only for a short while before disappearing from the scientific debate. Kuhn argues that this occurred because there was no ‘crisis’ in science. In other words, the ‘normal science’ which he discussed previously was not producing consistent anomalies which would cause the scientists to question the validity of the underlying theory. As a result, there was no impetus to take this debate further until the late nineteenth century when this became relevant to the contemporary debate in physics. Kuhn uses physics to generalise to science whilst making no mention in this chapter of those branches directly relevant to the neurosciences. Nevertheless it’s interesting to note that in the neurosciences several theories do coexist which are currently relevant and which offer different perspectives on the same set of phenomenon. Kuhn’s arguments hold relevance to a winner-takes-all approach to theory building or else the neurosciences have been in a persistent state of ‘crisis’ according to his arguments. This though doesn’t seem consistent with the many practical benefits that these different theories have produced and so maybe the neurosciences represent a branch of science which merit their  own philosophy of science.

Chapter 8

In Chapter 8 of Thomas Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ is titled ‘The Response to Crisis’. Whereas in Chapter 7, Kuhn focuses on how the crisis in science arises in this chapter he elaborates on how the scientific community responds to this crisis. He makes the interesting point that in criticising one theory the scientist must propose an alternative otherwise this is not the pursuit of science. What is also interesting is that he suggests that when this competitive process ends, the branch of science becomes static and in the example he gives it becomes a ‘research tool’. Kuhn suggests that there are always discrepancies even in the most successful of paradigms. With a move towards crisis there are increasingly divergent explanations and there is a loss of identity within the field. Indeed Kuhn maintains that all crises involve a blurring of paradigms. The crises are closed in one of three ways. In the first case, the crisis is handled. In the second scenario there is a resistance to radical approaches. In the final scenario the crisis leads to the emergence of a new candidate for paradigm.

Kuhn then goes onto discuss commentators on the field who refer to Gestalt theory in which a visual perception is dependent on the whole rather than part of an object. So if the reader looks at the cube below, the lower square face can be interpreted either as sitting at the front of the cube or the back of the cube. In both cases the square takes on a different meaning within the whole object that is perceived. In the same manner Kuhn suggests that new paradigms lead to a different way of seeing a body of empirical facts. He is quick to point out however that this is a crude analogy and that scientists do not quickly switch back and forth between paradigms. Nevertheless it illustrates the essence of his arguments well.

Alan De Smet, ‘Multistability‘ (Public Domain)

Kuhn then goes on to say that the scientist having identifed the anamoly central to a crisis will go on to explore the anomaly and to better characterise it. In crisis, speculative theories multiply and increase the chance of a successful paradigm being reached. He also suggests that philosophical enquiry into assumptions can challenge some of the tenets of the current paradigm. Finally Kuhn finishes by commenting that many scientists leading to scientific revolutions are deeply immersed in crisis and they are either very young or new to the field in change which he interprets to mean that there thinking has not been shaped by the component rules of a paradigm. However Charles Darwin would be a notable exception having published ‘On the Origin of Species’ at a mature age and with a comprehensive knowledge of the related fields in biology. Nevertheless there are numerous counterexamples and the main result of this chapter is that Kuhn provides the reader with very effective tools for thinking about science in transition.

* One thought I had here was that in the very early stages of a science there must be a lot of theories that are initially developed but which are quickly shaped by the experimental facts. In this way many theories would exist before quickly falling to experimental findings in which case there would be a ‘survival of the fittest’ theories which are tested against each other. This has a number of implications.

Firstly that a philosophical system might define this pre-science phase in which a large number of theories exist without being tested against the experimental facts. The brain’s analytical and other abilities are used as an alternative to hypothesis testing in the real world in order to generate ‘realistic’ solutions based on experience and intuition. As time proceeds and assuming the system has an efficient or effective ‘memory’ and scientific enquiry produces a growing body of empirical facts the competitive process in which proponents of different models challenge each other’s models and refine their own leads to ‘fitter’ models (using evolutionary terms). However these models are adapted to the empirical facts which in turn are a byproduct of the initial enquiries in this area.In this manner, mathematics might offer the best ‘starting conditions’ for this philosophical enquiry as these starting conditions give philosophical enquiry the least opportunity for diverging from reality using such an approach.

Secondly fitter theories might well diverge significantly from an explanation of reality depending on their starting conditions although there might be other phenomenon which curtail that line of enquiry as this divergence becomes more evident. What this would also mean is that the development of the most effective scientific theories is not only a measure of how effectively a theory fits with the empirical data but is also a marker of how effectively a theory keeps the focus on the empirical data in which the theory initially flourished as well as a measure of how effectively the theory recruits and retains proponents.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 is titled ‘The Nature and Necessity of Scientific Revolutions’ in which Kuhn  further discusses the nature of scientific revolutions. An important feature of this chapter is that Kuhn draws parallels between scientific and political revolutions. To support this analogy he explains how within political organisations and scientific communities groups arise with significantly different values from the mainstream. The scientific communities and political parties are housed within the institutions and the new movements are not able to successfully challenge within these institutions but must instead separate with the support of their proponents. However Kuhn is careful to distinguish between scientifc and political revolutions. With scientific revolutions there are fundamental features of nature at play which determine the course of events. For instance the scientific paradigm is challenged by an anomaly which becomes a central feature of the new paradigm. The anomaly is a feature of nature and the paradigm which successfully explains the analogy replaces the old paradigm rather than resulting from a cumulative change in the old paradigm. Essentially there is a transformation of paradigms rather than a cumulative change. The logical positivists challenge this assertion by arguing for instance that Newtonian mechanics is a special case of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Kuhn takes time to address this and argues that the restriction that is placed on the Theory of Relativity impinges on the utility of this theory under these constraints. Furthermore the paradigm changes also extend to the rules governing the behaviour of scientists in the scientific community. The proponents of the different paradigms are unable to hold joint discussions since they operate within different frameworks with divergent views which cannot be resolved.

The anomaly therefore is the determining factor in the competition between paradigms as ultimately it is this  anomaly which highlights the problems in the old paradigm and is explained in the succeeding paradigm and this in turn is a feature of nature. I think this perhaps is the most significant differentiator between political and scientific movements assuming of course that the properties of group behaviour are not deterministic but instead are contingent on the interplay between the properties of memes and the properties of the group. Even here however darwinists would argue that memes demonstrate selective fitness and are therefore subject to general principles which with some work can be identified.

Kuhn has produced a very deep work. A chapter such as this can be read repeatedly and still offer new insights. The analogies themselves give the reader the opportunity to use their knowledge of parallel systems to further understand the central arguments. Feyerabend’s ‘Against Method’ (see Appendix below for review) in comparison draws on some of Kuhn’s work but reduces the central argument to a simple premise which is significantly easier to challenge. The inter-relatedness of Kuhn’s chapters provides, I think a stark contrast which hints at the ‘Gestalt’ that Kuhn discusses in the previous chapter.

Chapter 10

Chapter 10 of Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ is titled ‘Revolutions as Changes of World View’ and is the lengthiest of the chapters. Kuhn continues his central argument from previous chapters that scientific revolutions involve a change in perspectives and he writes that the scientist must

‘learn to see a new Gestalt‘

Indeed after a revolution the scientist must learn to ‘see a new world’ and the student of science is trained to see the world in this way. There are significant differences between these perspectives which are ‘incommensurable’. Kuhn draws a parallel with an experiment in which subjects were required to wear inverting prisms and learnt to adapt to this new visual world – there is a transformation in their perception. He goes further and suggests that perception of scientific paradigms and visual perception share a similar underlying physiology.  A similar analogy is drawn with the previously mentioned experiment involving anomalous cards presented as part of a sequence. Kuhn suggests that the evidence for these changes in perspective should be sought in behaviours (although it is also possible to examine the perceptual constructs themselves rather than behavioural proxies).

Kuhn questions the assumptions that the perception follows directly from the sensory observations as outlined in the highly influential philosophy of Descartes. He emphasises the importance of an understanding of the mind in understanding science and asserts that there is an absence of a language of perception. Kuhn gives examples to support his argument including the identification of atomic elements which resulted from a different perspective rather than a focus on experimentation alone. Indeed he describes John Dalton who formulated the atomic theory as a meteorologist rather than a chemist who approached some of the questions posed by chemists by using a different paradigm. Along the way he replaced the affinity theory which had predominated up until that time. In this example it becomes clear that the paradigm change involved a change in culture in which common assumptions were abandoned, where debate between highly regarded proponents of the different perspectives  illuminated the core issues in the paradigm change and in which a significant proportion of the scientific community would need to be persuaded of the advantages of the new paradigm.

This chapter raises many questions and further defines the nature of the paradigm changes Kuhn refers to throughout.

Chapter 11

The 11th Chapter in Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ is titled ‘The Invisibility of Scientific Revolutions’. In this chapter Kuhn revisits the themes developed in earlier chapters. He explains that the celebrated scientific revolutions that he uses as examples are selected solely that the reader is already familiar with them. Kuhn suggests in this chapter that revolutions are invisible because of historical revisionism in science textbooks. His argument runs along the following lines. Firstly assuming that scientists and laypeople use textbooks as the primary source of learning about a scientific field then the presentation of the field within the textbooks is of central importance. Secondly Kuhn suggests that there is a central assumption that science is independent of the historical context (note that he himself does not hold this view). Thirdly Kuhn argues that when a revolution has occurred there is a need to rewrite the science textbooks. This rewriting follows a pattern. Thus the central problems which were solved in order to create the paradigm change are reframed as the only problems that existed prior to the paradigm change. The main scientific players are then described in relation to this problem solving exercise. Fourthly through this revisionism science is presented as a cumulative endeavour whereby incremental improvements in solutions to central problems lead to the paradigm change. In this manner the subtleties around the scientific revolution become invisible. Kuhn gives examples to support his argument about the importance of historical context in scientific revolutions. This chapter addresses an important criticism of Kuhn’s central arguments namely that scientific revolutions are portrayed as cumulative developments of scientific knowledge rather than transformational paradigm shifts. Kuhn’s response is to characterise the simplistic narratives as examples of historical revisionism and he emphasises the importance of context in interpreting scientific revolutions.

Chapter 12

Chapter 12 in Thomas Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ is titled ‘The Resolution of Revolutions’. Kuhn suggests that those involved in scientific revolutions have characteristics which are different from those of scientists involved in ‘normal science’. Thus he suggests that such scientists are usually new to the field and for various reasons are not under an obligation to operate within the boundaries of the paradigm but instead are able to challenge the paradigm itself. He then goes onto talk about the validations of theories and this gets quite interesting. Kuhn categorises the validation approaches as follows

1. Categorical

2. Probabilistic

So the first question to ask about the validation process is whether or not a theory completely accounts for the experimental data. In a categorical model of theories, the theory would be expected to account for all of the data. However this would be unrealistic and Kuhn suggests instead that most scientists consider a probabilistic model of theory validation in which the theory accounts for most of the experimental findings. Another approach to validation of theories is also considered by Kuhn contrasting

1. Identification of evidence for the theory

2. Falsification

A theory can thus be validated by the identification of supporting evidence or by surviving attempts to falsify the theory with experimental observations which do not fit with the theory’s predictions. The suggestion of a principle of falsification in science was developed by Karl Popper. Kuhn then refers back to anomalies in the experimental data which are sufficient to generate a challenge to the dominant paradigm. This allows the beginning of an appraisal of the paradigm itself but it is only when the conflicting paradigm is developed that the necessary debate can begin. Kuhn then gives some of the characteristics of the subsequent debate which results in the resolution of revolutions. This is an elegant chapter with Kuhn drawing together the threads from previous chapters into a narrative with powerful explanatory properties.

Chapter 13

Chapter 13 in Thomas Kuhns ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ is ‘Progress through Revolutions’. Here Kuhn questions what it is that makes a science. He comments in an interesting way on what differentiates the branches of science. Thus he suggests that a strong sense of identity within a scientific discipline occurs when there is agreement within the community on past and present accomplishments. He also writes about the progress that occured in the arts as representations became more realistic with refinements in the instruments and techniques of the artist.  The relationship between the scientific community and the paradigm is emphasised as well as the debate that occurs between schools. Kuhn also suggests that although science progresses it does not necessarily progress towards any specific goal. He also reiterates the effectiveness of scientific revolutions followed by periods of normal science in developing a body of scientific knowledge. However he leaves the reader to answer the question ‘what must the world be like for us to know it?’

Kuhn’s postscript was written 7 years after the publication of his book. In the postscript he addresses many of the criticisms that have been raised against ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ and it is therefore important for those wanting to come to a better understanding of his seminal work. Having written this over 7 years Kuhn had a great deal of time to reflect on the criticisms levelled against his book and to further refine his understanding which is evident from the text. Kuhn’s work is subtle enough but condensing 7 years of reflection on the responses to his work means that the postscript is dense with complex ideas and I don’t think it is meaningful to say that it can be or should be easily summarised. The strength of Kuhn’s work is not that it is didactic but that it relies on the reader to engage with the material.

Kuhn proceeds to move through the main criticisms of his texts. Paradigms are a starting point for the postscript. Kuhn explains that the term paradigm has different meanings for him which he utilises in his book. Indeed one of these meanings is associated with a great deal of controversy. He writes that a scientific community have received a standardised training. Different schools settle their competitions quickly and professional opinion is ‘unanimous’. These communities are the units for creating paradigms but paradigms are not essential for the development of an ‘isolated’ community. Indeed in this sense, the scientific community consists of a global community of scientists which is then narrowed down into specialised scientific communities. This is brought home when Kuhn tells us that there was no physics community before the mid-nineteenth century when it was preceded by an intersection of philosophy and mathematics. Kuhn also notes that theories of matter were under discussion by a number of different communities.

Kuhn describes the transition that occurs during a paradigm change. Revolution is a special renegotiation of relationships within a community which might consist of a small number of people. Crises can be generated by groups other than those that experience them. Kuhn suggests that his description of paradigm is vague and develops his argument with the use of a disciplinary matrix. In the disciplinary matrix, there is the symbolic representation, the shared belief and the values of the scientific community.

Are Kuhn’s Assertions Supported or Challenged by 21st Century Neuroscience?

In the postscript, Kuhn discusses visual perception. Are the sensations of two viewers the same? There is a lot of processing involved in becoming aware of sensations with different pathways from stimulus to sensation. I think perhaps it is easier to talk about perception than sensation which occurs at an earlier stage in the process. Kuhn is therefore asking us to consider whether two people or communities with their different backgrounds would experience the same perceptions of identical stimuli as though they are living in ‘different worlds’. These different groups are of course the different scientific communities with their different models of phenomenon. Kuhn’s arguments aren’t meant to be interpreted in a concrete way but I thought it was a useful example of how Kuhn’s material can be engaged. There was a recent study by Gallant and colleagues from 2011 which I thought was a really great study (see review here). I won’t go into it in too much detail but will summarise it by saying that the researchers were able to correlate the activity in one brain region – the visual cortex with moving images witnessed by their subjects. They were then able to reconstruct witnessed moving images on the basis of the brain activity alone.

Reconstruction of Video Images in Gallant’s Lab

Video Reconstructions of Clips Presented to 3 Subjects. The average of the best-fit clips is on the left, while those on the right are the best fit clips. Each row represents a single subject.

In the second video, the reconstructions from 3 subjects can be seen. Above the 3 rows is the video that was shown to the three subjects. Then there are three rows each of which corresponds to a subject. The first video in the row represents the video that was reconstructed from that subject’s brain activity by the software. The remainder of the videos on the row are those witnessed by the subject which were the nearest matches and which were averaged out to reconstruct the video. What is meant by ‘nearest matches’ is that the brain activity of the subject when witnessing those videos was similar to the brain activity when they were the test video. By this means the researchers approximated the video clip that the subject was watching and in effect were able to reconstruct the video the subject was watching on the basis of their brain activity alone – a quite remarkable achievement.

In returning to the question posed by Kuhn it is clear that each subject’s reconstructions draws parallels with different sets of images that they had been exposed to. The software algorithm selected different movie clips for each subject to approximate the pattern of brain activity that was generated when they viewed the clip of interest. Unfortunately there is a limit to how much we can infer from these results particularly as these results are also a function of the software algorithms that were being used. However we can use these results to comment on Kuhn’s analogies in several ways. Firstly we can say that Kuhn may indeed be correct in assuming that different people perceive the same stimulus on the basis of different past experiences and this is why the 3 subjects in the second video appear to be drawing on different previously witnessed video clips (remember though that this may be an artefact of the software). However we may also say that regardless of the previous experience, the subjects are operating in the real world and this is an important constraint. Subjects can use as many prior experiences to shape their perception of the stimulus as they want but unless they get their perceptions right in certain important ways, they’ll be walking into the proverbial lampost. Finally we can also say that the perceptions that appear to be occurring here are doing so in real time and in some ways are perhaps still at a fairly low level in the perceptual apparatus. The filtering is almost immediate and doesn’t suggest the type of rich context and abstract reasoning qualities we might associate with some of Kuhn’s concepts. The visual cortex ‘wants’ to discern form, colour and motion. Kuhn’s scientists want to discern the world constrained by the limits of a model built of multiple logical inferences and empirical observations. However the point is that Kuhn has powerfully invoked the inner experiences of the scientist and once this is granted, the subsequent discussion must become entangled in questions about conscious experience, about the very nature of the mind. Nevertheless the question of science is inextricably linked to questions about mind since science is a function of the mind. Although a set of laws may quite correctly describe certain features of the universe, it is only through the mind that these laws become alive. Without the mind they are objects – ink on paper, etchings on stone or electrons passing through circuit boards. And to become alive in the mind, the laws, the whole corpus of science must negotiate the mind in order to become alive and relevant in the world. Appealing to the mind is part of the package of science whether it is recognised or not.

Incommensurability, Puzzles and Values

If I was to read Kuhn’s postscript next week I would probably write a very different review because of the way in which his material must be engaged. For this review there were a few concepts that grabbed my attention. Kuhn talks about incommensurability. This is the phenomenon through which scientists from different communities have models which explain the same phenomenon but which entail different incompatible languages. This is one phenomenon for which Kuhn appears to have been criticised vociferously. Ironically he is clear that his concept has not been understood – Kuhn’s science has been labelled as subjective or suggesting that there is no ‘truth’ in science. However we may say that Kuhn and his critics models of science are incompatible. Part of this incommensurability arises from science as a function of the community. Kuhn talks about puzzle solving which was a key feature of his work. Kuhn’s idea is that the there is normal and revolutionary science. Once the revolution in science has occurred, the puzzle solving of normal science takes place. I like Kuhn’s framing of the puzzle as a ‘group licensed’ way of seeing the world. Finally I thought Kuhn’s further discussion of values was interesting. Kuhn asks us to consider what would happen if consistency was not a value in science. At such times it is clear that science can be deconstructed in a more profound way and that such analysis could even result in a more productive reconstruction. Kuhn’s work is a Magnus Opus, an illustration of the rewards of the seemingly abstract discipline of historical analysis which shows that looking closely at what has gone before can light the road ahead.

References

Thomas Kuhn. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Audible. 2009. Narrated by Dennis Holland. (Paperback originally published in 1962).

Appendix

For a review of the Introduction see here.

For a review of Chapter 1 see here.

For a review of Chapter 2 see here.

For a review of Chapter 3 see here.

For a review of Chapter 4 see here.

For a review of Chapter 5 see here.

For a review of Chapter 6 see here.

For a review of Chapter 7 see here.

For a review of Chapter 8 see here.

For a review of Chapter 9 see here.

For a review of Chapter 10 see here.

For a review of Chapter 11 see here.

For a review of Chapter 12 see here.

For a review of Chapter 13 see here.

For a review of the Postscript see here.

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

Today the Wikipedia site is down for 24 hours in an effort to draw attention to two US Bills which several organisations suggest might limit the open nature of the internet. I won’t go into the details here but the Wikipedia site has a useful summary of their arguments against the Bills here. Only time will tell how this debate and the Bills themselves progress. The open nature of the internet brings us diversity and the ability to collaborate brings people across the world together in ways which have never before been conceived or realised. This brings me neatly onto the Big Society theme introduced by UK Prime Minister David Cameron. The general themes emerging in the Big Society are that various services needed for a society are put out to tender not just to private companies but to government organisations and charitable bodies. Discussion of the themes is being played out in the House of Lords where the Health and Social Care Bill is being discussed – the flagship of the Big Society. Essentially organisations with different core values can compete with each other to provide these services to society. Sceptics have suggested that this is just a means of reducing costs in a time of austerity. However the general theme here is that of competition, which has proved useful in fuelling economies and ecostructures alike.

However rather than limiting this to the UK, I thought a more interesting slant on things would be to introduce a global concept based on the Web 2.0 culture. The population of a nation would have significant needs that need to be met by services. In many cases these are physical real-world services. Water, gas and electricity need to be delivered, roads built and maintained, streets policed and so on. For every one of these physical services that is provided though there is a corresponding information infrastructure. Information is a key feature of society in the 21st Century. People accessing services benefit from understanding the choices at their disposal, sharing their views with others, finding solutions to problems as a community. In this way Web 2.0 (see Appendix) offers a possible solution. A global community can provide the solutions needed by one or many nations. The model can be based on competition as in the case of funding awarded to communities for successful solutions to problems. Even here though there is a multilayered structure with many communities finding solutions for no such incentive. This was the premise of the UNIX operating system which has proved so successful in its various manifestations (e.g Linux).

While much of the Web 2.0 discussion is technical the underlying premise is that there are certain rules for the computers that are connecting people together. Ultimately though it is the connection of the people that matter. So it is entirely possible with the correct conceptualisation and implementation that people from every continent can effectively contribute towards the services provided to people in the UK. These same solutions can be translated for use in other nations. In health terms, the Open MRS database is a very good example of how a population’s healthcare can benefit from this approach. Can these concepts be employed in a Big Society 2.0? Only time will tell.

Appendix

Doing Science 2.0. Part 1. What is Science 2.0?

Doing Science 2.0. Web 2.0

The Big Society and Mental Health. Part 1.

The Big Society and Mental Health. Part 2.

The Health and Social Care Bill – The Big Society Connection

The Big Society Advances in Social Media

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

I’ve written a few articles on Purpose in Life in relation to the medical literature. A few key rating instruments have been designed to assess this construct and have been used in lots of research in this area. However despite all of this, I think its reasonable to ask just exactly what’ Purpose in Life’ means. I don’t think there is a right answer but from the reviews below there are a few themes that have developed. Thus one feature of Purpose in Life is that it is holds meaning for a person. Another is that there is a social aspect to it. Having purpose is about finding a social meaning in life – a meaning which includes other people. This is not an abstract theoretical concept but from the studies below is a belief system that appears to hold significant health benefits. Admittedly many of the studies are small and need replication but there is a theme that keeps emerging. In addition to this, I would further refine this by suggesting that Purpose in Life is a collection of values and it is these values that possibly hold an important key to our very identity, how we forms groups and also to important aspects of our health. There are of course limitations to this approach. There are many factors which contribute to health which are independent of such values but values do hold an important and perhaps underappreciated place in discussions of health. Maybe there is a need to develop a language to describe these values in more detail although that language is partially developed in psychotherapeutic models. If values do play an important role in explaining what Purpose in Life is then  perhaps the values which are likely to be shared will be important in more clearly defining Purpose in Life.  An exploration of values may be a useful starting point.

Appendix – Blog Articles on Purpose in Life

Purpose in Life. An Overview of the Literature – Part 1

Purpose in Life. An Overview of the Literature – Part 2. Scales

Purpose in Life. An Overview of the Literature – Part 3. Depression

Purpose in Life. An Overview of the Literature – Part 4. Purpose in Life Across the Lifespan: Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Purpose in Life. An Overview of the Literature – Part 5. Purpose in Life Across the Lifespan: Adulthood

Purpose in Life. An Overview of the Literature – Part 6. Purpose in Life Across the Lifespan: Older Adulthood

Purpose in Life. An Overview of the Literature – Part 7. Purpose in Life Across the Lifespan

Purpose in Life and Conditions of the Heart

Purpose in Life and Rheumatoid Arthritis

Having a Purpose in Life and the Risk of Cognitive Decline

Having a Purpose in Life Reduces the Risk of Death

Purpose in Life and Caregiving

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

There is a paper by Bocti and colleagues titled “A New Visual Rating Scale to Assess Strategic White Matter Hyperintensities Within Cholinergic Pathway in Dementia” which is freely available here.  There is abundant evidence that Acetylcholine plays an important role in memory and this is the theoretical basis for a class of drugs Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors that are used in Alzheimer’s Disease. The researchers in this study were interested in vascular injury to cholinergic pathways in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s Disease. An important cause of cognitive decline results from vascular injury in the brain. Broadly speaking causes of dementia are considered to occur in the ‘higher’ cortical areas and the Subcortical areas. Dementias that affect the cortical areas have very different qualities to the dementias that occur subcortically. Vascular Subcortical Dementias can be very subtle and there is much to learn about them. The researchers in this study wanted to understand whether Subcortical Vascular injury to the Cholinergic Pathway was associated with cognitive impairment and to validate a new rating scale – the Cholinergic Pathways HyperIntensities Scale (CHIPS – although the letters are out of order it serves as a handy mnemonic).

The researchers recruited 60 people with Alzheimer’s Disease with and without White Matter Hypeintensities (matched for age) and 15 controls. The subjects were part of a larger longitudinal study. They met the National Institute of Neurological Communicative Disorders and Stroke-Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders Association (NINCDS-ADRDA) researcher criteria. The subjects underwent a battery of Neuropsychological tests

• The Mattis Dementia Rating Scale
• The California Verbal Learning Test
• Word Generation Tasks

The researchers used the results of histopathological studies where the pathways had been identified using a special staining technique which enabled them to outline the course of the cholinergic neurons. Since these neurons pass close to other structures, the researchers mapped out the pathways in relation to these other structures. This was used as the basis for identifying the pathway on the T2 Weighted and proton-density MRI scans which do not show the cholinergic pathway directly. However by identifying these other structures, the researchers could work out the location of the Cholinergic pathway at each level that was visualised.

The researchers identified subjects with Alzheimer’s Disease where they thought it was likely to have developed from vascular injury to the Cholinergic pathway. These subjects were compared with subjects without White Matter Hyperintensities on the MRI. The researchers were careful to match these two groups on a number of variables including

• Age
• Education

However the former group had more vascular risk factors including a history of Hypertension and a past history of Stroke.

The researchers had refined an earlier version of their visual rating scale and used 4 slices as the basis for their scale

• Low External Capsule
• High External Capsule
• Corona Radiata
• Centrum Semiovale

The researchers wanted to find out what happened when different raters used the scale to rate images. This is an important test and the researchers were looking for good agreement between raters. This is known as reliability. The researchers found that there was good agreement between raters – they used a special test of inter-rater reliability – the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC=0.97).

When the researchers compared the CHIPS score with another method of assessing lesions White Matter Hyperintensity volume they found that again there was a good agreement between the two. Thus the CHIPS seemed to be a very good tool for approximating the volume of the lesions in the pathway. (The researchers limited the White Matter Hyperintensity volume analysis to the region-of-interest which needed to coincide with that used for the CHIPS). Interestingly there was a strong correlation between the CHIPS score and performance on the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale with the CHIPS accounting for 12% of the variance.  The researchers suggested that this variance was mediated by attention and memory subscores although due caution must be exercised in this interpretation as this is a secondary analysis.

The researchers point out a number of shortcomings of the study

• There was no direct correlation of CHIPS scores with CSF measured cholinergic marker levels
• There were few anatomical landmarks that could be used to characterise the course of the Cholinergic Pathway above the Sylvian Fissure

Nevertheless the researchers suggest future improvements that can be made to the CHIPS and the visual rating scale fills an important need in investigating the relationship between Alzheimer’s Disease and Vascular lesions.

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

In a 1-year longitudinal study people with Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM) and Depression were treated in primary care using an integrated care approach. Having a Depressive illness can worsen the course of Diabetes if the Depression is left untreated. There are many reasons for this. For instance having Depression can mean that a person is less motivated to manage their medication for Diabetes as well as their diet. The researchers in this study wanted to see if focusing on the treatment of both conditions could improve the outcomes. The researchers included 180 people in their study and used the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 to monitor mood, the Glycosylated Haemoglobin as a proxy marker of compliance with Diabetes treatment as well as a Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS). Integrated care managers worked with the GP’s to educate patients, to ensure treatment was followed according to protocols and to monitor the patient’s presentation. The researchers found that there compared to treatment as usual, the integrated approach led to a statistically significant improvement that was clinically meaningful. Thus HbA1c levels of less than 7% were achieved in 60.9% of the treatment group but only 35.7% of the ‘usual care’ group (p < 0.001). A PHQ-9 score of less than 5 was used a proxy marker for remission from depression and again 58.7% of the treatment group achieved scores of less than 5 compared to 30.7% in the usual care group (p < 0.001).

In a small study (via @MariaPage) involving 17 subjects, researchers used Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Stage 2 of sleep. The stimulation was applied with electrodes over the Frontal and Parietal lobes. There were two courses of stimulation applied. In the first course, high and low intensity followed by no stimulation were applied during stage 2 sleep. In the second course, high intensity and no stimulation were followed by reversing the polarity of the stimulation and also by stimulating in alternative directions. The researchers found that with the first course, the subjects would experience an increase in their reports of dreams with visual images on waking. The application of a direct current across the cortex during sleep is therefore either influencing dreams or the recall of dreams. This was a small study and it will need replication but potentially has very interesting implications although it is unclear what clinical application this will have if these initial results are replicated.

In another study, researchers used Positron Emission Tomography investigated changes in the brain occurring with alcohol use. They found evidence that endorphins were released in the Nucleus Accumbens and Orbitofrontal Cortex and that the amount released correlated with the pleasure experienced. The amount of endorphins released differed between people who were alcohol dependent and a control group however.

The neurodevelopmental condition Angelman’s Syndrome results from a gene disorder in which the gene UBE3A is not expressed. In an experimental model of Angelman’s Syndrome, an FDA approved drug has been used to regain the expression of this DNA when the expression has been disrupted by antisense RNA (there are also other causes including gene deletions however). This research is at an early stage but shows a theoretical success which will need to be followed up with replication and the establishment of clinical trials to see if this research translates into the clinical results.

In one study, the researchers looked at the arteries supplying blood to the brain – the Carotid Arteries using Doppler Ultrasound. The researchers were interested in the factors that causes conversion from Mild Cognitive Impairment to Dementia. They found that a combination of the thickness of the wall of the Common Carotid Arteries as well as a measure of the reactivity of the Middle Cerebral Artery significantly influenced the risk of conversion from MCI to Dementia.

There is a freely available review of the differential diagnosis of visual hallucinations in Parkinsonism here. The authors of a literature review concluded that Vitamin B12 is effective in improving cognitive impairment in Dementia only if there is a Vitamin B12 deficiency on the basis of their evidence. In another literature review, the authors found evidence of impaired recognition of emotions in Mild Cognitive Impairment. There is a freely available review of pharmacological treatment options in Alzheimer’s Disease here.

In one study, White Matter Hyperintensities in the Cholinergic Pathway in Parkinson’s Disease were inversely correlated with cognitive performance and specifically executive function. They were correlated with the motor score on the UPDRS (Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale).

Evolutionary Psychiatry

There is a review article on dementia in Primates. Apparently the Primate which experiences the closest condition to Alzheimer’s Disease – a tauopathy – is the Grey Mouse Lemur.

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

Appendix – Articles Reviewed in relation to Brodmann Areas or other Structures

Brodmann Area 1 – Somatosensory Cortex: An Investigation of D3 Receptors and Brodmann Area 1 in Schizophrenia, YouTubing the Somatosensory Cortex Brodmann Area 4 – The Primary Motor Cortex: Brodmann Areas– Part 2: Area 4. The Primary Motor Cortex – A Brief Literature Review, YouTubing the Motor Cortex Brodmann Area 6 (Agranular Frontal Area 6): FDG-PET, Frontal Dysfunction and Mild Cognitive Impairment, Brodmann Area 6 – Premotor Cortex and the Supplementary Motor Area , YouTubing Brodmann Area 6 Brodmann Areas 5 and 7 (Somatosensory Association Cortex): Brodmann Areas 5 and 7 (Somatosensory Association Cortex) Brodmann Area 8: Brodmann Area 8 Youtubing Brodmann Area 8 Brodmann Area 9: Brodmann Area 9 YouTubing Brodmann Area 9 Brodmann Area 10: Brodmann Area 10 YouTubing Brodmann Area 10 Brodmann Area 11: Brodmann Area 11. A Brief Review of the Literature. Brodmann Area 12 YouTubing Brodmann Area 12  Brodmann Area 12: A Brief Overview of the Literature Brodmann Areas 13, 14 and 52 (Insular Cortex) YouTubing the Insular Cortex  What does the Insular Cortex Do Again? Insular Cortex Infarction in Acute Middle Cerebral Artery Territory Stroke The Insular Cortex and Neuropsychiatric Disorders Developing a Model of the Insular Cortex and Emotional Regulation Part 1 Developing a Model of the Insular Cortex: A Recap  The Relationship of Blood Pressure to Subcortical Lesions  Pathobiology of Visceral Pain  Interoception and the Insular Cortex  A Case of Neurogenic T-Wave Inversion   Video Presentations on a Model of the Insular Cortex  MR Visualisations of the Insula  The Subjective Experience of Pain*  How Do You Feel? Interoception: The Sense of the Physiological Condition of the Body  How Do You Feel – Now? The Anterior Insula and Human Awareness   Role of the Insular Cortex in the Modulation of Pain  The Insular Cortex and Frontotemporal Dementia   A Case of Infarct Connecting the Insular Cortex and the Heart  The Insular Cortex: Part of the Brain that Connects Smell and Taste?   Stuttered Swallowing and the Insular Cortex  Brodmann Area 15 (Anterior Temporal Lobe – Controversial Area in Humans): Review: The Anterior Temporal Lobes and Semantic Memory   Brodmann Area 17  Turning a Person’s Visual Experiences into a Movie  Brodmann Area 20 Brodmann Area 20: A Brief Review of the Literature  Brodmann Area 21 Brodmann Area 21 – A Brief Review of the Literature Brodmann Area 25 – Anterior Cingulate Cortex: Brodman Areas Part 3. Brodmann Area 25 – The Anterior Cingulate Cortex  Brodmann Area 27 (Piriform Cortex): Anosmia in Lewy Body Dementia   Brodmann Area 28  (Entorhinal Cortex): MRI Measures of Temporoparietal Atrophy During Prodromal Alzheimer Disease*   Brodmann Areas 45, 46, 47 (Inferior Frontal Gyrus): Which Bit of the Brain Detects the Emotions in Speech? Medial Temporal Lobe: The Medial Temporal Lobe and Recognition Memory  Hippocampus: Review: Differences in Hippocampal Metabolism Between Amnestic and Non-Amnestic MCI Subjects Anatomy of the Hippocampus Review: Involvement of BDNF in Age-Dependent Alterations in the Hippocampus Miscellaneous Subcortical Structures: Book Review: Subcortical Vascular Dementia Review: Subcortical Vascular Ischaemic Dementia Review: Psychiatric Disturbances in CADASIL  Review: Cognitive Decline in CADASIL  Review: Relationship Between 24-hour Blood Pressure, Subcortical Ischemic Lesions and Cognitive Impairment    Hypocretin and Neurological Disorders    A Case of Pontine and Extrapontine Myelinolysis with Catatonia   Generic Articles Relating to Localisation: A History of Human Brain Mapping  Book Review: Brain Architecture  Brain Folding and the Size of the Human Cerebral Cortex

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

‘HyperText is a way to link and access information of various kinds as a web of nodes in which the user can browse at will‘

Ironically in writing this article I have used these original principles automatically. I have for instance embedded a hypertext link to the original proposal in the words ‘original proposal’. I have thus linked two nodes in the web – this web page and another page featuring the original hypertext link proposal. I have thus become accustomed to operating within this World Wide Web culture. The reader enters into this culture by reaching this content, by recognising the significance of the hypertext links within this post and by engaging actively with the content. Berners-Lee and Cailliau were working at CERN and were having difficulties in navigating different types of data organically. Instead they used a rigid hierarchical approach to retrieve data that was obviously (intuitively) related to other pieces of data. As well as higher level concepts, Berners-Lee and Cailliu readily identified technical software and hardware solutions to realise their vision. Berners-Lee and Cailliu were working in CERN and living in an intense world of data. They were accustomed to thinking about data types and needing to work efficiently with the data.

The world that they had created enabled people to interact in an entirely new way and like any world-changing technology it facilitated the development of new concepts and technologies. Tim O’Reilly was another important player in the story. In 2004 the IT sector was recovering from the dot.com crash – this is when the bubble of technology companies burst in a quite dramatic fashion. O’Reilly through his company O’Reilly Media established the Web 2.0 summit where in 2004 the participants debated the characteristics of the new World Wide Web that was emerging Phoenix-like from the ashes. They identified 7 key features of Web 2.0 technologies

1. The Web as platform. The web is where things happen. Rather than a company producing a software package that the person takes away and uses, the vendor operates the software and provides a service. The person using the service can focus on their experience while the service is provided through the web.

2. Harnessing collective intelligence. The people using Web 2.0 technology are able to contribute and improve the quality of the technology. An obvious example is Wikipedia where articles are refined and the breadth of articles increases through the activity of the community.

3. Database driven. The data is crucial in Web 2.0 technologies. Having high quality data enables the provider to deliver a high quality service.

4. End of the software release cycle. The example of Google is given where the search engine software must crawl the web continuously updating content to provide end-users with the best experience.

5. Lightweight programming models. There is an emphasis on flexible reusable programming models.

6. Software above the level of a single device. The technology operates across different types of hardware.

7. Rich user experiences. The software is enhanced through the characteristics of Web 2.0 technology discussed above and the end-user will have an improved experience with more features.

This discussion is fairly technical and highlights a difficulty that is faced when discussing Science 2.0 and associated constructs. To discuss Web 2.0 or Science 2.0, a person must traverse multiple areas from technical hardware and software discussions through to sociological phenomenon as well as the core features of the field e.g science. This is technically quite tricky but rewarding if done well. In practice, the entire area is so vast that a single person is capable of understanding only a small part and even of misinterpreting certain areas. However the potential benefits of a good understanding as well as development of this field are profound.

Appendix

Doing Science 2.0. Part 1. What is Science 2.0?

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

I’ve uploaded a video of the review of Thomas Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’. I was a little slow in reviewing the book and listened to it quite a lot of times as its quite a profound work which enables interpretation to take place at different levels. The written text of the review can be found in the links below.

Appendix

For a review of the Introduction see here.

For a review of Chapter 1 see here.

For a review of Chapter 2 see here.

For a review of Chapter 3 see here.

For a review of Chapter 4 see here.

For a review of Chapter 5 see here.

For a review of Chapter 6 see here.

For a review of Chapter 7 see here.

For a review of Chapter 8 see here.

For a review of Chapter 9 see here.

For a review of Chapter 10 see here.

For a review of Chapter 11 see here.

For a review of Chapter 12 see here.

For a review of Chapter 13 see here.

For a review of the Postscript see here.

In Support of Method – Critique of Feyerebend’s ‘Against Method’ see here.

An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.