
Machine learning links brain connectivity patterns with psychiatric symptoms - laurex
https://www.healio.com/psychiatry/practice-management/news/online/%7B3190207d-0771-45cf-b085-740d048ec110%7D/machine-learning-links-brain-connectivity-patterns-with-psychiatric-symptoms
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sandworm101
The concept sounds perfectly acceptable and promising: documenting brain
activity to aid in the diagnosis of mental illness, but this treads on some
touchy issues. Specifically, what is and isn't considered "normal". The
article notes that...

"Unlike other branches of modern medicine which use biologically-based tests
of disease, psychiatry still relies on patient reports and physician
observations".

That is true. But unlike other branches of medicine, psychiatry doesn't try to
fix people that aren't struggling. We go to the doctor, who then tells us our
BP is too high and we need to exercise more. We don't go to our psychiatrist
for such checkups. A doctor knows what good and bad blood pressure look like,
and will seek to move us from bad to good. Today, psychiatrists rarely ever
examine, let alone treat, people until their mental state is negatively
impacting their lives. They treat the clinical case. They don't go around
telling people they are sick in the way medical doctors look at blood
pressure. A brain scan, a "biologically-based test" opens the door to treating
people who aren't yet a clinical case. I am sure that such scans would aid in
the diagnosis and understanding of mental illness. But by expanding the
diagnostic process, these scans would also open up a huge new market for the
psychiatric treatment of non-clinical cases.

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felix_nagaand
Uhm. A large number of people, especially children are subjected to
psychiatric treatment that they do not request. Courts routinely order
treatment for pre- conviction defendants. Schools routinely send under
performing or 'difficult'students to psychologists for treatment. These are
non- consensual relationships and a clear violation of the code of ethics.
These practices taint studies the victims are included in. These forced
relationships breed hostility for the field and further isolate the very
people supposedly 'getting helped' by these systems.

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openasocket
Courts only order treatment for defendants pre-conviction if they are
determined to be mentally incapable of standing trial. This is a very basic
standard that simply requires that the defendant understands what a judge is,
what a jury is, what the charges are, etc. Are you actually suggesting that
the ethical thing to do is to try and potentially convict people too mentally
ill to understand what is going on?

Also, I'm not aware of any public school, at least in the US, that sends
students to psychologists for treatment. Schools don't even employ clinical
psychologists or psychiatrists, and they can't require that a student go to a
psychologist to remain at a school.

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clankfan
Hasn't it been reported that psychosis is caused by a lack of connectivity in
the brain? I seem to remember someone saying that there had been a
breakthrough in discovering that certain brain cells were pulling double duty
as immune cells and overzealously pruning connections, causing psychosis.

If over-connectivity is the source of all these problems then isn't that a
boon because it must be simpler to cut connections therapudicly than to create
them

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meowface
I don't think the root cause(es) of psychosis have really been determined yet.
I think it's fair to say that since many drugs induce immediate psychosis,
it's unlikely that pruned connections are the only cause.

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stochastic_monk
It’s pretty clearly D2-like receptors being overexcited, at least as far as
cause and effect. Hence psychotic symptoms in stimulant users and a remission
of psychosis in schizophrenic patients when on D2-blocking drugs.

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meowface
D2 receptors are undoubtedly tied to many forms of psychosis, but their being
the root cause is not yet proven.

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jpfed
>Each of these dimensions was predicted by unique abnormalities of brain
networks,” Satterthwaire explained. “However, all dimensions were marked by
abnormally high levels of connectivity between the default mode network and
fronto-parietal network, two brain regions that usually become increasingly
distinct as the brain matures. This loss of normal brain network segregation
supports the hypothesis that many psychiatric illnesses may be disorders of
brain development.”

I wonder if that points to failures of the synaptic pruning that's supposed to
happen in preschool-to-primary-school age kids.

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petra
Meditation and possible some states of enlightenment(fully quiet mind), are
about reducing activity in the default-mode-network(DMN). Psychologically this
is seen as a reduction/loss of the sense of self(or more exactly stopping
self-referential thoughts)

On the other hand, a common association[1] with several mental illnesses, is
rumination("repetitive, self-directed thought") - which actually fits the
current study. One wonders if specific mental illness cause rumination and why
? or is it backwards ?

[1][https://www.psypost.org/2016/07/study-suggests-rumination-
tr...](https://www.psypost.org/2016/07/study-suggests-rumination-
transdiagnostic-connection-mental-illness-43828)

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dpflan
The other day I was looking at Computer Science courses offered the Georgia
Institute of Technology, and "Behavior Imaging" sounded interesting. It's part
of the realm of computational behavioral science

> Course Info: [http://rehg.org/teaching/introduction-to-behavioral-
> imaging/](http://rehg.org/teaching/introduction-to-behavioral-imaging/)

> Computational Behavioral Science:
> [http://www.cbs.gatech.edu/](http://www.cbs.gatech.edu/)

~~~
xenihn
This looks interesting, anyone taking/has taken the course?

