Psychology

The Mystery of Intelligence: Organic and Inorganic Foundations

May 8, 2022 by Robert DePaolo

by Robert DePaolo

Abstract
This article discusses a possible aspect of the natural world that transcends the functions of brain and mind, facilitates decision making and intelligent behavior and operates according to electro-information principles. At the root of what could be referred to as cosmic intelligence is the tendency for all systems with information content to operate in two phases. One is the extrapolation of information from states on uncertainty. The other is the tendency among all entities with essence (molecular and otherwise) to maintain systemic integrity. The assumption here is that free floating bits of information permeate the universe. That includes both neurons in the brains of organisms and interactive particles, in a cosmos that resembles a vast communications network resolving mismatches and sustaining the homeostatic operations of formed systems.

The natural world presents as a mystery, not just because of its wonders, its variety of life forms or the unique manner in which it developed over the course of time, but also because, despite our fascination with its laws we do not seem able to completely understand how it works.

For example, in the aftermath of Newton’s calculations and Einstein’s General Relativity Theory we thought we could come to understand how gravity worked. and in a larger context how the universe came to be. Some, particularly Einstein believed we might ultimately be able to predict, and to an extent control many aspects of nature through the precision of classical physics. Then along came quantum mechanics which revealed that the universe is too elusive and probabilistic to allow for human prediction and control.
We also thought – as per our anthropocentric proclivities, that there was a correlation between mind and intelligence, more specifically between ‘brain’ and ‘learning.’ Now that idea has been all but debunked. It has become clear that intelligence (or the behavioral components by which it is often described) transcends brain structure and function. For example, research on slime molds (one celled amoeba known as physarum polycephalum) has shown brainless entities can make decisions, remember, change their behavior patterns in light of changing stimuli and even solve the armed bandit problem (Reid, MacDonald et al. 2016).
While recent findings have shed new light on the fact that brainless intelligence exists in virtually all organisms, the idea has a long history. For example, in a 1972 article entitled The Phylogeny of Behavior noted psycho physiologist James Olds wrote: “It is apparent that prior to the emergence of the brain as we know it there were many important behavior mechanisms. In animals without nervous systems without neurons, with only one cell making up the whole animal there is evidence for approach reactions toward some things, withdrawal from others, consumptive reactions which put particles which were on the outside of the animal on the inside to digest them, and there are also mechanisms for behavior change.”
Moreover, various others have chimed in with a pan-natural explanation of intelligence, one very interesting example was espoused by Adrian Bejan and J. Peder Zane in their book Design in Nature. In this book they asserted that energy dispersion is the quintessential determinant in all aspects of nature and that there is a kind of intelligent flow of energy from greatest to the least resistance. Examples they offered range from the flow of a river to traffic patterns in a big city to the path taken by veins and arteries and neuronal transmission in the human brain and body (2013) Their view of natural intelligence pertains more to the flow of energy based on electrical properties and derivative physical laws than with decision making per se, but they do include intelligent behavior as deriving from this basic process.
Others have opted for more cognitive explanations. For example, Morris has stated that plants make decisions despite being brainless, and can change their behavior in the face of changing circumstances.
On one hand, all of this makes the question of intelligence murky. What is it? An electro-mechanical process that has always existed in the universe and was simply enhanced with the advent of nerves and brain, or perhaps something so uncertain – like Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle that we cannot really define it in a classical sense?
It involves interesting points. One has pessimistic overtones. For example, does uncertainty about the nature and source of intelligence say something about the inability of human beings to define how nature works without resorting to self-reference? Another is rather positive and illuminating because that same uncertainty virtually calls for a broad, universal and unified theory of “mind” and that is an exciting prospect.
In order to broach the subject of root intelligence one must begin with fundamental questions. First, by asking about qualities that pervade all of nature, tying the brainless and the inorganic to the encephalized and organic. What do all of nature’s entities have in common?
There are several possible answers to that question. One is that all have either manifest or potential energy. That means all are composed of petrochemical properties that behave in lawful ways; ranging from laws of resistance to the relationship of force to mass and differences in charge by which particles and cells are activated – for example as seen in the sodium-potassium pump, “all or none” principle of brain activation (Forest 2014)
A second possible answer pertains to the fact that for entities to be ‘entities’ they must exist (pardon the tautology) and to do, so they must have tangible, measurable and constant properties. Despite being composed of numerous atoms they are systemic. Somehow, the atomic configurations in all things with structural and functional essence have been able to blend together into a cooperative process. A third factor is that, except for photons, all of these entities have some degree of mass, which provides a feedback mechanism by which to gauge their constancy, i.e. determine whether any given entity is maintaining its stability (and mass), diminishing or flying apart.
The idea of stability, i.e. systemic integrity can be defined in the broadest (non-anthropocentric) sense as a kind of memory. As a crude example, being systemic (bound together as a unified whole separate from the outside world) the atoms embedded in a rock will know something about its mass and will tend to sustain its mass, absent some compelling outside force. While looking at a rock does not involve anything fascinating or cognitive, its very stability is testimony to its capacity to hold together in a structurally stable manner. Since its binding, systemic property is the result of electrical charges attracting or repelling one another, the rock – like the principle of inertia, will tend toward stasis once its atoms align systemically to create a form. Once that happens, the rock can be described as an information system in which components are in effect communicating with each other with regard to charge, spatial and mass interactions. As with any form of communication there must be agreement among all those components for the rock to remain a rock. The question is whether such a crude example can extend to intelligence and life forms.
An analogy can be seen in the concept of the self – of human identity. If one believes he is smart but contradictory information challenges that assumption the self won’t simply sway toward acceptance of that contradictory input. Rather, defense mechanisms will be enacted to restore the idea of the intelligent self. In other words, both the self and the rock will tend to adhere to a systemic understanding of itself and opt for maintenance.
That characteristic seems to typify everything in nature. For example, physicists Richard Feynman, David Bohm, Simon de Broglie and quantum originator Max Planck have essentially described the universe as being entangled., i.e. inter-related and pan-communicative. In collaboration with Karl Pribram, David Bohm viewed all the cosmos as being much like one giant electron, all parts of which influenced the overall properties and structure of the cosmos (2020). In applying this to human cognition Pribram wrote that the brain is a hologram rather than being separable into distinct functions and circuits relegated to speech, motor control, emotion etc. He contended that the rather mysterious, unfathomably voluminous ways in which human memory can be stored and overlap in retrieval proves the point (1972)
If there is an implicit oneness in nature, if this oneness has as its fundamental backdrop the transmission of energy and information – both of which tend toward oneness in the form of conservation and systemic integrity (homeostasis) that might have relevance to what is referred to as intelligence.
Does that in the broadest sense mean intelligence is really just a mechanism facilitated by the contained petrochemical interactions by which to sustain systemic integrity – brains being modifications and enhancements of that process while deriving from the same electro-informational source? An interesting parallel can be drawn between that idea and Freud’s notion of the psyche.
In discussing the ego – the component of mind responsible for apportionment of need and social probity, (in other words the intellectual aspect of mind that predicts, measures and channels energy) Freud wrote that its main operational purpose was to maintain psychic stability, i.e. psychological homeostasis. It was his belief that the mind, as part of the human body functioned in much the same way as the soma – thus the description of his theory as the “medical model.” Freud viewed the ego as an intellectual faculty – indeed in clinical circles it is assumed ego strength is a function of general intelligence. Yet the purpose of this cognitive function was not to enhance knowledge per se but to maintain psychic integrity.
If these various examples of intelligence are tied to electro-informational stasis, all intellectual/cognitive aspects of the natural world could be presumed characterized by an overriding tendency to continue to exist – to maintain stasis. This implies that anything described as having intelligence would have to operate on two levels; first by addressing the outside world to meet needs, solve problems, etc. Second, would have to render decisions that serve the purpose of sustaining organic integrity, i.e. constitutional, informational, cellular constancy.
Both of these purposes can be applied to inorganic systems, which might not demonstrate the kind of intelligence that leads to invention of the printing press but do act and decide in ways that keep the entity on track systemically.
That leads to the heart of the matter, i.e. the factor connecting all aspects of nature under the rubric of cosmic intelligence. What common quality exists among slime molds, Kantian philosophers, leaf cutter ants (who engage in a proto-agricultural behavior) and various forms of plant life that bend in the direction of sunlight and burrow deep enough underground to secure water? It would seem to be the capacity to process feedback to determine when stability is either sustained or threatened. That in turn means all these entities must have above all else, a signaling capability, i.e. be above all else communication systems.
It turns out that property is quite available to all entities regardless of the complexity of the entity/organism. All information – all signals are transmitted through electro-information processes. Electric stimulation is one critical component of that process, which suggests anything with electrons, photons or other particles embedded in their composition will have a capacity to send and receive signals.
That makes the “it from bit” theory of John Wheeler seem quite relevant. He, along with various other physicists tried for decades to explain how a celestial body in one part of the universe could correlate its behavior i.e. interact with another so far away as to seemingly (in line with the restraints of light speed) preclude the possibility of communication. Many of these scientists have been forced to conclude that somehow the entire universe is connected, as if, in the words of David Bohm it is one giant electron.
Whether such a super-unification idea makes sense, it does seem evident that since a general definition of intelligence would include the capacity to send and receive signals as a means of testing for systemic integrity and adjusting to change. Electro-informational properties are all that is needed to accomplish that.
In that context it might be important to ask what the benefit is in having nerve nets and central nervous systems if they are not absolutely needed to maintain stasis. The answer can be provided in a Darwinian context. Brains are simply an augmentation of that basic process – not the source of intelligence but a mechanism by which intelligence can be enhanced. The same process that led to a conversion from gills to lungs, fins to legs. Claws to fingers possibly led to the subtle electrical components built into cells and smaller a-cephalic organisms expanding into brains.
A prototype example of that process can be seen in the evolution of seahorses. Prior to their emergence, organisms in the oceans moved toward light sources, warmth etc. by drifting according to currents. These organisms had needs, had a homeostatic essence but had little movement independence. They were at once separated from the outside environment by virtue of their unique cellular makeup, yet still woven into it for lack of internally driven electrical decision making capacities.
Then along came the sea horse, with a new cluster of neurons – extensions of the electrical elements situated in back of their heads, like the motor in a speed boat. With that, they became able to voluntarily move from one place to another in search of prey beyond current influence (Gemmell. Shang et al. 2013). That influx of neural matter provided a final separation between them and that world around them.
In that sense the evolution of increasing neuronal complexity – all the way up to brains, might have been nature’s way of providing increasingly independent movement, increased organic information and what we now refer to as motivation, or the “will.” In a somewhat whimsical sense, one might extrapolate from that by proposing that the ultimate “separation” in nature arose within the vast human brain, which not only enables us to further separate ourselves from the outside world but also to control it to an extent. The final stage of this evolutionary distinction process would be arguably, the advent of personal identity and of the self.

                                                        References

Bejan, A. Zane, J. Peder. (2013) Design in Nature First Anchor Books
Bohm, Pribram and the holograph model. Essays. David Center. Com (April 12, 2020)
Ford, J (April 2009) John Wheeler’s work in particles nuclei and weapons, Physics Today S 29
Forest, M.D. Dec. 2014) The sodium-potassium pump is an Information processing element in brain computation. Fronteirs in Physiology 5 (472)
Freud, S. (1923) The Ego and the I’d. Standard Edition, Vol. 19 pp 1-59
Gemmell. B.J. Shang, j. Buskey. E.J. (2013) Morphology of sea horse head hydrodynamically aids in capture of evasive prey. Nature Communications (4) 2840
Morris, A, A Mind Without a Brain; The Science of Plant Intelligence Takes Root Interview with Science July 2021
Morris, A. July 2021. Intelligent Beings without Brains are Abundant in Nature – A Growing Scientific Consensus
Olds, J. 1972. The Phylogeny of Behavior in Evolution, Information and Personality; Toward A Unified Theory of the Psyche. Virtual Bookworm Publishers
Pribram, K. (1971) Languages of the Brain: Experimental Paradoxes and Principles in Neuropsychology, Prentice Hall
Reid, C. MacDonald, H. Mann, R. Marshall, J.A.R. Latty. J. Garner S. (2016).Decision making without a brain; How an amoebic organism solves the two-armed bandit. Journal of Royal Society Interface 13 (119)
Suell. G. Yang, C.Y. Bialecka-Fornal J. Weather wax, C. Larkin, J. Brindle, A. Liu, J. Garcia-Ojalvo, J. (2020) Encoding membrane potential-based memory within microbial community. Cell Systems, 10: 1016

Serial Killers: A Multifactorial Discussion of Etiology

March 7, 2022 by Robert DePaolo

Serial Killers: A Multi-factorial Discussion of Etiology

by Robert DePaolo

Abstract

This article discusses the behavioral dynamics of serial killers in terms of several disciplines including psychology, linguistics, anthropology, sociology and neurology. Conclusions are drawn with respect to the development of an obsessive desire to kill. The argument is presented that explanations based on analysis of “triggers,’ childhood upbringing and lack of a conscience (i.e. superego mal-development) are insufficient to explain why individuals engage in this kind of behavior. The general theme here is that a combination of occurrences and predispositions must be in place to lead to aggression and the excessive need for domination seen in murderous sociopaths. This includes a phenomenon referred to as “hypo-speciation’) – a diminution of victims to below human status that enables the killer to override guilt (DePaolo 2021).

A look at the lives of serial killers presents both discrepancies and commonalities with respect to their motives, background and behavior patterns. Such discrepancies are seen in the most notorious members of this group: including Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgeway, Albert DeSalvo, John Wayne Gacy and Dennis Rader.

There are also commonalities, which has been documented through psychiatric evaluations, books, and statements made by the killers themselves. It appears their acts all combined aggression with the sex drive and featured a defense-based need to control people whom they feel could otherwise control them (as a result of their tentative levels of self- esteem and the concomitant threat of rejection). Each act involved targeting victims in the aftermath of lengthy surveillance and stalking, and sexual intercourse with the deceased victim (necrophilia).

However, there are also differences among the killers. DeSalvo murdered older women as well as young women (White, 2015). Bundy murdered college age women but also preteens (Rule 1980). Dahmer victimized young males to satisfy his homosexual desires (Schwarz 2021) and Rader killed parents and their children.

The difference in victimology suggests a prominent factor might have simply been the availability of the targets. Bundy’s victims were mostly petit women, easily overwhelmed. The targets of Dahmer and Gacy were young males who could easily be overcome physically, and in the case of Ridgeway, it involved killing prostitutes almost exclusively, who were strangled during intercourse when they were in a defenseless position. In a sense, all these acts resembled the hunting strategy of a predator who selects the weakest member of a pack. In each case the killer seemed to be maximizing his chance at completing the act, which suggests (despite theories of victim typology) it was the act of killing per se that was the goal, and that convenience was a prime motivation.

Sexual gratification was part and parcel of the act for these killers, but even here there are variances. DeSalvo was aroused by older women. Rader and Bundy engaged in sexual activity with pre-pubescent young girls and Dahmer and Gacy picked young male victims they felt were vulnerable. (Linedecker 1993)

That raises several questions; for example, why is killing so necessary to these individuals? Secondly, why is sexual gratification derived from killing the sexual “partner,” bearing in mind that many serial killers, particularly Bundy, Rader, Dahmer and DeSalvo engaged in intercourse with their deceased victims? To address those questions, it would seem helpful to delve into several influences on human behavior that arise not just in extreme but also general circumstances.

First, it is necessary to assert that humans derive from a primate line. We are not descended from apes, as goes the colloquial interpretation, but we do apparently come from an ancestor common to both humans (and hominids) and arboreal primates – possibly an ancient upright walker known as Ramipithecus (Bali, 2022). In the primate world, social organization is typified by male dominance. In both chimpanzee and Gorilla societies the alpha male controls sexual practices. Moreover, his dominant status makes him attractive to females. It is a genetic process that ostensibly guarantees the strongest genes will be passed onto the next generation.

That doesn’t mean only dominant males will mate, but it takes cunning and intelligent opportunism for lesser members of the group to attract females – as well as a certain amount of sexual urgency on the part of females who realize the estrus period is brief.

That means humans have some tendency to pair up sex with male dominance. It is not just an evolutionary process. Sexual readiness comes about through neurochemical uptake so that dominance comes about through an increase in testosterone and norepinephrine.
That means in the most basic neuro-behavioral context, there is an interrelationship among sex, dominance and aggression. That might explain why, according to federal crime statistics, there are, on average roughly 1800 instances annually of men killing women in the U.S.

Most humans can modulate their impulses so that aggression does not spill over to the sex act – which for our species is predominantly a tender, empathic experience. However, the potential for that spillover exists within the human genome and within our basic physiology, particularly within human brain circuitry.
The appetitive and sexual centers in the brain’s limbic ring (a circular midbrain structure) are adjacent to and innervate one another. The hypothalamus regulates sexual and appetitive drives. It sits next to the amygdala – a center that regulates rage and aggression. (Bailey, 2018) This is fortuitous, since the act of hunting and killing prey is prerequisite to eating form many creatures. In that context, one might conclude (in somewhat oblique fashion) that the interaction and neural spillover effect of sex, dominance, aggression and appetite is adaptive.

An analogous neural spillover relationship can be seen in the proximity of neural pathways connecting finger and hand movement and the movement of the tongue that enables us to employ manual gestures as well as vocalization to enhance communication. Thus, while many neuroscientists discuss the brain in terms of specific locations and functions, for example, the hippocampus for memory storage and consolidation, the cortical occipital lobe for visual processing and Broca’s area for language expression, many human activities involve integration of a variety of neural circuits, which can both facilitate actions and at times interfere with them.

Most of us have the capacity for reciprocal inhibition (a process in which one brain circuit can selectively block the activity of another) so that amygdaloid circuits do not spill typically over to the hypothalamus and pair up sex with violent behavior. Obviously that spillover does occur with serial killers. That doesn’t mean serial killers suffer from organic dysfunction – they typically do not. For example, Ted Bundy’s neurological exams were normal as determined by E.G.G and MRI workups. However, neither of those instruments can determine a cross wiring anomaly. They can determine whether neural structures are intact but not “where they go.” With billions of neural interconnections in the brain that would be an impossible task.

Such cross-wiring anomalies can occur through childhood experience when limbic-cortical connections are established. During early childhood sex can be paired with aggression to the point of becoming a Guthrie-esque, immutable associative bond. In not being able to utilize sophisticated defense mechanisms and cognitive parsing skills, a young child will tend to incorporate sex and violence into an associative mindset rather than reject it. In such instances, the pairing of sex with aggression can become an unconscious process – a nearly reflexive type of learned habit that is effectively unattributable to the child.

That might explain why most serial killers are unable to really explain why they pair up sex with violence. Their horrific actions arguably reflect childhood regression. That might explain why Ted Bundy – a man who seemed intelligent and attractive – had to resort to serial murder to satisfy his sexual and social needs. It wasn’t the adult law student and articulate bon vivant doing the killing but rather the child who was “father to the man” known as Ted.

Some traits of serial killers include compensatory dominance, whereby an extreme sense of inferiority clashes with a self-contrived sense of superiority. That dynamic, which is line with Adlerian theory, (Orgler 1976) leads to a psychological balancing act. In response to extreme bouts with feelings of inadequacy the compensatory swing will be equally extreme (even in conjured up in fantasy) which will raise the level of superiority by the serial killer to such a degree that other people are, by comparison, deemed sub-human, making the kill no more guilt-inducing than that of a deer hunter. Such an equating of a human victim with an animal (hypo-speciation) can often be seen in the early acts of animal torture typical of many serial killers.

Does that mean childhood experience can produce neurological pathology? Neurological workups of Ted Bundy and others tended to be normal. However, as discussed above, while there might not be discernible neuro-pathologies there could be faulty interconnectivity, possibly due to fragmented connections between the self – regulatory frontal lobes and mid brain emotion circuits.

There is an ironic process at work in those pathways. The frontal lobes are responsible for self- monitoring, self-regulation and arguably provide a mechanism by which the conscience develops. The frontal cortex has more connections to other brain sites than any other network in the human brain. (Hoffman 2013) That is why self-control is the rule, rather than the exception for our species. On the other hand, when those pathways are skewed, interrupted as a result of childhood experiences or lack sufficient communicative coordination (are dyspraxic) a level of control will be lost, and potentially lead to unfathomably brutal behavior patterns.
The fact that neither DeSalvo, Bundy, Gacy, Rader or Ridgeway could articulate the reasons for their actions suggests the impulse to kill does not typically arise from cognitive schemata. That level of awareness might lead a person to be aggressive against another for a specific reason (perhaps revenge, the perception of threat or even momentary rage as in the case of manslaughter) but it does not seem to be involved in the actions of a person who kill repeatedly.

As discussed above, such pathological connectivity could be related to childhood experiences. This could include identification with a violent male role model in early childhood. That is because identification is mandatory for so social a creature as Homo sapiens. The need for social bonding is intense enough, and probably derived from evolution that it cannot distinguish the good from the bad. Any child will tend to be a psychological reflection of his caretakers.

It could also be induced by obsessive self-talk/programming whereby the serial killer spends time contemplating and justifying his rage so often as to block out external inputs, including the social taboo against violence, the importance of empathy and other factors that would otherwise contribute to superego formation. In other words, the kind of psychopath who engages in serial murder might not suffer from lack of empathy per se. Instead, he might be so caught up in super-empathy for himself due to the perception of threat from his victims, or their typology, as with Bundy, who had an extreme fear of rejection by females and Dahmer, who feared abandonment and kept his victims in a semi-animated state after death so they couldn’t leave him) as to block out the external social environment. Interestingly, the usual stereotype of the serial kill is of a highly intelligent individual. That is not necessarily true. However, anyone who can rely on his own internal language appraisals to sanction murderous actions would have to be extremely verbal and ironically, capable of pristine logic. Otherwise, he would not be able to persuade himself to engage in such brutality. In watching interviews with Bundy, Rader, Kemper and Dahmer this writer became impressed with their language skills. Despite their obvious savagery, they came across as professorial.

Yet, many people are verbally gifted experience rejection and fear abandonment but do not engage in serial murder. Perhaps that is because the concerns of some psychopaths are more external. They do not engage in self-programming and cannot block out the outside world they are so invested in manipulating.
Self-talk can provide justification for the acts of serial killers. After all, some have defined the conscience as a process by which one engages in self consultations about right and wrong. Even though, as Freud suggested the superego is formed through parental and societal inputs, the values must eventually become internalized and self- regulated. Negative self-programming would seem to operate along similar lines.

That seems to have been the case with Bundy, Gacy, Rader and Dahmer, who did not show overt signs of anger and did not seem to develop their pathology as a result of family discord or other externally induced traumas but did spend a lot of time in either physical or psychological isolation. Self-programming is doubly ominous because it not only prevents early identification of the serial killer’s violent potential, but also enables the internally driven killer to become increasingly violent and socially detached even if, like Bundy he does interact with people on a regular basis. As long as inner commentary dominates, his real motives will be undetectable.

There are sociological factors to consider as well. Many of the episodes of serial murder occurred in the time between the 70s and 80s in the USA, particularly in the cases of Bundy, Ridgeway, Gacy and Rader. It was a time when women were asserting their independence, including in the area of sexual liberation. Most men adapted to the changes, not just out of a sense of compassion but out of necessity – many women were either breadwinners or at least significant co-contributors to the household income around this time. For some males, this presented a clash between their belief in dominance over females and the realities of the workplace and social mores per se. In that sense, the acts of these predators could be presumed to be, among other things, a protest against changing times.
Despite all these causative factors, most males do not murder females. Indeed, built into the social code for many years was the dictum…never hit a girl (or woman). Part of this was based on the perception that females are generally smaller and have less muscle mass and that it was cowardly to harm someone weaker than yourself – an instance in which the much-maligned macho ethic served to mitigate against male on female aggression. The question then becomes; why do some incredibly small percent of males engage in such horrific behavior?
Since all serial killers have existed within the same societal structure as the rest of us, it seems there must be an extra-social causative element pushing them over the top. There are many psychopaths in society, but most do not kill. There are many men who are rejected by females – like Bundy, but they do not kill. Many men have problematic relationships with their mothers – like Edmund Kemper, but they do not kill. All of which seems to argue against the “trigger,” poor upbringing and sociopathy explanations of serial murder. In short something within the individual must be involved.

What might that be and how can we identify it before the damn breaks? That is not an easy question to answer, especially if one assumes part of the causation has to do with the killer using self-talk to prompt and sustain his acts of violence. To examine that issue it might be helpful to categorize them by trait and dynamics.

Bundy was an introvert, who was detached and alienated, even before discovering he was illegitimate. He seemed to identify with an abusive grandfather – the only significant male in his early childhood. As a toddler Bundy developed a fascination with knives. Later in his latency years he tortured animals and might have had his first “dry run at age 14 when he possibly killed a young girl named Marie Burr.

DeSalvo, married with a handicapped daughter, had a passive wife who spoke little English. He had a violent father who forced Albert to engage in sex with his sister and brought home prostitutes as his wife and children looked on. Albert was a loner with few friends, who felt estranged socially.

Dahmer was an introvert, who drifted away socially and began drinking in his teens as a means of drowning out his latent homosexual urges. He became socially isolated, which led to periods of rumination and anticipation of being rejected and abandoned. He killed his victims because he felt to unworthy that only by murder could he keep victims from “leaving him.”

Gacy’s father berated him for his effeminate interests as a child, expressing disdain for people who were less than masculine, which cast shame on his son – who, not coincidentally was named after John Wayne. That led to Gacy’s hate for himself and for his urges, which resulted in his killing young male sexual partners/victims as a kind of self-nihilism.

Gary Ridgeway failed at several marriages, and in relationships with women in general. He developed an extreme sense of detachment and feelings of inferiority as a result of maternal rejection. Had a very secretive existence fueled by superego sidestepping, self-programming and a projection of his own guilt onto prostitutes, whose “evil allure” he deemed responsible for his own short-comings and lack of self-control.

Dennis Rader was a secretive man who sought positions of power in his community, showed no obvious signs of psychopathology but had deep seated, over-compensatory needs to not only conquer his victims but outwit the authorities. He sought sexual gratification with the youngest of his victims – a prepubescent girl.
In examining these trends, it seems several central factors stand out that have psychological, and anthropological ramifications. One is human nature. We are linguistic, hyper-social, dependent on interactions, social comparisons, social mores and social contact to sustain our emotional integrity. Since we cannot function in the absence of that influence social isolation can lead to various forms of psychopathology. Detachment, whether by actual separation or self-programmed alienation will tend to cause mental deterioration by precluding a social check and balance on impulse.
There must also be a severe oscillations between feelings of inferiority and self-contrived superiority that can, in the extreme instances, elevate the psychopath to God-like status. That would render others effectively sub-human, and thus enable the “hunter” to seek and destroy his “game.”

Third, the hypo-speciation factor must be interesting enough to make objectification of victims pleasurable. Once they are rendered sub-human, the killer can become fascinated, rather than appalled at the site of dead bodies, and even find them sexually attractive. In such instances he will enjoy the look and company of the deceased. Physical aspects of their lifelessness, while to most would visually displeasing would overridden by the appeal of “company” who are non-threatening, compliant and in a strange sort of way ‘serene” in the eyes of the serial killer.

Fourth, the killer must experience frequent, intense and unpredictable lapses back into feelings of inferiority – especially since the killer’s pretense of ultra-dominance is contrived. Not being psychotic, the killer will recognize that the “God” he deemed himself to be is really a delusion. During episodes of realization, the killer is forced to exert complete control over the victim/sexual partner, which means only complete passivity by the deceased sex object (who cannot reject him) can be sexually satisfying.

A fifth consideration is a depression syndrome. Use of the word ‘syndrome’ – as opposed to a specific diagnostic term is due to the risk involved in multiple acts of killing. All reasonable people can understand the risk inherent in any act. This is particularly true when the act is criminal and when retribution can take the form of lengthy incarceration or the death penalty. Most sociopaths are considered legally sane and in the most basic sense, reasonable. Certainly Bundy, Dahmer, Gacy, DeSalvo and Rader and Ridgeway were. In that context one must explain why they were willing to take bold risks despite knowing there was a good chance they would be caught. Ridgeway trolled the streets at night, repeatedly hitting on prostitutes. He was a “regular John” who could have been easily identified. Bundy approached two women at Lake Sammamish in broad daylight with thousands of people around and introduced himself to his victims using his real name. Gacy killed in his own neighborhood, as did Dahmer and Rader. While it took a while to catch these men, none particularly went out of their way to avoid detection. Rader even engaged in ongoing conversations by letter with police and journalists during his killing spree.

The usual assumption is that the risk factor was related to the thrill of avoiding arrest and/or the quest for notoriety. I believe a more central antecedent to risk taking was chronic depression. Boldness is often a function of a nothing to lose mentality. That doesn’t mean the killers wanted to get caught and punished but it does suggest the thrill attraction on such a grand scale could have been a compensatory adjustment for purposes of counteracting extreme sadness. Since the depression was ostensibly chronic, risk taking would have to escalate further and further to blot out sadness.

Also. having to negotiate between the threat of inferiority and the need to re-invigorate compensatory grandiosity would have required constant effort and chronic vigilance; especially regarding the mental work resulting from inner thoughts related to self vs other comparisons. That would tend to produce a drain on energy. The fact that no permanent resolution could ever be found to erase feelings of inadequacy would eventually lead to the kind of depression associated with learned helplessness. It might explain why Bundy often said he was “bummed out” after a kill, and that he had to keep doing it to create renewed but only temporary gratification.

In fact, depression might be the most fundamental neuro-behavioral reason why a child can end up with poor superego development. For example, the frontal lobes are the latest neural circuits to develop – not reaching full development until young adulthood. For any brain structure to develop requires adequate and repeated neurohumoral transmission so that clear, functional pathways and inter-neuronal relationships can be established. That is particularly the case with frontal development, because the connections between this site and other brain sites is complex and voluminous. If a child is placed in a helpless situation – for example being dependent on yet detached from or fearful of care his takers he will not have the cognitive skills by which to compartmentalize the experience. It will overwhelm him, and helplessness-fueled depression will become entrenched and compelling. Should that occur, there will be an accompanying depletion of neurotransmitters that could otherwise provide feelings of wellness and security. If frontal-limbic circuits are not properly “bathed” and carved out through catecholamine transmission normal connections will not be fully established. That could lead to many functions of the frontal circuits being delayed or diminished.

While there are undoubtedly other causative factors, it seems social detachment, extreme feelings of inferiority, and a depression-fueled need to sustain a compensatory sense of grandiosity are core elements disposing serial killers to engage in obsessive violence.

Still, many personalities feature similar dynamics but do not kill. Indeed, that is part of the morbid fascination with serial killers, who are all too often transformed by the culture into mythical figures over time. It seems reasonable to assume the creation of a serial killer requires a combination of neurological, psychological, anthropological and sociological factors. Just what proportion might be involved is difficult to tell but it appears no one component or trigger is sufficient to explain such behavior. It might be that, like many psychopathologies, sociopathy entails degrees of severity. It might also explain why serial killers are so rare and why it is so difficult to predict their emergence.

Since it is quite possible for neurological connections to divert from normalcy through either experience or undetectable developmental anomalies it is likely that faulty frontal to limbic wiring resulting from neuro-dyspraxia, depression and/or childhood trauma could provide the critical threshold leading to serial murder.

Perhaps that explains why most sociopaths do not kill. Some can be manipulative but also be adequately socialized, even if they do not feel the pain of others. Some might not have the time or inclination to self-program, possibly because they are not socially or psychologically isolated, have succeeded enough to avoid inferiority-superiority oscillations, or have vocational or personal habits and activities that take up too much time to stalk, plan and kill. And, perhaps most importantly, the more adaptable psychopaths might have essentially normal neural development.

Factors that lead an individual to become a serial killer might seem complex and beyond prediction. However, we do have a primate legacy disposing us toward dominance and a large brain that makes possible a spillover of appetitive drives. Such factors can lead some to believe in a world consisting of the strong and the weak, the dominant and the submissive, and in male and the female stereotypes.

That evolutionary legacy can run amok, absent social and psychological restraints, because while most of us deem the actions of a serial killer inhuman, human nature is complex enough for such potential to be manifest under certain conditions. It might seem trite to say we are all capable of heinous acts but there might well be a pathological mosaic that can lead to the creation of a monster who is both murderous yet a fellow who appears to the “nice guy who lives next door.”

REFERENCES

Bali, A. (2022) Difference Between Humans and Apes: The Evolution of Humans. Collegedunia

Bailey, R. (March 2018) The Limbic System of the Brain; The Amygdala, Hypothalamus and Thalamus, Science Technology Thought Co.

Blair, R.J.R. (Jan. 2013) Considering Anger from a Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective. Wiley Interdisciplinary Review of Cognitive Science

DePaolo, R. (2021) Bundy: A Clinical Discussion of the Perfect Storm. Abuzz Press

Harrington, R. (2019) Edmund Kemper: The True Story of a Brutal American Serial Killer. Independent Publisher

Hoffman, M. (March 14, 2013) The Human Frontal Lobe and Frontal Network System: Evolutionary, Clinical and Treatment Perspectives. S.R.N. Neurology

Linedecker,, C. (1993) The Man Who Killed Boys; The True Story of Mass Murder in a Chicago Suburb. St. Martin’s Press

Orgler, H. (1976) Alfred Adler International Journal of Social Psychology Vol. 22 (1) p. 67

Rule, A. (1980) The Stranger Beside Me: The Shocking Inside Story of Serial Killer Ted Bundy. Simon & Schuster

Schwarz, A. (2021) Monster: The True Story of Jeffrey Dahmer, Union Square and Company Publishing

White, D. (2015) Albert DeSalvo: The Boston Strangler True Crime Short Books 5

The Psychology of the Pandemic

January 20, 2021 by Robert DePaolo

Abstract

By Robert DePaolo

This article discusses psychological and behavioral after effects of the covid 19 virus and various restrictions placed on people around the world. The central premise of the article is that specific and difficult to reverse psychopathology could result from those restrictions, which the medical community either did not foresee or did not address in their clinical calculations.

The covid 19 virus has presented a rather unique problem for the medical community and the public in general. As has been well-established, it is essentially a hybrid of the common cold, albeit with a rather dangerous genetic quality. Most viruses – even corona viruses (of which covid is one) have a structural trait that makes cellular invasion difficult. To “breed” and co-opt the structure of normal cells it must first join with the normal cell. While the common cold does so – millions more people are infected with it than were with covid – the covid virus has a protein spike attached. This is an appendage structure that enables the virus to attach to cells much easier and to remain attached to normal cells for longer periods of time. The unique spike also makes it fairly easy for the immune system to recognize and destroy, which is one reason young people rarely if ever become sick or even feel symptoms. Because it can last longer in attachment and propagation it can, despite being recognized, force the immune system to engage for longer periods of time. If the pulmonary system is compromised – for example people who are smokers, have lung disease or immunological disorders the length of stay of the virus will lead to build up on fluid in the lungs and over time severe illness of even death. Ovid is a long distance runner that outlasts the vulnerable to those and other reasons covid is a bizarre illness that affects most people minimally – in many cases less than the common cold or the flu. It is however highly contagious, which prompted the medical organizations and governments around the world to institute strict preventative recommendations.

As a result of these restrictions suffering and great inconvenience in health areas (many medical procedures and surgeries were denied patients) occurred. Also massive numbers of jobs were lost and lives and economic futures were negatively affected.

To say the covid policies were a trade-off would be a gross understatement. It could be argued that more streamlined policies would have dealt effectively with the outbreak without these other drawbacks. However the disease was new in the beginning and scientists had to learn about it on the fly. As a result a certain amount of trial and error was involved in these recommendations and restrictions. Medical personnel did their best

That does not address the potential after effects of the policies – which were not coherently addressed. Where was the mental health community in all this? Hard to say. However there are very significant and specific psychological phenomena that should now be dealt with by the medical and political organizations.
One place to start is with behavior theory. A central, unassailable principle of learning theory is known as negative reinforcement. It is a process by which fixed habits, compulsions and neuroses are created. It works like this. If a degree of tension or anxiety crops up and is ameliorated by a behavior pattern (typically called an escape or avoidance response) the relief from anxiety will serve as a reinforcer, and will sustain the behavioral habit. Just as the response alleviates anxiety, so will deprivation of that response re-exacerbate the anxiety.

Mask wearing and social distancing are two behavior patterns that fit into that scenario. If mask wearing reduces contagion anxiety it will become not just a disease preventative measure but also an anxiety reducing reinforcer. By the same token removing the mask even after the disease is under control will provoke anxiety – even if the person is cognitively aware that a vaccine and/or decline of the spread is imminent. That is because conditioned response are typically sustained after the aversion is removed. Social distancing adheres to the same process. Keeping away from people – either by remaining at home or by not conversing or interacting in normal close contact will reward that social avoidance behavior by alleviation of the contagion anxiety. \

Even after closeness and going out are permitted by the medical and political communities the negative reinforcement dynamic will persist and will require a lengthy period of desensitization or relearning to re-adapt to normal circumstances. This would be particularly true for introverted personalities and those with anxiety and depressive typologies. It might also pertain to those with a high baseline of sociopathic behaviors and explosive personality disorders. Simply put, socialization normalizes us, while detachment does the opposite.

Many people will likely incur pathologizes such as social anxiety disorder, agoraphobias and even possible anti-social tendencies. – the latter because much of the pro social attitudes and behaviors in people are a function of the reality checks provided regularly in school and workplace interactions. Beyond that is the possibility of work aversions, which would result from people being adapted to passivity, feelings of relief from avoiding work-related duress and contagion anxiety. Shaking hands, close contact, meaningful conversations and other relationship builders could be affected. In short, a whole habit structure circulating around the globe could present us with a psychiatric pandemic rendering large numbers of people relatively dysfunctional.

The question is; now that we know more about covid 19, are politicians and physicians willing and able to parse their concerns, streamline their restrictions, offer encouragement to re-engage socially or in their narrow concern for physical health, will they continue to warn the public about “possible this and that” and thereby continue to foster a pandemic of psychopathology.

Most in the world community consider medical practitioners and even some political organizers to be heroes. Doctors, nurses and other staff were indeed involved in heavy risk taking in treating patients – especially when little was known about covid 19. However, at this point I would like to suggest the next wave of heroes will be the ones who see the big picture, are willing to acknowledge that people must be able to function, not merely remain alive, and as vaccines, treatments and reduction in the rates of disease occur, encourage people to get back to normal. One strong and necessary measure in all this might have to be a reduction in testing. There will come a point where the panic induced by media outlets who report on each and every infection will present rather permanent psychological barriers to re-normalization. It seems to me the least vulnerable need not be tested unless they have regular interactions with the most vulnerable. in simpler terms, with increased vaccine availability and reduction in rates there might not be any reason for a 30-year-old husband and wife with a 7-year-old daughter to be tested, unless either works or interacts with the elderly or have severe medical conditions involving the pulmonary, immunological or cardiovascular systems. At some point society has to turn off the red light and flash the green so people can once again cross the street toward normalcy.

There will likely still be a psycho pathological after-effect of the restrictions resulting from covid 19 and at that point mental health practitioners might, in their typically understated way, comprise the next wave of heroes. Hopefully their efforts will lead to a significant degree of personal and social equanimity.

Autism and Linear Cognition: Neuro-psychological implications

November 20, 2020 by Robert DePaolo

Abstract

by Robert DePaolo

This article discusses the literal, linear cognitive style typically seen in individuals with autism. Similarities between this thought process and the cognitive styles seen in obsessive compulsive disorders, anxiety disorders and clients with traumatic brain injury are considered and dismissed. Meanwhile, autistic linearity is deemed a special kind of cognitive rigidity caused in part by neuropsychological dyspraxia.

Stop and Go Neurology…

Autistic cognition is a difficult subject to wrap one’s mind around, in part because the functional levels of individuals diagnosed with autism can vary so much. While those disparities arguably make the term autistic diagnostically mystifying, if not downright untenable, it is a reality researchers, educators and writers have to deal with. Despite those vagaries, there are fairly pervasive features within the spectrum. One is cognitive rigidity, i.e. the tendency to think and act as though life consists of only ‘stop and go’ thoughts and behaviors. (D’Cruz, Raggino et.al 2013). For the most part autism precludes the ability to see nuance, gray areas of experience, to accommodate changes in routine and to alter behaviors to deal with changes in stimulus conditions and social circumstances. (Watanabe, Lawson, et al. (2019)

Patterns similar to these are seen in individuals with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and obsessive compulsive disorder, as well as organic disorders such as traumatic brain injury. (Whiting, Deane et al. 2017)

The single track mindedness inherent in these disorders results from several sources. In schizophrenia, neurotransmitter depletion blocks the flow of neurochemical activity that under normal circumstances enables it to extend, branch off laterally and integratively and facilitate figure-ground thought and perception (Walz J.A. 2017).

Similar connectivity deficits are seen in traumatic brain injured patients. In their case damage to brain tissue and the superposition of enlarged ventricles (liquid sacks) over synaptic tissue prevents proper conductivity.(Poca, Sahuquillo,et al.2005). That leads to fragmentation, uncertainty and the need for the TBI patient to compensate through cognitive rigidity.

Cognitive rigidity and compulsiveness present differently for the individual with emotional disorders. While cognitive and behavioral tendencies within that rubric vary from person to person there are common symptomatic antecedents. One of which is anxiety.

When anxiety is intense and chronic, arousal levels create rigid fight/flight tendencies. Those high levels of arousal mobilize what Cannon called emergency reactions on such a regular basis as to block integrative thought. (1932). By analogy, rather than seeing both forest and trees the hyper-anxious individual is forced to attend to narrow stimuli he perceives as threatening.

The picture changes a bit with regard to autism. I believe this is largely because of the language factor. The typical diagnostic criteria for autism include substantial language deficits. In discussing that factor it is helpful to consider both the neurological and functional aspects of language.

As Luria and Trotsky have pointed out, language is both an external communicative faculty and an internal, regulatory faculty (Derovesne (2011). Seldom discussed is that language functions seem to extend beyond the social and interpersonal domains. They also help to maintain neural stability.

The human brain is vast, with billions of neurons and many billions of connections among and between those neurons. That provides advantages: for example enabling us to label and distinguish between and among a wide variety of phenomena, to research, combine and separate objects and conceive of relationships within the natural world. In the process we can create that marvelous thing called culture.

However, there is a drawback. With billions of neurons sending signals around the brain each experience will entail potential confusion or… “noise.” That noise must be modulated or the vastness of the brain would be highly disadvantageous.

In that context language seems function as a search light in the brain, providing focus and closure through the neuro-symbolic targeting of circuits that separate event-relevant networks from circuits that are peripheral to any given task at hand.

There are several means through which modulation is provided. One is through the binary mechanism of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. (Lakna 2018) One type halts conductivity, the other stimulates conductivity. As long as the brain can coordinate the timing of the two ( for example when certain neural clusters are activated, others inhibited) it is possible to engage in effective thought and behavior patterns.

Some timing comes from brain wave activity: the rhthmic quality of which seems to have a probative effect on learning and memory (Pribram, 1971). However, much of it comes from learning. With experience, the brain establishes fixed circuits corresponding to learned behaviors and cognitions. If circuit A stores the memory for turning on a faucet, circuit B will not. With learning circuits become functionally differentiated so that with added experience one doesn’t interfere with another. Somewhat ironically, human learning (ostensibly deriving from the vastness of the human brain) actually occurs by reducing the effective size and volume of the brain through the process of elimination. This is seen in the course of cognitive development.

In child development the first year is characterized by longitudinal connections within the brain. During that phase simple associations are accrued and the child shows a rigid cognitive style.
Around age two a branching process begins, whereby neural connections spread around the brain in multi-dimensional manner. In effect the single neural highway of year one becomes a multiple series of off-roads and bypasses in the second year. (Lenrout, Giodd 2007). Interestingly around this time the child also begins to develop a sense of self. This comes about because in being able to crawl, then walk, he finds he can move toward goals without being carried by another person. He becomes functionally, motorically separate from the caretaker. Rather than being merely a symbiotic extension of mom or dad, he becomes a distinctive “me.” From that sense of self comes what some have referred to as a “theory of mind,” (Korkmaz 2011). Being able to separate himself from others psychologically allows the child to understand that being separate means others can be studied, imitated and learned from. In a sense, they become objectified, didactic vehicles.

The motor aspect of self development is not the only determinant of self and other perception. Language development (which also occurs during the first and second years) is even stronger. With increasing language capacities the child can gain and enhance a sense of self, and develop a theory of mind.

Interestingly, language development also depends on the branching mechanism that occurs between the first and second year. With a disruption in that branching process there will tend to a deficient sense of self, and of others. The child will lack a theory of mind and will tend to think and act in terms of the first associative stage of neural development featuring chained, linear associative behavior and cognition.

Linearity is not the only factor in autism. Without the benefits of fluid neural branching the brain of an autistic individual will be prone to intensive and pervasive noise. Arousal episodes will be excruciating, which can make learning new tasks highly frustrating and produce an avoidant mindset. That has educational implications. The learning problems seen in autism often lead to high power teaching methods that can elevate arousal levels, which are the autistic child’s Achille’s heel. in that sense it is not surprising that some research has shown hat for some autistic students, attempts at new learning are often accompanied by arousal induced behavior problems and even seizure activity. (Billeci, Tonacci et al 2018), Prince, Kim et al (2016).

Because the preferred state of arousal for autistic individuals is manageably low, they will tend to resist new teaching and when prompted to cooperate will do so by use of self-regulatory behaviors such as behavioral perseveration, hand flapping, humming, rocking etc. These seem to be monotony/stability restoring behaviors to offset the noise and concomitant arousal in the brain.
Note, here the word ‘arousal’ doesn’t necessarily refer to spike activity or excessive autonomic activity. It refers more generally to unresolved neural activation, i.e. a disproportion between arousal ands closure – what Goldstein referred to as the “catastrophic reaction” (Klonoff, Lage et al 1993). It is possible that in addition to controlling arousal levels these behaviors are used as a substitute for language regulation; indeed might be a form of para-linguistic expression.

As seen in the psychiatric therapeutic process, language is a soothing mechanism, not just because it can talk us into equanimity by relabeling stressful events but because it can ameliorate noise within the brain. That suggests without language the individual will tend toward an intently avoidant mindset.
Some individuals with autism have language but it is topographically similar to their behavior patterns, perhaps featuring a lack of contextual understanding, a proneness to literal cognition and difficulty augmenting language with peripheral communicative gestures (facial and manual expressions) and body language. (Grafton (2013).

In line with the above factors it would seem a central issue in autism revolves around why they think and act in linear fashion.

The answer is not clear, at least neurologically. It is obvious that cross connections that in the normal brain allow for the multi-access among neurons and provide for conceptual thought and contextual cognition. But just why those interconnections are blocked in autism is unknown. Possible causes could be neuro-chemical, related to tissue damage or as some have suggested caused by a hyper-volume of neurons in the brain resulting from interruption of the “pruning” process in childhood, whereby deletion of neurons occurs to streamline the brain and facilitate access among various brain sites. (Pederson, 2018).

Still, another possibility is that since navigating fluidly among billions of neural connections requires extraordinary coordination among expiatory and inhibitory neurons, there is some something highly dysrhythmic about the autistic brain.

What creates the rhythm and orchestration in the brain? While language serves that purpose (all languages, including human language have cadence and sequential, orderly grammatical features) even that would require a governing mechanism. Might it be found in aberrant brain wave activity, or perhaps in a tendency toward double firing in the sensory motor domains so that feedback is not registered properly?

The idea of redundant or skewed feedback in autism has been discussed in the past. (Mosconi Mohanty et al 2015). In fact sensory instruments with delayed feedback have been used with autistic populations with some but certainly not overwhelming success. Such double, redundant or diffuse neuronal firing would be consistent with excessive-neural volume in the brain since neural systems would tend to collide and replicate rather then parse efficiently in the course of learning.

Another question revolves around whether linear cognition is a built-in feature of the autistic brain, forcing them both structurally and functionally to think and act that way, or whether linearity is a compensatory cognitive style used by the autistic individual to control extreme arousal diffusion as the brain addresses the normal figure/ground, conceptual features of the environment.

I tend to believe much of autistic behavior and cognition is an attempt at adaptation by a fragile central nervous system that lacks the inhibitory/excitatory neural orchestration to address the world in normal terms. Once again, this suggests autism is primarily a severe form of psycho-neural dyspraxia.
In a previous article I referred to a prime cause of autism through the idea of the “Bad Maestro.” I still believe autism is a most fundamentally a profound type of dyspraxia. Whether this has any validity can only be determined by research on the coordination among impulses in the brain following stimulus presentations. Whether this is valid there is no structural reason why autistic people would lack language ability. Their hyoid bones are present, their larynx is situated normally, and they do not typically display hearing loss (Beers, McBoyle et. al. 2014). Absent such deficits a significant factor could be a deficient orchestration mechanism that can juggle some 25 billion neural connections efficiently enough to produce flexible cognition, contextual emotions and normal language.

REFERENCES

Beers, A. McBoyle, M. Kakande, E. Santos, R.C. Kozak, K. (Jan. 2014) Autism and peripheral hearing loss: A systemic review. International Journal of Pediatrics 78 (1) 96-101

Bellici, L. Tonacci, A. Narzisi, A. (May 2018) Heart rate variability during a joint attention task in toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Frontiers in Physiology 9: 467

Cannon, W. (1932) Wisdom of the Body. U.S. W.W. Norton & Co.

D’Cruz, A.M. Ragging, M.E. Mosconi, W. Shrestha, S. Cook, E. Sweeney, J.A. (2013) Reduced behavioral flexibility in autism spectrum disorders. Neuropsychology 21 (2) 152-160

Derovesne, C. (Sept 9 2011) Speech and regulation of behaviors: The works of LS Trotsky and AR Luria. Geriatric Psychological, Neuropsychiatry. (3) 355-362

Grafton, A. (April 23, 2013) Study reveals linguistic deficits behind autism children’s difficulties understanding other people. Article in Autistic Spectrum Ret. April 23, 2013.

Klonoff, PS. Lage, GA. Chiapello, DA. (1993) Varieties of the catastrophic reaction to brain injury: a self psychology perspective. National Library of Medicine 57 (2) 227- 241

Korkmaz, b. (2011) Theory of Mind and neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood. Pediatric Research. 69 (5) Pt. 2 101R-8 R

Lakna, A. (Sept 11, 2018) Differences between excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Article in PED IIA.

Lenrout, R.K. Giodd, J.N. (2007) The structural development of the human brain as measured longitudinally with magnetic resonance images. In Loch. D. Fischer, K.W. Dawson, G. (eds) Human Behavior, learning in the human brain; typical development. Guilford Press.

Mosconi, M. Mohanty, S. Greene, R. Cook, E. Vaillancourt, D. Sweeney, J. (2015) Feedforward and feedback motor control anomalies implicate cerebellar dysfunction in Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Pederson, T. (2018) in Autism poor “pruning” of neurons leads to excess synapses. Psych Central

Poca, M. Sahuquilla, J.Mataro, B. Bentham, B. Arikan, F. Baquena, M. (2005) Ventricular enlargement after moderate or severe head injury: a frequent and neglected problem. Neurotrauma Nov. 22. 1303-1310

Pribram. K. 1971 Language of the Brain: Experimental Paradoxes and Principles in Neuropsychology. Englewood NJ Prentice Hall

Prince, B. Kim, E. Wall, C.A. (2016) The relationship between autistic symptoms and arousal level in toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder as measured by electrodermal activity. SAGE Journals

Walz, J.A. (2017) The neural underpinnings of cognitive flexibility and their disruption in psychotic illness. Neuroscience March, 14 34 203-217

Watanabe,T. Lawson, R. Walden, Y. Rees, G. (2019) A neuroanatomical substrate linking perceptual stability to cognitive rigidity in autism. Journal of Neuroscience 39 (33) 6540-6534

Whiting, D.L. Deane, F. Simpson, G. Ciarochi, J. (2017) Cognitive and psychological flexibility after a traumatic brain injury and the implications for treatment in acceptance-based therapies: A conceptual review. Research Online – Faculty of Social science – Papers

Essay: Quantum Neuro-psychology: Brain Function and the Photo electric Effect

October 25, 2020 by Robert DePaolo

by Robert DePaolo

Abstract

This article discusses a possible relationship between the photo electric effect (which deals with the influence of particle wave frequencies on the release of electrons through energy infusion) and the way neutrons are coalesced in fixed circuits to facilitate learning and memory.

As a central theme it is useful to point out that certain features of the natural world attributable to the laws of physics also guide brain function. One such feature is energy transfer. While often difficult to define – because it is something that creates effects rather than being an effect, energy drives everything in nature. Given Einstein’s ideas on the reciprocal relationship between mass (matter) and energy one could argue that it is the sine qua non of existence. One of the more interesting aspects of Einstein’s work derived from the previous work of Maxwell on what came to be known as the photo electric effect. In sense this introduced the world to quantum physics

The Quantum World…

A discussion of Quantum physics can be rather complex, since the topic extends to everything from the measurement of particle momentum and location to the nature of reality itself. As a result, for the purposes of this paper, I will narrow discussion to the ways in which particles and waves interact to produce energy.

There is a long-standing debate in the field of physics regarding the nature of matter at the subatomic level. The prevailing question is whether all elements within the real world are made up of discrete particles (things with distinct parameters – like a enclosed circle or disc with shape and border) or whether the world is most fundamentally comprised of more fluid, less stationary entities called waves.
The argument has persisted over time because when trying to measure/trace both the location and path of particles – as one would with a large scale object moving through space, it has been impossible to determine both where they begin and where they end up. It is as if nature played a trick on her most observant species by creating one set of laws for law-abiding large objects and another for the recalcitrant microcosmic word. A comparison between the large scale and particle world is indicative. For example:

A batter hits a baseball. It travels at a certain speed through the air. It’s mass determines how much gravitational drag will be exerted on it and from that and other factors (such as its exit velocity and wind resistance) its ultimate location can easily be determined. Any decent outfielder can do so without a calculator. The baseball is a discrete object. However in dealing with particles that predictability breaks down. Rather than beginning in one place and ending up in another, particles seem to spread – as though they aren’t really singular entities

Making things even more curious is that as soon as we determine the location of a particle we lose track of its path. One can’t tell where it has gone or if it will end up at a particular destination. By the same token if we are able to determine its path we are unable to determine what was its initial location. It doesn’t seem to “travel” so much as radiate. Experiments involving this phenomenon have come to exemplify what is known as Heisenberg’s Principle of Uncertainty. The inability to trace the path of light with any exactitude has led many physicists to conclude that light is a wave, that the concrete, particle-like assumption of photons (and perhaps all matter) is an illusion.

That would seem to make sense, because while light has been described as wave and particle over time the wave definition would seem to offer a better fit with the uncertainty principle – for the following reason

Waves disperse – they are not discrete. They do not really begin or end anywhere in particular. There is no way to determine the ‘location” of a wave when one tosses a rock into the water. There is just an immediate radiation outward, A wave has only movement, peaks and frequencies. The peak refers to the height of a wave, the frequency pertains to its speed or momentum. Typically, the faster a wave moves the lower its peaks. Because it takes more time for a high peaked wave to rise up and return to a flatter state it is unusual for it to be both extraordinarily high and fast. That is why powerful tidal waves need not be high, in fact are often fairly low. It is their momentum that generates the power that is so destructive. Waves with a lower crest, have that low peak because the speed of momentum mitigates against time-consuming high peak rises and falls.

While confusing, there could be a potential solution to the wave/particle question – even if one assumes light consists of particles (photons)

As Einstein asserted, photons act like particles and as such can also be in compliance with the uncertainty principle. They have no mass and always travel at light speed. At light speed no time elapses in accord with Special Relativity. While the student of physics it taught that light travels at a specific speed (186,00 miles per second) that is our measurement of its speed not the time lapse of the photon itself. The photon does not experience time, which is one reason it does not decay.

Since time does not lapse, neither can space be traversed. With no true sense of space, there cannot be any sense of distance, which means light (photons) can be anywhere at any time. Because it can travel along multiple paths simultaneously measurement by time-bound human tools and the human mind are an uncomfortable scientific juxtaposition of apples and oranges It would seem to be an instance in which the evolution of the human brain adapted to the large scale world simply was not tested and honed by the microscopic elements of nature.

Those explanations would seem reasonable if not for the fact that particles with mass such as electrons also obey the uncertainty principle. That is in part why the particle-wave debate has been so fervent over time. While the wave argument makes sense with respect to massless photons it seems incongruent with the behavior of particles with mass. That has led to various explanations of the particle/ wave conundrum.

Some, such as De Broglie have suggested everything in nature consists of particles and waves in a tandem. In his pilot wave theory he asserted the reason larger bodies have definite locations and do not “super-wander” or radiate is because their mass results in gravity pulling in their wave functions to create location and movement specificity. In other words, gravity (which increases with mass) centralizes…or collapses the wave function. Because more massive objects exert more gravitational force their wave function is shorter – like a very tiny tail rather than a long bushy one. Others, such as Roger Pen rose have suggested everything consists of waves only and that solidity/particularization only occurs when at some point in the wave activity gravity creates a pinpoint of the wave – possibly the crest, giving the illusion of mass, locality and specific movement.

Beyond the peculiar characteristic inherent in uncertainty principle is another feature having to do with how particles interact to produce energy and movement. The classic example of this is seen in the effect of photons on the movement of electrons. As referenced above, Einstein and Maxwell worked on this (the former influenced by the latter). In trying to determine whether matter consists of waves or particles they studied the photon, which, as discussed above has been alternately viewed as a wave and a particle. Einstein proved that it had particle qualities by the following method.

Speed and Bounce Dynamics…

Electrons typically bind to metal. In one experiment designed to release electrons, Einstein flashed photons at a metal sheet and discovered that bombardment of the photons provided energy that enabled the electrons to escape from their “metallic captivity” However this (photo-electric) effect only occurred under specific circumstances. Einstein found that bombarding the metal sheet with photons at a low frequency did not release electrons. Indeed, no matter what volume of low frequency photons was cast on the metal sheet no energy transfer occurred and no electrons were liberated.

That was significant because volume of force does produce cumulative energy in all other aspects of nature. If a baseball is tossed slowly at an aluminum screen it will put some degree of dent in the sheet. While tossing the baseballs with greater force will incur more damage to the screen, some damage will continue to occur even with slower tosses, through an additive affect. If one keeps tossing baseballs at the aluminum sheet damage will add up. It is analogous to the process of erosion.

Einstein discovered that the particle world does not work like that. While endless amounts of photons at low frequencies could not produce the energy required for electron release, even one photon sent to the metal sheet at a high frequency did release electrons.

This signified that the speed of transmission was the real energy producer, that it could create, pinpoint, release and stir up the entire cluster of electrons to create an effect. That process seems to have relevance, either in an analogous or real, functional manner to how the brain operates. One way to discuss such parallels is the following.

Webb’s Reverberating Circuits…

Neuro-psychologist Donald Webb offered an idea of how learning and memory are consolidated. His model was based on the idea of ‘reverberating circuits’. His assumption was that in the learning process neural connections that eventually give rise to fixed associative loops are initially loosely formed with few or no circuit parameters. With time and repetition however certain neural loops become increasingly isolated and distinguished from the surrounding neuronal configurations. In effect, during the learning process, there is electrical energy impingement which stirs things up until particular circuits become fixed and differentiated from surrounding neuronal fields.

This is consistent with information theory tenets (which govern all information systems, including the brain) whereby information attainment always involves the extraction of information from a state of noise – or uncertainty.

One parallel between how neutrons, electrons and photons interact can be seen in the speed/frequency factor. Enhanced speed of the photon produces the energy that releases electrons from metal sheets. Similarly, the enhanced speed of neuronal electrical activity leads to the release-distinction of certain circuits from general brain mass. This is governed by rapid brain waves which occur during the establishment of learning and memory. The comparison is not without substance.

In the the photo-electric effect, the high frequency bombardment on metal is in the blue spectrum (the red is slow) With regard to the brain, the highest frequency wave bombardment on neuronal circuits derives from gamma and beta waves (theta and alpha being slower). Gamma waves are the most rapid and are involved in extremely fast-paced, intense mental activity. Beta waves are a bit slower but high frequency enough to facilitate and enhance focus, attention span and memory. In effect, gamma and beta waves facilitate the “trapping” of neuronal circuits into learning sets and memories

Most relevant to this paper is that, with regard to the photo-electric effect, the high frequency photon bombardment could only release electrons by creating a focal impact. Just as the baseball toss could only make a dent in the metal sheet by impacting at specific sites, so must the photon produce impact locally to release specific electrons from the metal surface. In that sense the word “bombardment” might be less descriptive than the word “circumscribed impact.” In simple terms, energy has to be localized to have an effect, that is, target areas differentially to exert an impact. In many ways that ties the photo-electric effect to the ways in which neuronal clusters are formed in the course of learning and the establishment of memories.

In a neurological context, the establishment of memories is also a narrowing process, where cellular localization must occur. There are several reasons for this. First, if not for a localizing process the noise factor resulting from myriad circuits blending in would make retrieval difficult if not impossible. Second, it would be difficult or impossible for incoming perceptions and associations to gravitate toward relevant neural memory packets (categorical associations) to build on the knowledge base.

So far parallels have been drawn between the photo electric effect and the process of learning and memory consolidation. The question is whether both phenomena derive from the same process. That is, do learning and memory involve particle interactions dependent on speed of transmission, localization and the physical separation of relevant brain circuits from the surround?

It is clear that the electrical activity in the neural transmission process is guided by electrons. The process by which this works appear to be roughly as follows. The initial speed of neural transmission is slow – nerve impulses travel much more (slowly) than do particles in different circumstances. However that is in part due to the volume of cells in brains. Even the brain of a fruit fly has a hundred thousand neurons. In humans, it is more than a million times that. With the initial impingement of neurons into receptor cell bodies transmission is slow due to the noise factor inherent in having to negotiate among many neural circuits prior to memory consolidation. With repetition, however the registration of specific circuits becomes clearer. The pathways between stimulus and response encounter gradually less resistance and become more streamlined. That results in the increased speed of transmission as learning begins to solidify. Once the circuits for a particular learning set or memory are established the transmission is faster and more direct. At that point, the energy focus is intense enough to facilitate retrieval efficiently. In effect, noise is almost completely (but not totally) eliminated.

This gradual reduction of interference/resistance is analogous to what occurs with the flow of particles, and with the premises of the various pilot wave theories, with one exception. In the pilot wave model it is assumed the conversion of a wave into a particle results from the collapse of the wave due to gravity. In other words gravity pulls the variable motion of the waves into a more central location, i.e. gravity provides stability and systemization – as it does for all of the universe.

In the neurological example, it is not gravity per se (though that would have to be involved to some extent) that brings focus to the memory circuit but the enhanced energy that results from an increase in speed of transmission as learning sets become streamlined, and in effect, interference-free.

One obvious flaw in this idea is that photons do not appear to play a role in neural transmission. However electrons have a substantial wave function and behave in ways similar to photons. Moreover, the root of this concept seems intact; because ultimately it attributes both electron release and the development of neural circuit specificity to energy dynamics.

Indeed, it is arguable that the neural model of a photo-electric-like effect is more consonant with the basic laws of physics. For example, consider that photons have no mass. Because of that they exert no force per se. They can bounce off metal sheets all they want without damaging or in any way changing the structure of the surface. If their influence is so vacuous, why the photo-electric effect? Perhaps it is because photons are constantly in motion and movement is the sine qua non of energy. Indeed, one definition of energy has to do with the capacity of any entity to produce work – which requires motion.
In that sense, the distinction between photon and electron dynamics might be less consequential. Both move, both provide energy. Since learning and memory both require a change in energy dynamics in the brain, a narrowing down of impact from the general to the specific (i.e. localization) the comparison between the photo-electric effect and neural activity that produces memory circuits might be valid. All of this is of course, speculation, but if the brain can be considered a component of nature, it is possible that at the most basic level it adheres to the same laws.

REFERENCES

Afshar, S.S. (2007) Paradox in Wave-Particle Duality. Foundations of Physics. 37 (2) 295

Cover, T.M. (2006) Information Theory. Wiley-Inter-science 2nd Edition

DeBroglie, Louis (1970) The Reinterpretation of wave mechanics. Foundations of Physics 1 (1) 5-15

DeBroglie, Louis de. (1929) The wave nature of the electron Nobel Lecture

Hebb. D.O. (1961) Brain Mechanics and Learning. London. Oxford University Press

Hilgevoord, Jan. (1996) The Uncertainty Principle for energy and time. American Journal of Physics 64 (12) 1451-1456

Kumar, M. (2011) Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the nature of reality. W.W. Norton & Co. p 242

Penrose, R. (1996). On Gravity’s role in quantum state collapse. General Relativity and Gravitation. 28 (5) 581-600\

Towler, M. (2009): DeBroglie-Bohm in Pilot Wave Theory and the foundations of quantum mechanics. Universitty of Cambridge Press.

Veisdal, J. Einstein’s paper 1905 on the photo-electric effect. Einstein Essays. August 2019

The Benefits of Anxiety Counseling

June 21, 2020 by admin

Anxiety is an issue that troubles millions of people all over the world. There are many different types of anxiety disorders and some people are more affected by them than others. However, no matter what kind of anxiety you’re dealing with, or the severity, your goal is likely to lessen it. One of the main ways you can do this is through anxiety counseling.

What is Anxiety Counseling?

Anxiety counseling is when you talk to a trained professional about your anxiety issues. Because anxiety is a mental condition, it is often helpful to discuss your issues with a neutral third-party. Just like you would go to a doctor for a physical problem, like a headache or broken bone, going to a counselor is often one of the best things you can do for anxiety.

According to Dr. Piper Walsh, a provider of anxiety counseling in Orange County, California, “Professional counseling offers a safe environment that allows us to explore our thoughts, feelings, and hopes with the advice, guidance, and insight of a professional.”

But what are the specific, concrete benefits you can expect to get from anxiety counseling? Below are just a few of the most common benefits.

Stress Relief

The first major benefit of anxiety counseling is stress relief. When we are dealing with difficult emotions, it can all become bottled up inside us. If you don’t have a healthy way of dealing with your stress, it can quickly take a heavy toll on you. Anxiety counseling gives you someone to talk to and air out everything that is stressing you. Many people find that after a counseling session, it feels like a large weight has been lifted off of their shoulders.

Confidence Building

For some people, their anxiety keeps them from doing things they would like. This avoidance leads to a feeling that they wouldn’t be good in a particular situation. For example, someone suffering from social anxiety may avoid going to parties with their friends. Their anxiety tells them that there is something to be afraid of at this party, and as a result, they don’t go.

Anxiety counseling can help individuals analyze these fears, then build up the confidence to overcome them. The anxiety counselor may give the client some exercises designed to build up their own self-confidence. After a few therapy sessions, they may feel better about themselves, and be able to attend that party.

Having confidence is an important part of progressing through life. You need it whenever you are looking to try something new, like get a promotion, start a new relationship, or begin a new project. Through anxiety counseling, you can slowly build up your confidence in key areas, so that you can finally start doing those things you’ve been wanting to do.

Improved Health

We often don’t realize it, but stress and anxiety, while mental conditions, can have a large impact on our physical health. It’s not uncommon for someone suffering from anxiety and stress to feel tired or sluggish throughout the day. Anxiety can also cause bad habits, such as smoking or over-eating unhealthy foods. By addressing the root cause of these problems, you can start to live a healthier lifestyle.

Develop Healthy Habits

To really deal with anxiety, it’s often about taking the next step, rather than just the first one. Many people are able to get a handle on things, only to slide back into bad habits a few weeks or months later. Keeping up with anxiety counseling sessions can help you to establish healthy habits so that you don’t find yourself in the same place somewhere down the line.

An anxiety counselor will give you the tools you need to establish these healthy habits, then check in with you to ensure you’re practicing. Sometimes we don’t even realize we’ve reverted back into bad habits and it takes a therapist to point it out to you. By taking the time to develop these healthy habits, you can set yourself up for long-term success.

Potentially Avoid Medications

Finally, anxiety counseling may prevent you from needing medications. While anxiety medications are helpful in some situations, they can also cause some side effects. If you are able to manage your anxiety without medications, this is usually preferred. Regularly attending anxiety counseling sessions is a great way to get to the heart of the problem, so that you can work on yourself without having to rely on medication. Then, if you’re still having trouble, you and your counselor can discuss medication options that work in conjunction with your therapy.

Get the Help You Need

If you’ve been struggling with anxiety, you owe it to yourself to consider anxiety counseling. There are numerous benefits that can change your life for the better. We all deserve to be happy, so if you think a counselor may help you, find one in your local area and set up an appointment.

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The Benefits of Anxiety Counseling

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