It's merely correlation, not causation.
P.S.: Why do most articles about the 'brain' try to dumb down people?
Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants
21–30 of 64 posts
Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And "buzzy" when I'm really sleep-deprived. It literally feels like low-level electrical interference running through my head and my thinking and focus are nowhere near as sharp. That's eerie, I have that too. Especially when it is totally quiet in the house. At first I thought it was because I heard the refrigerator, but I switched that off to rule it out. Then I powered down the whole house and the low humming re…
Ok, now this is really funny. There's the buzzy feeling, which I considered distinct from the low hum (til now), but I absolutely hear that low-hum too and also assumed it was the refrigerator. It is more pronounced at certain times, but I never linked it to my sleep deprivation. I'll have to pay attention to that. Another thing is that I seem to be "sensitive" to some electronics. For instance, I cannot hold a cell…
I think a good part here is that where I live it is very quiet. Last house on a dead end street, nothing but fields around me for miles and miles. So when it's quiet it is really quiet, so quiet that sounds that you'd otherwise never even notice become audible because your brain just keeps cranking up the gain.
I can hear the dear foraging around the house at night, and if a car passes on the nearest highway (a few kilometers away) I can hear that clearly too. But during the day all those sounds vanish, masked by the ever present background noise level which is far higher than it is during the night. And my hearing is actually not nearly as good as it used to be.
One simple solution I've found is to play really low volume white noise, that seems to instantly drown out all of it but strangely enough is very hard to detect by itself.
I never noticed any 'sensitivity to electronics'.
Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants
#23The p-value (a function used for testing a statistical hypothesis) corresponding to these results was less than 0.001, indicating that the probability that the findings were due to chance alone (or that the null hypothesis is true) is less than 0.1%. Actually, I think it means that IF the null hypothesis is true, there is only a 0.1% chance that we would get this much deviation (or more) from it due to chance. Which…
axonopathy, it seems you are hell-banned for some reason..
Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants
#24Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same here. And "buzzy" when I'm really sleep-deprived. It literally feels like low-level electrical interference running through my head and my thinking and focus are nowhere near as sharp. It is like some sort of intoxication, which is fitting, because one of the things sleep does for us is clear toxins from our brains.
> And "buzzy" when I'm really sleep-deprived. It literally feels like low-level electrical interference running through my head and my thinking and focus are nowhere near as sharp. That's eerie, I have that too. Especially when it is totally quiet in the house. At first I thought it was because I heard the refrigerator, but I switched that off to rule it out. Then I powered down the whole house and the low humming re…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum
Read that a while back, look at the possible explanations, especially tinnitus might be a possibility.
Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants
#26This sort of news really scare me. Your brain defines who you are and what capabilities you have, and damaging it can completely change you. The brain is very responsible for a big part of your success and losing it can have a big impact in your life.
Cognitive decline happens whether you like it or not, I'm afraid to say. I've hit my early 30s and I've started noticing that I'm far more prone to inappropriately replaced words, can't memorise long strings of digits as well as I used to be able to, and so-forth.
That's way too early in life for signs of cognitive decline. Are you challenging yourself enough? Do you get adequate and deep rest? Are you preoccupied or depressed? Are you keeping yourself healthy? I know, these are personal (and maybe somewhat condescending-sounding) questions - but they're just examples for things that can impact your mental performance.
Generally, the body's ability to take punishment starts to decline in the thirties which can manifest in mental impairment, but someone who's taking good care of themselves should actually enjoy a pretty well-tuned brain. Biologically speaking there should not be enough damage to justify capability deterioration for a long time to come.
All things being equal, I'd say it comes down to the use-it-or-lose it mantra: your brain gets better in areas where it's being used, and atrophies in others where it isn't.
Mental competence is not a hallmark of youth. In fact, problem-solving performance in many fields should go up with experience, and only degrade very late in life when things like ischemic attacks, prions, cellular garbage, and the natural neuronal die-off rate all come into play as significant factors.
Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And "buzzy" when I'm really sleep-deprived. It literally feels like low-level electrical interference running through my head and my thinking and focus are nowhere near as sharp. That's eerie, I have that too. Especially when it is totally quiet in the house. At first I thought it was because I heard the refrigerator, but I switched that off to rule it out. Then I powered down the whole house and the low humming re…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum Read that a while back, look at the possible explanations, especially tinnitus might be a possibility.
Interesting how much of this I'd already figured out just by experimenting on myself. I definitely did not rule out tinnitus (and I had a pretty bad case of that at some point in the past, which totally ruined listening to violin music for me, but fortunately it has since reduced to the point of not being noticeable, maybe this is some kind of remnant).
Anyway, I think of it as an interesting phenomenon, it doesn't bother me much (except when trying to fall asleep, once I notice it it is impossible to stop noticing it).
Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ok, now this is really funny. There's the buzzy feeling, which I considered distinct from the low hum (til now), but I absolutely hear that low-hum too and also assumed it was the refrigerator. It is more pronounced at certain times, but I never linked it to my sleep deprivation. I'll have to pay attention to that. Another thing is that I seem to be "sensitive" to some electronics. For instance, I cannot hold a cell…
I think a good part here is that where I live it is very quiet. Last house on a dead end street, nothing but fields around me for miles and miles. So when it's quiet it is really quiet, so quiet that sounds that you'd otherwise never even notice become audible because your brain just keeps cranking up the gain. I can hear the dear foraging around the house at night, and if a car passes on the nearest highway (a few k…
Interesting. Yeah, it's strange that I never seemed to notice the low hum until, say, 5-6 years ago. I assumed it was the house in which I was living at the time, but we moved and I continued to notice it. In my case, both areas are kind of your "standard" suburb and not too far away from one another. BTW, I've also wondered if it was from some far-off industrial source.
But, I also know we lose our high-frequency hearing as we age. I wonder if that somehow increases our sensitivity to the low frequency range.
In any case, I'll have to try the white noise. Seems like it could help with sleep quality, which might in turn reduce sensitivity to it.
Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a good part here is that where I live it is very quiet. Last house on a dead end street, nothing but fields around me for miles and miles. So when it's quiet it is really quiet, so quiet that sounds that you'd otherwise never even notice become audible because your brain just keeps cranking up the gain. I can hear the dear foraging around the house at night, and if a car passes on the nearest highway (a few k…
Interesting. Yeah, it's strange that I never seemed to notice the low hum until, say, 5-6 years ago. I assumed it was the house in which I was living at the time, but we moved and I continued to notice it. In my case, both areas are kind of your "standard" suburb and not too far away from one another. BTW, I've also wondered if it was from some far-off industrial source. But, I also know we lose our high-frequency he…
Good luck, let me know how it works out if you want, jacques@mattheij.com.
Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants
#30This sort of news really scare me. Your brain defines who you are and what capabilities you have, and damaging it can completely change you. The brain is very responsible for a big part of your success and losing it can have a big impact in your life.
Cognitive decline happens whether you like it or not, I'm afraid to say. I've hit my early 30s and I've started noticing that I'm far more prone to inappropriately replaced words, can't memorise long strings of digits as well as I used to be able to, and so-forth.
Did you perhaps also have children recently? They're an absolute joy, but also tend to make you at least 20% dumber :-)