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The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

quantamagazine.org

101–110 of 180 posts

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#101
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know you’re exaggerating for poetic effect but this might actually be true in some parts of the human anatomy. I had an ingrown toenail fixed. There is a nerve that comes in and branches in two in the bug toe. In my toe it branches into three!

Even identical males twins don't have the same penis structure/routing. Thanks for sharing your own personal example (I am the twin, in mine). Another example is that of sciatia, which is much more prevalent when your sciatic nerve takes one particular path to get through the glutes. Other routed methods and sciatia is much less likely to be debilitating.

> Even identical males twins don't have the same penis structure/routing.

So that's the reason behind the dick pics. I thought it was just to show off, but it's for identification. Makes total sense now.

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#102
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, really: nobody has completely textbook anatomy. Think of it like those blended-face photos. Anatomy books describe that.

Gradients, spectrums, distributions; oh my

Gradients, spectrums and distributions describe the quantifiable diversity in humans. People have different heights, weights, eye colors, and other numerically measurable qualities. We’re exposed to this and it’s not surprising.

What this thread is talking about is things like extra fingers, missing or extra nerves and muscles, and varying structural differences.

I recently started learning a lot about the muscular and nervous system in the hip area. Even on Wikipedia you routinely read things like „this muscles is missing in x% of population”. It blew my mind that there is so much difference to our internal structure.

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even identical males twins don't have the same penis structure/routing. Thanks for sharing your own personal example (I am the twin, in mine). Another example is that of sciatia, which is much more prevalent when your sciatic nerve takes one particular path to get through the glutes. Other routed methods and sciatia is much less likely to be debilitating.

> Even identical males twins don't have the same penis structure/routing. So that's the reason behind the dick pics. I thought it was just to show off, but it's for identification. Makes total sense now.

It was a close run thing between that and retina scans for the top secret lab's security.

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#104
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a conversation I was having recently about genetically engineering humans. I think people are greatly underestimating the complexity of the human body and it’s nature mechanisms of adaptation. Everyone is a little different - but that’s okay because all the little feedback loops and receptor sites account for changes. Like a drug addict needing more and more to get their fix. There isn’t just one v…

Though arguably this should also make it easier to make changes, because the body already has to cope with so much natural variation.

But then you fix the problem at the wrong control-loop level and after a while it goes right back to how it was.

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even identical males twins don't have the same penis structure/routing. Thanks for sharing your own personal example (I am the twin, in mine). Another example is that of sciatia, which is much more prevalent when your sciatic nerve takes one particular path to get through the glutes. Other routed methods and sciatia is much less likely to be debilitating.

>Even identical males twins don't have the same penis structure/routing. Thanks for sharing your own personal example (I am the twin, in mine). A form of biometric authentication, perhaps? Assume one has a spare CT scanner or some such thing, and doesn't mind discriminating against roughly half of the population.

The Leftovers [1], season 3 episode 7.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Leftovers_(TV_series)

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#106
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know you’re exaggerating for poetic effect but this might actually be true in some parts of the human anatomy. I had an ingrown toenail fixed. There is a nerve that comes in and branches in two in the bug toe. In my toe it branches into three!

Even identical males twins don't have the same penis structure/routing. Thanks for sharing your own personal example (I am the twin, in mine). Another example is that of sciatia, which is much more prevalent when your sciatic nerve takes one particular path to get through the glutes. Other routed methods and sciatia is much less likely to be debilitating.

  > Even identical males twins don't have the same penis structure/routing. Thanks for sharing your own personal example (I am the twin, in mine).
Did you and your twin, um, compare penis structure/routing?

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#107
post #78

Has anybody tried vagus nerve stimulation? I tried it but didn't get anywhere much.

Place your hands on the back of your head, with the fingers interlocked, and the thumbs pointing down gently pressing/rubbing on your neck. Slowly move your eyes to any fixed direction (say, to the right) and keep your eyes open, staring to the right. This will initiate a yawn or deep sigh in most people, stimulating vagus nerve.

What kind of sorcery, i tried this and yawned within second.

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#108

For anecdotal data, I'm a big fan of Apollo Neuro. It's a small band worn on the wrist or ankle and vibrates to stimulate the vagus nerve. Similar effect to tapping on your wrist. The sleep mode seems to improve my deep sleep scores on my Oura ring. I haven't done any proper data analysis to confirm. Apollo Neuro claims to have lab data proving efficacy: https://apolloneuro.com/pages/science Even if it's more of a pl…

Interesting! This is the second time I see a strong recommendation for that product (first one was [0]).

Seems pretty expensive ($300) for a vibrating bracelet. Couldn't you emulate the effect with an Android smart watch and a custom app?

[0] https://acesounderglass.com/2023/05/08/product-endorsement-a...

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like exactly the kind of thing AI will be better at than humans. If just needs to be trained on the variations instead of the textbook.

My thought is the exact opposite. AI can handle predictable situations fine, but the 20% of situations which are unpredictable require a general intelligence that can understand context that current AI technology (or possibly any AI technology) just doesn’t possess. There will always be situations that training doesn’t cover.

The other side is that AI can learn every last bit of information from all CT scans, operating room video recordings (and more) in the world with no rest or sleep, and with 100% diligence

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#110
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, really: nobody has completely textbook anatomy. Think of it like those blended-face photos. Anatomy books describe that.

"The average man doesn't exist." -United States Air Force

The median man does.
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