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Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

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Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#211

Post by hombre_fatal »

pgt wrote: post #200
hombre_fatal wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Something in our industrial processes must be screwing with people's serotonin levels because Psychedelics and other serotenergic drugs are becoming the defacto treatment method for a whole host of ailments. This is a comically bad inference. P1: We have ailments that can be treated with class X of drugs that act on body process Y P2: We increasingly use those drugs Conclusion: Z is messing with body process Y

Why is it "comically bad inference" to postulate that something environmental may be messing with our serotonin systems if psychedelic serotonergics cure ailments that we know require messaging via serotonin? (IBS ~ gut, migraine ~ brain, sleeping problems, and mood swings ~ brain)

I still don't see the argument. Let's say an argument is a series of premises followed by a conclusion. Maybe you can render it for me.

How does it follow from a class of drugs addressing a class of ailments that there's some industrial process messing with some process in the body? Does that follow from every class of drugs that addresses any class of ailments?

If we find out that aspirin is even more versatile than we thought and helps with an increasing amount of ailments, how does it follow that there's some related industrial process behind those ailments? Why not just the more parsimonious inference that... aspirin is more useful than we thought?

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#212

Post by [deleted] »

xeonmc wrote: post #69
phreeza wrote: post #12

A note for people not familiar with the terminology - "functional connectivity" is a specific technical term that really just means temporal correlation between brain areas, as opposed to "structural connectivity" which refers to the actual neural pathways that are formed between brain areas. If you rephrase the headline as "Serotonin booster leads to increased correlation between activity in different brain areas" i…

Oh, that's disappointing. I was hoping for a drug that will finally help me understand how monads are just simply monoids in the category of endofunctors.

[deleted]

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#213

Post by soared »

bedobi wrote: post #166
pr0zac wrote: post #73

I’ll probably be downvoted for pointing this out but I feel like it’s important. 90% of the comments at the time of my posting this are great examples of the logical fallacy a lot of intelligent people fall into where they think their intelligence in one area means they’re qualified to make assessments or reach conclusions in fields outside of their own. This would be the same error in judgment that’s turned the noot…

> intelligent people fall into where they think their intelligence in one area means they’re qualified to make assessments or reach conclusions in fields outside of their own you're describing 99.99% of hackernews, lol (and I'm not even sure people here are that intelligent in the first place) (in case anyone is reading this thinking I'm saying I'm intelligent, rest assured I'm not)

Agreed - if you’re an expert in something slightly off the main HN topics (ie adtech, finance, real estate, etc) then hn discussions are the same intelligence level as Reddit but without the memes.

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#214

Post by coldtea »

CyrsBel wrote: post #169
coldtea wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now, getting regular exercise, eating well, staying hydrated, sleeping 8 hours a night, spending time with friends, sexual and emotional fulfillment, and performing fulfilling labor, that will get you 80% or even 100% towards fixing most, if not all your problems. Each of those is quite harder to achieve these days (due to work pressure, everpresent and ever-promoted processed foods, screen time, a borked dating sc…

They are easier to achieve than before. All of them. Just do it. Work pressure? Work less and push back if you need to, there's an abundance of easy jobs. Processed foods? Eat whole foods. Screen time? Use less screen. Borked dating scene? Not at all, work on yourself. Abundance of crap jobs? That means easy to get 1 or 2 of them and just coast a bit while working on self. People complain too much.

Yes.

Also: Depressed? Just be cheerful. Alcoholic? Just quit drinking. Your city is breaking down? Just move elsewhere. Kids keep you up at night? Just give them away. Terminal illness? Just get well.

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#216

Post by HFguy »

bla3 wrote: post #127
coldtea wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> their intelligence in one area means they’re qualified to make assessments or reach conclusions in fields outside of their own That's exactly what it means. Or rather, not that they're "qualified (period)" to "make assessments or reach conclusions in fields outside of their own", but "more qualified than someone not as intelligent". And that's exactly what's the case in a general discussion, when expertise is not a…

Have you heard (intelligent!) non-tech people talking about tech? Why would (intelligent!) tech people fare better talking about non-tech? Domain knowledge is more important than intelligence almost everywhere.

FWIW, I work in finance and often listen to Hackernews discussions on finance and investing. It is often some horrendously bad takes.

I then have the thought, "Am I doing this in areas where I don't have much experience?".

I can only assume there are some pretty stupid thoughts bouncing around my brain.

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#217

Post by jimmaswell »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #211
pgt wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it "comically bad inference" to postulate that something environmental may be messing with our serotonin systems if psychedelic serotonergics cure ailments that we know require messaging via serotonin? (IBS ~ gut, migraine ~ brain, sleeping problems, and mood swings ~ brain)

I still don't see the argument. Let's say an argument is a series of premises followed by a conclusion. Maybe you can render it for me. How does it follow from a class of drugs addressing a class of ailments that there's some industrial process messing with some process in the body? Does that follow from every class of drugs that addresses any class of ailments? If we find out that aspirin is even more versatile than…

Everyone feels fine. Then everyone feels bad. They start taking iron supplements and feel better again. Inference: something in the environment messed with their iron supply, be it less iron in the food, something in the water that hinders iron absorbtion, or other.

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#218

Post by HFguy »

naasking wrote: post #160
bla3 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you heard (intelligent!) non-tech people talking about tech? Why would (intelligent!) tech people fare better talking about non-tech? Domain knowledge is more important than intelligence almost everywhere.

> Have you heard (intelligent!) non-tech people talking about tech? Why would (intelligent!) tech people fare better talking about non-tech? Becoming an effective programmer trains one's strict logical and causal reasoning skills, since we're always building or debugging large and complex systems from simpler components. We see all kinds of crazy emergent behaviours all of the time, and learn to understand how such t…

My experience is quanty people (I'm one also) have too much confidence in their answers.

To make good predictions, you need to make good estimates AND understand what your confidence in your estimate should be.

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#219

Post by nprz »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #179
DiscourseFan wrote: post #19

Something in our industrial processes must be screwing with people's serotonin levels because Psychedelics and other serotenergic drugs are becoming the defacto treatment method for a whole host of ailments. I personally suffer from IBS, migraines, sleeping problems, and mood swings, if I haven't taken a dose of psychedelics in the last 6 months. Now, getting regular exercise, eating well, staying hydrated, sleeping…

> Psychedelics and other serotenergic drugs are becoming the defacto treatment method for a whole host of ailments. They are definitely not. Anecdotes aside, psychedelics are extremely overhyped right now and the downsides are heavily downplayed online. The studies about psychedelics and depression use heavy amounts of therapy and careful professional guidance, which the at-home experimenters don’t get. Psychedelics…

> but they’re much more common than enthusiastic internet commenters would suggest

How do you know this?

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#220

Post by jimmaswell »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #179
DiscourseFan wrote: post #19

Something in our industrial processes must be screwing with people's serotonin levels because Psychedelics and other serotenergic drugs are becoming the defacto treatment method for a whole host of ailments. I personally suffer from IBS, migraines, sleeping problems, and mood swings, if I haven't taken a dose of psychedelics in the last 6 months. Now, getting regular exercise, eating well, staying hydrated, sleeping…

> Psychedelics and other serotenergic drugs are becoming the defacto treatment method for a whole host of ailments. They are definitely not. Anecdotes aside, psychedelics are extremely overhyped right now and the downsides are heavily downplayed online. The studies about psychedelics and depression use heavy amounts of therapy and careful professional guidance, which the at-home experimenters don’t get. Psychedelics…

Are you affiliated with the drug industry in some way? I can't imagine anyone else saying all this.
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