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Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants

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Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants

#51

Post by unclebucknasty »

jacquesm wrote: post #29
unclebucknasty wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thanks!

Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants

#52

Post by araes »

outworlder wrote: post #46
Udo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Do you get adequate and deep rest? This is key. I have noticed the same symptoms as the parent. And I can't be blamed by not challenging my brain enough - I am learning Haskell, doing a side project and there's the day job. If I had to measure myself, I'd guess that I'm working at 40% of what I was in my 20's (I'm 34). However, I probably have sleep apnea (I say probably because my doctor asked me to get a bunch of…

Hmm, sounds familiar. Any also true?

Adult acne? Itchy ears? Intermittent neck cramps? Progressive hair loss? Sleep better with a fan blowing over you? Acid reflux?

If so, possibly try getting into a tub, drawing a moderate layer of water, and then performing breathing exercises into the water. In/out with force. Nose/nose, Mouth/mouth, Nose/mouth, yatta. Note: I did not relish the outcome, ymmv.

Repeat after: twisting torso, xing/unxing arms, alternating closed nostrils, plugging nostrils and pressurizing breathing tract + ears, vigorous activity (jogging)

Also, if the hair one is true, regularly brush your hair w/ a soft end comb. (I almost guarantee loss will stop)

Also, if the adult acne is true, try the opposite of common sense, and apply a thick skin cream (Aveno's decent) or a gellified salt like deodorant if it's not sensitive skin. Make sure to apply well to areas near openings to ears/nose/mouth/eyes. (You should do this anyhow as it slows your apparent age)

Also, if reflux, try high acidic/bitter/basic/spicy/salty foods and see whether they trigger/solve reflux and whether you sleep better/worse.

Also, possibly try sleeping fully enclosed within a sheet.

Not a doctor, your own risk, other standard medical disclaimers by non-pro.

Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants

#53

Post by ds222 »

solve wrote: post #40
_-__--- wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the outright banning of p-values is not the right way to go. The researchers that misuse them and the reviewers that apparently don't understand them are a much bigger problem than the p-value metric itself. What's needed is a better understanding of empirical conditional statistics and the application of that understanding to the degign of experiments and the analysis of the results produced therefrom.

And the best way to do that is to eliminate the crutch. Many of the more data-centric fields did away with p-values long ago in favor of far more robust approaches to establishing the value of a paper. Look at papers in the data science field. Using p-values in a paper there would get you laughed out of the industry fast. Only problem that p-values ever solved was allowing journal reviewers to be lazier, helping scie…

Are there journals for data science? I am not aware of any...

Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants

#54

Post by DenisM »

melted wrote: post #8
madaxe_again wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This could be because you're not getting enough sleep (or aren't sleeping well due to e.g. apnea or something). Set up a simple experiment: go to bed 1-1.5 hours earlier than you usually do for a couple of weeks and see if your "cognitive decline" disappears. As you age you might find you need more sleep.

Very important point. When I sleep well for a couple of week my memory and cognition are very sharp, but when I don't sleep well I'm having all kinds of cognitive problems. At 30 years old you're likely to have developed something like a sleep apnea, or caffeine metabolism slowdown, or some of the many other problems affecting sleep.

Having said that, simply going to be earlier is not likely to help weed out most of these disorders. Go to a sleep doctor and see what they say. Also, are you getting more irate? For many people it's a lot easier to get angry when they lack sleep.

Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants

#55

Post by gwern »

BoardsOfCanada wrote: post #14

The 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…

I left a comment on OP several days ago pointing that out; still hasn't appeared nor has it been fixed. Apparently they don't care about being correct.

Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants

#56

Post by leeleelee »

This is a premature conclusion. There was no measurement of IQ before and after infection, so no such conclusion can be made.

There could be other, unknown, factors that happen to affect BOTH: a person's IQ and their likelihood to be infected, along with severity of infection. For example some genetic, environmental, or other variable that affects your IQ as well as infection-resistance.

It very well might be true, that infection does have the ability to lower IQ. But this study does not prove it.

I wish scientists would be more straightforward about conclusions. The title of the article should read: "Study finds that individuals who have suffered infection have a lower IQ than the general population" or something along those lines. Much different than saying that "infection lowers IQ".

This is beginner-level confusion of causation and correlation.

Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants

#57

Post by bandris »

gwern wrote: post #55
BoardsOfCanada wrote: post #14

The 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…

I left a comment on OP several days ago pointing that out; still hasn't appeared nor has it been fixed. Apparently they don't care about being correct.

The correction seems to be there now.

Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants

#58

Post by pdabbadabba »

leeleelee wrote: post #56

This is a premature conclusion. There was no measurement of IQ before and after infection, so no such conclusion can be made. There could be other, unknown, factors that happen to affect BOTH: a person's IQ and their likelihood to be infected, along with severity of infection. For example some genetic, environmental, or other variable that affects your IQ as well as infection-resistance. It very well might be true, t…

The title of the article is, in fact "The Association between Infections and General Cognitive Ability in Young Men - A Nationwide Study." And as others have pointed out elsewhere, the authors controlled for some (though not every) conceivable common causes of infection and reduced IQ.

Though, as a criticism of the author of the blog post, I would agree with your comment.

Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants

#59

Post by MaysonL »

farresito wrote: post #3

This 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.

The brain is also quite resilient. I got shot in the head a few decades ago (.22, luckily) with skull fracture and moderate brain damage – mainly a large hole in my visual field, with occasional visual migraines. Intellectually, I seem to have mainly lost a few steps as far as 3d visualizations are concerned, otherwise still about +3 sd IQ.

Re: Infection inflicts a persistent decrease in IQ: study with 180,000 participants

#60

Post by farresito »

MaysonL wrote: post #59
farresito wrote: post #3

This 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.

The brain is also quite resilient. I got shot in the head a few decades ago (.22, luckily) with skull fracture and moderate brain damage – mainly a large hole in my visual field, with occasional visual migraines. Intellectually, I seem to have mainly lost a few steps as far as 3d visualizations are concerned, otherwise still about +3 sd IQ.

Glad to hear you are doing so well! Yes, I completely agree with you the power of the brain to heal itself is amazing. I'm also quite excited by what things are coming in the next ten or twenty years. A good diet probably does wonders, too.

I've been suffering from health issues for the past four years. That's why I'm interested in the brain (I suffer from extreme brain fog, and by extreme I really mean extreme; I can't have a conversation with anyone face to face, and I even have some issues when chatting with people. It takes a long time to really think about what I need to say. I still cannot understand how I'm managing to go through college).

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