Perseverance is rimming a crater!
Oh, I guess that's not what it says. Nonetheless, Jezero crater is the current frontier for the mighty rover 🫶
That’s a lot of rim to cover…
Mental health
Investigational treatments for MDD
Same new (original article):
psychedelics (psilocybin, ayahuasca, DMT (obvious 5-MeO-DMT in, say, Canada)
mitochondrial supplements (e.g. PQQ is not a silver bullet)
glutamate modulation (ketamine/esketamine)
neuropeptide Y: acts via four receptor types (Wiki also states Y6R is present, hehe) and modulates stress/HPA response, food and alcohol intake etc. But I wooouldn't say it's that differing from placebo
neuromodulation modalities:
rTMS
tDCS
LLLT
bright light therapy (as part of sleep deprivation - sleep phase shift - BLT)
deep brain stimulation etc.
Another interesting target from one of the articles is FKBP51 - quoting:
In various psychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions, patients have shown specific polymorphisms in the FKBP5 gene, which plays a role in negative feedback regulation. Consequently, individuals with mutations in this gene experience reduced sensitivity of glucocorticoid receptors, leading to uncontrolled CRH release
I hope you were doing some screenshots; babe I'm not a crystal ball (visit and play this game plz plz) but...
Again, bipolar and mitochondria
A nice infographics piece on factors involved ➡️ anything from f-ed up electron transport chain to apoptosis
Think of it like that if you're a programmer - a bug in a smart power supply software will make your computer act weird in every way imaginable because of voltage spikes and outages
Benzos and their responsible prescription
Too simple:
avoid alprazolam (short-acting and increasing extracellular dopamine ➡️ reinforcing and withdraw-y) and clonazepam for long-term use (potent and hard to taper)
lorazepam is preferable, or diazepam/clobazam (yeah, the chart has Z-drugs in 'benzo' comparison, but it's a comprehensive one IMO)
Pharmacogenetics, a wee bit
P450 are here, obviously: 2D6, 3A4, 2C19
I'd add ABCB1/MDR1 as it influences the efficiency of scores of drugs, including antidepressants. Not a given, but some studies suggest a strong link + mitochondria + the whole ten yards of DNA strips
Social
20% of US adults feel lonely everyday
people above average in gratitude (say thanks, dammit!) were 62% less likely to feel lonely
the article has more studies on that, but why is that so?
authors suggest it's because of being more flexible and adaptable
maybe being ready to ask for help matters, too (just a wild guess)?
OK to all the social anxiety folks here 🗿
Okay Metallica Green Day Tokio Hotel boomer.
music you listen to in your teens (13-14 yo) influences your music tastes the most
the funny thing is, highlighted by a great viz: 'best decade for music' depends on how old we are!
our music taste reaches maturity, yeah, in 30s:
the author highlights an awesome heuristic, 37% rule: we spend the first 37% of available search time exploring our options before settling on a preferred solution or selection.
GOLDEN RATIO 100% - 37% = 63 ALMOST 61.8%Okay that was too rash, possibly.
But THEY KNOW AND THEY ENGINEERED US THIS WAYmathematicians suggest dropping the first 37% of options for best outcome. It’s even applied to dating… Which seems a bit weird as how can one plan for X encounters then writing the 37th “Hey we met two years ago, but this is crazy! So here’s my number, let’s chat once more maybe”
Heuristics like that may possibly reduce decision fatigue, my fellow big-frontal-lobe gents and gals 🫶
Hate legal texts? They hate you for a purpose, too.
Scientists from MIT suggest legal texts being overly complex
and judicious while being expanded in needless and wordy text volumeis a form of gatekeeping strategy, to give the sense of authorityThe ‘overly complex’ effect persisted even in recent legal texts, not being combined of template parts - so it’s a learned trait (debunking so-called Copy-and-Edit hypothesis)
For confirming the hypothesis, people were asked to compare two spells: one overly complex and vague, other simple. Complex ‘spells’ were rated as more effective
However, some are resisting the hypotheses…
Welcome to Teleogenic❣️
Other places I cross-post (not always) to:
