MIND READING -- PROTECTING OUR RIGHTS

One of my favored blogs I've previously mentioned is "Cop Car's Beat" (her cat's name).  She mixes in some humor with accounts of her daily life, including gardening, primarily directed toward her family and friends. 

She occasionally highlights some really thought-provoking items she's ferreted from sites with which I've not been familiar.  Her background and work before retiring has been fascinating which I won't go into other than to say she has flown around quite a bit, then later she and her husband individually devoted themselves to helping others including in times of disaster.

One of her most recent posts captured my attention which she introduced for "Neuro Nerds" and prefaced with ...

"We better get on this or all sorts of things will occur automatically and we may or may not be alerted in a timely way to opt out if we're even given the choice."

The Slashdot article she briefly discusses notes that science has scanners now...

 "...making manipulation of the human mind increasingly possible, creating a need for laws and protections to regulate use of the new tools, top neurologists said."

"If you can record and change neurons, you can in principle read and write the minds of people."

"This is not science fiction.  We are doing this in lab animals."

This rather lengthy video is Dr. Rafael Yuste, a neuroscientist at New York's Columbia University discussing some of his research relative to this topic and AI (Artificial Intelligence):

Dr. Yuste said in a Reuters article:

"Usually people only start talking about ethics and regulations after a big scandal, but with neurotech I hope we can take on these questions before that scandal".

"Yuste introduced the NeuroRights Initiative, which advocates five "neuro-rights" to protect how a person's brain data is accessed and used, including a right to mental privacy and to free will."

Seems incredible to me now that mind reading is even possible, but Yuste describes the current scientific environment as being like "the Wild West".   These are a couple cautionary views with more perspectives in the Reuters article:

"Ienca at ETH Zurich said major ethical issues could arise if the data commercial neurotech devices collect is widely shared and analyzed without proper safeguards, he said.

"We already have digital biomarkers that can indicate if someone is predisposed to developing dementia.  Let's say (that) data is shared with a prospective employer, you could face discrimination on the job market," he said."

"In Chile, senate member Guido Girardi favors strict regulation.  "We didn't regulate the big social media and internet platforms in time, and it costs us.  We have lost control of all kinds of data, from our location to our romantic interests -- it's all up for sale," he said."

"If we allow for all this brain data to be taken, who knows what the consequences will be?  We'll have algorithms deciding what it means to be 'happy'," Girardi said".

We should be concerned.   Now is the time for action -- expecting and supporting our scientists to ensure criteria are established, determining what regulations may be needed and followed to protect the individual.   Does privacy matter?

What are your thoughts on the potential of mind reading and the need to establish individual rights now to protect our brains, those of our children and grandchildren from future manipulation?

HAPPINESS IS RAIN -- DUAL LANGUAGES -- UNUSUAL BEHAVIORS

What brings happiness can be experienced differently by each of us.   After many dry months I was pleased last evening to hear a rumble I determined actually was thunder.   The sound moved north to south over my house, then faded away.  Where was the rain, I wondered?   Is that all there is?    

Peggy Lee – Is That All There Is -- 1969

A short time later I heard another band of thunder gradually moving overhead preceded by brief lightning flashes.   This time I began to finally hear the sound of welcome rain.  I was happy.

Language translation I wrote about in my most recent previous posts brought to my mind another intriguing variation on the topic.  

I recall an alert 100 year-old woman a physician asked me to see in a long term care rehabilitation facility.   She presented my first work encounter with the French language other than my long ago college studies, but I’d had no conversational practice during the ensuing years.    This lady had lived in the U.S. most of her life speaking English, no French, her daughter said, but her birth language had been French. 

This agile petite lady had recently had a slight stroke from which she was thought to have mostly recovered.  Surprisingly to all, they discovered that she had begun speaking French which no one could understand.  She spoke to staff in French frequently, or seemed to be using a combination of English and French sounding words.  Later we learned, as with her infrequent English productions, even her French was lacking in grammar and meaning.   Staff and her family were having great difficulty in understanding her so they could fulfill her functional daily living needs and wants. 

I knew universal medical histories documented some individuals after stroke have reverted to a birth language though they might not have used it since early childhood or during their adult life.   I was asked to see if she could resume English speaking as she had before her stroke.

In addition to her impaired French, she had other cognitive complications and hearing loss issues I was able to determine.   The stroke had left her with short term memory problems, so what skills she might learn in the moment, to use English, was not retained, unfortunately.   Introduction of all techniques including pictures, gestures became a focus, too.   

Anything further that could be done to facilitate her better communication in a trial intervention was soon completed as meaningful progress could no longer justify continuing therapy.    Gains, if any, would be long term requiring 24/7 consistent reinforcement by all with whom she had contact.  

Staff, family, friends would need to use a combination of total communication techniques, reinforcing speech with English as a constant, but French words could be used if most helpful should staff and family acquire a few, too.   She made no later significant communication gains or changes in her use of English as far as I ever knew.   Inability to achieve a significant positive change in someone's life is always disappointing.  

Unusual behaviors can occur as a consequence of neurological brain functions.  This can be due to variations in neural connections, chemical imbalances, tumors, other effects and causes.   Our whole being is complicated but fascinating.   From the time I held a human brain in my hands and began to learn about that most important part of our body I have been mesmerized, but also very aware of my knowledge shortcoming.  

What I soon realized is that the more we know about our brain’s function, the more we learn about how little we know.   The scientists who study the brain are acutely aware of this fact.  As much as we are all the same, we are also very different -- a reason to be compassionate, tolerant and try to understand one another.  

A neurologist author has written numerous books in very readable language about many real individuals whose brains had a slight variation from what is often considered normal.   I highly recommend Oliver Sacks books if you are unfamiliar with his writings.   His entertaining writing makes fascinating reading though we're deprived of more clinical tales since he died in 2015.   

His most well-known book became the movie “Awakenings” about some most unusual real people with Parkinsonian type behaviors.   His other books are equally fascinating.  

Some of their intriguing titles are “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales”, “The Island of the Colorblind”, “A Leg to Stand On”, “Seeing Voices” to name a few. 

Have you encountered unusual behaviors in others you know, or changes in them that you didn’t understand?  Perhaps we should use caution concluding too quickly the reasons why people act as they do sometimes.  Differences or changes are much more readily accepted and understood if they are visible than if hidden from our sight in the brain whenever they're acquired, or if present from birth. 

Did you ever wonder if maybe ... just maybe ... the person you thought was behaving strangely had changes in their brain over which they had no control, altering their behavior from what typically had been thought of as their normal?