Mental Faculties Research Articles

Schizophrenia diagnosis based on diverse epoch size resting-state EEG using machine learning.

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that impairs a person's mental, social, and emotional faculties gradually. Detection in the early stages with an accurate diagnosis is crucial to remedying the patients. This study proposed a new method to classify schizophrenia disease in the rest state based on neurologic signals achieved from the brain by electroencephalography (EEG). The datasets used consisted of 28 subjects, 14 for each group, which are schizophrenia and healthy control. The data was collected from the scalps with 19 EEG channels using a 250 Hz frequency. Due to the brain signal variation, we have decomposed the EEG signals into five sub-bands using a band-pass filter, ensuring the best signal clarity and eliminating artifacts. This work was performed with several scenarios: First, traditional techniques were applied. Secondly, augmented data (additive white Gaussian noise and stretched signals) were utilized. Additionally, we assessed Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance (MRMR) as the features reduction method. All these data scenarios are applied with three different window sizes (epochs): 1, 2, and 5 s, utilizing six algorithms to extract features: Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Approximate Entropy (ApEn), Log Energy entropy (LogEn), Shannon Entropy (ShnEn), and kurtosis. The L2-normalization method was applied to the derived features, positively affecting the results. In terms of classification, we applied four algorithms: K-nearest neighbor (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA), and ensemble classifier (EC). From all the scenarios, our evaluation showed that SVM had remarkable results in all evaluation metrics with LogEn features utilizing a 1-s window size, impacting the diagnosis of Schizophrenia disease. This indicates that an accurate diagnosis of schizophrenia can be achieved through the right features and classification model selection. Finally, we contrasted our results to recently published works using the same and a different dataset, where our method showed a notable improvement.

Descartes on certainty in deduction

This article examines how deduction preserves certainty and how much certainty it can preserve according to Descartes's Rules for the Direction of the Mind. I argue that the certainty of a deduction is a matter of four conditions for Descartes. First, certainty depends on whether the conjunction of simple propositions is composed with necessity or contingency. Second, a deduction approaches the certainty of an intuition depending on how many “acts of conceiving” it requires and—third—the complexity or difficulty of the acts of thinking, which is determined by the content of the thoughts and on external factors. Fourth, certainty depends on the intellectual aptitude of the person using the deduction. A deduction lacks certainty when it relies on memory such that it is not apprehended with immediacy. However, the mental capacity and speed of a mind can be increased by training the special mental faculties of perspicacity and discernment. Increasing one's intellectual aptitude allows for more steps of a deduction to be inferred in fewer acts of conceiving, thereby helping preserve the certainty of a deduction.

Better than Goodenough? Evaluating new computational techniques for finding diagnostic structure in children's drawings.

In her 1926 book Measurement of Intelligence by Drawings, Florence Goodenough pioneered the quantitative analysis of children's human-figure drawings as a tool for evaluating their cognitive development. This influential work launched a broad enterprise in cognitive evaluation that continues to the present day, with most clinicians and researchers deploying variants of the checklist-based scoring methods that Goodenough invented. Yet recent work leveraging computational innovations in cognitive science suggests that human-figure drawings possess much richer structure than checklist-based approaches can capture. The current study uses these contemporary tools to characterize structure in the images from Goodenough's original work, then assesses whether this structure carries information about demographic and cognitive characteristics of the participants in that early study. The results show that contemporary methods can reliably extract information about participant age, gender, and mental faculties from images produced over 100 years ago, with no expert training and with minimal human effort. Moreover, the new analyses suggest a different relationship between drawing and mental ability than that captured by Goodenough's highly influential approach, with important implications for the use of drawings in cognitive evaluation in the present day.

A scientific evaluation of Mental Health through Ayurveda

Mental health is an important aspect of overall wellbeing, as it allows individuals to recognize their own capabilities, manage everyday stress, be productive, and contribute to their community. According to Ayurveda, life consists of four interconnected elements: the body (Sarira), the sensory and motor faculties (Indriya), and the mind (Sattva), and the soul (Atma). Achieving a healthy life requires a harmonious balance of these components, encompassing physical, mental, sensory and spiritual aspects. Ayurveda also emphasizes the significance of mental health, including qualities such as a balanced and pleasant state of mind, cheerfulness, satisfactory sleep, stable mental faculties, active senses, and control over negative emotions, resilience in the face of adversity, and the ability to adapt. Ayurveda has various methods to evaluate mental health, including the assessment through Manasika Prakriti (Sattvika, Rajasika and Tamasika), Nadi Pariksha, Prajnaparadha, Ashta Vibhrama as mentioned in Unmada Nidana of Charaka Samhitha, and Sattva Pariksha as described in Dasavidha Pariksha. The main purpose of this evaluation is for establishing a proper diagnosis as well as prognosis of a disease. This review articles elaborates the scientific tools mentioned in Ayurveda to evaluate mental health.

It Is High Time for Serious Women

Abstract This article aims to highlight aspects of female emancipation in the Kingdom of Poland in the second half of the nineteenth century that gave this movement a specific, national character. The political and economic consequences of the January Uprising (1863–1864) hit the landed gentry particularly hard. As a result, many gentry women faced the necessity of earning a living and this forced a change in their way of life and aspirations. The traditional model for elite women did not match the economic challenges, and with this in mind, the Polish press, especially magazines for female readers, aimed to create a new model of gentry womanhood. Most periodicals agreed that women's emancipation was on a certain level necessary. But to what extent? This question has been a subject of dispute. Some columnists postulated to limit women's professional aspirations to manual occupations in order to preserve the domain of prestigious intellectual labor exclusively for men. This conservative movement succeeded only partially, with some upper-class women devoting themselves to handicrafts while others, against conservatives’ wishes, graduated from universities abroad and obtained qualifications for performing previously male professions. The majority of these educated women combined paid labor with social work. They were strongly influenced by the promoted ideal of a “new Polish woman” who was to be hard working, constantly improving her mental faculties, and engaging in activities that benefitted Polish society and the nation. This model contributed significantly to the formation of a new generation of distinguished female activists.

The Contribution of Mental Capacity to Personality Formulation. An Overview

Mental capacity, encompassing cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, and reasoning skills, plays a pivotal role in shaping one's personality. This study delves into the intricate relationship between an individual's mental faculties and their personality construct. Drawing from empirical research and theoretical frameworks, we posit that mental capacity influences not only the expression of personality traits but also their adaptability and resilience in various contexts. Higher cognitive abilities may correlate with increased self-awareness, complex problem-solving, and nuanced social interactions, all of which inform personality dynamics. Furthermore, variations in emotional intelligence can determine how individuals perceive, process, and respond to emotional stimuli, directly impacting interpersonal relationships and self-concept. By understanding the profound influence of mental capacity on personality formulation, this research sheds light on the multifaceted nature of human identity, emphasizing the symbiotic interplay between cognition and character.

‘Is it perfume from a dress / that makes me so digress?’ – the categorical differences between human experience and AI highlighted by literature

Since the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ was coined, the respective research field has frequently emulated human mental faculties. Despite diverging viewpoints regarding the feasibility of achieving human-like cognition in machines, the very use of the word intelligence for complex computer systems evokes human consciousness. Likewise, there have been attempts to understand the human mind in terms of computers, exemplified by the computational theory of mind. By contrast, my article underscores the categorical difference between the mind and machines. Partly building upon arguments by David Gelernter and Bert Olivier, I focus on literary examples spanning from Shakespeare to T.S. Eliot that accentuate subjective experience, the intricate relationship between body and mind, and the anticipation of death as human characteristics beyond the reach of computational systems.

Mental Imagery: Greasing the Mind's Gears

This paper introduces a novel conceptualisation of mental imagery; namely, that is grease for the mind’s gears (MGT). MGT is not just a metaphor. Rather, it describes an important and overlooked higher-order function of mental imagery: that it aids various mental faculties discharge their characteristic functional roles. MGT is motivated by reflection on converging evidence from clinical, experimental and social psychology and solves at least two neglected conceptual puzzles about mental imagery. The first puzzle concerns imagery’s architectural promiscuity; that is, its ability to assist diverse mental faculties and perform many different functions when doing so. The second puzzle concerns how to square imagery’s architectural promiscuity with its psychopathological relevance; that is, its being a maintaining cause, and possibly even a partial constituent, of several psychological disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. Mental imagery helps and harms human psychology to extreme degrees and this is something that calls for elucidation. MGT says that instead of facing perplexing heterogeneities here, we instead face a significant unity. On this score, MGT is argued to be superior to the currently dominant conception of imagery in the philosophical literature; namely, as a perception-like state of mind.

Centralization of the Educational Field in Applied Linguistics

In this linguistic description, we attempt to examine the structure of the educational-learning process as a communicative act in which all of its constituent parts interact, including "the teacher, the learner, and knowledge," as well as the external environment. We also attempt to examine the degree to which this act is represented within the educational classes, given that the main objective is to acquire knowledge and skill that aims to achieve existence and an entity of language. The learner, in terms of persistence in connecting new knowledge with prior understanding, and fully utilizing the mental faculties by the axis of contemporary pedagogy "the learner" for research and balance, increasing his abilities, and ultimately benefiting him .

Psychological Resilience of Soccer Referees: Comparing Novices and Veterans

The study explores the psychological resilience of soccer referees, focusing on comparing novices and veterans. Referees must possess psychological resilience, or the capacity to adjust and flourish in the face of hardship since they are frequently subjected to scrutiny and high-stress circumstances. To identify the elements that lead to resilience, a sample of 35 participants, including referees, spectators, players, media, coaches, and club administrators, were interviewed in-depth as part of this phenomenological qualitative research design. A thematic study of these two groups’ approaches to stress perception and management, setback recovery, and mental health maintenance uncovered both clear contrasts and parallels. Novice referees often reported higher levels of anxiety and self-doubt, attributing these feelings to their limited experience and the high expectations placed upon them. In contrast, veteran referees demonstrated greater confidence and a robust repertoire of coping strategies, developed through years of on-field experience. The results show that seasoned referees had better levels of psychological resilience than their less experienced peers. The development of mental toughness over time, experience-based coping mechanisms, and the support networks at their disposal are among the major themes that have been found. Contrarily, novices frequently experience self-doubt and lack the strong coping strategies that veterans possess. It is widely believed that the primary cause of the worldwide decline in referee numbers is the poor management of soccer officials. The study concludes that psychological resilience is a dynamic trait that may be enhanced with practice and the right kind of assistance. According to the study’s conclusions, the relevant organisations should inform all parties involved about changes to the game’s laws, target resilience training for novice referees, establish mentorship programs to bridge the gap between novices and veterans and hire sports psychologists to help new referees develop their mental faculties. These measures are vital for enhancing the overall performance and well-being of referees in the competitive environment of soccer.

Personhood as projection: the value of multiple conceptions of personhood for understanding the dehumanisation of people living with dementia.

We examine the concept of personhood in relation to people living with dementia and implications for the humanity of care, drawing on a body of ethnographic work. Much debate has searched for an adequate account of the person for these purposes. Broad contrasts can be made between accounts focusing on cognition and mental faculties, and accounts focusing on embodied and relational aspects of the person. Some have suggested the concept of the person is critical for good care; others suggest the vexed debates mean that the concept should be abandoned. We argue instead that the competing accounts illuminate the very tensions in personhood which are manifest for all of us, but especially for people living with dementia, and argue that our account has explanatory power in shedding light on how precisely dehumanisation and constraints on agency may arise for people living with dementia, and for staff, within an institutional context.

Cognitive functioning and life satisfaction as predictors of subjective health complaints in elderly people

PurposeEffective cognitive functioning elucidates the orchestrated interplay of diverse mental faculties in addressing daily tasks, potentially indicative of an improved state of an individual’s health. Linked to this is the potential role of life satisfaction, which may aid individuals in better managing their health-related challenges. The purpose this study is to examine whether the cognitive functioning and life satisfaction levels of elderly individuals serve as predictors of their subjective health complaints.Design/methodology/approachThe research involved a cohort of 126 elderly community residents. The assessment tools used encompassed a socio-demographic questionnaire, the mini-mental state examination (MMSE), the scale of subjective health complaints and a life satisfaction scale.FindingsThe findings reveal that both cognitive functioning and life satisfaction are predictive variables for subjective health complaints, validated in both the original sample and simulated samples.Originality/valueThis study’s innovation lies in highlighting the importance of cognitive functioning and life satisfaction among the elderly population as explanatory factors for subjective health complaints. Consequently, these dimensions warrant consideration in specialized intervention programs aimed at promoting the health and quality of life among the elderly.

The Soul: A Psychological Enquiry

Abstract Soul beliefs are universal among religious folk but vary tremendously from culture to culture, In fact, in tribal societies without formal religious dogmas, soul beliefs can vary from individual to individual. A review of notions regarding the soul (or souls) amongst tribal and post-tribal societies does evidence, nonetheless, a recurring pattern of focus on the soul envisaged as the vital life energy of the body and/or as encapsulating one of more mental faculties. Not surprisingly, theories as to the psychological basis for soul belief vary as well, but a strong case can be advanced that at its core, soul belief is about the essence of the self, which involves the psychological process of ipseity.

Abraham Abulafia's mysticism of divine flux

Abraham Abulafia was a unique Jewish mystic of the thirteenth century. He was well versed in the works of Moses Maimonides and other philosophers and also had a deep understanding of letter permutation mysticism developed from various commentaries of Sefer YeṢirah. These diverse influences led Abulafia to develop a world-view emphasizing the differences between philosophical, traditional and Kabbalistic discourses. However, he argued that, ultimately, they refer to similar dynamics. This article focuses on the central role of divine flow (shefa) and the holy spirit in Abulafia's thought. The concept of the holy spirit as overflow was widely used in medieval literature across various religious traditions, such as Judaism, Islam and Christianity, to understand the nature of divine agency, causality and inspiration. Abulafia utilized this broad understanding to argue that all forms of discourse, whether philosophical or religious, are limited forms of the divine overflow. The only actual reality is the unified flow that transcends all forms of discourse and metaphysical and mental structures. Therefore, according to Abulafia, the mystical path is to transcend all forms of discourse and one's mental faculties and reach the state of union with the absolute divine flux.

EFFECTIVENESS OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY FOR PEOPLE WITH SYMPTOMS OF ANXIETY

The main objective of the empirical study is to establish the effect of the application of occupational therapy on residents living in an institutional environment, who often experience anxiety, distress, social isolation, sadness, which are processes that often lead to a decline in physical and psychological functioning. The high prevalence of these stress-related disorders has impeded the ability of a high number of individuals individuals to participate in regular life activities (Fox et al., 2019). The experimental base of the present research is the Home for Adults with Physical Disabilities “Ilho Voivoda”, Kyustendil, and the research contingent is 44 adults housed in the Home. The recipients of the social service have a wide range of diseases: multiple sclerosis, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, limb malformations, cerebral palsy, paraplegia, heart attack, stroke, etc. All of them have preserved mental faculties. A test study was conducted with a personality-based questionnaire, created on the basis of the PAI - Personality Assessment Inventory, intended for the study of adults in order to provide information relevant to clinical diagnoses and screening for psychopathology. For the purpose of the present study, items from the PAI were used, which aim to detect the symptoms and phenomenology of anxiety. The Anxiety scale measures traits commonly associated with the experience of anxiety. Item content includes various characteristics of anxiety, including worry, subjective apprehension, and fear of humiliation, as well as the physical signs of tension and stress. The scale is composed of three subscales corresponding to three main modalities of anxiety: Cognitive, Affective and Physiological. The occupational therapy process was designed to move through multiple cycles of problem identification, followed by solution generation, while the main focus remained on occupation and the human factor in the occupational context (Crouch & Alers, 2014). The results after the occupational therapy are indicative of its significant effectiveness. The improved indicators include: the number of residents with anxiety from 41 (93.2%) before occupational therapy was carried out decreased to 21 (47.7%), i.e. by almost 50%. In conclusion, according to the results of the present study, it can be assumed that occupational therapy occupies a leading position in rehabilitation therapies in social institutions. It provides an opportunity to get rid of negative emotions such as anxiety, anger, dissatisfaction, disappointment, insult, hostility.

Will AI make us crazy?

ABSTRACT Chatbots and other artificial-intelligence applications that mimic human conversation or writing have rapidly become some of the most popular tech applications of all time. Expert analysis and media coverage of the risks and benefits of AI have paid scant attention to how chatbots might affect public health at a time when depression, suicide, anxiety, and mental illness are epidemic in the United States, particularly among children and young adults. Many experts have pointed to a correlation between declining mental health and increasing online engagement. Generative AI’s potential to transform education, the job market, and social interactions could come at the expense of humanity’s own mental faculties, creativity, and social skills. Chatbots—which are prone to errors and fabrications—could also make it more difficult for humans to tell fact from fiction. But to the extent that mental health experts and the healthcare industry are interested in AI, it’s mostly viewed as a promising tool for identifying and treating mental health issues, rather than a potential threat to mental health.

Living with yoga in everyday life

Yoga practices have been recognized over time to bring positive effects to all parts of the complex human organism to make them work optimally and also to be useful for the wellbeing of mental faculties as well. Today’s life is much occupied with diverse engagements in household, educational, professional and social fronts. It seems not easy for all people to dedicate time to practice their interest or doing activities like yoga, physical exercises and other hobbies even periodically, in spite of having willingness to do so. However, it is to ponder that our lives are not only based on yoga, it is something which we are living with knowingly or unknowingly. In this context the eight limbs of Patanjali Yoga Sutra (PSY) of Maharshi Patanjali who has given the most reflective explanation of yoga have been referred to see how they are echoed in our lives. A few literatures with research publications have been studied to write this article. It has been thoughtfully explored with the aim to suggest how yoga practices can be synchronized with daily activities with the conclusion that the yoga practices may be incorporated in our life along with day-to-day activities without spending further time.

Essay] Not Quite Like Us? — Can Cyborgs and Intelligent Machines Be Natural Persons as a Matter of Law?

The ability of AI machines to perform intellectual functions long associated with human higher mental faculties is unprecedented, for it is precisely those functions that have separated humans from all other species. AI machines can now imitate some of the outputs of our form of sapience; they can produce literary and artistic content and even express what seem like feelings and emotions. Calls for “robot rights” are getting louder. Using a transdisciplinary methodology, including philosophy of mind, moral philosophy, linguistics and neuroscience, this essay aims to situate the difference in law between human and machine in a way that a court of law could operationalize. This is not a purely theoretical exercise. Courts have already started to make that distinction and making it correctly will likely become gradually more important, as humans become more like machines (cyborgs, cobots) and machines more like humans (neural networks, robots with biological material). The essay draws a line that separates human and machine using the way in which humans think, a way that machines may mimic and possibly emulate but are unlikely ever to make their own.

Should cancer treatment stop at the age of 75?

Should cancer treatment stop at the age of 75?

Strategies for Stimulating Intrinsic Consciousness in the Training Process

This article is dedicated to the educational researchers and academia involved in the initial training of students. The educational process is based on a set of principles, and intrinsic consciousness in one of them. It guides personality development towards forming a self-concept and worldview. Furthermore, this principle stems from one of the four dimensions of spiritual intelligence, namely transcendental awareness, which focuses on developing consciousness and self-awareness. The principle of intrinsic consciousness entails engaging students in academic activities that demand complex cognitive processes, such as analysis, synthesis, reflection, imagination as well as other mental faculties based on intuition. In this context, training approaches and planning shall focus both on theoretical benchmarks, particularly on the model of spiritual intelligence and, more specifically, on transcendental awareness, and on methodological benchmarks, comprising the teaching strategies guiding the educational approach aimed at developing intrinsic consciousness. For this investigative approach, a strategy is a construct consisting of a harmonious combination of learning tasks and methods used in shaping the personality to be self-aware and conscious of the components of the relationship with the surrounding world. Moreover, academics can apply these strategies both in a formal context, in the planning of lectures and seminars on academic subjects, and in a non-formal context, as part of continuing education activities.