On Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:25:14 -0800, Edward Pollak wrote:
WE HAVE A WINNER............................ for the biggest "Well, Duh" of the century!!!!
A few points: (1) I'm responding to Ed's post on the mail-archive but the post to which he is responding (see below) is not there. I don't know who the original poster is or if there are other parts of the post that have been snipped. (2) I'm having a hard time understanding Ed's post. Perhaps he is saying "Hey, the movement/muscle disorder either it has a neurological basis in the brain or it is psychological based (i.e., psychogenic) and that's too is in brain! It's all in the brain!" Which is a pretty trivial point and misses, well, the point. Perhaps Ed doesn't know what psychogenic illnesses are (e.g., as described here: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/psychogenic_movement/psychogenic_movement.htm ) that is, disorders that manifest themselves in some physical manner, such a abnormal movement or blindness or pain or fatigue and so on without any obvious organic or physical basis. If there is no organic basis, then either a psychological explanation or malingering might be considered. These types of "functional" disorders are often stigmatized by both the medical community (because there is no objective basis for the disorder) and the public (who think that the person is just faking it for some sort of secondary gain). The point of the research being reported is that movement disorders that have a genetic (i.e., known organic) basis and psychogenic basis have brain activity that is different from normal people just "faking". If this is trivial, I'd like to know why. (3) In the movie "Memento" one can say that Jonathan Nolan is using the device of an "unreliable narrator" as a guide to the story and one of the purpose's of the backwards storytelling is to reveal that Leonard (Guy Pearce) cannot be relied upon to tell the truth -- see for example: http://www.christophernolan.net/memento_mem.php One of the key points in the film is that Leonard's amnesia is "real", based on an injury he suffered in an attack at home that may have killed his wife. In contrast, Sammy Jankis presumably has a "fake" psychogenic amnesia that only seemed to be real like Leonard's. However, by the film's end, it is unclear whether Leonard's amnesia is "real" (i..e., organic) or "fake" (i.e., psychological, possibly a manifestation of a personality disorder). If a viewer felt sympathy, was it because one thought Leonard's amnesia was organic and real? Is a viewer justified in feeling betrayed (i.e., lied to) by Leonard's revelation that he may have only a psychogenic amnesia and he appears to be suffering from a personality disorder in which he is lying to himself and others? Well, what difference does it make? It's all in his head, right? Or should one distinguish between an organic amnesia from a psychogenic amnesia? For fun and giggles, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogenic_amnesia For those unfamiliar with "Memento" or need a refresher, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_%28film%29 -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --------- Original Message ---------
Some movement disorders may be rooted in the brain. People who suffer from little-known movement and muscle disorders commonly referred to as psychogenic diseases showed abnormal brain patterns in a recent study. The cause of these diseases is still unknown, as it has been difficult to detect such differences in brain activity, but the study led by neuroscientist James Rowe of the University of Cambridge used PET scans to find the abnormal brain activity. http://www.livescience.com/27370-mysterious-muscle-disorder-brain-roots.html
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