Evolutionary Lies

AI Overview

Traditional PFC creativity focuses on the ability to generate novel and useful ideas, while paradoxical PFC creativity involves embracing contradictions and inconsistencies to spark creative insights. Traditional creativity emphasizes originality and imagination, whereas paradoxical creativity acknowledges the potential benefits of incorporating seeming paradoxes and tensions into the creative process.

Traditional PFC Creativity:

• Definition:

  The ability to produce or develop original work, theories, techniques, or thoughts.

• Key Characteristics:

  Originality, imagination, expressiveness, and a focus on producing something new and valuable.

• Examples:

  Developing a new scientific theory, writing a novel, designing a new product, or creating a unique piece of art.

• Brain Regions:

  While not definitively mapped, studies suggest that the right frontal pole and other prefrontal subregions are involved in creativity tasks.

Paradoxical PFC Creativity:

• Definition:

  The ability to embrace and leverage contradictions and inconsistencies in order to generate creative solutions.

• Key Characteristics:

  Recognizing and accepting paradoxes, integrating opposing ideas, and finding creative ways to resolve or reconcile conflicting demands.

• Examples:

  Developing a business strategy that simultaneously focuses on both cost reduction and innovation, or designing a product that is both user-friendly and technologically advanced.

• Brain Regions:

  Studies suggest that paradoxical thinking can activate the prefrontal cortex and enhance connections between the default mode network (DMN) and executive control network, allowing for the integration of seemingly conflicting information.

Key Differences:

• Approach to Contradictions:

  Traditional creativity often aims to resolve contradictions, while paradoxical creativity embraces them as a source of inspiration.

• Focus:

  Traditional creativity focuses on generating something entirely new, while paradoxical creativity focuses on finding innovative solutions within existing contradictions.

• Potential Benefits:

  Traditional creativity can lead to breakthroughs and advancements, while paradoxical creativity can lead to more nuanced and adaptable solutions.

In essence, traditional PFC creativity is about creating something new, while paradoxical PFC creativity is about creating something new from the old, or more accurately, from the seemingly incompatible.

Concepts from cognitive neuroscience strongly suggest that the prefrontal cortex (PFC)

plays a crucial role in the cognitive functions necessary for creative thinking. Functional

imaging studies have repeatedly demonstrated the involvement of PFC in creativity

tasks. Patient studies have demonstrated that frontal damage due to focal lesions or

neurodegenerative diseases are associated with impairments in various creativity tasks.

However, against all odds, a series of clinical observations has reported the facilitation

of artistic production in patients with neurodegenerative diseases affecting PFC, such as

frontotemporal dementia (FTD). An exacerbation of creativity in frontal diseases would

challenge neuroimaging findings in controls and patients, as well as the theoretical role

of prefrontal functions in creativity processes. To explore this paradox, we reported the

history of a FTD patient who exhibited the emergence of visual artistic productions during

the course of the disease. The patient produced a large amount of drawings, which have

been evaluated by a group of professional artists who were blind to the diagnosis. We

also reviewed the published clinical cases reporting a change in the artistic abilities in

patients with neurological diseases. We attempted to reconcile these clinical observations

to previous experimental findings by addressing several questions raised by our review.

For instance, to what extent can the cognitive, conative, and affective changes following

frontal damage explain changes in artistic abilities? Does artistic exacerbation truly reflect

increased creative capacities? These considerations could help to clarify the place of

creativity—as it has been defined and explored by cognitive neuroscience—in artistic

creation and may provide leads for future lesion studies.

Damage to the PFC may alter the intentional appropriateness and originality of patient productions by altering planning, fluency, mental flexibility, rule-based thinking, or abstraction. However, clinical observations of frontal damage patients suggest that some symptoms associated with frontal damage provoke cognitive, conative, and behavioral changes, including social disinhibition, compulsive behaviors, emotional distortions, and the relaxing of cognitive constraints, which can motivate and favor artistic productions. However, artistic production is not synonymous with creativity, because creativity refers to aspects such as emotional expression, evocative impact, aesthetic, and technical abilities, which are present in art but not necessarily in other domains of creativity. Art is thus difficult to capture using theory-based creativity tasks, and to our knowledge, patients with facilitation in the artistic domain have not been tested experimentally with such tasks. Therefore, whether these rare frontal patients increase their real creative capacity does not have a yes or no answer.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00761/full

Where Does The DHT Hair Loss Myth Come From?

The belief that DHT causes hair loss, although untrue, is the main side effect associated with this testosterone medication. So where did these myths come from?

DHT is a hormone produced from testosterone, which is closely linked to male characteristics, including hair growth. Studies have shown people with higher DHT levels experience hair thinning or balding and media portrayals have reinforced this misconception.

The main thing you need to understand is this – several factors behind DHT hair loss have been overlooked. New evidence suggests a more complicated relationship, but the idea has stuck around for a long time.

https://www.victorymenshealth.com/dht-hair-loss-myths/#:~:text=DHT%20is%20a%20hormone%20derived,muscle%20growth%20and%20overall%20vitality

AI Overview

The misconception is that taking testosterone medication directly causes hair loss simply by increasing DHT levels; while increased DHT can contribute to hair loss in genetically predisposed individuals, the primary "side effect" often experienced is the anxiety about potential hair loss due to this association, not actual significant hair loss from the medication itself.

AI Overview

The statement is referring to the misconception that taking testosterone medication can directly cause hair loss due to increased DHT levels, even though the real issue is a genetic predisposition to sensitivity to DHT, not the testosterone itself; meaning the "side effect" is the anxiety about hair loss, not actual hair loss from the medication itself.

AI Overview

Yes, disassortative mating in humans, particularly regarding the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes, is thought to be beneficial for immune function. This type of mating, where individuals choose partners with dissimilar MHC genes, is believed to lead to offspring with a broader range of pathogen recognition capabilities, thus enhancing their immune response. 

Here's why:

• MHC and Immune System:

  The MHC genes play a critical role in the immune system by coding for proteins that help the body recognize and respond to pathogens. 

• Heterozygote Advantage:

  Individuals with diverse MHC genes (heterozygotes) tend to have a wider repertoire of pathogen recognition, potentially offering a survival advantage. 

• Disassortative Mating and MHC Diversity:

  By choosing partners with different MHC genes, individuals increase the likelihood of their offspring inheriting a more diverse set of these genes, leading to a greater capacity to fight off a wider array of pathogens. 

• Inbreeding Avoidance:

  Disassortative mating can also help reduce the risk of inbreeding, which can lead to offspring with reduced immune function due to the expression of deleterious recessive alleles. 

While the link between MHC and mate choice is well-established in various species, including humans, some studies have shown mixed results regarding preference for MHC dissimilarity in humans. However, the general consensus is that disassortative mating, particularly at the MHC, is an adaptive strategy that contributes to immune defense. 

The MHC loci on chromosome 6 is a crucial predisposing factor for number of auto immune diseases (Vasiliki, Vinod, et al., 2017).

https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780123860255/human-population-genetics-and-genomics 

Hence, disassortative mating resembles avoidance of inbreeding, but unlike avoidance of inbreeding, it only affects the loci contributing to the phenotype for which disassortative mating is occurring and loci in linkage disequilibrium with them. In addition, unlike avoidance of inbreeding, disassortative mating alters allele frequencies and tends to stabilize them at intermediate levels. At the multi-locus level, disassortative mating can bring together into the same family alleles that have opposite effects on phenotypes.