Another thread on philosophy of biology 👨‍🔬, in this case: Are species real? 🙊

Species is a rather complex category that has given rise to debate on several topics, which shows once again the philosophical richness of biology 🌿

This Practical Neurology paper came up in conversations with a colleague recently - important to eradicate the organic vs. nonorganic distinction in brain disorders across neurology & psychiatry. Also - paper wins the prize for best figure caption!
pn.bmj.com/content/17/5/4…

Synaptopathy: presynaptic convergence in frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis | Brain | Oxford Academic academic.oup.com/brain/advance-…

What's now - purgatory or hell?
#Reviewer2
#AcademicTwitter

Jesus Ramirez-Bermudez Can't agree more. A brilliant professor once asked us: when you laugh watching a cartoon, what makes you laugh exactly? Is it the individual pixels?

You need to assess a phenomenon at its appropriate level of analysis. Same goes for the saying 'love is just a chemical thing'

Fairly often I hear music without a source. It is always original music; nothing I have heard before. I wish I had the musical knowledge to recreate what I hear...

Músicos, melómanos, neurocientíficos, gente que le gusten las artes y todos los demás, lean esto.
👇👇👇👇👇👇

On Musical Hallucinations & Visual Poetry

Active Inference Insights 021 with the great Thomas Metzinger is now live.

youtube.com/watch?v=IjWBAy…

Don't miss out!

Active Inference Institute

Some characteristics of the #borderline personality #BPD that go beyond DSM criteria (adapted from Searles, 1986):

1. Large amnesic gaps in life history
2. Tumultuous and highly unstable relationships
3. Periods of detachment during interviews
4. A history of brief psychosis

Thanks to László Kocsis for a lovely review of Mind as Metaphor (OUP) in Phil Quarterly: 'brilliant argumentation and a light but lucid style... I highly recommend this book to anyone... friend or foe of mental fictionalism' Foe? Surely not! Oxford Philosophy doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqa…

How much does placebo account for #ketamine and #esketamine benefits? 72%, from new analysis:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38525254

Similar to placebo contribution for antidepressants (62-82%).

Meds make a real difference, but the power of the placebo is welcome news for the human spirit.