“Treatment-prevalence paradox”: Treatments for depression have supposedly improved, and their availability has markedly increased since the 1980s; mysteriously the general population prevalence of depression has not decreased

More treatment but no less depression: The treatment-prevalence paradox. Johan Ormel et al. Clinical Psychology Review, December 11 2021, 102111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102111

Abstract: Treatments for depression have improved, and their availability has markedly increased since the 1980s. Mysteriously the general population prevalence of depression has not decreased. This “treatment-prevalence paradox” (TPP) raises fundamental questions about the diagnosis and treatment of depression. We propose and evaluate seven explanations for the TPP. First, two explanations assume that improved and more widely available treatments have reduced prevalence, but that the reduction has been offset by an increase in: 1) misdiagnosing distress as depression, yielding more “false positive” diagnoses; or 2) an actual increase in depression incidence. Second, the remaining five explanations assume prevalence has not decreased, but suggest that: 3) treatments are less efficacious and 4) less enduring than the literature suggests; 5) trial efficacy doesn't generalize to real-world settings; 6) population-level treatment impact differs for chronic-recurrent versus non-recurrent cases; and 7) treatments have some iatrogenic consequences. Any of these seven explanations could undermine treatment impact on prevalence, thereby helping to explain the TPP. Our analysis reveals that there is little evidence that incidence or prevalence have increased as a result of error or fact (Explanations 1 and 2), and strong evidence that (a) the published literature overestimates short- and long-term treatment efficacy, (b) treatments are considerably less effective as deployed in “real world” settings, and (c) treatment impact differs substantially for chronic-recurrent cases relative to non-recurrent cases. Collectively, these 4 explanations likely account for most of the TPP. Lastly, little research exists on iatrogenic effects of current treatments (Explanation 7), but further exploration is critical.

We replicate the famous “invisible gorilla” experiment where a salient gorilla is unnoticed; a single-neuron fires only when the patient is conscious of the gorilla; a different neuron fires when the patient first notices the gorilla

Single neuron evidence of inattentional blindness in humans. Brandon Freiberg, Moran Cerf. Neuropsychologia, December 10 2021, 108111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108111

Highlights

• We study a patient undergoing brain surgery with electrodes implanted in her head.

• We replicate the famous “invisible gorilla” experiment where a salient gorilla is unnoticed.

• A single-neuron fires only when the patient is conscious of the gorilla.

• A different neuron fires when the patient first notices the gorilla.

• An interplay between the network (LFP) and the neurons drives the conscious experience.

Abstract: Recording directly from the brain of a patient undergoing neurosurgery with electrodes implanted deep in her skull we identified neurons that change their properties when the patient became consciously aware of content. Specifically, we showed the patient an established clip of a gorilla passing through the screen, unnoticeable, in a classic inattentional blindness task, and identified a neuron in the right amygdala that fired only when the patient was aware of the gorilla. A different neuron coded the moment of insight, when the patient realized that she had missed the salient gorilla in previous trials. A third cluster of neurons fired when the patient was exposed to a post-clip question (“How many passes did you count?“) and reflected on the content. Neurons in this cluster altered their response behavior between unaware and aware states.

To investigate the interplay between the neurons' activity and characterize the potential cascade of information flow in the brain that leads to conscious awareness, we looked at the neurons' properties change, their activities’ alignment and the correlation across the cells. Examining the coherence between the spiking activity of the responsive neurons and the field potentials in neighboring sites we identified an alignment in the alpha and theta bands. This spike-field coherence hints at an involvement of attention and memory circuits in the perceptual awareness of the stimulus.

Taken together, our results suggest that conscious awareness of content emerges when there is alignment between individual neurons' activity and the local field potentials. Our work provides direct neural correlate for the psychological process by which one can look at things directly but fail to perceive them with the “mind's eye”.

Keywords: Inattentional blindnessHuman electrophysiologySinge neuron recordingSpike-field coherenceConsciousness

The prevalence of consanguineous marriage among the Arab population in Israel increased significantly from 36.3% to 41.6% in the decade 2007-2017; first-cousin and closer marriages constituted about 50% of total consanguineous marriages

The prevailing trend of consanguinity in the Arab society of Israel: is it still a challenge? Rajech Sharkia et al. J Biosoc Sci. 2021 Dec 6;1-5. doi: 10.1017/S0021932021000675

Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the trend of consanguineous marriage among the Arab population in Israel. Socio-demographic data for the Arab population were extracted from national health surveys conducted in Israel in 2007 and 2017. The prevalence of consanguineous marriage among the Arab population in Israel increased significantly from 36.3% to 41.6% in the decade from 2007 to 2017. First-cousin and closer marriages constituted about 50% of total consanguineous marriages in the two periods surveyed. Consanguinity was found to be significantly related to religion and place of residence. Thus, the prevalence of consanguineous marriage remains high among the Arab population in Israel, similar to other Arab societies. These findings affect the health of future generations and impose a challenge for health care professionals.

Keywords: Consanguinity; Marriage and mate selection.

Creativity and unethicality are positively related as predicted by theory, and that some studies have failed at finding it because they used self-reports to assess unethicality rather than objective measures (and the subjects lied!)

Storme, M., Celik, P., & Myszkowski, N. (2021). Creativity and unethicality: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 15(4), 664–672. Dec 2021. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000332

Abstract: A growing line of research suggests that creativity and unethicality are intrinsically related to one another. However, the idea has been challenged both by theoretical arguments and by heterogeneous empirical findings. In the present work, we review the literature to reconcile seemingly opposed theoretical views on the relationship between creativity and unethicality. We then conduct a meta-analysis to clear up confusion about heterogeneous empirical findings in the literature (k = 36, N = 6783). We find a weak positive correlation between the 2 constructs (r = .09, 95% confidence interval [.01, .17], t = 2.24, p < .05). Consistent with social desirability response bias theory (Randall & Fernandes, 1991), we find that the correlation is significant in studies that rely upon objective measures of unethicality—that is, behavioral measures or other-reports—but not in studies that rely upon self-reports of unethicality. Altogether, our work suggests that creativity and unethicality are positively related as predicted by theory, and that some studies have failed at finding it because they used self-reports to assess unethicality rather than objective measures. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.