Saturday, October 31, 2009

Werewolves of London, Ontario


An American Werewolf in London


In the last post, we learned about the Psychopharmacology of Lycanthropy (and "endogenous lycanthropogens") from the April 1, 1992 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (Davis et al., 1992). In a more serious review on clinical lycanthropy in the British Journal of Psychiatry Coll, O'Sullivan, and Browne (1985; PDF) began by stating:
Lycanthropy is the delusion in which an individual believes he has been transformed into an animal, traditionally a wolf. Descriptions of this syndrome are found in the earliest medical writings such as those of the Greek Paulus Aegineta in the seventh century A.D. (Adams, 1844). There is also a biblical description of the syndrome in the Book of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 B.C.), the king who rebuilt Babylon, succumbed to a lycanthropic state after suffering from an apparent depressive illness for seven years.

Nebuchadnezzar, by William Blake

In his 1621 magnum opus, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton (aka Democritus Junior) explained it thusly (in Part 1):
Lycanthropia, which Avicenna calls cucubuth, others lupinam insaniam, or wolf-madness, when men run howling about graves and fields in the night, and will not be persuaded but that they are wolves, or some such beasts. Aetius and Paulus call it a kind of melancholy; but I should rather refer it to madness, as most do. Some make a doubt of it whether there be any such disease. Donat ab Altomari saith, that he saw two of them in his time: Wierus tells a story of such a one at Padua 1541, that would not believe to the contrary, but that he was a wolf... And Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel, as some interpreters hold, was only troubled with this kind of madness. This disease perhaps gave occasion to that bold assertion of Pliny, some men were turned into wolves in his time, and from wolves to men again: and to that fable of Pausanias, of a man that was ten years a wolf, and afterwards turned to his former shape: to Ovid's tale of Lycaon, &c.
Not surprisingly, the modern-day diagnosis given to individuals afflicted with this delusion is usually a psychotic disorder in the context of schizophrenia (Fahy, 1989), severe depression (Coll et al., 1985; Rao et al., 1999; Younis & Moselhy, 2009), or bipolar disorder (Verdoux & Bourgeois, 1993).


Benicio del Toro stars in The Wolfman, to be released in Feb. 2010.

However, imaginary transmogrification isn't restricted to the lupine variety. A comprehensive review of the literature between 1966–2002 (Garlipp et al., 2004) identified 21 articles, primarily case studies:
In the current medical literature man–animal metamorphoses were described concerning the following animals: wolf/werewolf, dog, gerbil, rabbit, horse, tiger, cat, bird, unspecified animal species, frog and bee. In Asia, Africa and South America, metamorphoses in tiger, hyena, crocodile and shark were observed.
The authors mention that the specifics can be influenced by cultural factors. But then they deliver the psychodynamic perspective promised in the review's title (and a bit of condescension):
The symptomatology can be seen as a continuity spectrum of developmental and culture dependent normal behaviour via transitional – a fantasy of an artist – and partial forms to the whole picture of lycanthropy described by Keck et al. (1988). The length of transformation is usually short, symptomatology has mostly disappeared in a week's time. People who live in preindustrial societies and people living on isolated countrysides are predisposed. Other precipitating factors seem to be subconscious sexual conflicts.
Finally, they end with precipitating psychopathology:
Lycanthropic symptomatology can be seen in different mental diseases. Most of the patients suffer from an affective disorder or from schizophrenia. Furthermore, the man–animal metamorphosis can be seen after the intake of psychotropic substances including cannabinoids as well as alcohol abuse. Rarely, lycanthropy is reported in personality disorders. Case reports can be found concerning organic psychosyndromes, dementia and epilepsy.
We'll end with an article from the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, on two unusual case reports (Gödecke-Koch et al., 2001):
Case Report 1
A 34-year old woman suffering from schizophrenia came to the emergency department. At first, she was mutistic; later she seemed agitated and tense. Suddenly, she started moving like a frog, jumping around, making frog-like noises, and showing her tongue as though in tend ing to catch a fly. We found out that she had taken part in a workshop about fairy tales prior to becoming symptomatic. An organic cause was excluded, and no drug intake was found.

Case report 2
A 24-year-old woman suffering from schizophrenia reported a strange feeling that could not be properly described, together with the feeling that she was becoming a bee and getting smaller and smaller. She also felt a burning sensation in her thighs. She attributed her metamorphosis to her being stung by bees as a child and the “splashes of bee” that had touched her. ... No organic causes could be found, and drug screening tested negative.

To date, the metamorphosis into a frog or a bee has not been described in the medical literature.
It's nearly a full moon, but somehow the idea of human/frog hybrids (and human bees, if not in swarms or of the killer variety) isn't all that scary.

References

Coll PG, O'Sullivan G, Browne PJ. (1985). Lycanthropy lives on. Br J Psychiatry 147:201-2. [PDF]

Fahy TA. (1989). Lycanthropy: a review. J R Soc Med. 82:37-9.

Garlipp, P., Gödecke-Koch, T., Dietrich, D., & Haltenhof, H. (2004). Lycanthropy - psychopathological and psychodynamical aspects. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 109 (1), 19-22. DOI: 10.1046/j.1600-0447.2003.00243.x

Gödecke-Koch T, Garlipp P, Haltenhof H, Dietrich DE. (2001). Lycanthropy: 2 case reports. Can J Psychiatry 46:659.

Rao K, Gangadhar BN, Janakiramiah N. (1999). Lycanthropy in depression: two case reports. Psychopathology 32:169-72.

Verdoux H, Bourgeois M. (1993). A partial form of lycanthropy with hair delusion in a manic-depressive patient. Br J Psychiatry 163:684-6.

Younis AA, Moselhy HF. (2009). Lycanthropy alive in Babylon: the existence of archetype. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 119:161-4

Psychopharmacology of Lycanthropy


Fig. 5 (Davis et al., 1992): Drawing from an original photograph by Kirschbaum of one of his subjects undergoing transmogrification after experimental exposure to amplified illumination at lunar wavelengths.

VERY ORIGINAL RESEARCH * RECHERCHES EXTRAORDINAIRES

From the Orphan Drug Research Institute (an affiliate of Yoknapatawpha University), 666 Rowanoak Circle, Jefferson, Miss. This is the first report from the institute's Orphan Drug Development Program.
Objective: To develop pharmacotherapies for the orphan disease lycanthropy through the pursuit of the etiologic hypothesis of a genetically determined hypersecretion of endogenous lycanthropogens.
Design: Quadruple-blind, Rubik's Cube matrix analysis.
Setting: Community practice and malpractice.
Participants: Subjects selected from inbred Ruficolla populations in Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina and Minnesota. All who entered the study finished it.
Interventions: Chemical screening of blood samples over a hypothesized secretory cycle of lycanthropogen peaking on the day of maximum lunar illumination. Administration of synthetic lycanthropogens for behavioural testing. Experimental lycosomatization through the illumination method of Kirschbaum.
Outcome measures: None were post hoc, but some are still in hock.
Main results: Two putative lycanthropogens were isolated from the blood samples. Structural elucidation and synthesis permitted animal and clinical trials; in each of these, behavioural dysfunction was observed. Antilycanthropogen strategies included application of the principle of caged compounds and generation of a therapeutic immunoglobulin. The effects of a newly developed antihirsutic agent seemed promising. An interaction of the lycanthropogen-secretion system and ethanol was noted, which may explain behavioural aspects of alcoholism.
Conclusions: The incidence of lycomania in North America is underestimated. Soon-to-be-available pharmacotherapies should promote its early detection and treatment. Full control may depend upon advances in gene therapy.


Fig. 1 (Davis et al., 1992): Structural formulas of endogenous lycanthropogens.

The full paper is available as an open access article, so don't delay in reading this RECHERCHES EXTRAORDINAIRES in its entirety. It's Halloween, and there's a Bad Moon Rising...

Reference

Davis WM, Wellwuff HG, Garew L, Kydd OU. (1992). Psychopharmacology of lycanthropy. CMAJ Apr 1;146(7):1191-7.


Teen Wolf, shown Car Surfin' USA (Kids! Don't try this at home)...

Friday, October 30, 2009

The Electroencephalographer's Couch


BRAIN WAVE SOFA, by lucas maassen
The Brain Wave Sofa is a representation of a 3 second wave of Alpha brain activity captured with a 3d EEG.
It shows the 3 seconds when the eyes closed.

From the 3d-EEG the file got directly milled in faom by a 3d milling machine and then upholstred in felt by hand.

in cooperation with Dries Verbruggen (Unfold)
Close your eyes and relax...



However, information aesthetics was a bit wrong when they said the purpose of alpha waves (in the EEG frequency band of 8-12 Hz) is only "to prepare the brain for the large input of signals when one opens the eyes." According to Başar et al. (1997), their function is much more complex:
The old concept stating that EEG alpha (10-Hz) activity reflects passive or idling states of the brain is giving way to modern views of 10-Hz oscillations in relation to diverse brain functions comprising sensory, motor, and memory processes: (1) Spontaneous alpha activity is not pure noise as shown by methods of chaos analysis. (2) Evoked alpha oscillations patterns (precisely time-locked to a stimulus; duration approx. 200-300 ms) depend on the modality of stimulation and the recording site. (3) Induced alpha oscillations are initiated by, but not closely time-locked to a stimulus. (4) 10-Hz oscillations are recorded in nervous systems of different complexities, from the human brain to isolated ganglia of invertebrates. The neural origins of 10-Hz oscillations are demonstrated by recordings at the cellular level. (5) Rather than trying to locate a unique alpha generator, it is preferable to assume that a 'diffuse and distributed alpha system' exists. A particular support for this hypothesis is given by stimulus-dependent hippocampal alpha responses in the cat brain. (6) The major physiological meaning of 10-Hz oscillations may be comparable to the putative universal role of gamma responses in brain signaling.

From Fig. 1A (Hughes & Crunelli, 2007).

References

Başar E, Schürmann M, Başar-Eroglu C, Karakaş S. (1997). Alpha oscillations in brain functioning: an integrative theory. Int J Psychophysiol. 26:5-29.

Hughes SW, Crunelli V. (2007). Just a phase they're going through: the complex interaction of intrinsic high-threshold bursting and gap junctions in the generation of thalamic alpha and theta rhythms. Int J Psychophysiol. 64:3-17.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

WMS Performance Shootout 2009


Det er lidt bekymrende at ESRI trak sig ...
/Sik


It's a bit worrying that ESRI pulled out ...
/Sik


Quote

Jeff McKenna shares the results of the WMS performance shootout held at FOSS4G 2009 last Friday. The two combatants were GeoServer and MapServer again. While ESRI pulled out at the last minute this year, many hope for ESRI, MapGuide Open Source or any other WMS Server to join the fun for next year's shootout. [...]


Read more:

Map Marker Death


Du var her ...
/Sik


Marker attack - Kill Roy was here ...
/Sik


Quote


Read more: http://www.bustedtees.com/mapmarkerdeath

The Impact of a Global Temperature Rise of 4 Celsius


Forestil dig mængden af energi der skal til for at opvarme jorden atmosfære med 4 grader ... Hvis vi kunne tage denne energi tilbage igen ville vi have rigeligt til alle i årtier frem ...
/Sik


Imagine all that energy needed to heat up the atmosphere by 4 degrees ... Let's pull it out agin and we'll have enough energy for decades ...
/Sik


Quote

A map launched at the Science Museum in London has been developed using the latest peer-reviewed science from the Met Office Hadley Centre and other leading impact scientists. It shows that the land will heat up more quickly than the sea, and high latitudes, particularly the Arctic, will have larger temperature increases

• Read more: Science Museum unveils climate change map showing impact of 4C rise
• Watch the video of the launch



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2009/oct/22/climate-change-carbon-emissions

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

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Monday, October 26, 2009

Failed Space Missions to Mars


Og hvordan kommer man hjem igen?
/Sik


What can possibly go wrong?
/Sik


Quote



The above graphic shows missions to mars starting in 1960 to present (top to bottom). Paths are colored by country, and as you can see it's been a lot of missions from Europe and the United States lately. Obviously the farthest we've gone is with the rover with more to come. [...]

Read more: http://flowingdata.com/2009/10/26/failed-space-missions-to-mars/