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Emotion and Adaptation

NUDGE: IMPROVING DECISIONS ABOUT HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Penguin Books, 2009, 312 pp, ISBN 978-0-14-311526-7This book is best described formally as a general explanation of and advocacy for libertarian paternalism, a term coined by the authors in earlier publications. Informally, it is about how leaders, systems, organizations, and governments can nudge people to do the things the nudgers want and need done for the betterment of the nudgees, or of society. It is paternalism in the sense that "it is legitimate for choice architects to try to influence people's behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier, and better", (p. 5) It is libertarian in that "people should be free to do what they like - and to opt out of undesirable arrangements if they want to do so", (p. 5) The built-in possibility of opting out or making a different choice preserves freedom of choice even though people's behavior has been influenced by the nature of the presentation of the information or by the structure of the decisionmaking system. I had never heard of libertarian paternalism before reading this book, and I now find it fascinating.Written for a general audience, this book contains mostly social and behavioral science theory and models, but there is considerable discussion of structure and process that has roots in mathematical and quantitative modeling. One of the main applications of this social system is economic choice in investing, selecting and purchasing products and services, systems of taxes, banking (mortgages, borrowing, savings), and retirement systems. Other quantitative social choice systems discussed include environmental effects, health care plans, gambling, and organ donations. Softer issues that are also subject to a nudge-based approach are marriage, education, eating, drinking, smoking, influence, spread of information, and politics. There is something in this book for everyone.The basis for this libertarian paternalism concept is in the social theory called "science of choice", the study of the design and implementation of influence systems on various kinds of people. The terms Econs and Humans, are used to refer to people with either considerable or little rational decision-making talent, respectively. The various libertarian paternalism concepts and systems presented are tested and compared in light of these two types of people. Two foundational issues that this book has in common with another book, Network of Echoes: Imitation, Innovation and Invisible Leaders, that was also reviewed for this issue of the Journal are that 1 ) there are two modes of thinking (or components of the brain) - an automatic (intuitive) process and a reflective (rational) process and 2) the need for conformity and the desire for imitation are powerful forces in human behavior. …

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Many current neurophysiological, psychophysical, and psychological approaches to vision rest on the idea that when we see, the brain produces an internal representation of the world. The activation of this internal representation is assumed to give rise to the experience of seeing. The problem with this kind of approach is that it leaves unexplained how the existence of such a detailed internal representation might produce visual consciousness. An alternative proposal is made here. We propose that seeing is a way of acting. It is a particular way of exploring the environment. Activity in internal representations does not generate the experience of seeing. The outside world serves as its own, external, representation. The experience of seeing occurs when the organism masters what we call the governing laws of sensorimotor contingency. The advantage of this approach is that it provides a natural and principled way of accounting for visual consciousness, and for the differences in the perceived quality of sensory experience in the different sensory modalities. Several lines of empirical evidence are brought forward in support of the theory, in particular: evidence from experiments in sensorimotor adaptation, visual \"filling in,\" visual stability despite eye movements, change blindness, sensory substitution, and color perception.

A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness-Authors' Response-Acting out our sensory experience

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Cognitive Therapy: Basics and Beyond

Deep emotional traumas in societies overwhelmed by large-scale human disasters, like, global pandemic diseases, natural disasters, man-made tragedies, war conflicts, social crises, etc., can cause massive stress-related disorders. Motivated by the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, the article provides an overview of scientific evidence regarding adverse impact of diverse human disasters on mental health in afflicted groups and societies. Following this broader context, psychosocial impact of COVID-19 as a specific global human disaster is presented, with an emphasis on disturbing mental health aspects of the ongoing pandemic. Limited resources of mental health services in a number of countries around the world are illustrated, which will be further stretched by the forthcoming increase in demand for mental health services due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health challenges are particularly important for the Republic of Croatia in the current situation, due to disturbing stress of the 2020 Zagreb earthquake and the high pre-pandemic prevalence of chronic Homeland-War-related posttraumatic stress disorders. Comprehensive approach based on digital psychiatry is proposed to address the lack of access to psychiatric services, which includes artificial intelligence, telepsychiatry and an array of new technologies, like internet-based computer-aided mental health tools and services. These tools and means should be utilized as an important part of the whole package of measures to mitigate negative mental health effects of the global coronavirus pandemic. Our scientific and engineering experiences in the design and development of digital tools and means in mitigation of stress-related disorders and assessment of stress resilience are presented. Croatian initiative on enhancement of interdisciplinary research of psychiatrists, psychologists and computer scientists on the national and EU level is important in addressing pressing mental health concerns related to the ongoing pandemic and similar human disasters.

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Impact of Human Disasters and COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health: Potential of Digital Psychiatry.

The significant proportion of severe psychological problems related to intensive stress in recent large peacekeeping operations underscores the importance of effective methods for strengthening the prevention and treatment of stress-related disorders Adaptive control of virtual reality (VR) stimulation presented in this work, based on estimation of the person's emotional state from physiological signals, may enhance existing stress inoculation training (SIT) Physiology-driven adaptive VR stimulation can tailor the progress of stressful stimuli delivery to the physiological characteristics of each individual, which is indicated for improvement in stress resistance Following an overview of physiology-driven adaptive VR stimulation, its major functional subsystems are described in more detail A specific algorithm of stimuli delivery applicable to SIT is outlined

Physiology-Driven Adaptive Virtual Reality Stimulation for Prevention and Treatment of Stress Related Disorders

Significant proportion of psychological problems related to combat stress in recent large peacekeeping operations underscores importance of effective methods for strengthening the stress resistance of military personnel. Adaptive control of virtual reality (VR) stimulation, based on estimation of the subject's emotional state from physiological signals, may enhance existing stress inoculation training (SIT). Physiology-driven adaptive VR stimulation can tailor the progress of stressful stimuli delivery to the physiological characteristics of each individual, which is indicated for improvement in stress resistance. Therefore, following an overview of SIT and its applications in the military setting, generic concept of physiology-driven adaptive VR stimulation is presented in the paper. Toward the end of the paper, closed-loop adaptive control strategy applicable to SIT is outlined.

Stress inoculation training supported by physiology-driven adaptive virtual reality stimulation.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its immediate aftermath present a serious threat to the mental health of health care workers (HCWs), who may develop elevated rates of anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, or even suicidal behaviors. Therefore, the aim of this article is to address the problem of prevention of HCWs’ mental health disorders by early prediction of individuals at a higher risk of later chronic mental health disorders due to high distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article proposes a methodology for prediction of mental health disorders induced by the pandemic, which includes: Phase 1) objective assessment of the intensity of HCWs’ stressor exposure, based on information retrieved from hospital archives and clinical records; Phase 2) subjective self-report assessment of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced by HCWs and their relevant psychological traits; Phase 3) design and development of appropriate multimodal stimulation paradigms to optimally elicit specific neuro-physiological reactions; Phase 4) objective measurement and computation of relevant neuro-physiological predictor features based on HCWs’ reactions; and Phase 5) statistical and machine learning analysis of highly heterogeneous data sets obtained in previous phases. The proposed methodology aims to expand traditionally used subjective self-report predictors of mental health disorders with more objective metrics, which is aligned with the recent literature related to predictive modeling based on artificial intelligence. This approach is generally applicable to all those exposed to high levels of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic and might assist mental health practitioners to make diagnoses more quickly and accurately.

Artificial intelligence in prediction of mental health disorders induced by the COVID-19 pandemic among health care workers

Acute and chronic neck pain are common medical conditions, and the treatment typically includes physical therapy involving daily exercises. Insufficient motivation of people afflicted with neck pain to adhere to the prescribed exercise regimen may delay their recovery. Accordingly, in this work, we propose a system that motivates the users to perform neck exercises by engaging them in a serious exergame within virtual reality (VR) environment. The system measures the users’ neck movements via a few static and dynamic kinematic tests and a novel VR serious game, tailored to the neck range of motion of each individual user. The game is designed to make the users perform rehabilitative neck movements according to the prescribed exercise regimen while playing. The analysis of acquired data from VR hardware provides insight into flexibility of the neck during head movements and overall neck kinematics, which is valuable for assessment of pain-related stiffness, as well as for progress monitoring. In a user study performed with the proposed system and the Oculus Rift DK2 VR headset, we show that the users find exercising more interesting and engaging when using the proposed system, and that introducing visually rich VR environments makes the users more motivated to continue exercising.

Krešimir Ćosić

Papers

Impact of Human Disasters and COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health: Potential of Digital Psychiatry.

Physiology-Driven Adaptive Virtual Reality Stimulation for Prevention and Treatment of Stress Related Disorders

Stress inoculation training supported by physiology-driven adaptive virtual reality stimulation.

Artificial intelligence in prediction of mental health disorders induced by the COVID-19 pandemic among health care workers

A system for head-neck rehabilitation exercises based on serious gaming and virtual reality