Santa is an old fat white man who makes kids sit on his lap, who breaks into your house while you sleep to eat your food and get your kids addicted to materialistic items

lesbian velma is canon (+ more of her being a disaster gay)

every social interaction i initiate feels like i’ve violated like 15 untold rules

Complex Human Childbirth and Cognitive Abilities a Result of Walking Upright

Childbirth in humans is much more complex and painful than in great apes. It was long believed that this was a result of humans’ larger brains and the narrow dimensions of the mother’s pelvis. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now used 3D simulations to show that childbirth was also a highly complex process in early hominins species that gave birth to relatively small-brained newborns – with important implications for their cognitive development.

During human birth, the fetus typically navigates a tight, convoluted birth canal by flexing and rotating its head at various stages. This complex process comes with a high risk of birth complications, from prolonged labor to stillbirth or maternal death. These complications were long believed to be the result of a conflict between humans adapting to walking upright and our larger brains.

(Image caption: Birth simulation of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) with three different fetal head sizes. Only a brain size of maximum 30 percent of the adult size (right) fits through the birth canal. Image: Martin Häusler, UZH)

Dilemma between walking upright and larger brains

Bipedalism developed around seven million years ago and dramatically reshaped the hominin pelvis into a real birth canal. Larger brains, however, didn’t start to develop until two million years ago, when the earliest species of the genus Homo emerged. The evolutionary solution to the dilemma brought about by these two conflicting evolutionary forces was to give birth to neurologically immature and helpless newborns with relatively small brains – a condition known as secondary altriciality.

A research group led by Martin Häusler from the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich (UZH) and a team headed up by Pierre Frémondière from Aix-Marseille University have now found that australopithecines, who lived about four to two million years ago, had a complex birth pattern compared to great apes. “Because australopithecines such as Lucy had relatively small brain sizes but already displayed morphological adaptations to bipedalism, they are ideal to investigate the effects of these two conflicting evolutionary forces,” Häusler says.

Typical ratio of fetal and adult head size

The researchers used three-dimensional computer simulations to develop their findings. Since no fossils of newborn australopithecines are known to exist, they simulated the birth process using different fetal head sizes to take into account the possible range of estimates. Every species has a typical ratio between the brain sizes of its newborns and adults. Based on the ratio of non-human primates and the average brain size of an adult Australopithecus, the researchers calculated a mean neonatal brain size of 180 g. This would correspond to a size of 110 g in humans.

For their 3D simulations, the researchers also took into account the increased pelvic joint mobility during pregnancy and determined a realistic soft tissue thickness. They found that only the 110 g fetal head sizes passed through the pelvic inlet and midplane without difficulty, unlike the 180 g and 145 g sizes. “This means that Australopithecus newborns were neurologically immature and dependent on help, similar to human babies today,” Häusler explains.

Prolonged learning key for cognitive and cultural abilities

The findings indicate that australopithecines are likely to have practiced a form of cooperative breeding, even before the genus Homo appeared. Compared to great apes, the brains developed for longer outside the uterus, enabling infants to learn from other members of the group. “This prolonged period of learning is generally considered crucial for the cognitive and cultural development of humans,” Häusler says. This conclusion is also supported by the earliest documented stone tools, which date back to 3.3 million years ago – long before the genus Homo appeared.

there is no minimum amount of suffering before you are allowed to want to alleviate it

Royal mail are out on strike today for better pay that reflects an actual, inflation adjusted living wage. Please spread the message and show your support for postal workers across the UK.

We want a living wage and to protect the universal postal service! We will not be made into a gig economy or into amazon with different branding!

Stand with the CWU!

If you're Jewish and you have a large nose, you're beautiful and you're not "fulfilling a stereotype."

If you're Jewish and you have thick curly hair, you're beautiful and you're not "fulfilling a stereotype."

If you're Jewish and you have hooded eyelids, you're beautiful and you're not "fulfilling a stereotype."

You cannot "fulfill a stereotype" by a merely existing.

(x)

Sweden’s porn preferences vs radiation level received from Chernobyl

ha?

every single person who reblogs this

every

single

person

will get “doot doot” in their ask box

HOW

I WANT TO KNOW YOUR SECRET

SERIOUSLY THOUGH WHAT ARE YOU

I GOT THIS AND I WAS LIKE WHAT THE FUCK

there are over 128,000 notes and i still got one

how

i reblogged this less than 2 minutes ago

how the actual fuck

well

do not question

ive done this before you truly do get doot doot in your askbox

Lol doubt it

Haha doubt this will work buuuut

What the hell, I’ll try it

I GOT A DOOT DOOT

I wants a doot doot

hoooowwww does this work??!

This is a lieeeee

I want a doot doot

I wonder

Hmm… Sometimes i just get amaze by tumblr

I want a doot doot too

doot doot my ass will ya

update: ,,,,two ppl doot dooted me

im scared

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I’ve never gotten an ask before and I want to see if this works…

let’s try!

Welp, why not

Doot?

OHMYGOD

The notes on this are insane, how? Why? What?

I’m intrigued..

Door doot?

Honestly wanna try this… got nothing to lose so let’s gooo boi!!!

Does this work? Let’s see

What the actual fuck :

I want doot

Give me my doot

I want a doot doot

where my doot doot at

I just wanna see how long this takes

give me a doot

I want a doot doot

I gotta know

Scientists Pinpoint the Uncertainty of Our Working Memory

The human brain regions responsible for working memory content are also used to gauge the quality, or uncertainty, of memories, a team of scientists has found. Its study uncovers how these neural responses allow us to act and make decisions based on how sure we are about our memories.

“Access to the uncertainty in our working memory enables us to determine how much to ‘trust’ our memory in making decisions,” explains Hsin-Hung Li, a postdoctoral fellow in New York University’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science and the lead author of the paper, which appears in the journal Neuron. “Our research is the first to reveal that the neural populations that encode the content of working memory also represent the uncertainty of memory.”

Working memory, which enables us to maintain information in our minds, is an essential cognitive system that is involved in almost every aspect of human behavior—notably decision-making and learning. 

For example, when reading, working memory allows us to store the content we just read a few seconds ago while our eyes keep scanning through the new sentences. Similarly, when shopping online, we may compare, “in our mind,” the item in front of us on the screen with previous items already viewed and still remembered. 

“It is not only crucial for the brain to remember things, but also to weigh how good the memory is: How certain are we that a specific memory is accurate?” explains Li. “If we feel that our memory for the previously viewed online item is poor, or uncertain, we would scroll back and check that item again in order to ensure an accurate comparison.”

While studies on human behaviors have shown that people are able to evaluate the quality of their memory, less clear is how the brain achieves this. 

More specifically, it had previously been unknown whether the brain regions that hold the memorized item also register the quality of that memory.

In uncovering this, the researchers conducted a pair of experiments to better understand how the brain stores working memory information and how, simultaneously, the brain represents the uncertainty—or, how good the memory is—of remembered items. 

In the first experiment, human participants performed a spatial visual working memory task while a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner recorded their brain activity. For each task, or trial, the participant had to remember the location of a target—a white dot shown briefly on a computer screen—presented at a random location on the screen and later report the remembered location through eye movement by looking in the direction of the remembered target location.

Here, fMRI signals allowed the researchers to decode the location of the memory target—what the subjects were asked to remember—in each trial. By analyzing brain signals corresponding to the time during which participants held their memory, they could determine the location of the target the subjects were asked to memorize. In addition, through this method, the scientists could accurately predict memory errors made by the participants; by decoding their brain signals, the team could determine what the subjects were remembering and therefore spot errors in their recollections.  

In the second experiment, the participants reported not only the remembered location, but also how uncertain they felt about their memory in each trial. The resulting fMRI signals recorded from the same brain regions allowed the scientists to decode the uncertainty reported by the participants about their memory. 

Taken together, the results yielded the first evidence that the human brain registers both the content and the uncertainty of working memory in the same cortical regions.

“The knowledge of uncertainty of memory also guides people to seek more information when we are unsure of our own memory,” Li says in noting the utility of the findings.

It's so weird talking to people who's view of "here's the way life is for everyone" is shattered as soon as they talk to someone with disabilities (physical, mental illness, any). Like you'll say you'll have a problem and instead of helping you they'll argue with you about how you're not actually facing that problem. Like,

Me: Hey, I'm really struggling to find a job and a part of it is my resume. I was depressed & psychotic during highschool so I didn't do anything to gain skills or achievements to put on my resume. I also don't have anyone to put as a reference. What can I do?

Them: You can add your skills, hobbies, clubs you're in, and different volunteer work you've done! You can also get your teacher as a reference.

Me: I already know what to put on a resume, my issue is that I don't have things that I can use. Also, I'm in my mid 20s so I don't know if I can put my highschool teacher as a reference.

Them: Well if you're a part of a church or an activity group, you could add that. Also, think of any projects you've worked on in the past.

Me: I already know you can put these things on a resume. I'm not looking for suggests of things I've already done, I'm looking for what I can do now if I haven't done anything.

Them: There's no way you didn't do anything during highschool?? What about some odd jobs you definitely did for extra money, like babysitting or mowing the lawn?

Me: I spent all of highschool either in modified classes or in bed doing nothing - not even hobbies, what about that do you not understand?

And then you talk to someone who's also disabled and they're like "Here's a bunch of jobs you can do from home that don't pay much but look good on a resume, here's some free online courses that also look good on a resume, here's how you can be making small amounts of money in the meantime, here's some things you can put besides a professional reference, and here are your rights if your future employer tries to take advantage of your disability - which you probably shouldn't tell them about unless you need accommodations."

And suddenly my will to continue trying returns!

c...can we maybe get some of those ideas in full? Pls?

Two other people asked as well so okay! Though this post will be rather long.

Freelance Jobs You Do From Home That Look Cool On A Future Resume

Please research any company before sign up with then. So many companies are scams and pay you way less than you deserve for your work. Go to r/freelancers and search to make sure nobody has had some horrid experiences. There's also usually reviews of a company on YouTube as well.

Small Amounts Of Money

If You Don't Have Anyone To Put On Your Resume As References

Once you have some, this is how you would format your references.

None of these are long term solutions and not everything will work out for everybody. These are just helpful suggestions I've received over the years!

Brain connections mean some people lack visual imagery

New research has revealed that people with the ability to visualise vividly have a stronger connection between their visual network and the regions of the brain linked to decision-making. The study also sheds light on memory and personality differences between those with strong visual imagery and those who cannot hold a picture in their mind’s eye.

The research, from the University of Exeter, published in Cerebral Cortex Communications, casts new light on why an estimated one-three per cent of the population lack the ability to visualise. This phenomenon was named “aphantasia” by the University of Exeter’s Professor Adam Zeman in 2015 Professor Zeman called those with highly developed visual imagery skills “hyperphantasics”.

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the study is the first systematic neuropsychological and brain imaging study of people with aphantasia and hypephantasia. The team conducted  fMRI scans on 24 people with aphantasia, 25 with hyperphantasia and a control group of 20 people with mid-range imagery vividness. They combined the imaging data with detailed cognitive and personality tests.

The scans revealed that people with hyperphantasia have a stronger connection between the visual network which processes what we see, and which becomes active during visual imagery, and the prefrontal cortices, invovled in decision-making and attention. These stronger connections were apparent in scans performed during rest, while participants were relaxing – and possibly mind-wandering.

Despite equivalent scores on standard memory tests, Professor Zeman and the team found that people with hyperphantasia produce richer descriptions of imagined scenarios than controls, who in turn outperformed aphantasics. This also applied to autobiographical memory, or the ability to remember events that have taken place in the person’s life. Aphantasics also had lower ability to recognise faces.

Personality tests revealed that aphantasics tended to be more introvert and hyperphantasics more open.

Professor Zeman said: “Our research indicates for the first time that a weaker connection between the parts of the brain responsible for vision and frontal regions involved in decision-making and attention leads to aphantasia. However, this shouldn’t be viewed as a disadvantage – it’s a different way of experiencing the world. Many aphantasics are extremely high-achieving, and we’re now keen to explore whether the personality and memory differences we observed indicate contrasting ways of processing information, linked to visual imagery ability.”

i love being autistic and weird. reblog if you also love being autistic and weird

getting wet at the sound of a belt buckle is hot girl shit