A psychopathological approach to safety engineering in AI and AGI

The complexity of dynamics in AI techniques is already approaching that of complex adaptive systems, thus curtailing the feasibility of formal controllability and reachability analysis in the context of AI safety. It follows that the envisioned instances of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) will also suffer from challenges of complexity. To tackle such issues, we propose the modeling of deleterious behaviors in AI and AGI as psychological disorders, thereby enabling the employment of psychopathological approaches to analysis and control of misbehaviors. Accordingly, we present a discussion on the feasibility of the psychopathological approaches to AI safety, and propose general directions for research on modeling, diagnosis, and treatment of psychological disorders in AGI

Inhibitory Control Training

Inhibitory control is a critical neurocognitive skill for navigating cognitive, social, and emotional challenges. It rapidly increases during the preschool period and is important for early cognitive development, as it is a crucial component of executive functioning, self-regulation, and impulsivity. Inhibitory control training (ICT) is a novel intervention in which participants learn to associate appetitive cues with inhibition of behavior. It is being considered a promising approach in the treatment of psychopathology and appetitive behaviors. This book aims to bring together knowledge on the topic, considering research, clinic, and forensic field of intervention. Indeed, this book can be considered an excellent synopsis of perspectives, methods, empirical evidence, and international references

The Best Self Visualization Method: Clinical Implications and Physiological Correlates

The focus of this study was to evaluate the psychological and psychosocial factors of a novel and composite meditation–visualization practice known as the best self visualization method (BSM). The researcher adapted and modified the BSM to work within a brief 2-week, two-session intervention period. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects on psychopathology (GAD, PHQ), resilience (PHQ, GAD, Gratitude, Compassion, DSES, Trust, Personal Growth, Mindfulness, and Social Connection), and bio-physiological changes related to EEG spectral power, coherence, and heart rate variability (BPM-Coherence). A total of 66 participants were randomized into active meditation control (n = 35) and BSM (n = 31) intervention groups. Data analysis revealed significant effects for GAD in favor of BSM psychopathology attenuation (U = 316.5, z = -1.62, p ≤ .05) as well as for the PHQ (U = 321.5, z = -1.54, p = .06). Individual t tests revealed a much more robust effect. There were no significant differences for the other scales measured except for interpersonal trust, which had a stronger effect for the BSM group, t(23) = -1.90, p = .04. For EEG and HRV data, results showed the BSM elicited significant changes in parietal gamma spectral power (F[2, 15] = 6.34, p = .010), parietal alpha blocking (F[1, 15] = 5.14, p = .039), and heart rate coherence achievement (t[28] = 1.97, p = .03), as well as demonstrated a heart rate increase trend. Paradoxically, the BSM’s bio-physiological profile was more “activating” when compared to the control, indicating psychopathology attenuation was not related necessarily to a relaxation response

An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Neuronal And Haemodynamic Responses To Stress From Simultaneous Recordings Of Optical Topography And EEG Signals

Physiological studies had been done extensively by researchers in evaluating human stress using Electroencephalogram (EEG). However, the usage of Optical Topography (OT) to evaluate the human stress is still a new field. EEG has been an established measuring device for stress through the electrical response arising from neuronal activities. On the other hand, the haemodynamic response due to stress has yet been studied. This project analyses the simultaneous recordings of the EEG and OT in response to mental stress. Data was recorded from 12 subjects that underwent tasks based on Montreal Imaging Stress Task in order to invoke mental stress. The EEG and OT datasets were analysed through the power spectrum and oxyhaemoglobin level respectively. The alpha power band has been found to be lower in the control session compared to the stress sessions. While for the OT, the oxyhaemoglobin level has been higher in the control session compared to the stress sessions. The results are then used for correlation with the data from the OT. From the correlation result obtained, it showed little significant relationship between the neuron and haemodynamic response due to stress

The Neuropsychology of Religion

Consider religion to be a community's (1) costly and hard-to-fake commitment (2) to a counterfactual world of supernatural agents (3) who master people's existential anxieties, such as death and deception. This intellectual framework guides a research program that aims to foster scientific dialogue between cultural anthropology, cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology regarding a set of phenomena vital to most human life and all societies (Atran 2002). The present chapter mainly concerns the third criterion of religion (3), and its implications for neuropsychology. Previous neurobiological studies of religion have focused on tracking participant's neurophysiological responses during episodes of religious experience and recording individual patterns of trance, vision, revelation and the like. This has favored comparison of religious experience with temporal-lobe brain-wave patterns during epileptic seizures and acute schizophrenic episodes. Cognitive structures of the human mind/brain in general, and cognitions of agency in particular, are usually represented in these studies in simple-minded terms (e.g., binary oppositions, holistic vs. analytical tensions, hierarchical organization, etc.) that have little input from, or pertinence to, recent findings of cognitive and developmental psychology. Perhaps more telling is recent work on the role of the prefrontal cortices in processing concepts of agency and self and in cognitive mediation of relevant emotions originating in (what was once called) “the limbic system.” Still, for those religious believers who never have an emotionally intense encounter with the Divine – including the overwhelming majority of persons in our society – the neurophysiological bases of faith remain a complete mystery