Ethics of Coding: A Report on the Algorithmic Condition [EoC]

This project responds to the ICT-35-2016 Enabling responsible ICT-related research and innovation, topic B, and will "reflect and challenge the way ICT-related research and innovation is currently approached." The computerization of society in the late 1970s has now reached a point where the global economy works through an algorithmic networked environment. This situation is addressed in this research as an algorithmic condition. Any form of ICT operates within this condition. The question is, what are the ethical codes and guidelines that guide research within this condition? The Ethics of Coding prepares research that will provide an indexical report on the conceptual and thematic issues of ICT- related research and innovation, which will suggest what an ethics for ICT related issues could be, and how that might be implemented in relation to actualized and possible ICT projects. In addition, the research addresses the extent to which the coding of the social, ethical, and pedagogic, is always already invested in the maintenance of power relations that control the economic conditions for knowledge (which regulate the global markets) with what Wendy Chun (2011) describes as a ""code logos."" Working with the Philosopher of the human condition of the twentieth century; Hannah Arendt (1958; 1978), an inter-disciplinary think-tank research team brings Arendtian ethical philosophy into dialogue with SSH experts from a number of disciplinary fields, including thinkers of technologies and their effects on societies, philosophers of mathematics, gender and humanities experts, educational philosophy specialists, digital media thinkers, to produce a report that reflects the expression of the human algorithmic condition

Brain-behaviour modes of covariation in healthy and clinically depressed young people

Abstract: Understanding how variations in dimensions of psychometrics, IQ and demographics relate to changes in brain connectivity during the critical developmental period of adolescence and early adulthood is a major challenge. This has particular relevance for mental health disorders where a failure to understand these links might hinder the development of better diagnostic approaches and therapeutics. Here, we investigated this question in 306 adolescents and young adults (14–24 y, 25 clinically depressed) using a multivariate statistical framework, based on canonical correlation analysis (CCA). By linking individual functional brain connectivity profiles to self-report questionnaires, IQ and demographic data we identified two distinct modes of covariation. The first mode mapped onto an externalization/internalization axis and showed a strong association with sex. The second mode mapped onto a well-being/distress axis independent of sex. Interestingly, both modes showed an association with age. Crucially, the changes in functional brain connectivity associated with changes in these phenotypes showed marked developmental effects. The findings point to a role for the default mode, frontoparietal and limbic networks in psychopathology and depression

The impact of the initial COVID-19 outbreak on young adults’ mental health: a longitudinal study of risk and resilience factors

Few studies assessing the effects of COVID-19 on mental health include prospective markers of risk and resilience necessary to understand and mitigate the combined impacts of the pandemic, lockdowns, and other societal responses. This population-based study of young adults includes individuals from the Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network (n = 2403) recruited from English primary care services and schools in 2012–2013 when aged 14–24. Participants were followed up three times thereafter, most recently during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 outbreak when they were aged between 19 and 34. Repeated measures of psychological distress (K6) and mental wellbeing (SWEMWBS) were supplemented at the latest assessment by clinical measures of depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7). A total of 1000 participants, 42% of the original cohort, returned to take part in the COVID-19 follow-up; 737 completed all four assessments [mean age (SD), 25.6 (3.2) years; 65.4% female; 79.1% White]. Our findings show that the pandemic led to pronounced deviations from existing mental health-related trajectories compared to expected levels over approximately seven years. About three-in-ten young adults reported clinically significant depression (28.8%) or anxiety (27.6%) under current NHS guidelines; two-in-ten met clinical cut-offs for both. About 9% reported levels of psychological distress likely to be associated with serious functional impairments that substantially interfere with major life activities; an increase by 3% compared to pre-pandemic levels. Deviations from personal trajectories were not necessarily restricted to conventional risk factors; however, individuals with pre-existing health conditions suffered disproportionately during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Resilience factors known to support mental health, particularly in response to adverse events, were at best mildly protective of individual psychological responses to the pandemic. Our findings underline the importance of monitoring the long-term effects of the ongoing pandemic on young adults’ mental health, an age group at particular risk for the emergence of psychopathologies. Our findings further suggest that maintaining access to mental health care services during future waves, or potential new pandemics, is particularly crucial for those with pre-existing health conditions. Even though resilience factors known to support mental health were only mildly protective during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, it remains to be seen whether these factors facilitate mental health in the long term

An expanding manifold in transmodal regions characterizes adolescent reconfiguration of structural connectome organization

Funder: Canada Research Chairs; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001804Funder: Fonds de la Recherche du Quebec – SantéFunder: Autism Research TrustFunder: Canadian Institutes of Health Research; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000024Funder: BrainCanadaFunder: MNI-Cambridge collaborative awardAdolescence is a critical time for the continued maturation of brain networks. Here, we assessed structural connectome development in a large longitudinal sample ranging from childhood to young adulthood. By projecting high-dimensional connectomes into compact manifold spaces, we identified a marked expansion of structural connectomes, with strongest effects in transmodal regions during adolescence. Findings reflected increased within-module connectivity together with increased segregation, indicating increasing differentiation of higher-order association networks from the rest of the brain. Projection of subcortico-cortical connectivity patterns into these manifolds showed parallel alterations in pathways centered on the caudate and thalamus. Connectome findings were contextualized via spatial transcriptome association analysis, highlighting genes enriched in cortex, thalamus, and striatum. Statistical learning of cortical and subcortical manifold features at baseline and their maturational change predicted measures of intelligence at follow-up. Our findings demonstrate that connectome manifold learning can bridge the conceptual and empirical gaps between macroscale network reconfigurations, microscale processes, and cognitive outcomes in adolescent development

Sharing the world without losing oneself: education in a pluralistic universe

One of the challenges contemporary societies faces is resistance to sharing the world. Investments in ‘extremist’ or ‘identitarian’ identity positions that desire purity and are intolerant of pluralism and difference undermine education. I explain why it is important to explore ‘how ideas feel’, understanding the affective investments in these positions and imaginaries, and the fear of loss of identity that can drive such closed positions. In the second part, I turn to the writings of Édouard Glissant in order to deepen this analysis, paying particular attention to unpacking the desire for purity and the fear of métissage or mixing that are commonplace in racism, xenophobia, and ultra-nationalism. Glissant offers another way of understanding identity-in-relation whereby sharing the world does not mean losing oneself. Finally, I draw on his poetic language of archipelagic pedagogies to suggest some ways in which education can invite students to deepen a sense of world-oriented particularity