Why is amygdala located on paleo mamalian part of the brain?

The reason why the amygdalae are in the middle of the brain is because they are not part of the reptilian brain.  The amygdalae interact with many areas of the brain and are in the limbic system.  They are often referred to being the "fear centre", but they have roles beyond just being a simple threat detector.

Studies have found the amygdalae to be active not just during fear conditioning, but also when learning to link a previously neutral stimulus with a positive experience by

interacting with reward areas of the brain like the ventral striatum, which is in the reptilian brain
playing an important role in forming memories associated with drug use.
being an important region for the consolidation of memories that have any strong emotional component - whether positive or negative.

the amygdalae (Source: Wikipedia)

There are functional differences between the right and left amygdala. In one study, electrical stimulations of the right amygdala induced negative emotions, especially fear and sadness. In contrast, stimulation of the left amygdala was able to induce either pleasant (happiness) or unpleasant (fear, anxiety, sadness) emotions.

For the idea of 3 parts to the brain, this idea was started by American physician and neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean.  He originally formulated the triune brain model in the 1960s and propounded it at length in his 1990 book The Triune Brain in Evolution.

The triune brain consists of the reptilian complex (also known as the "reptilian brain"), the paleomammalian complex (limbic system), and the neomammalian complex (neocortex).

The reptilian complex, was the name MacLean gave to the basal ganglia which consists of the dorsal striatum (caudate nucleus and putamen), ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens and olfactory tubercle), globus pallidus, ventral pallidum, substantia nigra, and subthalamic nucleus.

basal ganglia (source: Wikipedia)

The neomammalian complex (neocortex) is a part of the mammalian brain.  The neocortex consists of the grey matter, or neuronal cell bodies and unmyelinated fibers, surrounding the deeper white matter (myelinated axons) in the cerebrum.

neocortex - Human brain right dissected lateral view, showing grey matter (the darker outer parts), and white matter (the inner and prominently whiter parts) - source: Wikipedia

The paleomammalian complex (limbic system) consists of olfactory bulbs, hippocampus, hypothalamus, amygdala, anterior thalamic nuclei, fornix, columns of fornix, mammillary body, septum pellucidum, habenular commissure, cingulategyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, limbic cortex, and limbic midbrain areas
the limbic system (source: Wikipedia)


What causes an individual to not be able to hold all the details of a large project in memory?

I just completed an extensive study (and corresponding lit review) of how people learn.  I think you are running into the classic difference between expert and novice users.

Experts vs Novices

It has been demonstrated that the knowledge structures in experts are different than those in novices.  In particular, experts' knowledge is far more structured, and they are capable of immediately connecting concepts that novices are unable to see.  (I have articles I can cite if you wish, but I'm just trying to get you on the right track here).

Bascially, people learn by slowly (or quickly) becoming "experts," that is, by organizing their conceptual models better around various concepts, such that the distinctions between them disappear into this web of schematic knowledge.

It has also been observed that novices remember learning "episodes" - e.g. hands-on exploration activities or (sometimes) lectures.  As the novice becomes an expert, the details of these individual episodes tend to fuzz together and a unified cognitive schema emerges.

Short-term Working Memory

As was mentioned in a previous answer, short-term memory can hold 5-9 discreet "chunks" of information.  To use programming terms, a chunk can either be a struct, where it represents actual data stored in working memory, or it can be a pointer to the location in long-term memory where a concept is stored.  This helps explain why experts can perform so much more quickly than novices, because their working memory can be much more efficiently utilized.

People rely on working memory to learn. As you learn, new information is incorporated into your existing mental model (this is known as constructivism).  This is an active process requiring the information to be reprocessed in working memory before it is stored into LTM.

Implications

The research above suggests that you need to take the system in pieces.  Learn what each piece does via a series of hands-on episodes, then move on to the next piece.  Then, come back and re-start this process.  As you do so, you will find yourself becoming more and more familiar with this complex system.


What is the cause of differences that are too small to see?

The spatial resolving capacity of the visual system is called visual acuity, namely the ability of the eye to see fine detail. There are various ways to measure and specify visual acuity, depending on the type of acuity task used.

Visual acuity is limited by

diffraction,
aberrations and
photoreceptor density in the eye.

The photoreceptor density allows a resolution that by far exceeds the limitations imposed by the other two.

Diffraction of light is an important factor limiting acuity. This is caused by optical limitations of the eye, mainly the light scattering by the cornea and other structures (Fig. 1). Raleigh’s criterion is used to calculate the resolution of the eye for stimuli that are degraded by the optics of the eye: two points or lines are just resolved if the peak of the point spread function lies on the first trough of the other point spread function (Fig. 2).

Aberrations also are an important source of image degradation on the retina. These include the well known spherical aberrations that lead to near- and far sightedness, as the retinal image becomes out of focus. These can be corrected well with glasses and lenses (Berrio et al., 2010).

Other sources that affect acuity are:

The size of the pupil; Large pupils reduce diffraction, but aggravate aberrations of the eye. A small pupil reduces optical aberrations, but resolution will be diffraction limited. Therefore, a mid-size pupil of about 3 - 5 mm is optimal as a compromise between diffraction and aberration limitarions
Illumination: photopic vision allows the cones  to operate and that yields higher acuities than rod-mediated vision (Kallioniatis & Luu (2012).
For the same reasons the area of the retina stimulated affects acuity - the cones are clustered in the center of the retina, called the fovea. Foveal acuity is much higher than peripheral vision (Kallioniatis & Luu (2012).
Time of exposure of the target causes adaptation. If the cones are adapted to the timulus, they may become less responsive and acuity drops (Kallioniatis & Luu (2012)
Eye movements degrade visual acuity as a stable retinal image is needed (Kallioniatis & Luu (2012).

References
- Kallioniatis & Luu, Visual Acuity. In: The Organization of the Retina and Visual System, 2012
- Berrio et al., JOV (2010); 10(14)

Fig. 1. Resolution limit eye. source: Kallioniatis & Luu (2012).

Fig. 2. Reigheigh criterion. source: Kallioniatis & Luu (2012)


What has changed in your brain after electroconvulsive "therapy" (ECT)?

There is actually quite some information on this. After a cursory Google Scholar search using the keywords "long-term neuronal effect of ECT" I found the following effects on the brain:

A week or two after the ECT, gray matter of depressed patients seemed to be increased in volume throughout the brain (Ousdal, 2020);
In rats, ECT resulted in behavioral improvements and neurogenesis in the hippocampus. Quite some of these new neurons survived up to 12 months (Vestergaard et al, 2017);
In mice, a single ECT triggered cortical snaptogenesis and a sustained neurogenesis, accompanied by behavioral improvement. Relapse occurred 40 days later. However, a 5-week continuation protocol following the initial ECS treatment led to a more persistent improvement of behavior and better survival rates of new neurons, but the authors did not investigate how long effects last after ECT was stopped fully (Jonckheere et al., 2018);

References
- Jonckheere et al., Brain Stim (2018); 11(6): 1336-47
- Ousdal et al., Biol Psych (2020); 87(5): 451-61
- Vestergaard et al., Hippocampus (2017); 27(1): 52-60


Can schizophrenics who are deaf since birth hear voices?

A quick Google search reveals some answers such as Atkinson, J. R. (2006).

Around half of all deaf people diagnosed with schizophrenia report experiencing “voices,” during which they sense someone communicating with them in the absence of any external stimulus. This closely parallels prevalence rates of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) in hearing people with schizophrenia (50–70%). There is no evidence reported for increased frequency of psychotic hallucinations in congenitally deaf people. However, greater proportions of visual and tactile/somatic hallucinations have been noted. Around 50% of deaf people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia report visual hallucinations, and a similar proportion describe tactile/somatic hallucinations, despite the low occurrence of these phenomena in schizophrenia generally (15% and 5%, respectively).

The abstract points out that:

The study of voice-hallucinations in deaf individuals, who exploit the visuomotor rather than auditory modality for communication, provides rare insight into the relationship between sensory experience and how “voices” are perceived. Relatively little is known about the perceptual characteristics of voice-hallucinations in congenitally deaf people who use lip-reading or sign language as their preferred means of communication. The existing literature on hallucinations in deaf people is reviewed, alongside consideration of how such phenomena may fit into explanatory subvocal articulation hypotheses proposed for auditory verbal hallucinations in hearing people.

References
Atkinson, J. R. (2006). The perceptual characteristics of voice-hallucinations in deaf people: insights into the nature of subvocal thought and sensory feedback loops. Schizophrenia bulletin, 32(4), 701-708. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbj063 pubmed: PMC2632268


Is there another word for 'affective control'?

There is a huge body of literature on emotion regulation.  The main person to look up is James Gross.  He's recently published a second edition of the Handbook of Emotion Regulation if you'd like a comprehensive review of the field.  He also just published a target article in Psychological Inquiry about the present status of emotion regulation research and theory (a good starting place, in my opinion).  His name will be on the majority of papers published in this area (he collaborates with a lot of people).


Is it possible to quantify 'pettiness' in a personality?

This sounds like Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. Individuals with OCPD tend to obsess over unimportant details to the extent of it causing significant distress and a negative impact on productivity.

I'm not personally aware of a test to diagnose OCPD, but the DSM does contain diagnostic criteria for the disorder.


why we failed to convince our own mind by reasoning and rational arguments over mental illness like depression, anxiety, phobia?

Some scientists will say that a fear of heights (and spiders, snakes, and the dark) are innate, i.e. that we are born with them because they confer an evolutionary advantage. In other words, a fear of heights tends to prevent falls, and a fear of snakes tends to prevent snake bites. We tend to have little control regarding when these fears arise.
However, the amount of fear/anxiety we feel for any given thing or situation can be modulated. For example, many therapists use a strategy called "exposure therapy," exposing the patient to the feared thing or situation repeatedly, in a safe manner, which typically results in a reduction in the intensity of the anxiety response. Another example: when people do regular physical exercise, many studies show that their mood rises and they react less strongly to negative events. They even feel less physical pain when injured (compared to sedentary adults). There are many other strategies one can use to modulate painful feelings, which can be found in the book of Sudism (sudism.org). EDIT (Dec 14 2019): Sudism is a philosophy, not a science, owing to the fact that it is not currently possible to precisely measure positive and negative affect (i.e. our feelings of pleasure and pain). Take care.
EDIT (Dec 14 2019) -- Here are some supporting references that illustrate that (A) exposure therapy is beneficial for reducing anxiety, that (B) physical exercise is beneficial for reducing physical pain, and that (C) certain fears are innate:

From this meta-analysis: Parsons, Thomas & Rizzo, Albert. (2008). Affective outcomes of virtual reality exposure therapy for anxiety and specific phobias: A meta-analysis. Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry. 39. 250-61. 10.1016/j.jbtep.2007.07.007.
"A good deal of research has shown that exposure therapy is effective for reducing negative affective symptoms (Rothbaum & Schwartz, 2002)."

From this review of literature on exposure therapy: Johanna S. Kaplan, PhD and David F. Tolin, PhD. (Sep 2011). Exposure Therapy for Anxiety Disorders. Psychiatric Times.
"Over a quarter of the people in the US population will have an anxiety disorder sometime during their lifetime. It is well established that exposure-based behavior therapies are effective treatments for these disorders; unfortunately, only a small percentage of patients are treated with exposure therapy."

From this study: Einat Kodesh & Irit Weissman-Fogel. Exercise-induced hypoalgesia – interval versus continuous mode. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 2014, 39(7): 829-834, 10.1139/apnm-2013-0481.
"In conclusion, interval exercise (85% HRR) has analgesic effects on experimental pain perception. This, in addition to its cardiovascular, muscular, and metabolic advantages may promote its inclusion in pain management programs."

From this 2017 press release from the Max Planck Society on recent research comparing infants' reactions to various stimuli (from benign fish and flowers to non-benign snakes and spiders):
"We conclude that fear of snakes and spiders is of evolutionary origin. Similar to primates, mechanisms in our brains enable us to identify objects as 'spider’ or 'snake’ and to react to them very fast."


Is the concept of the 'inner child' considered to be pseudoscience?

I Google(-scholared) the term too and indeed I would classify it as pseudoscience.
The hits are mainly books, or dodgy journal papers. No hits that are pointing to the more established journals. While recognizing this doesn't prove that the concept of the inner child is bogus, or that it's not classified a science, it is a strong indicator that the concept has not (yet?) been embraced by scientists.
The term sounds to fit the idea of the 'pure, innocent, unblemished' beings children are supposed to be, not yet molded to fit society. I guess it's an interesting idea, but it sounds New Agie to me.
However, there are people way more proficient in Psychology hangin' around here, so a more authorative answer can likely be expected anytime soon.


How many answer choices is too many answer choices?

Take a look at researches on human Working Memory Capacity (WMC) and it applications in different problems, for instance, here is Elsevier ScienceDirect chapter/paper set related to WMC. Most of the researches depicts that WMC of an adult human is limited to 3-5-7 items, depending of how large and complex these items are.
Therefore, if your survey question is about something minimalistic, like preferable color or time slots, which are quite simple objects to comprehend, you may confidently provide up to 7 answer options. But if your question is asking about behaviour in some imagined environment, and answer options present different complex scenarios in a response to this environment, it's better to limit them to 3-4 options so that respondents would be able to comprehend each option separately and consciously compare it with other ones.


What is the cognitive mechanism that creates strong feelings, from environmental organization and appearance?

I wouldn't take these terms too literally. I'm no interior designer, so I can't really rule out special meanings within the trade, but my impression of common usage is that these are informal, rough synonyms for the emotions evoked by the aesthetic characteristics of an environment. Urban Dictionary may be an unlikely source for an authoritative definition of vibe, but I'm inclined to endorse this particular definition anyway:

(Noun)A distinctive emotional atmosphere; sensed intuitively.
"It gave me a nostalgic vibe".
"That man gives off bad vibes"

From this, it's apparent that emotions and intuition play a role in "vibe" perception. Emotion is fairly basic in phenomenology, so it seems sufficient to say that stimuli that provoke emotion can thus be said to possess or influence "vibes". The additional specification of intuition implies to me that the experience is somewhat beyond the person's complete, rational comprehension. Maybe some subjective sense of confusion, uncertainty, or non-rational (though not necessarily irrational) processing is also inherent in the experience of a "vibe". As a snide aside, there's at least some confusion implicit in the misapplication of vibration and (electromagnetic? thermal? paranormal?) "energy" as metaphors for aesthetic qualia. This is probably the philosophical equivalent of what they mean to say, and much more carefully defined.
IMHO, your second question is much more interesting. Indeed some people may be more sensitive to "vibes" or qualia. A lesser-known personality trait I've always found really fascinating is absorption. It subsumes several interesting tendencies involving attention responsiveness and regulation, including:

Intensity of experiences, both real and imagined
Capacity for the flow experience of deep task engagement and loss of self-awareness
Susceptibility to hypnotism, daydreaming, nightmares, and psychopharmacological effects

Absorption relates strongly to openness, which is much better known as a personality trait. Supposedly composed of six facets (these are somewhat more a matter of debate), openness relates to absorption primarily through the fantasy, feelings, and aesthetics facets (Glisky, Tataryn, Tobias, Kihlstrom, & McConkey, 1991). Again, I can't say for sure, but I'd bet that these feelings and aesthetics facets would be particularly relevant to individual differences in the sort of sensitivity you have in mind.
Reference
Glisky, M. L., Tataryn, D. J., Tobias, B. A., Kihlstrom, J. F., & McConkey, K. M. (1991). Absorption, openness to experience, and hypnotizability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(2), 263–272.


What are the personality and behavioural correlates of divorce?

This answer speaks mostly to the relationship between personality characteristics/disorders and divorce.

From the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire, it seems that Positive Emotionality and Negative Emotionality were positively related to divorce risk, while Constraint was negatively related (Jockin, Mcgue, & Lykken, 1996). Note that this study also looks at genetic factors, and finds that “In women and men, respectively, 30% and 42% of the heritability of divorce risk consisted of genetic factors affecting personality, and personality and divorce risk correlated largely as a result of these common genetic influences.”

From a bit of a different perspective, other studies have assessed the relationship between divorce and personality disorders:

  Multiple regression analyses showed Paranoid and Histrionic personality disorder symptoms to be consistently and positively associated with number of divorces across all three sources of personality assessment. Conversely, Avoidant personality disorder symptoms were negatively associated with number of divorces (Disney, Weinstein, & Oltmanns, 2012).

I'll note that the Jockin, Mcgue, and Lykken study is rather old (contextually), and that the relationships that were clear 20 years ago may be different today.

Finally, though not related specifically to divorce, there is a nice article out there that attempts to illustrated differences in personalities for those looking for short-term vs. long-term relationships (Holtzman & Strube, 2013). This article specifically addresses an "array of personality traits (Big 5, Dark Triad, and Schizoid Personality)". A bit tangentially related, but perhaps of interest.

References

Disney, K. L., Weinstein, Y., & Oltmanns, T. F. (2012). Personality Disorder Symptoms Are Differentially Related to Divorce Frequency. Journal of Family Psychology, 26(6), 959–965. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030446

Holtzman, N. S., & Strube, M. J. (2013). Above and Beyond Short-Term Mating, Long-Term Mating is Uniquely Tied to Human Personality. Evolutionary Psychology, 11(5), 1101–1129. https://doi.org/10.1177/147470491301100514

Jockin, V., Mcgue, M., & Lykken, D. T. (1996). Personality and Divorce: A Genetic Analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 7(2), 288–299. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.71.2.288


Is it a good idea to play an instrument while studying? If so, what are the benefits?

Multitasking research suggests that people can't really multitask. I don't have any evidence to back this up, but I suspect that it's much better for your instrument skills than your studying. The accordion detracts from your focus and attention while you work, perhaps even if it doesn't feel like it. At the same time, though, that exercise may improve your ability to, say, sing and play at the same time.


Are there cultures in which leadership/hierarchy does not exist?

You may look for an answer in some anthropological works about hunter-gatherers, e.g. Christopher Boehm's Hierachy in the Forest. Basically, he describes what he calls a "reverse dominance pyramid", which can be observed in many hunter-gatherer tribes. Individuals who are aggressive, bossy, try to behave like alpha-males are mocked, then warned, shunned, and finally killed or left alone when the tribe moves forward (which also ends with death).

James Woodburn (Egalitarian Societies, James Woodburn, Man, New Series, Vol. 17, No. 3. (Sep., 1982), pp. 431-451. here it is) concludes that all of such societies/tribes are profoundly egalitarian and relationships between people are based on sharing, without any long-term dependencies.  All distinctions – of wealth, power and status – are systematically eliminated.

This could lead to the following answer: there are non-hierarchical cultures, but they are limited to hunter-gatherers. All known human sedentary cultures are hierarchical and there is some leadership in them, as far as I know.

Your question is also problematic, for two reasons. First, leadership and hierarchy are necessarily the same - we can easily imagine human groups in which we can have a voluntary leadership, but which is only ad-hoc and does not depend on any permanent hierarchy. Second, the phrase "culture depending on the concept of x" can also be read in many ways. Your question does not contain it, but the unproven statement that you propose at the beginning does. So be careful in proceeding from an answer to the question to the validation of this statement. You must add something to the mere observation that all cultures have an element of hierarchy in order to establish a fact that they depend on it - we might just observe such correlation in the world. Maybe they were some selection pressures at work at some moment during the last 10k years (warfare?).


Quantify degree to which non-diagnostic features bias category-present response

I've been going through your question a couple of times now and I find it quite tricky to get all the details. So please correct me, if I misunderstood you in some point.

Basically you have a test and your subjects have to determine if a stimulus belongs to a certain category or not. Of the three possible features, one is a perfect indicator for a specific category, while the other two are unrelated to it. So far, so good. But I think that there are a couple of problems with the way that you framed the problem.

Correct Response vs. Expected Value

You say that,

  if the feature is the one diagnostic for the category, then correct response would be "yes" 100% of the time the feature is present and "no" 100% of the time the feature is absent.

Now, I think that there are three things mixed together in this statement:

the correct response,
a certain response rate whith which the correct response might be given and
the expected value of category membership given the perfect indicator.

These may seem like a subtle differences, but I would argue they are not. While you can determine, what the correct response to a question is, there is not really a correct response rate. When a subject answers a question correctly in 95% of the cases, he gave the wrong answer a couple of times. But the response rate is not right or wrong, it's just what it is. And the response rate does not have to equal the expected value (which is 100% in this case). Jeromy Anglim already commented somehting along these lines as well. This becomes even clearer for the next statement:

  If the feature is one of the two irrelevant ones, then "yes" will be the correct response 50% of the time regardless of feature presence.

Again, the expected value of category membership given an unrelated indicator is 50%. And since we know about that, we can formulate the hypothesis, that the subjects will catch on to it. But it's just a hypothesis and it cannot be taken for granted.

Is it really a bias?

Now, administering the test, you have found that

  In fact it turns out that people respond "yes" more than 50% of the time when the irrelevant features are present, and less than 50% of the time when they are absent, indicating that the irrelevant features bias them to respond "yes".

I'm not so sure that this really is a bias, at least not one that is caused by the features. As Jeormy Anglim mentioned in the comments, the subjects might come up with all sorts of strategies. A tendency to answer with "yes" might also be some sort of aquiescence bias (Ray, 1983). To be sure, that would be a bias, too, but it would not be caused by the features. But since it is not clear, how the subjects should respond to the test, it does not make sense to speak of a bias.

Quantifying the results

Having said all that, you could still quantify the results. A good way to do that would be to look at the conditional probabilities of a correct response, given a certain feature (which is what you already did). E.g. $$P(Y_x=1|a)$$ would denote the probability of getting a "yes" for an item $Y$ that asks about category $x$ when feature $a$ is present in the stimulus. You could do this for all combinations of categories and features. This would also allow for testing hypothesis about certain response rates like: Is the response rate for a certain combination significantly different from some value $P_0$?

The other suggestions that you make would work, as well. E.g. taking the difference between the conditional probabilities (like in your first suggestion. A result of zero indicates that there is no difference between the proportions.

If you are interested in pairwise comparisons you might take a look at the odds ratio (Agresti, 2007). The odds ratio considering features $a$ and $b$ for a given category would be defined as
$$OR = \frac{P(Y=1|a)/(1 - P(Y=1|a))}{P(Y=1|b/(1-P(Y=1|b)}$$
which is the same as
$$OR = \frac{odds(a)}{odds(b)}.$$

References:

 Agresti, A. (2007). An introduction to categorical data analysis (Vol. 423). Wiley-Interscience.
Ray, J. J. (1983). Reviving the problem of acquiescent response bias. The Journal of Social Psychology, 121(1), 81-96.


Can an external stimulus change the way your dream ends?

I don't know any scientific evidence of it, but I personally have experienced it many times. I have come to think that it is due to the decreasing depth of sleep. You may know that sleep progresses through different phases. I've read that you only dream during the light sleep phases , or at least you remember to be dreaming during theese phases.
Hearing sound doesn't affect the end of your dream , your brain reacts to the sound with including it in it's own way to your dream at anytime , you just think it's the end of the dream because in that case it wakes you up but your brain does this all night long !

I've already head my alarm ringing in my dreams and it took me several minutes to find out it was realy time to awke up , and not just a background music !

Sorry if it's not scientific enough for you but it seems pretty "normal" to me ^^

EDIT : It seems like people are still trying to prove it but they're convinced it's true : Check this studies results

During the study they observed an impact but due to their lack of technical language the subjects couldn't describe with enough details the impact of internal stimuli on their dream , but new tests will be done with subjects trained with technical language.


Could bioinfomatics explain consciousness?

I’m not certain but think that the theory you referred to is Single-neuron Theory of Consciousness [1]. Anyway, if it is not the one, let’s discuss this theory because it has the concept like the one in your question. The abstract of this theory is as follows:

  By most accounts, the mind arises from the integrated activity of large populations of neurons distributed across multiple brain regions.  A contrasting model is presented in the present paper that places the mind/brain interface not at the whole brain level but at the level of single neurons.  Specifically, it is proposed that each neuron in the nervous system is independently conscious, with conscious content corresponding to the spatial pattern of a portion of that neuron's dendritic electrical activity.  For most neurons, such as those in the hypothalamus or posterior sensory cortices, the conscious activity would be assumed to be simple and unable to directly affect the organism's macroscopic conscious behavior.  For a subpopulation of layer 5 pyramidal neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortices, however, an arrangement is proposed to be present such that, at any given moment:  i) the spatial pattern of electrical activity in a portion of the dendritic tree of each neuron in the subpopulation individually manifests a complexity and diversity sufficient to account for the complexity and diversity of conscious experience; ii) the dendritic trees of the neurons in the subpopulation all contain similar spatial electrical patterns; iii) the spatial electrical pattern in the dendritic tree of each neuron interacts nonlinearly with the remaining ambient dendritic electrical activity to determine the neuron's overall axonal response; iv) the dendritic spatial pattern is reexpressed at the population level by the spatial pattern exhibited by a synchronously firing subgroup of the conscious neurons, thereby providing a mechanism by which conscious activity at the neuronal level can influence overall behavior.  The resulting scheme is one in which conscious behavior appears to be the product of a single macroscopic mind, but is actually the integrated output of a chorus of minds, each associated with a different neuron.”

Comment:

Fist, I think it is certain that the signaling activity of each neuron, among other millions of neurons, in the neural circuit that creates consciousness contributes something to the whole consciousness. But I think whether we call this minute contribution “consciousness” is a matter of individual’s opinion. However, if we call it “consciousness”, we should be aware that, whatever this minute consciousness is, it is not and cannot be the complex and highly informative consciousness that we feel in our mind, because a single neuron is too simple to be so.

Now, let’s examine the content of the theory. It appears strange to me that the theory asserts that dendritic electrical activity corresponds to consciousness. Dendritic activities are processing activities of incoming information that arrives at dendrites. They are ongoing, unfinished activities. On the other hand, the completely processed, synthesized information comes out at the axons. Also, a lot of current evidence shows that consciousness corresponds to recurrent neuronal activities among and synchronization of various cortical areas [2-5]. The recurrent neuronal activities and synchronization entails activities in the axons too. Therefore, it seems more evidence-based that the composite of all electrical activities, both dendritic and axonal, not dendritic alone, among various cortical areas that include the consciousness neural circuit should be the one that corresponds to consciousness.

Next, regarding assertion i), it’s hard to believe that the spatial pattern of electrical activity in a portion of the dendritic tree of each neuron individually manifests a complexity and diversity sufficient to account for the complexity and diversity of conscious experience, but it’s more probable that the combination of the spatial patterns of electrical activities of a very large group of neurons can manifest the require complexity and diversity. Assertion ii) is possible but needs objective evidence to confirm. Assertion iii) is not a novel assertion but a current standard model of neuronal processing. Assertion iv) is questionable, but it may just an inaccurate wording. I think the wording shouldn’t be “dendritic spatial pattern is re-expressed at the population level by …” but should be “dendritic spatial pattern is processed, and a new axonal spatial pattern is synthesized and expressed at the population level by …”.

References

Sevush S. Single-neuron Theory of Consciousness. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 2005..
Babiloni C, Marzano N, Soricelli A, Cordone S,  Millán-Calenti JC, Percio CD, et al. Cortical neural synchronization underlies primary visual consciousness of qualia: Evidence from event-related potentials. Front Hum Neurosci. 2016;10:310.
Dehaene S, Sergent C, Changeux JP. A neuronal network model linking subjective reports and objective physiological data during conscious perception. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Jul 8;100(14):8520–8525.
Fisch L, Privman E, Ramot M, Harel M, Nir Y, Kipervasser S, et al. Neural “Ignition”: Enhanced activation linked to perceptual awareness in human ventral stream visual cortex. Neuron. 2009 Nov 25;64(4):562–574.
Pollen DA. On the neural correlates of visual perception. Cereb Cortex. 1999; 9(1):4-19.


Does an electrical stimulation of a right claustrum leads to a temporary loss of consciousness?

It's probably a bit more complicated than that. Cortical areas tend to be highly connected with their contralateral counterparts, so it's not really fair to expect that the effects of stimulation on one side of the brain doesn't impact the contralateral side.

The claustrum is itself a small gray matter region, but it is surrounded by white matter as well. Koubeissi et al used a fairly strong stimulus when they saw effects on consciousness; I have a hard time believing this stimulation was only affecting the claustrum and not fibers of passage at that stimulation intensity.

A recent study of 5 epilepsy patients attempted to replicate the Koubeissi finding, stimulating the claustrum (bilaterally in 4/5) in epilepsy patients, but none of the patients lost consciousness despite experiencing other effects. The authors suggest that the results presented in the earlier case study could be based on the unique circumstances of that patient, which include their epilepsy history and prior resection, and that the stimulation location in that Koubeissi case was not really directly in the claustrum. Additionally, Bickel & Parvizi were unable to use a stimulus as strong as the prior case report because their patients experienced negative side effects like painful muscle responses that Koubeissi did not see.

Bickel, S., & Parvizi, J. (2019). Electrical stimulation of the human claustrum. Epilepsy & Behavior.

Damasio et al, 2013 is another case study, where the patient had bilateral damage to a substantial portion of the brain, including the claustrum bilaterally. This patient had quite a bit of impact to various functions due to this damage, but they were still conscious. Therefore the answer to "Are both claustrums necessary for a conciousness" seems to be "no"; in a healthy brain it's a bit harder to say, because it's not ethical to damage the claustrum in healthy brains.

Damasio, A., Damasio, H. & Tranel, D. Persistence of feelings and sentience after bilateral damage of the insula. Cereb. Cortex 23, 833–846 (2013).

There are also other papers showing suppression or recovery of consciousness through stimulation of other brain regions besides the claustrum.

Redinbaugh, M. J., Phillips, J. M., Kambi, N. A., Mohanta, S., Andryk, S., Dooley, G. L., ... & Saalmann, Y. B. (2019). Central thalamus modulates consciousness by controlling layer-specific cortical interactions. bioRxiv, 776591.

Schiff, N. D., Giacino, J. T., Kalmar, K., Victor, J. D., Baker, K., Gerber, M., ... & Farris, S. (2007). Behavioural improvements with thalamic stimulation after severe traumatic brain injury. Nature, 448(7153), 600-603.


Studies modelling learning curves of an overall task and subtasks

I've been interested in this issue from another direction, namely, in how to model the acquisition of hierarchically decomposeable behaviors of the type you describe; and how these behaviors, once acquired, can be used as 'high order primitives' to bootstrap other learning.  This is an important issue for artificial intelligence and machine learning, in particular, as a way to address the combinatorial explosion involved with learning complex tasks in realistic domains.

Barto et al. (2004) provide a nice overview that amends the standard reinforcement learning paradigm to take these hierarchical ideas into account, and includes an algorithmic implementation for a simple but non-trivial domain.  Oudeyer et al. (2007) expand on how hierarchicality can make behavior acquisition more efficient, and implement their algorithm in a robot in a developmental setting.  Botvinick et al. (2009) provide a more recent review of the state of this work, as well as an overview of possible neural correlates of some of the processes.

Taken together, these references may possibly be useful to you as dispatches from domains other than the one you're exactly interested in.  I've found such disparate formulations to be fertile sources of inspiration and synthesis.


There are a variety of "IQ" tests which attempt to achieve a particular goal (culture-fairness, isolating specialized aspects of cognition, etc.).

"Raven's Progressive Matrices" is a popular type of test that was originally developed in search of an IQ-metric that was "culture-fair" (that is, scoring well did not rely on any cultural background).

In the same vein, it's possible to find specialized IQ tests which selectively measure verbal reasoning, spatial reasoning, and/or memory in isolation. The following website is a battle-tested resource for these sorts of metrics:
https://www.cambridgebrainsciences.com/

The results can be mapped back into "IQ" space by matching the percentiles (conveniently, with the aid of this table: https://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/iqtable.aspx ).


Are motivation and efficiency inversely correlated?

You might find Self Determination Theory interesting, which takes a detailed look the concept of motivation. Even if you don't explicitely mention it in your question, you seem to be refering to the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, which is a distinction that is traditionally made with respect to motivation.

In SDT this is taken a step further. Gagne & Deci (2005) introduce the distinction between autonomous and controlled motivation, which can be seen as two endpoints of a continuum. Intrinsic motivation is autonomous, and people who are intrinsically motivated engage in a certain behaviour because they like it, find it interesting, etc. In this sense, the behaviour is self-determined.

To the contrary, behaviour can also be externally controlled (e.g. your boss tells you to do something) and thus not self-determinded. In its most extreme form, this kind of controlled motivation is what we know as extrinsic motivation. However, a task that is extrinsically motivated can be internalized and thus become more autonomous and more important to the individual. Gagne & Deci postulate 3 degrees of Internalization, which vary from low to high. In its most internalized form, which is called integrated motivation, the behaviour has become autonomous and is equally important to the individual as intrinsically motivated behaviour, even though not for the same reasons.

In their article, Gagne & Deci (2005) make a couple of propositions derived from the theory, the first one of which also speaks to your question. Because integrated and intrinsic motivations differ in their underlying mechanisms, they should be predictice for performance on different kinds of task. An intrinsically motivated person should perform well on a task that she likes, whereas soemone with integrated motivation should perform well on tasks that require discipline and effort. This proposition has already been tested and confirmed with respect to political envolvement and voting behaviour (Koestner et al., 1996).

References

Gagné, M., & Deci, E. L. (2005). Self‐determination theory and work motivation. Journal of Organizational behavior, 26(4), 331-362. PDF

Koestner, R., Losier, G. F., Vallerand, R. J., & Carducci, D. (1996). Identified and introjected forms of political internalization: extending self-determination theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1025–1036.


Antonio, Nielsen and Doneri (1998) provide one assessment of self-reported  prevalence of smell in dreams. To quote the abstract (my bolding):

  Although numerous studies have investigated the content of
  laboratory  and home dream reports, surprisingly little  is  known
  about the prevalence of various sensory modes in  dreams. 49 men and
  115 women completed a battery of questionnaires and kept a home dream
  diary for two to three consecutive weeks. Retrospective responses to
  the questionnaire indicate that  approximately  33 %  of  men and 40%
  of  women recalled having experienced sensations of  smell  or taste in
  their dreams. A  total  of  3372 dream reports were collected and
  scored for  unambiguous references to  auditory,  olfactory,  and
  gustatory experiences. Auditory  experiences were reported in
  approximately  53%  of  all  dream reports. Olfactory  and gustatory
  sensations occurred in  approximatdy 1 % of all dream reports. A
  significantly greater percentage of women than men reported one or
  more dreams containing references to olfactory sensations. The results
  lend support to  previous studies which have shown that a variety of
  sensory experiences, although relatively  rare, can occur in dreams.

There is still the question about whether self-reports are trustworthy, and how you define a smell experience in a dream that is most likely not generated by external stimuli. Antonio and colleagues go on to discuss some of these issues:

  That  the more infrequent modalities of  smell and taste occur at all
  in dream reports is an important indication of the representational
  capacities of dreaming-and  probably of  imagery more generally. The
  finding  is consistent with  recent research showing the existence of
  imagery in both olfactory (Carrasco &  Ridout, 1997; Lyman & McDaniel,
  1986) and gustatory (Drummond,  1995) modalities. Although  some
  researchers take the position that olfactory imagery is not possible
  (Herz & Engen, 1996), the spontaneous occurrence of olfactory imagery
  in  dreams may differ  from "willful"  olfactory imagery that may
  occur upon instruction during  the waking state. For  instance, limbic
  structures which  might  yield  such spontaneous occurrences during
  dreams may not be operational during the waking state. Nevertheless,
  it  is  likely  that  the  relatively rare occurrence of  these
  modalities during dreaming is not  because their  representation is
  beyond imaginal capacity. Rather, either such sensations are not
  usually spontaneously  generated during dreaming, i.e., are not a
  necessary component of dreaming's supposed memory/adaptational
  functions, or they depend upon external sensory stimuli to trigger
  them. However, sensory triggers may be selectively blocked at  the
  thalamic level by the raised afferent thresholds of REM sleep (e.g.,
  Steriade, 1994). Of  course, both  of  these inhibiting  conditions
  may be true, thereby seriously disfavoring appearance of gustatory or
  olfactory sensations during dreaming

References

ANTONIO, L.Z. and Nielsen, T.A. and Donderi, DC. (1998). Prevalence of auditory, olfactory, and gustatory experiences in home dreams. Perceptual and motor skills, 87, 3, 819-826.PDF
Carrasco,  M.,  & Ridout,  J. B. (1997)  Olfactory perception and olfactory imagery: a multidimensional analysis. Journal  0f Experimental Psychology: Human Perception &  Performance,
19,287-30l.
Drummond,  P. D. (1995)  Effect of imagining and actually tasting a sour taste on one side of the tongue. Physiology & Behavior, 57, 373-376.
Herz, R. S, & Engen,  T. (1996)  Odor memory: review and analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3, 300-313
Lyman, B. J., & McDaniel. M. A. (1986)  Effects  of  encoding  strategy  on  long-term  memory  for
odours. Human memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental  Psychology: A-Human  Experimental Psychology, 38(4-A), 753-765.
Steriade,  M.  (1994)  Brain electrical  activity and sensory processing during waking and sleep states. In  M.  H. Kryger, T. Roth, &  W. C. Dement (Eds.), Principles and practice of sleep medicine. (2nd ed.) Philadelphia, FA: Saunders. pp.  105-124.


Is there an actionable branch of cognitive science?

The answer depends on how you are defining cognitive science and what threshold you use to attribute that actionable component.

If you are talking about cognitive sciences in the broad sense that we use on this site, then you encompass disciplines including psychology, psychiatry, neurobiology, and so on.
This opens up a much broader set of applied fields.

There is also the question of what is meant by cognitive science in action. There is a whole spectrum in the degree to which fields would draw on cognitive science findings.

A few applied fields that stand out as having very close links with psychology, cognitive science, psychology, and neurobiology (i.e., what we mean on this site by cognitive sciences) include:

Applied Psychology including clinical, organisational, educational, counselling, sports psychology, etc. as well as a wide range of counselling, social work, and related roles
Psychiatry
Human factors, ergonomics, usability, user experience, etc fields
Various medical fields related to neurobiology
Education and related fields

Then there is a whole raft of fields which draw on such knowledge to a greater or lesser degree:

e.g.,

Management, human resources, marketing, market research, etc.
Occupational health and safety, work design, product design, etc.
etc.

No doubt many other fields could be mentioned. I think this is partially explains the popularity of psychology as an undergraduate subject.


Perception: thinking a minority behavior in a minority group is the majority of said group

I think the term you are looking is out-group homogeneity.

  The out-group homogeneity effect is one's perception of out-group
  members as more similar to one another than are in-group members, e.g.
  "they are alike; we are diverse". ... Perceivers tend to have
  impressions about the diversity or variability of group members around
  those central tendencies or typical attributes of those group members.
  Thus, outgroup stereotypicality judgments are overestimated,
  supporting the view that out-group stereotypes are
  overgeneralizations.


Terminology: why do psychologists use "positive" and "negative"?

They are used in conditioning because those terms were originally used by Skinner, and after some shuffling around ("negative reinforcement" used to be used to describe what is now called "punishment" or more specifically "positive punishment") became standard terms. Dinsmoor (2004) covers a bit of the history and cites the relevant source literature.

For the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, that goes back earlier, to Bleuler who was also the first person to use the term "schizophrenia" in 1908 to describe the disease known by that name today. The 1908 use of schizophrenia was at a conference, but there are also published books and articles by him later that use the terms, I've included a reference to one from 1912 below.

It isn't all that uncommon for scientific terms to differ from their lay usage; language is also mutable, so even carefully chosen terminology can drift away from the meaning in broader society. I'm not suggesting that is what happened in this case, but I just want to emphasize that it is typically more important to use terms consistently in science. Changing terminology that has been used for a long time is difficult, potentially confusing, and makes it harder to connect older literature to newer work.

Ashok, A. H., Baugh, J., & Yeragani, V. K. (2012). Paul Eugen Bleuler and the origin of the term schizophrenia (SCHIZOPRENIEGRUPPE). Indian journal of psychiatry, 54(1), 95. Available from: http://www.indianjpsychiatry.org/text.asp?2012/54/1/95/94660

Bleuler, E., & White, W. A. (1912). The theory of schizophrenic negativism. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 39(1), 50-57, 133-139, 195-202, 274-279. doi: 10.1097/00005053-191201000-00009

Dinsmoor, J. A. (2004). The etymology of basic concepts in the experimental analysis of behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 82(3), 311-316. doi: 10.1901/jeab.2004.82-311 pdf: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1285013/pdf/15693525.pdf


Definitions of the alpha wave in the revised glossary by Clinical Neurophysiology Practice?

I personally don't see the contradiction. It seems very contrived from your end to establish that there is one. I think it's very clear from the definition of the alpha wave that 'duration' is synonymous with 'period' in that case. In the 4th quote, defining 'duration', it even says this outright, "The duration of the cycle of individual components of a sequence of regularly repeating waves or complexes is referred to as the period of the wave".

Basically, looking at the definition of alpha wave where duration in that specific case equals period, solves everything. It's the most intuitive answer. Would it have been better if they had written 'period' instead? Probably. But to pick up on that definitional ambiguity, not see their definition of duration also includes that of period, and somehow claim that this implies people are defining alpha waves for non-cyclic activity is an enormous stretch.

The glossary's definition is correct and you can understand the definition of an alpha wave as a wave in the 8-13 Hz band / a wave with a period of 1/8 - 1/13 seconds.


Are all dendrites targeted by an axon, or are there a lot of "empty" dendrites?

Short answer
Axonal outputs are coupled to dendrites or other effector tissues, such as muscular fibers or glandular tissue. There are no redundant axonal outputs, or redundant dendritic inputs. There is a tight coupling between the two both during developmental formation of synapses and during the maintenance of the two.

Background
Neurons can have extensive dendritic trees (e.g., Purkinje cells in the cerebellar cortex, Fig. 1) and also elaborate arborated axon terminals (*e.g., in the neuromuscular junction, Fig. 2).

In the cases shown below, the functions can be defined as simple logical operators, namely integration (Purkinje cell) and amplification (neuromuscular junction). The Purkinje cells receive and integrate input from the brainstem. The motoneurons innervating muscle use multiple axon terminals to target a larger area of the muscle so that stronger, synchronous muscle contractions can be achieved.

The development and maintenance of dendrite-axon connections are tightly coupled (e.g., Shen & Lowan, 2010). Generally, when either input to the dendrite is diminished (axonal regression), or output of the axon is cancelled (dendritic regression), the plasticity of the neural tissue will lead to degeneration or re-directing of the axon, or regression or re-innervation of the dendrite, respectively (e.g. Marc et al., 2003).

As regarding to your math; be aware axons can branch, axon arborations can target a single dendritic tree, axons can terminate on other tissues, such as glands and muscles (no dendrites there!). In other words, your mathematical example is an oversimplification. Further; cells with elaborate dendritic trees as shown in Fig. 1 are common in cortical layers, but are not the norm. The ratios of the cell types have to be taken into account as well.

Lastly, there can be the textbook connections between neurons, namely axo-dendritic connections, but also axo-axonal (Schmitz et al, 2001), dendrodendritic (Shepherd, 2009), and even axosomatic synapses between neurons (Fig. 3).

Fig. 1. Dendritic tree (Wundt, 1904)

Fig. 2. Axonal terminals in a neuromuscular junction. source: Farrel (2017)

Fig. 3. Different kinds of synapses. source: Modesto Junior College

References
- Marc et al., Prog Retin Eye Res (2003); 22(5):607-55
- Shen & Kowan, Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol (2010); 2(4): a001842
- Shepherd, Ann N Y Acad Sci (2009); 1170; 1-11
- Schmitz et al., Neuron (2001); 31(5): 831-40
- Wundt, Principles of Physiological Psychology (1904)


Is it possible to quantify cognitive bias?

Bias can be quantified in many different ways. In human memory research carried out in the cognitive psychology tradition, there are simple ways to think about it. One basic measure of cognitive bias is merely called bias, and it's a measure of the absolute accuracy of an individual's probability judgments. You average probability judgments across a given subject, then average performance, and subtract one from the other. The magnitude and direction of this discrepancy could be argued to reflect a task-specific cognitive bias.

That's not useful without a concrete example. Say I ask you 10 questions tapping your general knowledge about the world (e.g., "Who invaded Rome by crossing the Alps with elephants?") After you respond, I ask you to rate your confidence on a scale from 0% (not at all confident) to 100% (entirely confident). We do this for nine more questions.

After you've taken this short test, I can easily calculate your bias by averaging your accuracy across the 10 questions (say you get 2 wrong, so 80%) and subtracting your average confidence across those questions (say it's 73%).  It's a 7% difference, and you were more accurate than you were confident, so your bias is said to be 7% -- you were underconfident.

There are lots of other ways you can think about this. Say, for instance, you weren't interested in overconfidence or underconfidence, but rather, just the degree to which your performance differed from your estimations. Here you could just use the squared value of the difference to represent probability accuracy.


Where is motor skill function located within the brain?

Most brain-machine interfaces involving movement would be based on activity in primary motor cortex, which, as you said, is near the surface. Right next to that are is primary somatosensory cortex, which is the first cortical area where touch information is processed. It is also near the surface. Most of the neocortex is going to be near the surface, with some parts (gyri) closer than others (sulci).

The primary reason that there is more progress being made with reading from the brain as opposed to sending information to the brain is that we have very little understanding of how information is stored and processed in the brain, the language of the brain. What we do know is that we can record neural activity and feed it into some type of machine learning algorithm which then can interpret this activity to some degree. Note that the output of these models is usually very limited and their performance is far from perfect.

Going the other way is a lot more difficult, because we would need to be able to speak the language of the brain. You might think that you could just reverse the models somehow, but it's not that simple. The good news is that all of this research (brain machine interfaces, as well as all of the other basic science work being done) is slowly moving towards a better understanding of how the brain works to a level where we will someday be able to speak the language. I wouldn't be surprised if, in less than 10 years, we will be seeing neural implants being tested that communicate bidirectionally with the brain.


You are correct in System 1 being more prone to errors as it relies on emotional experiences in the moment along with stereotypes and frequency of event.
System 2

You wouldn’t expect someone to  quickly ( in a matter of seconds ) spit out the answer to the question “calculate the mass of this (random) object” if the person has never experienced this object before.

System 1

You would expect someone to apply the brake when they see a red light.

According to Kahneman (2011) System 1 is brought on by emotional experience and in the moment thought. This is a stronger and faster experience than that of which system 2 is capable of overriding. System 2 takes time to meditate a plan or course of action whereas system 1 is more of an immediate response. This delay in response would therefore suggest the latency between the workings of both systems.
This is of course my interpretation of his book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” and has room for subjective debate.
He does provide wonderful examples pertaining to stock brokers and their tendency to follow the hype of the crowd and sell when it is often best to ride it out. I do not have the book currently on hand but will comment the reference when i have it.
References
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux


If there is literature that you are building off of or comparing your approach to, I would look in their papers to see what values they used and use the same. This is the standard approach, as it yields easily comparable experimental results.

If you are just looking for some ballpark numbers for less formal research, these guys used 1 mΩ, these guys did the same, and these guys say they use 10 MΩ (I think they might mean mΩ). If you want, you can also tune the model by altering this parameter until it yields expected behaviors you are looking for under conditions where you know how the model performs. Different kinds of neurons have different resistance. It's hard to be more specific without knowing more details about what you want to do.


Is there a correlation between high IQ and creativity?

The article The Threshold Theory Regarding Creativity and Intelligence: An Empirical Test with Gifted and Nongifted Children found results that do not support this "Threshold Theory" of creativity.

Abstract:

  Results of divergent thinking tests (administered to 228 intermediate school students, of whom about 43 percent were gifted) and calculated correlations between creativity and intelligence measures did not support the threshold theory which posits that creativity and intelligence are related only up to an intelligence quotient of about 120.

Can Only Intelligent People Be Creative? A Meta-Analysis by Kyung Hee Kim found a negligible correlation of IQ and creativity and does not support the Threshold Theory.

  The mean correlation coefficient was small (r = .174; 95% CI = .165 – .183), but heterogeneous; this correlation coefficient indicates that the relationship between creativity test scores and IQ scores is negligible. Age contributed to the relationship between intelligence and creativity the most; different creativity tests contributed to it secondly. This study does not support threshold theory.

Several studies dispute the claims of Threshold Theory but the most interesting is probably Biochemical Support for the “Threshold” Theory of Creativity: A Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study which appears to show some support for the idea in a fairly rigorous biochemical method.

There is at best contentious support for the threshold theory, and perhaps more importantly the association between creativity and IQ seems rather weak.


Which part of the brain is not working optimally if an individual is unable to understand scientific concepts and mathematics?

Almost every area of your brain would be involved in learning and understanding such high-level topics, so any perceived inability to learn a specific topic is very unlikely to be due to a particular area of your brain not working optimally.

Learning new things can take a lot of time and practice. A lot of times people don't see as much improvement as they would like and this discourages them from continuing to practice. If you can easily understand Finance and Literature, then I believe that you have the ability to catch on with Physics and Math. Just keep reading and trying and eventually you will see improvement.


Source of data for US suicides (by month or quarter) 2019 vs. 2020

At the time of writing this answer, suicide data is not publically available post 2018.

CDC’s WISQARS™ (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) is an interactive, publically accessible, online database that provides fatal and nonfatal injury, violent death, and cost of injury data from a variety of trusted sources.

The CDC states:

  Mortality data come from the National Center for Heath Statistics (NCHS), CDC annual mortality data files. NCHS mortality data are derived from the Multiple Cause of Death data. For more information, contact NCHS at (301)436-8500 or nchsquery@cdc.gov — or visit the NCHS website.

The National Death Index (NDI) service has death records added annually, approximately 10-12 months after the end of a particular calendar year. This information is available to investigators solely for statistical purposes in medical and health research. The service is not accessible to organizations or the general public for legal, administrative, or genealogy purposes. To access the NDI service, you need to complete an NCHS application form.

The final 2018 NDI file is available for both NDI Routine searches and NDI Plus searches.

The Early Release File for 2019 is now available for searching. See completion percentages by state

The Early Release File is now updated quarterly. The current searchable version will always be the most recent version.

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) in an agreement with the National Association of Public Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS) implemented a restrictive rule for publically reporting National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) state- and county-level death data for years 2008 and later, in order to avoid inadvertent disclosure of cases.


Understanding fear as a response in classical conditioning

Short answer

You are almost there.  The 5F (fright/flight/fight/freeze/fawn) response to threats is an unconscious reflex which in brief follows as Threat → Fear → Response.

With classical conditioning, this occurs when an unconditioned response (an unlearned reflex response e.g. salivation) is turned into a conditioned response (a learned reflex response) (Source).  Therefore a conditioned response of fear would be consciously created initially through stimulus → fear → learned threat, which after successful conditioning will change to the normal unconscious 5F response.

Long answer

The 5F (fright/flight/fight/freeze/fawn) response to threats

As you can see from the info-graphic below, The 5F (fright/flight/fight/freeze/fawn response) to threats, is initiated from Threat → Brain Receiving Signals → Brain Reacts (Fright) → Cortisol and Adrenaline is released → Physical Reactions occur (see quote below) from the release of hormones → Bodily response (Fight, Flight, Freeze or Fawn)

(
(Source: Wikipedia)

  The reaction begins in the amygdala, which triggers a neural response in the hypothalamus. The initial reaction is followed by activation of the pituitary gland and secretion of the hormone ACTH. The adrenal gland is activated almost simultaneously, via the sympathetic nervous system, and releases the hormone epinephrine. The release of chemical messengers results in the production of the hormone cortisol, which increases blood pressure, blood sugar, and suppresses the immune system. The initial response and subsequent reactions are triggered in an effort to create a boost of energy. This boost of energy is activated by epinephrine binding to liver cells and the subsequent production of glucose. Additionally, the circulation of cortisol functions to turn fatty acids into available energy, which prepares muscles throughout the body for response. Catecholamine hormones, such as adrenaline (epinephrine) or noradrenaline (norepinephrine), facilitate immediate physical reactions associated with a preparation for violent muscular action and:

  Acceleration of heart and lung action
  Paling or flushing, or alternating between both
  Inhibition of stomach and upper-intestinal action to the point where digestion slows down or stops
  General effect on the sphincters of the body
  Constriction of blood vessels in many parts of the body
  Liberation of metabolic energy sources (particularly fat and glycogen) for muscular action
  Dilation of blood vessels for muscles
  Inhibition of the lacrimal gland (responsible for tear production) and salivation
  Dilation of pupil (mydriasis)
  Relaxation of bladder
  Inhibition of erection
  Auditory exclusion (loss of hearing)
  Tunnel vision (loss of peripheral vision)
  Disinhibition of spinal reflexes
  Shaking.

All of this occurs without conscious thought as analysis of the signal doesn't takes place until after action has been taken.

Classical Conditioning

With classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian or respondent conditioning), this occurs when an unconditioned response (an unlearned reflex response e.g. salivation) is turned into a conditioned response (a learned reflex response) after

  a conditioned stimulus (CS) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US). Usually, the conditioned stimulus is a neutral stimulus (e.g., the sound of a tuning fork), the unconditioned stimulus is biologically potent (e.g., the taste of food) and the unconditioned response (UR) to the unconditioned stimulus is an unlearned reflex response (e.g., salivation).(Source)

A conditioned response of fear would initially be consciously created through stimulus → unpleasant sensation maybe this will have to occur 2 - 3 times or more before the next stage which is learnt fear → learned threat, which after successful conditioning will change to the normal unconscious 5F response.


Can I still get involved in psychology/neuroscience with a computer science degree from several years ago?

I don't think it's foolish.

If you want to make the switch, I'd look into BS-requiring lab tech jobs in labs doing things you are interested in, and trying to apply for graduate school in a year or two if that works out well.

These are jobs that recently-graduated students often do for a year or two while strengthening an application for graduate school, and in my experience a CS background can be quite useful to many labs. The lab I work in often takes on undergraduate assistants in CS, and some of those students choose to keep working after graduating (or come from elsewhere after graduating).

Titles for these jobs vary a lot by institution, but I've seen "research intern", "junior scientist", "research technician", etc. You can both look at job postings and try to contact professors directly; know that both methods may have a high rejection rate. You'll have the best chance if you both a) learn enough about what particular labs are doing to be able to describe why working there would interest you, and b) don't paint yourself into such a narrow focus that many opportunities are ruled out. Don't be afraid to contact past professors even if you've been out of school for a bit and ask their advice.

Expect to take a pay cut compared to your industry job, and to not have much (any) negotiating power. The things you would want to stress when you apply are that you are interested in making a career move to academia and pursuing a graduate degree, but want to get research experience. Look for jobs where you'll have an opportunity to work on projects and publish rather than becoming de facto IT support.

Poor undergraduate grades will hurt you - grad school applications can be very competitive, especially at better known schools (but don't discount other research institutions; good mentors are more important than Ivy-tier names). Your goal would be to accrue research experience and solid letters of recommendation: these can compensate a lot for average grades. At the same time, you should make it a personal goal to learn more about the specific fields of research and research questions you might be interested in, even if they're outside the work you start doing initially.

I'm speaking from a US perspective, so if you are elsewhere things may be a bit different. Good luck.


How to statistically test whether parents and children share similar humor styles?

Assuming the data are dyadic (i.e., one child per parent), you would probably focus on correlating child scores with parent scores.

Hopefully, you have a sense of how the child and parent scales align. Hopefully, they are designed to measure equivalent constructs albeit with different items.

The fact that you've used different scales is a potential confound. Presumably, the are good reasons for this given that the humour of children and adults is expressed quite differently. But that's something, you'll have to reason through in terms of measurement and theory.

The fact that the scales have different numbers of items and response options is mostly irrelevant. As soon as you start using different items, then you've essentially got different variables.

Although not relevant to you, more commonly, data involving dyads involves using the same instruments. e.g., husbands and wive both completing the same measure of big 5 personality. In that case, you can do lots of things, like comparing descriptive statistics, ICCs, and other values. David Kenny has lots of resources in that case on dyadic data analysis: http://www.davidakenny.net/dyad.htm


What is the relative importance of shape and color in object recognition?

People are generally faster to find a dissimilar stimulus when it differs along two dimensions (color+shape) from the rest, but only if they are looking for those dimensions (e.g. find all objects that are red diamonds is faster than find all objects that are red). However, if they are looking for dimensions which are not present, this effect reverses (e.g. find all objects that are not blue is faster than find all objects that are not blue circles).

The reasons behind this are still a matter of debate, but one model (Buckingham et al, 2012) suggests that the best explanation is that both dimensions are processed simultaneously. See here for more information on why this model fits the data: Two perceptual anomalies explained by a statistically optimal model.

Buckingham, S., de Gardelle, V., Avery, S., & Summerfield, C. (2012). Two perceptual anomalies explained by a statistically optimal model. Journal of Vision, 12(9), 1053-1053.


The manifestation of OCD with the use of information technologies

Yes this topic has been discussed in detail. There are two main ways of describing mental illness: Continuous and Discontinuous spectrum of behaviour. (Most clinicians favor discontinuous.) The Continuous spectrum of behaviour states that OCD and other mental illnesses are just extremes of normal behavior. The Discontinuous spectrum of behaviour states that while mental illness has some traits with normal behaviour they are not on the same spectrum as normal behaviour. Both theories hold to the fact that enough extremes of normal behaviour can cause mental illness. Whether someone actually has OCD involving technology or is just at an extreme normal behaviour can only be determined accurately by a psychologist/psychiatrist.

I can't say that I agree with "iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us". Some of it is silly like counting the number of first person pronouns but some of the concepts it relates are interesting.

Obsessively checking in with technology seems to be the biggest attribute.


How can I visualize DTI tractography streamlines generated from FSL's probtrackX in 3D?

I must say I am not an expert, but the following sources look helpful:

Gao et al. (2013) write

  The voxel value in the resulting dataset represents the number of
  streamline samples passing through this voxel times the expected
  length of these samples. The probabilistic-tractography-derived DDM
  was generated by keeping the values of those voxels located at the WGM
  interface and setting the remaining voxels to zero. Again, the DDMs
  were rendered on the 3D WGM interface in DTI space.

The FDT Userguide discusses tractography and PROBTRACKX in section 2.6.3;
Catani & Thiebaut de Schotten (2008) discuss how diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography can be used to virtually dissect white matter pathways in the living human brain;
This presentation contains a lot of references;
Specialist fora like this one may be of help.

References
- Catani & Thiebaut de Schotten, Cortex (2008); 44(8):1105-32
- Gao et al., PLoS ONE (2013); 8(10): e75065


What are the key algorithms for learning optimal behavior of economic agents?

Here are two computational approaches which might work:

I. Artificial neural network

A neural network consists of an interconnected group of artificial neurons, and it processes information using a connectionist approach to computation. In most cases an ANN is an adaptive system that changes its structure based on external or internal information that flows through the network during the learning phase. Modern neural networks are non-linear statistical data modelling tools. They are usually used to model complex relationships between inputs and outputs or to find patterns in data.
Perhaps the greatest advantage of ANNs is their ability to be used as an arbitrary function approximation mechanism which 'learns' from observed data. However, using them is not so straightforward and a relatively good understanding of the underlying theory is essential.

Choice of model: This will depend on the data representation and the application. Overly complex models tend to lead to problems with learning.
Learning algorithm: There are numerous trade-offs between learning algorithms. Almost any algorithm will work well with the correct hyper-parameters for training on a particular fixed dataset. However selecting and tuning an algorithm for training on unseen data requires a significant amount of experimentation.
Robustness: If the model, cost function and learning algorithm are selected appropriately the resulting ANN can be extremely robust.

II. Support vector machine

A set of related supervised learning methods that analyse data and recognize patterns, used for classification and regression analysis. The standard SVM takes a set of input data, and predicts, for each given input, which of two possible classes the input is a member of, which makes the SVM a non-probabilistic binary linear classifier. Since an SVM is a classifier, then given a set of training examples, each marked as belonging to one of two categories, an SVM training algorithm builds a model that predicts whether a new example falls into one category or the other. Intuitively, an SVM model is a representation of the examples as points in space, mapped so that the examples of the separate categories are divided by a clear gap that is as wide as possible. New examples are then mapped into that same space and predicted to belong to a category based on which side of the gap they fall on.

Neural Networks have been used to create highly competitive computer-players for the open-source FreeCiv.  There, Neural Networks are used with Monte Carlo Methods which I've also used in simulating economic interactions in games.

Not sure if this is entirely what you're looking for but might be a start?


How to read a neuron tuning curve graph?

From the comments:

I'm going to hazard a guess that these are neurons that are tuned to a particular direction in space and that the x-axis is the angle in multiples of π radians, particularly since these are related to the work of Georgopoulos and colleagues.

Since we know these are positionally tuned neurons, you can see some other examples in
this Wikipedia page for some other examples.

  A typical population code involves neurons with a Gaussian tuning curve whose means vary linearly with the stimulus intensity, meaning that the neuron responds most strongly (in terms of spikes per second) to a stimulus near the mean.

So, as mentioned above, the independent variable here is the stimulus "intensity" (in this case abstracted by the quantity of direction) and the firing rate is the dependent variable, hence their positions on the axes in the plot.

For some of the more theoretical studies of this type of phenomenon, I would definitely check out the work of Emo Todorov, among many others, as well.


Could ketosis be therapeutic for ADHD based on the neuro-energetic theory of attention?

Whether or not there is truth to this theory, a ketogenic diet cannot 'eliminate ADHD symptoms'. ADHD is an impairment of executive functioning. Executive dysfunction is thought to be linked to a deficit in dopamine, as well as functional frontal lobe pathology. (1) There are certainly other theories as to what causes the disorder, and they are likely a byproduct of how broad a net the traditional ADHD 'symptoms list' seems to cast.

There is no doubt that lactate is important. Recent evidence may suggest that lactate is preferentially metabolized over glucose by neurons in the brain. (2) However, while low lactate levels might produce behavioral effects that imitate those of ADHD, there is no evidence to suggest that the disorder itself can be traced to lactate levels in the brain. One way that we can observe this is by measuring executive functioning ability and lactate levels in humans as the result of acute exercise, since exercise is observed to raise lactate levels. This study shows that:

  ...While acute exercise improved all aspects of executive functions in those without ADHD, acute exercise only improved inhibitory performance for those with ADHD.

Thus, it does not look like the cure you are looking for is found in ketosis, assuming that it is the lactate you are monitoring (and also assuming that a ketogenoc diet does not raise lactate levels by a hyperincreased amount relative to that generated through rigorous exercise). Furthermore, the Wikipedia page for ketosis cites several sources that suggest that a ketogenic diet may be unhealthy, and even fatal if done improperly (4). But that last bit exceeds the scope of your question, so I'll leave you to look into that if you so desire.

EDIT: Forgot to tackle the myelination issue, which seems to be a big part of your question, as well. Decreased myelination appears to lend itself toward addictive behaviors, and may worsen existing disorders through psychopathological means, but does not seem to cause the disorders themselves. An increase in myelination may help regulate symptoms, but cannot cure the sufferer of the disorder or eliminate the symptoms entirely, which seems to be what you are asking about. (5)
(6) A well-balanced diet that supports the strengthening of myelin (i.e. Omega 3) is often a method of regulation for ADHD sufferers, but is not the rule.


What does daytime actigraphy reveal about an active and awake brain?

It's obvious that people will move more when awake or doing exercise compared to being asleep or resting, however actigraphy provides a quantitative way to measure that. Therefore actigraphy is useful for studying sleep-wake cycles, activity-rest cycles and circadian rhythms. They have been shown to be reliable in determining when a subject is awake or asleep, so that's why they are generally used for that. Although there still needs to be more standardization and consistency of analysis and reporting in scientific literature to make comparison between studies more useful (Berger et al., 2008).

In order for actigraphy to be useful for understanding brain activity while awake, there needs to be a way to monitor brain activity. When exercise is involved methods such as fMRI, PET, TMS are not suitable since subjects need to stay still. EEG and EMG are really the only options. Winkler et al., 2003 has correlated short-term actigraphy with awake EEG patterns, and results suggest that they can be used to indicate CNS arousal. It probably doesn't affect the results, but you should note that the study was with psychiatric patients who were taking medication. It would have been more thorough to do this with normal population as a control to ensure generalizability. The software/algorithm they used was "Actiwatch Sleep Analysis 2001" (Cambridge Neurotechnology). Maybe you can look that up to find out more, although I'm not sure the algorithm would be published.

References

Berger, A.M., Wielgus, K.K., Young-McCaughan, S., Fischer, P., Farr, L. & Lee, K.A. (2008). Methodological challenges when using actigraphy in research. Journal of pain and symptom management, 36, 191-199.
Winkler, D., Pjrek, E., Pezawas, L., Presslich, O., Tauscher, J. & Kasper, S. (2003). Relationship between power spectra of the awake EEG and psychomotor activity patterns measured by short-term actigraphy. Neuropsychobiology, 48, 176-181.


Is post-traumatic stress disorder preventable?

Beta blockers (β1-Blockers) lower norepinephrine release (Berg, 2014), however it seems that the jury is still out on whether there is an effective and ethical way to prevent Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Donovan (2010) states that there isn't enough strong evidence on its efficacy.  Another point it makes (on page 11) is that...

  Using any beta-blocker prior to combat to prevent PTSD in military personnel should not be considered, as it would likely be more detrimental than beneficial. First, the beta-adrenergic signaling system is mediated by the catecholamines, epinephrine and norepinephrine. These hormones are central to the fight-or-flight response, and they trigger the heightened awareness necessary for soldiers to survive in combat situations.

This can be the same for others who repeatedly face violent situations.

Plus there are strong arguments for preventing any interventions which would affect the memories of those who suffer traumatic events in this way as...

  Our memory preserves us and who we are and where we have been, furnishes our sense of self, and is a combination of happy moments and shameful acts.To be ourselves we cannot abandon or forget who we once were: “To alter or numb our remembrance of things past cuts to the heart of what it means to remember in a human way“.

The only ethically safe way to prevent PTSD seems to be to prevent war and all other traumatic events

References

Berg T. (2014). β1-Blockers Lower Norepinephrine Release by Inhibiting Presynaptic, Facilitating β1-Adrenoceptors in Normotensive and Hypertensive Rats. Frontiers in neurology, 5, 51. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2014.00051 pmcid: PMC3997042

Donovan, E. (2010). Propranolol use in the prevention and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in military veterans: forgetting therapy revisited. Perspectives in biology and medicine, 53(1), 61-74. DOI: 10.1353/pbm.0.0140 PMID: 20173296


Correlation between "mechanical aptitude" and IQ

Can you suggest me better literature? Am I using the wrong concepts? Are the references provided above "sufficient"?

I recommend you take a step back and ask yourself what your question is, and perhaps more importantly, why it is you're asking it. Only then will you have a better idea of what you consider sufficient.

  I am not satisfied with these references.

Unless I had the actual dataset, then I would find nothing satisfactory. This is because I am a weirdo. Depending upon your aims e.g. consultancy work versus PhD thesis versus simple report, perhaps you feel the same way as I do.

  I am an economist working in labour market issues. It is common in my field to divide jobs between those who are intensive in "manual" tasks and those who are intensive in "cognitive" tasks

Nevertheless, if you are an economist, then I suggest your endpoint is not mechanical ability per se, but a far more pragmatic one: the prediction of job performance by cognitive ability. In short, I suspect your actual question can be loosely restated as "what is the predictive validity of cognitive ability and job performance among manual labour employees?"

If I am correct, then you are in luck: this is not a new question. There is good data regarding this matter from the United States Army, partly because they keep very good records, partly because cognitive ability is the basis of eligibility into various military roles.

And you are correct: there is a non-linear relation between IQ and performance; IQ has a high correlation with cognitively demanding jobs (r = 0.80+), while it is far weaker in jobs that are less demanding cognitively demanding (r = ~0.30) e.g. truck driver.

Regardless, IQ remains the best predictor of job performance. Let me dig up some references for you, but I would suggest you don't get distracted by the concept of "other forms of intelligence". In the parlance of biological psychiatry, consider dexterity to be an endophenotype for success in living a successful life as a manual labourer but one that does not fully reflect your endpoint of interest as an economist. This is not to say that I don't believe that they exist, but that as far as you're concerned, perhaps they're thoroughly irrelevant.

EDIT

So, are you actually interested in mechanical ability?

I note that you reference one paper:

Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. (2004). General mental ability in the world of work: occupational attainment and job performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(1), 162.

Having read this paper, I note that it reports IQ scores for various occupations. While I wouldn't say it's precisely what you are after, I would have thought that it's very close in spirit to how I am interpreting your question.

For example, it reports the following correlations:

These occupations are not relevant to your question, but reminiscent of the data that I anticipate you're looking for. So this begs the question: what precisely is your interest? Do you actually care about dexterity, or physical coordination, or do you view them as some meaningful intermediary to your actual interest in work-related outcomes?

Be an innovator

Depending on the type of person you are, and how important the question is to you, you may wish to consider answering the question yourself. To be honest, if I really wanted the data, and the data did not exist, I would not settle for anything less than this.

For example, have you ever considered approaching a particular personnel selection company, or perhaps even better, industry stakeholder to conduct such a study themselves? Here, you would identify a nice, exemplar industry that is of particular interest to you, say, truck drivers, and obtain performance ratings of all the employees. As a pilot study (e.g. n = 20), you would then randomly select two samples, one from the the bottom quintile and one from the top quintile of job performers. Perhaps the bottom quintile would represent workers who have or are about to be fired.

You could then perform a computer adaptive test (CAT) of ability and get a fast and accurate estimate of IQ; if this is worth pursuing further, you would hope to see a robust difference in cognitive ability between the two groups. Adaptive testing applies item-response theory to get a more accurate measure of the latent construct (intelligence) than classic test theory because the questions that are presented to the subject are contingent on their running estimate.

The benefit to the funder of this research is that they would have a financial incentive to predict job performance; as an economist, I am sure you can tell me the difference in productivity by way of $$$ the top performers earn a company relative to the average performers. Just remember, it may be illegal to hire someone based on IQ, but "aptitude testing" is acceptable.

Job performance as a function of baseline cognitive ability

Also, an interesting counter-claim to consider is that while there might be little correlation between cognitive ability and job performance in manual labour employment, there could certainly a floor level of ability required for performance . I must admit that I have not previously entertained such an idea, although it is certainly perfectly tenable:

Cook, M., & Cripps, B. (2005). Psychological assessment in the workplace: A manager's guide. John Wiley & Sons.


How to interpret a BBC news article on the effect of race on intelligence?

The relationships between race and IQ is a sensitive topic for many good reasons. It also raises a lot of deep questions about how to assess the role of genetics and environment.

A good summary of the literature on Intelligence with a discussion of racial differences can be found in the article "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns" (FREE PDF).

Within-group versus between-group variance

You write:

  In my view, the first bolded sentence dismisses race as a determinant, because there are > 'greater genetic differences within' each race than between different races.

Group differences can be quantified. They are often quantified in psychology in terms of cohen's d (i.e., the size of group differences in terms of the standard deviation). You sometimes hear the claim that within group differences are larger than between group differences. This point is often highlights that just because a group on average is higher on a variable, there is a large proportion of people in the lower group than are higher than people in the higher group. The claim is often made to remind people not to stereotype. However, from a scientific perspective, we are often quite interested in the size of the difference between group means and the causes of such differences.

Importantly, group differences need to be very large before between-group variance is larger than within group variance. A grouping variable can have an effect of an outcome variable without needing to achieve this degree of group difference.

The size of the group differences says very little about whether the effect is causal.

Race as cultural slant

  The second bolded sentence also rejects race, because it only shows a cultural slant to
  tests and the first sentence of the last para states 'social factors will also influence intelligence.'

I don't think the second bolded sentence entirely rejects race. However, the wording "cultural slant" does go some way towards this argument.

However, I'd challenge the "cultural slant" argument. In particular, if some environments lead to higher IQ, I would be more inclined to interpret that as an effect of environment on IQ rather than saying that IQ tests have a cultural bias. You might argue that the kind of intellectual functioning represented by IQ tests is more valued by some cultures, but that's quite different. Once you operationalise IQ in terms of a general factor that emerges from a wide range of cognitive ability measures, then it makes sense to proceed with this. This is the variable that has been validated (i.e., predicts educational attainment; entry into prestigious professions; job performance particularly in cognitively demanding job; future income; etc.)

Also, to show that environment influences IQ is interesting, but it does not refute the role of genetics. Researchers in this space (e.g., looking at twin studies) often aim to estimate the proportion of variance in IQ due to environment and genetics. To show an effect of $A$ does not mean that there is not an effect of $B$.


Does the taste of sugar replenish willpower?

I'm not sure what you mean to ask here, but there is a recent (2016) meta-analysis by Vadillio, Gold and Osman just on the topic of glucose and willpower. Abstract:

  The idea behind ego depletion is that willpower draws on a limited mental resource, so that engaging in an act of self-control impairs self-control in subsequent tasks. To present ego depletion as more than a convenient metaphor, some researchers have proposed that glucose is the limited resource that becomes depleted with self-control. However, there have been theoretical challenges to the proposed glucose mechanism, and the experiments that have tested it have found mixed results. We used a new meta-analytic tool, p-curve analysis, to examine the reliability of the evidence from these experiments. We found that the effect sizes reported in this literature are possibly influenced by publication or reporting bias and that, even within studies yielding significant results, the evidential value of this research is weak. In light of these results, and pending further evidence, researchers and policymakers should refrain from drawing any conclusions about the role of glucose in self-control.

It's not too far in its conclusions from a 2014 meta-analysis on the mere existence of ego/willpower depletion.

As Vadillo et al. use p-curves, the interpretation of their result is somewhat subjective.

Here is their interpretation:

  The results of our analyses suggest that the relationship
  between glucose levels and self-control behaviors might
  be unreliable. Figure 1 shows that the key p values of the
  19 studies included in the present analyses follow a surprisingly
  flat distribution. This is exactly the pattern of
  results that one would expect to find if those results were
  false positives. These results remain unchanged regardless
  of whether glucose-rinsing studies are included or
  excluded from the sample.
  These results may not come as a complete surprise
  given the empirical challenges to the glucose hypothesis
  suggested by failed replications (Job et al., 2013; Kelly
  et al., 2015; Lange & Eggert, 2014; Lange et al., 2014) and
  theoretical critiques regarding its biological plausibility
  (Kurzban, 2010; Osman, 2014). Furthermore, a detailed
  analysis of the seminal article suggesting the glucose
  hypothesis showed that the number of significant findings
  reported in that article was too large, given the low
  power of each study (Schimmack, 2012). In other words,
  the results were too good to be true (Francis, 2012).
  Nevertheless, the findings from the present study are a
  surprise in the context of the wide acceptance of the
  glucose hypothesis in general scientific research and its
  popularity, as evidenced by the number of citations of
  Gailliot et al. (2007) in the literature and the continued
  influence of this hypothesis in recent reviews on ego
  depletion (e.g., Baumeister, 2014; Baumeister & Alghamdi,
  2015).

  [...]

  It is worth noting that, as with any other statistical test,
  p-curve analysis is not a flawless indicator of bias (Bishop
  & Thompson, 2016; Bruns & Ioannidis, 2016; Lakens,
  2015). Our results suggest that, on average, these studies
  have little or no evidential value, but they do not allow
  us to determine whether the significant results are due to
  publication bias, selective reporting of outcomes or analyses,
  p-hacking, or all of these. It is not impossible that
  some of these studies are exploring small but true effects
  and that their evidential value may be diluted by the
  biases that pervade the rest of the studies. Perhaps future
  research will show that glucose does play a role in egodepletion
  effects, but our conclusions are based on the
  analysis of the extant literature in this area. Thus, our
  contribution must be seen as an additional piece of information
  in the wider context of attempts to verify the reliability
  of the glucose model of ego depletion. Note that
  the kind of biases explored in the present study are prevalent
  in other (but not all) areas of psychological research
  (e.g., Bakker, van Dijk, & Wicherts, 2012) and that low
  reproducibility is not exclusively a problem of psychological
  research (Camerer et al., 2016; Errington et al.,
  2014).

The meta-analysis had a special category for glucose-rinsing studies:

  Glucose-rinsing studies examine the impact of simply
  rinsing one’s mouth with a glucose solution
  before exerting self-control (Hagger & Chatzisarantis,
  2013; Lange & Eggert, 2014; Molden et al., 2012;
  Sanders, Shirk, Burgin, & Martin, 2012). Results
  from these studies suggest that the signal of glucose
  from the mouth to the brain is sufficient to
  neutralize the ego-depletion effect. This mechanism
  is consistent with the results of the ingestion
  manipulations but suggests that the effect does not
  depend on a metabolic explanation.

Here's the full table of studies included, which included an indicator column for whether the study was rinsing-only:

But there's no separate p-curve just for the rinsing studies. You can probably make one yourself though...

Actually I just did that with the 8 studies in the "yes" column:

Note that they've changed the test somewhat since that meta-analysis was published.

The meta-analysis did note that whether the rinsing studies were added or removed made no difference on the p-curve testing of the rest. And from my graph you can kinda see why: ignoring the 0% bins, the rinse group has roughly the same shape as the whole group.