In Montgomery Alabama
ADD &ADHD caused by exposure to Visual Subliminal Distraction
Copyright
2003
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This site is about a conflict of human physiology that shaped history but was undetected until the 1960's.
In the entire history of man on the planet Earth this phenomenon was discovered only once.
It caused mental breaks for office workers.
You will find this material hard to believe.
This phenomenon is explained in first semester psychology lectures where students don't believe it either.
For that reason I wrote a demonstration that will allow you to experience the phenomenon.
The Everquest Connection page has the explanation and assumes you have not taken basic psychology.
The solution for this problem was the office Cubicle.
This site argues that the this phenomenon causes College Suicides and Missing Students.
The phenomenon causes mental events around the world, Chaco Canyon.
If you use computers in unprotected workspace such as homes, dorms, student apartments, and small business offices read ...Prevention... at the bottom of most pages.
Long term exposure can cause severely altered mental states. Qi Gong Kundalini Yoga
If you are visiting the site as part of a school project send the person responsible for controlling violence at your school to this site.
This page has been started and positioned for search engines it is not complete.
Current information on ADD and ADHD is on the Cause of Psychotic Mental Illness site page.
ADD and ADHD
Be sure to check the links section below. New information is parked there until the next full page edit.
These two behaviors usually only happen while children are in classrooms. Too-close side-by-side seating in those classrooms copies a design problem that was discovered when it caused mental breaks for Knowledge workers using the first close-spaced office workstations.
The thesis of this page is that a little known conflict of human physiology is engaged for sensitive children who can easily subliminally detect "threat movement" in classrooms. We all have this ability as part of the normal function of our physiology of sight. We all have exposure to the phenomenon and Subliminal Distraction. Most of that exposure is harmless.
The constant subliminal detection of movement in classrooms keeps children on edge or hyper. Eventually it becomes a learned behavior. Most successful after school instruction systems have rooms with cubicle areas for each student. Like the library carrel the small workstations prevent one student from distracting others.
Research in 2002 at the University of Georgia found a defect in the M-channel for vision in schizophrenics and disease free blood relatives. Beginning with different sensor cells in the retina, vision is communicated in two channels.. The M-channel communicates movement and position. The P-channel communicates shape and color. The M-channel for schizophrenics is reported as hyperactive.
That hyperactivity may allow the brain to believe there has been subliminal detection of movement in peripheral vision. Other things that would cause exposure to this phenomenon are increased physical abilities to detect threat movement. This may be an increased number of rods on the retina in far peripheral vision. The shape of the eye would also be a factor. Inherited personality traits that increase the propensity to watch rather than participate and qualities of personality that increase the propensity to daydream are some of those factors.
The problem with physiology was discovered in the 1960's when knowledge workers using the first production examples of close-spaced office workstations began having mental breaks.
Normal features of everyone's physiology, Subliminal Sight and Peripheral Vision Reflexes, operating in special circumstances designers had created caused the mental breaks. Those first episodes appeared to be pseudo psychosis and would resolve with no treatment once the person was removed from the incorrectly designed workstation. The Cubicle eventually became the solution to this problem of human physiology.
Humans evolved from hunter gather pre-humans and we all have a warning system that will break our concentration if something approaches from behind. We all have the ability to ignore those vision reflexes once we look and determine that the movement is not a danger to us. But we can't turn that system off. We can't 'stop seeing' anything in our vision field. The narrow slice of our vision field that detects movement from behind functions subliminally. Stationary objects in Subliminal Peripheral Vision are invisible.
When we learn to ignore vision reflexes the warning event or startle stops. The connection to consciousness is lost. The normal subliminal operation of the system prevents anyone being aware that their subconscious is still being stimulated by the detection of threat movement and the internal brain process to effect a peripheral vision reflex.
Montessori school systems do not use the traditional classroom seating. I am searching for statistics on the prevalence of ADD and ADHD in those schools. Because troubled children are often sent to Montessori schools there may not be a significant difference in the data for occurrence of ADD and ADHD in those schools.
Hutterite Colonies have low levels of Schizophrenia. Investigators are searching for a genetic reason for that. But those religious colonies stop schooling at the ninth grade. Some of them use the Montessori system. School days are shorter due to farming duties in some colonies.
The statistical occurrence of ADD and ADHD in Hutterite Colony schools using Montessori systems might show the connection to Subliminal Distraction by demonstrating lower incidents of the two disorders. Colony schools only have member children and their statistics would not be skewed by accepting children from the general population who have problems in traditional classroom situations.
The detection of threat movement in Subliminal Peripheral Vision in classrooms is limited. Concentration to the level that there is dissociation of events happening around you is necessary to engage the Conflict of Physiology. But that only happens at irregular intervals and in most cases all the students are performing the same risk activity at the same time.
The growth spurt at puberty increases body size and that makes movement of larger arms, hands, and torsos easier to detect in peripheral vision. That's why Schizophrenia usually onsets in adolescence. Exposure to visual subliminal distraction spikes after puberty. See the Schizophrenia paragraphs on the Cause of Psychotic Mental Illness page.
ADD has now been diagnosed in adults. But most children stop the behavior as they grow. How can anyone outgrow a mental disorder? They stop the behavior when they no longer sit in classrooms. If they continue to college the same problem will eventually cause other psychiatric symptoms including Schizophrenia.
Adults have exposure to Subliminal Distraction in incorrectly designed office and small business workstations. That continuing exposure would explain adult ADD.
If the level of exposure increases so that the expected mental break happens to a college student a disappearance or suicide may happen.
There has been speculation for years that the computer is involved in the increase in college suicides. No one could find a connection. The problem isn't the computer it's the workstation where the computer is used.
The current beliefs about the cause of mental illness and Schizophrenia depends on statistical correlations. This is not new. Over and over medical investigators have relied on information that does not prove the case. A high correlation is seen as proof of a theory. Medical treatment and drugs are used based on that high correlation. When the treatments do not work in every case that is ignored. Finally some authority will establish the failure of the treatment and it will fall out of favor.
Statistics are given to establish the probability for Schizophrenia if a close family member also has the disease. But the correlation is only forty percent for a familial connection. Sixty percent of all cases have no such connection Something else is at work. Millions are being spent seeking that genetic connection.
Although designers and the psychologists that solved the problem believed they were the first to cause this problem, a search easily determines that it had been happening for a long time. Historically, investigators would not have been aware of the phenomenon. That means that little information was intentionally noted that would specifically point to the conflict of physiology. Now we must rely on the accidental observations that point to this problem as the cause of historical events.
There are three observations that create a history of this problem. Cabin Fever was a sudden violent attack one fur trapper against a cabin-mate. Mountain men chose to over winter alone rather than risk those berserk attacks. There was an outbreak of disappearances in 1880's France, Germany, Italy, and Russia. The victims were artisans, clerks, and small shop owners. Victims would disappear then recover their senses thousands of miles away with amnesia of how they got there. In 1898 Belgium sent a polar expedition to the Antarctic. The Belgica became trapped in polar ice for months. Eighteen men aboard the small sailing ship began to go insane.
In all those cases single-room living and working arrangements or the knowledge work of "Mad Travelers" would have created the circumstances for exposure to Subliminal Distraction.
The thesis of this page is that classrooms are single-room arrangements too. The knowledge work preformed by students while others can move around them creates the special circumstances known to cause exposure to Subliminal Distraction.
Exposure for students is not enough to cause the severe psychiatric outcomes of the 1830's fur trappers, the 1880's Mad Travelers, or the strange symptoms of the crew of the Belgica. But problems with attention and behavior in classrooms is easily an outcome and child's reaction to exposure from SD.
Other Models for Subliminal Distraction
For over 5000 years users of Yoga have claimed beneficial effects from the physical exercise. Kundalini Yoga and Qi Gong explain why this is true. Oddly they do that when we examine the negative effects rather than the positive. But both the positive and negative effects are caused by exposure to Subliminal Distraction while performing the exercises.
Both exercises are performed in groups. Therein lies the explanation. When users concentrate to empty the mind or to think positive thoughts while they also must correctly perform the complex movements they engage slight dissociation. When that is done it is the same mental state we use when we daydream or when we perform math calculations, Craft workers do the same thing to carve wood, weave fabric, construct pottery, make a basket, or repair tools or clothing. It doesn't matter where knowledge or craft work is done. The situation is the same for the tiny capsule cabin of Soyuz 21 as it is in a wattle and daub hut in Africa. When two or more people live and work in a single-room arrangement they eventually create the "special circumstances" for exposure to SD.
Standing in a group while concentrating and performing movements replicates that single-room situation for the period of the exercise session.
Complex belief systems have developed for both exercises. When users begin to hear strange sounds and feel skin sensations they believe it is evidence they are approaching a higher plane of existence. In Qi Gong it is called "opening the third eye," and in Kundalini Yoga it is called the "Awakening of Kundalini." Both exercises can cause serious mental problems when the attempt to reach enlightenment is made. Experts, Qi Gong Masters and Kundalini Yogis, acknowledge that the mental events happen when too many sessions are done in a compact time frame. But they still claim the damage is done by mishandling powerful mysterious universal energy that permeates the Universe.
Current beliefs and state of the art:
What causes ADD and ADHD? (from the National Institute of Mental Health.)
Although a commercial site the material is cited as from the NIMH. The article argues that it is not necessary to understand the cause to get help for effected children. This is typical of mental health professionals. Conferences where professionals put together experiences treating ADD an ADHD have concluded that only about 5% of children are helped by diet change. Those are young children or those with food allergies
PET scans have been used to evaluate glucose use in areas of the brain known to control levels of attention and inhibit impulses. The results were that those areas of the brain were less active for children diagnosed with ADD and ADHD. But the investigators do not know why that happens.
Brain development that has interference from the mother's drug, tobacco, or alcohol use is also suspect. Genetics are an element often cited. But again there are only a percentage of cases where a family member, sibling or parent, have ADD/ADHD. There is some genetic connection but not for the direct cause of the disorder. (Inherited personality traits and physical abilities that cause additional risk for exposure to Subliminal Distraction are the connection argued by this site.)
http://www.healthyplace.com/communities/add/nimh/causes.htm
The decision to treat the symptoms without knowledge of the cause of those symptoms is typical of the thinking of mental health professionals.
The problem with all these studies it that they only provide a statistical correlation. There will always be many statistical correlations unrelated to the cause of mental disorders.
From these correlations they will develop treatments and drugs; then evaluate the success of those treatments. When there is "statistical success" those selling that modality will push their solution to doctors and schools.
This site argues that underlying all these "studies" is an unknown problem that actually causes attention disorders.
When a child's too-close side-by-side classroom experience is decreased the exposure to Visual Subliminal Distraction is reduced. Those evaluating a modality are unaware of this problem. They observe then record data for outcomes that they believed to be caused by the treatment under evaluation.
Montessori Schools
Montessori schools do not use standard class room seating. The teaching theory behind this system is that children should learn by experiencing things at their own pace not have the material put before them in a lecture setting.
I am searching for statistics on ADD, ADHD, and Schizophrenia related to this teaching system.
This page is being paused until I have additional information. Check the links below new information is posted there until the next full page edit.
Links
There is a Links page for the entire site. Those links are not the same as these "page links" below.
Brains.Org Newsletter Dr. Kathie Nunley
"The Journal of Psychiatry reports that if you are going to develop manic-depression, the symptoms will show much sooner if you have AD/HD. Sacks, G. et.al. (2000). American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 157(3), 466-468."
http://www.brains.org/hottopics.htm
Smart Brain Games
A company has developed a feedback system based on a NASA developed technology. If the game player produces the correct brain waves the game continues at normal speed. But if the player looses concentration the game responds by slowing down. This reinforces the thesis that operant conditioning is involved in ADD and ADHD.
http://www.smartbraingames.com/nasa_video1.asp
Healthy Place
An MRI study of 57 boys ages 5-18 with 55 age matched controls determined that "on average" the right hemispheres were 5.2% smaller in the study group.
"These subtle differences, discernible when comparing group data, hold promise as telltale markers for future family, genetic and treatment studies of ADHD," said Judith Rapoport, M.D., senior author on the paper and chief of the NIMH Child Psychiatry Branch.
http://www.healthyplace.com/communities/add/nimh/brain_abnormalities.htm
The number of study subjects is too small to have significant meaning. How would anyone know that "average differences" are significant.
Excess Television Watching as a Toddler Increases the Risk of ADHD as a Child.
"Results of the study entitled “Early Television Viewing and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children” was published in the April 2004 issue of Pediatrics."
"Researchers assessed the toddler’s exposure to television at the age of 1 and then 3. Mothers of these toddlers were asked the number of hours of television their child watched on a typical weekday and a typical weekend day. At the age of 7 mothers rated their child's ADHD symptoms using a standardized behavior rating scale."
Nutrition Health Center is a commercial site with a product advertised.
Neither the study nor the site is aware of the conflict of physiology or that viewing TV with full suspension of disbelief is a mental state that will allow exposure to Subliminal Distraction.
http://www.add-adhd-help-center.com/newsletters/television_adhd.htm
PEDIATRICS Vol. 113 No. 4 April 2004, pp.
708-713
"We found that early exposure to television was associated with subsequent attentional problems. This finding was present even while controlling for a number of potential confounding factors, including prenatal substance use and gestational age, measures of maternal psychopathology, and socioeconomic status."
The full text article is here but graphics in the form of charts/histograms are missing. Again, there is no recognition that there is another factor to be considered, Subliminal Distraction.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/113/4/708
Links
Nightwalking
"In The Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi, the legendary swordsman of 16th century Japan, implies that he fought his greatest duels with his eyes crossed, and goes into considerable detail about developing and using this strange abitlity."
The method suggested to engage peripheral vision is to suspend an object from the bill of a baseball cap and practice staring at it rather than looking straight ahead as we all normally do.
The site has a page on the physiology of the eye and sight. It describes the normal field of vision.
http://www.navaching.com/hawkeen/nwalk.html#Anchor-The-59125
Institute for Innovative Blind Navigation
Don't let the site name put you off. This site has several pages which explain sight and how the brain deals with two vision systems.
http://www.wayfinding.net/index.htm
This page has the vision material. http://www.wayfinding.net/vsionsys.htm#four
The Red Myth
Color in Vision
http://stlplaces.com/night_vision.html
University of Missouri
The first paragraph on this page refers to psychological factors effecting pupil dilation.
"Interestingly, the pupil/iris combination also changes in response to psychological factors. One sign of activation of the sympathetic nervous system, which is a system important in arousal, fight, and flight, is dilated pupils. For example, sexual interest results in pupil dilation. (This piece of information may come in handy some time.)"
http://web.umr.edu/~psyworld/eye.htm
University of Utah
John Moran Eye Center -- Anatomy
http://webvision.med.utah.edu/
Kimball's Biology Pages
A simple explanation of the eye and sight.
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/V/Vision.html
Understanding Human Vision
This site deals with color.
http://www.pitir.com/pentile/Human_Vision.html
++ Use your [Home] key to return to the top of the page
and site navigation.
Prevention:
This section is now repeated at the bottom of most pages.
The rare occurrence of the
injury establishes that is difficult to create enough exposure to cause an
injury. But when it does happen the consequences are serious, possibly fatal.
Our personal experience was
intermittent human traffic during eight-hour workdays for thirty calendar days.
If you have a tower CPU mount
it under your desk. That's the way they position it in a cubicle. The hard drive
busy light is about the height of your low peripheral vision if you put the
tower on the desk. Desktop reading of text or writing notes beside the keyboard
on the side of the monitor away from the tower makes the blinking hard drive
busy light appear to approach from behind when you turn to view the screen
again.
If you have a computer work
station/desk in which you turn ninety degrees to write or do other non computer
work, turn off the monitor when you turn aside. Remove screen savers in this
instance. The movement, animation for example, in your screensaver,
two-dimensional movement, might well be detected by your peripheral vision at
close range. Alternately cover the monitor screen.
All home, apartment, or
dorm computer workstations are in unprotected workspace.
To change that put the computer in a quiet room with no possible movement. If
that is not possible in a dorm or apartment position the computer so that your
peripheral vision can see only stationary walls as you use the computer in a
busy room. In Cubicles and 'Systems Furniture' these protective features are
achieved with peripheral vision blocking panels and corner seating positions. It
is called 'Cubicle Level Protection.'
If you use computer or CD-ROM
games for many hours day after day, the game playing position should follow the
same rules as the computer workstation. Battery operated games will not run long
enough on a single rechargeable battery to cause a risk for SPVP.
Although a laptop does not
have a visible blinking light in peripheral vision the same rules apply to your
work position. There should not be human traffic moving to you from
behind. There should be nothing behind you, which could enter your subliminal
peripheral vision field as you turn your head while working at the laptop and be
mistaken for threat movement.
Only movement coming from
behind you into your Subliminal Peripheral Vision can cause a peripheral vision
reflex. If the movement source approaches you from ahead then enters your
Subliminal Peripheral Vision from conscious sight there can be no peripheral
vision reflex.
Repeated for Emphasis:
A single session or rare
sessions will not cause this problem.
It is the same day after day
long hours of play or computer use with detectable movement in ‘Subliminal
Peripheral Vision,’ which would form the basis of a risk for SPVP injury.
The brain’s detection system only evaluates movement. There is little recognition of the nature of the object in peripheral vision. If you have several hours exposure from human traffic at the library, while reading at an open table or seated in a reading room chair, followed by long hours watching TV with a critically misplaced ceiling fan sweeping detectable shadows around the room, the combination of those two behaviors might cause the problem. The suggestion is that either activity alone would not consume enough exposure time even if the critical movement is present.
Copyright 2003
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