Weekly Roundup: AI as Good as Therapists, Breathing to Lower Anxiety, Stress and Memory Formation, and New Cells Discovered for Object Recognition

This week is another week when there seems so much to write about that someone who is so indecisiveness as I am had problems deciding what to write.

But as AI is still hot on everyone’s lips and seemingly advancing in leaps and bounds, let’s start with how AI seems to beat therapists…in some measures that is. Then we can look at anxiety as we live in anxious times and how this impacts memory formation and how brain circuits control breathing and anxiety — also scientists have discovered new brain cells to trigger learning. Let’s go:

A Turing Test for Heat and Mind

So can AI, specifically ChatGPT be as good as a therapist. I would instinctively say “no way”. According to this research by Hatch et al. just published it appears I am wrong.

You may also be surprised — but let me calm you down a bit (especially if you are a therapist). This research was not set in therapy situations, this would normally require a specially trained AI (of which I am sure there are many already existing or in development), but by asking ChatGPT to respond to therapy questions and having people (800 in total) rate these responses…