Scientists Afflict Computers With Schizophrenia

An anonymous reader writes "Computer networks that can't forget fast enough can show symptoms of of virtual schizophrenia, giving researchers new clues to the inner workings of schizophrenic brains, say researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Yale University. In their experiments, the scientists used a virtual neural network to simulate an excessive release of dopamine in the brain and found that the network recalled memories in a distinctly schizophrenic-like fashion. The results bolster a hypothesis known in schizophrenia circles as the hyperlearning hypothesis, which posits that people suffering from schizophrenia have brains that lose the ability to forget or ignore as much as they normally would. Without forgetting, they lose the ability to extract what's meaningful out of the immensity of stimuli the brain encounters."

Comments

Unexpected implications

[Zephyn]

"which posits that people suffering from schizophrenia have brains that lose the ability to forget or ignore as much as they normally would."

So the fact that it sometimes takes me twenty minutes to find my keys in the morning is a sign that I'm sane? That's oddly comforting.

This should be easy to fix

[h4rr4r]

Just tell the Schizophrenics the hop count of their crazy idea is 16. Yet another problem solved with poison reverse.

Wait, what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when is installing Windows news? And shouldn't scientists know better?