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I think they're referring to the very nonspecific and highly variable findings from resting state fMRI. Some studies of depression point to increased functional connectivity within the default mode network, which is the network engaged when we are lost in our inner thoughts (a finding often...

This is interesting. I've found that my fitbit can be an interesting objective indicator of my current physical state. A couple of times lately when I've felt unusually tired and breathless from light activity, I've looked down at my fitbit and discovered I was in the "Peak" heart rate range...

I read the whole letter, but actually all you need to do is read to the phrase "dualistic thinking" and you can guess the rest. It never ceases to amaze me that people who believe in "real disease" on the one hand and "psychological problems masquerading as medical symptoms" on the other hand -...

Haha, nice way of learning what the patterns look like in terms of numbers. Its a really good demonstration of how one or two outliers can really skew the value of r. I couldn't get the game to stop, so I just quit out after a while.

Look how many authors! That clinic must have been super crowded.,..

@Hutan's right, @DokaGirl. It's not difficult to find differences on fMRI measures between any clinical group and healthy people, especially not if you cast the net wide (that is, sweep the whole brain and only report the differences). Generally speaking any group that is different to any other...

Brilliant, @rvallee!

Oh absolutely, we should show empathy for these researchers. Some probably genuinely believe in their own claims about the causes and treatment of MECFS. I think we need to treat them with compassion, explain to them that although their beliefs are not actually supported by a lot of evidence...

I wanted to draw people's attention to some interesting bits in this paper. They include a section where they address what are common counterarguments against controlling for expectancy effects in psychological intervention designs. Here are the four arguments they consider. The final two are...

I still hold by my argument that these folks defending the status quo for psyc trials would make a huge ruckus if anyone tried to publish a non-blinded study showing support for magic healing crystals. Supporting evidence here: Fiedorowicz, J. G., Levenson, J. L., & Leentjens, A. F. (2021)...

Ha. You ask them if they are ok with magical healing crystals benefitting from "expectancy effects", you will find a very different answer. I've been looking at the "endorphin release" literature, and its pretty dodgy. It is also very short-lived (a few hours at most). So no, not going to fly...

The problem IS expectancy effects, @Snow Leopard (among other things). They are the primacy mechanism that gives rise to the response bias. As @Trish says, they really pumped up CBT and GET during the trials to create huge expectancy effects.

Thanks, @Michiel Tack! I just independently re-read your previous thread and came here now to link to it myself!

Full reference: Boot, W. R., Simons, D. J., Stothart, C., & Stutts, C. (2013). The pervasive problem with placebos in psychology: Why active control groups are not sufficient to rule out placebo effects. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(4), 445-454. Link to fulltext...

Just thinking on it more, its probably really hard for people like Garner and Greenfield, because they are fully convinced that what they are saying is the truth that needs to be told. From their perspective, their critics are just nasty or bitter, or have some other agenda. It must feel pretty...

Full reference: Berger, D. (2015). Double-blinding and bias in medication and cognitive-behavioral therapy trials for major depressive disorder. F1000Research, 4. Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4732552/ Abstract:

I think if people use their work persona as a means to promote personal opinions and ideas that have nothing to do with their work, then they should expect particularly rigorous criticism of those opinions and ideas. Remember the Baroness Susan Greenfield? A renowned neuroscientist, did some...

They are looking for an excuse to dump some people from their participant pool, so they can make their outcomes look better. They didn't find it here, but rest assured, they will keep looking till they find something that, for whatever reason, allows them to dump people in a way that enhances...

I just found this, a review which mentions a study of Fatigue reports in "CFS" (by Friedberg and co), which found the opposite effect - real time reports of fatigue were lower than retrospective reports. Stull, D. E., Leidy, N. K., Parasuraman, B., & Chassany, O. (2009). Optimal recall periods...

I looked into this some time ago, and got the impression that daily experience sampling (e.g. noting your symptoms daily) generally resulted in higher rates of reported symptoms than retrospective sampling (being asked to recall your symptoms for a prespecified period in the past). At least for...