A New Frontier in Health and Wellness: The Intersection between Super-Recognizers, Deepfakes, and Mental Health (Hypothesis)
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Introduction
Artificial Intelligence has influenced society. This is irrefutable and apparent in mental health science. Information Technology and Healthcare are adapting and innovating alongside this stay ahead of the curve. Super-recognizers, deepfakes, and mental wellness play pivotal roles for therapeutic intervention and diagnosis. This article summarizes where where these concepts create a nexus to potentially revolutionize treatment options. Disorders like autism, memory loss, social anxiety, Prosopagnosia, and dementia may have a new viable treatment option.
Who are Super-Recognizers
Super-recognizers are unique people with an innate ability to recognize and remember faces. They often notice minute changes in expression and features that most would overlook.
Deepfakes: Moving Past the Controversy
Deepfakes have been cast in a negative light for their ethical implications and potential for misuse. However, within the controlled healthcare environment, my hypothesis is for deepfakes to offer an opportunity for simulation, training, and even personalized therapy. Deepfake examples can be found on https://github.com/iperov. Consent should be acquired prior to any deepfake creation.
Potential Applications in Mental Health Disorders
Autism
Therapists could use deepfakes to simulate various social scenarios, aiding autistic individuals to understand social cues and expressions. Super-recognizers can play a role in calibrating these simulations for realism and effectiveness.
Memory Loss and Dementia
Personalized deepfake videos could serve as memory aids for individuals suffering from memory loss or dementia.
Prosopagnosia
Prosopagnosia affects about one in thirty-three people, which is about 10 million Americans. Deepfakes could simulate familiar faces to help patients with Prosopagnosia (face blindness) in cognitive training. Super-recognizers could assist in fine-tuning these simulations for accuracy.
Other Disorders
From social anxiety to PTSD, the combined powers of deepfakes and super-recognizers could offer groundbreaking treatment modalities, especially in exposure therapies.
Therapeutic Implications in Space
Astronauts undergo significant psychological stress and isolation during long-term space missions. The application of deepfake technology, under ethical guidelines and medical supervision, could facilitate remote mental health treatment. A familiar face and voice could provide emotional support, positively impacting an astronaut’s psychological well-being.
Ethical Considerations
While the potential benefits are compelling, ethical guidelines must be established to protect patient privacy and consent. The medical use of deepfakes must be transparent, consensual, and rigorously regulated.
Conclusion
This concept is my own, however many definitions in the article were composed by convolutional neural networks. (https://openai.com/)
The convergence between super-recognizers and deepfakes within the realm of healthcare offers fertile ground for innovation in mental health science. While ethical considerations are paramount, the potential benefits for treating conditions like Prosopagnosia, memory loss, dementia, and autism are too significant to ignore. I vote for mandatory prior consent for those who can be seen and heard as a Deepfake.
References
- Bate, S., & Cook, S. J. (2012). Covert recognition relies on affective valence in developmental prosopagnosia: Evidence from the skin conductance response. Neuropsychology. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3904192/
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. (n.d.). Prosopagnosia Information Page. Retrieved from https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/prosopagnosia
- MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality. (n.d.). In Event of Moon Disaster. Retrieved from https://deepfakes.virtuality.mit.edu/
- National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Retrieved from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-asd
- National Institute on Aging. (n.d.). What is Dementia? Retrieved from https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-is-dementia
- National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). Social Anxiety Disorder: More Than Just Shyness. Retrieved from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/social-anxiety-disorder-more-than-just-shyness
- Harvard Medical School. (n.d.). How common is face blindness? https://hms.harvard.edu/news/how-common-face-blindness
