All About Questimity

About five years ago, the author, comparing the clusters of questimity identified by that time with neurophysiological data, proposed a hypothesis about the connection between the questim pole and increased activity in the insular cortex (the so-called “central lobe”). Accordingly, the declatimity pole is interpreted as weakened insular cortex activity. Since then, new neurophysiological data on the functions of the insular cortex (including their predominant association with its different specific regions) have emerged, along with new data on the physiological and psycho-behavioral manifestations of socionic questimity itself. As a result, today there is no longer any room for doubt about the close and virtually identical connection between questimity and the active functions of the central part of the brain (the so-called “insula”).

We will begin by briefly reviewing the main data from neuroimaging and other neurophysiological studies that specify the known functions of the insular cortex. Then we will present a list of the questimity clusters we have identified - in subsequent posts, already with their socionic profiles and an intercorrelation table. After that, we will analyze individual clusters, and then move on to some conclusions.

INSULAR CORTEX AS A WHOLE: The main role of the insula is the transmission of homeostatic information to consciousness (i.e., ensuring awareness of components of one’s internal homeostasis). Not only awareness but also direct participation in the regulation of homeostatic functions related to basic survival needs - such as taste, visceral sensations, and autonomic control. Control of autonomic functions through regulation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. Participation in the regulation of the immune system. Increased pain sensitivity on the contralateral side of the body. Increased skin tactile and vibrational sensitivity on the contralateral side of the body. Determination of the intensity of one’s own pain sensations. Internal resonant representation of pain as “one’s own” when viewing images of painful events. In communication, it enables the ability to produce long and complex oral sentences. Participation in motor control of hand and eye movements, swallowing acts, and speech articulation. Acts as a central command center, increasing heart rate and blood pressure at the onset of physical exertion. Bodily self-awareness. A sense of one’s own independence, freedom of action. Participation in the experience of emotions such as anger, fear, and disgust. Responsibilities of audiovisual integration.

ANTERIOR INSULAR CORTEX AS A WHOLE: Primarily associated with olfactory, gustatory, viscerautonomic, and limbic functions. Involved in taste reception, as well as in the perception of non-taste properties of oral stimuli related to texture (viscosity, granularity) or food temperature. Plays an important role in motor control of speech. Participates in vestibular regulation of balance (damage to the anterior insula may cause dizziness and balance disorders). Provides a sense of disgust toward both odors and the sight of contamination or injuries - even when the person only imagines the experience. Involved in emotional processing and empathy.

As part of the limbic system, it is responsible for emotional feelings, including maternal and romantic love, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, sexual arousal, disgust, aversion, injustice, indignation, insecurity, disbelief and doubt, social isolation, trust, empathy, and sculptural beauty. In fulfilling its tasks of maintaining homeostasis, it supports and intensifies conscious desires directed toward the “pleasant” - including cravings for food and drugs. It provides awareness of the painfulness of deprivation from something habitual, already incorporated into the body’s homeostasis. The insular cortex is activated when drug users are exposed to environmental cues that trigger craving, and the level of this activity correlates with subjective urges (cravings) for drugs. This has been shown for various substances, including cocaine, alcohol, opiates, and nicotine. The fact is that the insula plays an important role in remembering the pleasant interoceptive effects of any use (whether drugs or something more beneficial), anticipating these effects in the future. Accordingly, suppression of the insular cortex suppresses addiction. For instance, a 2007 study showed that smokers who suffered damage to the insular cortex, for example due to a stroke, almost completely eliminated their addiction to cigarettes. These individuals were found to be 136 times more likely to quit smoking than those with damage in other brain areas. Suppression of addictions through reversible inhibition of insular cortex functions was also demonstrated in experiments with rats. The anterior insular cortex is involved in interoception, self-reflection, and avoidance of uncertainty regarding internal representations of the world by “anticipating the resolution of uncertainty or risk.” This uncertainty avoidance works by comparing predicted states with actual ones, i.e., “signaling that we don’t understand something - that there is ambiguity.” In other words, the anterior insular cortex ensures the capacity for CRITICAL DOUBT. Accordingly, when it is damaged or otherwise functionally weakened, the ability to doubt (both one’s own conclusions and externally imposed information) is reduced. A specific case of “undoubtingness” is ecstatic seizures, typically associated with lesions in the anterior insular cortex. During these seizures, which involve a sensation of allegedly immediate grasping of some “absolute truth,” often with a mystical hue, the comparison between predicted and actual states no longer functions, and discrepancies are no longer processed. Instead of the normal feeling of negative emotional arousal from prediction uncertainty, there is a false sense of emotional certainty. The study’s author, Picard, concludes that “this can lead to a spiritual interpretation for some people.”

POSTERIOR INSULAR CORTEX AS A WHOLE: Primarily associated with auditory, aesthetic, and skeletomotor functions. Participates in tuning to new auditory stimuli, detecting “auditory deviations” (unexpected sounds), and distributing auditory attention.

LEFT INSULAR CORTEX: Increased signals to consciousness in response to unpleasant human faces (mainly frightened ones - for ethical types; mainly angry ones - for logical types).

RIGHT INSULAR CORTEX: Subvocal (silent, mental) speech. Ability to empathize with other people’s pain. Ability to feel one’s own heartbeat frequency. Significant role in providing empathy and compassion.

LEFT ANTERIOR INSULAR CORTEX: Atrophy of the left anterior insular cortex causes symptoms of “fluent expressive aphasia.”

LEFT POSTERIOR INSULAR CORTEX: No data.

RIGHT ANTERIOR INSULAR CORTEX: Awareness of one’s thirst, pain, and fatigue. Awareness of one’s heart rate. Awareness of one’s negative emotional experience. Determining the degree of warmth or coldness in one’s skin sensations. Perception of the state of internal organs, including, for example, the stomach, bloating, bladder fullness. Awareness of the unpleasant aspect of sensations caused by any deviation of the internal state from homeostatic equilibrium (e.g., focuses attention on the discomfort of shortness of breath). Does not induce a desire to meditate (rather the opposite), but regular meditation practice - training attention toward body sensations - leads to thickening of the right anterior insular cortex. The right anterior insular cortex regulates interaction between the intensity of task-directed attention (dorsal attention system) and the arousal level created to maintain focus on relevant environmental elements (ventral attention system). This regulation of salience may be especially important during complex tasks when attention can become fatigued and lead to careless mistakes - by increasing arousal, the insular cortex sustains attention and prevents errors. However, if the right anterior insular cortex becomes overly active, the arousal can become excessive, resulting in ATTENTIONAL INSTABILITY and frequent “frantic” switching to other stimuli that may also seem significant.

RIGHT POSTERIOR INSULAR CORTEX: No data.

Table 1. Questimity Clusters

Cluster No. 1 Questimity. Antifatalism

Qi and Te work for antifatalism, against it – Di and both ethical functions.

Where does the connection of the insular cortex (and along with it – questimity) with such a property as antifatalism come from?

It’s simple. The insula (also “insula”, Reil’s island, the central lobe of the brain) plays an important role in the formation of motivation, especially explicit motivation. Explicit motivation is a conscious, subjective desire to change behavior, while implicit motivation implies an unconscious switching of behavior. Implicit, unconscious motivation is pushed by the amygdala of the brain, and explicit, conscious motivation – by the insular cortex. All studies converge on the conclusion that the insula determines the valence of stimuli based on subjective sensations caused by these stimuli. Rewarding stimuli cause a feeling of pleasure, which in turn leads to the emergence of striving for corresponding actions, while repulsive stimuli cause pain, which creates a feeling of disgust and also sets behavior – avoidant. This is the “valence of sensations”, which is determined by the insula. In this context, the sensations arising in the insula mediate the conscious volitional behavior of a person. Thanks to the insular cortex, he charts the course of his ship across the stormy sea of life. Well, what if the function of the insular cortex is weakened? Then a deficit of conscious controlling motivations arises. Hence fatalism, that is, the readiness not to control fate, but to resign in advance to the fact that your ship sails without a rudder and without sails, only at the will of the waves. [1].

LITERATURE:

1. Ho Namkung, Sun-Hong Kim, Akira Sawa The insular part of the brain: an underestimated area of the brain in clinical neurology, psychiatry and neurology (review). Published: March 15, 2017. DOI: The Insula: An Underestimated Brain Area in Clinical Neuroscience, Psychiatry, and Neurology: Trends in Neurosciences Source with article translation: What is the Islet of Rayle responsible for?

QUESTIONS OF THE CLUSTER:

1. In novels and films about time travel, I have always been very annoyed by the authors’ ideas about the alleged inevitability of fate and the alleged predetermination of all serious things in life. 0.727

2. I believe that the fate of every person is predetermined from the beginning. -0.857
3. I rather like it when I am periodically “pushed,” when some persistence is shown toward me. -0.856
4. I cannot make decisions myself. I need the support of someone strong and knowledgeable. -0.837
5. I believe that in astrology or occultism there is a lot of truth and usefulness, underestimated today. -0.782
6. I am helpless when I act independently. -0.780
7. I believe in a stern and punishing God. -0.774
8. A person must be submissive to his fate, destiny. -0.771
9. Whatever you do, what is destined to happen will happen sooner or later. -0.747

Cluster No. 2 Questimity. Anti-statism

AGREEMENT WITH STATEMENTS:

1. The hierarchy existing in society more often turns out to be annoyingly harmful than necessary and useful. 0.945
2. Which statement is closer to you? – 1) The people are strong in their unity. 5) The people are strong in their individual talents. 0.927
3. Individualism is good, not bad. 0.919
4. People have the right to live as they like. Forcing them to have common views, faith, and life regulations is disgusting. 0.892
5. Any reverence for rank is repugnant to me. 0.888
6. Any hierarchy and mandatory respect for people “by their status”: position, age, etc., irritates me; in my view it is in all cases rather bad than good. 0.885
7. I believe that even the highest state interests cannot have priority over the laws and rights of citizens. 0.880
8. I believe that schoolchildren should correspond with their foreign peers – it is useful. 0.864
9. Power must always be divided between several independent branches – concentrating it in one’s hands is unacceptable. 0.863
10. To fit into some group hierarchy and become its inseparable part is for me more unpleasant than pleasant. 0.844
11. I am more for reducing the functions and rights of the state in relation to citizens than for increasing them. 0.838
12. If someone’s patriotic pride dooms the population to long material deprivations, then this is shit, not patriotism. 0.834
13. I am against the politics of legislative prohibitions and restrictions – there should be as few prohibitions in laws as possible, and certainly much fewer than today. 0.834
14. For most countries, it is better if the country’s leader is a woman, not a man. 0.827
15. For physical punishment toward children, parental rights should more often be taken away. 0.813
16. Matriarchy in the history of civilization was better than patriarchy. 0.791
17. I am intolerant of any state lies. 0.785
18. The state ideally is only a temporary social contract between citizens, and nothing more. 0.714
19. I believe that for society it is usually better when its leader and guarantor of order is a woman, not a man. 0.706

DENIAL OF STATEMENTS: 20. I am very sympathetic to the customs of those peoples where the interests of the clan and the opinion of elders are the law for everyone. -0.963 21. Obviously, citizens ideally must be subordinate elements of their state, “cogs” of a large, precisely working machine. -0.959 22. I do not like cosmopolitans; a worthy person is always a patriot. -0.957 23. If you do not belong to a group of people bound by personal loyalty to their leader, you will achieve nothing in life. -0.949 24. The world of any individual person is only part of the common fate of the state, and nothing more. -0.941 25. I believe that the legislator often goes along with liberals and gives people too much freedom. -0.934 26. The people with its collective self-consciousness stands above any individuality. -0.934 27. A citizen must belong to the state, like a child to the family. -0.922 28. In public life, one must cultivate in the people commitment to a single ideology. -0.916 29. The interests of the pack must always stand above the interests of the individual. -0.913 30. The harsher and stricter the regime, the better it is. -0.904 31. If a person has no feelings of loyal subjection, then he has no spiritual nobility. -0.891 32. Stalin had more merits than shortcomings. -0.890 33. I often feel nauseous irritation from some comments on social networks, written there by liberals and other “lovers of universal human values.” -0.889 34. What is more valuable? – 1) The right to choose 5) Absence of doubts -0.889 35. A person must submit to the opinion of the majority. -0.889 36. As a politician I would try to increase the financing of the state’s power structures. -0.873 37. Developed clan kinship is for society rather good than bad. -0.864 38. Monarchy in most cases is better than a republic. -0.863 39. The human mass does not need the development of rights or self-consciousness; strengthening faith and traditions is more needed and important for it. -0.860 40. I love rigid structures that do not allow any changes within their framework. -0.858 41. I usually like people with imperial views. -0.858 42. It is pleasant to feel oneself part of a large well-arranged system. -0.854 43. In sports I always sincerely and passionately root for ours. -0.844 44. The greatest feats are military ones. -0.840 45. Outside his native people, any individual is nothing. -0.830 46. Any human life is valuable only insofar as it is useful and necessary for the nation as a whole. -0.825 47. Without religion there is no morality. -0.823 48. In Russian serfdom there were also many positive aspects, which after its abolition Russia lost for a long time. -0.814 49. In my opinion and taste, in modern society there is too much equality. -0.809 50. For newspapers and magazines, prior censorship in one form or another must necessarily exist. -0.797 51. The Chinese system in which people earn “social points” by their behavior in society, which then determine their rights, is rather a good, useful system. -0.793 52. Which function of the state is more important? – 1) To guarantee citizens’ freedom 5) To protect society from human individualism. -0.788 53. For most countries it is better to have a ruling king than a ruling queen. -0.785 54. The cruel and closed-off military regime in North Korea, based on the ideas of Juche, has every right to exist, and no one should interfere in their affairs and try to influence their internal policy. -0.773 55. I am a team person – for me there are always my own, and there are others. -0.766 56. I consider absolutely normal and even correct that Soviet practice when first-year students in September were sent for a week to agricultural work. -0.723 57. To be a patriot means to defend your country from any accusations. -0.720 58. I believe that all TV channels must belong to the state or be strictly controlled by it. -0.718 59. Any abortion is a crime. -0.716 60. If a scientist discovered something, then his discovery or invention: 1) Belongs only to him personally. 5) Partly belongs to the entire people, and therefore the scientist has no right to give his discovery “to the side.” -0.707 61. It is closer to me that history and path are common to all, and not each has his own. -0.678 62. I am a team person, and at work I always rely on its cohesion and division of labor in it. -0.655

Cluster No. 4 Questimity. Water-drinker – daily drinks a lot of water (low vasopressin)

VASOPRESSIN MUST SUPPRESS THE ACTIVITY OF THE INSULAR CORTEX. NOT FOUND? LOOK FOR IT!

At first glance, it is difficult to trace the connection of this cluster of Questimity with the activity of the insular cortex. Yes, the questim insula controls the state of the internal organs – including transmitting to consciousness information about the fullness of the bladder [1]. In principle, this may contribute to more frequent emptying of the bladder, but is hardly in itself capable of leading to significantly greater daily water consumption. Moreover, daily water consumption is most decisively dependent, as is well known, on the concentration in the blood (in the kidneys) of the hormone vasopressin, as well as the sensitivity to it of vasopressin receptors of kidney cells. The lower the peripheral activity of vasopressin, the more intensely urine is excreted, the higher the daily water consumption. Vasopressin is not in vain that in science it also has another name – antidiuretic hormone, that is, the hormone preventing the excretion of urine from the body and thereby contributing to the retention of water in the body. To a much lesser extent, a similar effect on vasopressin receptors is produced by the hormone oxytocin, which is usually much more abundant in women than in men.

Thus, we must conclude that in this cluster of Questimity, which speaks of increased daily water consumption, it is precisely about reduced activity of the neurohormone vasopressin in questims (and partly also oxytocin). Since from many other clusters of Questimity it follows that the structural basis of psychological Questimity is the increased activity of the insular cortex of the brain, then we will have to assume that reduced activity of vasopressin in the CNS (possibly also partly oxytocin) contributes to increased activity of the insular cortex. And conversely – an increase in the concentration of vasopressin should act on the activity of the insular cortex in a suppressive manner. However, in the scientific literature known to us, the suppressive effect of vasopressin on the activity of the insular cortex has not been described. Then it remains to assume that it has simply NOT YET been studied and described. Therefore, there are every reason to look for this effect. Moreover, in addition to the direct empirical correlation we identified here (albeit psychological, indirect, not yet confirmed in direct neurophysiological experiments), from our point of view, there is also a significant theoretical basis. Indeed, the task of the insular cortex is the orientation of the individual toward personal survival. Hence the contrast of pain reactions and all other self-preservation reactions, and the increased attention of the organism to the regulation of its own homeostasis. But vasopressin and oxytocin as neurohormones, as is also well known, in evolutionary terms solve quite another and completely opposite task, namely – they orient the individual toward family, group, pack interests, which often contradict the task of personal survival. Since one clearly contradicts the other, therefore, in the course of evolution a mechanism MUST HAVE developed for the suppression by vasopressin (and probably oxytocin) of the activity of the insular cortex. We assume that neurophysiologists only have to look for and find it, confirming it experimentally.

LITERATURE:

1. ^ Matsuura S., Kakizaki H., Mitsui T., Shiga T., Tamaki N., Koyanagi T. (November 2002). “Human brain region response to bladder distension or cold stimulation: a positron emission tomography study.” J. Urol. 168 (5): 2035-9. doi: 10.1016/s0022-5347(05)64290-5. PMID 12394703.

QUESTIONS OF THE CLUSTER: (after the questions the correlation of their socionic profile with the profile of the full cluster scale is indicated)

1. I am a “water-drinker,” I have the habit of daily drinking a lot of water (tea, mineral water, or other liquid). 0.920
2. I drink a lot of water every day. 0.885
3. I daily drink a lot of water. 0.878
4. I have the habit of daily drinking a lot of water (tea, mineral water, or other liquid). 0.861
5. I often want to drink a little or at least rinse my mouth – my mouth is dry. 0.838
6. I usually wash down food with something, without this it is hard to eat, sometimes my mouth is too dry. 0.635
7. I drink a lot and often – water leaves my body quickly. 0.452

8. During the day I drink rarely and rarely go to the toilet for a small need. -0.926
9. I usually drink water, tea, or mineral water only during meals, and not much, and outside meal times I drink rarely and little. -0.826
10. I drink little and rarely, my body does not need a large amount of water. -0.510
11. If I drink a couple of glasses of water, usually I won’t feel the urge to urinate earlier than 4–5 hours later (that is, water leaves the body with some delay). -0.501
12. I know that I can easily go a whole day without drinking and do without water, without experiencing strong thirst. -0.481
13. There are days when in a day I drink only a couple of glasses of liquid, no more. -0.287

Cluster No. 5 Questimity. Hot-temperedness

Hot-temperedness is, in essence, all the same ordinary questim irritability, but against an accentuated extraverted-decisive and ethical-cheerful background (that is, with additionally strengthened Se and Fe). Strong Se and Fe explain why questim irritability is transformed into easily arising instantaneous negative-emotional outbursts of rage and anger.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. I quite often experience anger or rage. 0.962
2. Something often drives me to anger. 0.960
3. I quite often experience anger, malice, or rage. 0.957
4. I am easily driven out of myself. 0.940
5. I easily get angry.. 0.933
6. I often have outbursts of malice. 0.933
7. I am easily driven out of myself 0.926
8. I find it difficult to restrain negative emotions in relations with people. 0.921
9. Usually, in response to any reproaches or criticism directed at something I have said, I instantly become irritated and respond aggressively. 0.920
10. I am easily angered 0.920
11. I can be as hot-tempered as a match if I am touched — then I do not always regulate the proportionality of my responses, and in response to a minor “jab” I may immediately bring out the “heavy artillery.” 0.919
12. At least a couple of times a week, I have emotional outbursts of rage and malice in relations with close people. 0.915
13. I am hot-tempered and easily angered, often making a mountain out of a molehill. 0.911
14. My resentment toward someone easily turns into a quarrel. 0.903
15. I am easily made angry. 0.899
16. As a rule, I react aggressively if people express doubt about the authoritativeness of what I have said. 0.899
17. I am often unrestrained, showing anger or aggression. 0.897
18. I am often excitable-angry and intolerant toward others. 0.897
19. I become irritated and flare up very easily if I am not understood and if people do not immediately do what is needed. 0.892
20. There is hot-temperedness in my character. 0.892
21. I am easily driven out of myself — close people are especially good at doing this. 0.882
22. I am hot-tempered and easily snap over insignificant reasons. 0.873
23. I am more touchy, irritable, and hot-tempered than others. 0.871
24. Compared with most of my acquaintances, I am more hot-tempered and irritable. 0.868
25. I always get strongly and unrestrainedly angry either in response to any provocation, or when someone has disrupted my plans. 0.867
26. I often feel irritable aggression “swelling up” inside me, seeking an outlet. 0.865
27. I often react inadequately strongly to weak irritants — as if everything in the world is ready to drive me out of myself. 0.861
28. I often quarrel and take offense. 0.859
29. I easily fall into anger and rage if someone encroaches on my prerogatives and territory. 0.859
30. I can easily “flare up” if emotional pressure is put on me. 0.853
31. If a person present is unpleasant to me, I cannot ignore him; he constantly irritates me and drives me out of myself. 0.852
32. I react aggressively to criticism. 0.842
33. When, in a game or at work, something stubbornly does not work out for me, I get angry and lose my temper. 0.841
34. I immediately begin to “sort things out” verbally if I hear a rude or disrespectful statement addressed to me from someone. 0.825
35. In communication with strangers or people I know only slightly, I sometimes lose control; at least occasionally I may be rude or shout. 0.822
36. I absolutely do not tolerate it (I will necessarily start sorting it out) if people call me names or make hints toward me with a bad subtext. 0.820
37. Sometimes it happens that I become angry and irritated. 0.819
38. My arguments often end in harshness and an insulting tone. 0.799
39. I often furiously threaten certain people that I will break or throw away something of theirs, or beat them up, or tear out their arms and legs. 0.798
40. From time to time it happens that I lose self-control and begin to get angry. 0.796
41. I easily lose my temper. 0.793
42. I poorly control my emotions during arguments. 0.789
43. I have often tormented relatives with angry “scenes” and hysterics. 0.787
44. I am emotionally “uneven” and not very stable. 0.783
45. I fall into anger at the slightest provocation. 0.783
46. In response to criticism, I almost always immediately “snap back” indignantly. 0.780
47. I am demanding toward those around me and toward their statements, I easily “get worked up,” and I am worse than other people at smoothing over conflicts. 0.772
48. Sometimes I look for an occasion to “assert my rights.” 0.767
49. In response to an offense, as a rule I begin yelling at the offender. 0.756
50. Sometimes I become angry and irritated. 0.753
51. I often become irritated and angrily lose control if someone jokes at my expense at the wrong time and thereby worsens my mood even more. 0.753
52. When I feel some threat or tension in relations, I quickly switch to shouting and aggressive intonations. 0.744
53. Furious indignation occurs in me more often than a feeling of offense or shameful awkwardness. 0.696
54. In irritation I quickly begin raising my voice, shouting. 0.664
55. If the interlocutor is angry, I myself also automatically begin to get angry. 0.658
56. When I am angry, I begin rushing around the space — and then one should not stand in my way; at best, I will shove them aside. 0.447
57. Before I have ever happened to raise my hand, push, or strike (it does not matter here how often this happened), I always first reached an angry shout in my voice before that. 0.444

58. It is very difficult to drive me out of myself and make me swear aloud at close people and acquaintances. -0.940
59. It would be very difficult to drive me to anger. -0.939
60. It is very difficult to drive me out of myself; I do not even remember when the last time was. -0.938
61. I am a balanced, serious, and calm person; it is very difficult to irritate me or drive me out of myself. -0.895
62. A feeling of dissatisfaction occurs in me rarely, and even if it does arise, I share it with someone all the more rarely. -0.879
63. I maintain an unchanged peaceable mood and inner calm even when communicating with fools. -0.857
64. I am not easily driven out of myself. -0.777
65. I have a calm, patient, and benevolent character. -0.776
66. I know how to quickly reduce emotional intensity, quickly wind down and end a verbal scandal when it is no longer needed or becomes dangerous. -0.755

Cluster No. 6 Questimity. Pronounced painfulness of reaction to depriving oneself of something habitual or not receiving something expected (a consequence of hyperactivity of the insular cortex in maintaining homeostasis)

According to neurophysiological studies, the anterior insular cortex, within the framework of its tasks of maintaining homeostasis, maintains and strengthens conscious desires directed toward the “pleasant” — including cravings for food and drugs. It provides the consciously perceived painfulness of the reaction to depriving oneself of something habitual, already included within the organism’s circle of homeostasis. A deviation of current consumption (or the very threat of such a deviation) from the model of the habitual, or even merely from the model of the expected, is perceived by the anterior insular cortex as an unpleasant dissonance, sending signals into consciousness about the need to eliminate the contradiction.

In particular, the insular cortex is activated when drug users are exposed to environmental cues that induce craving, and the level of this activity correlates with subjective urges (craving) for drugs. This has been shown for various drugs, including cocaine, alcohol, opiates, and nicotine. The point is that the insula plays an important role in remembering the pleasant interoceptive effects of any consumption (whether of drugs or of something more useful), anticipating these effects in the future as well. Accordingly, suppression of the insular cortex suppresses addictions. Thus, a study published in 2007 [1] showed that smokers who had suffered damage to the insular cortex of the brain, for example as a result of a stroke, had their dependence on cigarettes practically eliminated. It was found that these people were 136 times more likely to get rid of smoking addiction than smokers with damage in other areas. [2;3;4]

Weakening of addictions under reversible suppression of insular cortex functions was also demonstrated in experiments with rats.[5]

LITERATURE:

1. ^ Nasir H. Naqvi; David Rudrauf; Hanna Damasio; Antoine Bechara. (January 2007). “Damage to the insula disrupts addiction to cigarette smoking.” Science. 315 (5811): 531–4. Bibcode:2007Sci…315..531N. doi:10.1126/science.1135926. PMC 3698854. PMID 17255515.
2. ^ Worel Sr., Bisaga A., McCann G., Kleber H.D. (July 2007). “Insula damage and smoking cessation.” Science. 317 (5836): 318-9, author reply 318-9. doi:10.1126/science.317.5836.318c. PMID 17641181. S2CID 8917168.
3. ^ Suner-Soler, R. (2011). “Smoking cessation 1 year after stroke and damage to the insular cortex of the brain.” Stroke. 43 (1): 131–136. doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.111.630004. PMID 22052507.
4. ^ Gaznick, N. (2013). “Damage to the basal ganglia plus insular cortex leads to stronger disruption of smoking addiction than damage to the basal ganglia alone.” Nicotine. 16 (4): 445–453. doi:10.1093/ntr /ntt172. PMC 3954424. PMID 24169814.
5. ^ Hyman, Steven E. (2005-08-01). “Addiction: a disease of learning and memory.” Am J Psychiatry. 162 (8): 1414-22. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.162.8.1414. PMID 16055762.
6. ^ Marco Contreras; Francisco Ceric; Fernando Torrealba (January 2007). “Inactivation of the interoceptive insular zone disrupts drug craving and lithium-induced malaise.” Science. 318 (5850): 655–8. Bibcode:2007Sci…318..655C. doi:10.1126/science.1145590. HDL level:10533/135157. PMID 17962567. S2CID 23499558.

The socionic profiles of the cluster show that 38% of the variance of the property is due to questimity (both Qe and Di are elevated, but the main opposition is observed between Qe and Di), 30% is due to ethics (mainly through Fe), and another 13% is due to rationality.

If we assume that the left anterior insular cortex is associated primarily with Qe, and the right with Qi (which follows from the analysis of a number of other clusters selectively associated with the left and right insular cortex), then it turns out that this cluster rests on both the left and the right anterior lobes of the insula.

========== Cluster scale:

1. I always become strongly upset and lose my balance because of any loss or damage. 0.915
2. I am easily irritated by any dissonance and mismatch with what was expected. 0.892
3. I get upset when something does not go my way. 0.868
4. I always have a very hard time enduring a situation in which some desire of mine remains unsatisfied or not fully satisfied. 0.835
5. Any low or critical evaluation of my activity from outside is simply painfully unbearable for me. 0.809
6. I react emotionally and painfully if my plans are disrupted. 0.806
7. I react sharply and sensitively to my body (for example, if it suddenly seems that something in it has become “not right”). 0.778
8. I easily lose patience and flare up if, in response to my proposal based on verified outside experience that I myself have seen, I am presented with overly complex and abstruse objections: why it will not work, why it cannot be done, etc. 0.773
9. My mood depends very strongly on daily successes or unpleasant events. 0.742
10. I always perceive mistakes and dark periods in life as an incomprehensible and undeserved injustice. 0.723
11. I feel deeply unhappy from the need to start economizing. 0.704
12. My claims are almost always much higher than what I actually have. 0.669
13. If what I am used to regularly consuming is not in the house — tea there, or cigarettes — I begin to get nervous and “twitchy” until I get it. 0.664
14. Arising desires often “hypnotize” me — it is difficult for me to control them; I very much want to get everything immediately. 0.654
15. I experience depriving myself of something habitual very painfully — I begin constantly thinking about where I could get it. 0.653
16. If I want something, I must get it without fail and immediately — my passions do not tolerate delay. 0.648
17. I strongly dislike people from whom it is difficult to beg something. 0.635
18. I become angrily irritated when I am awakened and not allowed to sleep. 0.616
19. I always become irritated when it is not possible to realize some opportunity. 0.597
20. Everything that deprives me of my habitual daily small pleasures irritates me very strongly. 0.570
21. It is difficult for me to control my desires. 0.547

22. It is very difficult for anything to spoil my mood. -0.839
23. It is true that I never seriously suffer because of the loss of something material: things, money, etc. -0.829
24. I rarely feel hunger, even if I have not eaten the whole day. -0.614

Cluster No. 7 Questimity. Repulsed by murder, violence, and coercive force. Empathy (only partially related to questimity through the subject’s discomfort with the pain and fear of others)

This trait is clearly associated with the activation of the insular cortex through its link to increased self-preservation responses, as well as its connection to a specific component of empathy - heightened sensitivity to vicariously experienced pain and fear of another person.

LITERATURE:

1. ^ Benedetto De Martino; Dharshan Kumaran; Ben Seymour; Raymond J. Dolan (August 2006). “Frames, Biases, and Rational Decision-Making in the Human Brain.” Science. 313 (6): 684–687. Bibcode:2006Sci…313..684D. doi:10.1126/science.1128356. PMC 2631940. PMID 16888142.
2. ^ Gui Xue; Zhonglin Lu; Irwin P. Levin; Antoine Bechara (2010). “The Impact of Prior Risk Experience on Subsequent Risky Decision-Making: The Role of the Insula.” NeuroImage. 50 (2): 709-716. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.12.097. PMC 2828040. PMID 20045470.
3. ^ Birklein, Frank; Rolke, Roman; Müller-Forell, Wibke (2005-11-08). “Isolated Insular Infarction Eliminates Contralateral Cold, Cold Pain, and Pinprick Perception.” Neurology. 65 (9): 1381-1381. doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000181351.82772.b3. ISSN 0028-3878.
4. ^ Ogino U, Nemoto H., Inui K., Saito S., Kakigi R., Goto F. (May 2007). “Inner Experience of Pain: Imaging Pain During Viewing of Painful Events Forms a Subjective Pain Representation in the Human Brain.” Cerebral Cortex. 17 (5): 1139-46. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl023. PMID 16855007.
5. ^ Wright P., On G., Shapira N.A., Goodman W.K., Liu W. (October 2004). “Disgust and the Insular Cortex: fMRI Response to Images of Mutilation and Contamination.” NeuroReport. 15 (15): 2347-51. doi:10.1097/00001756-200410250-00009. PMID 15640753. S2CID 6864309.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS: (numbers after questions are correlation coefficients of the socionic profile of the question with the profile of the entire cluster scale)

1. I regard cultures where harming the weak is considered a virtue with contempt. 0.972
2. I feel the greatest fear and distrust toward people who seem inclined to domination and violence. 0.966
3. I feel instant, acute hatred toward any attempts at authoritarian rudeness or violent coercion. 0.960
4. Every person deserves respect regardless of their status. 0.948
5. Fear of punishment should be used as a stimulus as rarely as possible, ideally not at all. 0.918
6. People who impose submission and obedience by force are despicable and flawed, for the human race deserves to unite solely under the noble consciousness of brotherhood. 0.908
7. If I witness someone being subjected to cruel or degrading treatment, I feel a surge of anger and my mood instantly worsens. 0.890
8. Horizontal, egalitarian relationships are always more pleasant and preferable than hierarchical subordination. 0.866
9. Trophy hunting of animals is entertainment for psychopaths - I’m neither interested in nor pleased by it. 0.845
10. Attempts to influence me not by persuasion but by commands and force almost always trigger a strong or even angry internal protest. 0.762
11. Minority rights should be respected just as much as majority rights, if not more. 0.758

12. The triumph of the strong over the weak is a normal and quite acceptable basis of life. -0.934
13. I believe the world was, is, and should be an arena of eternal struggle, where there can be no justice, and the strongest always win, while someone like me must survive by cunning maneuvering among the strong - that is, by “running between the raindrops.” -0.896
14. So-called “hazing” is a normal phenomenon in the army - it should be controlled but not eliminated. -0.894
15. If there’s a good chance to take part of a neighbor’s estate for my benefit, only a fool wouldn’t take it. -0.892
16. I sometimes enjoy driving someone into despair. -0.883
17. If society had no power hierarchy and everyone were truly forever equal, life would be very boring. -0.869
18. I have participated in the bullying of someone. -0.866
19. Almost every person deserves to be humiliated or at least told the unpleasant truth about themselves to their face. -0.860
20. The ideas of humanism only corrupt people. -0.849
21. I quite often enjoy provoking anger in someone I like. -0.840
22. Common people have no right to the same privileges as the elite of the country. -0.827
23. I prefer leaders with a domineering and assertive manner. -0.825
24. I believe slaves in the slave-owning states of the Ancient World were actually much better off than usually depicted by historians and “humanist” writers. -0.809
25. In fairy tales and cartoons, I was drawn to characters who wanted to rule the world and bring it to its knees. -0.805
26. Losers are always solely to blame for their misfortunes. -0.797
27. I would allow gladiator fights to the death for the public’s entertainment. -0.768
28. The strong have the right to be agreed with for that reason alone. -0.768
29. There are people - so-called intelligentsia - who instill in us that we should think for ourselves, have our own understanding, and be able to voice our own opinion. That all viewpoints matter. But replacing all that garbage with the word “smart-assery” shows their true worth. -0.751
30. Sometimes I hide my desire for revenge for a long time, waiting for the right moment to strike back hard. -0.737
31. The anxiety and depression of some of my friends and loved ones sometimes lift my own mood. -0.697
32. Which struggle would you sympathize with more, living in France in the early 19th century? – 1) the struggle against the usurping dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte 5) the struggle to expand the Napoleonic Empire, to further annex provinces of Italy, Spain, and Germany. -0.676

Cluster No. 8 Questimity. Protection of personal space, intolerance of intrusions into it

The stronger the instinct for personal self-preservation, the more actively a person defends the boundaries of their personal space. This trait is also influenced by a heightened value of homeostasis, which, like self-preservation, relates to the functions of the insular cortex (any external intrusion into personal space disrupts the subject’s homeostasis).

CLUSTER QUESTIONS: (The numbers after each question are the correlation coefficients of the question’s sociotype profile with the profile of the overall cluster scale)

1. I absolutely cannot stand it when someone touches my things or interferes in my affairs without permission. 0.938
2. I get irritated if, during a public transport ride, the person next to me peeks at the newspaper or book I’m reading. 0.922
3. I really dislike it when someone gets too close to me during a conversation. 0.900
4. It’s true that I don’t like hosting guests; in general, I very much dislike sharing MY space with anyone. 0.876
5. Unexpected visitors always make me feel uncomfortable, irritated, and out of place. 0.875
6. I get irritated when someone tries to rush me into action. 0.864
7. I really dislike strangers in my territory. 0.861
8. It’s true that I rarely let anyone touch me or my clothes, no matter who I’m talking to, even among friends or in a crowd. 0.845
9. I usually get irritated if someone makes sudden or abrupt movements during a conversation. 0.838
10. I often deliberately move away from someone if they get too close to me during a conversation. 0.833
11. I always feel an unpleasant sensation, bordering on strong irritation, when close ones leave dirty dishes, misaligned chairs, or crooked curtains in “my space.” 0.825
12. Living in the same room with someone has always been unbearable for me. 0.816
13. I admit I’m secretive, stubborn, and inflexible in relationships, I really dislike uninvited guests and don’t know how to entertain them; I persistently stick to the relational system I’m used to. 0.814
14. I usually tense up when an unfamiliar, pushy person invades my personal space, even slightly. 0.813
15. I become furious if I’m unnecessarily woken up or disturbed while eating. 0.810
16. I find it very unpleasant when strangers’ hands accidentally touch my skin. 0.809
17. When I’m in a bad mood, I absolutely hate it when someone tries to hug or even just touch me. 0.806
18. I strongly dislike interference in my work process. 0.805
19. I don’t like lending my things to other people. 0.802
20. More than anything, I want people to leave me alone with things I might find repulsive, and not impose their alien and unpleasant rules on me. 0.799
21. It irritates me when people ask me questions while I’m working, or interrupt me with questions while I’m talking. 0.798
22. I can’t stand noise and fuss around me - it keeps me from doing anything. 0.786
23. I always have a strong sense of the boundary between myself and the outside world, between my own and others’ thoughts, between myself and other people. 0.778
24. People often bother me just by their presence. 0.776
25. I feel irritated for a long time if someone used, wrinkled, or took what’s MINE. 0.769
26. Other people more often hinder than help me. 0.762
27. I zealously defend my “personal space.” 0.759
28. I often get irritated when someone at home prevents me from doing things at my own pace. 0.753
29. I prefer sleeping alone in bed. 0.749
30. I never allow familiarity from people I don’t know well. 0.735
31. I find people’s intrusiveness extremely irritating. 0.723
32. People ruin my mood more often than loneliness does. 0.694
33. I really don’t like borrowing things from others and worrying about returning them - it’s better to have my own. 0.665
34. I get irritated when I’m disturbed during my rest time. 0.638
35. I hate being rushed to meet work deadlines. 0.532

36. I used to (or still do) prefer preparing for exams in a group, in the same room with friends. -0.849
37. I let close ones use most of my small things without asking. -0.828
38. I would enjoy conducting sociological surveys with strangers on the street. -0.824
39. On social media, I engage in conversations with all kinds of people without much preference - the diversity of their values doesn’t bother me. -0.752
40. I feel uneasy if I go several days without emotional interaction with anyone. -0.745
41. At least a couple of times a month, or more often, I end up spending the night at friends’ places after long visits. -0.721
42. I enjoy the handshake ritual with friends. -0.718
43. If possible, I almost always have some kind of news radio playing in the background in my room. -0.660

Cluster No. 9 Questimity. Avoidance of pain stress, weakness of the endoopioid system of the CNS (hence also the uncharacteristicness of sadomasochism). The cluster is close to the clusters of strengthened self-preservation and stress avoidance

The insular cortex of the brain is the place where the sensation of pain is evaluated depending on its degree.[1] Lesion of the insula is associated with a sharp loss of pain perception, and an isolated insular infarct may lead to contralateral elimination of pinprick perception.[2] In addition, the insular cortex is the place where a person imagines pain when looking at images of painful events, thinking that they are happening to his own body.[3]

Absolute pain sensitivity depends on many brain structures, including both those at the lowest level that generate pain signals and those that transmit them upward. The insular cortex in this series is practically a terminal structure that evaluates (and amplifies, contrasts) pain signals for the purpose of final “taking of measures,” that is, maintaining the organism’s homeostasis and solving tasks of self-preservation. Within the aims of self-preservation, not only one’s own pain, but also another person’s emotion of pain turns out to be a useful signal, evoking an internal resonance of one’s own personal pain (through the mediation of mirror neurons of the insular cortex). At least, the sensation of another’s pain and the equally resonant sensation of others’ negative emotions, such as fear, allow one to avoid places associated with receiving negative emotional information — that is, to adaptively solve tasks of self-preservation (here it is useful to recall the saying that only a fool learns exclusively from his own experience, while a smart person also learns from the experience of others).

The tasks of the anterior insular cortex in ensuring homeostasis and self-preservation require amplification and contrasting of pain signals, not their suppression. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that avoidance of one’s own pain and avoidance of situations capable of causing pain to other people correlate in the cluster also with the uncharacteristicness of post-pain bliss (caused by endoopioids released as a result of pain stress). On the basis of this correlation, it can be supposed that if the decisive pole (Ni+Se) promotes the release of endoopioids in order to relieve pain stress (we have previously presented evidence of this more than once), then the questim pole (Qe+Qi), on the contrary, prevents the release of endoopioids. In that case it turns out that the natural suppression of pain stress by endoopioids (with accompanying excesses of sadism or masochism — for the purpose of obtaining pleasure from opioid and then dopamine releases provoked by them) is most pronounced in decisive declatims, while the activity of the anterior insular cortex in questims prevents such a mechanism — including partially preventing it even in “decisive” questims (since, within the framework of the tasks of the insular cortex in maintaining homeostasis and ensuring self-preservation, such suppression of pain stress would interfere with the future avoidance of objectively dangerous situations associated with experiencing pain).

LITERATURE:

1. ^ Baliki M.N., Geha P.Y., Apkarian A.V. (February 2009). “Parsing pain perception between nociceptive representation and magnitude estimation.” J. Neurophysiol. 101 (2): 875-87. doi:10.1152/jn.91100.2008. PMC 3815214. PMID 19073802.
2. ^ Birklein, Frank; Rolke, Roman; Müller-Forell, Wibke (2005-11-08). “Isolated insular infarction eliminates contralateral cold, cold pain, and pinprick perception.” Neurology. 65 (9): 1381-1381. doi:10.1212 /01.wnl.0000181351.82772.b3. ISSN 0028-3878.
3. ^ Ogino Y., Nemoto H., Inui K., Saito S., Kakigi R., Goto F. (May 2007). “Inner experience of pain: imagination of pain while viewing images showing painful events forms subjective representation of pain in the human brain.” Cereb. Cortex. 17 (5): 1139-46. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl023. PMID 16855007.

In ensuring pain avoidance, as we see from the resulting profile of the cluster, both Qe and Qi participate, which indicates the involvement in this task of the anterior sections of both hemispheres of the insular lobe.

Following the opposition of questim and declatim functions, the property of avoiding pain and situations of pain is also influenced by the opposition between Si and Ni (Si avoids pain, while Ni in some cases even supports attraction to it, thanks to the release of endoopioids).

LIST OF CLUSTER QUESTIONS: (after the questions, the correlation of their socionic profiles with the profile of the entire total scale of the cluster is indicated)

1. Horror films with chainsaws are usually disgusting to me. 0.963
2. Other people’s pains, deaths, and illnesses strongly repel me — I could not work as a medical worker in a hospice or oncology department of a hospital for any money. 0.913
3. If television shows footage of a person’s limbs being cut off, I immediately switch to another channel. 0.906
4. I am very sensitive to pain. 0.882
5. I am very sensitive to pain and punishments. 0.850
6. I absolutely cannot stand the sight of physical suffering. 0.838
7. I am afraid of the sight and sound of other people’s physical suffering. 0.834
8. It is unpleasant for me to observe another person grimacing from pain — I immediately begin to feel something similar to his torment myself. 0.814
9. I almost always flinch from injections or other pain. 0.796
10. Avoiding pain is usually more important to me than experiencing pleasure. 0.763
11. I completely do not understand the manner of some people of jokingly pinching another person’s skin painfully — after all, this is extremely unpleasant. 0.718
12. I am afraid of injections into the body; in general, I avoid any pain. 0.717
13. I tolerate cold poorly. 0.688

14. I like several horror films about psychopath dismemberers. -0.936
15. I am better and longer than others at enduring all sorts of unpleasant or painful sensations — perhaps I am simply more indifferent to them. -0.904
16. I regard the sight of death and blood calmly or even with interest. -0.867
17. My favorite genre in cinema is horror films. -0.861
18. It is interesting and amusing to me to watch how needles are stuck into the body of a person under hypnosis or someone sits on his stomach, while he does not feel pain. -0.857
19. I would like to compete in who can endure stronger pain. -0.850
20. I can easily ignore both cold and pain. -0.838
21. I can calmly put a bee on myself and let it sting me. -0.835
22. After experienced pain, I almost always have a pleasant-blissful “aftertaste.” -0.818
23. I often like sensations of pain — for the sake of those seconds of bliss that follow afterward. -0.800
24. I like watching knife fighting. -0.795
25. I have noticed that I tolerate pain more easily than others — I tolerate insect bites fairly easily, can take hot objects with bare hands, and am calm about injections. -0.769
26. After endured pain, my thinking for some time becomes more purposeful and creative. -0.748
27. I am little suggestible to others’ pain or fear; therefore I could quite well work as a dentist or surgeon. -0.736
28. When I am mercilessly reprimanded on the merits, I experience a feeling of gratitude and even some satisfaction. -0.733
29. I think it would not especially trouble me, while working as a laboratory assistant in a biological laboratory, to cut off laboratory mice’s tails with scissors in order to take samples of their blood for analysis. -0.728
30. Pain for me is often connected with bliss rolling in after it. -0.728
31. I often imagine various fictional situations with many naturalistic and sometimes even nauseating details. -0.718
32. Sometimes I like hurting myself. -0.705
33. Fear is “sweet,” at least for me — you experience fear, and then you feel bliss spreading through the body. -0.683
34. Sometimes I deliberately provoke criticism directed at me. -0.647
35. At times I experience interest in painful and humiliating sensations; I experience a certain “high” while going through them. -0.643
36. Sometimes I deliberately drive myself at work to strong fatigue in order to experience the “high” that comes at a certain stage of exhaustion. -0.597

As in other portraits of cluster properties composed of many questions only partially correlated with one another, the percentage line in the final table should not be taken seriously. The point is that it refers not to the property as a whole, but to the average indicators of one question of the scale. For the entire scale of the property, however, the percentage distribution between types is sharply contrasted (usually by one and a half to two times — the more strongly, the more weakly the questions of the scale are correlated with one another). For the whole scale of many questions, compared with what is indicated in the table, the contrast is increased, and so is the indicator of the socionically conditioned share of variance (rising to values above 0.60).

Cluster No. 10 Questimity. Avoidance of stress, low stress thresholds (possible cortisol hyperactivation)

Questimity accounts for only 36% of the variance in the trait of stress avoidance (and increased sensitivity to stress), so not all questims exhibit this trait. Other factors, such as ethics and weak Se, also play a role.

The likely connection of this trait with the insular cortex (in its questim component) may be due to the fact that the insular cortex amplifies all pain and emotionally negative signals (for more effective and contrasting regulation of homeostasis), thereby lowering stress thresholds.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. I get very thrown off by current, momentary failures. 0.894
2. I’m very sensitive to others’ remarks. 0.858
3. High levels of fearfulness and anxiety are typical for me. 0.855
4. I can’t concentrate when people are talking and walking around loudly. 0.822
5. I get startled easily. 0.812
6. I often experience fear or anxiety. 0.812
7. Even very mild external stimuli can deprive me of inner peace. 0.810
8. Troubles greatly lower my mood. 0.795
9. I react very painfully to any unjust pressure on me, so I try to isolate myself in advance from such people and situations. 0.794
10. I often feel nervous. 0.794
11. When problems arise, I start rushing around chaotically and can’t think clearly (calm, constructive thinking is replaced by purely physical agitation). 0.790
12. I find it hard to cope with stress; I “burn out” quickly from stress tension. 0.788
13. My attention always scatters from noise and commotion; I stop understanding or noticing things. 0.781
14. I react painfully to any awkward social situations. 0.778
15. Under pressure, haste, and urgency, I always find it hard to concentrate. 0.777
16. If someone pushes past me in line, I’ll spend an hour afterward dwelling on how I didn’t stand up for myself - and feel like a wimp. 0.767
17. I was afraid of the dark as a child. 0.764
18. Strong stress (e.g., emotional upheaval or nervous tension) usually leads me into depression for several days, when I don’t want to do anything and life feels meaningless. 0.758
19. I’m afraid of the dark. 0.725
20. It’s true that I don’t like action movies. 0.671
21. I avoid risk in everything. 0.669
22. I avoid stressful situations because they tire me quickly, and my reaction speed is insufficient for them. 0.660

23. I’m stress-resistant; I can handle intense mental strain for long periods without fatigue or malaise. -0.902
24. Difficulties don’t bother or discourage me - I know how to act while ignoring troubles. -0.878
25. An insult from a random passerby is easily and quickly forgotten. -0.854
26. When faced with trouble, my activity and persistence actually increase. -0.853
27. In critical situations, I can completely block out emotions, not allowing fear or panic. -0.820
28. Most problems excite me in a good way and initially seem solvable. -0.817
29. I enjoy speeding in a car (or motorcycle, etc.), and would even break the rules for it. -0.810
30. Sudden intrusions or changes in responsibilities don’t disturb my peace of mind. -0.806
31. I enjoy difficult and dangerous practical tasks requiring willpower, pressure, logic, decisiveness, and courage. -0.805
32. It’s true that I’m not an anxious person at all. -0.779
33. I spend very little time making decisions. -0.720
34. I function normally and successfully under conditions that provoke aggression and stress - if anything, better than others. -0.720
35. I would enjoy professions involving crisis intervention during emergencies. -0.714
36. I endure life’s hardships better than most. -0.691
37. I almost never sweat - certainly never “from nerves.” -0.667
38. If I have reason to criticize a colleague, I’ll definitely do it - in front of witnesses. -0.666
39. When there’s a rush, I feel a pleasant emotional surge and significantly speed up my work pace. -0.593
40. I can and even enjoy running long distances at an intense pace. -0.593
41. I sometimes act like a malicious prankster, deliberately provoking people. -0.584
42. If there’s no stress or physical exertion pushing me to my limits, I start feeling lazy and depressed. -0.418
43. I sometimes test others’ morals through specially designed experiments (e.g., leaving a counted sum of coins on the table and later checking if any were taken). -0.330
44. Loud crying or arguments usually attract my attention and interest. -0.139

Cluster No. 11 Questimity. Individualism and independence

(opposition between Qi and Di, plus lesser opposition between Qe and De, Te and Fe)

This trait is most strongly influenced by questimity (54% of the variance), and significantly less so by the pole of democratism (16% of the variance). In essence, both traits (questimity–declatimity and democratism–aristocratism) relate to the same thing - the distribution of magnitudes in the matrix of the four questimity–declatimity functions, and from a neurophysiological point of view - to the distribution of excitation in different areas of the same, apparently, brain substrate, namely - the insular cortex.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. I more often strive to act according to my own will and independently, rather than within the framework of mutual subordination and collective rules of the game. 0.973
2. I value my independence above all. 0.951
3. It’s true that I generally do not tolerate pressure from any general, collective, or “public” opinion. 0.941
4. Feeling independent from others is very important to me. 0.932
5. In any matter, it is very important for me to maintain a sense of independence. 0.922
6. I despise the “herd instinct” in people. 0.918
7. I don’t need any leaders or chiefs; I am on my own. 0.896
8. There is a lot of individualism in my character - being a cog in the “big machine” is unbearable for me. 0.888
9. I highly value my own independence. 0.887
10. It’s true that I really dislike and cannot tolerate submitting to a group if I have a different opinion. 0.886
11. I hate when someone dictates or even just suggests how I should work. 0.883
12. I believe that the group and “common opinion” are very rarely right (in practice – almost never). 0.876
13. It is hard for me to do anything just because of an order, since I always think about the ultimate purpose of the task. 0.874
14. It is unbearable to be under someone else’s control or power. 0.873
15. I am more often distrustful of the majority opinion than trusting. 0.864
16. In the most personally important topics in life, I am a pronounced nonconformist, that is, I almost always hold my own opinion, different from the majority’s. 0.861
17. I am the only judge of my beliefs and my words. 0.854
18. I am intolerant of any restriction by authority on my personal rights and freedoms. 0.841
19. I always make decisions on my own, and if I consult someone - it is merely for form’s sake. 0.841
20. It is extremely unpleasant for me when I am “structured” according to some rules. 0.832
21. I often hold views not shared by the majority. 0.829
22. I often resist any kind of authority. 0.826
23. I am irritated by those who love “marching in step.” 0.816
24. Scientific inquiry and belief in authorities are completely incompatible. 0.813
25. It’s true that I dislike submitting to a general routine. 0.807
26. I get very irritated when tasks are imposed on me. 0.801
27. I really dislike being “disciplined” from above. 0.798
28. I always feel sick completing tasks I don’t understand or find stupid. 0.796
29. I set only my own standards for myself and pursue only my own goals. I have never fit into any society. 0.792
30. Individuality is above all; I reject any hierarchy, flocking, and group-mindedness. 0.791
31. All reverence, titles, positions, ranks, hierarchies, and along with them traditions and rituals - amuse and bore me. 0.788
32. I can’t stand dress codes (mandatory clothing requirements) and sometimes ignore them even at official events. 0.784
33. It is crucially important for me to be free and not dependent on absolutely anyone. 0.784
34. I would never agree to work in a structure where orders - sometimes idiotic - must be obeyed unquestioningly. 0.778
35. In any work, it’s extremely important for me to choose my own path and goal. 0.763
36. If I have to follow rules set by others, I feel humiliated and unfree. 0.750
37. I’m not on anyone’s side; I’m always on my own. 0.740
38. I often resist any kind of authority. 0.735
39. I can’t stand those who are always “marching in sync.” 0.720
40. I have to do everything my way - or even the opposite, secretly - when others start commanding or trying to control my actions. 0.720
41. On TV, I usually prefer watching individual sports competitions rather than team games. 0.716
42. I cannot seriously and diligently perform a given task if I don’t understand its ultimate goal or believe in it. 0.691
43. I always determine the readiness of my work myself. 0.690
44. Truth is always more important than public opinion, so I will never betray my beliefs and principles just because others might think something wrong about it. 0.689
45. Being like everyone else, living like everyone else, doing only what everyone else does - is extremely disgusting to me. 0.684
46. I have an antipathy to any pressure by the group on an individual. 0.684
47. In a normal society, people shouldn’t march through life in sync, because they are all different. 0.680
48. I disapprove of people who constantly cluster into groups, packs, and mobs, thereby showing their animalistic herd instinct. 0.678
49. It’s true that I don’t like people who gather in flocks. 0.648
50. If I think someone is too demanding and bossy, I feel I have the right to ignore their demands (usually not directly, but by evading them). 0.636
51. I really dislike when people start advising me on what is reasonable to do - I find such topics boring and irritating. 0.626
52. Among branches of Christianity, I respect Protestant denominations (e.g., Lutherans or Baptists) more than Catholics and Orthodox. 0.611
53. When undertaking any action, I want to be fully autonomous in every decision. 0.528
54. If I change my views and beliefs, it’s only alone and by myself, never under pressure or to adjust to others’ opinions. 0.519

55. If I declare any views, they are always the views of a group I am affiliated with. -0.926
56. I more often stop working on something due to an external command or opinion than due to my own decision. -0.891
57. I always look for my place in the general structure, and it’s very important for me to constantly feel it. -0.880
58. I always try to be attentive to the hierarchy that exists in a group and respect it. -0.872
59. Life is uncomfortable without an order or guiding instructions from above. -0.870
60. There were times when punishments imposed on me helped correct my behavior. -0.864
61. I usually have no trouble following the rule “the boss knows best.” -0.849
62. Choose what suits you more: 1) I am not prone to giving in to general opinion and mood. 5) I don’t like being in the minority and easily tune into the general opinion and mood. -0.829
63. I easily allow others to assign tasks to me. -0.826
64. I feel comfortable if I am part of a “pack” with a strong authoritarian leader. -0.822
65. Without a sense of belonging to a group, I would feel uncomfortable. -0.810
66. I enjoy fulfilling someone else’s strong desire, feeling as if I become part of that desire (but if the desire is weak and uncertain, I begin to resist). -0.806
67. I usually follow the rule “you’re the boss – I’m the fool” without objections. -0.803
68. In my behavior, I always orient toward a leader or chief without overthinking (how he acts, so will I - within my place in the general structure). -0.775
69. Which is better and more natural for you? - 1) Maintaining your independence. 5) Striving to integrate, to unite with others. -0.773
70. Everyone should have someone who gives them orders and prevents them from becoming confused. -0.766
71. Acting without orders in war is a crime. -0.749
72. What do you admire more in people? - 1) Willingness to defend their opinion regardless of ranks. 5) Respect for the boss’s opinion and the mood of the majority. -0.742
73. I support the principle of collective responsibility - everyone should answer for one. -0.737
74. My personality would suit a job like that of a secretary or administrative assistant. -0.731
75. What brings you more joy? - 1) Chasing small wins and momentary achievements. 5) A sense of closeness to the team, awareness of one’s worthy place and authority in it. -0.729
76. It’s likely that a gypsy woman could hypnotize me if she wanted. -0.727
77. Loners in science, art, and public life are usually unpredictable, dangerous, and therefore harmful. -0.723
78. I support the rule of collective responsibility in school education. -0.714
79. I like being part of a group. -0.708
80. I think it’s unwise for a person to move against the direction of their herd. -0.697
81. Personal loyalty is always more important than beliefs, talents, and abilities. -0.696
82. I support the principle of collective responsibility. -0.692
83. In politics, one should always support the majority’s position. -0.665
84. I am an excellent executor - consistent, predictable, and I don’t ask unnecessary questions. -0.656
85. I see nothing wrong in the fact that every person is highly dependent on society. -0.650
86. I have never been bothered by the rules and relationships that exist in society - I know how to adapt to them. -0.647
87. Without the support of a tight-knit group, any person is nothing. -0.646
88. I would enjoy a job where I serve God. -0.630
89. I prefer group and team work. -0.624
90. I allow others to make decisions. -0.601

NOTE: The lower loadings in the last questions of the “positive” and “negative” lists - specifically in questions 51–54 and 83–90 - are most likely due to noise in the corresponding profiles. These profiles were obtained from relatively small samples, from 200 to 350 people each.

Cluster No. 12 Questimity. Liberalism

AGREEMENT WITH ITEMS:

1. If I were President, I would expand openness and reduce the lists and duration of classification of information counted as a state secret. 0.939
2. I have always defended and will defend freedom of speech — the fuller, the better. 0.934
3. I am a person of rather liberal than conservative views. 0.931
4. I am irritated by any attempts to restrict the freedom of disseminating information. 0.904
5. The concept of “humanity” is more essential to me than the concept of “homeland.” 0.865
6. Priority in society should belong not to the interests of the state, but to the interests of people. 0.854
7. I am for the mass propaganda of scientific knowledge and for teaching the broadest masses of people the ability to think independently and autonomously. 0.853
8. I respect the originality of another person’s individuality more than the ability to fit into a collective as its useful member. 0.850
9. The motto “Science and humanism” is closer to me than the motto “Unity and cohesion.” 0.840
10. Being free and independent is a hundred times more important than being high-ranking. 0.773
11. A parliamentary constitutional monarchy is obviously better than autocracy. 0.746
12. I categorically could not be an unreasoning silent executor in someone’s army. 0.729
13. The carrot and the gingerbread are in most cases much better incentives to achievement than the stick and the rod. 0.723
14. Conservative unity-enforcers are most often worse than anarchists. 0.708
15. All hidden contradictions in public life must be revealed and ruthlessly shown to the public. 0.605

DENIAL OF ITEMS:

16. Usually there is more harm from those who undermine the authority of leadership than from those who conceal the truth in the name of public calm. -0.956
17. A person who is destined by birth to be a servant of those above him must be obedient to fate. -0.932
18. I would prefer to live in a well-structured caste society, where profession and social roles are passed down by inheritance. -0.928
19. I am distrustful of any loners — whether in science or in business. -0.926
20. Censorship is justified if the work of the press begins to interfere with the interests of state power. -0.920
21. One should not allow a great diversity of behavioral stereotypes, models of people’s behavior — such diversity harms public stability and the power of the state. -0.908
22. For the sake of strengthening order, one can and should sacrifice truth. -0.904
23. For me, the stability of order is more important than justice. -0.901
24. In a healthy society, the police should have higher funding priorities than fundamental science, especially science engaged in research of little relevance for the present day. -0.892
25. To my taste, there are too many lovers of Western liberalism entrenched in domestic mass media. -0.887
26. The rule “You are the boss — I am a fool; I am the boss — you are a fool” is quite suitable for life, it suits me and should be observed. -0.871
27. Everyone in society must know his place. -0.871
28. Initiatives should come from leaders, not from rank-and-file members of the group. -0.859
29. Contradictions existing in society must be concealed, not shown. -0.844
30. An ideal monarchy is better than an ideal republic. -0.837
31. The broad public should know only what it is supposed to know. -0.836
32. After reprimands, I begin to work better. -0.831
33. The interest of the collective is always more important than someone’s individual rights to freedom. -0.826
34. Compared with existing norms, in most children one should cultivate: 1) More independence 5) More obedience 3) Everything is already fine -0.808
35. Collective responsibility is an important part of stable and successful governance. -0.807
36. Restricting individual persons in the name of the kin-group as a whole is always justified. -0.769
37. A dangerous world conspiracy of the intellectual elite of one small nationality against all humanity exists, and this is a fact. -0.707
38. I love uniformity in everything. -0.608
39. I think that in any collective I will be able to orient myself and obtain for myself an inconspicuous but advantageous and “key” position. -0.607

Cluster No. 14 Questimity. Low-detail vision

The advantage of the auditory information channel over the visual one at the level of CNS neurotransmitters is associated with the advantage of dopaminergic activity over serotonergic activity. The active role of dopamine with partially dampened serotonin mechanisms (alongside especially pronounced dampening of the vasopressin and, partly, oxytocin systems of the CNS) is also indicated by many other markers of the questim pole.

AGREEMENT WITH ITEMS:

1. When I see a piece of furniture, I do not pay attention to the details from which it is made. 0.904
2. When I track a moving object, my gaze usually noticeably “jumps” — not smoothly, but catching up with the moving object in leaps. 0.866
3. I prefer those schools of painting where there are few details, and only the general impression is conveyed, which can be felt only by moving away from the painting (Impressionism, watercolors) 0.855
4. It is difficult for me to orient myself in space — I can get lost in a city or in a forest. 0.808
5. I always perceive the visual image immediately as a whole, practically without examining its individual parts. 0.670
6. I quickly tire from contemplating the starry sky. 0.400

DENIAL OF ITEMS:

7. It is enough to glance once — and I remember well the arrangement of objects on a table. -0.913
8. I have good automatic visual memory for image details. -0.911
9. I am a person who is very observant of any external small details. -0.891
10. With my eyes closed, I can visually imagine “on request,” in detail and particulars, any object familiar to me. -0.890
11. I have precise vision, sufficiently observant and always error-free. -0.879
12. I easily remember the faces of people I have met. -0.870
13. I am able to attentively, accurately, and quickly untangle some tangled ropes, fishing lines, or threads. -0.857
14. I prefer those schools of painting where the artist masterfully reproduces a multitude of fine details. -0.849
15. Try, within ten seconds, to recall and name three edible objects of green color and three edible objects of red color. Evaluate the quality of performing the task with a score from 1 to 5. If, after thinking for 10 seconds, you fall short by a total of 3 objects, give a score of “1.” If you fall short by 2 objects — give “2.” If you fall short by 1 object — give “3.” If you manage to recall all 6 required examples, but no more — give “4.” If you easily name more than 6 objects in this time, with at least three of each color — give “5.” -0.840
16. If I look at the night sky, I always clearly see that the stars do not shine with an even light, but twinkle. -0.751
17. I would like to work as an engraver or jeweler. -0.678
18. Which of your sense organs work better in the sense that they fall less short in quality of work compared with the level of your peers? 1) Hearing 5) Vision -0.635
19. Simply by looking at a page of a book, I retain all of it visually in my mind, and then I can read directly from there, from visual memory. -0.632

Cluster No. 15 Questimity. Does not like and does not know how to be the first to ask forgiveness, reconcile, admit his mistakes

AGREEMENT WITH ITEMS:

1. I am, in general, not the kind of person who admits his wrongness and, even more so, apologizes for his words. 0.888
2. I usually avoid and, even more so, am in no hurry to agree that I have made a mistake in something. 0.864
3. Other people’s grievances usually seem stupid to me and only irritate me. 0.841
4. It is difficult for me to listen to others. 0.825
5. I usually disregard other people’s reactions and other people’s feelings in order to restore order. 0.812
6. It is true that I do not tolerate and cannot stand “soul-saving conversations.” 0.811
7. I will never go to reconcile first — that is excluded. 0.809
8. It is true that I do not know how to ask forgiveness. 0.804
9. No one’s needs dare collide and compete with my own. 0.795
10. I strongly dislike and, as a rule, avoid interlocutors who begin teaching how one should act correctly. 0.789
11. When making truly important decisions, only my personal convictions and impulses of the soul play a role for me; as for what others would do in such a situation, I do not even look at it. 0.784
12. It is true that I am never the first to go toward reconciliation. 0.769
13. For me it is insulting to be considered even God’s slave. 0.760
14. My frequent position is: “no, no, and once again no.” 0.706
15. Which feeling do you have more often? 1) A feeling of guilt 5) A feeling of pity 0.633
16. If I feel that I am being slightly “jabbed,” then invariably and even with tenfold force I shift the conversation to the theme that, you know, you yourself are the fool! And I do not restrain my expressions. 0.603

DENIAL OF ITEMS:

17. Sometimes I feel as if guilty for my happiness or luck. -0.826
18. I sometimes try to understand my friends better, deliberately trying for this purpose to imagine how everything looks from their point of view. -0.787
19. Inside me there often seems to be a condemning voice — and it always shames me for the same thing. -0.774
20. By my character, the professions of social worker, psychologist, educator, veterinarian would suit me very well. -0.760
21. I am sometimes pursued by loudly sounding intrusive thoughts accusing me of sinful behavior. -0.750
22. Sometimes I “pour” dirty words over myself — I am this and that. -0.734
23. I try to review all possible objections from others before making a decision. -0.733
24. When I am happy, it sometimes seems to me that I have taken what belongs to someone else. -0.669
25. My capacity for self-criticism is above the average human level. -0.667
26. With people, it is usually like this for me: even if there has been no communication for years, the relationship still exists, is preserved — and it does not matter how much time has passed. -0.599

Cluster No. 17 Questimity. Does not like products with a bitter or strongly sour taste

1. Swallowing very bitter medicine is always a problem for me. 0.695
2. In childhood I was afraid of injections and bitter medicines. 0.680

3. I like somewhat bitter drinks — bitter tonic, black coffee without sugar and milk. -0.899
4. I like many products with a deliberately somewhat bitter taste. -0.888
5. I like drinks with a “bitterness,” or those that make the tongue “tingle.” -0.870
6. I like many products that are sour in taste. -0.771
7. I am drawn to slightly bitter food. -0.692
8. I like eating lemons without sugar. -0.655
9. Among varieties of chocolate, I prefer bitter chocolate — with 85% cocoa bean content. -0.535

Cluster No. 19 Questimity. Undiplomaticness. Does not know how and does not want to bend, dissemble, and adapt (to other people and other orders)

This cluster has the highest correlations of its socionic profiles with cluster 30 (Directness, intolerance of manipulation, pretense, and lies) and, following it, cluster 37 (Stubbornness and invariance of position). Correlations are also fairly high (from 0.54 to 0.63) with clusters Nos. 15 (inability to ask forgiveness), 8 (protection of personal space), and 32 (protestness, objections).

The connection with the insular cortex can be traced here as well. For example, for clusters No. 8 (protection of personal space) and No. 32 (protestness), we noted their connection with the subject’s homeostasis, for which the insular cortex is responsible. The common feature of all the listed clusters is mental isolationism in the subject’s life strategy, that is, his self-separation from potential outside influences. It is obvious that for maintaining homeostasis (that is, internal constancy), precisely this strategy is advantageous.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. My behavior lacks flexibility. 0.919
2. It is true that, compared with other people, it is very difficult for me to change my behavior, adapting to unjust superiors. 0.874
3. It is difficult for me to be flexible in communication with bad people. 0.861
4. I am practically incapable of “mimicry” — I am worse than others at changing my opinions, adapting them to new superiors. 0.801
5. I myself know what I should do, and no one should tell me. (Because otherwise I will lose self-respect and feel insignificant) 0.794
6. I do not know how to reconcile myself with the shortcomings and imperfections of what exists. 0.793
7. When faced with offensive resentment and injustice toward myself, I stop and seem to go numb, lose diplomatic abilities, stop taking consequences into account, and instead try to “push through” the situation without moving from the spot. 0.791
8. I am secretive regarding my life and direct in expressing opinions, not always diplomatic, at times I “flare up” with anger, and I value nobility and self-sacrifice in people more than fantasizing and even more than their business acumen. 0.760
9. I am undiplomatic and easily enter a state of indignation. 0.720
10. It is difficult for me to be “emotionally flexible,” difficult to restrain myself in communication with people. 0.701
11. It is true that I do not know how to adapt to selfish people. 0.631
12. I cannot stand the position of “what would you like?” 0.470

13. I am diplomatic; I am especially good at reaching agreements with people in an informal, intimate atmosphere, and without any pressure. -0.893
14. I know how to be diplomatic with very different people. -0.857
15. I have happened to effectively calm anger and extinguish aggression in unfamiliar people — I think this comes easily and well to me. -0.843
16. It is not difficult for me to adapt to the “cockroaches” of any new superior. -0.838
17. I know how, when necessary, to establish contact with anyone. -0.827
18. I know how to verbally “stroke” a person at the right moment (deliberately and usually insincerely) — simply to gain his trust. -0.826
19. Sometimes I lie and flatter some unpleasant person — simply in order to protect myself from him in the future. -0.824
20. I easily give people compliments and tell them what they want to hear from me. -0.812
21. I am sociable, diplomatic, and emotional, but emotional without protruding my feelings, without noise and brightness — I know how to always be charming and find an approach to any person. -0.811
22. In my life I attach very great importance to various connections and acquaintances — sometimes even an unpleasant person may turn out to be useful. -0.808
23. In communication I am very good at “relaxing” my tense and worried partner, reducing the dramatic quality of the situation for him. -0.802
24. I am capable of becoming friends with anyone and in a very short time. -0.794
25. I know how to flexibly pacify and establish relations in a collective. -0.788
26. My judgments are rather flexible and sensitive to the surrounding situation than firm and resisting the situation in everything. -0.776
27. I am an excellent negotiator. -0.771
28. I always want to lift my interlocutor’s mood — as if in passing and as if just in case. -0.760
29. I am a very good reconciler of disputing parties. -0.758
30. What more often causes irritation in you? 1) When those around you prove to you something that contradicts your picture of the world. 5) When those around you behave unattractively. -0.753
31. I am very flexible in behavior. -0.750
32. I easily and quickly restructure myself in conversation if I see that I am not being understood. -0.737
33. I think I could very quickly adapt to any new culture and to the values of any people, if I were to live among them. -0.732
34. Organizing mutual services among people would suit me — I am sure that I myself would also be able to obtain good benefit from it. -0.725
35. I communicate without problems with people inclined to frown or become angry. -0.661
36. I can adapt to any established state of affairs. -0.655
37. I easily adapt to any social changes. -0.646
38. I am inconsistent in my emotional attitude toward people — I often restore relations with people who have done quite a few nasty things to me. -0.589
39. In order to fit into the dominant tendency, I am usually ready to sacrifice a particle of my yesterday-self. -0.589
40. I easily establish business contact with strangers. -0.580
41. I am practically always diplomatic. -0.489

Cluster No. 20 Questimity. Dislike of any children’s cartoons, as well as circus clowns and, in general, children’s amusements (De deficit)

Judging by the opposition of Qe and De in the property, it relates predominantly to the activity of the left anterior insular cortex. De (suppressed by the activity of the left insular cortex) — along with Ne — is one of the two “child” functions. Consequently, it may be supposed that the functional maturation of the left anterior insular cortex occurs finally only after the pubertal period, lagging in time behind the functional maturation of a number of other cerebral regions.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. When a cartoon series about the adventures of the pilot-bear Baloo is shown on television, I sometimes linger by the screen and watch the episode to the end and with pleasure. -0.948
2. I like watching, at least sometimes, the cartoon series about the adventures of the Gummi Bears. -0.836
3. As a rule, I was pleased and amused by the crude humor of clowns and entertainers. -0.833
4. When the cartoon series “DuckTales” is shown on television (about the adventures of Uncle Scrooge, the millionaire duck, and his duckling nephews), I sometimes linger by the screen and watch the episode to the end and with pleasure. -0.796
5. When a cartoon series about the Moomins is shown on television, I sometimes linger by the screen and watch the film to the end and with pleasure. -0.793
6. I would like the work of preparing and launching fireworks at city or corporate celebrations. -0.735
7. I like the cartoon series “Tom and Jerry.” -0.706
8. Clowns pleasantly amuse me. -0.683
9. I like the cartoon series “Masha and the Bear.” -0.658
10. I would like being a magician (illusionist) by profession. -0.642
11. I am a great lover of Japanese anime cartoons; I often watch them. -0.579

Cluster No. 21 Questimity. Impatience, weak inhibition of emerging drives

On the one hand, impatience can be regarded as a particular case of ordinary questim irritability, provided by the insular cortex (the reaction of impatience arises as a result of dissonance between the desired model of the ideal result and the delay preventing its fastest achievement).

On the other hand, emerging impatience can be regarded as a specific consequence of the function of the anterior insular cortex in regulating attention. The right anterior insular cortex regulates the interaction between the intensity of selective attention created for performing a task (the dorsal attention system) and the intensity of arousal created for maintaining concentration on the relevant part of the environment (the ventral attention system).[1]

This regulation of the salience of the object singled out by attention may be especially important during the performance of complex tasks, when attention may become fatigued and thus lead to careless errors. But with excessively strong arousal (precisely what an excessively active insular cortex provides when attention is focused on the occurrence of an expected event), this also leads to an increase in anxiety. [1] In some situations, this arousal, “wound up” by the anterior insular cortex around the target object, leads precisely to reactions of impatience. And this is still normal. But in other situations, excessive arousal in the ventral attention system may lead to a rapid increase in unrestricted irradiating arousal around new objects that have entered even the periphery of the field of attention — which in the end already reduces useful productivity, since it constantly distracts attention to new interfering stimuli, leading to feverish jumps of attention.

The cluster associated with impatience we will consider now. And the cluster associated with involuntary distraction of attention to new interfering objects (probably due to excessive arousal generated by the insular cortex in the ventral attention system) we will consider later.

LITERATURE:

1. ^ Go to:a b Eckert M.A., Menon V., Walczak A., Ahlstrom J., Denslow S., Horwitz A., Dubno Jr. (2009). “At the heart of the ventral attention system: the right anterior insular cortex.” Hum. Brain Mapp. 30 (8): 2530-41. doi: 10.1002/hbm.20688. PMC 2712290. PMID 19072895.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. Impatience is characteristic of me if I dislike something. 0.936
2. I am an impatient person and easily become irritated if I have to wait for something, or when people do not react to my words immediately. 0.926
3. I often show impatience. 0.918
4. I am impatient. 0.913
5. Impatience is highly characteristic of me. 0.910
6. I do not know how to stand patiently in line for a long time; I begin to “twitch.” 0.904
7. It is difficult for me to wait my turn. 0.897
8. I quickly become tired in the mode of waiting for something. 0.858
9. As a rule and often, I feel internal discomfort if I have to passively wait for something. 0.856
10. It is difficult for me to stand motionless for more than half a minute — I begin to fidget, change posture, my arms and legs seem to start doing something by themselves. 0.844
11. Any waiting evokes impatience and immediate protest in me. 0.840
12. I lack patience in matters requiring long waiting. 0.828
13. At times it is difficult for me to “slow myself down” when I strongly want something. 0.824
14. It would be very difficult for me to stand at attention for more than three minutes. 0.808
15. I do not tolerate boredom. 0.800
16. I absolutely cannot stand idle waiting — that is why I always come to events “right on time,” not in advance. 0.773
17. I easily lose patience if some matter takes longer than I expected. 0.767
18. I often have problems listening to others, because my own ideas dominate and “push” out of me. 0.765
19. I need everything right now, and exactly as I have conceived it. 0.711
20. I am often irritated by the slow operation of a computer, forcing me simply to sit and wait on pause, while also passively keeping the plan of further actions in my head. 0.694
21. Excitement almost inevitably leads to muscular activation in me; involuntarily I begin to move and twitch somewhere. 0.644
22. When wound up, I stop listening to what I am being told 0.624
23. I usually have a concentrated-tense state of mind, which is often accompanied by irritation and impatience. 0.612
24. I express impatience when my logical arguments slowly reach other people’s brains. 0.536
25. When reading a book, I often immediately look at its end or, at least, at the lower part of the page. 0.428

26. Everything comes to those who know how to wait, and I have this flexible talent. -0.922
27. I know how to “sit in ambush” without losing patience. -0.907
28. As a rule, I have small, “compact” handwriting, with small-sized letters. -0.859
29. I am an attentive listener. -0.818
30. For me, “to speed up” in most cases means “to spoil.” -0.765
31. When something has to be corrected in different ways in the same project, it does not exhaust me. -0.441

Cluster No. 22 Questimity. Intolerance of any criticism or mockery, of any humiliation of one’s renown. Touchiness

CLUSTER QUESTIONS

AGREEMENT WITH ITEM:

1. If a person present is unpleasant to me, I cannot ignore him; he constantly irritates me and drives me out of myself. 0.929
2. I always react irritably if people joke about me. 0.880
3. I cannot stand criticism directed at my uniqueness. 0.844
4. I sometimes react to minor offenses as if they were grave insults. 0.833
5. I am easily offended by remarks. 0.829
6. I am easily offended. 0.789
7. I easily become irritated in the course of my explanations if they are not perceived immediately and correctly. 0.767
8. It is characteristic of me that I am proud and independent, and need delicate treatment, praise, and attention. 0.763
9. If a person has done something bad to me, then that means he is a bad person. 0.756
10. I am uncompromising and picky about how people behave and how they treat me. 0.754
11. I do not tolerate any disrespect, even in the form of small hints of it. 0.754
12. I can easily be hurt by doubts about my intelligence. 0.741
13. I am easily hurt and offended. 0.732
14. It is typical of me that I do not accept criticism directed at me, and I try to get rid of people who call into question the expediency of my actions and the rationality of my decisions. 0.730
15. I am easily wounded by a careless word. 0.725
16. I am painfully sensitive to criticism. 0.715
17. I will not listen to a person’s opinions and advice if they are presented in a disrespectful manner. 0.711
18. I become irritated very easily when I have to explain something for a long time to a slow-witted listener. 0.703
19. People have no right to criticize me. 0.686
20. I do not like it when jokes are made at my expense, and I also practically never joke about myself (self-irony is not my thing). 0.679
21. If advice is given in a rude form, then I do not need such advice. 0.676
22. I keep near me only those who do not contradict me and do not encroach on my pride. 0.675
23. I am easily offended by teasing and criticism directed at me. 0.646
24. I have a habit of reacting disproportionately even in response to weak and barely noticeable provocations. 0.626
25. I usually become strongly irritated if I am reproached for unpunctuality or lateness. 0.609
26. To get something from me, one must praise me — to motivate me, scolding me is useless. 0.522
27. If some of my close people begin demonstrating and exaggerating their successes, I perceive this as an insult. 0.507

DENIAL OF ITEM:

28. In moral terms, I am rather “omnivorous” — whatever other people’s behavior may be, it is very difficult to hurt, insult, offend, or embarrass me with anything. -0.860
29. I allow others to criticize me. -0.800
30. I can communicate without problems on equal terms with a person whom I do not respect. -0.797
31. I am patient and tolerant toward people whom many consider unpleasant. -0.773
32. I calmly and without difficulty ignore trolls who attack me on the internet. -0.759
33. I have a wide range of what is personally acceptable — that is, everything that I easily reconcile myself with or agree to, and that practically does not irritate me. -0.715
34. I treat jokes about myself calmly and with humor, and I myself sometimes joke about others. -0.708
35. I never break off relationships first; perhaps I simply do not know how. -0.703
36. Sometimes in company I can raise such a topic of conversation as to joke and laugh good-naturedly at myself. -0.638
37. If others criticize me, they are probably right. -0.470

Cluster No. 23 Questimity. Intolerance of any infringement of one’s rights and interests

CLUSTER QUESTIONS

AGREEMENT WITH ITEM:

1. I do not tolerate any injustice whatsoever toward myself, even if it infringes on me in anything. 0.933
2. I am self-confident and ambitious, I do not tolerate an arrogant or ironic attitude toward myself, and I usually sincerely get angry when people argue and bicker with me. 0.908
3. I always become very strongly indignant if someone is “more equal than me” and has broader rights, some privileges and advantages compared with me. 0.897
4. I show aggressiveness if my freedom is restricted. 0.889
5. My personal desires are always like a “sacred cow”; an attempt to restrict them will evoke in me a fit of stubbornness and a striving to insist on my own at any cost. 0.885
6. Anger and irritation almost necessarily arise in me if someone tells me that I have not figured something out and allegedly do not understand something. 0.882
7. I do not tolerate anyone trying to take advantage of me (because even in innocent cases this, in my view, humiliates me) 0.842
8. I am attentive to ensuring that no one cuts in front of me without waiting in line. 0.833
9. I enter into conflict if I am not shown respect and deference. 0.829
10. I often give others instructions, but I myself cannot stand an ordering tone. 0.826
11. I can quite well begin to become indignant if some friend or acquaintance drinks my water or a drink I prepared. 0.817
12. It is unbearable if I am not shown proper respect or I do not receive what I have a right to. 0.795
13. I instantly respond to another’s aggression and insolence with powerful and stubborn threefold aggression, based on mobilizing all my acquaintances and using the enemy’s psychological weaknesses. 0.792
14. I am always surprised when someone tries to start commanding me — I sincerely do not understand by what right. 0.765
15. I never even try to find justification for people who allow toward me any dishonesty, even a minor one. 0.732
16. I must gain the upper hand even in small things and at almost any cost; otherwise dissatisfaction remains. 0.707
17. I do not tolerate advice on how I should live. 0.686
18. It strongly irritates me if a person in his reasoning distorts the facts even slightly in order to fit them to the conclusion he needs. 0.604
19. I often reprimand people for creating personal inconveniences for me. 0.517

DENIAL OF ITEM:

20. I will be able to accept humiliation humbly, in a Christian manner. -0.931
21. I quite often convince people of the usefulness of humility and various kinds of concessions. -0.800
22. Others are constantly trying to use and manipulate me. -0.608

Cluster No. 24 Questimity. Non-conservatism, denial of traditional values

CLUSTER QUESTIONS

AGREEMENT WITH ITEM:

1. I prefer shaking up what is established to working for its justification and defense. 0.895
2. I usually rejoice at the collapse of old regimes and coups d’état in other countries. 0.885
3. Faith and traditions are not the main dish for citizens in a state, but only a side dish, which everyone in society has the right to choose according to his own taste, and which must not be imposed on citizens. 0.872
4. I often dispute authorities and existing norms of behavior. 0.863
5. I often dispute the rightness of the authorities and existing norms of behavior. 0.848
6. I would like to gradually and diligently destabilize obsolete political and administrative systems. 0.840
7. I would rather prefer to live two hundred years after today than two hundred years ago. 0.743
8. I become bored doing the same familiar things. 0.685
9. I am a supporter of demolishing and breaking everything obsolete. 0.625
10. In childhood, I quickly became bored with the same toys; having played with them once, I quickly abandoned and forgot them, always wanting something new. 0.614
11. I am a supporter of life with a minimum of formalities and rituals. 0.574

DENIAL OF ITEM:

12. I never challenge established things. -0.896
13. Customs and traditions must be preserved and maintained. -0.888
14. I take the ideals of the past time as a model, not the utopian ideals of the future. -0.877
15. I believe that no reforms should break what the prevailing public opinion has long become accustomed to and is committed to — even if the reformers have the power and resources to overcome it. -0.854
16. It is true that I do not like breaking established orders. -0.854
17. I do not like it when something new is tried without direct necessity. -0.853
18. More often, it is not the system that is to blame, but people who do not want and do not know how to live according to it. -0.839
19. My friends and family would say that I adhere to traditional values. -0.837
20. I believe that various kinds of collective rituals and conventions are very useful and therefore necessary for relations between people in society. -0.795
21. I am for strengthening state control over publications on the Internet. -0.785
22. If travel to the past were possible, it would have to be forbidden, so as not to accidentally change the present. -0.780
23. As a politician, I would emphasize support for traditional values. -0.768
24. I would increase punishments even more for persons who download pirated products through the Internet and thereby violate others’ intellectual property rights. -0.748
25. Stagnation is better than revolutionary shifts. -0.721
26. I believe that arguing with public opinion is an occupation for imbeciles. -0.696
27. I would very much like the work of a censor or quality-control inspector. -0.688
28. I rarely travel to distant places for vacation, preferring nearby and familiar ones. -0.684
29. The opinion of the majority of the people is always the most correct opinion. -0.657
30. Since youth I have believed that scientific discoveries sooner or later turn into evil. -0.531

Cluster No. 25 Questimity. Weakening of kinship ties

CLUSTER QUESTIONS

AGREEMENT WITH ITEM:

1. A person belongs first and foremost to himself, not to the collective, not to the fatherland, and not to other people. 0.918
2. Patriotism is most often cultivated in order to cover up the enslavement of the people with it. 0.908
3. Personal interests are always more important than any group interests. 0.885
4. All relatives, except father and mother, should be treated only according to their personal qualities — that is, independently of degree of kinship. 0.695

DENIAL OF ITEM:

5. I am for a strong traditional family with respect for seniority and a division of rights and duties. -0.938
6. A person must submit to the decisions of parents and elder family members. -0.936
7. I respectfully regard the hierarchy of rights and seniority that exists in any society. -0.936
8. I respect authorities and social hierarchy. -0.933
9. The one who is older has more rights, and this is normal. -0.869
10. The idea of selfless service — to the state, community, or family — is close to me. -0.844
11. The family has the right to restrict the rights and interests of any of its members. -0.833
12. Freethinking is inadmissible in the family; there must necessarily be one main authority, with whom the final word always remains. -0.828
13. What is more important to cultivate in children? 1) Independence and self-reliance 5) A feeling of family-tribal cohesion -0.821
14. A person without his pack, not thinking about his tribe and nationality, is always a dangerous degenerate. -0.772
15. If pregnancy does not threaten the mother’s life, then abortions must be unequivocally prohibited. -0.753
16. I always feel my belonging to a collective. -0.730
17. The interests of the family were usually above my individual interests for me. -0.635
18. The voice of hereditary genes, the feeling of one’s belonging to the clan, that is, the “voice of blood,” is the strongest human instinct. -0.634
19. If I were Caesar in ancient Rome, I would insist that power thereafter be transmitted by inheritance, rather than by appointment or election of a successor. -0.541

Cluster No. 26 Questimity. Distractibility by weak interferences, scattered memory

The nature of the connection of this property with questimity is not entirely clear. Possibly (as a hypothesis), the matter lies in the general suppression of serotonin and vasopressin mechanisms of the CNS associated with elevated questimity. As an alternative hypothesis, one may suppose that the active insular cortex (whose activity, apparently, is associated with elevated mesolimbic dopamine activity) suppresses mesocortical dopamine activity in the frontal cortex (and only there), responsible, among other things, for the stability of the focus of attention.

AGREEMENT WITH ITEMS:

1. It often happens that it is very difficult to “gather” my attention, but if I strain myself very hard, I always manage to do it, even if only for a short time. 0.891
2. I am often prevented from thinking my thought through or bringing a chain of memories to the end by the fact that at every step some intrusive and unnecessary image-associations interfere, completely random and primitive, cluttering and hindering the thought process. 0.870
3. I am easily distracted by interferences. 0.849
4. In order to concentrate on thoughts or on some task, I almost always need a great volitional effort (after this I usually manage to concentrate). 0.834
5. I involuntarily forget many events already 5-10 minutes after they happened. 0.832
6. The key word for me is interest. I can abandon everything previous if I feel something more interesting nearby. 0.801
7. I am easily thrown off when people interfere and distract me from the task. 0.798
8. I have serious problems with concentrating attention on any new stimulus (it does not happen immediately and not always). 0.791
9. I have problems with the skill of concentrated mental reasoning. 0.758
10. The volume of my attention often seems insufficient to me. 0.705
11. It is difficult for me to keep attention on someone else’s speech for longer than one minute. 0.702
12. When I read, I often notice that I have to return to the same paragraph several times in order to assimilate the information. 0.590

DENIAL OF ITEMS:

13. I would be a good administrator of some production facility. -0.819
14. It is easy for me to concentrate on tasks and on what people are telling me. -0.809
15. People and things in my thoughts live, work, and move sequentially and without sharp “jumps,” rather than being flipped back and forth quickly by memory, like photographs in an album flashing for a moment. -0.793
16. I have a strong and tenacious memory, which forgets nothing necessary. -0.756
17. I easily recall the place, time, and circumstances under which I first met any person from among my acquaintances in life. -0.722
18. I can easily keep someone’s phone number or someone’s surname in “working memory” throughout even a long conversation, until I turn to my notebook to write them down. -0.656
19. My thoughts are always obedient, flexibly serving my tasks. -0.640
20. During a conversation in noisy conditions (in the foyer of a concert hall during intermission, etc.), I easily focus attention on the voice and words of the person I need. -0.605

Cluster No. 27 Questimity. Absence of xenophobia and chauvinism, little attention to differences between people (questimity acts as a weaker factor of the property, after seriousness, judiciousness, and democratism)

AGREEMENT WITH ITEMS:

1. Closeness of interests is always much more important than people’s citizenship and nationality. 0.877
2. I am absolutely indifferent to where a person comes from, what nationality or group he belongs to, etc. — I am interested exclusively in his personal qualities. 0.871
3. A healthy society is one that moves forward in its own intensive development, rather than trying to live by subordinating its neighbors. 0.838
4. I believe in the brotherhood of people of different nationalities. 0.713

DENIAL OF ITEMS:

5. The interests of one’s own nation must necessarily be above the interests of all other peoples. -0.945
6. National values are more important and higher than so-called “universal human” values. -0.943
7. Representatives of different peoples differ very strongly from one another genetically, including strongly differing in their psychology and innate way of thinking. -0.904
8. The most dangerous people for the state are those who contaminate the national soil with the weeds of cosmopolitanism. -0.870
9. I am against interracial marriages, even if people of the same high cultural level enter into marriage. -0.865
10. Equal rights for native inhabitants and immigrants to work, education, and social security are harmful stupidity. -0.842
11. The immediate interests of my people are much more important to me than the vague interests of humanity as a whole. -0.832
12. If people enter into marriages with representatives of racially distant ethnic groups, then the national self-consciousness of the people suffers and perishes from this. -0.821
13. Without national self-consciousness, that is, without a feeling of one’s national separateness, a nation and its state necessarily die out. -0.783
14. There are peoples who are dangerous to my nation and wish it harm. -0.777
15. Ethnic belonging unites people more strongly than ideas, deeds, and sympathies. -0.772
16. The American politician Trump is more likable to me than the American politician Biden. -0.768
17. There can be no deep moral feeling in a person if he has no pride in his nationality. -0.749
18. I believe that the lower the index of genetic diversity within a nation (that is, the more genetically homogeneous it is), the better for it. -0.685
19. Historical truth about past events is unnecessary and harmful if it interferes with national self-respect. -0.653
20. Slogans of internationalism are always either deception or pure stupidity. -0.627
21. It is better to be a nationalist than an internationalist-cosmopolitan. -0.609
22. Commonality of appearance and the genes behind it is more important for mutual understanding and closeness of people than commonality of their mental development. -0.602

Cluster No. 28 Questimity. Increased interest in psychology

Whether because questims have many irritating psychological problems dictated by their demanding homeostasis, or because questimity of the right-hemispheric anterior insular cortex is closely intertwined with the functions of self-awareness, increased attention to oneself as a unique personality, to the unique properties of one’s person (this property of the insular cortex has been confirmed in neuroimaging studies), interest in psychology (in tests — in particular), all else being equal, is really higher in questims than in declatims. At the same time, let us note what did not enter this scale, but testifies to the same thing. Namely, questims on average obtain more contrasted socionic profiles (with higher reliability indicators and better self-understanding, better consistency of answers to questions that are supposed to correlate with one another), and they also more often take interest in additional psychological typologies besides socionics (Afanasyev’s typology, in particular).

AGREEMENT WITH ITEMS:

1. How familiar are you with the socionic traits “static-dynamic,” “positivist-negativist,” and “questim-declatim”? - 1) I know absolutely nothing about them, I am a beginner in socionics. 3) I have only heard about them in passing, but do not know the substantive content of their poles. 5) I have read quite a lot about these traits and have an approximate idea of their properties. 0.992
2. How familiar are you with socionic types, socionic aspects (functions), and their main properties? - 1) So far I know almost nothing about them, I even confuse the names of socionic types, I am a beginner in socionics. 3) I have heard something about them in passing, I already know the names of all types, but do not yet know the details of their main properties. 5) I have read quite a lot about types and functions and have an approximate idea of all their main properties. 0.990
3. Have you previously had occasion to answer socionic questionnaires to determine your sociotype (whether MOLTI or any others)? - 1) No, today’s attempt is the very first in my life. 2) Before today’s case, I had taken one more socionic questionnaire, where some sociotype — one of the 16 possible — was produced as output 3) Before today’s case, I answered socionic questionnaires two or three more times 4) Before today’s case, I answered socionic questionnaires 4 or 5 more times 5) I have had occasion many times — more than five times 0.986
4. How familiar are you with the socionic traits “judicious-decisive” (also known as “peripheral-central”) and “cheerful-serious” (also known as “ascending-descending”)? - 1) I know absolutely nothing about them, I am a beginner in socionics. 3) I have only heard about them in passing, but know nothing about the substantive content of their poles. 5) I have read quite a lot about these traits and have an approximate idea of their properties. 0.984
5. I know how so-called “force sensorics” differs from “sensation sensorics,” and how “black” logic differs from “white” logic. 0.940
6. I have read some books or articles about the eight socionic functions. 0.715

Cluster No. 29 Questimity. Procrastination, one of its factors — the painfully hypertrophied psychic homeostasis of questims — makes it difficult to transition to minimally unpleasant activities

In this respect, questimity even without the participation of irrationality, by itself (although only secondarily after the factor of irrationality), increases the risks of procrastination. This is clearly visible, for example, when comparing the different susceptibility to procrastination of the questim ILE and the declatim IEE, the questim LII and the declatim EII, the questim IEI and the declatim ILI, the questim EIE and the declatim LIE.

1. It is always very difficult for me to take up a necessary but unpleasant task — in such cases I may for a long time grab onto all sorts of other tasks, just to delay the start of the main one. 0.934
2. It is often difficult for me to force myself to sit down to necessary work. 0.915
3. My attention seems to float back and forth all the time — therefore, during a task I am often distracted by other “side” tasks that suddenly come to mind. 0.883
4. I often notice that I cannot do one thing for a long time — the desire quickly runs out, irritability appears, it becomes repulsive. 0.882
5. I do not know how to force myself into unpleasant tasks (even if they are necessary). 0.870
6. It is difficult for me to do something for a long time if the task is not working out and does not provide positive “reinforcement” — in this case I quickly switch to developing a new topic or idea, until it again becomes boring and I am drawn back to the old task. 0.839
7. It is extremely difficult for me to sit down to an activity that I need to do, but do not want to do. 0.829
8. Some relatives reproach me for avoiding certain tasks. 0.821
9. It is difficult for me to begin a task if it is even the slightest bit unpleasant. 0.799
10. There have been times when I missed an exam or test, fearing that I was insufficiently prepared for it. 0.769
11. I have happened to be very late for a date or for work (at least a couple of times). 0.681
12. If some activity gives me pleasure, I can get stuck on it for a long time, so that it is difficult to tear myself away, and this even interferes with other tasks and interests. 0.654

13. Key concepts for me are: regulations, discipline, following instructions. -0.938
14. My strength is that my actions are always systematic, constant, and regular. -0.921
15. I consistently go through all stages of any task, without my thought “jumping.” -0.907
16. I always carry out on time the visits and contacts that I have planned. -0.906
17. Even in tasks that seem tedious to others, I know how to maintain “emotional burning” in myself for a long time. -0.860
18. I begin work immediately with the most difficult elements. -0.823
19. It is easy for me to perform mental work requiring prolonged attention. -0.705

Cluster No. 30 Questimity. Directness, intolerance of manipulation, pretense, and lies

1. It is very difficult for me to compromise in assessing what is good and what is bad, what is decent and worthy, and what is disgusting. 0.891
2. I am distinguished by a striving for truth in everything. 0.865
3. Any truth is always better than absolutely any lie. 0.854
4. If it were up to me, I would forbid any concealed secrets and any untruth in the world. 0.846
5. I often lack the ease needed to “portray” agreement with another person with whom I actually disagree. 0.793
6. More than others, I am a person of principles. 0.792
7. I always meet attempts and proposals to mix, equate, or unite the concepts of good and evil with hostility. 0.786
8. Any obvious brazen lie strongly irritates me, even if the abuse of facts used by it does not directly concern me. 0.783
9. I am fastidious and irritably irreconcilable toward everything bad, stupid, or obviously wrong. 0.781
10. I usually express myself definitely and unambiguously, trying to make everything in my words clear. 0.743
11. Deliberate lying in politics should be punished as strictly as the use of poison gases in war. 0.638
12. It is true that I never conceal my dissatisfaction or disappointment. 0.413

13. If it is necessary to pretend and express sincere delight over all sorts of filth, I will do it without particular problems. -0.937
14. If necessary, I can without problems “portray” views and convictions completely alien to me for weeks and months. -0.937
15. If necessary, I know how to smoothly lie without problems, agreeing with the idiotic opinion of superiors — all the more if nothing depends on me anyway. -0.921
16. If I need to get something from a person, it will not be a problem for me to temporarily agree even with his vulgarities. -0.899
17. When I hear an obvious lie (not concerning me personally), I am tolerant of it; it does not irritate me very much. -0.891
18. If a person longs to hear some pleasant lie about himself, I am ready to say it without problems. -0.891
19. I smile even when saying unpleasant things. -0.859
20. I know how to “slip between the streams,” so that no public storms frighten me. -0.850
21. Sometimes I dissemble, intrigue, act hypocritically, and use cunning, simply deriving secret pleasure from all these pranks, setups, and tricks. -0.827
22. It is true that I usually like people who know how to lie effectively and beautifully. -0.826
23. Lying is not difficult for me if it is necessary and assigned. -0.787
24. If life forces me, I will quite be able to lie skillfully, concealing my true sympathies and antipathies. -0.778
25. I can listen quite calmly and even for a long time to all sorts of other people’s lies, without reacting to it internally in any way. -0.766
26. Even obvious and deliberate human lying rarely truly outrages me, since, in essence, everyone sins a little with this and everyone sometimes does it. -0.739
27. I like feeling my secret power over people, imperceptibly manipulating their behavior, covertly programming it with stimuli invisible to their attention. -0.739
28. I know how and like to lure another person into the trap of his easily predictable future actions. -0.726
29. What are you better at in communicating with people? - 1) Convincing them of some truth. 5) Sowing doubts in them, or intriguing them with some information, awakening interest. -0.718
30. I will be ready to change my views if they become unpopular in society and therefore disadvantageous. -0.704
31. I know how to live successfully under any order, obtaining from society the “my own” that I need. -0.687
32. On internet forums I sometimes agree with the stronger side, without especially going into the essence of the dispute. -0.657
33. I have a talent for selling any stale goods to someone. -0.617

Cluster No. 31 Questimity. Irritability linked with low disgust thresholds and passive rejection response – as heightened and exhausting sensitivity to weak unpleasant stimuli, with an inability to ignore them (opposition between Qe and De)

The insular cortex perceives signals from the body’s homeostasis (enhancing and contrasting mismatch signals between the subject’s current state - both internal and external - and their balanced and habitual standard). The anterior insular cortex (more closely connected to the neocortex and probably maturing later in ontogenesis) also perceives and regulates signals from the subject’s psychological and social homeostasis. In doing so, the insular cortex either independently or by directing its signals to consciousness, strives to eliminate arising mismatches and discomfort. Irritation arises as an evident symptom of this final motivation, as a corresponding emotionally negative signal to consciousness aimed at eliminating the experienced uncomfortable mismatch.

The more active the insular cortex, the lower the thresholds for irritation, and the more intense its emotional signals - aimed at restoring homeostasis, at eliminating uncomfortable mismatches.

Irritation responses are most easily initiated by the insular cortex in response to unpleasant odors, painful bodily sensations, or skin irritation - since the insular cortex is primarily specialized in analyzing signals from these sensory modalities.

Specific, particular cases of irritation (initiated by the anterior insular cortex) include protest reactions to others’ behavior, opinions, and views, as well as impatience (arising from a counterpoint between the model of an ideal result and the delay hindering its quick attainment). Attempts by others to challenge the subject’s established worldview and intrude upon their personal freedom (especially valued by questims, as one function of the insular cortex is forming personal integrity, including the right to rejection and doubt) also provoke strong irritation reactions in questims, aimed at eliminating the contradictions with their standards of ideal homeostasis. All these specific cases of irritation will be considered later as separate clusters of questimity.

LITERATURE:

1. ^ Wicker B., Keysers C., Plailly J., Royet J.P., Gallese V., Rizzolatti G. (October 2003). “Both of us disgusted in my insula: the common neural basis of seeing and feeling disgust”. Neuron. 40 (3): 655–64. doi:10.1016/S0896-6273(03)00679-2. PMID 14642287. S2CID 766157.
2. ^ Sanfey A.G., Rilling J.K., Aronson J.A., Nystrom L.E., Cohen J.D. (June 2003). “The neural basis of economic decision-making in the Ultimatum Game”. Science. 300 (5626): 1755–8. Bibcode:2003Sci…300.1755S. doi:10.1126/science.1082976. PMID 12805551. S2CID 7111382.

NOTE: In addition to irritability as a personality-related trait, irritability is often situationally elevated during many painful states. However, the question remains open whether such “situational irritability” is caused by some additional biological factor, besides insular cortex activity, or whether the cause is still mostly in increased insular activity (albeit situationally triggered by illness). Supporting the latter is the fact that the insular cortex is responsible for bodily homeostasis (logically, if deviations from internal homeostasis caused by illness occur, they would provoke additional activation). Let’s also not forget that the insular cortex is, among other things, an important link in the immune system (see the following three sources):

1. ^ Pacheco-López G., Niemi M.B., Kou W., Harting M., Fantry J., Schedlowski M. (March 2005). “Neuronal substrates for behaviorally conditioned immunosuppression in rats”. J. Neurosci. 25 (9): 2330–7. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4230-04.2005. PMC 6726099. PMID 15745959.
2. ^ Ramirez-Amaya V., Alvarez-Borda B., Ormsby C.E., Martinez R.D., Perez-Monfort R., Bermudez-Rattoni F. (June 1996). “Lesions of the insular cortex block the acquisition of conditioned immunosuppression”. Brain Behav. Immun. 10 (2): 103–14. doi:10.1006/brbi.1996.0011. PMID 8811934. S2CID 24813018.
3. ^ Ramirez-Amaya V., Bermudez-Rattoni F. (March 1999). “Conditioned enhancement of antibody production is disrupted by insular cortex and amygdala lesions but not by hippocampal lesions”. Brain Behav. Immun. 13 (1): 46–60. doi:10.1006/brbi.1998.0547. PMID 10371677. S2CID 20527835.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS: (numbers after the questions are correlation coefficients of the socionic profile of the question with the overall cluster scale profile)

1. I often feel accumulating irritation from certain things. 0.945
2. When unpleasant people are around, I can’t stop noticing them, can’t ignore their appearance and presence. 0.893
3. I can’t stand disgusting smells. I can’t do anything properly while they’re present. 0.836
4. I get irritated easily. 0.834
5. I’m an easily irritable person. 0.829
6. Many surrounding phenomena or people shock and seem unpleasant and therefore intolerable to me. 0.820
7. I have a certain nervous irritability toward everything unpleasant or wrong. 0.819
8. When upset or offended, I think worse, but indignation and aggression quickly rise. 0.815
9. Irritation usually builds up, then I explode, then calm down. After the outburst, I can feel tired. 0.813
10. I get irritated easily. 0.798
11. Extraneous smells often distract and irritate me. 0.795
12. Many things in life outrage me. 0.795
13. A radio or TV turned on in the next room often keeps me from sleeping. 0.791
14. I can be called a “princess and the pea” – I get easily irritated by any physical discomfort and inconvenience. 0.791
15. It always angers and irritates me when people start asking questions before I’ve finished expressing my thought. 0.790
16. Sometimes I can’t cope with my heightened nervous irritability. 0.775
17. I easily get irritated by offenses. 0.772
18. I get irritated easily and often feel dissatisfied with something. 0.768
19. Many smells often irritate me. 0.766
20. My own irritability sometimes annoys me. 0.758
21. I get irritated easily and sometimes see offense where there is none. 0.756
22. Almost every day something in the information field around me triggers a reaction of either disgust or at least strong irritation. 0.754
23. Various physical discomforts (tight clothes, smells, hangnails, room temperature, lighting, hunger, etc.) usually strongly distract me and interfere with work. 0.751
24. I often get furious from small irritants and inconveniences, especially ones created by people in the room. 0.749
25. Small things often drive me mad. 0.749
26. I have episodes of hot temper or irritability. 0.748
27. “Princess and the pea” or “Touch-me-not princess” – that’s my personality (at least, more so than my acquaintances’). 0.741
28. I often get irritated by every little thing. 0.735
29. Certain sounds irritate me strongly, like a finger squeaking on glass. 0.728
30. I really hate when people push unpleasant and bad predictions about the future on me - I might “explode” in response. 0.726
31. I’m a nervous person. 0.718
32. I easily have nervous reactions to things. 0.717
33. Sometimes any irritant drives me out of my mind. 0.713
34. Drafts, conversations, smells – many of these things often irritate me, prevent me from concentrating, and interfere with work. 0.712
35. My character is marked by nervousness and irritability. 0.696
36. The slightest noise interferes with my reading and work. 0.693
37. I’m very particular about not being disturbed while eating or sleeping. 0.689
38. Sharp instant irritation reactions are typical of me. 0.687
39. Mosquito bites always leave me with very itchy welts. 0.687
40. If someone is convinced everything’s going wrong, they better stay silent - I don’t need their forecasts. 0.661
41. I get irritated easily. 0.657
42. Others’ manners and habits often irritate me. 0.652
43. I get irritated immediately if I have to go back and explain something again. 0.645
44. My nature includes an obsessive irritability. 0.630
45. I get irritated for any reason. 0.629
46. I probably get much more irritated than others if I’m rushed or my pace is disrupted. 0.625
47. I’m impatient and easily irritable when I have to repeat myself or wait repetitively. 0.615
48. I have periods of heightened irritability - toward almost everything. 0.593
49. Extraneous noise often irritates and distracts me. 0.582
50. True, I can’t stand loud music that assaults the ears. 0.464

51. I tolerate others’ irritability well. -0.916
52. I can avoid getting irritated and thereby achieve my goals and enjoy life. -0.869
53. I easily ignore all external sensory irritants (like light, sound, fuss, smells, room colors). -0.861
54. If people poke fun at me in a group, I barely notice and usually pay no attention. -0.850
55. I can ignore everything that might be unpleasant. -0.828
56. I’m fairly tolerant of others’ attempts to emotionally manipulate me. -0.821
57. It’s hard to get me irritated. -0.819
58. I’m very tolerant of others’ negative emotions. -0.817
59. I’m hard to irritate. -0.792
60. True, I’m absolutely not irritable. -0.784
61. It’s not easy to make me irritated. -0.751
62. I usually stay calm when others are already irritated. -0.701

Cluster No. 32 Questimity. Separation, protestness, intolerance, insubordination, objections, indignation and protest against what is wrong

This is, in essence, a particular case of irritability initiated by the anterior insular cortex (most likely, first of all by the RIGHT anterior insular cortex, most closely connected with social emotions) — for the purpose of restoring and defending one’s social homeostasis.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS: (numbers after the questions are the coefficients of correlation of the socionic profile of the question with the profile of the entire whole cluster scale)

1. During conversations with people, bewilderment or protest, objection often sounds in my voice. 0.908
2. My character is marked by rebelliousness, a rebellious spirit, and a tendency toward critical disagreement. 0.880
3. I am a person more inclined to object than to obey. 0.880
4. I am rather a nonconformist than a conformist — I more often awaken disputes and objections than lead to agreement. 0.876
5. In my words and deeds I often go “against the current” — I even like it. 0.848
6. I usually do not care what has more votes — I will do it my own way anyway. 0.834
7. I would rather try to change the world and circumstances than adapt to them. 0.825
8. There is strong insubordination in me. 0.814
9. I often show a tendency toward critical disagreement. 0.797
10. If I disagree about something, I will enter into a dispute even with a superior. 0.791
11. I am stubborn in “refusal,” in refusing to do what I am pressured to do. 0.779
12. I often do the opposite simply in order not to be led by someone. 0.777
13. I am a supporter of radical changes in the world order. 0.776
14. It is characteristic of me to adhere to my own opinion, without listening to those around me. 0.771
15. I have my own opinion on practically any question. 0.743
16. It often happens to me that a feeling of rejection, irritated protest suddenly and sharply arises. 0.731
17. I often have conflicts with sanctimonious people. 0.727
18. If convictions similar to mine began to be persecuted, they would only become more irreconcilable and stronger in me because of this. 0.726
19. I am categorically dissatisfied with many life rules that have developed around me. 0.725
20. In a begun attack on an enemy, it is sometimes difficult for me to stop in time. 0.716
21. In my soul I often feel some kind of burning protest in connection with something. 0.715
22. I often feel in myself a certain internal protest, disagreement. 0.713
23. When reading internet forums, I very often have a desire to write something specifically in the form of an objection. 0.694
24. If I am sitting in a hall and listening to a speech with which I disagree about something, I almost always begin to fidget or fiddle with something in my hands. 0.688
25. If I have become carried away by something, it is very difficult to slow me down or stop me. 0.687
26. There are things that irritate me strongly, toward which I am irreconcilable. 0.643
27. If something is demanded of me (not on my own initiative), I often assume a “stubborn posture” — even if the demand is essentially fair. 0.582
28. It is difficult for me to refrain from corrections and objections to other people’s projects. 0.579
29. Instantly flaring acute reactions of dislike are characteristic of me. 0.555
30. As far as I am concerned, the world is arranged completely not as it should be. 0.502
31. Very often, on one occasion or another, I experience feelings of indignation, internal protest. 0.450
32. I often experience internal indignation about various circumstances of surrounding life. 0.362
33. I more often strive for separation than for unification. 0.320
34. I am sensitive to everything bad, wrong, and unpleasant; internally, I react sharply to all of it. 0.242

35. I would prefer to change any social structure quietly and gradually, rather than radically. -0.896
36. In communication I am a flexible and patient person. -0.857
37. I easily adjust to other people’s opinions when there is a need for it. -0.851
38. It is usually easier for me than for many of my other acquaintances to reconcile myself with some existing orders, even if I consider them wrong. -0.850
39. I am a good mediator in relations, since I am affectionate and soothingly soft, never push myself into the front ranks and never generate conflicts myself. -0.834
40. I agree with everything in the world, and accept all rules. -0.824
41. If society imposed a complete ban on discussing certain topics, I would not protest for long and would adapt to it more easily than others. -0.823
42. I am tolerant of other people’s delusions. -0.815
43. I have an accommodating character. -0.806
44. I much more often prefer to agree or remain silent than to argue with another person’s mistake. -0.789
45. It is true that I will never go against the collective: neither for myself, nor for others. -0.786
46. Even while defending a person dear to me, I would hardly actively oppose public opinion. -0.781
47. As a child, I always immediately and without grumbling did what I was told. -0.777
48. Public peace is more important than truth. -0.758
49. I avoid any statements that embarrass those around me. -0.721
50. My more preferred genre in theater or books: 1) Heroic drama — when a lone hero opposes the majority and does not surrender. 5) Instructive and educational comedy — when an imperfect hero is re-educated by the surrounding positive environment. And at the end — a happy ending, where the hero is re-educated and successfully passes the final test, and society joyfully accepts him into its ranks. -0.708
51. It is true that I have no tendency toward statements and actions that would surprise conservatively minded people. -0.701
52. I am almost always confident in the rightness of my superiors. -0.669
53. I am mostly satisfied with how the world is arranged. -0.595
54. Most often I am in a state of calm indifference. -0.530
55. What is more characteristic of you? 1) Rejection, choosiness, selectivity, detachment, rejection. 5) Attraction, conformity, a tendency to join others oneself or unite others, sometimes — indiscriminateness in relations. -0.388

Cluster No. 33 Questimity. Reactions of disgust and revulsion

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Neuroimaging studies have shown that the anterior insular cortex almost exclusively processes the human sense of disgust - both toward smells[1] and toward the sight of contamination and injuries[2] - even when the person merely imagines the experience.[3] The insular cortex is the center for regulating the body’s homeostasis - not only from the perspective of internal bodily state but also in terms of its interactions with the surrounding environment. For instance, insula activity increases pain sensitivity, thereby supporting the instinct of self-preservation. Disgust reactions (toward foul-smelling food, dirt, corpses, unknown insects, dismemberment, etc.) directly and unequivocally serve to strengthen the self-preservation instinct - protecting against poisoning and other dangers (e.g., where there is dismemberment, a predator may be nearby).

Thus, it can be asserted that the insula in the brain serves not only as a center for homeostasis but also, at the same time, as a center that comprehensively supports adaptive behavior within the framework of an enhanced personal self-preservation instinct.

REFERENCES:

1. ^ Wicker B., Keysers C., Plailly J., Royet J.-P., Gallese V., Rizzolatti G. (October 2003). “Both of us disgusted in my insula: the common neural basis of seeing and feeling disgust.” Neuron. 40 (3): 655–64. doi:10.1016/S0896-6273(03)00679-2. PMID 14642287. S2CID 766157.
2. ^ Wright P., He G., Shapira N.A., Goodman W.K., Liu Y. (October 2004). “Disgust and the insula: fMRI responses to pictures of mutilation and contamination.” NeuroReport. 15 (15): 2347–51. doi:10.1097/00001756-200410250-00009. PMID 15640753. S2CID 6864309.
3. ^ Jabbi M., Bastiaansen J., Keysers C. (2008). Lauerhains J. (ed.). “A common anterior insula representation of disgust observation, experience and imagination shows divergent functional connectivity pathways.” PLOS ONE. 3 (8): e2939. Bibcode:2008PLoSO…3.2939J. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002939. PMC 2491556. PMID 18698355.

Questimity itself accounts for 46% of the variance in this trait, playing a clearly contrastive and dominant role in it. At the same time, the role of questimity is primarily reduced to the opposition of Qe (the most squeamish function) and De (the least squeamish function). Based on this, one might suppose that the mechanism of disgust is more associated with the left rather than the right anterior insular cortex.

CLUSTER QUESTION LIST: (following each question is the correlation of its socionic profile with the overall cluster scale profile)

1. I have heightened squeamishness toward anything dirty. 0.960
2. I’m rather squeamish and avoid sick people. 0.952
3. I avoid touching anything dusty or dirty - I’m squeamish and afraid of catching something. 0.946
4. The smell and sight of scattered feces or an especially dirty trash heap with crawling worms can easily make me nauseous with revulsion. 0.940
5. I can’t suppress my disgust at the sight of certain animals - I wouldn’t touch some species even if people told me it’s safe. 0.915
6. I easily feel a reaction of disgust to something. 0.908
7. I’m always uneasy about shaking hands with people who seem sick to me. 0.907
8. I have a strong sense of squeamishness - some things or objects are so disgusting to touch it almost makes me physically nauseous. 0.897
9. I’m squeamish: no poop, no sick strangers’ kids, no other people’s saliva, sweaty handshakes, or shared utensils. I’ll panic and wash, wash, wash. 0.885
10. I’m squeamish, and often after shaking hands with certain people, I try to wash my hands as soon as possible. 0.880
11. If I see a live worm crawling out of unfinished food on my plate, I might easily throw up in disgust. 0.875
12. I’m squeamish about touching caterpillars or worms. 0.873
13. I feel disgust toward some animals and insects. 0.869
14. If I accidentally put something inedible in my mouth, I usually have an immediate gag reflex. 0.837
15. I won’t eat meat with gristle, or tomatoes with spots, etc. 0.824
16. If I accidentally eat a large caterpillar with berries and realize it, I’ll instantly have a gag reflex. 0.823
17. I find jokes about butts and passing gas extremely disgusting. 0.817
18. I often feel almost physical revulsion - toward some foods, smells, animals, or some people’s behavior or speech. 0.806
19. I think I feel disgust or queasiness more often than others. 0.803
20. I avoid sick and miserable people - they seem to oppress me with their appearance and ruin my mood with their bad aura. 0.797
21. Some people elicit in me an almost physiological sense of revulsion. 0.758
22. Many things seem disgusting to me and affect me strongly, irritating me. 0.709
23. The sight of certain famous figures gives me almost physiological disgust. 0.681
24. I never eat leftovers from the day before, even if it’s my own food. 0.577
25. I often feel the emotion of nauseating disgust. 0.573
26. I won’t eat pieces I’ve bitten and put back on the plate - even a few minutes later. 0.524
27. There are people I know who periodically evoke in me a feeling of disgust or revulsion. 0.414
28. I’m almost entirely unfamiliar with the feeling of physical revulsion. -0.942
29. On a dare or for a day’s wage, I could reach into a jar full of gray woodlice to retrieve a key without much disgust. -0.929
30. I don’t think I’d be bothered by working as a proctologist (e.g., palpating rectums with gloves). -0.858
31. I think I wouldn’t be troubled picking worms from feces with gloves to examine them under a magnifier. -0.786
32. I don’t think I’d be shocked by working as a pathologist - dissecting and studying corpses. -0.780
33. It’s true I wouldn’t refuse a chimpanzee hand cutlet at an exotic restaurant, especially if someone else is paying. -0.774
34. I’d be curious to try live sea mollusk dishes from some countries that wiggle in the mouth. -0.743
35. I can catch and crush flies or wasps with my bare hands without squeamishness. -0.743
36. It’s true that I’m not at all squeamish when it comes to other people’s views and beliefs. -0.652
37. I read popular science stories about worms and parasites with interest. -0.607

Cluster No. 34 Questimity. Quarrelsomeness

The property is generated by strong Qe and manifests most vividly only in combination with strong Se.

AGREEMENT WITH ITEMS:

1. I am a vindictive person. 0.934
2. Instead of justifying myself or apologizing, I usually begin accusing myself. 0.901
3. I do not tolerate objections. 0.877
4. I often draw the attention of relatives and close people to those minor actions of theirs that caused me inconvenience, and in which they are guilty before me. 0.865
5. I am often quarrelsome. 0.863
6. I usually try to keep at a distance and frighten away everyone who might encroach on a good place for me. 0.860
7. It is difficult for me to forgive others. 0.851
8. Sometimes, due to the properties of my character, I torment another person. 0.844
9. Other people’s mistakes irritate me. 0.839
10. If I am waiting while someone finishes a task, and he is not hurrying, then I barely restrain myself from wounding him, at least verbally. 0.833
11. I quickly judge others. 0.829
12. At least two or three times a week I have a prolonged bad, malicious mood, which I want to take out on someone. 0.819
13. I am often irritated by another opinion that differs from mine. 0.816
14. I know how to hate furiously. 0.811
15. I do not tolerate objections to my projects. 0.808
16. In response to someone’s questions, I sometimes have instantaneous flashes of irritable anger. 0.805
17. Sometimes I use demonstrative ignoring, demonstrative disrespect and contempt, in order to achieve my goal in relations with people. 0.799
18. Other people’s mistakes irritate me. 0.784
19. At times I am categorical in assessing the motives of other people’s actions; at times I hurry to condemn. 0.766
20. There is arrogance in my character. 0.757
21. Often in the mornings I irritatedly scold someone close to me. 0.754
22. I am secretive regarding my life, not always diplomatic, at times I flare up with anger or other negative emotions. 0.754
23. During quarrels I remind a person even of his very old sins. 0.745
24. Over the past month I have more than once had to experience feelings of contempt, disdain, even disgust toward people. 0.738
25. Troubles and evil done to me cut into my memory for a very long time and very distinctly — I would like to forget them, but I cannot. 0.709
26. With people I barely know, I am usually emphatically benevolent, but at home scandals are frequent for me. 0.685

DENIAL OF ITEMS:

27. It is true that I am a person who simply does not know how to hate someone or something. -0.942
28. I show tolerance toward the shortcomings and weaknesses of others — after all, everyone has weaknesses and shortcomings. -0.913
29. My frequent reaction to someone’s aggression is not to enter into confrontation, but, on the contrary, to try to lift the mood, smile, agree, encourage. -0.908
30. I am a gentle person who knows how to forgive. -0.869
31. As a rule, I forgive a person regardless of whether he deserves forgiveness or not. -0.833
32. When I feel someone’s growing aggressive attitude, I usually, in response, purely reflexively “lower my own revs,” trying gradually to pacify the situation. -0.794
33. I am sufficiently tolerant if an interlocutor in an argument distorts my words. -0.786
34. My emotionality exists at the level of a playfully bright mood emanating from me, my mobility, my unobtrusive friendly advice to people, light jokes, and gentle moralizing, but it does not claim to teach everyone how to live or to draw the public’s attention to itself. -0.758
35. For the sake of unity and harmony in the family, I am ready for many concessions. -0.739
36. I am not vindictive and, depending on circumstances and tasks, I easily restructure my moral evaluations and my system of relations with people. -0.737
37. It is clearly more pleasant to me when I am praised for a kind disposition, rather than for anything else. -0.714
38. I know how to live in quiet and unperturbed harmony with my surroundings, ignoring everything disappointing and wrong. -0.710
39. It is true that I do not know how to criticize and grumble; I derive no pleasure from it. -0.682
40. Practically always, I calmly and tolerantly regard other people’s differing views and opinions. -0.648

Cluster No. 35 Questimity. Tendency toward frustration of need; it is difficult to please him

AGREEMENT WITH ITEMS:

1. I often suffer from spleen — a bad disposition of spirit. 0.926
2. It is difficult for me to part with my dissatisfaction. 0.874
3. I often experience a feeling of disgust — almost daily for some reason. 0.864
4. I have such a trait that often everything is “not right” for me: the potatoes are too hot, and the oranges are too sour. 0.845
5. I often catch myself noticing some unpleasant sensations. 0.804
6. It is difficult to please me. 0.765
7. At least several times a week I experience a feeling of disgust from something. 0.749
8. I often have acute reactions of disappointment and dissatisfaction. 0.733
9. Alas, most often what one is given turns out either to be doubtful in quality or inappropriate. 0.726
10. I more often struggle with discomfort than experience coziness and convenience. 0.679
11. Sometimes in my soul I disagree with the opinion of senior management, on whom I depend. 0.615
12. I often share with people my dissatisfaction with something. 0.416

DENIAL OF ITEMS:

13. I have a cheerful, light, and completely unobtrusive disposition; I know how to receive joy from life and give it to others. -0.892
14. I like most people with whom I am acquainted. -0.892
15. In life, I have the role of a peaceful and unobtrusive optimist, with whom it is “always easy” to communicate. -0.856
16. I create my cheerful mood for myself and know how to transmit it to others. -0.792
17. Everything in the world is, in general, arranged well and reasonably. -0.683
18. The world is arranged reasonably, and everything in it is good, and there is no need to find fault with anything. -0.675
19. I know how to accept everything that life gives with gratitude and without fastidious grimaces. -0.668
20. Most dissatisfied people need to change not their surroundings, but their attitude toward reality. -0.655
21. When playing cards: 1) Hope for luck quickly evaporates if I begin to lose. 5) Even if I am losing, hope for luck and winning persists for a long time, fueling my interest with excitement. -0.460

Cluster No. 36 Questimity. Difficult to get out of bed in the morning

The probable cause of the property is probably that a questim has difficulty exiting an established state and does not like rapid sharp changes in his state. And again, the probable cause of this is the concentration of the insular cortex, activated in questims, on homeostasis.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. It is always difficult for me to get out of bed in the morning. 0.908
2. In the morning, when I have already woken up, for a long time I still do not want either to think or to do anything. 0.815

3. I always wake up early in the morning. -0.823

Cluster No. 37 Questimity. Stubbornness and Inflexibility of Position

1. Compared to others, I am more prone to showing stubbornness than to making compromises. 0.914
2. In communication with others, I often lack patience, endurance, and willingness to compromise and forgive. 0.904
3. I am very unyielding in relationships. 0.897
4. It is very difficult to convince me otherwise or to change a previously stated position on an issue. 0.876
5. I am stubborn in defending my position in matters - others’ arguments affect me only after repeated and strongly reasoned repetition. 0.875
6. Other people’s arguments very rarely change my already formed views on the interconnection of events. 0.872
7. I do not tolerate objections. 0.868
8. In a heated discussion, I invariably stick to my point and never compromise. 0.866
9. Others’ disagreement or misunderstanding only strengthen my protest and desire to insist on my correctness. 0.860
10. Sometimes people get angry at my stubbornness. 0.859
11. Others’ opposition only strengthens my stubbornness. 0.858
12. I am often intolerant of other points of view. 0.851
13. In the end, I always turn out to be right. 0.848
14. I am a very proud and self-confident person - some say I’m even arrogant. 0.843
15. People I work with in any activity must do everything my way - anything else may turn out poorly or incorrectly. 0.824
16. When faced with disagreement, I feel an increased desire to insist rather than to negotiate. 0.818
17. Once I start something, I “bite the bit” and become intolerant of objections. 0.802
18. In conversations, I more often object than support or agree. 0.797
19. My resistance increases with greater pressure. 0.791
20. I am more likely to stand on principle than to strive to reach a compromise for the sake of the matter. 0.790
21. I get irritated and don’t like listening when someone tries to talk me out of something. 0.783
22. If I don’t like the result myself, then I absolutely don’t care whether others like it or not. 0.764
23. In getting my way from others through persistence, I often lack flexibility. 0.755
24. What characterizes you more? (Here and below, instead of a rating from 1 to 5, indicate the number of the answer option) - 1) Willingness to join both sides - good can be found in everything. 5) Categorical rejection of uniting and reconciling with what is disgusting and unacceptable (“It makes me sick”, “Don’t feed me what I don’t eat”). 0.733
25. I know that I usually find it very difficult to give in, change plans, or adapt to circumstances. 0.701
26. I always defend my own independent position; others’ opinions rarely move me. 0.695
27. My views are rather firm than flexible. 0.694
28. Poor health can make me give up desires or cravings for something, but opposition from others - never. 0.683
29. There are issues in which my character is marked by great rebelliousness. 0.680
30. It’s hard to convince me otherwise once something gets stuck in my head. 0.673
31. If I’m sure I’m right about something, I don’t spend much time listening to other arguments. 0.655
32. I usually “let pass by” others’ attempts to change my views. 0.621
33. I am a deeply principled person. 0.618
34. I prefer to do everything myself, alone. 0.592
35. Facts always point to one specific thing; their conclusions don’t depend on perspective. Anything else is just deception and manipulation. 0.581
36. If something gets stuck in my head, it’s very hard for me to stop or slow down. 0.497

37. I often act quite differently than I initially wanted, because I easily give in to others’ requests. -0.872
38. I usually avoid giving negative and unflattering evaluations “to someone’s face”. -0.855
39. I allow others to push and guide me in tasks. -0.849
40. Sometimes I like when decisions are made for me. -0.830
41. I am not prone to stubbornness in defending truths - it’s easier to convince me than many others. -0.828
42. In arguments, I often admit the opponent is right. -0.806
43. Any conflict is an extremely unpleasant source of stress for me; therefore, in conflict situations, I’m usually the first to yield and compromise, even at the expense of the matter’s interests - just to relieve the tension. -0.800
44. I am compliant, affectionate, romantic, and unpredictable. -0.796
45. I am very tolerant even of “difficult people”, able to feel their motives and adapt to their weaknesses. -0.795
46. I allow others to push and guide me in tasks. -0.792
47. I owe my successes and achievements to many people. -0.788
48. I allow others to make decisions. -0.714
49. When it comes to choosing clothes, I easily compromise if my loved ones don’t like something. -0.712
50. For the sake of a group of friends, I often willingly sacrifice my initial plans. -0.691
51. I often make decisions on a whim, just to get the unpleasant process of choosing over with quickly. -0.657
52. I can see good in bad, and calmly, flexibly, and without regret, change my expectations or beliefs about something. -0.486

Cluster No. 38 Questimity. Strengthening of self-preservation reactions

Ensuring self-preservation reactions is one of the two main functions of the insular cortex, along with maintaining homeostasis (both of these tasks are solved by the insular cortex either independently or in cooperation with the center of consciousness — the final output comparator for choosing single decisions in cases where there is a problem not provided for solutions at the automatic unconscious level)

This cluster borders on the following clusters: stress avoidance, strengthening of pain stress, fastidiousness and disgust, aversion to violence and coercion. Accordingly, it gathers into itself a number of questions bordering on these clusters, but also includes questions not adjacent to these clusters: namely, those indicating habitual avoidance of risky situations (including physiological reactions of avoiding life-threatening risk) and frequent suspicious-hypochondriacal reactions.

LITERATURE:

1. ^ Gui Xue; Zhonglin Lu; Irwin P. Levin d.; Antoine Bechara (2010). “The impact of prior risk experiences on subsequent risky decision-making: the role of the insula.” NeuroImage. 50 (2): 709-716. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.12.097. PMC 2828040. PMID 20045470.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. It is very unpleasant for me to watch television scenes of surgical intervention on the human body, when the body is opened and internal organs are visible. 0.936
2. At great height, near the edge of a cliff, I immediately begin to experience a panicky feeling, trying to “press myself” into the surface. 0.888
3. A threat to my health always makes me nervous. 0.887
4. I carefully avoid being near people with colds — I am afraid of becoming infected. 0.881
5. I avoid everything painful or disgusting — I know that such things impress and irritate me more strongly than others. 0.876
6. I avoid looking at human mutilations — for me this is a very unpleasant sight. 0.872
7. The sight of diseases with open wounds and mutilations evokes in me the strongest desire to immediately move away and run from it, to run so as not to see anything like that. 0.862
8. I always tense up internally when I have to run across the road in dense traffic. 0.849
9. Other people’s fright is easily transmitted to me. 0.846
10. I am afraid of riding in a car in the front seat with a driver who drives recklessly and very fast. 0.837
11. Films where one fight follows another are frankly boring to me. 0.823
12. I am afraid of heights to such an extent that sometimes I feel uncomfortable even on a balcony. 0.808
13. I often worry about my health. 0.800
14. They say some people can run barefoot over hot coals — I could never do that, I am afraid of everything hot. 0.792
15. Even a weak threat to my life has always stopped me from taking action. 0.775
16. I often worry about my health. 0.774
17. Hypochondria is characteristic of me — I often think about some ailments, fearing them in advance. 0.765
18. I experience anxious agitation and become very upset if I see the suffering of animals. 0.761
19. I am afraid of walking along the edge of a cliff. 0.723
20. In childhood I was somewhat afraid of and avoided unfamiliar dogs, although they had never bitten me before. 0.711
21. During the coronavirus pandemic period (especially at the beginning), I strongly protected myself, fearing infection. 0.701
22. From nettle burns, strongly itching blisters quickly appear on my skin. 0.691
23. I sometimes have fear of death, fear of disappearance. 0.688
24. I think I have a very strong instinct of self-preservation. 0.685
25. From hypothermia, my chronic infections usually relapse. 0.681
26. Sometimes there arises a fear that I am about to suffocate, or that I will fall from a cliff, etc. 0.676
27. I am pursued by fear of death or fear of doing something insane. 0.673
28. It is characteristic of me to “wind up” illnesses, when falling ill, to assume the worst — immediately up to some fatal disease. 0.617
29. It has happened that I persistently pestered doctors, demanding indications for specific treatment, while they blamed all my malaise and pain on some supposedly emotional or nervous problems of mine. 0.508

30. I would like working at a meat-processing plant. -0.821
31. The anger of an interlocutor usually does not touch me and does not change my mood. -0.818
32. In what state do you more often go on the offensive against other people or their interests? 1) In a wound-up or dissatisfied state 5) In a calm and balanced state -0.811
33. With good pay, I would not be in the least embarrassed by the work of a veterinarian specializing in castrating domestic cats. -0.777
34. Compared with many of my friends, I get sick with all sorts of cold-related “runny noses” extremely rarely. -0.762
35. Provided sufficient salary, work in a hospice with incurably ill patients would suit me. -0.746
36. I would gladly jump with a parachute from a great height. -0.731
37. It is interesting for me to watch films about all sorts of genetic freaks. -0.706
38. I like watching films about horrifying alien creatures with poisonous saliva. -0.688
39. I would gladly swim deep underwater with scuba gear — I would not fail to take advantage of such an opportunity at the first suitable occasion. -0.680
40. I usually care little about the degree of risk. -0.569
41. Being in a new country, I would try its local exotic dishes with interest: fried scorpions and cockroaches, fried frogs, marinated snakes and jellyfish, etc. -0.541
42. Penalties often acted on me more effectively than praise. -0.528

Cluster No. 39 Questimity. Honesty and justice – a consequence of reduced stress tolerance and the drive for homeostatic stability

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Activity in the insular cortex (primarily the right anterior part, most closely associated with social emotions) is evidently involved in this cluster trait, since the insular cortex is linked to negative emotional perception of pain - not only one’s own, but also others’ - it plays a role in empathy mechanisms, and is responsible for the subject’s painful reaction (accompanied by disgust) to images of blood, trauma, violence, and infliction of physical harm. [1; 2; 3; 4; 5]

Questimity in the cluster (mainly in the form of a contrast between Qi and Qe on one side, and De on the other) accounts for 31% of the variance. An equally significant contribution to the cluster is made by the pole of judiciousness. In third place in terms of contribution is the static pole (primarily associated with adherence to stable life principles).

LITERATURE:

1. ^ Critchley, H.D., Wiens, S., Rotshtein, P., Ohman, A., Dolan, R.J. (February 2004). “Neural systems supporting interoceptive awareness.” Nat. Neurosci. 7 (2): 189–95. doi:10.1038/nn1176. hdl:21.11116/0000-0001-A2FB-D. PMID 14730305. S2CID 13344271.
2. ^ Wright, P., He, G., Shapira, N.A., Goodman, W.K., Liu, Y. (October 2004). “Disgust and the insular cortex: fMRI responses to pictures of mutilation and contamination.” NeuroReport. 15 (15): 2347–51. doi:10.1097/00001756-200410250-00009. PMID 15640753. S2CID 6864309.
3. ^ Jabbi, M., Bastiaansen, J., Keysers, C. (2008). In: Lamm, C. (ed.) “A common anterior insula representation of disgust observation, experience and imagination shows divergent functional connectivity pathways.” PLOS ONE. 3 (8): e2939. Bibcode:2008PLoSO…3.2939J. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002939. PMC 2491556. PMID 18698355.
4. ^ Sanfey, A.G., Rilling, J.K., Aronson, J.A., Nystrom, L.E., Cohen, J.D. (June 2003). “The neural basis of economic decision-making in the Ultimatum Game.” Science. 300 (5626): 1755–8. Bibcode:2003Sci…300.1755S. doi:10.1126/science.1082976. PMID 12805551. S2CID 7111382.
5. ^ Singer, T. (2006). “The neuronal basis and ontogeny of empathy and mind reading: review of literature and relevance for future research.” Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 30 (6): 855–63. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2006.06.011. PMID 16904182. S2CID 15411628.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. I react very painfully and sensitively to any injustice, whether committed against me or others. 0.959
2. I am irritated by any manifestations of social injustice. 0.926
3. I feel strong indignation when confronted with something obviously wrong or harmful. 0.925
4. Any surrounding injustice affects me. 0.913
5. When I see someone being blatantly taken advantage of, I almost always feel a desire to defend that person. 0.887
6. I am invariably repelled by any displays of laziness, lying, cruelty, and injustice in people. 0.874
7. I feel disgust toward any dishonesty in people. 0.855
8. Selfish behavior - when people think only about themselves and seriously let others down - always evokes contempt in me. 0.853
9. My weakness compared to others is that, unlike most, I can’t lie for any gain. 0.849
10. I often feel inner, barely restrained anger when witnessing someone else’s egocentric meanness. 0.758
11. I am strongly affected by many events happening in the world and in the country. 0.640

12. “You can’t sell without deceiving” – that’s normal. -0.946
13. I can easily and without hesitation take advantage of others, without bothering with moral considerations. -0.910
14. I enjoy it when I manage to deceive or “scam” someone a little. -0.907
15. For a worthy reward, I could run internet propaganda trash campaigns based on lies and twisted truths. -0.884
16. If I were a circus owner in the 19th century, like the famous entrepreneur Barnum, I’d enjoy making money by collecting and showing freaks to the public. -0.840
17. I enjoy others’ awkwardness and, if I get the chance, I try to record it on my iPhone. -0.822
18. I enjoy feeling like a “puppet master” in relationships. -0.811
19. I’ve made money by successfully pulling off a scam and tricking someone out of money. -0.802
20. I like saying outrageous things just to enjoy people’s reactions. -0.795
21. I always know how to use my family members and close friends. -0.794
22. It’s true that I dislike sincere and naïve civic activists in any form. -0.790
23. I’d enjoy inventing fraudulent schemes to take money from citizens. -0.783
24. I sometimes enjoy successfully deceiving someone. -0.774
25. One should serve their employer, not humanity. -0.774
26. I enjoy games where the goal is to successfully and cleverly deceive someone. -0.770
27. I’d make a good nitpicky lawyer: I can manipulate people and I’d enjoy playing around with fine facts and procedural points like piano keys. -0.753
28. A governor-commissioner should care much more (or even exclusively) about the interests of the country that appointed them, not the one they’re assigned to. -0.743
29. Sometimes I get the urge to quietly snatch a small item from a supermarket (not for profit, but for the thrill). -0.743
30. I think I’d enjoy working as an appraiser in a pawnshop or consignment store. -0.724
31. Privileges and advantages for a narrow circle of “one’s own” are always fine. -0.702
32. I firmly live by the motto: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” -0.692
33. I don’t care about the political system - I’ll manage just fine under any. -0.677
34. I love and respect snakes for their behavior. -0.674
35. I’d enjoy evaluating property for insurance purposes. -0.606

Cluster No. 40 Questimity. Egocentric ambition, including lack of interest in others’ opinions and weak consideration of others’ needs

The cluster manifests especially vividly in the combination of questimity with decisiveness and logic, and also, preferably, dynamics.

AGREEMENT WITH ITEMS:

1. If I am reproached for something, I feel neither shame nor repentance, I feel only reciprocal offense and the desire to insist on my own without fail. 0.916
2. I think first about myself, then about others. 0.900
3. Doing something for someone while forgetting about myself — well, that is not about me at all. 0.887
4. My personal goals are usually higher than those of the organization in which I work. 0.874
5. More than many, I am characterized by “healthy egocentrism”: everyone should first of all take care of himself, and of others afterward, and if asked. 0.852
6. Close people often accuse me of selfishness (whether fairly or not is unimportant). 0.812
7. I am deaf to objections when I am planning something or undertaking something. 0.795
8. In conversation I have a habit of separating myself from those around me (that is, I would rather ask a partner: “So are you going, finally?”, and would hardly ask: “So are we going, finally?” 0.774
9. I am often cruel and intolerant in communication with close people, and in an extreme situation I leave no room at all for pity and sympathy. 0.769
10. People who constantly demand concessions from others are strongly unpleasant to me. 0.767
11. When others demand urgency from me, and in general when I have to obey — this is a direct blow to my pride and self-sufficiency. 0.757
12. Absolutely no one influences my decisions. 0.752
13. I am a person more intelligent than most of my acquaintances. 0.745
14. I am absolutely always more confident in myself than in others. 0.743
15. What is more characteristic of you? - 1) A striving for wholeness and unity, readiness to unite people and unite with them. 5) Unwillingness to unite and to unite others. 0.738
16. As far as I am concerned, suffering is only a consequence of the imperfection of the world and of our own decisions within it, but in no way a punishment for something. And whoever is inclined to perceive suffering as deserved punishment is an idiot. 0.724
17. Sometimes I quarrel deliberately in order to get rid of someone intrusive. 0.717
18. I believe that every person, in his worldview, is the center around which both the sun and other people move in circles. 0.709
19. I am more often offended by others than I reproach myself for anything. 0.671
20. I am distinguished by great pride. 0.670
21. Only outstanding personalities like myself will understand me. 0.666
22. I am one of those who will never go to work as a washerwoman. 0.662
23. I seek contacts only with special, chosen people, as outstanding or gifted as myself. 0.647
24. I should not be bound by rules that apply to other people. Rules are for mediocrities, which I am not. 0.645
25. People who try to cast doubt on my high logical abilities usually evoke hatred, strong irritation, or at least a desire to immediately put them in their place and punish them exemplary. 0.634
26. The word “I” is one of my most frequent and commonly used words. 0.597
27. It is usually difficult for me to fully agree with any other person’s project or opinion. 0.588
28. In my strong passions, as a rule, I ignore how they may affect other people’s feelings. 0.568
29. It is true that I strongly dislike people who consider themselves smarter or more experienced than me and interfere with their life advice. 0.559

DENIAL OF ITEMS:

30. I am more inclined than others to sacrifice my interests for other people or the common good. -0.909
31. I am usually ready to sacrifice my interests and views for the sake of general agreement. -0.903
32. In this life I work for others, and this suits me. -0.854
33. When making some decision, I always take into account the opinion of my friends or fellow students. -0.836
34. I have often, on my own initiative, sacrificed personal interests for common ones. -0.829
35. I am connected with many people and depend on many people. -0.807
36. Choosing only one of three jackets equally suitable for me in a store is a difficult task for me; I prefer the help of other people here. -0.798
37. I often immerse myself in the feelings of my friends. -0.782
38. I am strongly suggestible to other people’s needs. -0.780
39. I often consider another person as if he were a continuation of myself. -0.770
40. Sometimes I admonish close people in approximately this spirit: “Do not take offense! The offended are made to carry water. Do not resist. Humble your pride. Pride is your worst enemy. You will yield, and others will yield to you. Do not hold malice, forgive. You will forgive and you will be forgiven. We all make mistakes. Do not hold evil. One must not be evil. No one loves evil and touchy people. But those who forgive easily and do not take offense are loved by everyone.” -0.764
41. The interests, problems, and desires of other people are law for me. -0.754
42. It is very important to me that people smile when they see me — the need for approval is very strong in me. -0.727
43. I need other people to help me make decisions or tell me what to do. -0.715
44. When I am upset or offended by someone, I usually try for some time to mentally “put myself in that person’s skin.” -0.684
45. I often dislike myself. -0.591

Cluster No. 41 Questimity. Egocentric pride, does not tolerate submission, prefers to remain independent in any interaction situation

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. I find it extremely unpleasant to feel dependent on someone. 0.854
2. It’s true that I absolutely cannot tolerate or forgive crude coercion. 0.784
3. You won’t get anything from me through force. 0.696

4. Sometimes it’s pleasant to feel submissive and experience humiliation. -0.977
5. At times, I catch myself subconsciously enjoying playing a dependent role in relationships with strong and aggressive people, while being a bit capricious and provocative. -0.964
6. I sometimes enjoy being humiliated and even experiencing moderate pain. -0.938
7. Sometimes I want my partner to punish me. -0.934
8. I easily and secretly enjoy surrendering to confident, aggressively assertive people who never back down. -0.919
9. In relationships with domineering people, I like playing the role of a submissive victim. -0.915
10. I value strong, demanding, authoritarian people who can guide and control me. -0.879
11. Bowing low to the strong and ruling is no sin. -0.874
12. It’s beneficial for me to be controlled. -0.855
13. I know how to adapt to the strong. -0.842
14. In a team with developed subordination relationships, I feel: 1) Uncomfortable. 5) Comfortable. -0.814
15. To be especially persistent in achieving my plans, I need some aggressive pressure from outside. -0.799
16. I need to be in a dependent position to maintain a good relationship with someone who patronizes me. -0.773
17. I know how to convincingly feign agreement for a time, while internally feeling strong protest. -0.734
18. I’ve had this odd psychological illusion: I look in the mirror and for a few seconds I can’t see myself (other reflected objects are visible, but not me, even though I should be). -0.650
19. I’m better than others at obeying orders. -0.646
20. I feel better when I am led and follow others. -0.640

Cluster No. 42 Questimity. Aestheticism as a picky striving for maximum harmony of sensations (so that there are no “rough edges” — a consequence of strengthened values of the organism’s internal homeostasis)

From this, Qe (mainly responsible for this property) often also gives rise to a tendency toward OCD.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. In choosing food, I am an aesthete. 0.931
2. Any discomfort strongly irritates me. 0.897
3. If a person comes to me poorly and carelessly dressed, I may perceive this as a bad and disrespectful attitude toward me. 0.856
4. There must be space for movement in a room, therefore everything unnecessary — out of it. Only then do I feel comfortable. 0.845
5. I am picky about food. 0.843
6. It would be intolerable for me, even as a joke or disguise, to be dressed like a bum. 0.829
7. It irritates me when people put the stress on the wrong syllables in speech; I always want to correct them. 0.785
8. I am very sensitive to smells. 0.785
9. I am picky about the quality of pleasures. 0.775
10. I take offense if no one notices how remarkable I look that day. 0.750
11. I very much dislike any irregularities and roughness on my skin — therefore, for example, if I feel a hangnail on my finger, I immediately remove it; otherwise it will irritate me all the time. 0.748
12. I am squeamish about buying products in cheap stores. 0.723
13. I am very demanding regarding the quality of the services provided to me. 0.714
14. I am sensitive to the temperature of the surrounding air, and usually regulate the room temperature several times a day (with the help of vents, an air conditioner, etc.) 0.691
15. In aesthetics, I prefer symmetry and ideal “crystalline” completeness. 0.683
16. When deadlines are suddenly moved without warning, I become furious and, as a rule, arrange verbal reprimands. 0.680
17. What do you more often do in your thoughts? (indicate the number of the more suitable answer option)- 1) Construct or imagine a sequence of some actions, sensations, or events 5) Estimate how much some individual object or person corresponds to my requirements, that is, fits the sought parameters 0.591
18. I have a somewhat obsessive habit of searching for and squeezing out small blackheads and pimples on myself. 0.542

19. The disorderliness of someone else’s household life, if I come into contact with that household life, cannot in any way lead me either to irritation or embarrassment. -0.892

Cluster No. 43 Questimity. Feels himself to be a special person — not ordinary, not like everyone else

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. I am — truly a special, outstanding person. This should be obvious to those around me. 0.855
2. I shun everything ordinary, gray, and unattractive — I am afraid of becoming “infected” by it myself. 0.843
3. I am a person proud of my uniqueness and unrepeatability. 0.822
4. It is always important and necessary for me in every situation to feel my superiority (thanks to intelligence, knowledge, or something else). 0.806
5. I believe that in my intellect I surpass 90% or even 99% of all other people. 0.796
6. Other people must understand and value how special I am. 0.792
7. Which plot (of the two proposed) is more to your liking in adventure or science-fiction literature? 1) A lone hero encounters an environment initially alien to him, but is gradually absorbed by it, submits to it, and precisely on this path he achieves perfection. Because this environment (forest, planet, unknown tribe) is better and more perfect than the hero who entered it. 5) A lone hero courageously opposes the surrounding environment and defeats it, forcing it to submit and accept his conditions. The hero is endowed with numerous initial merits, while the environment hostile to him is limited and imperfect, and therefore worthy of destruction or remaking. 0.786
8. I feel myself to be a person who is better and, in almost everything, “above” others. 0.776
9. In my emotional daydreams, I have more than once imagined myself in the future in the role of leader of a large group of people. 0.766
10. I am much better than most other people. 0.765
11. Sweeping up trash after someone is always humiliating. 0.764
12. For most of my life I have been a person with great ambitions and a claim to high status. 0.747
13. There are people who, with their rigid system of prohibitions and lectures, constantly try to knock down my pride and extinguish my radiance. 0.744
14. If I obey rules in the way those around me do and expect, this restricts me, humiliates me, or irritates me. 0.724
15. If I am told that I am similar to others in something, then for me this is almost an insult. 0.695
16. It is very important for me constantly to feel that another person perceives me as a unique personality. 0.614

17. I can easily imagine myself in the role of an ordinary worker at a large enterprise. Why not? -0.925
18. I know that I am not some special person. -0.893
19. I consider myself the most ordinary person. -0.889
20. I know that I am not some special person. -0.849
21. I am like everyone else, and I want to be like everyone else — neither smarter nor more stupid, neither worse nor better. -0.824
22. I like being like everyone else. -0.812
23. I differ little from other people. -0.794

Cluster No. 44 Questimity. Increased skin sensitivity

Increased skin sensitivity (up to irritation from other people touching one’s skin) is again associated with activation of the insular cortex.

Thus, physiological studies on rhesus macaques showed that neurons of the insular zone respond to skin stimulation.[1] PET studies have also shown that the human insular cortex can also be activated by vibrational stimulation of the skin.[2]

Incidentally, in those questims whose skin sensitivity is painfully increased, this is often another reason for intensified defense of their “personal space” from outsiders (my father, ILE, an accentuated judicious questim and military engineer, was like this — a man of the kindest and widely open soul, but he was deathly afraid of any tickling. - V.T.)

LITERATURE:

1. ^ Schneider, Richard J.; Friedman, David P.; Mishkin, Mortimer (1993-09-03). “A modality-specific somatosensory area within the insula of the rhesus monkey.” Brain Research. 621 (1): 116-120. doi:10.1016/0006-8993(93)90305-7. ISSN 0006-8993.
2. ^ Burton, H.; Videen, T. O.; Raichle, M. E. (January 1993). “Tactile-vibration-activated foci in insular and parietal-opercular cortex studied with positron emission tomography: mapping the second somatosensory area in humans.” Somatosensory and Motor Research. 10 (3): 297–308. doi:10.3109/08990229309028839. ISSN 0899-0220.
3. ^ Olausson H., Charron J., Marchand S., Villemure S., Strigo I.A., Bushnell M.C. (November 2005). “Feelings of warmth correlate with neural activity in right anterior insular cortex.” Neurosci. Lett. 389 (1): 1-5. doi:10.1016 / j.neulet.2005.06.065. PMID 16051437. S2CID 20068852.
4. ^ Craig A.D., Chen K., Bandy D., Reiman E.M. (February 2000). “Thermosensory activation of insular cortex.” Nat. Neurosci. 3 (2): 184-90. doi:10.1038/72131. PMID 10649575. S2CID 7077496.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS: (numbers after the questions are the coefficients of correlation of the socionic profile of the question with the profile of the entire whole cluster scale)

1. I react very painfully to others’ touch and unpleasant smells. 0.957
2. I am afraid of tickling; I dislike even conversations about it. 0.864
3. My skin is very sensitive to touch (sometimes even painfully sensitive). 0.821
4. I have delicate skin that is easily irritated. 0.818
5. In public transport I very much dislike it if the skin of my hands is accidentally touched by the skin of other people’s hands. 0.781
6. I have skin sensitive to pain and even to simple touch. 0.721
7. I avoid touching a glass of hot tea with my hand — I know that I will not hold it for long. 0.648

Cluster No. 45 Questimity. Increased visceral sensitivity (in particular, to the filling of one’s stomach, bladder, to painful sensations in internal organs, etc.)

1. After eating, I often have a dull diffuse pain in the left hypochondrium or left side, sometimes involving the central part of the abdomen below the sternum. 0.980
2. Even when taking a small amount of food, I have a sensation of fullness of the stomach, with a feeling of “heaviness” in the epigastric area. 0.961
3. I am often bothered by heaviness in the stomach area. 0.867
4. Sometimes it seems to be time to urinate, but I cannot; I cannot manage to tense the bladder. 0.687
5. I am often bloated. 0.599

Cluster No. 47 Questimity. Pronounced dependence on pleasant sensations and pleasant activities, cannot tear himself away

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. I am always concerned with my convenient and comfortable state of well-being; I will never work through force and through great fatigue. 0.873
2. Giving up some habits, even harmful ones, is extremely difficult for me — immediately everything in the depths of my soul begins to rebel against such an unpleasant encroachment on depriving me of something. 0.840
3. It is very difficult for me to tear myself away from an already begun pleasure. 0.837
4. It is very difficult for me to give up pleasures for which I have prepared myself. 0.811
5. I have a habit of putting off unpleasant tasks. 0.795
6. If something does not work out for me, thereby straining me, I can often drop the work and say: - …To hell with you! 0.761
7. If the solution of some task in tests does not come quickly, I immediately abandon it and move on. 0.717
8. To be honest, I easily develop dependence on some habitually pleasant but useless activity, or on medicines that improve mood (this dependence is then difficult to overcome — I remember it, and am again strongly drawn to it). 0.660
9. It is usually very difficult for me to tear myself away from an activity that is pleasant to me. 0.544

10. I can easily postpone pleasure until later or give it up altogether if I am called to help with something. -0.815
11. Usually I easily suppress and control all untimely needs of the organism. -0.657
12. I easily control food and drink; I can not eat and not drink, I can eat and drink, and at any moment I can stop. -0.656
13. I easily control my physical sensations; if I wish, I can completely ignore them. -0.617
14. I can strengthen or weaken certain desires and drives of mine if, with my mind, I find this useful and necessary for myself at the corresponding moment. -0.573

Cluster No. 51 Questimity. The feeling of doubt — the anterior insular lobe compares anticipation with actuality, receiving or not receiving a dissonance signal. Weakening of the functions of the anterior insula leads to a feeling of certainty, as well as to the appearance of ecstatic experiences of “revelation”

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. If a person rarely doubts, then he does not know how to think either. 0.752
2. I am inclined to analyze everything I encounter. 0.743
3. I constantly pose questions to myself, the answers to which I then search for. 0.736
4. I often use the words: “maybe,” “it is possible,” “possibly.” 0.734
5. The profession of historian-researcher would suit me very well. 0.730
6. I often pose some questions to myself in order to answer them myself. 0.710
7. Being a skeptic by nature, I am subject to frequent doubts and hesitations, and notice all the contradictions and imperfections of the surrounding world. 0.709
8. I usually continue thinking after already having made a decision, and sometimes change my mind. 0.708
9. I am characterized by an impulse to often rethink my goals, subjecting them to regular rechecking and doubt. 0.667
10. Which motto is closer to you? 1) Everything is simpler than it seems. 5) Everything is more complicated than it seems. 0.656
11. What would you like to give people? - 1) Freedom from doubts 5) Freedom of choice 0.641
12. Until I check it independently, I sometimes doubt even what is written in textbooks. 0.625
13. I believe that a person who does not know how to doubt is usually simply stupid. 0.601
14. Having done something, I doubt whether I acted correctly. 0.553
15. Notes of distrust and doubt often slip through in my voice. 0.451
16. I often doubt the information I am given. 0.394
17. I often doubt people’s feelings toward me, and therefore often try to test them somehow. 0.365
18. If I begin to doubt something or someone, then this lasts for a long time, and it is unlikely to be easy for anyone to convince me that these doubts are groundless. 0.142

19. A reliable person must know how to believe sacredly, without subjecting things to doubt and without reasoning. -0.828
20. I know how to execute without reasoning. -0.745
21. As an executor, I do not ask unnecessary questions and do not experience doubts in the course of the matter. -0.697
22. Which are you closer to? - 1) Doubts 5) Certainty -0.634
23. What is more valuable? - 1) The right to choose 5) The absence of doubts -0.489
24. As a rule, I make decisions without doubts and hesitations, quickly and finally. -0.414
25. I am almost always completely confident in myself, without a shadow of doubt, hesitation, or reflection. -0.412
26. My judgments are always unambiguous, without residual doubts. -0.296

Feelings of certainty (and, as a consequence, unreasoning executiveness) are connected among questim-declatim functions, as we see, predominantly with the strengthening of Di. And Di, in turn (according to the correlations with unilateral epileptic foci in the insular cortex shown in cluster No. 50), is associated with suppression of the functions of the right-hemispheric insular cortex. Taking into account neuroscience data on the connection of the function of doubt as a whole with the anterior insular cortex, we obtain that doubtless “unreasoning executiveness,” with an additional sensory shade, is generated predominantly through suppression of the activity of the right anterior insular cortex.

Cluster No. 52 Questimity. Uncharacteristic nature of ecstatic experiences of sudden insight into absolute and unquestionable truth

CLUSTER QUESTIONS: “NO”:

1. What’s happening around me - though quite ordinary in essence - sometimes (and for no reason at all) suddenly begins to seem very interesting and unusual, as if it is about to trigger a revelation. -0.928
2. I sometimes have effects like illuminations, sudden insights into “the essence of things,” which for a while seem very important and significant - but after an hour or two, I recall these “illuminations” as frankly banal and false, and I’m surprised I ever found them significant. -0.873
3. Sometimes it seems to me that what’s happening around suddenly acquires a kind of special significance (even though in reality nothing special is going on). -0.843
4. Occasionally, I experience strong religious or spiritual feelings, as if I sense in those moments the presence of God or some kind of absolute blissful truth “here and now.” -0.751

Here, the role of questimity itself is heavily overshadowed by the strong influence of intuition–sensorics. But this is precisely where it’s useful to note that questimity is by no means the only socionic trait associated with the insular cortex. The insular cortex also performs many sensory functions, integrating sensory information.

That is, this trait (specifically, negative responses to the four scale questions) reflects not so much questimity per se, but rather the activity of the insular cortex. In other words, for an active insular cortex, isolated “revelations of absolute and unquestionable truth” that lack critical evaluation are not characteristic.

Later, we will present more similar traits, where again questimity itself is secondary to sensorics but the traits themselves are highly indicative of an active insular cortex. For example, the uncharacteristic nature of depersonalization symptoms, the uncharacteristic nature of productive symptoms in the schizotypal spectrum (illusions and hallucinations), and so on. The insular cortex is, in fact, very competent in resisting such perceptual errors.

Moreover, the activity of the insula contributes both to questimity (its primary function) and to sensorics (considering all clusters, it turns out to be predominantly Si, which is not surprising, since the insular cortex mainly collects and integrates Si-signals from the body - primarily tactile and proprioceptive ones from internal organs such as the stomach, heart, bladder, etc., as well as gustatory and olfactory signals, and to a lesser extent, visual, and even less so, auditory).

Overall, Si heavily depends on the activity and competence of the insular cortex (although it also depends on many other brain regions, including the neocortex, thalamus, and others).

Cluster No. 53 Questimity. Irreligiosity (because questimity doubts and accepts nothing on faith)

CLUSTER QUESTIONS:

1. There is no God and there cannot be one; I am a definite atheist. 0.828
2. I believe that true faith in God does not need a church. 0.807

3. I believe that a person cannot live a normal and happy life if he does not realize and feel that he is a continuation and instrument of someone’s higher will governing him. -0.875
4. In order not to lose mental stability, one must necessarily always feel that someone strict stands above him — if not a superior, then at least God. -0.872
5. Without religion there is no morality either. -0.867
6. I believe in one true religion. -0.842
7. Faith for me stands above any doubts. -0.826
8. Probably, in other times I could quite well have become a religious fanatic. -0.763
9. Church or other, even civic, rituals and ceremonies appeal to me because of their solemnity. -0.742
10. I attend church services. -0.646
11. I want people to strictly observe religious rules and traditions. -0.483
12. I am in favor of people strictly observing religious rules and traditions. -0.482

Apparently, the property of “irreligiosity” is correlated with the activity of the right anterior insular cortex, which is accompanied by strengthening of Qi and partly Te, with simultaneous weakening of Di and partly Fe.

Cluster No. 60 Questimity. Easily identifies priority desires

Questimity acts in this property as the second most influential factor, after extraversion. The functions primarily responsible for the property are Se, Fe, and Qe, while Di and Ti hinder it.

AGREEMENT WITH ITEMS:

1. My desires are sometimes so strong that I do not like waiting; I prefer to achieve everything directly and immediately, “by hook or by crook,” at any cost. 0.925
2. It is difficult for me to restrain my desires — I always strongly want something. 0.914
3. When I want something, I must necessarily obtain it. 0.899
4. My motto could be: “Everything, now, and immediately!” 0.882
5. It is often difficult for me to restrain impatience while waiting for something — I am generally impatient by character. 0.877
6. If someone or something catches my fancy, I must necessarily possess it. 0.846
7. I like spending money. 0.796
8. Other people must satisfy my needs. 0.794
9. If I liked some thing, I must have it almost immediately. 0.785
10. I always instantly “come to attention” at the smell of anticipation of something pleasant, immediately begin “following the trail.” 0.754
11. I can be obsessive in my behavior or in my desires. 0.718
12. If some desire arises in my head, I rush to satisfy it immediately, forgetting about everything else. 0.699
13. Almost always I need something precisely now, at this very minute, not later. 0.660
14. I am almost always occupied with striving toward some next pleasure promising joy. 0.504
15. The world of surrounding stimuli is very contrasted for me — there are objects that strongly repel me and evoke panicked disgust with a desire to keep as far away as possible, and there are those that irresistibly attract me with the promise of pleasure. 0.459

DENIAL OF ITEMS:

16. My mood is somehow excessively “even,” excessively apathetic and passive; there is a noticeable lack of motivations, of “taste for life.” -0.759
17. I can rarely say of myself: “right now I precisely crave and strongly want this.” -0.748
18. I usually expect others to take on the role of leader and lead me. -0.706
19. I am rarely strongly drawn to anything — it seems I can do without everything. -0.695
20. The greatest respect in this life is deserved by those who know how to “step on the throat of their own song.” -0.649
21. I do not suffer from depression, but I have a problem with my “WANT” — often I want nothing or cannot figure out what I want. -0.604
22. It is usually difficult for me to identify priority desires. -0.247
23. What is more characteristic of you? - 1) The high from being carried away by something. 5) The high from the awareness of the stability, solidity, and protectedness of one’s position. -0.059

Cluster No. 61 Questimity. Need to be first. Champion, the very-very best. Enviousness, jealousy over attention and fame

After extraversion, questimity (but only “black,” Qe) is the second largest factor provoking this property.

AGREEMENT WITH ITEMS:

1. I feel jealous if, in company, general attention is diverted from me to someone else. 0.967
2. I feel jealous if, in company, general attention is diverted from me to someone else. 0.960
3. I must be the center of attention. It is impossible that someone else should be the center of attention while I quietly observe from the side. 0.890
4. I like to brag a little and show off. 0.888
5. It is very important for me “to be the very first,” to demonstratively achieve success in sports, business, or other spheres — but necessarily those that are especially valued by society. 0.888
6. In order to feel happy, I need to be the center of attention of those around me. 0.881
7. In which direction do you more often differ from the “average person”? - 1) Toward greater modesty 5) Toward greater satisfaction with oneself, satisfaction with one’s status and successes (and sometimes — demonstratively) 0.879
8. I am jealous of those who become the center of attention in the company of my friends. 0.870
9. If I have no subordinates, I feel uncomfortable, “not in my element.” 0.859
10. The most terrible thing for me would be suddenly to feel like an unnoticed gray mouse in society. 0.851
11. Everything I have is the “coolest,” and I myself am also the “coolest.” 0.832
12. I always enjoy listening to praise — even if it is not entirely sincere. 0.805
13. Whatever work I am engaged in, I absolutely need to be the most important person in it. 0.802
14. I like taking selfies and posting these photos online. 0.791
15. I often post my selfies on social networks. 0.788
16. I often admire myself. 0.769
17. I have had conflicts because those around me failed to recognize my merits and achievements. 0.727

DENIAL OF ITEMS:

18. Envy and rivalry are clearly not my thing. -0.839
19. I will never talk about my connections and acquaintances; I will avoid this topic of conversation. -0.837
20. Even if I have free money, I see no need to spend money on business class on an airplane if one can fly economy class twice as cheaply. -0.806
21. It is true that I do not like bright clothing; I would feel uncomfortable in it. -0.793
22. I am suspicious of compliments when they are given to me. -0.784
23. There are people who could quite well take my place and successfully continue my affairs. -0.687

Cluster No. 68 Questimity. Syntonic contagious susceptibility to others’ emotions, both positive and negative (but especially negative). A consequence of increased sensitivity of dopaminergic mirror neurons in the anterior insular cortex

Questimity accounts for 15% of the variance of this property (a substantially greater weight, 48%, belongs to ethics). A number of neuroimaging studies have directly shown that mirror neurons of the anterior insular cortex take direct part in acts of empathy. Hence, obviously, the connection of the property with questimity.

AGREEMENT WITH ITEMS:

1. Watching certain scenes from films is quite capable of “knocking” a tear out of me. 0.929
2. If a close person cries, tears also come to my own eyes. 0.916
3. I easily become “infected” by others’ anxiety. 0.903
4. I often become sad when I watch sad things on television or in cinema. 0.890
5. I am very receptive. 0.875
6. I almost always feel the pain of a close relative as my own. 0.872
7. A nearby person with a sad, dejected face, as a rule, spoils my mood too. 0.859
8. Some moments in films I watch may quite well bring an involuntary tear to my eyes. 0.814
9. If I communicate with a person experiencing misfortune, I begin to feel anxiety and depression almost the same as he does. 0.758
10. When I watch a good film, I can easily put myself in the place of the leading hero, and I find myself in the tension of developing events together with him, almost as if on the other side of the screen. 0.671

DENIAL OF ITEMS:

11. It is true that other people’s scandals at work do not interfere with my work in any way; I know how to ignore them completely. -0.902
12. My mood is difficult to spoil from the outside, and also difficult to raise. -0.820
13. If I wish to ignore some person or some object, then I practically stop noticing him or it near me. -0.813
14. My mood usually depends little on others; it is difficult to spoil it, but likewise it is not easy to raise it from the outside. -0.772
15. When watching films, I rarely empathize with victims, even if I follow the relationships of the characters with interest — I know how to separate my feelings from others’ well. -0.754

Cluster No. 70 Questimity. Normal swallowing function, no symptoms of functional dysphagia (high competence of the posterior insular cortex, in addition to other factors not connected with it — such as sufficiently high acetylcholine tone and absence of demyelinating diseases)

According to neuroimaging data, the insular cortex participates in ensuring acts of swallowing [1]. Accordingly, weakening of the functions of the insular cortex may lead to problems in acts of swallowing, that is, to dysphagia.

It participates in ensuring these acts, however, far from alone, as evidenced by the rather modest share of questimity’s contribution to the property (and even if one takes into account that not only questim functions, but also, to a considerable degree, sensory functions, especially Si functions, are connected with the insular cortex, its contribution to ensuring this property still hardly exceeds half of its variance — the main role in the act of swallowing is nevertheless performed by the much more ancient swallowing centers of the medulla oblongata and pons, and much also depends on their connection with oropharyngeal nerve receptors, hence the connection with the vagus nerve).

As for the undoubted contribution of the insular cortex to the act of swallowing as well (for the act of swallowing this is practically the highest-level and terminal controlling structure), then, as we will now see after a brief analysis of details connected with acts of swallowing, both cholinergic and dopaminergic mechanisms may be involved in ensuring them in the insular cortex.

So, what is known about functional dysphagias (the scale questions refer specifically to them; non-functional dysphagias occur much more rarely in the population and cannot give any pronounced correlations with psychotypes). Dysphagia (difficulty in the act of swallowing) is often connected with weakening of the tone of the vagus nerve. Functional dysphagias on the basis of neuropathy often correlate, according to the literature, with anxiety — especially with social anxiety, depressiveness, and obsessions — but there is no connection with hysteria; however, there is a positive connection of dysphagia with logic — in the form of alexithymia, inability to express one’s emotions (this already suggests a connection of dysphagias with the logical-declatim pole)

In medicine, a strong positive connection of the symptom is also noted with intrapunitive, self-directed hostility (self-blame, feelings of inferiority, and self-flagellation). Let us note immediately that intrapunitive aggression in our own questionnaire studies is connected with weakening of the functions of the insular cortex, negatively correlating with questimity, and is one of its negative markers. This alone already indirectly confirms the connection of dysphagias with strengthening of the declatim pole and weakening of the tone of some areas of the insular cortex.

Dysphagias also have a strong connection with a tendency toward somatization of affect. In the case of dysphagias, among many other things, low acetylcholine can be assumed as a causal factor — for a decrease in ACh, firstly, contributes to dryness of the throat and, secondly, hinders contraction of the striated muscles of the throat, thereby preventing swallowing. High (above +0.75) correlations of the socionic profile of normal swallowing function with profiles of the property of sufficient moistening of mucous membranes confirm at least the partial conditioning of the absence of functional dysphagias by high acetylcholine tone of the CNS (obviously, due to this, in the socionic profile of the property, its high conditioning by sensory functions is obtained, and Se in the first place — it is precisely with them that the acetylcholine tone of the CNS is connected). But this is clearly not the only reason influencing the absence or appearance of functional dysphagias.

In order to clarify the questim part of the conditioning of this property, additionally coming out to the DOPAMINE factor, let us pay attention to the fact that in our study the socionic profile of the property has the highest correlation (+0.9 — the highest correlation among all properties not directly connected with dysphagias) with the property of regularity of menstruation in women (a sample of more than one and a half thousand women). The latter property (it will be examined by us in more detail later), in turn, is directly connected with low, suppressed prolactin in the CNS and, obviously, high dopamine in the tuberoinfundibular pathway of dopamine neurons in the CNS (the point is that a high level of dopamine production in the hypothalamus, with its further transfer to the pituitary gland and action on the dopamine D2 receptors located there, is practically the only significant factor limiting and reducing the concentration of prolactin in the blood).

In a little more detail, the tuberoinfundibular pathway transfers dopamine from the hypothalamus to the pituitary gland. The tuberoinfundibular pathway is one of the subsystems (systems, tracts, pathways) of the dopaminergic system of the brain. It is formed by dopaminergic neurons of the arcuate nucleus of the mediobasal hypothalamus, projecting their axons into the median eminence. The dopamine they release regulates prolactin secretion by the anterior pituitary gland (reducing prolactin release through excitation of dopamine D2 receptors).

The concentration of prolactin may rise due to various hormonal influences (thus, in the third trimester of pregnancy its concentration in the blood increases 10 or more times), but the concentration of prolactin can mainly decrease only due to dopamine and its artificial agonists, such as bromocriptine (acetylcholine and the hormone progesterone are also capable of limiting prolactin, but their ability to do this is significantly weaker). Since dopamine is practically the only limiter of prolactin, evolution has even developed a mechanism of positive influence of prolactin itself on dopamine concentration. Excessively high concentrations of prolactin lead to increased production of dopamine in the hypothalamus, and that in turn already reduces the release of prolactin from the pituitary gland. [2]

Serotonin and oxytocin, as well as a number of other female sex hormones (estrogens), are capable of stimulating the release of prolactin into the blood from the pituitary gland. During pregnancy, as was said, the concentration of prolactin in the blood jumps several times. Under normal regulation of prolactin, that is, outside pregnancy and outside cases of pituitary tumors, prolactin tone has a pronounced negative correlation with dopamine. On the basis of this, one can even roughly estimate the level of central dopaminergic activity by the existing concentration of prolactin in the blood (the more prolactin there is, the lower, on the contrary, dopaminergic activity and concentrations of free dopamine in the CNS are) [3].

Delays, irregularity in the onset of menstruation (oligomenorrhea) in most cases are caused by an increase in the concentration of prolactin in the blood. With an increase in prolactin concentration, hyperprolactinemia inhibits the secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) by the hypothalamus, which, in turn, inhibits the release of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) by the pituitary gland, which leads to delayed menstruation [4] This condition is called lactational amenorrhea; it provides contraceptive protection to nursing mothers. Prolactin also affects the level of insulin in the blood, increasing insulin. An increased level of insulin in the blood leads to increased appetite and growth of serotonin. As a consequence, obesity occurs (40-60% of cases with hyperprolactinemia).

Thus, dopamine and the concentration of luteinizing hormone-releasing factor (LHRF), on the one hand, and on the other hand prolactin, insulin, and serotonin, turn out to be connected by bilateral negative feedback.

The connection of questimity with a low level of prolactin (accordingly, elevated dopamine), which will be shown later in the property of regularity of menstruation, demonstrates that not only the mesolimbic, but also the tuberoinfundibular dopamine pathway, transferring dopamine from the hypothalamus to the pituitary gland, turns out to be POSITIVELY correlated with the activity (elevated tone) of the insular cortex (either this cortex as a whole, or at least part of its areas connected with ensuring normal swallowing function). From the close correlation of the socionic profiles of unobstructed swallowing function with the profiles of highly regular menstruation, one can also make a second important conclusion (at least a tentative one): that dopaminergic neurons play an important role in ensuring swallowing functions in the insular cortex. And this is another argument in favor of the important role of dopamine in ensuring the main functions of the insular cortex — the first argument in favor of the role of dopamine in the insula is the important role of the insular cortex in ensuring empathy (carried out through the mediation of dopaminergic mirror neurons of the anterior insular cortex).

LITERATURE:

1. ^ Sörös P., Inamoto Y., Martin R.E. (August 2009). “Functional brain imaging of swallowing: an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis.” Hum Brain Mapp. 30 (8): 2426-39. doi: 10.1002/hbm.20680. PMC 6871071. PMID 19107749. S2CID 15438676.
2. Gubernatorov E.E., Gerasimov G.A. Dopaminergic control of prolactin secretion regulation (Review of experimental and clinical studies). Problems of Endocrinology. 1994;40(5):55-59. doi.org/10.14341/p…
3. Gorobets Lyudmila Nikolaevna. Prolactin as a biomarker of the state of the dopaminergic system in patients with a first psychotic episode. - Social and Clinical Psychiatry; 2016, vol.26, No.4.
4. Vilar, Lucio; Vilar, Clarice Freitas; Lyra, Rui; Freitas, Maria da Conceição (2019). “Pitfalls in the diagnostic evaluation of hyperprolactinemia.” Neuroendocrinology. 109(1): 7–19. doi: 10.1159/000499694 . ISSN1423-0194. PMID30889571.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS

DENIAL OF ITEMS:

1. Sometimes I cannot swallow liquid — a “lump in the throat” arises. -0.915
2. Even when I am not ill with either tonsillitis or a cold, I have (once a week or more often) unpleasant sensations in the throat — with a feeling of “dryness,” “roughness,” the presence as if of “some wall in the esophagus,” so that sometimes it is physically difficult to swallow. -0.911
3. Sometimes (at least once a week — and not during eating or drinking) I want to swallow saliva, but cannot — a spasm attacks, I cannot make the swallowing movement (it helps if I drink water; otherwise, I manage to swallow only on the third or fourth attempt). -0.884
4. Sometimes I cannot swallow solid food — a “lump in the throat” arises. -0.882
5. It is sometimes difficult for me to swallow or speak (physiologically difficult). -0.869
6. At times I feel (once a week or more often) that I cannot make a swallowing movement, I strain to swallow, and cannot do it at all. -0.590
7. Sometimes it is difficult to swallow water — the swallowing movement is impaired. -0.303

Cluster No. 71 Regularity of menstruation in women

As we see in the final table, the highest prolactin (and simultaneously the lowest dopamine — judging by the low activation of dopamine D2 receptors associated with high prolactin) is in the ILI psychotype. Menstrual-cycle disturbances with delays in menstruation caused by elevated prolactin are most often found in women of the ILI, LII, and LIE types (in ILI — especially often).

The property of regularity of menstruation in women (a sample of more than one and a half thousand women) is directly connected with low, suppressed prolactin in the CNS and high dopamine in the tuberoinfundibular pathway of dopamine neurons in the CNS. [1]

Under normal regulation of prolactin, that is, outside cases of pituitary tumors, prolactin tone has a pronounced negative correlation with dopamine. [2]

LITERATURE:

1. Vilar, Lucio; Vilar, Clarice Freitas; Lyra, Rui; Freitas, Maria da Conceição (2019). “Pitfalls in the diagnostic evaluation of hyperprolactinemia.” Neuroendocrinology. 109(1): 7–19. doi: 10.1159/000499694 . ISSN1423-0194. PMID30889571.
2. Gorobets Lyudmila Nikolaevna. Prolactin as a biomarker of the state of the dopaminergic system in patients with a first psychotic episode. - Social and Clinical Psychiatry; 2016, vol.26, No.4.

CLUSTER QUESTIONS

DENIAL OF ITEMS:

1. I have irregular menstruation — there are delays and disruptions of a week or more (female).

Cluster No. 72 Large integral scale of low prolactin markers

As we see in the final table, the highest prolactin (and simultaneously the lowest dopamine — judging by the low activation of dopamine D2 receptors associated with high prolactin) is in the ILI psychotype. Menstrual-cycle disturbances with delays in menstruation caused by elevated prolactin are most often found in women of the ILI, LII, and LIE types (ILI — especially often).

The synthesis and secretion of prolactin are directly stimulated by estrogens present in the blood. Therefore, the average level of prolactin in women’s blood (outside pregnancy) is approximately one and a half times higher than in men. Dopamine released in the hypothalamus lowers the level of prolactin. In the last trimester of pregnancy, prolactin in a woman’s blood rises by approximately another 10 times. When the newborn is put to the breast, he begins to suck the nipple, thereby irritating the mechanoreceptors located on the nipple. The mechanoreceptors send a signal to the hypothalamus, the milk ejection reflex is triggered. Irritation of the nipple mechanoreceptors is transmitted through the spinal cord along afferent fibers to the hypothalamus, which inhibits dopamine release, which contributes to an increase in the concentration of prolactin in the blood. During pregnancy, lactation does not begin, despite the high content of prolactin. This is connected with the fact that milk secretion is inhibited by the hormone progesterone, the concentration of which falls with the birth of the placenta, which follows the birth of the child; then lactation becomes possible.

Prolactin production increases significantly in stressful states, in anxiety, depression, severe pain (for example, injuries, operations), and psychoses. Prolactin secretion increases even more significantly during pregnancy and especially during lactation (breastfeeding). During pregnancy, estrogen levels increase, which causes an increase in prolactin concentration. As a result, a high level of prolactin leads to maturation and enlargement of the mammary glands in preparation for lactation. Prolactin secretion also increases with alcohol and drug abuse (opiates, amphetamine, cocaine, cannabis), with the intake of some psychotropic drugs, especially antipsychotics, to a lesser extent antidepressants, tranquilizers, mood stabilizers, as well as with the intake of estrogens, contraceptive pills, and some antiemetic drugs. Prolactin secretion decreases with the intake of dopamine D2 receptor agonists (bromocriptine, pergolide, cabergoline, and others), as well as estrogen antagonists tamoxifen and clostilbegit. To some extent, prolactin secretion decreases with the intake of thyroid hormones and glucocorticoids.

Prolactin is responsible for inhibiting the ovulatory cycle by inhibiting the secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and gonadotropin-releasing factor (GnTF). In women, prolactin contributes to prolonging the existence of the ovarian corpus luteum (lengthening the luteal phase of the cycle), inhibits ovulation and the onset of a new pregnancy, reduces estrogen secretion by ovarian follicles and progesterone secretion by the corpus luteum. Normally, this physiological mechanism prevents pregnancy with the next child during the period of breastfeeding the previous one and may prevent menstruation during the period of feeding.

Prolactin apparently has some analgesic effect. Reducing prolactin secretion with special substances increases pain sensitivity in animal experiments, while increasing the level of prolactin reduces pain sensitivity. Presumably, one of the mechanisms of the analgesic action (although not the main one) of opiate analgesics such as morphine and others, as well as the nonspecific analgesic action of antidepressants, antipsychotics, and tranquilizers, is the increase in prolactin secretion caused by them. Apparently, the analgesic action of prolactin is provided by nature so that the child’s biting of the nipple does not cause excessively severe pain in the nursing mother. It is believed that prolactin participates in endoopioid mechanisms of analgesia and of translating physical pain and psychological humiliation into a pleasant state. This may explain the correlation shown in a number of studies between masochistic experiences and experiences of the “sweetness of one’s guilt” with an increase in the level of prolactin in the blood.

Prolactin inhibits the action of dopamine, which is responsible for sexual arousal. Prolactin lengthens the refractory period before the onset of orgasm (premature ejaculation in men is often connected with an excessively low level of prolactin in the blood).

There are assumptions that prolactin participates in immune reactions. Its secretion by lymphocytes and other leukocytes increases with immune activation, inflammatory processes, and infections, and decreases with immunosuppression (treatment with immunosuppressants, glucocorticoids, antitumor chemotherapeutic drugs). On the surface of many cells participating in immune processes, there are receptors for prolactin, and prolactin exerts an immunostimulating influence on them.

Prolactin follows daily and ovulatory cycles. Normally, the peak of prolactin level falls during REM sleep and early morning. Many mammals experience a seasonal cycle. An increase in prolactin level may be caused by physical exercise, food intake, and sexual intercourse. During pregnancy, high concentrations of circulating estrogens and progesterone increase the prolactin level 10–20 times. Estrogen and progesterone suppress the stimulating effect of prolactin on milk production. The sharp fall in estrogen and progesterone levels after childbirth allows prolactin, whose level temporarily remains high, to induce lactation.

With hyperprolactinemia (outside pregnancy), women’s menstrual cycle is disturbed. A strong constant increase in prolactin concentration may lead to the development of infertility, anorgasmia, frigidity, reduced level of sexual desire, enlargement of the mammary glands up to the formation of macromastia (giant mammary glands), cysts or adenomas of the mammary glands may develop, and subsequently even breast cancer. With a strong increase in prolactin level, galactorrhea is characteristic. A very high level of prolactin may cause mental illnesses. In men, chronic elevation of prolactin may lead to reduced erection and lowered libido. In women, chronically high average prolactin also leads to reduced libido. Elevated prolactin in both women and men is associated with increased bone fragility due to reduced bone density and increased probability of developing osteoporosis.

In music psychology, it is assumed that prolactin may play a role in the pleasant perception of sad music, since the hormone level rises when a person is sad, exerting a consoling psychological effect. [1]

Prolactin rises after epileptic seizures [2] or because of physical or emotional stress . [3] [4] In a study on volunteers under hypnosis, prolactin releases resulted from inducing humiliating experiences under hypnosis, whereas hypnotically suggested fantasies about breastfeeding did not by any means cause an increase in prolactin level. [4]

LITERATURE:

1. ↑ Huron, David (July 13, 2011). “Why is sad music pleasurable? A possible role for prolactin” . Music Sciences . 15 (2): 146–158. doi : 10.1177/1029864911401171 . S2CID 45981792 .
2. ^ Mellers JD (August 2005). “Approach to patients with ‘non-epileptic seizures’.” Postgraduate Medical Journal . 81 (958): 498–504. doi : 10.1136 / pgmj.2004.029785 . PMC 1743326. PMID 16085740 .
3. ^ “Prolactin” . MedLine Plus .
4. ^ Sobrinho L.G. (2003). “Prolactin, psychological stress and environment in humans: adaptation and maladaptation.” Pituitary. 6(1): 35–9. doi:10.1023/A:1026229810876. PMID14674722. S2CID1335211.

QUESTIONS OF THE INTEGRAL CLUSTER FOR LOW PROLACTIN

AGREEMENT WITH ITEMS (markers of low prolactin):

1. It is true that I have absolutely no predisposition to swelling on the face or legs. 0.412
2. I think that compared with other people I have strong and healthy bones — at any rate, I have never broken anything and have not yet complained of any bone pain. 0.504
3. My sexual desire is very easily aroused. 0.268
4. It is true that I have never had any allergic reactions in my life. 0.117

DENIAL OF ITEMS (markers of elevated prolactin):

5. At times I experience interest in painful and humiliating sensations; I experience a certain “high” while going through them. -0.931
6. Sometimes it is pleasant to feel one’s subordination and experience humiliation. -0.924
7. I have irregular menstruation — there are delays and disruptions of a week or more (female). -0.687
8. My skin, alas, is predisposed to skin “acne” and pimples. Often some go away — others break out. -0.652
9. During sex I often cannot “finish” in any way (there is no approach of orgasm, ejaculation does not happen). -0.521
10. Melodies in a minor, sad tonality come to my memory more often than those in a major, optimistic one. -0.509
11. It happens too often that I both want to become sexually aroused and the situation is suitable — but I cannot in any way; physically it simply does not work. -0.448
12. Probably, my sexual needs and desires are weaker than those of my peers — I think I do not really need this very much nowadays. -0.389
13. I have problems with potency (it is reduced) (male). -0.434
14. It is true that neither erotica nor pornography arouses me almost at all. -0.392
15. I have acne on my face (or periodically have it). -0.390
16. I often experiment in sex, but not from a good life — simply in order to stir up my rather weak sexual interest. -0.244
17. I have some symptoms of osteoporosis (bone disease). -0.199

The scale questions turn out to be rather weakly coordinated by their profiles, but the result, despite the reduced contrast of the profiles, is the same as in the case of the single question about regularity of female menstruation. Namely, the highest average prolactin is obtained in the ILI psychotype.

From the final socionic profiles of the shown table, one can also conclude that high prolactin contributes to increasing Ni (white intuition) at the expense of both sensory functions, but mainly at the expense of Si, and declatim functions — at the expense of questim functions. And from this, in turn, follows the supposition (apparently not described in the scientific literature) that a high level of prolactin has an inhibitory effect on the activity of the insular cortex of the brain.

Main Conclusions

From the analysis of 72 identified clusters related to questimity-declatimity, the main conclusion is the association of the questimity pole with increased functional activity of the insular cortex of the human brain.

We consider it premature to draw conclusions about the connection of individual properties with various parts of the insular cortex (anterior and posterior, left and right). This issue requires further research. However, as a hypothesis, it can be assumed that Qi (white, introverted-democratic questimity) is more closely associated with the activity of the right insular cortex, and Qe – with the left.

It can also be stated with reasonable confidence that high questimity (likely along with increased functional activity of the brain’s insula) is accompanied by a reduced tone of vasopressin and prolactin neurohormonal activities.

The issue of dopamine tone is more complex. Some properties of questimity indicate its increase (at least in the mesolimbic pathway), while others can be interpreted as its decrease in the frontal neocortex, i.e., in the mesocortical dopamine pathway.

There is reason to assume a connection between the questimity pole and a certain increase in the tone of norepinephrine and cortisol, with a simultaneous (not very pronounced) decrease in serotonin tone.

The questimity pole, like the insular cortex as a whole, plays a crucial role in supporting such CNS functions as maintaining the body’s internal homeostasis and the instinct of self-preservation.