The Idea of the Brain: The Past and Future of Neuroscience

Product Information

Wie weit ist dieses Hirn-Feld, was wissen wir und was wissen wir noch nicht? Auf was sollten wir in Zukunft einen Augenmerk werfen, damit wir beispielsweise Menschen mit ernsthaften Erkrankungen helfen können. For most of history (up until Roman times), it was believed our thought and emotion are housed in the heart. Then in more recent centuries, scientists experimented and tried to understand the brain by comparing it with the most advanced technologies of the time: hydraulics, telegraphs, computers, etc. But it looks like none provide a great model. The computer, with its separated hardware and software and set logical structures, is too different from the integrated "wetware" of our brain, with deep interconnected networks of extreme non-linear complexity, constant morphing of physical structure, and functional transformations based on the flows of countless chemicals. Goldie J. The implications of brain lateralisation for modern general practice. Br J Gen Pract. 2016;66(642):44-5. doi: 10.3399/bjgp16X683341

According to Zeki and colleagues [ 74], consciousness comprises nodes of micro-consciousnesses in different brain regions. Interestingly, in contrast to other theories, Zeki argues that consciousness is not unified [ 75]. Therefore, color and motion, for example, are consciously perceived in different parts of the cortex and only then bind together with other nodes to form a macro-consciousness. A micro-consciousness is autonomous [ 76] and does not require further processing. Therefore, the resected visual cortex in Step 3 may become micro-conscious of the green light during the replay. We could not find a direct reason as to why, according to Zeki, scattered brains during replay cannot bind together into a macro-consciousness. This enthralling book starts at the earliest points of the halting journey to an experimental science of the brain and moves forward to the present era, where we simultaneously have a surfeit of data and a poverty of far-reaching, intellectually satisfying theories of brain function. In experiments routinely performed in neurobiological laboratories, action potentials are recorded and evoked in single neurons and even in small-scale networks [ 15, 16] using current clamp and voltage clamp techniques. Using these techniques, triggering action potentials at the researcher’s bidding (rather than naturally due to the synaptic inputs) is commonplace and even mundane in a modern electrophysiological laboratory. The rapid development of tools and technologies in neuroscience [ 17– 21] brings the goal of capturing every action potential in every neuron of the brain ever closer [ 22, 23]. To date, the highest number of channels recorded by an electrode array belongs to the Argo system, with 65,536 channels [ 24]. These technologies provide unprecedented insights into the fine details of brain function. Thus, it is perhaps just a matter of time until newer, more powerful technologies will eventually allow us to solve the mechanics of how the brain works. As we converge on this goal, will we get closer to understanding brain function and, with it, the biological causes of conscious experience? Aghjayan, S. L., et al. (2022). Aerobic exercise improves episodic memory in late adulthood: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Tyndall AV, Clark CM, Anderson TJ, Hogan DB, Hill MD, Longman RS, Poulin MJ. Protective effects of exercise on cognition and brain health in older edults. Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2018;46(4):215-223. doi:10.1249/JES.0000000000000161And although the advances we have seen in the past 50 years have been breathtaking to put it mildly. The chapter feels like a summary of a ton of docs and ideas I've read before. Yet it's kinda dry. I rather read a more fun intro to this stuff. And if you watch docs on brain studies you already know most of this. Paradigmatic metaphor (the idea of the brain) has played an enormous role in guiding our thinking and inquiry.

Predictions about future computer and human interaction. Kinda pointless and shallow. It’s the typical floofy guesswork that doesn’t really explain much.It seems that we need a Newton, Darwin or Einstein to come into brain and cognition research. We need new ideas and new metaphors. We probably need more advanced technology. The first part, "Past", is the longest and covers history from the period when the heart was considered to be behind thought and emotion, through to early neurosurgery and anatomy, right through to the discovery of neurons and electricity and many concepts which are still at the heart of neuroscience today. It contained a great deal that I didn't know alongside some that I did, and it was fascinating seeing how many fortuitous discoveries were made entirely by accident, or were made in error yet today would be seen as correct. There are many names, and to those totally unfamiliar with those mentioned the volume could be overwhelming, but it wouldn't be a complete history without them. There were also names you might not expect - amongst them Mary Shelley, whose novel Frankenstein was influential in popularising the idea that the nervous system uses electricity, and Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary theory but not a man typically linked to neuroscience. To underscore the usefulness of replay as a potential experimental strategy, let us compare the replay of brain activity to a detailed simulation of the brain. A frequent objection to the view that a detailed simulation of the human brain can become conscious is that it merely manipulates symbols whose meaning depends on external interpretation, whereas neural activity is intrinsically meaningful to the brain [ 88]. In contrast to a simulation, the artificial neuronal firing induced by the replay is intrinsically meaningful to the brain/participant because it is an identical copy of intrinsically meaningful activity (i.e., an experience of green light). John Searle famously explained that “you could not digest pizza by running the program that simulates such digestion” [ 89]. Unlike biologically detailed simulations running on a computer, the replay is recorded and activated on the same substrate. Therefore, in contrast to a simulation of the stomach, recording and then replaying smooth muscle contraction and enzyme secretion would result in digestion. What would it imply about the nature of consciousness if replay would work for stomach digestion or the heart pumping blood but not for the brain and consciousness?

In the working hypothesis, we only considered whether action potentials cause consciousness. Performing our experiments for other neuronal processes might be more difficult than for action potentials and, in some cases, even impossible. However, conceptually, it is straightforward to include them in the hypothesis and even include combinations of multiple processes; for example, membrane potential fluctuations, calcium ion concentrations [ 53, 54], the release of neurotransmitters from the presynaptic terminals, or activity in glial cells [ 55, 56]. To consider multiple biological processes, we first need to record these processes and then test the hypothesis against Steps 1 to 3 by asking in each step whether the participant’s conscious perception changed when the respective cellular processes remained exactly the same.

It is history, but it’s modern “we don’t know” science history. It’s about brain connections and how we actually still don’t know anything about them. Fama R, Sullivan EV. Thalamic structures and associated cognitive functions: Relations with age and aging. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2015;54:29-37. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.03.008 All of that is from the “Past” section of the book. In the “Present” section Cobb describes our current understanding of how memory works, how circuits have limited explanatory power, and how brains are similar to but different from digital computers. He describes the chemical basis for neural and mental phenomena. He describes the current view, that mental functions are both local and global; though some regions must be present for specific functions, those function may still require the whole brain. I was surprised to learn that fMRI ���brain scans” are misleading, and that results from fMRI data are often over-hyped. Gainotti G. Why are the right and left hemisphere conceptual representations different? Behav Neurol. 2014;2014:603134. doi: 10.1155/2014/603134