The Brain : The Story of You
Author: David Eagleman
Animal brains : Pre-programmed. Hardwired. Independent right after birth.
Human brains : Live wired. Plastic. Adapts to conditions. Thus can survive anywhere from Africa to Antarctica. Initial brain development important.
Children need proper care. Romania suffered as its children were institutionalized.
Teens have very active mPFC : Medial Pre Frontal Cortex. Leads to more self evaluation, more risk taking or thrill seeking behaviors.
Plasticity in adults: London cab drivers who memorize London Maps have enlarged Hippo-campus. Violin players have omega sign folds in the brain due to extensive left hand use.
Memories fade, not trustworthy. Same events can lead to different memories at different points of our life. Brain is a toolbox. Use all tools to keep cognition healthy.
You do not perceive objects as they are. You perceive objects as YOU are.
There is no "Reality" outside of our skulls. Brain receives air,pressure,molecules etc through the 5 sensory organs and tries to make sense out of it.
For vision, we need more than the eyes. Brain needs feedback from other things to correctly perform visual functions. Example: Babies fall often and hence brain corrects itself not to fall based on feedback.Brain has Thalamus between eyes and visual cortex. Feedback signals are more from visual cortex to Thalamus, so brain actually acts on the error signal of the difference. Eyes are not video cameras, they dont capture everything. Only those what is needed to perform a certain task.
Brain processes sound quickly than light. Contrary to the fact that light travels faster than sound. Brain syncs everything so that we do not know the difference. There is no such thing as slow motion memory. If we keep playing the memory again and again remembering each little detail, we feel the moment lasted longer than it did.
Synesthesia: Senses are blended because of cross talk between sensory areas. Some see sounds as colours. Some hear visual motion. Some taste words.
Proprioception: Capacity to know the state of muscles like angles between joints or tension/length of muscles. Walking would be impossible without this. Status of body needed to help brain decide. See a dog , body sweats, Run.
Consciousness is like CEO. Unconscious behavior is like employee. Only when important things are needed, consciousness comes to picture. Brain is like a city. Can you answer if you ask where is the economy of the city ? Like that, we do not know where the consciousness of brain comes from.
Trolley dilemma: Kill the guy versus pull the chain so that a train kills a guy. Different regions of brain are operating in these 2 scenarios. Emotional vs logical.
Brain is a machine built from conflict. We do not have a single mind but many competing drives.
Brain simulates future. Based on most favored future, we act. If that goes well, dopamine cements the choice and we are more likely to do that again. Instant gratification is more satisfying. Ulysses contract. Make sure some social contract helps avoid instant gratifications.
Brain is a great story teller. But it may not be absolute truth. We "mirror" the people around us. Couples tend to have same body language. To identify another person's emotion, we mirror it on our own. Those with Botox find it hard because their skin is tight.
Genocide happens when we dehumanize others. mPFC is inactive when we talk about non human objects.
Chinese Room Argument : Computers dont "Think". They merely translate.
Brain has 86 billion neurons. Quadrillion connections. Human Brain Project at EPFL, Switzerland by 2023. Can it be in Silicon?
Philosophy:
Chuang Tzu: Am I a butterfly dreaming I am a human or a human dreaming I am a butterfly ?
Rene Descartes: Am I already in a simulation? I think therefore I exist.
Animal brains : Pre-programmed. Hardwired. Independent right after birth.
Human brains : Live wired. Plastic. Adapts to conditions. Thus can survive anywhere from Africa to Antarctica. Initial brain development important.
Children need proper care. Romania suffered as its children were institutionalized.
Teens have very active mPFC : Medial Pre Frontal Cortex. Leads to more self evaluation, more risk taking or thrill seeking behaviors.
Plasticity in adults: London cab drivers who memorize London Maps have enlarged Hippo-campus. Violin players have omega sign folds in the brain due to extensive left hand use.
Memories fade, not trustworthy. Same events can lead to different memories at different points of our life. Brain is a toolbox. Use all tools to keep cognition healthy.
You do not perceive objects as they are. You perceive objects as YOU are.
There is no "Reality" outside of our skulls. Brain receives air,pressure,molecules etc through the 5 sensory organs and tries to make sense out of it.
For vision, we need more than the eyes. Brain needs feedback from other things to correctly perform visual functions. Example: Babies fall often and hence brain corrects itself not to fall based on feedback.Brain has Thalamus between eyes and visual cortex. Feedback signals are more from visual cortex to Thalamus, so brain actually acts on the error signal of the difference. Eyes are not video cameras, they dont capture everything. Only those what is needed to perform a certain task.
Brain processes sound quickly than light. Contrary to the fact that light travels faster than sound. Brain syncs everything so that we do not know the difference. There is no such thing as slow motion memory. If we keep playing the memory again and again remembering each little detail, we feel the moment lasted longer than it did.
Synesthesia: Senses are blended because of cross talk between sensory areas. Some see sounds as colours. Some hear visual motion. Some taste words.
Proprioception: Capacity to know the state of muscles like angles between joints or tension/length of muscles. Walking would be impossible without this. Status of body needed to help brain decide. See a dog , body sweats, Run.
Consciousness is like CEO. Unconscious behavior is like employee. Only when important things are needed, consciousness comes to picture. Brain is like a city. Can you answer if you ask where is the economy of the city ? Like that, we do not know where the consciousness of brain comes from.
Trolley dilemma: Kill the guy versus pull the chain so that a train kills a guy. Different regions of brain are operating in these 2 scenarios. Emotional vs logical.
Brain is a machine built from conflict. We do not have a single mind but many competing drives.
Brain simulates future. Based on most favored future, we act. If that goes well, dopamine cements the choice and we are more likely to do that again. Instant gratification is more satisfying. Ulysses contract. Make sure some social contract helps avoid instant gratifications.
Brain is a great story teller. But it may not be absolute truth. We "mirror" the people around us. Couples tend to have same body language. To identify another person's emotion, we mirror it on our own. Those with Botox find it hard because their skin is tight.
Genocide happens when we dehumanize others. mPFC is inactive when we talk about non human objects.
Chinese Room Argument : Computers dont "Think". They merely translate.
Brain has 86 billion neurons. Quadrillion connections. Human Brain Project at EPFL, Switzerland by 2023. Can it be in Silicon?
Philosophy:
Chuang Tzu: Am I a butterfly dreaming I am a human or a human dreaming I am a butterfly ?
Rene Descartes: Am I already in a simulation? I think therefore I exist.
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