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HUMAN BRAIN.
Term Paper ID:28715
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Essay Subject:
Examines structure & function of brain; neuroscience. Cites research studies. Argues that brain is not a digital computer.... More...
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9 Pages / 2025 Words
14 sources, 14 Citations,
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Paper Abstract:
Examines structure & function of brain; neuroscience. Cites research studies. Argues that brain is not a digital computer.
Paper Introduction:
This research examines the structure and function of the human brain. The plan of the research will be to set forth varieties of research and opinion regarding how the brain works and then to discuss the hypothesis that the brain is a digital computer, with a view toward demonstrating that such a hypothesis cannot be sustained.
Beginning in the 1980s, electronics and computer-imaging technicians succeeded in developing technology that could produce a 3-D digitized image of the surface of the human brain. It had long been known that brain function entails organization of neurons and metabolism, which entails measurable electrochemical action (Hibbard & Others, 1987). For example, specific neurotransmitter receptor sites for dopamine were identified with the help of radiography (Altar & Others, 1985). Because radio
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Sloppiness of method does not appear tohave concerned those who conducted the study Wolfe describes, so enamoreddo they appear to be of the anticipated power of technology to override thevagaries of human behavior. Wolfe also lampoons the methodology of certain neuroscientificexperiments, suggesting that conclusions drawn from the performance ofinstruments designed to elicit specific responses may be too sweeping, tooambitious. (2 , November 13). (1996, August). Sorry, but your soul just died. One strand of thought takes the view that from physiologicaland neurological functioning, however well mapped, it is not necessary orsufficient to conclude that the brain is a digital computer. A digital brain makes connections. For example,specific neurotransmitter receptor sites for dopamine were identified withthe help of radiography (Altar & Others, 1985). Brain dopamine and serotin receptor sites revealed by digitalsubtraction autoradiography. Then you pushed a toggle switch. Computer Graphics World, 21, 79-85. This particular researcher used a raspberry-red thumbtack. The atlas could be queried, for instance, to find the location of a certain function within the brain (Mahoney, 1998, p. Electronic Engineering Times, 4. Inlate 2 , an apparatus comprising electroencephalograph (EEG) sensors, adigital processing unit, and a neural-network processor reportedlydemonstrated the capability of using human thought to send commands to acomputer. The evidence of advances in computer science is that a neurologicalmap of the brain is not only possible but also desirable to make work well,chiefly because of the tremendous medical-diagnostic advantages that couldflow therefrom. (1984). Electrochemical or as it were digitalbrain function cannot bridge the gap between the experience of cognitionand evidence of electrophysical brain function that precedes it. . (2 , March 11). Implicit in that view, as Wolfe explains, is that not only is biologydestiny but also that neurology determines destiny, irrespective ofattempts by human beings to alter for social and moral reasons thelandscape of social inequalities that flow from acceptance of neurologicaldeterminism. Although Myslinski (2 ) suggests thatneuroscience could create robots with human characteristics, and althoughhe repeatedly returns to mechanistic referents (DNA makeup, drug therapykeyed to diagnosed maladies, possibly by computer power), the fact is thatthe human brain is unique in the animal kingdom in its powers of "reason,judgment, problem solving, and creativity." The content of these can onlybe suggested--i.e., not predicted--by reference to their locus of controlin the prefrontal cortex. 72). The focus onidentifying anatomical and morphological structures as sites of specific,known bodily activities could easily lead one to the conclusion that thebrain is a digital computer and that digital computers can mimic orduplicate the functions of the brain. Because radiography wasimplicated in cerebral behavior, it was inevitable that digital technologyadvances would be applied to the challenge of enhancing images. Sutton, D. Thefallacy is post hoc, ergo propter hoc: Cognition truly happened afterelectrochemical behavior; therefore electrochemical brain function must betrue cognition, a view that neuroscientist Giannitrapani (1984) seems veryclose to arguing. Giannitrapani, D. Indeed, synchronization is felt to be necessary for the presence oforganized consciousness and the formation of thought. (1996, December 2). IEEE Transactions on MedicalImaging, 15, 4 2-17. (1999, November 3). Indeed, Myslinski suggests thatjust as the body's material processes influence the mind, so the mindinfluences the body. (1987, June26). 21 -11) repeats the crux of his theory: Every human brain, he says, is born not as a blank tablet (a tabula rasa) waiting to be filled in by experience but as "an exposed negative waiting to be slipped into developer fluid." You can develop the negative well or you can develop it poorly, but either way you are going to get precious little that is not already imprinted on the film. BritishMedical Journal, 319, 15 7. Johnson, R.C. The otherstrand of thought focuses more on brain psychology and cognition--i.e., thebrain as mind and locus of thought--than on the material phenomenology ofthe organ. We now live in an age in whichscience is a court from which there is no appeal." Wolfe notes that E.O.Wilson, for all his confidence in neuroscientific theory, holds out a fainthope that culture had influence on human social and brain development "inways that cannot be explained by strict Darwinian theory" (Wolfe, 1996, p.213). This kind of functioning is comparable to the functioning of acomputer, processing information serially even though parallel neuralfunctions may be operating at the same time. But that does not prove that cognition is identical toneurotransmitter coordination, hence that the brain is a digital computer,only that the two phenomena operate simultaneously. One wouldhardly expect that physical brain function would not precede or coordinatewith cognitive/psychological effect. Brainstorm. In that regard, Wolfe notes that some academics do notaccept the view that criminal pathology (for example) has a purely geneticsource, and he recalls the favorable views of eugenics that surfaced in theUS in the early 2 th century and that were elaborated to bad effect in NaziGermany, to the social and moral discredit of the US and Germany both. With the new tools, diagnosticians would be able tomap the brain surfaces and measure neural processes of patients diagnosedwith Alzheimer's disease and other maladies associated with braindysfunction, such as brain tumors, and compare such maps with subjects notso diagnosed. Computer, 29, 48-54. Brain electrical activity map. (1999, December 4). Wolfe, T. More problematic,however, is the science itself, formulated as whether there is an authenticscientific basis for attempting to explain the whole of human behavior inneurophysical terms. Citing the work of sociobiologist Edward O. Brain/machine interfaceredefines cogito, ergo sum. Eisenberg, A. Mosby's Medical, Nursing, &Allied Health Dictionary, 5, 1411. 154). 81).The brain electrical activity map (BEAM, 1998), or a computer-generatedtopographic map of the brain, could identify positively or negativelycharged electric potentials, or brain waves, and evaluate abnormalitiessuch as lesions or tumors. The sheer variety of other-than-normal brain structures has posed data-processing challenges to ausable atlas, though in late 1999 an instructional (not diagnostic)computer CD comprising a version of a brain atlas did reach the market(Sutton, 1999). Some neuroscientists appear to acknowledge that environment and thephysical organism each exert influence on human experience, includingcognitive experience and destiny. Then you had him stare at a marker on a blank wall. Beginning in the 198 s, electronics and computer-imaging technicianssucceeded in developing technology that could produce a 3-D digitized imageof the surface of the human brain. Electrophysiology of intellectual functions.Basel: S. Hibbard, L.S., McGlone, J.S., Davis, D.W., & Hawkins, R.A. Whole brain atlas (evaluation). References Adams, L., Knepper, A., Ruger, R., van der Brug, W., & Meyer-Ebrecht, D.(1996, January). What wasenvisioned for the HBP was a significant diagnostic tool for brain surgeryand other evaluations of brain dysfunction that would both integrate andfunction well beyond earlier generations of body-image scanning, such asPET, SPECT, and fMRI. (1998). Even so, stimulation andexercise were necessary for the synchronization of neural functioning to beobserved and the inference of cognition to be made. But it is importantto recognize that these conclusions are not predicated solely of directobservation of the mechanisms by which material functioning of the brainoccurs. In sixteen seconds the Cap's computer box gave you an accurate prediction (within one-half of a standard deviation) of what the subject would score on all eleven subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale or, in the case of children, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--all from sixteen seconds' worth of brain waves (Wolfe, 1996, p. Thus Myslinski seems forced to say (andhe does): "Environment and behavior can alter our brains; free will caninfluence our behavior" (2 , p. Clarke, P., & Cameron, I. On the other hand, the brain can alsofunction "in parallel," apparently when involuntary motor functions areinvolved, e.g., managing walking muscles while also listening to something:"But when it comes to tasks involving similar data items, the brain appearsto time-division multiplex, that is, focus its attention on one object at atime so quickly that the conscious mind is not aware of it" (Johnson, 1999,p. Equally important is the logical fallacy embedded in neuroscienceexplanations of the brain as mind and its rapid resort to technology (whichmust always be refined, improved, contingent on the next advance). (1985, May3). An optical navigator for brain surgery. Quite the reverse. The 2 demonstration of equipmentthat appears to enable the brain to function, with digital-computer help,telepathically is especially striking in this regard. Mahoney, D.P. Bower, B. The only truly scientific way to measure the predictiveaccuracy of the IQ Cap would be to submit to a peer-reviewed double-blindproject in which (say) the Wechsler Intelligence Scale and the Cap werecompared and evaluated head on. Wolfe deplores this in terms that mark neuroscience as hubris.The view that the body, the genes, and in particular the brain, are "hardwired" for violence, for submission, for dominance, and so on flies in theface of a whole range of social reforms. In that regard, Bower(2 , p. The print is the individual's genetic history, over thousands of years of evolution, and there is not much anybody can do about it. But even if there is no "real" differencebetween brain and mind, there is a distinction to be made. Another study supported the hypothesis that changes in focus ofattention are consistent with so-called serial processing of images, i.e.,giving attention to only one thing at a time, though shifting attentionvery rapidly (Johnson, 1999). Researchers: Brain has serialvision. Myslinski, N.R. World and I, 15,152. Surface-based technique forwarping three-dimensional images of the brain. He gives the example of anger and stress that canadversely affect vascular and pulmonary functions. A primitive telepathic apparatus, the new device appears to havepotential as an instrument of use to disabled persons and as a diagnostictool (Clarke & Cameron, 2 ). Three-dimensional representation and analysis of brain energymetabolism. These powers, says Myslinski, "allowed us to re-create ourselves and decide our destiny." If that is so, ipso facto thereach of the mind cannot be adequately accounted for by neurotransmitterprocesses. Yet there is acompelling body of discourse that interrogates the validity of thisconclusion. But that does not prove that thecontent of cognitive psychology can be unambiguously predicted. . . Refinements in digital imaging may also help understandfundamental brain functions. . Thompson, P., & Toga, A.W. That is just not proven by the information in researchstudies that imply such a claim. Simply put, it is bad science because it asks too much ofthe technology. Science, 228, 597-6 . 167) cites neuroscientific research showing that a "unifyingbrain process," consisting of "synchronized electrical activity in groupsof neurons" that is implicated in such functions as perception, learning,memory. It had long been known that brainfunction entails organization of neurons and metabolism, which entailsmeasurable electrochemical action (Hibbard & Others, 1987). Atleast so far. Evidence oftheir coordination and synchronization, manifest as neurotransmitterbehavior is not evidence of their absolute identification, and there isalways the wild card of unfolding experience and persistence of radicallyunpredictable environmental behavior to invalidate such identification. 212).Leaving aside the fact that, at the time the IQ Cap was put forward, notakers surfaced in the marketplace, there is the problem of methodology.The problem with this kind of demonstration is implied in the very outlineof the narrative. Brain cells work together to pay attention.Science News, 157, 167. He describes an early version of an EEG unit, the IQ Cap, whichwas designed to measure IQ: You attached sixteen electrodes to the scalp of the person you wanted to test. It is difficult to argue that mind and thought do not haveneurotransmitter and morphological counterparts. Still less does neuralcoordination reveal the content of cognitive behavior. Future of the brain. If the neuroscientists are right,then science makes nonsense of the social and moral evolution that hascharacterized human experience from time to time. This research examines the structure and function of the human brain.The plan of the research will be to set forth varieties of research andopinion regarding how the brain works and then to discuss the hypothesisthat the brain is a digital computer, with a view toward demonstrating thatsuch a hypothesis cannot be sustained. NewYork Times, D13. The formation in 1993 of the Human Brain Project (HBP), which isongoing, had as its principal objective the creation of a computer-generated brain map, or digital atlas: For the atlas, functional and anatomical brain data from thousands of single subjects is being analyzed for similarities and variations, and the resulting statistical information is being used to create a probabilistic representation that extends to numerous subpopulations. For one thing, the brains observed in the study were simian, nothuman, which is the case with much brain research. Forbes,158, 21 -2 . (1999, September 13). Of particular interest was the optical navigatortechnology, which combined 3D display with digitized image processing, in away that would help surgeons "maintain their bearings" of vascular andneurological sites even in the face of impaired visibility of sites in thephysical organism (Thompson & Toga, 1996; Adams & Others, 1996). Science, 236, 1641-6. The most definiteconclusion reached was that synchronous neurotransmitter activity could beassociated with cognition, where cognition = observable changes in thefocus of attention. Apparatus have beenconstructed that can recognize images and language (Eisenberg, 1999). One need not believe that consciousness, or mind, is in a dualisticrelationship with brain and body, as Descartes implies in his statement, "Ithink, therefore I am," to see that discounting environment whileprivileging heredity cannot explain anomalous human experience.Consciousness-altering drugs may be able to exert influence on humanbehavior, but their efficacy does not prove that human behavior either onor off the drugs can be predicted for all environmental contexts. Karger. Technological refinements of digital imaging of the brain have beencomplemented elsewhere in the scientific fraternity by efforts to constructdigital machines that perform brain functions. Theprincipal projected usages of such technology were, of course, of a medicalnature. The body of evidence that points toward a technologicalconceptualization of human brain function is impressive. (1998, July). Altar, C.A., O'Neil, s., Walter, R.J., Jr., & Marshall, J.F. . It is asif neuroscience that posits the notion of the brain as computer is askingcomputer functions to prove too much, by analogy, about human morphologyand cognitive functioning. More generally, the HBP objective was to help identify inwhich parts of the brain information processing of various kinds occurs.Scans of what are held to be normally and abnormally functioning orstructured brains could, in theory, be compared, with a view toward gettinga realistic sense of how pathology operates. But the hard fact is that bad method doeslittle to add credibility to the theory itself. Complicating the picture of scientific soundness is Wolfe's commentabout the "unspoken and largely unconscious premise of the wrangling overneuroscience's strategic high ground . (2 , August). Cancognition of such discredit prove the brain to be solely digital, solely anadding machine? Wilson, Wolfe(1996, p. The wash of experience invites subjective creativity and theinput of the reservoir of values. This has notprevented neuroscience theory from collapsing study of the brain into studyof cognition. Electronic Engineering Times, 72.
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