How the hell do brains work?!

[Angilion]

What really did my head in was when my Physics teacher (god knows why he said it) asked us where we see what our eyes see?

That really got us going, it's basically a bunch of light turned into electrical signals that form an image somehow, it's getting me all twisted just thinking about it

It's worse than that, because what we "see" isn't entirely what's actually there. Our brains mess with it quite a lot before we "see" it.

For example, we see nothing at all for quite a lot of the time. Our eyes move frequently, even if we think we're staring at a fixed spot, and while our eyes are moving we see nothing at all. Our brains fake a continuous feed. There are some fascinating experiments on this, using sensors to track eye movement and change an image on a screen only when the subject's eyes are moving. People don't notice most of the changes to the image, because they genuinely didn't see any of them. It becomes a "spot the difference" test, comparing the image to their memory of the image.

Also, we're all blind in the middle, where the optic nerve attaches. Our brains extrapolate the missing information and fills in the blank spot. We don't actually see it.

 

[Angilion]

with your brain, most people out there will say its neurons, electrons, nerves etc...so i therefore ask you, how does our memory work...and why do i not forget to breath when i'm asleep..

R

Your brain is still active while you sleep, so all functions that don't need you to be conscious (e.g. breathing) continue working. It's not like your brain powers down completely while you sleep.

 

[Tefal]

and why do i not forget to breath when i'm asleep..

R

Breathing is automatically controlled by your brain stem iirc.


"you" as in your mind can be completely destroyed by brain damage and you'll keep on breathing.

Like a car engine will continue to run if left in neutral without further input.

 

[Lysander]

We have next to idea how the brain works at all.

I love this forum sometimes. Nowhere else I know on the internet comes close for making fallacious comments with such brazen confidence.

 

[Admiral Huddy]

I was thinking of this thread whilst tucking into my stew and dumplings on Sunday, which remarkably look like brains!.. Maybe Suet is key to this question?

 

[gurusan]

Your brain is still active while you sleep, so all functions that don't need you to be conscious (e.g. breathing) continue working. It's not like your brain powers down completely while you sleep.

Indeed, the brain is very active during sleep.

 

[Phog]

No mention of neuroplasticity yet?

 

[Nitefly]

Wouldn't it still count as survival of the fittest, though? Individuals in a group that co-operated with each other would be more likely to successfully breed and raise young to adulthood than individuals alone, which is what "fittest" means in this context.

The problem is that survival of the fittest is such a ridiculously vague term that it doesn't really mean anything. For example, you have construed it to try to show why one population survives whilst another does not, but it is typically used to dictate fitness between individuals within a population. I understand what you are trying to get at completely since you have provided a framework for which that phrase can operate under, but that doesn't make the phrase any less vague since you can't really quantify fitness between two populations (if at all) unless you simplify everything down to the barest of bones, at which point it becomes unrealistic.

So yes, it is a semi-useless phrase which, despite helping people with basic understanding of evolution, is completely redundant when trying to explain anything in depth or of complexity - basically everything

 

[Calabi]

One thing about this is that for us to be conscious and aware of the outside world, to see persperctive, colours etc, from a flat 2D image(photons with differing wavelengths hitting the back of our eyes).

Our mind has to recreate this information, in the way we see it. So basically in our heads is a simulation of the outside world. If you think about it the only way we can interact with things is if they are in our head. We can only interact with things within ourselves. To interact with other people in even a small way, you have to know them, to have a construct/concept within you. When you interact with other people in a wierd way your just interacting with yourself(trouble looms when the concept, does not agree with the reality).

So I think its like you have two sets of eyes. As well as the ones recieving the raw information. There is another set watching this simulation, and it can act upon this simulation moving things within it etc(and it makes sense for dreams). So its like a mind within a mind and perhaps so on.

If your into meditation or aware of yourself a bit, then you may hear voices(you'll know that you arent hearing voices they are just another part of you) thoughts can have minds of their own, they can run away with themselves. Perhaps even neurons in their own way have concsiousness, aware of their own little things.

Our minds are like many minds all somehow working together in unison(or sometimes not). How we evolved? from a single neuron to many, with groups ganging up and specializing into their own little niches.

Probably.

 

[Ziggy]

Indeed, the brain is very active during sleep.

Not to mention that you don't remember to breathe while you're awake in the first place. 99.9% of the breathing you do while awake is automatic.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

It's worse than that, because what we "see" isn't entirely what's actually there. Our brains mess with it quite a lot before we "see" it.

For example, we see nothing at all for quite a lot of the time. Our eyes move frequently, even if we think we're staring at a fixed spot, and while our eyes are moving we see nothing at all. Our brains fake a continuous feed. There are some fascinating experiments on this, using sensors to track eye movement and change an image on a screen only when the subject's eyes are moving. People don't notice most of the changes to the image, because they genuinely didn't see any of them. It becomes a "spot the difference" test, comparing the image to their memory of the image.

Also, we're all blind in the middle, where the optic nerve attaches. Our brains extrapolate the missing information and fills in the blank spot. We don't actually see it.

Exactly.

If (If I remember an old experiment accurately) you are moved into an environment where EVERYTHING is upside down, apart from you, eventually your brain will "flip" the image you are seeing, as it tries to make sense of the environment.

Apparently. Im going off to see if I can find it....


*EDIT* - found here - http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/article/934

*EDIT* - lol - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2048269788799603527#