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Myths about how the brain works

nautil.us

21–30 of 129 posts

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#21
post #19
post #3

There are lots of popular tropes of how our brain works and I'd agree with this author that they are oversimplified and generally incorrect - I'd add the left brain right brain divide to the list. However the author appears to be arguing from a position that they (or someone) actually know how the brain works - having done a neuroscience degree, my one take home was that when it comes to modelling the brain against o…

Obviously you know this, but the brain does localize some functions to either hemisphere, just not in the way most people think it does. My vague memory from having taken a class in psycholinguistics is that people with aphasia who've had some part of their brain damaged are good evidence of this localization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernicke%27s_area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broca%27s_area

Yeah, and the amygdala has specific functions. Not that it's the only piece needed for that, or that it's not good for anything else.

The evidence for more advanced brains in higher mammals is also plainly there.

The author seems to be over-stating all this stuff in order to reject it.

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#23
I don't want to be too critical, because I've learned a lot from the author's books, but a fair amount of the article (mainly myths 1 and 2) seem to be over-generalization or skewed based on the author's bias. Her field is psychology, not primarily neuroscience; specifically, the psychology (and some neuroscience of) emotion. I recommend Jeff Hawkins's new book for a perspective closer to a neuroscientist's. (He's technically not a neuroscience Ph.D., but he has equivalent knowledge.)

Myth #1: Brain areas aren't separate and didn't evolve in stages.

1. Brain (neocortex) areas aren't single-purpose. Obviously neuroplasticity is a thing, but the article ignores that areas of the brain develop to be focused on a single category of tasks (visual, auditory, etc.). The author's example, blindfolding someone and watching their visual cortex get repurposed when learning to read braille, ignores that if you don't blindfold them, other areas will probably take up most of the task of learning braille because it's not a visual activity and the brain tends to separate areas of responsibility.

2. The number of significant evolutionary steps may not be just three, so the triune brain theory may be technically false, but I've never seen any actual neuroscientist argue that it isn't roughly accurate. The evidence in the article is molecular genetics: the fact that there aren't radically different kinds of neurons. This is like scaling up an argument that ethanol and glucose are the same thing because they share the same elements. If the limbic system and neocortex have roughly the same kind of neurons, what does that matter? We know they serve radically different purposes, and we know that reptiles don't have a neocortex (at least, nothing of significance).

Myth #2: Brain is stimulus/response machine

Her argument against this myth seems tortured. Of course the brain is not a simple impulse/response machine, but it's still essentially taking in inputs and responding in various ways. It just has a mind-bogglingly complex internal state.

Myth #3: Strong dividing line between diseases of the brain and body

Everything seems to point to her being right on this one. Science knows, nearly as much as it can know anything, that neurological stress leads to physical stress responses which can screw up other parts of the body, often through hormone dysregulation. Similarly, physical problems from gut health to inflammation can trigger immune responses or simpler biochemical reactions that have neurological side-effects. And, of course, diet. Psychoactive drugs are a clear example of how an external physical influence can have psychological effects.

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#24
post #3

There are lots of popular tropes of how our brain works and I'd agree with this author that they are oversimplified and generally incorrect - I'd add the left brain right brain divide to the list. However the author appears to be arguing from a position that they (or someone) actually know how the brain works - having done a neuroscience degree, my one take home was that when it comes to modelling the brain against o…

I'm upvoting your comment but can you clarify on left brain/right brain? I thought split-brain/callosal syndrome showed us that a lot of our ideas about left brain right brain functional divide were true. Edit for clarification: I was not expecting folks to respond to this by linking split-brain experiments; I am specifically referring to split-brain experiments showing us that our ideas about left brain/right brain…

Look into corpus callosum separation (split-brain) and some of the experiments that have been performed after this procedure. Fascinating displays of two separate consciousnesses. Sam Harris' Making Sense Podcast #234 had Iain McGilchrist to discuss this in some detail.

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm upvoting your comment but can you clarify on left brain/right brain? I thought split-brain/callosal syndrome showed us that a lot of our ideas about left brain right brain functional divide were true. Edit for clarification: I was not expecting folks to respond to this by linking split-brain experiments; I am specifically referring to split-brain experiments showing us that our ideas about left brain/right brain…

Look into corpus callosum separation (split-brain) and some of the experiments that have been performed after this procedure. Fascinating displays of two separate consciousnesses. Sam Harris' Making Sense Podcast #234 had Iain McGilchrist to discuss this in some detail.

That is what I am referring to :)

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm upvoting your comment but can you clarify on left brain/right brain? I thought split-brain/callosal syndrome showed us that a lot of our ideas about left brain right brain functional divide were true. Edit for clarification: I was not expecting folks to respond to this by linking split-brain experiments; I am specifically referring to split-brain experiments showing us that our ideas about left brain/right brain…

My best understanding (which, it's been a while since I took classes about it) is that there are some functions that tend to be more lateralized to one hemisphere or another -- with language being the prime example. However, some people do show more balanced functioning, and in some cases (more frequently among left-handed people) the lateralized functions can even be flipped from "normal". However, there's left-brai…

aha, thanks!

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#27
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously you know this, but the brain does localize some functions to either hemisphere, just not in the way most people think it does. My vague memory from having taken a class in psycholinguistics is that people with aphasia who've had some part of their brain damaged are good evidence of this localization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernicke%27s_area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broca%27s_area

Yeah, and the amygdala has specific functions. Not that it's the only piece needed for that, or that it's not good for anything else. The evidence for more advanced brains in higher mammals is also plainly there. The author seems to be over-stating all this stuff in order to reject it.

And it's also the case that even though certain brain functions are linked with specific locations, the brain can still use plasticity to re-organize things and adapt to damage. And when you're doing any language related task, there are always going to be other more domain-general brain functions involved too, which aren't as localized.

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#28
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get minor strokes every couple of months. Each time I lose feeling in right side of body, and lose the ability to write. Not 100%, but close enough. Typing is fine however, if slow. Critical thinking goes to crap. Talking is fine. I can still draw, though my motivation goes to crap. Is weird what stays and what goes. Last time I looked writing is a left brain activity. Which controls right side.

Usually the right hemisphere is linked with comprehending speech/writing, rather than producing it, so it's interesting that you lose the ability to write. Is your speech affected at all? It could be because writing involves a bunch of other more domain-general brain functions too I guess.

I think he's talking about motor control - how the left hemisphere is responsible for controlling the right side of the body and vice versa.

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wish someone had told me that I wasn't doing real science before I started in academia, would have saved me a lot of time and effort. On a more serious note, seems like weird gatekeeping of what constitutes scientific discovery and what doesn't.

Scientific discovery is learning new facts about the world. Inventing new contraptions to help us in our goals is technology. I.e. I don't think anyone would call Henry Ford a scientist or Albert Einstein an inventor. I thought it's basic and well-understood distinction.

If you follow the constructivist philosophy of science (spoiler alert: I do) then absolutely Albert Einstein is an inventor. He invented a mental model (essentially a lossy compression) of some parts of reality that better fit observed phenomena than its predecessor. Our mental/scientific models are not descriptions of reality; objective reality is unknowable. What they are, are tools (technologies!) that we can use to predict effect, given a cause and a state.

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#30
post #3

There are lots of popular tropes of how our brain works and I'd agree with this author that they are oversimplified and generally incorrect - I'd add the left brain right brain divide to the list. However the author appears to be arguing from a position that they (or someone) actually know how the brain works - having done a neuroscience degree, my one take home was that when it comes to modelling the brain against o…

I would further add that those oversimplified concepts of how the brain works have hung around because they are useful for us as an abstraction to think about how our brain works.

They may be bad abstractions at a lower level of detail, but for general purposes they seem to be useful enough.

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