Myths about how the brain works • Hacker News Board

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#61

Post by hn_asker » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 6:23 PM UTC

lycopodiopsida wrote: post #58

MrDrDr wrote: 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…

Having done a neuroscience degree myself, I would double on your conclusion — I still have no clue how a brain works, apart of some simpler systems, like visual pattern recognition. I am out of the field for a single-digit number of years already, but in retrospective it is hilarious how all the literature in neuroscience is gently moving around the question of «guys, bit how all of it works»? People are happy to hac…

Yet somehow Pharma can prescribe drugs that affect the brain's functions. How do they get away with that knowing so little about the brain?

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#62

Post by cratermoon » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 6:23 PM UTC

lycopodiopsida wrote: post #58

MrDrDr wrote: 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…

Having done a neuroscience degree myself, I would double on your conclusion — I still have no clue how a brain works, apart of some simpler systems, like visual pattern recognition. I am out of the field for a single-digit number of years already, but in retrospective it is hilarious how all the literature in neuroscience is gently moving around the question of «guys, bit how all of it works»? People are happy to hac…

> fishy fMRI studies

Subtle, but I get it :D

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#63

Post by ksm1717 » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 6:23 PM UTC

Geee wrote: post #38

I wouldn't say that the Triune brain theory is a 'myth'. It's just not accurate, but it's not a complete lie either. There certainly are different parts of the brain that have evolved at different times, and have different functions. The older parts have evolved to specific functions, while neocortex, which is found in mammals, has a uniform structure and is capable of learning and adapting to different tasks. 75% of…

Yea, I think that in some ways the “myths” presented can be seen as abstractions that lack details for the sake of being digestible. It is also a fair point that these abstractions can be poorly carried to detailed conclusions like the example of humans being essentially more evolved; I think that’s the bone to pick

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#64

Post by SkyBelow » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 6:24 PM UTC

harshreality wrote: post #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 te…

I was originally against the authors take on Myth one as well, but then I considered that my perspective may have been somewhat different from the one they were actually talking about and I sort of incorrectly translated it. Maybe they were speaking directly against a much more harsh version of the 'each part of the brain does one thing' than we interpret it. Not as a 'the visual cortex handles most of our conscious sight' but 'the visual cortex only handles sight and all sight is handled by the visual cortex only'. That is much stricter and much quickly disproven. As someone with an interest in neuroscience, I have long since been exposed to evidence that would prevent me from ever considering the second idea as being the possible answer, but perhaps others have not. If we consider someone who has myths on how the brain works but has never taken as much as an intro psychology class and instead bases their opinion on what they hear in passing from others, such as news sources or daily talk shows, then it is possible some people have the second idea as their mental model for the brain.

If that is the case, then I do think the author has made a slight blunder because the audience who would read their article is unlikely to include significant portions of people who would've lacked the exposure needed to have that much stricter and more incorrect mental model, and thus the author could've done better to present the myth so as to not confuse it with the not as incorrect mental model of the brain that their likely readers have.

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#65

Post by Afton » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 6:28 PM UTC

lycopodiopsida wrote: post #58

MrDrDr wrote: 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…

Having done a neuroscience degree myself, I would double on your conclusion — I still have no clue how a brain works, apart of some simpler systems, like visual pattern recognition. I am out of the field for a single-digit number of years already, but in retrospective it is hilarious how all the literature in neuroscience is gently moving around the question of «guys, bit how all of it works»? People are happy to hac…

> fish fMRI studies

Link for those curious about this comment:

(Neural Correlates of Interspecies Perspective Taking in the Post-Mortem Atlantic Salmon: An Argument For Proper Multiple Comparisons Correction)[https://teenspecies.github.io/pdfs/NeuralCorrelates.pdf]

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#66

Post by vlunkr » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 6:28 PM UTC

hn_asker wrote: post #61

lycopodiopsida wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having done a neuroscience degree myself, I would double on your conclusion — I still have no clue how a brain works, apart of some simpler systems, like visual pattern recognition. I am out of the field for a single-digit number of years already, but in retrospective it is hilarious how all the literature in neuroscience is gently moving around the question of «guys, bit how all of it works»? People are happy to hac…

Yet somehow Pharma can prescribe drugs that affect the brain's functions. How do they get away with that knowing so little about the brain?

They give random drugs to rats until something happens.

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#67

Post by imbnwa » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 6:28 PM UTC

frereubu wrote: post #11

I get the author's beef with the idea that discrete brain areas peform discrete tasks - if there's one thing my neuroscience MSc taught me it's that the brain processes things in parallel rather than series, which is what most of those theories rest on - but I think part of the issue is that we try to impose existing words, like "memory", onto the brain. One of the more productive lines of thinking I used when studyi…

> I think part of the issue is that we try to impose existing words, like "memory", onto the brain

This is also what Freud meant by "time doesn't exist in the unconscious". What we call memory isn't discrete like RAM, nor is it organized around what we perceive as time, these are illusions of how we experience perception and consciousness. He described by suggesting we imagine the modern city of Rome, then, directly physically overlay ancient Rome on top of modern Rome, physics be damned, if an ancient column goes through a modern building, then it goes through the modern building without destroying it, directly occupying the same space at the, er, same time

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#68

Post by devindotcom » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 6:29 PM UTC

lycopodiopsida wrote: post #58

MrDrDr wrote: 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…

Having done a neuroscience degree myself, I would double on your conclusion — I still have no clue how a brain works, apart of some simpler systems, like visual pattern recognition. I am out of the field for a single-digit number of years already, but in retrospective it is hilarious how all the literature in neuroscience is gently moving around the question of «guys, bit how all of it works»? People are happy to hac…

I did a minor in neuro and had a very similar experience. Fascinating and useful but it was always slightly alarming when the professor would answer a question with "I don't know.. no one knows. That is far beyond the limits of our capabilities to know." A reminder that scientists really do work at the edge of ignorance!

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#69

Post by devindotcom » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 6:33 PM UTC

hn_asker wrote: post #61

lycopodiopsida wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having done a neuroscience degree myself, I would double on your conclusion — I still have no clue how a brain works, apart of some simpler systems, like visual pattern recognition. I am out of the field for a single-digit number of years already, but in retrospective it is hilarious how all the literature in neuroscience is gently moving around the question of «guys, bit how all of it works»? People are happy to hac…

Yet somehow Pharma can prescribe drugs that affect the brain's functions. How do they get away with that knowing so little about the brain?

Psychiatrists are doctors who prescribe substances that have been closely studied - but their effects may be easily and specifically understood, their mechanisms may not be.

Lithium is a great example - very effective treatment for bipolar. No one really knows why. Prescribed for decades as they've tried to figure it out because tests showed it was effective and relatively safe, just no one knew exactly what it was doing in there.

It's sort of how you can be a woodworker without knowing the cellular biology of trees, and without being an electrical or mechanical engineer who can build a table saw from scratch.

Re: Myths about how the brain works

#70

Post by mikepurvis » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 6:35 PM UTC

Afton wrote: post #65

lycopodiopsida wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having done a neuroscience degree myself, I would double on your conclusion — I still have no clue how a brain works, apart of some simpler systems, like visual pattern recognition. I am out of the field for a single-digit number of years already, but in retrospective it is hilarious how all the literature in neuroscience is gently moving around the question of «guys, bit how all of it works»? People are happy to hac…

> fish fMRI studies Link for those curious about this comment: (Neural Correlates of Interspecies Perspective Taking in the Post-Mortem Atlantic Salmon: An Argument For Proper Multiple Comparisons Correction)[ https://teenspecies.github.io/pdfs/NeuralCorrelates.pdf ]

Well, I expected fishy as in dubious, not like literal fish.