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Category: brain functions

Computer metaphor not accurate for brain’s embodied cognition

Computer metaphor not accurate for brain’s embodied cognition

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It’s common for brain functions to be described in terms of digital computing, but this metaphor does not hold up in brain research. Unlike computers, in which hardware and software are separate, organic brains’ structures embody memories and brain functions. Form and function are entangled. Rather than finding brains to work like computers, we are beginning to design computers–artificial intelligence systems–to work more like brains.  https://www.wired.com/story/tech-metaphors-are-holding-back-brain-research/ 

Mathematical field of topology reveals importance of ‘holes in brain’

Mathematical field of topology reveals importance of ‘holes in brain’

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New Scientist article: Applying the mathematical field of topology to brain science suggests gaps in densely connected brain regions serve essential cognitive functions. Newly discovered densely connected neural groups are characterized by a gap in the center, with one edge of the ring (cycle) being very thin. It’s speculated that this architecture evolved to enable the brain to better time and sequence the integration of information from different functional areas into a coherent pattern. Aspects of the findings appear to…

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Please recommend sources on the evolution of political impulses and thinking

Please recommend sources on the evolution of political impulses and thinking

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In preparation for the March meeting topic, Your Political Brain, please recommend any resources you have found particularly enlightening about why humans evolved political thinking. Also, please share references about how brain functions lead to political perceptions. I’m assuming political perceptions result from more fundamental cognitive orientations, and that those arise in part from one’s genetics and in part from environment (during development and afterward). Let’s use the following description from Wikipedia: Politics is the process of making decisions applying…

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People’s brains store and recall stories the same way

People’s brains store and recall stories the same way

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New scientific findings support the idea that different humans’ brains store and recall story scenes the same way, rather than each person developing unique memory patterns about stories. Also, people generally do well recalling the details of stories. I want to see more targeted research that determines whether information packed in story structures (a person wrestling with a difficult challenge and changing as a result) is more readily and accurately transmitted from brain to brain via storytelling. This would be…

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