Tag: neuroscience

INTELLIGENCE

Viskontas believes technology is a boon, not bane, of human intelligence. Information recall is food for brains that advances civilization. She argues information recall, with the use of the internet of things, broadens recall to complement human intelligence and improve creativity.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Brain Myths Exploded (Lessons from Neuroscience)

Lecturer: Indre Viskontas

By:  The Great Courses

Indre Viskontas (Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from UCLA, performed at Cafe Royal Opera in San Francisco, studies neural basis of memory and creativity, Lecturer at USF.)

There is a great deal to unpack in Indre Viskontas lectures about the brain and intelligence. This review is an extension of a previous look at her “…Great Courses” lectures on “Brain Myths…”.

Dalton Conley offers a complex explanation of why one child intellectually and financially excels while others are left behind.

Viskontas argues sociability plays an important role in the development of intelligence. As a less social person one wonders what potential may be lost by introversion. Every human being is a mixture of extroversion and introversion. History suggests Benjamin Franklin, Margaret Thatcher, and John F. Kennedy were outgoing extroverts. In contrast, Abrahma Lincoln, Albert Einstein, and Rosa Parks were characterized as less outgoing and more introverted. All were insightful, intelligent leaders that had great impact on the history of the world. Sociability seems of little consequence for one’s intelligence or predictable role in history.

Viskontas explains how important sleep is for mental health.

The effect of sleep deprivation is a form of torture.

During sleep, Viskontas notes the brain is quite active, characterized by different brain wave patterns. Based on periods of sleep, our dreams are like house cleaners clearing the debris accumulated from days past. Some remember their dreams, others do not. That we all dream can be seen with REM, rapid eye movements, that can be seen as eyelid movements when one is sleeping. Viskontas suggests these dreams have hidden meanings that reflect emotions that the brain is actively processing while we sleep. Memories are reconstructed, often distorted, and can cause one to awaken because of their bizarre content. Our brains reconstruct stories in sleep, just as they do when we are awake in that they complete stories of our life whether the facts are true or false. The REM stories are a clearing house for adherent behaviors that may be good or bad.

Viscontas notes low activity in the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) causes one to not remember their dreams.

Viskontas explains some do not remember their dreams because of lower activity in a part of the brain that is normally active when dreams are being recalled. She suggests those who wish to remember their dreams can keep a journal of what they do remember when they wake up. This journal can help one understand a little more about why they are dreaming and what their dream may mean by consulting a psychologist or psychiatrist.

A concern that Viskontas raises is that those who do not get enough sleep impair their memory and learning capabilities.

With a lack of sleep the prefrontal cortex functions poorly with poor judgment and impulsive behavior. Further, Viskontas notes the immune system is weakened by not getting enough sleep–with increased risk of anxiety, depression, and mood instability. When deprived of sleep, people become less social and are more driven by emotions than intellect. Viskontas recommends 7-9 hours sleep per night for optimal brain function. A continuous sleep cycle is important for deep sleep and REM that have distinct roles in information processing and a mind’s creativity for healthy living. Though Viskontas does not say anything about napping during the day, some research shows 20-to-30-minute naps can improve memory, alertness, and mood.

Viskontas explains intelligence is not a fixed characteristic but can be shaped by neuroplasticity, environment, genetic inheritance and social interaction.

Humans can rewire their brain through learning and experience. Intelligence rests within every person’s grasp but its improvement is based on genetic inheritance, experience, and effort. Science, with reproducible experiment, has proven intelligence exists throughout the Animal Kingdom.

“Quants” created collateralized mortgages in 2008.

Viskontas believes, on balance, technology is a boon, not bane, of human intelligence.

Information recall is food for brains that advances civilization. She argues information recall, with the use of the internet of things, broadens recall to complement human intelligence and improve creativity. Of course, that food can be poisoned just as the Quants who created collateralized mortgages that nearly collapsed the world economy.

HUMAN LIFE

What we see today is not reality, but our minds’ interpretation of the material world. It seems that everything in the world is process, e.g., gravity, or time relativity, or quantum unpredictability.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Brain Myths Exploded (Lessons from Neuroscience)

Lecturer: Indre Viskontas

By:  The Great Courses

Indre Viskontas (Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from UCLA, performed at Cafe Royal Opera in San Francisco, studies neural basis of memory and creativity, Lecturer at USF.)

Dr. Indre Viskontas offers interesting facts and theories about the brain in her Great Courses lectures. Her educational and musical accomplishments are remarkable examples of brain’ flexibility, human intelligence, and life-long potential. Her lectures show cognitive improvement may occur throughout one’s life while recalling incidents of brain damage and discoveries of science experiments that reveal how the brain works.

Viskontas suggests the belief that humans use only 10% of their brain is a myth.

The brain is made of eight distinctive structures which are interconnected and work together for our thoughts, feelings, and movements. A network of neurons sends electrical and chemical signals between parts of the brain that generate human thought and action; some of which are automatic and others cognitively reasoned. Viskontas explains how interconnections allow continued mental and physical functioning even when a part of the brain is damaged. Experiment and human accident have proven that the brain can adapt to loss of normal thought and action by retraining healthy parts of the brain. Retraining the brain can improve lost function. This may not return the perfect function of an undamaged brain, but it will improve function.

Viskontas explains human memory is a reconstructive process with varying degrees of accuracy.

There are people who have nearly perfect recall of their past. However, experiment has shown that even those few who can recall their personal history in detail are affected by emotion that distorts its accuracy. Furthermore, Viskontas explains personal history’ memory is limited to personal experience rather than any measurement of IQ. Of course, there are a few people who are said to have eidetic memories that can recall images with precision. They have so-called “photographic memories”, but IQ is based on problem-solving abilities that, at best, would be enhanced by a photographic memory. It is the application of recalled information to problem solving abilities that make one a genius like John von Neumann and Nikol Tesla who were alleged to have eidetic memories.

The risk is that “eyewitness” accounts can be influenced and totally wrong.

Scientific experiment has proven memory is a reconstructive process. With DNA analysis, a number of convicted murderers have been found innocent despite many eyewitnesses that identified them at scenes of crime. One is reminded of the gorilla experiment where eyewitnesses are distracted when a gorilla is sitting in a chair just as a human action scene is created in the same room. They do not see the gorilla and are surprised when it is pointed out to them later.

In the era of quantum computing, the concept of reality is evolving at a rate that boggles the mind.

The idea of a probabilistic rather than concrete reality reminds one of the differences between the science of Newton and Einstein. Newton thought of things as concrete reality. Einstein takes steps toward relativity with less emphasis on the concreteness of reality. What we see today is not reality, but our minds’ interpretation of the material world. It seems that everything in the world is process, e.g., gravity, or time relativity, or quantum unpredictability. Life and human beings may only be a pile of atoms in an atomic process of birth, life, death, and whatever comes after death.

As human beings grow older, new things take longer to learn but Viskontas explains it is commitment that makes a difference in learning something new.

Taking piano lessons as an older adult, deciding to become an opera singer after graduating from college as a neuroscientist, or reading/listening to books about science when you are not educated as a scientist takes more time as you get older, slower, and less inquisitive. Dr. Viskcontas’ lectures infer it is never too late to learn something new. It just takes longer for it to become a part of who you are.

LEARNING

There are many brain discoveries and therapies to be discovered that will extend the ability of human beings beyond today’s capabilities. Those discoveries are like the discovery of fission. The science of brain plasticity has potential for either programing destruction or liberating the mind.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Brain That Changes Itself: Personal Triumphs from the Frontiers of Brain Science

By: Norman Doidge, M.D.

Narrated By: Jim Bond

Norman Doidge (Author, Canadian psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, studied literary classics and philosophy at the University of Toronto.)

To an older person, there is a sense of disappointment and optimism from what Norman Doidge writes in “The Brain That Changes Itself”. The disappointment is the feeling of lost opportunity for some because of their ignorance of how the brain works. The optimism is that the past is passed while Doidge explains brain improvement is not completely lost with either age or injury. For older people, improving brain function is more difficult but not impossible. For the injured or medically challenged brain improvement is a dire necessity. For the young, improving brain function is at its best unless there are medical complications.

Doidge explains as one grows older or suffers from brain injury; the brain can be rewired to improve learning or restore bodily function.

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Age slows the synaptic process of learning, but the brain is still receptive to synaptic improvement. Older brains simply have to work harder to compel new neuronal synaptic connections. With brain injury or disease, new connections must be made by different parts of the brain to restore the relationship between thought and action. A youthful brain is likely to improve faster than an older brain, but experimental studies show improvement is possible for both. Doidge explores brain plasticity in “The Brain That Changes Itself”.

Doidge explains medical or physical deterioration of brain function can be improved with repetitive effort.

What brain disfunction has in common is the ability to adapt to the circumstances of people’s lives. With the appropriate help of teacher, clinician, and self exercise, people can rewire their brain.

The difficulty is in societies willingness to invest in the professional needs of those who are affected by brain dysfunction. Treatment of the aged requires commitment to repetitive learning and relearning which can be done with personal commitment. It is not the same for those who lose motor control of their body from injury or medical conditions. The requirement Doidge and others have found for medical or physical brain injury is the training and availability of clinicians and physicians to provide the therapeutic treatment that will aid recovery. How many medical clinicians have been trained to aid brain-dysfunction’ patients to re-wire their brains to think, see, hear, or walk? How many patients can afford the treatment?

The potential of rewiring the brain extends to returning old brains to their childlike state of openness with drugs. It is a new frontier that illustrates how human brains are superior to A.I.

“The Brain That Changes Itself” reveals a lot about the science of re-wiring the brain. Re-wiring the brain for older people is possible with minimal assistance but it requires repetitive work. For the brain damaged, the need for neurologists, clinicians and other professionals are essential for treatment success. The difficulty is in balancing need with cost and the public’s ability to pay.

Brain plasticity can either aid or destroy society.

Doidge notes how North Korean children are taught from grade school through high school to see their leader as a god, not a fallible human being. The less formed minds of the young are more easily programed than adults. He shows brain plasticity is a new frontier in medicine that can be abused.

There are many brain discoveries and therapies to be discovered that will extend the ability of human beings beyond today’s capabilities. Those discoveries are like the discovery of fission. The science of brain plasticity has potential for either programing destruction or liberating the mind.