^CategoryNeuroscience

Multiracial team of professional medical surgeons performs the surgical operation in a modern hospital. Doctors are working to save the patient. Medicine, health and neurosurgery.

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 9, 2023

Categorized
Language, Neuroscience

Tagged
Anterior temporal lobe, Anterior temporal lobe (loss), Christopher Petkov, Epilepsy and anterior temporal lobe, Human brain (compensation for losses), Karl Friston on self-organizing systems}

Human Brain Tries Immediately to Compensate for Language Loss

_{Neurosurgeons recently had a unique opportunity to observe brains undergoing the loss of the speech area and compensating in real time} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 9, 2023

3

Language, Neuroscience}

Neuroscientists have long clashed over a critical question: Can the human brain compensate for the loss of a critical hub like the speech area? If so, how? Epilepsy surgery led by a team at the University of Iowa recently allowed researchers a close look at the live process in real time. Two patients were having the front part of a temporal lobe — which decodes the meaning of language — removed so that surgeons could remove the deeper parts of the brain that were causing their debilitating seizures. The neurosurgery teams followed the usual procedure of asking these patients to do speech and language tasks in the operating room while electrodes were implanted. They would record data from parts of Read More ›

Two Scientists in the Brain Research Laboratory work on a Project, Using Personal Computer with MRI Scans Show Brain Anomalies. Neuroscientists at Work.

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Author
News
Date
December 7, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience

Tagged
brain, Brain research, Joseph Green, Limitations, mind, Minding the Brain (book), Minding the Brain (Discovery Institute Press 2023), Neuroscience}

On the Limitations of Cutting-Edge Neuroscience

_{Neuroscientist Joseph Green separates the hype from reality when it comes to current brain research.} _{News

December 7, 2023

3

Neuroscience}

By Joseph Green Editor’s note: In coming weeks, we will be featuring excerpts from the important new book Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science (Discovery Institute Press, 2023). In this excerpt, neuroscientist Joseph Green separates the hype from reality when it comes to current brain research. Neuroscience is one of the fastest growing scientific fields. Increasing our understanding of how the brain works is often regarded as one of the most significant challenges of the twenty-first century. Recent neuroscientific discoveries have been celebrated step by step in the media as a result of their significance. Yet, to this day, no major technology company has been able to turn scientific knowledge of the brain into profits. Engineering the Read More ›

illustration, mouse in the kitchen, generative ai.

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 7, 2023

Categorized
Animal mind, Neuroscience

Tagged
Hippocampus and visual self-image, Jun Yokose, Mice, Mice (mirror test), Mirror test}

Mice Pass the Mirror Test — Not a Self-Knowledge Test

_{Whether an animal recognizes its own image surely has less to do with self-awareness than with the role that sight — as a sense — plays in its life} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 7, 2023

4

Animal mind, Neuroscience}

Researchers reported this week in the journal Neuron that mice have passed the famous “mirror test” — recognizing themselves in a mirror — though only under certain conditions: Researchers report December 5 in the journal Neuron that mice display behavior that resembles self-recognition when they see themselves in the mirror. When the researchers marked the foreheads of black-furred mice with a spot of white ink, the mice spent more time grooming their heads in front of the mirror — presumably to try and wash away the ink spot. However, the mice only showed this self-recognition-like behavior if they were already accustomed to mirrors, if they had socialized with other mice who looked like them, and if the ink spot was Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 6, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Contemporary Dualism (Routledge 2013), Dualism in disguise (chapter), Edward Feser, Edward Feser on eliminative materialism, eliminative materialism, Eliminative materialism vs dualism, Paulo Moderato, Physicalism, Riccardo Manzotti}

Neuroscience Must Be Dualist, Whether or Not “Science” Allows It

_{Denyse O'Leary

December 6, 2023

5

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

A decade ago, philosopher Riccardo Manzotti and psychology prof Paulo Moderato, both of the University of Milan, published a widely noted chapter in Contemporary Dualism (Routledge 2013): ”Dualism in Disguise.” Briefly, they accuse neuroscientists of being dualists at heart. That is, the neuroscientists really do believe in the existence of the immaterial mind. The point of view most neuroscientists say they believe is physicalism or eliminative materialism: That is, the mind is simply what the brain does, end stop. And in a nice way, Manzotti and Moderato (hereafter M & M) are accusing them of being hypocrites: First, we want to highlight a surprising fact that is often denounced but seldom believed—namely that most of current neuroscientists, contrary to often-heralded Read More ›

Purkinje neuron, GABAergic neuron located in the cerebellum

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 30, 2023

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Neuroscience

Tagged
cerebellum, Cerebellum in humans, Henrik Kaessmann, Mari Sepp, Prenatal cerebellum, Purkinje cell}

Researchers: Human Cerebellum Aids Higher Cognitive Functions

_{At one time, the cerebellum was thought to facilitate only functions like movement. But recent research shows that it’s more complex} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 30, 2023

3

Human exceptionalism, Neuroscience}

The cerebellum, a lower back brain part found in nearly all vertebrates, is vital for most physical movement, including eye movements. In the past, it was not thought to have much to do with thinking. But that is changing. Recent work publicized by the University of Heidelberg in Germany helps to show, for one thing, that the cerebellum’s relationship to the rest of the brain is more complex than that: Although the cerebellum, a structure at the back of the skull, contains about 80 percent of all neurons in the whole human brain, this was long considered a brain region with a rather simple cellular architecture,” explains Prof. [Henrik] Kaessmann. In recent times, however, evidence suggesting a pronounced heterogeneity within Read More ›

Top View of Handsome Young Man Sleeping Cozily on a Bed in His Bedroom at Night. Blue Nightly Colors with Cold Weak Lamppost Light Shining Through the Window.

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Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
November 29, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience

Tagged
Cognition, Mind Brain, Neuroscience, Psychology, resting, Sleep, the necessity of sleep}

Night Shift: The Brain’s Extraordinary Work While Asleep

_{Lie down, close your eyes, lose consciousness, and the brain undertakes the heavy lifting that sleep demands.} _{Richard W. Stevens

November 29, 2023

6

Neuroscience}

What is consciousness? “Consciousness is what allows you to think, remember, and feel things.” It includes awareness of yourself. Descartes’ famous line. “I think, therefore I am,” declared his consciousness. Conscious thinking means our brains, our minds, are sensing, observing, memorizing, recalling, decoding, analyzing, calculating, interrelating, cross-referencing, rearranging, expanding, generalizing, communicating, and even creating. Those coordinated operations, part of cognition, require real work. After all that brain work, it should be time for a rest, right? Nope. When a supermarket closes, the workers don’t just switch off the lights and go home. Overnight the workers clean, restock, organize, repair, and get the store ready for the next day. It’s the same for the brain. Lie down, close your eyes, lose Read More ›

Brain development during pregnancy of unborn baby. 3D rendered illustration.

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 29, 2023

Categorized
Language, Neuroscience

Tagged
Benedetta Mariani, David Nield, Eric Dolan, Nyla Husain, Prenatal language learning}

Study: Babies Start Learning Their Home Language Before Birth

_{Neuroscience researchers found that newborns responded better to a folk tale in French than in Spanish or English — when French was their mothers’ native language} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 29, 2023

3

Language, Neuroscience}

Just how tiny children, who hardly know anything at all, learn their native language with ease is still largely a mystery. But a recent article in Science Advances offers evidence that, when a child hears speech before birth, the complex neurological processes that enable early acquisition of the language are stimulated. From the open access paper: Human infants acquire language with amazing ease. This feat may begin early, possibly even before birth (1–5), as hearing is operational by 24 to 28 weeks of gestation (6). The intrauterine environment acts as a low-pass filter, attenuating frequencies above 600 Hz (2, 7). As a result, individual speech sounds are suppressed in the lowpass–filtered prenatal speech signal, but prosody, i.e., the melody and Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 28, 2023

Categorized
Evolution, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Consciousness evolution, Pär Halje, Philip Goff on evolution of mind, Psychedelics, Ralph Lewis on evolution of mind, rats}

Claim: What consciousness studies needs is more Darwinism

_{The Darwinian view of the evolution of the human mind is, at best, a ladder with no upper rungs} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 28, 2023

5

Evolution, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Writing at Psychology Today in 2020, University of Toronto psychiatrist Ralph Lewis told us, We have already known for a long time from clinical neurology and from my own field, clinical psychiatry, that without a shadow of a doubt there is no aspect of the mind that is not entirely the product of, and utterly dependent on, the physical brain. Disruption, disassembly or enhancement of brain circuitry (subtle or major) can radically alter any aspect of the mind. And yet the mystery of how exactly the brain produces consciousness has remained unexplained. Ralph Lewis, “What Actually Is Consciousness, and How Did It Evolve?”, Psychology Today, September 2020 (updated October 7, 2023) Lewis thought that evolution explains consciousness: “Once we shed Read More ›

Inside the brain. Concept of neurons and nervous system.

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 24, 2023

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience

Tagged
Human echolocation, John Krakauer, neuroplasticity, Tamar Makin}

Our Brains Don’t Really Rewire, Neuroscientists Caution

_{Professors Tamar Makin (Cambridge) and John Krakauer (Johns Hopkins) say that when the brain adapts to losses, it uses “latent capacities,” not new ones} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 24, 2023

3

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience}

We hear a lot about neuroplasticity, — the way the brain compensates for absences or injuries. A recent neuroscience paper offers a look at what the brain is really doing in such cases. One area that has attracted a lot of attention is human echolocation, the ability of a person who is blind — due to damage to the visual cortex of the brain — to use a form of echolocation to sense objects that cannot actually be seen. Professors Tamar Makin (Cambridge) and John Krakauer (Johns Hopkins) propose that what happens in the brain is something like this: In their article, Makin and Krakauer look at a ten seminal studies that purport to show the brain’s ability to reorganise. Read More ›

Human brain stimulation or activity with neuron close-up 3D rendering illustration. Neurology, cognition, neuronal network, psychology, neuroscience scientific concepts.

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 14, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
C. elegans neuroscience, Edward Feser, eliminative materialism, Joseph Green, Massimo Pigliucci, Mind-body problem and neuroscience, Minding the Brain (Discovery Institute Press 2023), Neuroscience in 2023}

Will Neuroscience Ever Accommodate Immaterial Consciousness?

_{Joseph Green offers an informative account in Minding the Brain of the current state of neuroscience. What we now know is remarkable — but so is what we don’t} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 14, 2023

6

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

“On the Limitations of Cutting-Edge Neuroscience,” which is Chapter 15 of Minding the Brain, offers neuroscientist Joseph Green’s candid assessment of the current state of the discipline. If you would like to enjoy a discussion of neuroscience today without another massive dose of promissory materialism, bookmark this one for sure. Green starts with a premise that may be startling to some: Neuroscientists are nowhere near figuring out how the brain works. More significantly, “ no specific philosophical theory should be preferred over another on the basis of scientific findings.” That is because “ … the current dogma that pervades neuroscience—materialist monism that can be simply stated as “we are nothing but our brains”—is established by intellectual pressure rather than solid Read More ›

An octopus holding a plastic bottle , generative ai

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 7, 2023

Categorized
Animal mind, Evolution, Neuroscience

Tagged
A J Fillo, Dominic Sivitilli, Ed Yong, Joshua Rosenthal, Octopus (intelligence), Octopus as alien species, Octopus brains, Octopus genetics, Octopus neurology, Tamar Gutnick, Troy Farah}

Will the Octopus Ever Find Its Way Into a Tidy Evolutionary Tree?

_{New finds in genetics and neuroscience both shed light and deepen the puzzle of the almost "alien" species} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 7, 2023

6

Animal mind, Evolution, Neuroscience}

Just why the octopus — a short-lived, solitary, invertebrate exotherm — should seem as intelligent as a monkey has become quite the puzzle in recent years. Typical evolutionary explanations don’t really work. The octopus’s biological inheritance is precisely the type that we don’t associate with intelligence. For one thing, it is much more closely related to clams than to monkeys. What about the fact that the octopus has nine brains? Well, do nine invertebrate brains add up to more intelligence than one? That’s a question worth asking because it probably wouldn’t work with grasshoppers or worms. That is, both types of life form have brains but it isn’t clear how an installation of nine of them in a single individual Read More ›

Generative AI illustrations of the last step of the spiritual journey. Depths of consciousness, hidden wisdom, and transformative growth open a portal into a new realm of conscious awareness.

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Author
Andrew McDiarmid
Date
November 2, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience

Tagged
After Death, Afterlife, Andrew McDiarmid, Gary Habermas, Near Death Experiences, Neuroscience, science}

The Scientific Evidence for Near-Death-Experiences

_{A conversation with Dr. Gary Habermas on the plausibility and evidence of near-death-experiences.} _{Andrew McDiarmid

November 2, 2023

2

Neuroscience}

Is there strong scientific evidence for near-death experiences, the subject of the new film After Death? On an episode of ID the Future, I spoke with Dr. Gary Habermas about his chapter evaluating the evidence for near-death cases in the recent book Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science. As Dr. Habermas explains, most near-death accounts contain both objective and subjective elements. Personal testimony about other realms can’t be independently corroborated, but objective evidence rooted in this world can be confirmed and evaluated. “I can’t verify heavenly discussions or heavenly sites,” says Habermas, “so the kind of NDE data I’m talking about virtually always occur on this earth in normal kinds of situations, like parking lots or in your Read More ›

man walking in the night toward the light

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Author
News
Date
October 27, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Spirituality}

New Movie Investigates Near-Death Experiences

_{What happens after we die? The new movie "After Death," out today, investigates near-death experiences and the possibility of the afterlife.} _{News

October 27, 2023

1

Neuroscience, Spirituality}

Are reports of consciousness after death believable? Moreover, are they scientifically credible? A new film from Angel Studies, After Death, investigates these questions by interviewing people in near-death situations. These subjects report encountering exquisite beauty, loved ones, and even the ability to see their physical bodies from a disembodied vantage point after death. Many doctors and neuroscientists are admitting that these testimonies are hard to dismiss through materialistic explanations. The movie is out today and offers a compelling revelation of the evidence for life after death. Take a moment to watch the trailer and consider seeing the movie in full: After Death Tickets & Showtimes | Angel Studios

Synaps with neurons in the background, neurotransmitters in synaptic junction, information transmission in the brain

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 24, 2023

Categorized
Free will, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Dualism, Francis Merson, Michael Egnor, Minding the Brain (Discovery Institute Press 2023), Robert Sapolsky, Wilder Penfield (on abstract thought and epilepsy)}

Neuroscience Has Never Provided Much Evidence for Materialism

_{In a chapter of the new book, Minding the Brain, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor points out that many great neuroscientists were non-materialists} _{Denyse O'Leary

October 24, 2023

6

Free will, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Over the past century, philosophers and philosophy connoisseurs have had a great time making fun of dualism. It was so easy. The human mind, we are told, is just the ghost in the machine, something that, as science will prove, doesn’t really exist. We are just bodies with brains. Life is all material. An early warning that things aren’t as simple as that should be the outcome of the wager between prominent neuroscientist Christof Koch and dualist philosopher David Chalmers. After 25 years of search, Koch conceded to Chalmers because no consciousness “signature” had been found in the brain. Was it just a ripple effect of that outcome that, shortly afterward, many leading neuroscientists denounced Koch’s well-regarded Integrated Information Theory Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 21, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Aaron Schurger, Benjamin Libet (free will experiments), Cristi L. S. Cooper, Michael Egnor, Minding the Brain (Discovery Institute Press 2023), Phineas gage, Social science myths}

Modern Neuroscience Does NOT Disprove Free Will

_{In a chapter of Minding the Brain (2023), Cristi L. S. Cooper looks at the current state of neuroscience research on free will} _{Denyse O'Leary

October 21, 2023

6

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

If you’ve heard the latest from pop science, you probably “know” that science disproves free will. Actually, after decades of research on the topic, it doesn’t. Chapter 14 of Minding the Brain (Discovery Institute Press, 2023) is neuroscientist and educator Cristi L. S. Cooper’s look at the real state of the neuroscience around free will. In “Free Will, Free Won’t, and What the Libet Experiments Don’t Tell Us,” Cooper recounts in some detail the research around readiness potentials in the brain. The controversy started with 1983 findings by American neuroscientist Benjamin Libet (1916–2007). Briefly, Libet et al. found that the brain initiates spontaneous movements (“readiness potential”) before subjects recall making as choice to act. And, Cooper notes, “This finding kicked Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 28, 2023

Categorized
Addiction, Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Anil Seth on physicalism, Dan Falk, Dan Falk on panpsychism, eliminative materialism, Panpsychism vs eliminative materialism}

In Neuroscience Flap, Science Media Tackle “Pseudoscience” Claim

_{As the leading theory of consciousness is tarred by neuroscientists as “pseudoscience,” science media struggle to outline just WHAT science is} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 28, 2023

6

Addiction, Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind}

As a child, I remember hearing a proverb, “When thieves fall out, honest men come by their own.” It means roughly: If you are overhearing loud, angry accusations, you may suddenly realize for the first time what really happened during many puzzling events — and hear honest statements of some Top People’s agendas. For example, it took a huge uproar around the top neuroscience theory, Integrated Information Theory (IIT), for some of us to realize how the “Keep abortion legal!” agenda dominates many neuroscientists’ concerns. That turn of events is hardly something that would have jumped out at most of us.* As noted here earlier, IIT is now under attack as “pseudoscience,” with top journal Nature covering the fight. And Read More ›

the head of a person is full of different numbers Generative AI

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 23, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Probability

Tagged
Bayes’ Theorem, Bayesian inference, Human brain as supercomputer, Reuben Rideaux, Thomas Bayes}

Did “Evolution” Wire Human Brains to “Act Like Supercomputers”?

_{In making such a claim, psychology researchers may have got more than they bargained for} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 23, 2023

4

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Probability}

Intelligent design theory is still a third rail in science. But a media release for a recent research publication seems to subtly adopt its language. Researchers associated with the University of Sydney found that human brains are “naturally wired to perform advanced calculations, much like a high-powered computer, to make sense of the world through a process known as Bayesian inference.” Bayesian inference is based on Bayes’ Theorem; essentially, it’s a decision-making tool, “a means for revising predictions in light of relevant evidence, also known as conditional probability or inverse probability.” (Britannica). Originally developed by Presbyterian minister and mathematician Thomas Bayes (1702–1761) and found among his papers after his death, Bayesian inference is used today to assess probabilities using advanced Read More ›

The complexity of digital ethics background. generative AI

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 20, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Anil Seth, Christof Koch, Hakwan Lau, Integrated Information Theory (IIT and panpsychism), Integrated Information Theory (IIT), Integrated Information Theory as pseudoscience, Mariana Lenharo, Nature (journal) and panpsychism, Panpsychism vs eliminative materialism}

Leading Consciousness Theory Slammed as “Pseudoscience.” Huh?

_{Integrated Information Theory’s panpsychist leanings are the 124 neuroscientist critics’ real target} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 20, 2023

5

Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind}

Since last week, 124 neuroscientists, including some really big names, have signed an online letter,” to be published in a journal, denouncing a leading theory of consciousness, Integrated Information Theory (IIT), as “pseudoscience.” If you don’t follow these controversies, IIT may not immediately ring a bell. But the theory featured in popular science news earlier this summer when dualist philosopher David Chalmers won a 25-year bet with IIT neuroscientist Christof Koch. He had bet that a “consciousness spot” would not be found in the brain and it was not. But they were both good sports about it and, as agreed, Koch bought Chalmers a case of fine wine. But the signatories to the letter are in no mood for parties. Read More ›

Businessman in split personality concept. High quality photo

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 19, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Alien hand syndrome, Dual consciousness, Gert-Jan C. Lockhorst, Human Soul (Worthy 2024), Michael Egnor, Roger Sperry, Roland Puccetti, Split brain research, Split brain research (and unity of mind), Split mind theory, Yair Pinto on split brains}

Split Mind: The Strangest Theory in Neuroscience?

_{The idea that we might all have separate, undetected consciousnesses in each half of our brain supports materialism but there’s little evidence for it} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 19, 2023

5

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

A century ago, many scientists — though certainly not all — cherished the hope that science would some day show that our universe is entirely determined by laws of physics physicalism. Neuroscientists insisted, along these lines, that the mind is simply the physical processes of the brain. But neuroscience is identifying many facts that show that the mind is independent of the brain. While working on the book that neurosurgeon Michael Egnor and I are writing on neuroscience evidence for the human soul (Worthy, 2024), I learned something remarkable: Some people’s brains have been split in half (corpus callosotomy) to treat otherwise intractable epilepsy) typically continue to think normally. For people who believe that the mind is simply the buzz Read More ›

brain made from water and flowers on pastel background concept art, photo, Shot on 65mm lens, Shutter Speed 1 4000, F 1.8 White Balance, 32k, Super-Resolution, Pro Photo RGB, Half rear Lighting, Backl

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 22, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Psychology

Tagged
Ambidexterity, Ann Pietrangelo, Brain laterality, Iain McGilchrist, Left brain vs. right brain concept, Left-handedness, Right-handedness, Robert H. Shmerling, Scott Barry Kauffman}

The Left and Right Brain Both Want Pop Science Media to Chill

_{Neuroscience is not an especially rewarding field for the pursuit of dogma} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 22, 2023

5

Neuroscience, Psychology}

A staple of coffee room chatter has been left brain vs. right brain thinking. You know, “He’s one of those left-brain types; he’d fire us all to save money!” Or, “She’s really a right-brain kind of person so if something looks beautiful, she probably isn’t thinking about what would happen if…” Left brain, right brain. It’s one of those complex cultural concepts that starts in conventional science fact, explodes into pop psychology chatter, and then settles into a small, murky world that can only be navigated by serious thinking. First, vertebrates generally have brains divided into two lobes, an arrangement that may go back half a billion years. The right hemisphere usually controls the left side of the body and Read More ›