CategoryNeuroscience
Yes, the Placebo Effect Is Real, Not a Trick
But the fact that the mind acts on the body troubles materialists. Such facts, they say, require revision
Researchers find loneliness is hard on the brain
What we think about our lives really does affect our health.
Hamlet: Did his perplexing neurotransmitters cause the tragedy?
The neuroscientist working from a mechanical perspective would study the material and efficient causes of Hamlet’s act of revenge.
Yes, your brain is a machine—if you choose to see it that way
As a Nobel Prize physicist pointed out, our method of study determines what we learnAnil Seth, a Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, gave a TED talk recently (linked below) in which he asserted that “the combined activity of many billions of neurons—each one a tiny biological machine—is generating our conscious experience…” So, is your brain really a biological “machine”? Or is that just an analogy, like saying that a restaurant kitchen is a “hive” of activity? If so, how good is the analogy? Why do we select the analogy of a “machine” rather than a different one? It’s an important question, as we will see, because the questions we ask of nature constrain the answers we obtain. A machine is an artifact. It is a human-built assembly of Read More ›
Does brain stimulation research challenge free will?
If we can be forced to want something, is the will still free?
Does your brain construct your conscious reality? Part II
In a word, no. Your brain doesn't "think"; YOU think, using your brain
Does your brain construct your conscious reality? Part I
A reply to computational neuroscientist Anil Seth's recent TED talk
Do either machines—or brains—really learn?
A further response to Jeffrey Shallit: Actually, brains don’t learn either. Only minds learn.
Inner peace: Is there software for that?
Tech billionaire funds neuroscience in a search for the secret of contentment
Do neuroscience myths harm education?
Do Big Brains Matter to Human Intelligence?
We don’t know. Brain research readily dissolves into confusion at that pointWe also know very little about the human brain. Take this controversy about why the large human brain evolved...
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The Brain Is Not a “Meat Computer”
Dramatic recoveries from brain injury highlight the differenceThe brain looks like a computer only if we analyze it as if it were a computer. Our analysis does not mean that it is a computer, and it does not mean that computation explains the mind or even that computational approaches to neuroscience provide genuinely meaningful insight into neurophysiology.
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Boy loses large hunk of brain
And is “doing just fine”
How to hack your unconscious mind
Assuming it exists