Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryNeuroscience

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Plenty of air bubbles in blue water

The Boy Who Proved Most Theories of Consciousness Wrong

He was unequivocally conscious — without a cerebral cortex and even without brain hemispheres

I believe that children with hydranencephaly are conscious because all human beings have a spiritual soul and it is by virtue of our soul that we are conscious.

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Michael Egnor: Science Offers Evidence of an Immaterial Mind

At the Knight and Rose show, he and co-author Denyse O’Leary talk about how split-brain surgeries, veridical near-death experiences, and terminal lucidity challenge materialist views of the mind.

In their book, The Immortal Mind, Egnor and O’Leary argue that an immaterial, immortal soul best explains human consciousness, free will, and abstract thought.

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Conceptual art of think, brain mind, mental health, spiritual, soul and psychology. concept idea art. surreal drawing illustration. isolated on a white background.

The Skeptic, the Neuroscientist and the Neurosurgeon Walk Into a…

… most interesting discussion by all accounts. Skeptical science writer Michael Shermer hosted sometimes-controversial neuroscientist Christof Koch and Christian neurosurgeon Michael Egnor

The fate of consciousness studies may depend on how committed researchers are to finding the facts vs. how committed they are to protecting a materialist view.

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Meditative state of mind concept. Ai generative

The Immortal Mind: How Neuroscience Points Beyond Materialism

Andrew McDiarmid interviews neurosurgeon Michael Egnor on the ways in which the mind is more than the brain

After defining terms, Egnor begins exploring the compelling evidence he has gathered across four decades of practice in neurosurgery.

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the brain of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence (AI), data mining, deep learning modern computer technologies. Futuristic Cyber Technology Innovation.

Why the Theory That the Brain Is Like a Computer Is Wrong

The pattern we see in artificial intelligence progress is that the movement towards emulating the human mind is also a movement away from the brain

The success of AI shows that to whatever extent the mind operates like a computer, such a mind cannot be running on the hardware of the brain.

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illustration showing a silhouette of a human head surrounded by expressive thought bubbles with various symbols and punctuation marks representing diverse mental processes.

The Mind Beyond the Brain: Insights from a Neurosurgeon

Dr. Michael Egnor argues, “There’s something about the relationship between the mind and the brain that’s not in the textbooks.”

Egnor’s work invites readers to reconsider the mysteries of the mind, urging a more open and curious approach to understanding human consciousness.

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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.

How a Split Brain Enables a Unified Mind Still Baffles Us

In the comments following Sean McDowell’s interview with neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, a viewer asked, are the parts of a split brain still really connected?

We are learning new things about the mind–brain complex every day and not everything is what we expected to find.

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A realistic depiction of a human brain composed entirely of computer hardware, including cables, transistors, and cooling fans. The brain is set against a dark, moody background with a highly

Artificial Intelligence Is Nothing Like a Brain — or a Mind

Neurons share basic mechanisms, but almost all other features vary both between types of neurons and individual ones

The brain can be modeled as a computer, but that does not mean that thought is computation. AI is human intelligence, disguised and leveraged by computation.

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Sunrise on mountain with foggy in Medicine lake at Jasper

Here’s Neurosurgeon Mike Egnor on Sean McDowell’s Show

With a couple of revealing excerpts from the transcript

The soul can seem a bit of a mystery because the popular idea of the soul, as a sort of “ghost” is not the traditional philosophical (or Christian) one.

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Epilepsy Concept An illustration represents epilepsy with brain wave patterns

Brain vs. Mind: A Very Revealing Fact About Epileptic Seizures

I have treated thousands of patients with epilepsy. Seizures can result in a variety of unexpected behaviors and emotions. But let me tell you what they DON’T do…

The fact that seizures never result in abstract reasoning implies our reason is not a material power of the body but an immaterial power of the spiritual soul.

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A 3D rendering of a human brain with a missing puzzle piece, symbolizing mental health, memory loss, or a search for solutions.

Why Much Current Consciousness Research Is a Fool’s Errand

The inability to even define consciousness with clarity is emblematic of the conceptual mess that modern neuroscience has become

Consciousness is like contact lenses. It is the means by which we experience, not what we experience. Thus we can’t “find” it in the brain.

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Portrait of young man embracing his small dog. Small puppy terrier with owner, spending time together. Pet adoption, mental health, cute moments, friendship with animals

How Logic Can Show That Your Mind Is Not Just Your Brain

A principle of physics — the indeterminacy of matter — precludes brain states from forming the basis of abstract thought

In addition to the massive evidence from neuroscience that the intellect is an immaterial power of the mind, simple logic points to the same truth.

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Pathways of the prefrontal cortex controlling decision-making shown in a nervous system diagram.

What Did the Multi-Year Consciousness Study Really Find?

Surprisingly, the joint research teams found that the prefrontal cortex, the “personality center,” may not be as important for consciousness as we think

The demotion of the prefrontal cortex in consciousness is remarkable in the light of other researchers’ view that it is practically what makes us human.

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view form medical partition taiwanese female in vegetative state resting alone on bed in bright hospital.

Are People in a Persistent Vegetative State Mindless? Maybe Not

They often can and do think. Research in the area helps us understand the relationship between the mind and the brain better

While none of this research is decisive, the materialist paradigm is challenged by awareness in PVS. The dualist perspective better fits the evidence.

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Neuron cell close-up 3D rendering illustration with nervous impulses along dendrites, axon, soma and nucleus. Neuronal brain activity, neuroscience, neurology, anatomy, medicine concepts.

Does Our Humanity Really Depend on “Concept Cells”?

A recently discovered type of brain cell, thought to be unique to humans, codes for a variety of types of information around a single concept

It’s a lot to ask of one type of cell, however unique, that it be what makes humans more intelligent than chimpanzees and that it create language.

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A Neurosurgeon Makes the Neuroscience Case for Free Will

Michael Egnor is concerned about the serious social implications of denying free will

Insisting that there is no free will amounts to declaring “I’m a meat robot, so take seriously what I’m saying.” That’s self-refuting nonsense, Dr. Egnor says.

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A detailed image of a laboratory white mouse on a structure that mimics neural pathways, highlighting the role of DNA sequencing and genetic research in neuroscience 8K , high-resolution, ultra HD,up3

The Nearly Unfathomable Complexity of Even a Mouse’s Brain

Mapping a small part of a mouse's brain required 1.6 petabytes of data, which is equivalent to 22 years of nonstop high-definition video

If it takes a hundred scientists to map a cubic millimetre of a mouse’s brain, even the material world — never mind the immaterial world of the mind — is not likely to have a simple explanation.

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Mix Media 3D Render - Brain blue fire smoke effect on the black background

Scientists Dare To Hint That the Mind Can’t Just Be the Brain

They start with astonishing facts about the brains of caterpillars and worms and end up discussing human near-death experiences

Whether they continue to push the boundary, or someone else does, they can only bring up so many unaccounted-for facts before it’s time for a revolution.

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3d rendered illustration of the human brain anatomy

Did the Enlargement of the Human Brain Depend on Two Genes?

The genes, unique to humans, spurred brain growth when introduced in mice and chimpanzee stem cells

While it is quite true that the human brain is very large by animal standards, there is no simple one-on-one relationship between brain size and intelligence.

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Exploring the intricacies of human cognition a dual brain representation in artistic form

Can One Person Really Have Two Different Consciousnesses?

The idea that split-brain surgery can create two separate minds is immortal — in science fiction

Real-world research shows the remarkable resilience of damaged brains housing single minds. Our brains are full of complexities and exceptions to rules.

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