Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryNeuroscience

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Old computers from the 80s in an abandoned computing center

When materialist assumptions about the mind begin to sound dated…

A 2017 profile of Roger Penrose and his consciousness theory was penned before slow changes and major tumults rocked the discipline — and it shows
Paulson’s Penrose profile is written as if materialism is going to prevail but that seems much less likely now than it perhaps did in 2017. Read More ›
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placebo

How Believing You’ll Get Better May Affect Your Brain

A placebo effect experiment in mice pinpointed a change in an area of the brain not previously known to be involved in pain control
With humans, it is likely more complex but identifying the neural correlates of expectation may help produce more effective pain relief in humans and animals. Read More ›
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Creative brain stimulation concept. Half a human brain with half a coffee bean on a blue background.

Do We Need the Right Half of the Human Brain?

Generally, we do. Yet what happened when one woman lost the right half of her brain as an adult was unexpected

A little-reported 2021 case study published in Neurology Clinical Practice shows how resilient the human brain can be. A 29-year-old woman, CB, with no neurological or psychiatric history had a stroke, possibly due to medication issues. The damage was serious enough that a decision was made, with her consent, to remove almost all of the right side of her brain (hemispherectomy). As the study authors put it, “only a small disconnected right occipital pole was retained.” What impact would that have on her mind? The right hemisphere of the brain is thought by neuroscientists to play a specific role in “nonverbal” cognitive abilities. From Simply Psychology, we learn, Left hemisphere function The left hemisphere controls the right-hand side of the Read More ›

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Neural landscape with densely packed neurons, selective focus on a synapse releasing neurotransmitters, vibrant blue and white colors, high-resolution digital illustration

Is Panpsychism Putting Francis Crick’s Pack of Neurons to Flight?

Science writer John Horgan remembers Crick in the ‘90s when reductionism was riding high in neuroscience. What’s happened since?
As the years wear on, consciousness will likely remain irreducible and the neuroscientists may end up having to address plausible claims for dualism soon too. Read More ›
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white mouse

Sleeping Mice Show How the Brain Lays Down Memories

Studies of mice running mazes have shed light on the sharp waves of neurons that assist in forming memories
As we learn more about memory, it takes a while to even process what we are learning but the research may help treat memory-related disorders. Read More ›
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Colorful wooden puzzle brain model. Neurodiversity concept, human mind complexity. Creativity, brainstorming and emotional intelligence.

Neuroscientist: The Mind Is Just the Brain

He cites studies using transcranial magnetic stimulation, which caused subjects to see flashing lights
The fatal flaw in identity theory, as his view is called, is that there is no point of contact between the laws of logic and those of electrochemistry. Read More ›
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Diving, Wrecks, Caribbean, Windward Islands, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique

Why Does a Brainless Sponge Have a Toolkit for a Nervous System?

A neuroscientist wrestles with the question of where the kit arose? From the one-celled life forms that preceded the sponge?
Kenneth Kosik, perhaps unwittingly, describes evolution as if it were an engineer. But then, the situation looks rather more like design than Darwinism. Read More ›
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Inside the brain. Concept of neurons and nervous system.

A Third Big Consciousness Theory: Each Neuron Is a Computer

Dendritic information theory (DIT) may not explain consciousness any better than other theories but it may shed light on how anesthesia produces LOSS of consciousness
What we are really learning is that even the individual cells that mediate consciousness are very complex — even in the lab rats used in the experiments. Read More ›
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Human brain and Active receptor

Consciousness Wars: Researcher Tries Negotiating a Truce

Witch hunts against leading theories are bad for a discipline’s reputation; Johan Storm thinks that all the prominent theories of consciousness are a little bit right
The fate of the discipline may depend on how committed researchers are to finding out the facts vs. protecting a materialist view of consciousness. Read More ›
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Neurons activity. Synapses and axones transmitting electrical signals. AI generated

Tiny Dot of Human Brain Tissue Reveals Unexpected Insights

A speck of your brain can hold the data for 250 movies
Apart from sheer complexity, the organization of the deep brain did not turn out to be what researchers had expected. Read More ›
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Portrait of Neanderthal man tending to a fire in a primitive shelter, embodying protection and provider instincts.

Could Neanderthals Speak? It Depends on Who You Talk To

Theorists who will, sadly, never converse with a living Neanderthal imagine things they could and couldn’t do linguistically
Humans can tolerate mysteries quite well as long as we can fill them in with speculations, which in the end tell us mostly about ourselves. Read More ›
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man standing in front of various paths, needing to make a decision to move forward in life. Generative Ai.

At Scientific American, free will seems very much alive

The concept is incompatible with their “mind is just the brain” thesis but they can’t let go of it anyway
The debate will surely continue but it’s remarkable that it’s even HELD at Scientific American. Wasn’t materialism supposed to have disproved free will by now? Read More ›
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Create yourself concept. Good looking young man drawing a picture, sketch of himself

Neuroscientist: The “I” of Consciousness Cannot Be Explained Away

Skeptical philosopher David Hume tried it and, Raymond Tallis says, things collapsed almost immediately
To suppose that unthinking processes can somehow produce a thinking entity as an illusion is a sheer act of faith — faith in materialism but faith nonetheless. Read More ›
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Student, anxiety and woman in busy college campus with depression, sad and mental health problems. Burnout, stress and tired girl thinking about exam, assignment or project deadline at university

Thinking of the “Bigger Picture”

New study on how transcendent thinking enhances and improves the brain in adolescents
Going beyond worksheets and standardized tests to grapple with "the bigger picture" looks to be the sort of education we all need the most. Read More ›
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Machine learning , artificial intelligence, ai, deep learning blockchain neural network concept. Brain made with shining wireframe above cpu on circuit

Human Subject Moves Computer Mouse with Neuralink Chip

So Big Tech companies might know your inner thoughts, now. What could possibly go wrong?
Recent history tells us that corporations may be eager to get the upper hand and use it as an excuse to violate privacy even more than they already have. Read More ›
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Physics or mathematical equations on a universe decorative LED background give the impression of interstellar space travel.

Fine-Tuning of Universe Makes a Top Neuroscientist “Very Hopeful”

Allen Institute’s Christof Koch talks about the assumptions underlying his consciousness theory — which led many other neuroscientists to try to Cancel him
When one of the world’s most prominent research neuroscientists goes off the classic materialist script — and gets away with it — things are changing. Read More ›
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Abstract image of the brain in which synapses are represented as glowing lines symbolizing learning

Neuroscientist: How the Brain-as-Computer Myth Led Science Astray

Michael Merzenich explains neuroplasticity — how the brain organizes itself in detail — to Robert Lawrence Kuhn at Closer to Truth
The Dalai Lama asked Merzenich a question that cut to the heart of the question of the relationship between our brains and ourselves. Read More ›
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A team of surgeons performing brain surgery to remove a tumor.

Neuroscientist: Human Brain More Complex Than the Models Show

The weird “homunculus” — the way the brain maps the body — was pioneer neurosurgeons’ best guess nearly a century ago
We shouldn’t be surprised if the brain is more complex than could be known earlier. Most modern research into human beings is turning out that way. Read More ›
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Two robots walking on the streets of an abandoned futuristic city on a rainy day, digital art style, illustration painting

Is AI the Triumph of Left-Brained Thinking? What Follows?

Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist argues that it is and asks us to consider what its cultural lean toward the “left brain” is doing to us
He notes, “ AI … has no sense of the bigger picture, of other values, or of the way in which context—or even scale and extent—changes everything.” Read More ›