2. The human brain

2017 ◽  
pp. 17-33
Author(s):  
Susan Blackmore
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Motor Control ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
The Self ◽  
Central Processor ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Vast Network ◽  
Successful Science

‘The human brain’ considers the brain as a vast network of connections from which come our extraordinary abilities: perception, learning, memory, reasoning, language, and somehow or another—consciousness. Different areas deal with vision, hearing, speech, body image, motor control, and forward planning. They are all linked, but this is not done through one central processor, but by millions of criss-crossing connections. By contrast, human consciousness seems to be unified. A successful science of consciousness must therefore explain the contents of consciousness, the continuity of consciousness, and the self who is conscious. Research linking consciousness to brain function is discussed along with conditions such as synaesthesia, blindsight, stroke damage, and amnesia.

Frontier concept of rabi chip for intelligent humanoid

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Preecha Yupapin ◽  
Amiri I. S. ◽  
Ali J. ◽  
Ponsuwancharoen N. ◽  
Youplao P.
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Rabi Oscillation ◽  
Liquid Core ◽  
Brain Surface ◽  
Dipole Oscillation ◽  
On Chip ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Robotic Applications ◽  
Atom System

The sequence of the human brain can be configured by the originated strongly coupling fields to a pair of the ionic substances(bio-cells) within the microtubules. From which the dipole oscillation begins and transports by the strong trapped force, which is known as a tweezer. The tweezers are the trapped polaritons, which are the electrical charges with information. They will be collected on the brain surface and transport via the liquid core guide wave, which is the mixture of blood content and water. The oscillation frequency is called the Rabi frequency, is formed by the two-level atom system. Our aim will manipulate the Rabi oscillation by an on-chip device, where the quantum outputs may help to form the realistic human brain function for humanoid robotic applications.

scholarly journals The brain timewise: how timing shapes and supports brain function

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1668) ◽  
pp. 20140170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riitta Hari ◽  
Lauri Parkkonen
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Imaging ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Generative Models ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
Brain Diseases ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
The Brain

We discuss the importance of timing in brain function: how temporal dynamics of the world has left its traces in the brain during evolution and how we can monitor the dynamics of the human brain with non-invasive measurements. Accurate timing is important for the interplay of neurons, neuronal circuitries, brain areas and human individuals. In the human brain, multiple temporal integration windows are hierarchically organized, with temporal scales ranging from microseconds to tens and hundreds of milliseconds for perceptual, motor and cognitive functions, and up to minutes, hours and even months for hormonal and mood changes. Accurate timing is impaired in several brain diseases. From the current repertoire of non-invasive brain imaging methods, only magnetoencephalography (MEG) and scalp electroencephalography (EEG) provide millisecond time-resolution; our focus in this paper is on MEG. Since the introduction of high-density whole-scalp MEG/EEG coverage in the 1990s, the instrumentation has not changed drastically; yet, novel data analyses are advancing the field rapidly by shifting the focus from the mere pinpointing of activity hotspots to seeking stimulus- or task-specific information and to characterizing functional networks. During the next decades, we can expect increased spatial resolution and accuracy of the time-resolved brain imaging and better understanding of brain function, especially its temporal constraints, with the development of novel instrumentation and finer-grained, physiologically inspired generative models of local and network activity. Merging both spatial and temporal information with increasing accuracy and carrying out recordings in naturalistic conditions, including social interaction, will bring much new information about human brain function.

scholarly journals On The Verge of the Hybrid Mind

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43
Author(s):  
Surjo Soekadar ◽  
Jennifer Chandler ◽  
Marcello Ienca ◽  
Christoph Bublitz
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Cognitive Systems ◽  
Privacy And Security ◽  
Technological Artifacts ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

Recent advances in neurotechnology allow for an increasingly tight integration of the human brain and mind with artificial cognitive systems, blending persons with technologies and creating an assemblage that we call a hybrid mind. In some ways the mind has always been a hybrid, emerging from the interaction of biology, culture (including technological artifacts) and the natural environment. However, with the emergence of neurotechnologies enabling bidirectional flows of information between the brain and AI-enabled devices, integrated into mutually adaptive assemblages, we have arrived at a point where the specific examination of this new instantiation of the hybrid mind is essential. Among the critical questions raised by this development are the effects of these devices on the user’s perception of the self, and on the user’s experience of their own mental contents. Questions arise related to the boundaries of the mind and body and whether the hardware and software that are functionally integrated with the body and mind are to be viewed as parts of the person or separate artifacts subject to different legal treatment. Other questions relate to how to attribute responsibility for actions taken as a result of the operations of a hybrid mind, as well as how to settle questions of the privacy and security of information generated and retained within a hybrid mind.

scholarly journals Physical activity and brain plasticity in late adulthood

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-108 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Brain Plasticity ◽  
Cortical Atrophy ◽  
Late Adulthood ◽  
Biological Basis ◽  
Emotional Function ◽  
The Brain

The human brain shrinks with advancing age, but recent research suggests that it is also capable of remarkable plasticity, even in late life. In this review we summarize the research linking greater amounts of physical activity to less cortical atrophy, better brain function, and enhanced cognitive function, and argue that physical activity takes advantage of the brain's natural capacity for plasticity. Further, although the effects of physical activity on the brain are relatively widespread, there is also some specificity, such that prefrontal and hippocampal areas appear to be more influenced than other areas of the brain. The specificity of these effects, we argue, provides a biological basis for understanding the capacity for physical activity to influence neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression. We conclude that physical activity is a promising intervention that can influence the endogenous pharmacology of the brain to enhance cognitive and emotional function in late adulthood.

Computational specificity in the human brain

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Shine ◽  
Ian Eisenberg ◽  
Russell A. Poldrack
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Specific Task ◽  
Relative Lack ◽  
Brain System ◽  
Computational Capacity ◽  
The Brain

AbstractAlthough meta-analytic neuroimaging studies demonstrate a relative lack of specificity in the brain, this evidence may be the result of limits inherent to these types of studies. From this perspective, we review recent findings that suggest that brain function is most appropriately categorized according to the computational capacity of each brain system, rather than the specific task states that elicit its activity.

Is the Human Brain Unique?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack M. Gorman
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Brain Diseases ◽  
Expression Of Genes ◽  
The Future ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
The Brain

Some scientists now argue that humans are really not superior to other species, including our nearest genetic neighbors, chimpanzees and bonobos. Indeed, those animals seem capable of many things previously thought to be uniquely human, including a sense of the future, empathy, depression, and theory of mind. However, it is clear that humans alone produce speech, dominate the globe, and have several brain diseases like schizophrenia. There are three possible sources within the brain for these differences in brain function: in the structure of the brain, in genes coding for proteins in the brain, and in the level of expression of genes in the brain. There is evidence that all three are the case, giving us a place to look for the intersection of the human mind and brain: the expression of genes within neurons of the prefrontal cortex.

scholarly journals The Neuroactivation of Cognitive Processes Investigated with SPECT

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 53-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Montaldi ◽  
Andrew R. Mayes
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Functional Mapping ◽  
Normal Brain ◽  
Memory Processing ◽  
Yield Information ◽  
Normal Brain Function ◽  
The Brain

The last ten years have seen the development and expansion of an exciting new field of neuroscientific research; functional mapping of the human brain. Whilst many of the questions addressed by this area of research could be answered using SPECT, relatively few SPECT activation studies of this kind have been carried out. The present paper combines an evaluation of SPECT procedures used for neuroactivation studies, and their comparison with other imaging modalities (i.e., PET and fMRI), with a review of SPECT neuroactivation studies that yield information concerning normal brain function with a particular emphasis on the brain activations produced by memory processing. The paper aims to describe and counter common misunderstandings regarding potential limitations of the SPECT technique, to explain and illustrate which SPECT procedures best fulfill the requirements of a neuroactivation study, and how best to obtain information about normal brain function (whether using normal healthy subjects or patients) and finally to highlight SPECT’s potential future role in the functional mapping of the human brain.

scholarly journals Searching through functional space reveals distributed visual, auditory, and semantic coding in the human brain

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sreejan Kumar ◽  
Cameron T. Ellis ◽  
Thomas O’Connell ◽  
Marvin M Chun ◽  
Nicholas B. Turk-Browne
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Functional Space ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Brain Functions ◽  
Auditory Features ◽  
The Brain

AbstractThe extent to which brain functions are localized or distributed is a foundational question in neuroscience. In the human brain, common fMRI methods such as cluster correction, atlas parcellation, and anatomical searchlight are biased by design toward finding localized representations. Here we introduce the functional searchlight approach as an alternative to anatomical searchlight analysis, the most commonly used exploratory multivariate fMRI technique. Functional searchlight removes any anatomical bias by grouping voxels based only on functional similarity and ignoring anatomical proximity. We report evidence that visual and auditory features from deep neural networks and semantic features from a natural language processing model are more widely distributed across the brain than previously acknowledged. This approach provides a new way to evaluate and constrain computational models with brain activity and pushes our understanding of human brain function further along the spectrum from strict modularity toward distributed representation.

scholarly journals A Synergistic Workspace for Human Consciousness Revealed by Integrated Information Decomposition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea I. Luppi ◽  
Pedro A.M. Mediano ◽  
Fernando E. Rosas ◽  
Judith Allanson ◽  
John D. Pickard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Information Integration ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Human Information Processing ◽  
Loss Of Consciousness ◽  
Mathematical Framework ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Integrated Information

AbstractA central goal of neuroscience is to understand how the brain synthesises information from multiple inputs to give rise to a unified conscious experience. This process is widely believed to require integration of information. Here, we combine information theory and network science to address two fundamental questions: how is the human information-processing architecture functionally organised? And how does this organisation support human consciousness? To address these questions, we leverage the mathematical framework of Integrated Information Decomposition to delineate a cognitive architecture wherein specialised modules interact with a “synergistic global workspace,” comprising functionally distinct gateways and broadcasters. Gateway regions gather information from the specialised modules for processing in the synergistic workspace, whose contents are then further integrated to later be made widely available by broadcasters. Through data-driven analysis of resting-state functional MRI, we reveal that gateway regions correspond to the brain’s well-known default mode network, whereas broadcasters of information coincide with the executive control network. Demonstrating that this synergistic workspace supports human consciousness, we further apply Integrated Information Decomposition to BOLD signals to compute integrated information across the brain. By comparing changes due to propofol anaesthesia and severe brain injury, we demonstrate that most changes in integrated information happen within the synergistic workspace. Furthermore, it was found that loss of consciousness corresponds to reduced integrated information between gateway, but not broadcaster, regions of the synergistic workspace. Thus, loss of consciousness may coincide with breakdown of information integration by this synergistic workspace of the human brain. Together, these findings demonstrate that refining our understanding of information-processing in the human brain through Integrated Information Decomposition can provide powerful insights into the human neurocognitive architecture, and its role in supporting consciousness.

Mind Shift

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Parrington
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Brain

This book draws on the latest research on the human brain to show how it differs strikingly from those of other animals in its structure and function at molecular and cellular level. It argues that this ‘shift’, enlarging the brain, giving it greater flexibility and enabling higher functions such as imagination, was driven by tool use, but especially by the development of one remarkable tool—language. The complex social interaction brought by language opened up the possibility of shared conceptual worlds, enriched with rhythmic sounds and images that could be drawn on cave walls. This transformation enabled modern humans to generate an exceptional human consciousness, a sense of self that arises as a product of our brain biology and the social interactions we experience. Linking early work by the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky to the findings of modern neuroscience, the book also explores how language, culture, and society mediate brain function, and what this view of the human mind may bring to our understanding and treatment of mental illness.

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