How I See It
Jun. 5th, 2013 06:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trickykittyThese paragraphs about how the brain supposedly works come from an article about infant fatalities in cars.
The human brain, he says, is a magnificent but jury-rigged device in which newer and more sophisticated structures sit atop a junk heap of prototype brains still used by lower species. At the top of the device are the smartest and most nimble parts: the prefrontal cortex, which thinks and analyzes, and the hippocampus, which makes and holds on to our immediate memories. At the bottom is the basal ganglia, nearly identical to the brains of lizards, controlling voluntary but barely conscious actions.
Diamond says that in situations involving familiar, routine motor skills, the human animal presses the basal ganglia into service as a sort of auxiliary autopilot. When our prefrontal cortex and hippocampus are planning our day on the way to work, the ignorant but efficient basal ganglia is operating the car; that's why you'll sometimes find yourself having driven from point A to point B without a clear recollection of the route you took, the turns you made or the scenery you saw.
Ordinarily, says Diamond, this delegation of duty "works beautifully, like a symphony. But sometimes, it turns into the '1812 Overture.' The cannons take over and overwhelm."
By experimentally exposing rats to the presence of cats, and then recording electrochemical changes in the rodents' brains, Diamond has found that stress -- either sudden or chronic -- can weaken the brain's higher-functioning centers, making them more susceptible to bullying from the basal ganglia. He's seen the same sort of thing play out in cases he's followed involving infant deaths in cars.
I am sick and tired of people referring to the lizard brain as anything but stupendous. Likewise, I shun the idea that the prefrontal cortex is some magical, "sophisticated" area of the brain that should be exalted on a pedestal.
The reverse is the truth. The basal ganglia, thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, etc. - they work perfectly FINE. They are the fine wine of a mental system that has been evolving for millions of years with flavors that only the discerning palette can understand. It's the prefrontal cortex that's the unkempt baby throwing temper tantrums. In the grand scheme of evolution, that gray matter is still an infant learning to walk.
Humans want to say there is a soul, because we are able to say "I" and understand what that means. We cannot fathom the idea that there is no such thing as free will in our minds. For that reason, we herald the part of our brain that allows us to "change our minds" as being the best part of our thinking system. It is blackly ironic that I get told all the time that I think too much, because it is with that prefrontal cortex system that I am doing the thinking. People want their cake and eat it too. When someone says to stop thinking so much and to go with the flow, what they are saying is, let your lizard brain loose and follow your old school natural instincts instead of the new school philosophy of thought. Tell that same person to stop over-thinking the idea of having a soul and free will and watch them go batshit tantrum on your ass.
What isn't addressed in the article, and specifically in those paragraphs I've quoted above, and in fact is actually contradicted in those paragraphs above, is that the prefrontal cortex is well-known for sabotaging our minds. It's the lizard brain areas that are trying to keep us safe on a regular and on-going basis. The prefrontal cortex doesn't "press" the lizard brain into acting. Instead, the lizard brain "suppresses" the prefrontal cortex from continuing to make stupid decisions on behalf of the entire system.
"lower species"
Oh, fuck you and your human hubris.
"smartest parts"
Ha! Go spend a little time in the cognitive psychology department and find out exactly how "smart" our prefrontal cortices really aren't. False memories. Misattribution of emotions. Reasoning out false narratives after the fact. The list goes on and on, and it really is a fascinating read. (David McRaney does an excellent job at spelling out many of the prefrontal cortex faults, but by no means stop your research there.)
What that article describes as a fault in the system when the prefrontal cortex breaks down was a fault that always existed. The prefrontal cortex can't handle the truth! (Yeah, I just did that.) The truth is that the lizard brain knows best, and when the entire system is experiencing too much stress over time, the lizard brain takes back the reigns from the student pilot before the whole system crashes down. The lizard brain puts a halt on the know-it-all newbie part of the brain and puts it back in its place. "Respect your elders, pipsqueak!"
Oooh, But the gray matter is what "thinks and analyzes." Yeah, and as I mentioned, people don't like it when other people think and analyze too much. Why? Because it confuses the matter. Emotions and old school processes are simple, back-to-basics that work. They are the mechanical driving forces that keep on keeping on when the fancy-schmansy digital LEDs can't be read properly anymore. (Any more metaphors, and they'll retract my metaphor license.)
It's not that the newer systems press the older systems into auto-processing. Instead, the newer systems are constantly interjecting the older systems from doing their jobs when new material is presented. Learning is hard because so much of the processing HAS to take place in the newer systems of the prefrontal cortex. The mind is set up to get to an auto-pattern-recognition state that provides positive (or at a minimum, neutral) external responses. It HAS to be quick about it, because the more time spent THINKING about the attacking lion, the more chance of a negative external response.
The basal ganglia doesn't "bully." It ALLOWS the prefrontal cortex to run with things. The driver teacher ALLOWS the student driver to sit behind the wheel and take control of the vehicle, even when small mistakes are being made. That's how learning progresses. However, if the mistakes become too overwhelming, if the external situation is getting too bad, the teacher puts on the breaks and takes back over.
The details are the same, but the interpretation of the details are what really bug me. Quotes like these insinuate that the student driver should keep screwing things up until SHE decides to FORCE the teacher driver to take back over. That's simply not the correct way to interpret what is going on inside our little meat heads. The old guard takes care of monitoring all the routines that have already been learned and keeps it out of reach of the student brain so that the student brain can focus on the new and the weird stuff that hasn't yet become routine. If that new stuff becomes too overwhelming, the old brain falls back on old routines that the student can keep up with.
Yes, it is a collaboration, a "fine symphony," but it is not the symphony that everyone else is hearing as playback on Memorex.
(Yeah, my metaphor card has reached it's limit today.)
The human brain, he says, is a magnificent but jury-rigged device in which newer and more sophisticated structures sit atop a junk heap of prototype brains still used by lower species. At the top of the device are the smartest and most nimble parts: the prefrontal cortex, which thinks and analyzes, and the hippocampus, which makes and holds on to our immediate memories. At the bottom is the basal ganglia, nearly identical to the brains of lizards, controlling voluntary but barely conscious actions.
Diamond says that in situations involving familiar, routine motor skills, the human animal presses the basal ganglia into service as a sort of auxiliary autopilot. When our prefrontal cortex and hippocampus are planning our day on the way to work, the ignorant but efficient basal ganglia is operating the car; that's why you'll sometimes find yourself having driven from point A to point B without a clear recollection of the route you took, the turns you made or the scenery you saw.
Ordinarily, says Diamond, this delegation of duty "works beautifully, like a symphony. But sometimes, it turns into the '1812 Overture.' The cannons take over and overwhelm."
By experimentally exposing rats to the presence of cats, and then recording electrochemical changes in the rodents' brains, Diamond has found that stress -- either sudden or chronic -- can weaken the brain's higher-functioning centers, making them more susceptible to bullying from the basal ganglia. He's seen the same sort of thing play out in cases he's followed involving infant deaths in cars.
I am sick and tired of people referring to the lizard brain as anything but stupendous. Likewise, I shun the idea that the prefrontal cortex is some magical, "sophisticated" area of the brain that should be exalted on a pedestal.
The reverse is the truth. The basal ganglia, thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, etc. - they work perfectly FINE. They are the fine wine of a mental system that has been evolving for millions of years with flavors that only the discerning palette can understand. It's the prefrontal cortex that's the unkempt baby throwing temper tantrums. In the grand scheme of evolution, that gray matter is still an infant learning to walk.
Humans want to say there is a soul, because we are able to say "I" and understand what that means. We cannot fathom the idea that there is no such thing as free will in our minds. For that reason, we herald the part of our brain that allows us to "change our minds" as being the best part of our thinking system. It is blackly ironic that I get told all the time that I think too much, because it is with that prefrontal cortex system that I am doing the thinking. People want their cake and eat it too. When someone says to stop thinking so much and to go with the flow, what they are saying is, let your lizard brain loose and follow your old school natural instincts instead of the new school philosophy of thought. Tell that same person to stop over-thinking the idea of having a soul and free will and watch them go batshit tantrum on your ass.
What isn't addressed in the article, and specifically in those paragraphs I've quoted above, and in fact is actually contradicted in those paragraphs above, is that the prefrontal cortex is well-known for sabotaging our minds. It's the lizard brain areas that are trying to keep us safe on a regular and on-going basis. The prefrontal cortex doesn't "press" the lizard brain into acting. Instead, the lizard brain "suppresses" the prefrontal cortex from continuing to make stupid decisions on behalf of the entire system.
"lower species"
Oh, fuck you and your human hubris.
"smartest parts"
Ha! Go spend a little time in the cognitive psychology department and find out exactly how "smart" our prefrontal cortices really aren't. False memories. Misattribution of emotions. Reasoning out false narratives after the fact. The list goes on and on, and it really is a fascinating read. (David McRaney does an excellent job at spelling out many of the prefrontal cortex faults, but by no means stop your research there.)
What that article describes as a fault in the system when the prefrontal cortex breaks down was a fault that always existed. The prefrontal cortex can't handle the truth! (Yeah, I just did that.) The truth is that the lizard brain knows best, and when the entire system is experiencing too much stress over time, the lizard brain takes back the reigns from the student pilot before the whole system crashes down. The lizard brain puts a halt on the know-it-all newbie part of the brain and puts it back in its place. "Respect your elders, pipsqueak!"
Oooh, But the gray matter is what "thinks and analyzes." Yeah, and as I mentioned, people don't like it when other people think and analyze too much. Why? Because it confuses the matter. Emotions and old school processes are simple, back-to-basics that work. They are the mechanical driving forces that keep on keeping on when the fancy-schmansy digital LEDs can't be read properly anymore. (Any more metaphors, and they'll retract my metaphor license.)
It's not that the newer systems press the older systems into auto-processing. Instead, the newer systems are constantly interjecting the older systems from doing their jobs when new material is presented. Learning is hard because so much of the processing HAS to take place in the newer systems of the prefrontal cortex. The mind is set up to get to an auto-pattern-recognition state that provides positive (or at a minimum, neutral) external responses. It HAS to be quick about it, because the more time spent THINKING about the attacking lion, the more chance of a negative external response.
The basal ganglia doesn't "bully." It ALLOWS the prefrontal cortex to run with things. The driver teacher ALLOWS the student driver to sit behind the wheel and take control of the vehicle, even when small mistakes are being made. That's how learning progresses. However, if the mistakes become too overwhelming, if the external situation is getting too bad, the teacher puts on the breaks and takes back over.
The details are the same, but the interpretation of the details are what really bug me. Quotes like these insinuate that the student driver should keep screwing things up until SHE decides to FORCE the teacher driver to take back over. That's simply not the correct way to interpret what is going on inside our little meat heads. The old guard takes care of monitoring all the routines that have already been learned and keeps it out of reach of the student brain so that the student brain can focus on the new and the weird stuff that hasn't yet become routine. If that new stuff becomes too overwhelming, the old brain falls back on old routines that the student can keep up with.
Yes, it is a collaboration, a "fine symphony," but it is not the symphony that everyone else is hearing as playback on Memorex.
(Yeah, my metaphor card has reached it's limit today.)
