Brain – Harmonia Philosophica

Brain. Skin. Thinking. Not being.

Brain activity has an unmistakable signature: the firing of neurons, as brain cells relay information to one another through the triggered release of chemical neurotransmitters, which are received by the long, branching dendrites of neighbouring cells.

This microscopic ritual is distinctive, but it doesn’t belong only to neurons. Scientists have now found bursts of neuron-like activity in certain skin cells. (1)

Our brain thinks.

Our skin thinks.

Is there anything that does not think?

Interactions all around.

Can we dare to stay alone?

In the face of existence.

Can we not stay silent?

In the face of ignorance.

Can we dare to say I don’t know?

In the face of death.

Do we dare to deny life?

Be honest. See what I see.

A cosmos full of cowards.

Thinking…

Therefore, doing anything but being…

Ancestral asymmetries…

The left and right side of the brain are involved in different tasks. This functional lateralization and associated brain asymmetry are well documented in humans, but little is known about brain asymmetry in our closest living relatives, the great apes. Using endocasts (imprints of the brain on cranial bones), scientists now challenge the long-held notion that the human pattern of brain asymmetry is unique. They found the same asymmetry pattern in chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. However, humans were the most variable in this pattern. This suggests that lateralized, uniquely human cognitive abilities, such as language, evolved by adapting a presumably ancestral asymmetry pattern. (1)

The universe is symmetrical. Or so we think it should be. But why think something like that in the first place? Is it that symmetry is beautiful and we are naturally inclined towards admiring beautiful? Could it be that symmetry of also an inherent part of our nature and, this, we tend to adhere to theories which include it?

Our brain is asymmetrical. Or so we think because we see differences in our two hemispheres in our brain. But why think that in the first place? Differences are there, this is certainly. But what makes us look at those differences? What if by seeing things from another perspective? What if that other perspective shows as that symmetry is preserved at another level?

Which belief is going to prevail?

Think.

What do you want to see?

Do you feel safe within a symmetrical universe? Would you feel more creative in an asymmetrical one? What it everything is symmetrical because everything is not? What if everything is asymmetrical because there is no other cosmos where symmetry exists?

Think.

There is no symmetry in anything.

Until you see asymmetry.

And decide to create a mirror…

Knowing thy self…

Interoception is the awareness of our physiological states; it’s how animals and humans know they’re hungry or thirsty, and how they know when they’ve had enough to eat or drink. But precisely how the brain estimates the state of the body and reacts to it remains unclear. In a paper published in the journal Neuron, neuroscientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) shed new light on the process, demonstrating that a region of the brain called the insular cortex orchestrates how signals from the body are interpreted and acted upon. The work represents the first steps toward understanding the neural basis of interoception, which could in turn allow researchers to address key questions in eating disorders, obesity, drug addiction, and a host of other diseases. (1)

I feel hungry.

I know I am.

My brain thinks so.

Based on input from the stomach.

I feel alive.

My brain thought of that.

Based on input from the stomach.

I feel existing.

My brain thought of that.

Based on input from the stomach.

Do you feel it?

My stomach feels weird…

I know it is just my stomach.

Based on input from… ?

Conscious. Unconscious!

What does this mean for the EEG’s ability to reflect consciousness? “The study does support the possibility that certain EEG features might not always accurately capture the level of consciousness in surgical patients,” says senior author George A. Mashour, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the U-M Department of Anesthesiology.

However, “EEG likely does have value in helping us understand if patients are unconscious. For example, a suppressed EEG would suggest a very high probability of unconsciousness during general anesthesia. However, using high anesthetic doses to suppress the EEG might have other consequences, like low blood pressure, that we want to avoid. So, we will have to continue to be judicious in assessing the many indices available, including pharmacologic dosing guidelines, brain activity, and cardiovascular activity.”

Pal notes that there is physiological precedent for an EEG mismatching behavior; for example, the brain of someone in REM sleep is almost identical to an awake brain. “No monitor is perfect, but the current monitors we use for the brain are good and do their job most of the time. However, our data suggest there are exceptions.”

Their study raises intriguing questions about how consciousness is reflected in the brain, says Pal. “These measures do have value and we have to do more studies. Maybe they are associated with awareness and what we call the content of consciousness. With rats, we don’t know-we can’t ask them.” (1)

Close your eyes.

Sleep.

And you will dream.

Do you see?

It is not the activity of the brain that tells us that the brain is active.

But its ability to stay inactive.

You cannot be awake when you are awake.

But only when you are sleeping…

Shhhh…

The kid is still in bed…

Drawing. Seeing.

Drawing an object and naming it engages the brain in similar ways, according to research recently published in JNeurosci. The finding demonstrates the importance of the visual processing system for producing drawings of an object.

In a study by Fan et al., healthy adults performed two tasks while the researchers recorded brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging: they identified pieces of furniture in pictures and produced drawings of those pieces of furniture. The researchers used machine learning to discover similar patterns of brain activity across both tasks within the occipital cortex, an area of the brain important for visual processing. This means people recruit the same neural representation of an object whether they are drawing it or seeing it. (1)

We think what we see.

We speak what we think.

Draw a line.

Contain the cosmos on a paper.

And you will remain speechless.

Do you see?

We think what we speak.

We see what we think…

But who drew the first line? Who thought of that first thought? Who spoke the first words?

In the midst of silence, can you listen to yourself?

Stop looking.

In the void of everything, can you see anything?