Whither philosophy?
Brain & behaviour & the
21st century.
Brain & behaviour & the
21st century.
On 19 February, 2015, we had our third meeting and the second of our evenings of conversation around a theme. Once again, it was a fascinating evening with a wonderful group of people, centered around a presentation, this time helping us with our understanding of brain and behaviour.
We were delighted to spend the evening with Dr Paul Brown, who is the RSA’s Connector for Vietnam and Laos.
Paul has worked as a clinical and organisational psychologist for fifty years with an international practice based in London that has taken him throughout Europe, the USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, Vietnam and Lao PDR. He has sat on the Management Boards of two great English country Houses; on the Boards of two private property companies; on the private banking board of a Merchant bank; and for twenty years has taught annually at the Royal College of Defence Studies. Paul was Visiting Professor in Organisational Neuroscience at London South Bank University and in Individual and Organisational Psychology at the Nottingham Law School: and is now Faculty Professor - Organizational Neuroscience, Monarch Business School Switzerland. He works substantially in Vietnam with the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation concerned with the legacy effects of war; is Expert Advisor to the International Energy Research Centre at the Tyndall Institute, Ireland; and teaches regularly in England, Ireland and Singapore. Last week Palgrave / Macmillan published his co-authored book ‘Neuroscience for Leadership: harnessing the brain gain advantage’. In July 2015 he publishes ‘The Fear-Free Organization’.
Paul has been generous, not only with his time, but also by providing the slide show of the evening for inclusion on this site.Paul started with a brief explanation of the work and role of the Royal Society of Arts for those unfamiliar with the society.
And what RSA stands for:
The presentation itself then began with the famous quote from Renee Descartes - I think, therefore I am, before moving into a history of neuroscience.
And the early understanding of how the brain looks and how it works.
This is Phineas Gage, a railway construction foreman, who lived from 1823 - 1860.
Miraculously this injury didn't kill him.
But it did result in some extreme behavioural changes, indicating the impact of injury to this particular part of the brain.
This is a reconstruction of the temporary
impairment of decision making
that Mr. Gage experienced, following this accident in 1848 when he was 25 years old.
There is the possibility of discovering more along these lines from a more modern, yet similar injury that happened to Eduardo Leite, aged 24. Mr. Leite was a construction worker when this happened.
He also survived, but after a steel rod pierced his skull in August 2012. The clinical consequences of this have not yet been published.
Although such injuries allowed some understanding of the workings of the brain, there was also a great deal of false information and beliefs for many years.
As Paul put it,
'How
far have we come in 155 years? Not far
for the first 140. Amazingly in the last
15.'
Phrenology was a 'science' for many many years.
And it was believed to be viable science to judge a character by the shape of their head, together with the bumps and lumps thereon.
Moving into modern times, we saw how the brain is made up.
This shows the four main lobes of the brain + the cerebellum, brainstem and two main sulci.
There are various ways to study the brain.
Including examining the brain of a monk who is particularly adept at meditation.
Paul then went on to give us more information about the brain and how it works.
Surrealist art - Salvador Dali
Slave
market with the disappearing bust of Voltaire.
MRIs that were clinically useful were first created in Scotland in 1990
And have improved since
Contro-versial Science of Brain Imaging”
by Mahir Ozdemir from Scientific American on July 5,
2012.
And how the brain is made up. Modern imaging techniques allow amazing graphics.
Spiny neurons
http://www.livescience.com/14413-brain-images-portraits-mind.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/magazine/sebastian-seungs-quest-to-map-the-human-brain.html?_r=0
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21117-the-rich-club-that-rules-your-brain.html
And being able to break down the elements.
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=oHkBlAu_jfQ&u=/watch%3Fv%3D5Lc64j-Rsy4%26feature%3Dem-subs_digest
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=oHkBlAu_jfQ&u=/watch%3Fv%3D5Lc64j-Rsy4%26feature%3Dem-subs_digest
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=oHkBlAu_jfQ&u=/watch%3Fv%3D5Lc64j-Rsy4%26feature%3Dem-subs_digest
9hi9U_j3FbKB7QbVo4HgCQ&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=672#facrc=
Baroque Blood Vessels
There are eight basic emotions
Think of the basic emotions like the three primary colours.
Three primary colours produce the whole of the colour spectrum. Eight primary emotions produce the whole of the feeling system.
Many different brain areas are involved in memory. Temporal lobe :
long-term memories permanently lodged in the cortex.
Putamen
: procedural memories, like riding a bike, are stored here. Hippocampus :
involved in laying down and retrieving memories, particularly personal ones and
those related to finding your way about.
Amygdala
: unconscious (and perhaps traumatic) memories may be stored here. Caudate nucleus
: many instincts – genetically encoded memories – stem from here.
Modern Neuroscience:
I feel, therefore I think I am
Connections within the brain
Independent’
Daily Briefing
03 April 2014
Xia M, Wang J, He Y
(2013) BrainNet Viewer: A Network
Visualization Tool for Human Brain Connectomics. PLoS ONE 8(7): e68910.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0068910
Left brain/right brain
When we focus on something, it is possible to lose awareness of anything going on around us.
This wonderful presentation finished here but the conversation continued for several hours. A fabulous evening.
Thank you very much for a fascinating time, enlightening and stimulating.
These meetings take place approximately once every three months. The next one is planned for May 2015.