Other Titles > Neuropath
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What Came Before:
--- Quote from: Madness ---I'm definitely unique in my conception of the field. Ramachandran is an idol of mine, though, Merzenich, Taub, and Bach-y-Rita are the ones who've shaped my thinking most.
For instance, assuming the brain is completely plastic 100% of the time, excepting old age, disease, and certain exponential developmental bursts, doesn't this imply that everything about our selves - what we think about, what we talk about, how we use our bodies, our habits and abstractions - are all inscribed in our brains? Inscribed might be a word with misleading connotations, of course.
That we actively shape our brains and the impulses that latter control us? Gives a more daunting perspective on overlooking bad habits.
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What Came Before:
--- Quote from: Jorge ---
--- Quote ---we actively shape our brains
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Do we now? While I have no doubt that the brain reshapes itself through a complex series of feedback loops, I'm a bit more skeptical about the 'we' and 'actively' part of that sentence.
If by 'we' you mean 'other neurons inside my head', then sure. If by 'actively' you mean 'through complex events involving the coupling of energetically favorable reactions to energetically unfavorable ones', then sure.
If by 'we' you mean "my consciousness/soul/spirit" and by 'actively' you mean "through the course of my acausal free volition" then we're at an impasse.
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What Came Before:
--- Quote from: Madness ---What in you decides to learn a musical instrument? To become ambidextrous? To learn a new language? Play a new sport? Or more mundane tasks like washing dishes, operating a computer, or writing?
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What Came Before:
--- Quote from: Callan S. ---I prefer horse over elephant, as my analogy of choice. You ride atop the horse - you do not control it's every leg movement. You do not control your exact positioning. Indeed the horse can shy, rear or bolt, taking it's rider with it. You pull the reigns - this does not mean you shape the horse. The more absolute control you ascribe yourself as having, the less you actually have as you lose connection with how the horse actually behaves. The phrase 'we shape our brains', seems to ascribe absolute control.
Sometimes I prefer the idea of a carbon based life form in symbiosis with a logic based life form.
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What Came Before:
--- Quote from: Jorge ---
--- Quote from: Madness ---What in you decides to learn a musical instrument? To become ambidextrous? To learn a new language? Play a new sport? Or more mundane tasks like washing dishes, operating a computer, or writing?
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My only honest answer is "I don't know" but I have sincere doubts it is the 'me' I consciously experience. Probably a hidden process somewhere in my prefrontal cortex.
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