Neuroscience, brains, and computers

Authors

  • Giorno Maria Innocenti Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm

Abstract

This paper addresses the role of the neurosciences in establishing what the brain is and how states of the brain relate to states of the mind. The brain is viewed as a computational deviceperforming operations on symbols. However, the brain is a special purpose computational devicedesigned by evolution and development for survival and reproduction, in close interaction with theenvironment. The hardware of the brain (its structure) is very different from that of man-made computers.The computational style of the brain is also very different from traditional computers: the computationalalgorithms, instead of being sets of external instructions, are embedded in brain structure. Concerningthe relationships between brain and mind a number of questions lie ahead. One of them is why andhow, only the human brain grasped the notion of God, probably only at the evolutionary stage attainedby Homo sapiens.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Giorno Maria Innocenti, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm

Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm

References

AGNATI, L. F.; GUIDOLIN, D.; GUESCINI, M.; GENEDANI, S., and FUXE, K. (2010), «Understanding wiring and volume transmission», Brain Res. Rev. 64:137-159.

CAMINITI, R.; GHAZIRI, H.; GALUSKE, R.; HOF, P. R., and INNOCENTI, G. M. (2009), «Evolution amplified processing with temporally-dispersed, slow, neuronal connectivity in primates», Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci., USA, 106:19551-19556.

CENTONZE, D.; SIRACUSANO, A.; CALABRESI, P., and BERNARDI, G. (2004), «The Project for a Scientific Psychology (1895): a Freudian anticipation of LTP-memory connection theory», Brain Res. Brain Res. Rev. 46:310-314.

FREUD, S. (1895), Project for a scientific psychology The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 1, Hogarth Press, London (1953), pp. 283-397.

INNOCENTI, G. M. (2007), «Subcortical regulation of cortical development: some effects of early, selective deprivation». In: From action to cognition. Progr. Brain Res. 164, edited by Von Hofsten, C., and Rosander, K., Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 23-38.

— (2011), «Development and evolution: two determinants of cortical connectivity». In: Gene expression to neurobiology and behavior: human brain development and developmental disorders. Progr. Brain Res. 189, edited by Braddick, O.; Atkinson, J., and Innocenti, G., Elsevier, Amsterdam, in press.

KIPER, D. C.; ZESIGER, P.; MAEDER, P., and INNOCENTI, G. M. (2002), «Vison aftter early-onset lesions of the occipital cortex: i) Neuropsychological and psychophysical studies», Neural Plasticity 9:1-25.

KOCH, C., and HEPP, K. (2006), «Quantum mechanics in the brain», Nature 440:611.

MAASS, W.; NATSCHLÄGER, T., and MARKRAM, H. (2002), «Real-time computing without stable states: a new framework for neural computation based on perturbations», Neural Comput. 14:2531-2560.

MARKRAM, H.; TOLEDO-RODRÍGUEZ, M.; WANG, Y.; GUPTA, A.; SILBERBERG, G., and WU, C. (2004), «Interneurons of the neocortical inhibitory system», Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 10:793-807.

MARR, D. (1982), Vision, WH Freeman and Co, New York.

MCKEMMISH, L. K.; REIMERS, J. R.; MCKENZIE, R. H.; MARK, A. E., and HUSH, N. S. (2009), «Penrose-Hameroff orchestrated objective-reduction proposal for human consciousness is not biologically feasible», Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 80:021912.

NIKOLIC, K.; LOIZU, J.; DEGENAAR, P., and TOUMAZOU, C (2010), «A stochastic model of the single photon response in Drosophila photoreceptors», Integr Biol (Camb) 10:354-370.

PAKKENBERG, H. (1966), «The number of nerve cells in the cerebral cortex of man», J. Comp Neurol 128:17-20.

RUMELHART, D. E.; MCCLELLAND, J. L., and the PDP RESEARCH GROUP (1986), Parallel distributed processing, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

SMITH, C. U. (2009), «The ‘hard problem’ and the quantum physicists. Part 2: Modern times», Brain Cogn 71:54-63.

ZESIGER, P.; KIPER, D.; DEONNA, T., and INNOCENTI, G. M (2002), «Preserved visual function in a case of occipito parietal microgyria», Ann Neurol 52:492-498.

How to Cite

Innocenti, G. M. (2013). Neuroscience, brains, and computers. Pensamiento. Revista De Investigación E Información Filosófica, 67(254 S.Esp), 609–615. Retrieved from https://revistas.comillas.edu/index.php/pensamiento/article/view/1100