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 | Neurobiology Book Reviews Forum |
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| Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy Name: Emily Anne Date: 2006-04-27 13:25:04 Link to this Comment: 19162 |
I've always been interested in music. I've been singing since I was seven
and playing cello and piano since I was eight. It always fascinated me that my
orchestra could make people cry, smile, or just plain think all by playing different
kinds of music. In this book, Jourdain sheds light on the reasons that music
affects people, all the while making it accessible to absolutely anyone. Through
the use of diagrams and anecdotes, Jourdain takes a highly scientific topic and
makes it understandable to non-scientists, while still keeping the writings
intellectual. Anyone who has ever tried to do this knows that this is no small feat.
Jourdain really knows how to capture an audience. When he uses
examples, he chooses things that most people would know, or at least have
heard of. For instance, he uses the Pink Panther theme as his main musical
example. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think it is a fairly safe assumption that
most people have heard of the Pink Panther in some capacity. This theme also
makes for good, easy interpretation, as Jourdain describes the panther sneaking
around, and shows how one comes to understand this in the given music.
Jourdain makes many points about ways music can affect certain people.
For instance, some victims of brain damage can only move when they hear
music. I find it absolutely fascinating that music an set action potentials in
motion, and by doing so, take the place of the damaged piece of the victim's
brain that initiates motion. He also tells the story of a poor, blind, dumb slave boy
with a special talent—he could absorb a piece on a singe hearing, and then play
it perfectly. Jourdain brings these people to life, making understanding almost
unquestionable.
Jourdain also makes use of anecdotes. He uses ones from real life, such
as that of Rosemary Brown, a psychic who claims to take dictation from long-
dead composers. He also uses imaginative stories, such as that of the Phyxians,
in chapter nine, who discover the probe Voyager 2. Through skillful segues,
Jourdain connects the stories to real science, explaining how people understand
music, and how music affects them.
In the course, I would have liked to hear more about music. It is such a
powerful tool that can be used with any person capable of hearing it to evoke a
desired response, though responses might not be the same for everyone. I
would love to understand more about exactly why that works, although this book
was very helpful. Music is universal. There is no one who does not listen to it.
This, I think, is what makes it such a powerful communicative device, and so
easily discussed.
I always knew music could affect people, but I feel much better having an
understanding of how it works. I feel it would make a very interesting topic of
class discussion.
| Your Brain on Ethics Name: Claude Hef Date: 2006-04-27 22:20:32 Link to this Comment: 19169 |
In the first major section, on defining life and death, Gazzinga frames the moral debate about abortion in more solid scientific terms. He argues that "life" begins when a fetus is about six months old because before this time, it does not have a nervous system that is capable of sustaining itself. Gazzaniga qualifies this statement by expressing doubt about his willingness to apply his definition of life to his own child. I am not certain when a person's "I-function" develops, but it seems that this process would logically correspond with the development of the nervous system, making Gazzaniga's view consistent with our class discussion on life and death. His view cannot be entirely in line with any discussion on this issue because in such a heated debate I don't think a definite conclusion can be drawn about when life starts and ends, but I do think many would agree that awareness is a key component to being defined as a living being. This part of the book reminded me of the example discussed in class about a chicken with its head cut off. The chicken will still run and move around because severing the nervous system removes any inhibitions which might cause it to remain stationary. The chicken is still acting, but to me it is not truly alive because it is not experiencing awareness in the same way that it would were its nervous system intact. Gazzaniga is careful to explain that consciousness or awareness in a baby is certainly different from that of an adult, but he still argues that a nervous system is a prerequisite for being categorized as alive.
Gazzaniga goes on to discuss stem cell research in terms of life and death. He makes a distinction between potential life and a cluster of cells, noting that one cannot confer living status on something just because it could potentially be living. As a result, he believes that stem cells research and cloning are morally acceptable because context is key and "it is the dynamics between genes and environment that make a human being" (Gazzaniga 18), not genetic material alone. This issue did not come up in class, so I can only extrapolate from the discussion of life and death that most people would agree with Gazzaniga here as well. If it is widely believed that "life" does not start until one has some ability to experience the world, it flows logically that any group of cells that is not yet at this stage is not truly alive, and using these cells for constructive purposes is fine in ethical terms. Again, this is my view on the stem cell research controvery as well. I found this section of the book particularly interesting because of its relevance to contemporary debate about abortion and stem cell research. If there were universal agreement on the scientific basis for life and death, the debate would not exist. Furthermore, if the universally agreed upon data was similar to that which Gazzaniga presents, great scientific advances could be made and restrictions on abortion might be lifted.
For lack of space, I am not going to discuss the second section of the book on brain enhancement, and am skipping to the third part entitled "Free Will, Personal Responsibility, and the Law." This was by far my favorite part of the book as it pertained to behavior in legal settings, including criminal behavior, and the behavior of jurors. Gazzaniga draws an interesting distinction between brains and people, describing brains as automatic devices and people as agents who are responsible for their actions. I think this is much like the distinction made in class of the I-function as a separate part of the nervous system, just with different words. The nervous system may carry out certain behaviors spontaneously, but the I-function, the aware human being, is held responsible for said behaviors. Here Gazzaniga emphasizes the complimentary effects of nature and nurture in shaping human behavior, consistent with the class debate over brain equaling behavior, which concluded that both nature and nurture are significant factors influencing human behavior. In his discussion of free will, Gazzaniga's argument again parallels discussion of the I-function when he describes the lapse time between a subject acting and knowing that he is acting as "our brains know our decisions before we become conscious of them" (Gazzaniga 92). On criminal behavior, Gazzaniga notes that many criminals who repeatedly commit violent acts have antisocial personality disorder which influences the structure of the brain, making it different from "normal" brains. I was extremely satisfied to read this because it is consistent with many of my personal beliefs about criminal behavior. He does suggest, however, that in spite of such abnormalities, criminals can choose to inhibit their behavior, but many do not. Gazzaniga's finding that the rate of aggressive behavior among criminals is equal to that of the normal population is a point with which I disagree. Some say that misrepresented accounts of criminal behavior or underreporting are likely to contribute to findings such as this, which I believe skew evidence that could potentially prove vast differences in between the brains of violent criminals and the rest of the population. Gazzaniga does not believe that having a a brain disorder should mean people are not held responsible for their actions. I understand his point here but I feel that it is difficult for people who do not experience brain disorders to draw conclusions about how much people with such abnormalities experience things. The emphasis in this chapter is that brains are predetermined organs, and that people, or the I-function is free to make choices. I agree with this to an extent, but have observed great inconsistencies in how much people claim to and appear to be able to control their own behavior, making this statement questionable for me.
I found this book really interesting and quite consistent with the explanations given for similar phenomenon in class, though Gazzaniga sometimes calls the same things by a different name. I would recommend this book to anyone but particularly to someone who was unlikely to agree with the views represented, such as those pertaining to life and death and criminal behavior. While I really enjoyed reading the book, the fact that my views were so consistent with those represented only caused me to confirm my outlook and did not challenge me to reevaluate it or think of things in different terms. Gazzaniga does an excellent job breaking down complex ideas into manageable units so that anyone who reads The Ethical Brain can get a great deal out of it. It provides really sound evidence to support and expand upon topics we touched upon in class and I found that by reading it I was able to gain a better understanding of the more complex issues we discussed in class than I would have through class discussion alone.
| Why You Feel the Way You Feel: Molecules of Emotio Name: Em Madsen Date: 2006-05-04 12:17:15 Link to this Comment: 19224 |
When she was a graduate student working in a lab at Johns Hopkins, Pert made a discovery that would have significant ramifications in the world of neuroscience: she was able to isolate and identify the "opiate receptor," the site in a cell where opiates such as morphine lock into place and do their chemical work. When Pert set out to find the opiate receptor in 1972, not much was known about receptors for neurochemicals. Her discovery made many later discoveries and observations about the nature of the brain and peptides possible.
Pert was able to isolate the opiate receptor through a manipulation of a pre-existing experiment designed to locate the insulin receptor. In that extant experiment, radioactive "tags" were applied to binding substances and centrifuged with pulverized mouse brains. The resulting concoction was then analyzed—the pre-existing experiment used a "stereoisomer, a synthetic opiate designed specifically in a laboratory and having two mirror-image forms. Both forms have the same chemical structure, but the left-handed version, called levorphanol, is an extremely potent opiate, while the right-handed version, called dextrophan, is almost inert" (1). If the opiate receptor were present, only the potent opiate would bind to the receptor, because it was the one that had the right configuration. The amount of radioactive levorphanol would be higher, indicating a higher ratio of binding compared to the dextrophan, thus also indicating the presence of the opiate receptor. Pert took this experiment, which only yielded a 2% difference in levorphanol and dextrophan and had proved unrepeatable, and created a new story.
Instead of using the stereoisomers, Pert turned to a different set of related molecules: agonists and antagonists. The agonists were drugs that could bind to the receptor and create changes in the cells while the antagonists would merely block the receptor site by occupying it without changing anything. Pert decided that in order to find the opiate receptor, she'd have to use a radioactive antagonist as a way of tracing binding to the receptor. This antagonist would remain in the receptor a longer time, thus allowing the substance to be centrifuged to separate the bound and free drugs from one another. Even though her experiment was due to be shut down, Pert secretly worked on this new "story," eventually achieving indisputable success with the radioactive antagonists, and proving that the opiate receptor did exist.
This discovery led to many other discoveries that challenged established "stories" that the scientific community previously held. Pert's "molecules of emotion," neuropeptides, were found to act on all different aspects of the body including the immune system. There are neuropeptide receptors not only in the brain, but in the immune system as well. In fact, Receptors and the information they receive have, since the 1980s, come to be seen as "the basic units of a language used by cells throughout the organism to communicate across systems such as the endocrine, neurological, gastrointestinal, and even the immune system" (1). Pert's original "story" about the opiate receptor has been expanded and made "less wrong" by many subsequent discoveries. At first, Pert indicates that she was in a rush to be at the front-line of these discoveries, putting her name on every paper that she could. Now, she feels that it is more important that the discoveries be made, and does not care whether she makes them or someone else does. This is a marked change, since in her earlier days, she caused a huge flap over the fact that she was passed over for the Lasker award for her work with the opiate receptor. The award went, instead, to the male head of her lab, and she felt that she was short-changed for her efforts because of her gender. After she decided to go public with this problem, she was much maligned in the scientific community. When her male colleague did not go on to win the Nobel after winning the Lasker, Pert's out-spokenness was singled out and blamed. However, this call for a change to science's "story" was also helpful. As a result, Pert eventually gained greater acceptance and respect as a female scientist in the field. It also gradually taught her about the idea of science for a greater good, rather than for prestige—she was passed over, and she came to terms with that, ultimately deciding it was more important to see how the opiate receptor and other receptors could be used to help those who were suffering from cancer, AIDS, or other seemingly incurable diseases.
This does not fix the fact that some of the book is written in language that seriously undermines Pert's own message of independence and purposefulness. When writing about a meeting with a prominent scientist, she gushes "The experience of being in his presence was near-orgasmic, so powerful was his allure, and my heart pounded wildly as I listened to the conversation, too in awe of this bastion of scientific superstars to say a single word" (1). I could have done with a little less of this type of writing, and a little more of an analysis of how the male "scientific superstar" persona is constructed and perpetuated in our current world. This would perhaps lead to a more constructive examination of how science's (and scientists') stories need to change to accommodate women, and a search for the greater good, rather than a race for superstar status.
Pert is a great proponent of holistic medicine, and her work with receptors has influenced this interest. I feel that this would be in line with the work we've done in class this semester—Pert is seeking a less wrong vision of the world, and in doing so she is listening to other cultures' stories as well. I thought that this part of her book was refreshing, as it made the scientific aspects easier to understand, and also easier to apply to everyday life. She argues for a greater inclusion of spirituality in medicine—the book does have an introduction by Deepak Chopra, after all. Towards the end of the book she observes "My feeling is that there is no scientific reason to leave spirituality out of medicine. ...the truth that I have learned through my own late-twentieth-century science is that soul, mind, and emotions do play an important role in health. What we need is a larger biomedical science to reintegrate what was taken out [with Descartes body/soul split] three hundred years ago" (1). A voice like Dr. Pert's is rare and welcome—coming from extremely Western scientific roots and ending in a much different place, her shift in perspective gives her a greater breadth of knowledge to draw on. She knows that, like the members of our class, she will never get it "right," but she's willing to seek out new stories to get it less wrong along the way.
Sources Used:
Pert, Candace B. Why you Feel the Way you Feel: Molecules of Emotion. Scribner: New
York, NY. 1997.
| Gladwell's Book Reaches a Tipping Point Name: Stefanie F Date: 2006-05-05 07:40:23 Link to this Comment: 19233 |
For this assignment, I decided to play it safe and select something from the suggested reading list. As I read the list over to a friend, she exclaimed loudly, "I loved that book", when I made mention of The Tipping Point. I came to find that a number of other friends had experience with The Tipping Point, and emphatically recommended the book, whether or not they had agreed with Gladwell's observations. These friends came from a wide variety of academic fields including, sociology, education, psychology, biology, and political science. Before I ever opened the cover, I was drawn in by the book's ability to appeal to an audience from such a broad spectrum of academia. When I had finished the book, on top of all of the new ideas rushing through my head, I wondered about the experiences that informed author Malcolm Gladwell's perspective and set out to uncover what inspired The Tipping Point.
My search took me to www.gladwell.com, Malcolm Gladwell's internet homepage, complete with interviews, biographical information, archives from his writings for The New Yorker, and information about his other works. I learned that Gladwell had spent a portion of his career, before beginning his contributions to The New Yorker, writing about the AIDS epidemic for The Washington Post. Through his research of HIV and AIDS, Gladwell began to delve into the world of epidemiology – the study of epidemics. He began to notice differences in the way epidemiologists view the world, and became intrigued by the notion of the 'tipping point' – a phrase commonly used to explain the moment where a virus reaches critical mass. Gladwell began to contemplate the 'tipping point', and its host of inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural possibilities. Gladwell remarked in an interview posted on www.gladwell.com,
"When I heard that phrase [Tipping Point] for the first time I remember thinking--wow. What if everything has a Tipping Point? Wouldn't it be cool to try and look for Tipping Points in business, or in social policy, or in advertising or in any number of other nonmedical areas?"
In The Tipping Point, Gladwell does just that – exploring how trends and ideas are proliferated and why they often suddenly, and unexpectedly, die out. He uses his own kind of language to explain these phenomena, attributing them largely to three laws: the law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the law of context. Each of these explains a portion of the Gladwell notion of social epidemic, and together help to formulate the framework of the author's understanding of the "Tipping Point".
While the stickiness factor centers on the ability of the message to be understood, remembered, and passed on; and the law of context deals directly with the environment in which the message come to fruition – geography and willingness of the population in question to "tip"; the law of the few appears to be most important, and most applicable to neurobiology and the lessons learned this semester.
The law of the few contextualizes the structure of social networks, and functions on the notion that there are three types of people who expedite information through these social networks. Gladwell's types include the Connector, the Maven, and the Salesman – each serving a particular purpose in the scheme of trendsetting and idea proliferation.
The Connector is able to bring people together, with the help of their sociable nature and willingness to meet and play host to a wide array of individuals. The Connector has more friends and acquaintances than the average person, not just because they are more sociable, but because they are more willing to maintain these relationships than the average person. Mavens gather, evaluate, and pass along information and evaluations to other members of society. The Mavens are central in regulating what passes through the network and have the trust of others within the network – this is essential if something is actually going to "tip". Finally, there are the Salesmen. The aptly named Salesmen are responsible for promoting the message, idea, or trend – no matter the content and characteristics, or their level of expertise. Together, these three personalities function to create a social network capable of bringing something to a Tipping Point.
So how does this aspect – the law of the few – relate to neurobiology? One of the first ideas I had regarding the understanding of this theory in relation to neurobiology brought me back to our first few classes of the semester, where we discussed brain equaling behavior. There were a variety of opinions on whether or not brain in fact equaled behavior and if so what the implications might be. In terms of The Tipping Point, if brain equals behavior, one might think that individuals are born as Connectors, or Mavens, or Salesmen; but, that might not necessarily be the case. Our brains may not necessarily dictate how we behave; rather, they might instead facilitate the acquisition of behaviors through interactions with other individuals and our environments. In this model, it can be thought that behavior is acquired and stored in the brain; so in essence, does behavior equal brain? If so, then Connectors, Mavens, or Salesmen would be made, not born. Perhaps it is possible to take one of two avenues in order to become a Connector, Maven, or Salesman. Some individuals might be natural Connectors, Mavens, Salesmen, while others could be nurtured? Brain equals behavior then becomes something of an if/then statement – if brain equals behavior, then behavior equals brain.
I also thought about the identities assigned to individuals by Gladwell, and what those identities mean for their place within the social network. Are these identities flexible? For example, what if a Connector were to be involved in an accident resulting in the loss of their memory; then would they still be a Connector? After the accident, could said individual then be a Salesman? I would be led to believe that Gladwell's notions of the social network are flexible enough to allow for these sorts of changes.
Gladwell is not a scientist, but that does not mean he cannot make observations, evaluate them, and propose his own theories about the way the world works; anyone can in essence be a scientist. His position in life as a writer/journalist does not inhibit him from producing a book that plays with scientific notions of epidemics and the individual's interaction with society. His willingness to explore scientific ideas relating to neurobiology and epidemiology in a societal context concerning culture and identity is worth reading. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in exploring alternative understandings of how change occurs – or to anyone interested in exploring generally.
| A Story of Fire Name: Carolyn Th Date: 2006-05-05 11:07:58 Link to this Comment: 19235 |
She does not go into the details of what exactly causes mental illness. She quotes one of Edgar Allen Poe's poems, "and by a strange alchemy of the brain/His pleasure always turn'd to pain" (p 120). A 'strange alchemy' is appropriate way of describing any brain. The brain is a sea of firing neurons awash with neurotransmitters. Chemical and electrical signals enervate tissues. Sensory information provides input and motor signals produce behavior. Meanwhile, through corollary discharge and other signals, interneurons keep tabs on the multitudinous processes of the brain. Signals create patterns and patterns are followed or recreated or ignored. There is disorder, yet, at the same time, there is life and thought and behavior. Look at what arises out of the tangled intricacies of the brain: humanity. It seems only logical that a more disorganized brain would be more creative; that the erratic brain of a Manic-Depressive would produce artistic masterpieces.
While Jamison does not concentrate on the etiology of mental illness; she does, however, allocate a section of her book to tracing the emerging drug therapy designed to combat and cope with mood disorders: lithium, antidepressants and anticonvulsants. She emphasizes the fact that drug therapy has been a crucial advancement in the treatment of psychological disorders and that drugs save lives. Even though modern artists may voluntarily forgo treatment, artists now have choices and options when seeking relief from mental illness. Jamison quotes Virginia Woolf as saying "I feel certain that I am gong mad again" (p224). There is a sense of dread which accompanies her words. After the advent of lithium drug therapy, poet Robert Lowell was quoted as saying to his publisher, Robert Giroux, "It's terrible, Bob, to think that all I've suffered, and all the suffering I've caused, might have arisen from the lack of a little salt in my brain." (p 250)
Jamison does not examine the work of artists who have not been documented as suffering from some type of mental disorder. She does, however, point out that artists who do not have some type of psychological illness are in a minority.
Many writers and artists have no family history of these illnesses, nor do they themselves suffer from depression or manic-depressive illness... not all writers and artist are depressed, suicidal, or manic. It is, rather, that a greatly disproportionate number of them are; that the manic-depressive and artistic temperaments are causally related to on another. (p 237)
Also, there are cases where symptoms may have been subclinical. Cases may have been undiagnosed or covered up. Symptoms may also have simply been ignored, disregarded as artistic quirks. In the case of poet Robert Lowell, Hardwick, Lowell's wife, was 'convinced that Lowell was sick' but could not convince his colleagues that something was wrong; "what to her was 'mad' was to them another mark of Lowell's genius." (p 5) "Biographic studies indicate that writers, artists, and composers often describe in great detail their periods of melancholy or depression, but that other aspects of mood swings... and even at times overt psychosis, are subsumed under 'eccentricity,' 'creative inspiration,' or 'artistic temperament.'" (p 58)
"Certain lifestyles provide cover for deviant and bizarre behavior, and the arts, especially, have long given latitude to extremes in behavior and mood." (p 57) So what exactly is art? Is creativity the product of a mentally disturbed mind? Is art is the product of genius or madness? Could it be a product of both? How different are genius and madness from on another? Where does art and creativity come from? Is it the brain? The 'I function'? Can an artistic genius produce masterpieces without being aware of doing so; like a sleepwalker with a paint brush? This idea conflicts with the clichéd image of the struggling artist; especially one who is mentally ill and anguishing over life and work. Perhaps creativity is the result of an overactive neocortex, the storyteller in the brain. The storyteller takes in too much, it cannot filter information and it is overwhelmed. Signals of the brain which are usually ignored stimulate stories that are beautiful and poignant when penned on paper but which are disruptive for the artist to have in the brain.
Where is creativity and artistry in the brain? Are they connected to manic-depressive illness and other psychological disorders? In her book, Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, Kay Jamison asks, "Do artists create in spite of their often-debilitating problems with mood...or is there something about the experience of prolonged periods of melancholia –broken at times by episodes of manic intensity and expansiveness – that leads to a different kind of insight, compassion, and expression of the human condition?" (p 102) Genius and madness seem to be related and, perhaps, like Emily Dickinson wrote in her poem, "Wider than the Sky", "the one the other will contain". When exploring art and mental illness, specifically Manic-Depressive Illness, it is easy to see a relationship between the two.
Many of the changes in mood, thinking, and perception that characterize the mildly manic states – restlessness, ebullience, expansiveness, irritability, grandiosity, quickened and more finely tuned senses, intensity of emotional experiences, diversity of thought, and rapidity of associational processes – are highly characteristic of creative thought as well. (p105)
Yet, there is still the question of how the two are related. Is art the product of madness? Is madness genius or vice versa? What is normal? And, if creativity arises from madness yet is also considered a human trait, are not we all, then, a little mad?
References:
Jamison, Kay R. Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament. New York: Macmillian, 1993.
| The Physiology of Truth: Neuroscience and Human Kn Name: Gray Varga Date: 2006-05-05 11:40:27 Link to this Comment: 19237 |
In this wide-ranging book, Changeux takes up the challenge, much as this class did, of explaining how truth and reality are present in the brain and its activity. He is interested in how consciousness arises and checks reality, and how the world is perceived so similarly by different individuals. While Grobstein believes that there is no truth in science, there is only "getting it progressively less wrong," Changeux devotes an entire book to the search for truth and how it exists in neural processing. While Grobstein thinks that there are only "stories in our heads," most of us want to believe that there is some sort of absolute truth (that the book I see is actually there), and Changeux tries to wrestle with where this absolute truth lies in terms of the workings of the brain.
He begins the book by giving a brief background on the micro end of the nervous system—examining the workings of neurons, proteins, receptors, ion channels, neuronal plasticity, hierarchy, and integration of neuronal information. In general, Changeux is in awe of the brain and describes it as an open, motivated, and self-organizing structure. Like Grobstein, Changeux believes in materialism, such that even the most complex thoughts and behaviors can be ultimately explained by workings of neurons—believing the brain is, in Voltaire's terms, "thinking matter." Both individuals also believe in the brain's ability to show spontaneous, organized activity without input (centrally generated patterns).
While over-simplified, Changeux's explanation of the evolution of the brain and nervous system interested me. He explained that as organisms evolved to be multicellular, a nervous system came about in order to regulate internal functions, representations of the external world, and the agreement of these representations with the facts of the world (the piece he is most interested in). Basically, it is the nervous system's job to make our internal representations of the world match what is "out there." (This checking or matching is what is abnormal in delusional/psychotic states.) And each organism, interestingly, devises representations of the world which favor its survival. According to Changeux, truth is when thoughts equal reality and consciousness is a way of evaluating truth that is useful to the survival of the species. This evolutionary perspective is one that was not presented in class, and which is a very interesting addition to the conversation on consciousness.
As the nervous system evolved to be more complex, it became hierarchical, began showing parallel processing, and organisms began to more thoroughly investigate their world and picture the world and themselves in it (the I-function piece Grobstein discusses). This is evolutionarily the most recent piece, and the piece which might set us apart as humans. Changeux argues that as brains gained more plasticity more learning occurred, but he gives no evidence for why this might have been, and it is not clear why the causality would only be in this direction. But he does believe that every organism has an "instinct to learn" that is necessary for its survival (to eat, drink and mate you usually need to explore the world).
The big question, with all of this more complex, hierarchical and parallel processing, is how truth is established or verified. (Why, because I can see that apple, does it mean that it is really there?) The main question here is what the representation of the world looks like in individuals, and how it can be so similar in different people. This is especially intriguing because, as Changeux mentions, some people believe that no object "has ever been or can ever be represented in the brain in any form." (This goes against what we learned in class that objects, or reality, only exist in the brain.) That is, reality can never exist as it is in the brain, and it cannot be represented identically in everyone since neuronal structure and connections differ between individuals. Yet individuals behave remarkably similarly, and we can understand each other, so there must be some basic set of representations or concepts common to all human brains. These are what Changeux is fascinated by. He wants to know how common "mappings" between connections and behaviors are established. He never really answers this question, but hints that part of the answer might lie in temporal synchronization of neuronal firing—which he says integrates and coordinates actions of connected groups of neurons.
One angle Changeux takes to try and describe how we devise our representations, is through development. He claims that as we develop we use "cognitive games," also known as thought experiments, in which we test hypotheses/pre-representations about the world in a trial and error fashion (getting it less wrong!). In this way we are able to recognize and categorize the world. The more experienced we become the fewer experiments we need to make, as we "learn to eliminate." Again, Changeux does very little explaining of what actually changes during this learning process, besides perhaps more synchronous neuronal firing, more firing in general, and/or a more precise distribution of firing. This neural basis of learning and discussion on development was really not tackled in the class, and might be a useful way of describing how nervous systems are similar/different across individuals.
One large question that is very central to the class as well as the book, is how consciousness arises from neurobiological processes. How is consciousness, or our sense of "I" (I-function), a "pattern of action potentials," when it seems for all the world that the sum is greater than all of the parts? Again, both Changeux and Grobstein know that it must lie in the workings of neurons, and in the more recently evolved brain regions at that. Changeux claims that it is some sort of combination of sensation and memory, but he is perplexed as to how it is so consistent over time. Like Grobstein's model, where the I-function is a box with arrows pointing in and out of it, Changeux explains consciousness as an "open-loop phenomenon with entries and outlets in constant mutation." But he does not explain this loop or these entries/outlets in any further detail. While Grobstein pinpoints the I-function to the neocortex, Changeux does not name any specific regions of the brain. Changeux is more interested in how these regions (whatever they are) decide what is true and false out of the knowledge they acquire. Changeux actually seems to suggest that at a certain point consciousness cannot be studied (he compares it to studying someone's reaction to a painting) and that introspection is the only way to study certain complex thought processes. In general, throughout the book, Changeux mainly points out the tasks of neuroscience as a whole, instead of really answering a lot of his own questions (somewhat like the class in this way).
Like in class, Changeux looks to sleep/hallucinations/anesthesia to try and explain the neural basis of consciousness. He actually links the two, showing that in REM sleep, and during hallucinations in one schizophrenic patient, there are activations in auditory and visual areas but not in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). He is thus implying that the PFC might be involved in important conscious reality testing, as Grobstein also suggested. He also mentions that from chimpanzees to man, there is a 70% increase in the number of possible neural connections in the PFC, further suggesting that some of what makes us human might lie in this region.
Another interesting topic not covered in class, but related to the idea of evolution, is the effect of genes on the brain. Changeux devotes an entire chapter of his book to this question, and seems to believe that the brain is constrained by our limited number of genes, an idea I had never come across or thought of. (He claims that there are about 30,000 genes responsible for about 100 billion neurons in the brain, and so there is limited genetic information for constructing the brain.) He does not go on to explain what this limitation would mean in terms of brain development, but it would seem to suggest that this might be a reason we all have a good amount of similar brain networking, since such a small percentage of our genes varies from person to person.
In the end of his book, Changeux discusses the scientific method, technology, and the need for a sharing of scientific knowledge across cultures. His main point is that scientific research is motivated by the search for knowledge that has universal truth, but yet the knowledge obtained is not used universally for everyone who needs it (third world countries, etc). Therefore, he thinks that there should be more scientific discourse and debate and no beliefs or ideologies specific to certain local regions of the world. Thus, science has a moral obligation to "inspire and direct the campaign for human rights." His other main thesis is that obtaining objective knowledge about brain functioning will allow us to get a deeper understanding about what makes us human, and thus will increase tolerance and mutual respect, as we see ourselves as one "social species which is a product of biological evolution." In class, we mentioned how we are influenced by and influence our culture, and how everyone's brains and nervous systems are therefore connected, but we did not discuss human rights worldwide as they relate to scientific advances. Grobstein and Changeux both believe that cultural/individual differences give us the chance to "more efficiently test the truth of acquired knowledge" and thus that individual variability is key in how we understand the world—and Changeux focuses on the importance of language as a mechanism for how knowledge is shared.
Like the class, Changeux seems to have a philosophical slant, which seems to be the direction we go when we have run out of ways to explain these functions in terms of the micro-level information we have available, and try to fill in the holes in our present knowledge base. While the class focused on a very specific range of topics and went into great depth about the actual neural processes involved (with the intention of being able to generalize these processes across various input or output systems), the book tried to focus on too many topics and did not go into any in sufficient depth, or with sufficient scientific evidence.
| Who You Are and How Your Brain Can Tell You Name: Marissa Pa Date: 2006-05-05 11:41:29 Link to this Comment: 19238 |
Have you ever wondered who you were? Where the character quirks and thought patterns that make up "you" originate? These questions and more are the subject of Steven Johnson's exploration into his personality, Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life. Focusing on different brain imaging techniques such as fMRI and different types of biofeedback analyses, he attempts to discover whether "tools that measure the minute-by-minute levels of [neurotransmitter, hormone, and peptides] in your body and brain teach you something about your own emotional toolbox" (Johnson 5). Passing through different elements of personality, such as emotion, attention, and memory, he describes the different mental processes and evolutional gains that relate to these aspects. He also personally undergoes neurological investigations such as the biofeedback analysis which opens the book and measures his adrenaline levels (which spike each time he nervously tells a joke). These physical manifestations of a nervous habit cause the author to feel as if he "caught a glimpse of me here...the jokes triggering a chemical reaction in my own head" (3).
Johnson brings about an important parallel to the concepts brought up in class this semester. He states "the brain is ultimately just a big lump of atoms strung together in a particular configuration, no different...from a teakettle or a crown of broccoli" (10). This echoes the perception brought up in class that the brain is just a pattern of action potentials, or as Johnson puts it, "patterns of electrical and chemical activity" (4) that are different in every human brain, which causes the differences apparent between people. The book expands on this concept beyond that which was brought up in class. The author, instead of seeking out and describing the patterns of action potentials which cause seemingly similar human behaviors, as we have spoken about often this semester, the author seeks out the brain mechanisms that explicitly cause individuality between humans.
His book title also relates to the brain/behavior connection from the course. In his book notes, he states that "the mind [is] an emergent property of the brain: a whole that is somehow greater than the sum of its parts" (217). If mind is the same as (or related to) behavior, Johnson feels that the mind is an amalgamation of the action potentials in the brain, similar to the thoughts from this semester. However, the idea that somehow personality is more than just that, (though not expanded upon by Johnson), seems to serve to pacify those who would read the book (like some members of the class) who are not convinced that brain always equals behavior to give up the idea that there is something else that makes up "you."
The initial part of Johnson's argument revolves around the expression of emotion. He feels that there are "two brain systems vying for control of the same face...the motor cortex...[and the] emotional system" (26), which causes a conflict between, for example, the laugh you try to suppress and the sympathetic face you hastily plaster on when your friend tells you how she fell down at the ice skating rink. This segregation of parts is not limited simply to emotion—Johnson states that "your personality is...the aggregate of the differing strengths of these modules" (27) which are influenced by various effects, both genetic and experiential.
These parts control everything, from heartbeat regulation to facial recognition (27). Eventually, some modules, such as those that give consciousness to the movements of fingers while typing, are slightly brought out of awareness, along with ones for breathing and sensory input (193) in order to focus on the more presently essential ones . If one of these modules, for example the one that enables you to perceive the mental status of others, is faulty, it causes a disorder such as autism. However, if that same module is enhanced, the person will be especially empathetic.
While Johnson does not go into detail about what causes these differences in modular ability, it seems to make sense that this is what could cause differences between each of us. It could simply be a matter of the ability of different aspects of our brain to function properly. If the pattern of action potentials cannot fire as rapidly or strongly, it would cause a deficit in the ability of a person to express or control that module. This could explain multiple aspects of personality, such as why some people become angered easily or why others are more able to stay dedicated to a new diet.
The most interesting aspect of the book revolves around neurofeedback and the attempts to in some way control the functions of the brain, especially those involving attention. Often this involves games that are controlled by the theta waves measured in someone's brain, and the more a person concentrates, the smaller the theta waves and the faster/more the object on the screen performs a task. This type of activity, Johnson explains, is often used with children with Attention Deficit Disorder in an attempt to let them actively discover what "paying attention" feels like.
This premise creates interesting concepts of the link between what you can (or cannot) control. Often if you tell someone to concentrate, their brow will wrinkle and their eyes may squint, but are they really concentrating or merely pantomiming what they feel concentration looks like? If one can learn to change their theta waves (and therefore their attention), what else would we be able to consciously control with the right type of practice? Neurofeedback could offer plausible solutions to different types of mental problems that could be based on errors in the strength of brain waves that are generated by the action potentials of the brain.
Johnson also cites research by Antonio Damasio that shows that unhappy feelings cause a decrease of firing rates in the fontal lobes, where ideas appear to be generated. This reflects on many of the topics discussed in class that suggest that one section of the brain could have an effect on others that may not be immediately apparent. One might not initially think there was a concrete connection between the part of the brain that controls emotion, or more specifically, the particular emotion of sadness, and the part that controls new ideas. The vast interconnectedness of the brain, where one output can cause an input in a completely different section of the brain explains many of the types of behaviors that were shown to be connected in the class examples.
Towards the close of the book, Johnson states, "whether...wiring comes courtesy of my genes or my lived experience, or via some combination package, is not necessarily relevant...what matters are the incoming stimuli and the pattern of activity that they spark" (207). This seems fitting, for a neurology text. The importance of studying the brain is merely attempting to elucidate the mechanisms that these stimuli (environmental or not) work by and how the boxes of the brain are connected to give the brain a picture of the world around it. We must continue to "get things less wrong" in an attempt to expose who we are and where that sense of "self" comes from.
Johnson, Steven. "Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life." Scribner. New York, NY. 2004.
| blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking Name: Brom Snyde Date: 2006-05-05 14:44:35 Link to this Comment: 19246 |
Malcom Gladwell, the author of blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, believes in the power of the "adaptive unconscious" to revolutionize the information age. blink is a fascinating and example-laden examination of the brain's ability to process information in the blink of an eye and reach correct conclusions. He defines the adaptive unconscious as " a kind of giant computer that quickly and quietly processes a lot of data we need in order to keep functioning as human beings." (Gladwell,11) In laymen's terms Gladwell advocates going with one's gut instinct. Gladwell gives countless examples of the adaptive unconscious' ability to distinguish patterns and thereby change a person's behavior before the I-function is conscious of the pattern. Written in an accessible style with minimum number of technical terms Gladwell's both stimulate and intrigue.
Gladwell's belief in the adaptive unconscious' ability to quickly and accurately assess a situation using very small pieces of information conflicts with the major tenet of the information age, the more information at one's disposal the better the decision-making process will be. In an age where the average person is inundated with 24 hour news coverage and can google any topic resulting in thousands of web pages related to the topic, Gladwell believes more in the adaptive unconscious' processing of information. One of Gladwell's more persuasive examples involves an anecdote about an U.S. army simulation conducted in the summer of 2000. The simulation pitted the blue team, an army based on the United States' with a number of computer matrixes and models tracking and analyzing military, economic, and political factors associated with the conflict, while providing military commanders direct contact with units on the ground; against a red team, modeled after a middle eastern country with considerably less resources and technology than the blue team. The amount of information and control held by the leaders of the blue team excited U.S. army officials. They predicted that with all of the information and technology at their disposal they would burn away the "fog of war." The exact opposite happened, the staggering amount of information at the disposal of the blue team actually slowed the decision making process down, commanders kept demanding more information, ignoring their instincts in the belief that more information would lead to a more successful campaign. On the other hand the red team let its commanders on the ground make a much higher percentage of the decisions, and when making a decision examined only a few key factors rather than trying to figure the out the effects of the decision on a large number of factors. The members of the red team utilized considerably less information and waged a successful campaign. Gladwell argues that the amount of information provided to the blue team actually hindered the judgment of its commanders and the red team "allow[ed] people to operate without having to explain themselves constantly...enable[ing] rapid cognition."(Gladwell,119) Examples like this one, where less information actually is more helpful, fill blink, providing a persuasive body of evidence for Gladwell's claims.
It is important to note that Gladwell acknowledges problems with the rapid cognition associated with the adaptive unconscious. In the chapter "The Warren Harding Error: Why We Fall for Tall, Dark, and Handsome Men" Gladwell expounds on the problems associated with snap judgments. In this chapter Gladwell explains cultural factors, like racism, often effect snap judgments. He named the error "The Warren Harding Error" in honor of the Warren G. Harding, one of the most inept presidents of all time, who won elections because he looked and sounded presidential even though he did not distinguish himself in any of the political position he occupied before being elected to the presidency. Harding succeeded because people's first impression of him classified him as distinguished and stately. Gladwell's willingness to acknowledge the problems associated with the adaptive unconscious give the work, a well rounded feel. Gladwell clearly understands the problems associated with rapid cognition but ultimately believes that the adaptive conscious, more often than not, reveals the true nature of a situation or another person.
The biggest problem with the book rests in its omission of a deeper description of how the adaptive unconscious and rapid cognition work. While clearly the adaptive unconscious exists outside the I-function Gladwell does not describe the interaction between these two parts of the brain. Beyond the lack of description of the actual processes involved in rapid cognition Gladwell does not address whether rapid cognition exists in other organisms. It seems probable that most organisms work solely using adaptive unconscious, because to do otherwise implies an I-function consciously choosing a course of action or train of thought.
While Gladwell's examination of the adaptive unconscious fascinates, his refusal to examine how factors like culture effect it leave reader with many questions. He acknowledges that outside factors influence its processing, but does not explain how. This problem like many of the problems discussed in class prompt more questions than they answer. Ultimately, the reader walks away from blink wondering what controls the adaptive unconscious?
| Why God Won't Go Away? And Why Should We Care? Name: Mariya Sim Date: 2006-05-05 14:59:42 Link to this Comment: 19250 |
At the core of the book lie the authors' experiments with eight Tibetan Buddhist monks during meditation and several Franciscan nuns during prayer. All subjects, skilled in their respective modes of achieving a state of transcendence, were allowed to create an atmosphere conducive to it in the lab. At the self-reported height of the mystical experience, the subjects were injected with a radioactive tracer. Immediately, they were placed into a SPECT (Single Photon-Emission Computed Tomography) machine, similar to PET and CAT devices, in order to take "a photograph of God" (Newberg 1). The images of the blood-flow patterns showed an increase of activity in the prefrontal cortex. That was predictable, since that area is associated with controlling attention. The more interesting discovery was the decreased activity in the "orientation association area" or OAA. This region of the brain orients the self in physical space and also generates a distinction between the "I" and the "not-I", the individual and the rest of the world. It is known that the patients with physical damage to this area cannot successfully maneuver themselves. But in their case, the condition is irreparable. What Newberg and D'Aquili found was not a complete shutdown of the OAA but a period of its temporary inactivity, corresponding to the subjective experiences of oneness with the Universe and the presence of God reported by monks and nuns. The researchers postulate that during meditation and prayer we somehow cut off the incoming sensory information to the area, which results in our temporary loss of boundaries between ourselves and the world. The brain "has no choice but to perceive that the self is endless and intimately interwoven with everyone and everything the mind senses" (Newberg 6). And this perception feels unquestionably real.
Building on their research, the authors discuss the nature of this experience. They point out that what "we think of as reality is only a rendition of reality that is created by the brain" (Newberg 35). The simplest things – apples, chairs, other people – actually exist in relation to us only through our neurobiological perceptions of them. Therefore, the mere fact of the spiritual experiences being based in the brain cannot prove or disprove the existence of God. On the one hand, our brains are perfectly capable of creating illusions. On the other, if God exists, we have no way of experiencing Him but via our neural machinery. "Both spiritual experiences and experiences of a more ordinary material nature are made real to the mind in the very same way – through the processing powers of the brain" (Newberg 37).
In the rest of the book, the authors discuss the possible evolutionary meaning of the brain's mystical capabilities, the relationship between spiritual and sexual arousal and pleasure, the human propensity for myth-making (and the similarity of those myths) in light of neurobiological necessities, and the significance of religion as the answer to human existential anxiety. They also consider the neurobiological basis of ritual and the connection between ritual as a communal activity and meditation/prayer as the individual expression of spirituality. Although they acknowledge that the neurobiological states corresponding to the feeling of transcendence can be purposefully sublimated by ritual or induced by illness, the authors insist that spiritual experiences can proceed from sound, healthy minds reacting coherently to "perceptions that in neurobiological terms are absolutely real" (Newberg 111). They work through the neural mechanisms that correspond to the mystical journey, from its beginning within the human will to its consummation in the feeling of communion.
Overall, they conclude that "the deepest origins of religion are based in mystical experience, and that religions exist because the wiring of the human brain continues to provide believers with a range of unitary experiences" (Newberg 129). A neurological approach suggests that religion is not the result of faulty logic or cognitive processes, but the product of a holistic mind-body event (with or without the presence of the Other). As such, religion could never be explained away. God, the researchers argue, is here to stay, and it is time for science and religion to explore the meaning of this presence together.
"Why God Won't Go Away," in its discussion of nature of reality and of the fact that all experience is grounded in the workings of the brain, extends and confirms the thoughts that have fascinated us as a class throughout the semester. It insists that all "reality" is, in a fundamental way, a product of our brain, whether or not anything actually exists outside of it. Moreover, the spirit of the neurotheological respectful cooperation and co-investigation into the mysteries of the human mind that is present in this book corresponds to the course's aspirations to combine scientific and non-scientific perspectives. Another common theme is the question of what constitutes the human self and the acknowledgment that, rather than being a unitary "thing" somewhere in the brain, the self arises from the interactions both within the nervous system and between the NS and the body.
The perspective that this book offers and that I wish our course considered more in-depth is the deep connection between religion and science, the spiritual and the material proper. Although we have touched on these subjects throughout the semester, a fuller integration of these matters into our discussion would have informed our understanding of the neurobiology of the self. The questions of religion and spirituality are not confined to the believers and the skeptics. They are present at the very foundation of the brain as the organ physically disposed to "mystical" experiences.
Works Cited
D'Aquili, Eugene, Andrew Newberg, Vince Rause. "Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief." New York: Ballantine Books, 2001.
| Themes in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Name: Jen Lam Date: 2006-05-05 15:21:02 Link to this Comment: 19252 |
Born in 1981 at the Merced Community Medical Center in Merced, California, Lia Lee was only three months old when she had her first epileptic seizure. Her parents, Nao Kao and Foua Lee, quickly diagnosed her with quag dab peg, which is literally translated to "the spirit catches you and you fall down." Nao Kao and Foua quickly blamed Lia's older sister for her condition since it was her sister who has slammed the door to their apartment, disturbing the dab, or malevolent spirit, who took Lia's soul and thus gave her epilepsy. According to most people in the Western world, epilepsy can be caused by a variety of factors: head injury, genetic predisposition, even an "electrical storm" in the brain but an evil spirit stealing away one's soul? For me, it is difficult to think of epilepsy being caused by an evil spirit although it's not totally unperceivable that some people may believe that this actually happens.
While I am by no means well read on the subjects of Hmong spirituality and culture, I felt that Fadiman dedicates a sufficient portion of the book trying to describe these areas to an audience like me that are approaching this book from a Western society standpoint. Although I can never really say if her description is accurate, for she is receiving all information from the Lee's through a Hmong-American interpreter, Fadiman gets across the idea that spirituality and myths play a huge role in Hmongs' lives. For example, throughout the book, Nao Kao and Foua are constantly battling Lia's medical caretakers since Lia's parents are inconsistent with giving Lia her medication as prescribed by the doctors. The parent's outlook on their daughter's condition is simple: if an evil spirit taking away her soul causes quag dab peg, then she must be treated with neeb, or healing spirit. Too much medicine will interfere with neeb and, therefore, must be taken in small quantities and not in the full amount prescribed. This obviously presented a difficult situation for Lia's American doctors, who, according to Foua, if they had just understood more about the soul would have been able to appreciate Nao Kao and Foua's efforts to help their daughter.
In some ways, myths can be seen as the product of brain; not only does it process all stimuli perceived by the body whether conscious or not, but it also has the ability to make up stories in order to make sense of the world in which it exists. The bizarre thing behind this is that we are unaware of this story telling as performed by our "subconscious selves." For example, as with the case of vision, the picture on the back of the retina is not the same picture painted in our head. This is due to the brains clever way of filling in the blanks and using other information to derive the best-fit picture that corresponds to the information being received by the eye and other senses. So, if this occurs on an individual basis and society consists of many individuals with a similar geographical location then perhaps the idea of the bipartite brain can help explain why we have myths in our culture. The innate desire to find explanations for phenomena occurring in our world could possibly stem from our brains own mechanism of story telling.
Similarly, if our brains are making up the majority of what we perceive reality to be, then how can we establish a system of absoluteness? Is one's brain story better than another's? And, if so, how can we tell? Fadiman inadvertently addressed this question during her analysis of Hmong and American culture. In my opinion, she was successful in establishing a no right or wrong policy when it came to comparing the Hmong approach to curing quag dab peg and the American way of treating epilepsy. Without belittling the Hmong's ideals or downplaying the medical importance of epilepsy, Fadiman narrates the story as best she could without portraying the characters as a hero or villain. I didn't feel as though she offered any bias perception using words that would skew the reader's own judgment or interpretation. If anything, perhaps, I approached this book with my own predispositions even though I read it with a clean slate. The collision of the two cultures reminded me of a concept that was one of the first ideas brought to our attention in class: nothing is absolute; there is no truth, only "getting it progressively less wrong." Science as well as society is constantly evolving, adapting to new observations and information. In the grand scheme of things, if the Hmong's view of the world works for some people, then it should be respected as one. However, when two cultures collide, ideally both sides will approach the situation with equal regard for the other's ideas and beliefs. Fadiman's nonbiased writing brings about the idea that there's unity in diversity; this concept seems to be an underlying theme throughout the book.
The Hmong have a phrase, hais cuaj txub kuam txub; it means "to speak of all kinds of things." I feel as though this phrase summarizes my experiences in Neurobiology and Behavior. To the Hmong, "to speak of all kinds of things" symbolizes an interconnectedness of everything in the universe. Usually used in the beginning of an oral narrative, it reminds listeners to scratch the surface of the obvious to discover that, although things may seem totally detached and isolated from each other, they are actually connected. If the audience approaches the story with a specific goal or point in mind, they will miss out on a lot, possibly losing sight of the bigger picture. Our reality, our world mirrors the very nature of our nervous system, how one thing is somehow related to another, and specifically, in the case of this course, how neurobiology is connected to other academic disciplines such as philosophy and psychology. If there's one thing I learned in this course is that, in order to begin to understand the nervous system and the relationship among brain, body and reality, I must approach science as well as life with an open mind, welcoming the idea of being "wrong" and evolving my outlook so as it becomes "progressively less wrong."
Reference:
Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York; 1997.
| Storytelling with Oliver Sacks - A Review of "An A Name: Suzanne La Date: 2006-05-07 23:38:38 Link to this Comment: 19280 |
Studying Neurobiology and Behavior presents us with a multitude of fascinating cases. The brain itself is amazing and performs tasks that hardly seem possible. Just simple functions we take for granted, like dreaming, are performed by a finite number of neurons and reactions in the nervous system, which in itself is a difficult concept to grasp. For An Anthropologist on Mars, Dr. Oliver Sacks finds seven cases of individuals that have truly extraordinary brains. He calls these "paradoxical tales" because each person defies normal standards of dysfunction. In this book, he collects the stories of an artist who loses his ability to see and conceptualize color; a victim of a brain tumor whose memory remains firmly seated in the 1960s; a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome; a formerly blind man whose sight is restored, but is reluctant to adapt; a "memory artist" who recreates vivid details of his hometown strictly from remembering; an "idiot savant" prodigy artist with published work only in his teens; and an autistic professor who often feels like an anthropologist on Mars. Each story is beautiful, spectacular and eloquently presented. At times it feels like you are Sacks, observing and learning more about the brain and the person in which it dwells.
The reason I refer to these different accounts as "stories" is because Sacks presents a full view of each person and their individual lives. Each chapter has a cast of characters, a setting, a plot – and all of these elements weave together to create a fascinating story. Alone these people are astonishing because of each paradox, but Sacks manages to reach past a sterile account of neurological functioning that could be found in any psychiatric journal and create a well developed narrative of the whole person. His ability to describe his setting, interactions and personal feelings with the subject makes every report a story. This is what makes Sacks a prolific writer, and also an extraordinary neuroscientist.
Sacks' analysis of each situation is uncanny. He is able to recognize the intricate details of the brain that cause changes in behavior based primarily on his past knowledge and experience. He points out the possibility that Franco has a temporal lobe epilepsy as though he's describing something as plain as a nose. However, Sacks' also investigates each case with a personal stake involved, with a kind of compassion that isn't always available in a psychiatrist's office or in an MRI machine. It isn't simply a diagnosis; he makes it become storytelling. Sacks has a responsibility to transform his characters, from just a brain to a human with a worthy story and he does it perfectly. As a reader, you forget that these people have neurological "problems" and begin to identify them as the other side of the paradox. For example, Dr. Carl Bennett is not a person with Tourette's syndrome who performs surgery despite the obvious problems associated with his disorder. He is first a surgeon, a father, a husband, even a pilot. We recognize his plight but he is not a series of tics and impulses that a purely medical description depicts. As a storyteller, Sacks develops his characters wonderfully with appropriate background and personality. As a scientist, he is brilliant, understanding the brain and its idiosyncrasies.
My favorite quote from An Anthropologist on Mars comes from the story of Franco, the Pontito artist. Sacks describes prominent figures in the arts and the neurological disorders to which their genius is often attributed. In a footnote he says "The danger is that we may go overboard in medicalizing our predecessors (and contemporaries), reducing their complexity to expressions of neurological or psychiatric disorder, while neglecting all other factors that determine a life, not least the irreducible uniqueness of the individual" (Sacks 165). Although he refers specifically to the tendency of psychoanalysts to connect genius purely with variations in the brain, I believe this view is important to neuroscience. Throughout the Neurobiology and Behavior course, we've analyzed the nervous system on both micro- and macroscopic levels. When studying the brain, it's important to see physiological changes that could be causing dysfunction. However, it is equally important to consider the person and his or her story.
As mentioned before, Sacks is a gifted storyteller; when talking about the brain, it is necessary to adopt a holistic approach. That is to say, we can find just as many clues outside of the brain as we can in it. Images from an MRI will not suffice. This stress on the "uniqueness of the individual" makes for better science and inspiring storytelling. If I learned anything from the course and Dr. Sacks, it is that every brain is more than a series of action potentials and neurons firing. The story is what matters; the story is what makes us an individual.
Works Cited
Sacks, Oliver. "An Anthropologist on Mars". New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
| The Mind & The Brain: Neuroplasticity and The Powe Name: Whitney Mc Date: 2006-05-09 02:05:27 Link to this Comment: 19288 |
The Mind & The Brain by Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz and Sharon Begley is a very dynamic and rich read which covers the phenomena of how the brain, behavior and emotions can be controlled by the mind. Schwartz puts emphasis on his progressive 2-decade research on non-invasive ways to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, he also draws on many other brain malfunctions and disorders from dyslexia to stroke patients. Although the book is very dense with lots of information, interesting phenomena, and concepts the authors does not fall short of making this book appealing and understandable to all levels of neurobiological understanding; it's relationship to the body and society. This book also includes the very controversial political process of promoting non-chemical and non-invasive ways of treating behavioral problems. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in consciousness, brain plasticity and free will in it's relation to behavior.
The book is broken into 10 chapters that essentially walk the reader through Schwartz's endeavors of treating OCD patients therapeutically rather than chemically. The first chapter, "The Matter of Mind" discusses societies look at the brain in comparison to how it is progressing with new methods of therapy for behavioral diseases being developed. Here, Schwartz challenges the idea that the brain is just a machine that receives an input and produces an output. He addresses historical views like those of Descartes and Newton in relation to the mind versus matter and the experience versus knowing debates. He denotes the idea that "consciousness, emotions, thoughts and subjective feeling of pain, and the spark of creativity arises from nothing but the electrical activity [of the brain]" (31) and instead says that there is more to the brain and all of it's functions than it's basic "matter" and machinery. The mind is consciousness that is willing and able to control that machinery. The second chapter entitled "Brain Lock" is where he first begins to address his own research with OCD patients; he looks at current therapeutic methods of treating OCD patients and develops his own. The process of his findings are laid out in this chapter which include diagrams of the brain, figures of overly active areas in OCD patients, charts of reaction processes and extensive explanations of how activated areas of the brain are different in OCD patients in comparison to those with normal brain wiring. Schwartz's theory for intervention is "to experience the OCD symptom with out reacting emotionally to the discomfort it caused, realizing instead that even the most visceral OCD urges is actually no more than the manifestation of the brain wiring defect (77-8)." He says, for a patient to realize what is actually going wrong inside their brains would make them more mentally able to deal and willfully change their brain defect. He examined this theory further by taking brain scans of patients before and after receiving an OCD trigger. After this he introduces the "Refocus and Re-label" enabling a patient receiving a compulsive urge to wash ones hands for example to instead reliable it to make the choice to do something else. This was proven to be a very successful method and is elaborated upon in the text.
Through out the book he conflicts the issue that an old brain can never recover or in other word cannot fix the defects acquired through injury. Chapter 3 entitled "Birth of a Brain" I found very valuable for anyone interested in the neurobiological field. The authors extensively explain neuron cells, synaptic clefts, sight, etc. He elucidates this to go into issues regarding neuroplasticity and how synapses are created in an adult brain, what they mean, and comparing that of a newborns nervous system. He shows how "learning reflects changes in the synapses (130)" and, because of this, the body/ brain can always learn and change no matter what the age. Chapter 4 goes into the depths of societal conflicts in understanding the depths and complexities of the brain. Chapter 5 and 6 further makes the claim that plasticity of the brain is not only in infants. He is able to support this claim by looking at stroke patient's therapy to make use of the arms and limbs affected by stroke. By looking at brain activity scans it was found that "the healthy side of the brain had been drafted into service by the patients continued use of the affected arm (193)." It is evident here, that those brain functions had shifted as a result that adult brains can recover from injuries. Chapter 7 entitled "Network remodeling" goes through one of his studies of trying to improve reading skills in dyslexic kindergarteners. His noninvasive method was to have children listen to words and letter sounds that could be confused for one another and have the subjects try to differentiate. After 2 months of listening for 2 hours a day all of the children progressed 1 ½ to 2 years in reading skills. This improvements were due to brain rewiring by a non-invasive mean. This chapter further reiterates the idea that the brain can be molded and changed with the help of the mind and chemicals or surgery are not needed to achieve a behavioral effect.
Chapters 8-10 tackles quantum physics theories, freewill, and the effects of attention on behavior. Schwartz's addresses the issue that quantum physics is about the mind and it's discoveries and that without the mind physics would not exist. This addresses issues that debate if emotion, choice and perspective are valid in the scientific world or just mechanical outputs from the nervous system; also if the concepts that physics is the basis of science and applies to all working of the body. He says that if not for the minds apprehension, physics would not exist. "The mind has the power to act back on the brain...This makes the notion that mind is strictly determined by the movements of atoms and electrons seem as dated as Newton's powered wig (260)." He is trying to emphasize again, that mind is not just the matter it is made up of but is consciousness, choice and perspective. In the last two chapters Schwartz further alludes to choice and attention, making the claim that if a stroke patient, an OCD patient, or another with similar brain dysfunctions has the will and pays the proper attention they will be able to alter their brain functions. Schwartz says,"...a successful outcome requires that a patient make willful changes to the meaning or value he places on the distressing 'error' signals the brain generates (355)" here he is drawing on his refocus re-label concept . "...Once he understands the real nature of the false brain images the patient can actively refocus... quality of attention states influences whether patients actively process sensory stimulus as well as emotions and thoughts (355)" here, attention is crucial to processing sensory information and therefore allowing one to have the ability to influence their behavior.
Conclusively, this book is very rich, dynamic and powerfully convincing in that there is one purpose to influence society and the individual that the mind (choice, will, emotions and consciousness) has a substantial influence on behavior. It fulfilled that purpose on many levels. Not only does Schwartz draw on historical views of neurobiology he addresses his own research and findings. He does not leave the average casual reader in the dark about concepts discussed, he thoroughly explains and applies the ideas he presents. He supports treating brain wiring disjunctions through the abilities of the mind. This book explicates the mind as the body's best medicine.
Reference:
Schwartz, Jeffrey M. The Mind & The Brain: Neuroplasticity and the power of mental force. Harper Collins Publishing: New York, 2002.
| Conversations on Consciousness Name: Astra Brya Date: 2006-05-09 11:04:09 Link to this Comment: 19291 |
With 21 interviews, each one introducing at least one new theory of consciousness, Conversations on Consciousness is filled with many fascinating topics that warrant discussion. However, during my reading, two particular theories caught my attention. The first of these is not so much a theory of consciousness, as a new way of looking at the problem of consciousness. In 1994, David Chalmers clarified the discussion of consciousness by offering a definition of what actually needed to be explained. In his interview, Chalmers again explains and elaborates on his definition of the problem of consciousness as being comprised of an easy problem, and a hard problem.
Sue: You talked earlier about the 'easy problems' and the 'hard problem', and this distinction is probably what you are most famous for. In fact, everyone now seems to start any discussion of consciousness with an account of the 'hard problem'. Can you tell me how you came to categorize it that way?
Dave: I never thought of this as a terribly profound distinction to make. I thought I was just stating the obvious. I gave a paper at the first Tucson conference on consciousness, back in '94, and early in the conference I got up and wanted to say some substantive things about consciousness. So I thought, 'OK, I'll start by stating the obvious - what need to be explained is behavior (those are the easy problems), and subjective experience (that's the hard problem).' (2)
Before reading Conversations on Consciousness, I had no introduction to the various theories of consciousness - every theory proposed in this book was a brand new idea to me. During my introduction to consciousness as a biological problem, I believe that Chalmers' distinction was the most basically insightful theory I read. Although in hindsight, the need for such a distinction is obvious, before reading Chalmers' interview, the series of problems I thought could be explained together included topics that are both easy and hard problems. Chalmers' definition allowed me to clearly distinguish issues that could be discussed without necessarily involving the complicated issue of subjectivity. I think that when discussing consciousness, it is crucial to strictly define the boundaries of your discussion - without them, explanations can become too complex in an attempt to cover al the symptoms of conscious behavior. Chalmers offers an eloquent clarification of an intrinsically complicated subject. Like most, if not all of the specific theories mentioned in Conversations on Consciousness, our in-class discussions did not mention by name Chalmers' easy/hard distinction. While discussing the grand scheme of neurobiology, divisions were avoided - our class made deliberate attempts towards formulating a united theory of the workings of the nervous system (e.g. the box within a box series of diagrams). However, discussions of the smaller components of the nervous system were approached in a manner reminiscent of Chalmers' distinction. Much of class time involved the explanation of specific biological behaviors (e.g. movement, vision, and speech). But also discussed were harder biological problems (e.g. sleepwalking and the I-function). But while the I-function was discussed in depth, with careful distinctions made between behaviors and the I-function (e.g. Christopher Reeve), we never discussed the biology behind the presence of the I-fuction - or the presence of the subjective experiences we happily defined (e.g. vision, hearing). Many times we skirted these discussions, but we never openly entered into a discussion.
The other topic that caught my attention, I must mention simply because of its controversial nature: the quantum theory of consciousness. Roger Penrose originally proposed this theory in a book entitled The Emperor's New Mind. The theory states that consciousness is intrinsically a non-computational phenomenon - that the ability to have conscious understanding requires more than mere computations mechanics (no matter how complex the computations are). While this argument could lead towards dualism, Penrose instead concluded that the ingredient missing from our largely computational vision of how the nervous system works, involves quantum mechanics. During his interview, Penrose explain how he arrived at quantum mechanics for the solution to consciousness.
Roger: I'm saying that the Gödel argument tells us that we are not simply computational entities; that out understanding is something outside computation. It doesn't tell us it's something unphysical, but there's a crucial thing that's missing, which has to do with quantum mechanics. Mine is a version of the Sherlock Holmes argument, which I admit is a weak argument - that to say once you've eliminated everything else, then what remains must be the truth, no matter how improbably. Quantum mechanics is the most obvious place where we don't know enough about physics. Where do you see non-computability in physics? You don't seem to see it anywhere else. So this, therefore, is presumably where it is. (2)
Also interviewed was Stuart Hameroff, who has collaborated with Penrose on the quantum theory. Hameroff took Penrose's idea, and located the quantum events within the microtubules of the brain's neurons.
Stuart: ... I had been studying the computational capabilities of protein structures called microtubules which make up the internal scaffolding within nerve cells. It seemed that microtubules were excellent candidates for quantum computation, that quantum computing might be happening inside nerve cells where they could be isolated. I also knew from my study on anesthesia that the molecular mechanisms by which anesthetic gas molecules erase consciousness involves only quantum mechanical interactions with certain proteins in the brain. So it was reasonable to believe that consciousness involved quantum processes and that microtubules might be quantum computers. (2)
In my opinion, this theory surpasses even the theories involving first-person reported lucid dreaming in its use of creative biological reasoning. In Conversations on Consciousness, many scientists broached the idea that consciousness is a fundamental principle of the universe (a theory that I am quite partial to, provided that sufficient evidence can be provided). But their ideas depend on measuring consciousness (e.g. humans have more consciousness than squirrels - just as humans have more mass - and theoretically we can measure this). And, as these scientists admit, there is currently no soundly quantifiable way to measure consciousness - a problem which a few scientists are working towards solving. But the quantum theory of consciousness embraces science's current inability to quantify consciousness. The proposal that our inability to solve this one problem directly connects to our inability to solve another problem is extraordinary, and somewhat audacious, as is the reclassification of microtubules from cellular support to quantum computers. After reading Hameroff's interview, I became fascinated with this theory, simply because of its outrageous logical progression. I was therefore thrilled when, several interviews later, Penrose also discussed this extraordinary theory. The quantum consciousness theory, with its current lack of supporting evidence, remains the outlandish companion to more conventional theories (e.g. emergence). But because of its sheer variety, and distinct dissimilarity to any topic discussed in class, this theory was the most memorable, and enjoyable, topic in Conversations on Consciousness.
Many other topics were discussed during the interviews, including several on dream states and the first-person method that I found too unquantifiable for my tastes. However, all these topics served as a thorough introduction to the many methods currently being used in the examination of consciousness. Conversations on Consciousness is not a typical popular science book – its topic is less specific than many of its fellows', and it is not interested in popularizing the science for the reader's benefit. The topics of most popular science books require thorough background knowledge of biology. But because these books are written to make the science accessible for a general audience, the author must teach his audience the background science they need, before he is able to make his point. Given the vast complexity of biology, these explanations may last chapters, and are frequently tediously long. But Conversations on Consciousness does not have an 'Introductory Biology for the Masses' section. As a collection of interviews, it is not one scientist's lecture to the general public. It is a series of private conversations on which the public is allowed to eavesdrop. The interviewee does not need to spend an hour explaining how neurons function – as a holder of degrees is psychology, physiology and parapsychology, Susan Blackmore (the interviewer) already knows the basic biology, and no explanations are added for the benefit of the reader. This might make the book less comprehensible for the person who knows nothing of neurobiology - without grounding in anatomical structures, the topic of consciousness can easily become a purely philosophical discussion. But I was grateful to be reading a book that did not pander to a lower denominator. Conversations on Consciousness assumes you are an informed reader - if you are not, you are left on your own to become informed (although the included glossary can be quite helpful). This was a welcome challenge, and several times I had to engage in extra research to understand the basic concepts being casually discussed.
In the end, Conversations on Consciousness gave me a unified view of the beliefs of the scientific community: a view that helped me place in context the principles I learned in class. Many of the classical neurological puzzles discussed (e.g. the Cartesian theater, the philosophers zombie, the China room) were relevant to the course, but were never actively discussed in class. Reading Conversations on Consciousness allowed me to see when the discussions of the class closely paralleled classical debates. But we were never prompted into open discussions of these debates. On one hand, this allowed us to find out own meaning given the data presented. But on the other hand, I feel that the lack of connectivity made the class discussions seem more trivial. I feel it would have enriched the discussions if those involved had been aware of the rich history of debate - and the current discussions - that we were continuing. For example, our discussion of human behavior independent of the I-function could have been enriched with knowledge of the ongoing discussion of the philosopher's zombie. Our discussion of the location of the I-function could have similarity benefited from the inclusion of the arguments for and against the Cartesian theater. In my opinion, knowledge of how what we wondered fits into the overall study of neurobiology, would have aided in our quest to contribute to the scientific community. Indeed, how could we try to contribute without informed knowledge of what those around us - the eminent scientists of the field – have already contributed? Especially given that their thoughts so closely mirrored our own. In biology, the community is a resource that should not be ignored. One person, or a group of people, working towards a theory, will always benefit by the addition of one more thinker with his own individual theory. The creation of an uninfluenced opinion is important, but so too is the inclusion of the broader community into the deliberations. In reading Conversations on Consciousness, I learned what theories are being discussed, and was able to begin to formulate my own opinions based both on my own observations and on the theories of those who worked on the problem of consciousness before me.
| A Class, a Conversation, a Book, and Brains Name: Erin Schif Date: 2006-05-10 00:21:30 Link to this Comment: 19298 |
In the Origins of the Modern Mind, Merlin Donald explains the evolution of modern human mental capabilities as the evolution of increasingly complex memory storage systems. Professor Grobstein, in Neurobiology and Behavior, guided the class through several properties useful for understanding the brain and its role in behavior, concluding with the role and limitations of the I-function, the part of our brain of which we are aware and identify as our selves. Both concepts--memory and I-function--arose from specific observations of the nervous system. Both the book and the class recognize that memory and the I-function are interdependent, delocalized properties, but neither had enough pages or time to connect the two, especially since no one completely understands their relationship.
Origins integrates biological, anthropological, archeological and linguistic findings to propose a series of stages that, given the restraints of evolutionary theory and our knowledge of early hominids, could have led to modern human mental abilities. Each step must be evolutionarily advantageous compared to the previous stage and fit the available archeological and biological time frames. Furthermore, Donald postulates that human cognitive evolution was driven first by increasing group size, specifically social skills, and then by the need to compete against other group members.
To explain current human cognition, Donald proposes four major evolutionary stages. The first stage, episodic culture, is similar to the cognitive capabilities and resultant culture (loosely meaning the set of behaviors held by a group of animals) found in our closest living primate relatives. Great apes and early human ancestors can perceive events made up of complex stimuli and demonstrate the beginnings of self-awareness. Following episodic culture, Donald infers mimetic culture around the time of the missing link. Mimetic skill, the "ability to produce conscious, self-initiated representational acts that are intentional, but not linguistic" (p. 168), is an evolutionary step beyond episodic culture and a foundation for symbolic representation and language.
In contrast, mythic culture requires the use of symbols and mental models, which eventually led to spoken language, but may have first been manifested in gesture. However, language and gesture are not the important adaptations; rather they indicate a change within the brain for symbol use. Communication, mental modeling and complex problem solving are all possible without language. Finally, Donald suggests that theoretic culture, the most recent stage, results from "visiographic invention," the ability to symbolically store memories outside the brain. Writing systems, according to Donald, allow humans to rework models and arguments, a task biologically limited by working memory. Furthermore written language relocates memory, making external symbolic thought available to all who can interpret the symbols.
Because we have an incomplete understanding of the brain and can not know exactly how earlier human species thought, Donald can only fill in the gaps between what we think we know about our brains now and our assumed origins. He uses as much evidence as possible to support his hypothesis and grounds speculation in evolutionary theory. In spite of the inherent uncertainty, the distinction between episodic and mimetic/mythic culture fits neatly with the distinction between procedural and declarative memories that exist within modern human brains. The evolution of the brain provides a biological foundation for learning, cultural evolution, and the passing of knowledge and skills of groups through generations outside of genetic inheritance. This distinction between humans and other animals matches what we intuitively feel.
While most of the conclusions are convincing, Donald's idea of "theoretic culture" is troublesome. The quantitative increase in memory storage from external storage is an interesting and valid point, as is the quantitative increase in the transmission of ideas. However, if the brain can process theory from written language, then preliterate brains of the same species should be equally prepared for theory. The explanation of how preliterate societies are qualitatively different from literate societies is not thorough enough to make the distinction between "myth" and "theory" anything more than ethnocentrism.
The evolution of cognition detailed in Origins highlights some of the same themes covered in Neurobiology and Behavior. First, multiple approaches are necessary for studying the brain and behavior. In Bio 202, we looked at brain morphology, in-class experiments, personal experiences, and quantitative studies. Origins draws its conclusion from fossil and archeological evidence, studies of living primates, every-day human language use, and human brain "abnormalities". Diverse approaches provide a more complete view of complex systems and interactions, difficult to study directly. Donald's emphasis on social interaction skills driving evolution agrees with our framework for experience and behavior cyclically affecting and being affected by the brain. Both the class and the book refuse to look at social and biological factors separately because they are constantly interacting.
Still, the book was more concerned with evolution. In class we talked about the difference between evolution and engineering, but did not emphasize evolution as the driving force behind change nor detail brain evolution explicitly. Additionally, Origins emphasizes memory storage through symbolic modeling systems, which is something that we did not spend as much time on in class. We discussed some aspects of language, but spent little time on memory. We talked about the existence and possible formation through learning of central pattern generators, which are in some ways complex procedural memories, but did not discuss how declarative memories would work. Instead, the class focused much more on the I-function and the sense of self. While the book mentions self-awareness, it is not the emphasis or the target of explanation. Both the I-function and symbolic memory storage are decentralized, interdependent, and interacting properties.
Origins of the Modern Mind examines formalized western education within theoretic culture. Within Donald's analysis, Neurobiology and Behavior is a perfect example of creating theories (stories) to aid social interaction and competition in society. Furthermore the process of story telling and checking stories is similar to Donald's idea of theoretic culture as an opportunity to rework and compare models. Within the framework of the class, the book acts as story (theory) of the brain and behavior from another box (Donald's brain). The book provides another angle for examining the brain and behavior, but the challenge left for the book and the class together would be to relate the concluding stories of both-I function and symbolic memory storage- biologically and behaviorally (possibly through working memory?).
| Consciousness in Biology: an Inner Presence Name: Caroline T Date: 2006-05-10 23:16:56 Link to this Comment: 19304 |
Antti Revonsuo's Inner Presence: Consciousness as a Biological Phenomenon is a through investigation into the brain behavior dynamic explored in class, but also tackles issues posed by thus statement in greater depth. With far ranging topics from the similarities of dreams and pain to the issues of synsethysia, her model gains validation through her discussion of different states of consciousness, as well as her readiness to discuss other theories. While her discussion of alternative theories often leaves her own point less clear and understandable, it elevates the status of her book from simply a new theory to a resource on consciousness. Inner Presence is a valuable, if not elaborate, discussion of how consciousness is essential to human existence, and its implications philosophy, psychology and neurobiology.
Instead of posing an I function to be consciousness, Revonsuo subdivides consciousness. There is the primary, phenomenal consciousness which is "the immediate presence of qualitative experience for a subject." This structure places perception of the self in an environment as primary, creating an egocentric view. Revonsuo sums up the "subjective phenomenal consciousness [as] a real, natural biological phenomenon that literally resides within the confines of the brain" where "to be real is to have causal powers" (pg 10)
The "center-periphery organization" places a specific phenomenal content at the center of consciousness, while everything else exits in the background, or periphery of consciousness.
The absence of consciousness, the unconscious and nonconscious, are different in their connection to consciousness. The former "can in principle modulate consciousness and thus exist in phenomenal form, whereas nonconscious in the brain cannot directly modulate phenomenal consciousness nor exist in a phenomenal form at all." For example, a significant event in the past can influence a person's conscious
A critical component of perception is a sense of presence, "the sense that [a person shares] a common spatial and temporal framework with objects in [their] presence." This opens up a framework in which hallucinations and dream experiences are congruent with those of waking consciousness. In this world-simulation model, the brain creates a representation of the world which it can interpret. The simulation is based on what the nervous system is able to perceive. This theory, called representative realism, holds that there must be a real world outside of our perceptions that "exists independently of our experiences and representations of it." (121) We perceive the world indirectly, through how it affects our bodies and then how our brain interprets these interacts.
One of the implications of perception in the representative realism model is that the reliability of perception is put into jeopardy. It is easy to fall into a cycle of skepticism, since our perceptions can be fooled, as demonstrated in class on many occasions. It also causes a logical regression which is problematic. We perceive something, but how do we perceive ourselves or perceive to perceive perception? This semantic discussion is useless, as the author points out.
The further discussion of perception stems from a concept called biological realism, which is used almost interchangeably with the term world simulation metaphor. Biological realism emphasizes as biological, rather than metaphysical or psychological approach to brain and consciousness. It condones the view that brain is the same as behavior. But it does not shy away from theoretical discussions of the implications of biological realism.
If brain and behavior is equal, then what would happen if brains were simply located in vat. The brain would be fully functional, yet in complete isolation from normal sensory and motor connections and instead given some form of artificial or internal stimulation. For instance, the internal stimulation could be similar to that which is perceived during dreaming. In this scenario, there are no causal connections between the brain and outside reality. This is not unfeasible, since during dreaming we "turn out to be brains in a natural biological vat." (139) Yet if a brain is in an artificial vat, can the person be said to be dead or alive? Biological realism states that a person is still alive with normal conscious experiences.
But, Revonsuo continues, then one could not argue that a person artificially created was not as alive as a naturally produced person. A person could be replicated in exactness, and be just as alive and human as one that has been alive for many years. In addition, this means that experiences do not actually have to be experienced personally. Instead, if a brain was replicated, it could be said to have the same experiences as the original. Finally, then brains could be replicated without bodies and still experience consciousness. This thought process leads to validation of AIs as having a human consciousness if the organization is similar to a human nervous system.
The Sensorimotor Theory of Consciousness refutes biological realism. (141) It denies that experiences are occurrences that have qualitative properties. Experiences are "ways of acting" or "something we do", "and the qualitative features of experience are aspects of this activity." (141) Vision is the ultimate in "sensorimotor contingencies." Consciousness is based on actions, or behaviors, unlike biological realism where action is not necessary. The Sensorimotor Theory rejects the possibility of brains to exist without interacting with its environment. Consciousness is not located within the brain, thus brain activity does not give rise to experience. Therefore there is also no subjective experience at a basic level in the brain and instead located at a higher behavioral level.
Another theory of consciousness is that consciousness cuts across the brain-body-world division, instead of being concentrated in within the neural circuitry of the nervous system. Called the Radical Embodiment of Consciousness, leaves a location for consciousness vague or where the science of consciousness should focus. Revonsuo rejects this theory for its obscurity and its impartibility. She states that radical embodiment "confuses the internal spatial relations and locations within the phenomenal level with those of the external physical counterparts of the phenomenal entities."(143)
Touching upon the topic of color, Revonsuo explores the implications of David Foulkes' direct realism not only on perception, but also on consciousness. Direct realism implies that people experience objects in the world directly. Color is a direct observation of a physical property of a physical object. Color is not, in the direct realist view, a psychological product generated within the brain. Modern studies of color have generally rejected direct realism, yet it still has some support. Revonsuo is unclear in her handling of this material, not coming to a significant conclusion or connecting it to the greater idea of phenomenal consciousness. She raises some interesting questions, however, which were also raised in class. Her discussion of color comes back to the problematic issue of reality. Regardless of the location of consciousness, it has been repeatedly shown that people's perception of color is relative and susceptible to illusions. Revonsuo does nothing to tackle these issues and gets clouded in dealing with specific theories.
Inner Presence is admirable for tackling a wide range of topics, providing extensive defense for the theory of biological realism and the importance of phenomenal consciousness. As a book, it is more useful as a reference guide rather than a complete theory. However, the theories which Revonsuo proposes are penetrative and insightful, if not already covered through Paul Grobstein's Neurobiology and Biology.
| Listening to Prozac Name: Bethany Ca Date: 2006-05-11 10:21:20 Link to this Comment: 19311 |
The question as to whether nature has a more significant role in shaping personality and behavior than environmental nurturance or visa versa has long been debated. In his book Listening to Prozac, Peter D. Kramer begins by exploring how biological determinism, or those genetic components which are thought to be immutable, are not only mediated by the experiential but may also not be as static as is widely thought. He asserts that there may actually be a surprising degree of flexibility with regard to concepts that are generally thought of as inborn like personality, temperament, and self. This raises the question as to what is it that makes someone who they are and how altering that which makes someone who they are also alters one's sense of identity?
Though Prozac has been used to treat depression, OCD, panic anxiety, premenstrual syndrome, substance abuse, and eating disorders (1)). Though it is counterintuitive to make a diagnosis based on a patient's response to drugs, Kramer reminds us, from the point of view of a physician, that it is difficult to "extrapolate back from symptom and behavior to chemistry" (
Transformation accurately describes the changes that Prozac facilitates because it is as if the "old" or premedicated self has been replaced by the "new", medicated self (
If a trait or behavior can be changed "in response to a biological treatment, [it] must have been biologically encoded" (
A drug like Prozac which effects rapid and transformative changes in a patient does so in the absence of psychological insight on the part of the patient which leads us to question how psychology and psychiatry will be affected. Prozac demonstrates that "improvement" or "wellness" can occur without a deeper self-understanding. In a capitalist society like ours which is constantly striving for cost efficiency it is conceivable that traditional therapy and psychoanalysis will become obsolete with the rise of fast acting pills. Pharmacology treats that which is physiological and therefore is not taking into account the emotional, cultural, or psychological. If Prozac which responds only to the physiological is helpful, then the importance of emotions, culture's impact, and psychology becomes inferior to the physiological neural systems.
To illustrate how the availability of a drug will influence the diagnosis that is applied to a particular behavior, Kramer uses the example of panic anxiety which became a widely used diagnosis once an effective drug became available (
Kramer suggests that the expansion of what we understand to be mental illness would mean adopting the notion of illness along a continuum opposed to illness as a dichotomy. Patients would no longer be either ill or well but would fall somewhere along a behavioral spectrum where the line between "normal" and "pathological" would become significantly blurred. Alternatively, I can imagine an attempt at moving people away from the ends of the spectrum in order to achieve a greater degree of uniformity. By expanding the definition of that which is pathological, much of the heterogeneity of society will be diminished in an effort to reach "normality".
Not only might behavior be presented along a wellness-illness continuum, but it might also be viewed, as Kramer postulates, as a product of evolution. Those behaviors that are perceived as pathological may confer evolutionary advantage or perhaps they do not serve any contemporary evolutionary advantage. It is not difficult to see that what once might have been "a successful reproductive 'strategy' is now the variant human trait underlying chronic and recurrent depression" ((1)) and the effectiveness of traditional psychotherapy in this instance is thrown into question. Yet if an environmental influence caused the problematic neurochemical alteration, why would we not expect environmental influences to be able to reverse or at least continue to alter neurochemistry? I believe that the only factor that differentiates treating pathological behaviors using drugs or using psychotherapy is the time that elapses before change takes place. The quickness with which drugs illicit responses makes pharmacology an attractive alternative to traditional psychotherapy.
It is not a novel that treatments arise which result in the "enhancement of normal functioning, opposed to treatment of illness" ((1). This theory fits perfectly with what we learned in class about the role of the I-function. If part of the limbic system is sending out a constant signal to the I-function that says 'laugh', then the I-function might override the signal from the frontal lobes saying 'this is inappropriate'. I think it's fascinating that one small change in the brain's wiring causes a whole cascade of processes to go wrong.
In the next chapter, You Forgot to Deliver the Twin, Ramachandran explores the phenomenon of phantom pregnancies. Mary was nine months pregnant when she first visited Dr. Monroe. She felt the baby kicking and suspected that labor was about to begin and wanted Dr. Monroe to make sure the baby was in the right position. While Dr. Monroe was examining her, he found that her abdomen was vastly enlarged and low, suggesting that the fetus had dropped and her breasts were swollen, the nipples mottled. However, he could not get a fetal heatbeat and her naval was all wrong. One sure sign of pregnancy is a pushed-out belly button; Mary's was inverted. Mary was exhibiting a classic case of pseudocyesis. Some women who want to get pregnant or dread pregnancy develop all the signs and symptoms of a true pregnancy. Everything seems normal except there is no baby. Dr. Monroe knew that if he told Mary that there was no baby she would not believe him. Instead he told her he was going to put her to sleep and deliver the baby. When she awoke he told her the baby had died during birth. Right away her abdomen began to subside.
Can one's mind really will oneself to be pregnant? Ramachandran explains this phenomenon as a case of operant conditioning and depression. "When Mary, who wants to be pregnant, sees her abdomen enlarge due to gas and feels her diaphragm fall, she learns unconsciously that the lower it falls, the more pregnant she looks" (1). In addition, intense longing for a child and associated depression might reduce levels of dopamine and norepinephrine which could in turn reduce production of both prolactin-inhibition factor and follicle-stimulating hormone. Low levels of these hormones would lead to no ovulation and menstruation and breast enlargement and lactation, as well as maternal behavior.
Pseudocyesis is a perfect example of how forming new observations can lead to a better understanding. One of the things I enjoyed learning this semester was not to take everything at face value. Science is not exact and new observations are always being made and tested. This is very important because one should always question since you never know what you'll prove or disprove. Science is not about being right, but about being less wrong. Ramachandran does a wonderful job of explaining the step by step processes he took to get science less wrong.
This book paralleled the course of the semester well because as I was reading it, we were going more into depth about the subjects in class. For example, while we were learning about vision, I was reading the chapter on blindsight. I was able to take the knowledge that I learned in class and apply it to what I was reading. I think it would be very helpful to students if this book was assigned as mandatory reading during the semester. It's easy to read, funny, and relates exactly to the class material.
Works Cited
1) Ramachandran, V.S. Phantoms in the Brain. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.
| The Personality Puzzle: Book Review Name: Fatu Badia Date: 2006-05-11 11:45:41 Link to this Comment: 19317 |
The Personality Puzzle by David C. Funder is a well written and entertaining book on personality. The book goes through the history of personality research, the biology of personality, and how personality is related to behavior in a very clear and informative manner. Funder does a very good job of organizing the book and presenting the world of personality to others.
I found the second section of the book, "How People Differ: The Trait Approach," to be very interesting. In this section he discusses how personality traits are assessed and how they influence behavior. He starts this section off with a look at the differing theories that have revolved around personality research. The main conflict when it comes to the theories surrounding personality research is consistency. Many people believe that personality is consistent from one situation to the next, while others believe that it can change based on situation.
The author introduced this point very well in this sentence found on page 60: "Every man is in certain respects (a) like all other men, (b) like some other men, (c) like no other man." This statement looks at how all men (and women) are alike in their basic needs for food and shelter. We are like some other men (and women) in our interests and other commonalities, but we are also unlike any other men (and women) in the traits that make us who we are, such as personality. This quote also ties into how are brains in certain respects are like other brains, are like some brains, and are also like no other brains. All brains are physically set up in the same way with the same structures. But our brains can also be like some other brains when looking at areas involved with certain disorders, for example. It can be said that the brains of depressed people will more likely than not have neurotransmitter concentrations that vary from those of non-depressed people. Finally, our brains are like no other brains in the ways in which individuals can perform differently in academic tasks, social situations, or athletics. All of these factors are in some ways controlled by the brain, but they are different for everyone.
Next Funder discusses personality tests. These tests which can easily be found on the internet or even used in marketing, have their real function in classifying the personalities of subjects. They are especially important in looking at the structure of society and how society affects the individual. They can also be found in the job market where potential employees will be asked to take certain tests so that their traits can be assessed for their potential position.
The last segment found in this section of the book discusses personality judgments of the self and others. Funder starts off by introducing how what we think of ourselves and what others think of us can differ. He states, "To some degree, the judgments of personality rendered of you by the people who know you not only reflect what you are like, but can lead you to be what you are like." (103). This means that one's personality is not so much their own as it is highly influenced by their environment and others. One may be nice because they are genuinely nice, or as a result of others describing them as nice. The only problem with relying on self-judgment and that of others in describing personality is accuracy.
Here, Funder brings up the views of constructivism. He states that this attitude "is widespread throughout modern intellectual life. This attitude, slightly simplified – is that reality, as a concrete entity, does not exist. All that does exist is human ideas or constructions of reality." (105). Constructivism or ones construction of reality in the study of personality is problematic in that it questions the accuracy of personality judgments. How can one know if a personality judgment is actually right or wrong? How can one be sure that all people have the same criteria or definition of "nice" when it comes to describing another? Our personalities, like our view of the world, are not a reality, as was discussed in class. They are interpretations of the surrounding world that make sense within our navigation of our environment and people.
I found the views of constructivism the most interesting. I have never considered what would happen "if a tree fell in the woods and nobody was there to hear it, would it make a sound?". Part of what makes personality advantageous is that we learn how to form valuable relationships. But, if no one else existed on this earth, just we cannot be sure the tree will make a sound, would we have a personality? Would we know to be nice if we never had to be put into a situation with another where our brains constructed the environment that encouraged sharing? I do not think any of these questions will ever be answered. However, it is perplexing to think about personality as a construction of the brain and as a result of interacts with other brains.
Overall, I found the book to be very informative and well written. Fuller has a great way of keeping the viewer interested with his sarcastic and humerus comments. The book is also not filled with personality research jargon that would make it difficult for others to understand. It is a great book for an introduction to personality, research and the world surrounding it.
Works Cited
Funder, David C. (1997). The Personality Puzzle. United States of America: Norton and Company, Inc.
| Exploring Neurobiology and Behavior Name: Danielle M Date: 2006-05-11 16:35:17 Link to this Comment: 19327 |
Kay Redfield Jamison has captured the true nature of manic depressive disorder and characterized its manifestations among many prominent artists throughout history. Jamison's novel, Touched with Fire: Manic Depressive Disorder and the Artistic Temperament bridges on those symptoms associated with manic depressive disorder (melancholy, depression, mania) and links them to writers and artists who experience commonalities of the disease and who come from a family lineage with symptomatic similarities. Jamison immerses the reader into the complex and tumultuous lives of writers and takes you through anecdotes of their daily experiences to elucidate the symptomatic characteristics of manic depressive disorder. The author cleverly connects these anecdotes and the artists' written work to specific symptomatic characteristics of the disease and how certain moods can inspire and heighten the artistic imagination. Analysis of famous writers and their family lineage, conducted by the author and others, reveals important evidence that supports the link between genetic heritability of psychiatric disease and the artistic genius that results. The author concludes by outlining the possibilities linking genetic heritability of the disease and the artistic ability that arises, and analyzes the effects of the treatments for manic depressive disorder. Jamison presents questions as to the effectiveness of treatment and the complete banishment of the "artistic temperament" seen as a result of manic depressive disorder.
Similar to the organization of the novel by Jamison, the course Neurobiology and Behavior, taught by Professor Paul Grobstein, took the same approach to exploring neurobiological topics, starting with the standard view of a topic and then going further with new evidence and methods of thought. While the course did not focus on psychosis or diseases including manic depressive disorder, the course provided incite as to the biological functioning within the brain and nervous system. The course established a clear and unbiased understanding of how the brain works and presented a new way of engaging in science and constructing conclusions. While analysis and class discussions focused on the nervous system and trying to understand its complexities, the lecture did not directly focus on how to apply these findings to different diseases and instead facilitated and inspired each student's own curiosities.
The author beings the detailed description of manic depression with a look at what the disease entails (the ups and downs) and takes both an anecdotal and clinical approach. The general overview of the disease starts with a description of mania and hypomania, mixed manic and depressed states, suicidal delusions, and cyclothymia. Jamison leads the reader into a description of the two main forms of manic depression, Bipolar I and Bipolar II disorder and gives a thorough and concise overview of both forms, one being the classical view of the disorder having both mania and a major depressive episode, and two, the presence or history of a major depressive episode.(14) The book does not overwhelm the reader with scientific terminology and provides a helpful appendix for more complicated topics. Similarly, the course Neurobiology and Behavior did not concentrate on the complexities of science but discussed the basics and made them clear for all students even those not familiar with scientific terminology. For instance, we covered the nervous system in detail starting with a comparison of the "spaghetti" model of the nervous system to the input/output compartmentalized approach. The course delved into the molecular level of the neuronal pathways and studied the detailed signaling pathways of inputs and their outputs. While one might think a signal must be initiated via an exogenous input, the course disproved this theory showing the ability of a signal to commence within the nervous system itself and change pathways as well.
Further, the novel compared information from artists and writers with the disease and searched for similarities and differences between an array of artists with manic depression. Jamison shows prevalence of manic depression among artists by visual representations as graphs and data tables that compare different artists and biographical information regarding their psychosis. Tables included information on mood disorders and suicide in British and Irish poets (born between 1705-1805), and the lifetime prevalence of mental illness in writers and control subjects using the research diagnostic criteria. (70-77) Compared to the control subjects, writers showed an increase in all bipolar disorders by 43% compared to the control group which showed 10% prevalence. (77) It is interesting to see how the data supports the link between artistic talent and manic depression. Jamison then continues her analysis with a graph showing rates of treatment for mood disorders in a sample of writers and artists.(77) The data clearly expresses the increased level of psychosis in poets, playwrights, novelists, biographers, and artists in comparison to the general population. Similar, to the manner in which Jamison takes standard manic depressive diagnosis and applies it to artists, in the course Neurobiology and Behavior, topics about the brain and nervous system were applied to examples from our daily experiences. For example, the tragic disability of Christopher Reeves and the severing of his spinal cord was a topic of interest. Many doctors and scientists said that Reeves was paralyzed but when his toe was pinched he responded with a flinch. Reeve's movement suggests that paralysis is not a viable method of categorizing his condition because the nervous system could take the pinch as an input and relay it though the nervous system. Reeve's condition should take into account the ability of the nervous system to respond to stimuli but Reeve's inability to consciously and willingly move his foot. We discussed behaviors as a series of action potentials that one can recognize either voluntarily or involuntarily. Behavior was analyzed through specific vision exercises and everyday movements which was helpful in conveying the true meaning of an action potential and signaling pathway.
Jamison concluded her book with a summary of what her observations meant in terms of artistic behavior and manic depression. The author compared the family lineage between a variety of artists and observed the commonalities in their psychosis and artistic talents. Artists included Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Schumann, Herman Melville, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemmingway, and Vincent Van Gogh, to name a few. Surprisingly, these artists who suffered from manic depression showed a prevalent family history of the disease and other related disorders. The author emphasizes that the characteristics seen in manic depressive disorder manifest themselves in a "constellation or pattern of symptoms [evolving] that is characteristic of a highly genetic disease" (245). Jamison finishes her argument with the important genetic basis of manic depressive disorder and how treatment could potentially hold the power to eliminate the artistic talent. She exhibits an interesting concern for the artistic world and how present day artistic talents are difficult to find, perhaps due to the new methods of diagnosis and cure for manic depressive disorder. Similarly, the course on Neurobiology and Behavior came to a close with discussions on visions, lateral inhibition and dreaming. The discussions on dreaming resulted in insightful conclusions about the complexity of brain function during deep sleep and how the "I-function" and nervous system relate to all the sensations of a dream. Exploring the world of dreaming was a nice way to end the course because it brought together many of the topics discussed throughout the course, including patterns of action potentials, vision, and the "I-function".
While the novel by Jamison and the course on Neurobiology and Behavior shared similarities in structure, the course did not focus on how the nervous system related to psychosis. It would have been interesting to spend time focusing on mental illness and the nervous system and the chemical pathways that are interrupted as a result of the disease. Further, it would have been helpful to explore the chemical pathways in the brain to a further extent, and compare them according to the different levels of neural transmission. The novel was a nice addition to the course because it added another dimension to the topics discussed in class and took a different conceptual approach to the study and analysis of psychosis.
Works Cited
Kay Redfield Jamison. "Touched with Fire: Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperment". Simon & Schuster, 1993
| The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker: A Review Name: Andrea Gol Date: 2006-05-11 20:10:22 Link to this Comment: 19330 |
Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct seeks to convince the reader in 448 well-written pages that the capacity for language is a uniquely human ability that is built in to our brains. Moving smoothly from the origins of language to the perception and production of language to the modern evolution of language and missing nothing in between, Pinker keeps the reader captivated throughout the book with humorous illustrations of his reasoning and charming anecdotes. The most interesting points in Pinker's book are seemingly unrelated, but they have a common thread that isn't just their link to language. The sections about why language must be partially learned, why infants aren't born speaking, and how grammar develops neurologically are fascinating looks into how learning takes place on a neurological level.
In his chapter entitled "The Tower of Babel" about the origin of the thousands of modern human languages, Pinker argues that it is obvious why language must be partially learned. To begin with, an inborn vocabulary of 60,000 words (an estimate of the size of an average high school graduate's vocabulary – imagine that of a Bryn Mawr student!) would be incredibly unlikely to have evolved, especially since new things are being discovered and invented at a much faster rate than evolution is occurring. In a more compelling argument, Pinker goes on to hypothesize that because language is very much a shared ability, it would be in everyone's best interest to be able to adapt to others in the group. If language were completely innate, no one would be able to communicate effectively with another person. Genes mutate and vary so much that over time, everyone would have completely different and unintelligible grammars. Learning parts of language may be a way people to continue to have a single, shared universal grammar.
In class, we discussed only briefly the interaction between genes and the environment. There was enough information to conclude that genes influence behavior but never cause anything by themselves; there is always some environmental influence over the expression of traits. Based on this way of thinking, as well as Pinker's sharing of grammar hypothesis, it makes sense that language is not one hundred percent innate.
Pinker's next interesting chapter, and arguably the section of the book I am most fascinated by, deals with the development of language in children. Although I've studied developmental psychology before and have learned about the developmental timeline of language, this was the first time I've heard a hypothesis as to why children begin talking when they do. The explanation is a neurological one; although almost all of a person's neurons have been formed and are in place when a baby is born, the number of synapses between neurons continues to increase for several years after birth. The number of synapses in an infant's brain peaks between nine months and two years, which is conveniently when most children experience the bulk of their language development. After this, the number of synapses declines over time.
From here, things seem to fall into place. From our class discussion of the structure of the nervous system as well as my own knowledge from other courses, it makes perfect sense that language should develop at a time of vastly increased synaptic levels. More synapses mean more connections between neurons, which mean a greater potential for neural circuits to be established. If some grammar must be learned, as theorized earlier, then a multitude of possible pathways are necessary for internalizing what a child learns.
In order to fully understand the way language develops, it is necessary to look at the smallest boxes in the nervous system – neurons. Pinker gives a brief description of how neurons work followed by a simple theoretical network for several grammatical constructions. His explanation is concise and easily accessible to even the least knowledgeable reader. Going into further depth, Pinker details the development of grammar on a neurological basis. He proposes a framework in which every neuron is initially connected to every other neuron, and maintains that as children learn to use certain constructions more than others (such as "went" instead of "goed" or "mice" instead of "mouses"), the synapses being used are strengthened, while others are weakened considerably. In this way, we can account for the gradual decline in children's ungrammatical speech over time.
This network proposal corresponds to the finding that the number of synapses peaks and then declines after age two; as correct grammatical constructions are learned, the synapses that would have been strengthened due to incorrect usage weaken. Additionally, it seems that grammar may be controlled by central pattern generators. Speech is not broken down into individual behaviors; it is a chain of coordinated behavior that seems to maintain itself. It seems only logical that grammar, which is made up of such a complex network of neurons, could be under the control of central pattern generators.
The neural basis of learning, which seems to be the subject in Pinker's book that has captured my attention the most, was something we did not touch on in class, but it is something I've read about for other classes. It would have been very interesting to discuss the formation of central pattern generators over time from experience, like the one that Pinker seems to be proposing for grammar. This would have been, in my mind, an appealing way to bring together a lot of what we talked about during the course of the semester. Learning is one of the most powerful ways to see the brain and behavior change together, and language is such an important part of the human experience that it seems to interest everyone.
I would recommend The Language Instinct for its humor alone, but Pinker's careful and clear explanation of language makes it a necessary read for anyone interested in any aspect of language. Pinker's book has something for everyone, whether you want to learn about the big picture issues of the universality of language and the origins of language or the microscopic topics of the neural structure and genetics of language.
| When Making Decisions, is Less More? Name: Perrin Bra Date: 2006-05-11 20:25:36 Link to this Comment: 19331 |
Blink, written by Malcolm Gladwell, a staff writer for The New Yorker. This book essentially scrutinizes the thinking that happens in the "blink of an eye," on how we tend to make some judgments and conclusions within split seconds. Gladwell stresses how these instinctive assumptions are oftentimes much more accurate than those which are highly contested and deliberated. However, this book is about more than mere intuition, for "rapid cognition" is extremely quick thinking, as opposed to an instinct.
Essentially, this book attempts to make sense of what is going on in our brains in those quick few seconds of thinking that conclude with seemingly arbitrary judgments.
Gladwell mentions in his book how American society is steeped deliberation—in the army, in the workforce, and in the government. Readers might initially be incredulous as to the validity of snap judgments, but on closer inspection, high pressure and stressful situations can sometimes be helpful in making decisions that avoid extensive rationalization and time consumption. He gives the example of the Emergency Room Unit at
Cook County Hospital in Chicago and the means in which the doctors changed the way they diagnosed heart attacks. Doctors were instructed to gather less information from their patients and just focus and three critical pieces of data instead of extraneous statistics. The result was that Cook County Hospital became one of the best hospitals in the nation of predicting heart attacks. However, it proved to be extremely difficult to convince physicians of the benefits of this theory because they were dedicated to the (not altogether illogical) concept that more information is preferable. Blink works to change this conception, for it stresses the "power of thin slicing;" a term in psychology that postulates that we have the tendency to make intelligent decisions that are based on the thinnest slice of information.
However, "thin slicing" can have its disadvantages. Gladwell mentions the example of how almost all Fortune 500 companies are controlled by men who are above-average height. Though there is no correlation between height and intelligence, tall people tend to be chosen for leadership roles over shorter people with better credentials. This is an instance of poor "thin slicing," in which tall individual are chosen for leadership roles because people are predisposed towards thinking that they are more dominant and effective leaders. However, in other situations, rapid cognition is a powerful tool in getting to know a person. In situations like dating, everyone can attest to the importance of first impressions. Yet, Gladwell asserts that you can most likely ascertain more information from a date by merely looking around his/her room for fifteen minutes than by talking to them. In another example, he mentions the "Warren Harding Effect," whereby moments of high visual arousal make us susceptible to focus on the wrong clues. In this instance, Warren Harding was voted President on account of appearing to be presidential (ie handsome and extremely charismatic), but many historians agree that he was one of the worst Presidents in American history due to his lack of political experience.
Essentially, Blink is concerned with the minutest aspects of our daily lives, from the origin of our first impressions to our split-second decisions. The goal of Gladwell's book is basically to increase our awareness of our first impressions and how they can be conducive to conducting interviews, fighting wars, and counseling married couples. The problem with relying too much on "thin slicing," however, lies in the fact that you have to discern what type of information to keep. Our brains are able to function unconsciously and when our period of rapid cognition ends, the brain acquires a more obvious, but less correct, predictor of behavior. The key to rapid cognition is knowing what types of information to discard and what you can use to your advantage. The conclusion of Blink is therefore that we can train ourselves to make more informed decisions by actually processing less information. Although less input can sometimes be more beneficial to making an accurate split-second decision, that input has to be correct.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Blink, for it was an extremely fast read and the anecdotes made it particularly relevant to the general audience. It was extremely insightful and provided viable explanations as to why and how some individuals act a certain way. However, I get the suspicion that Blink is based more on speculation on the part of the author and various theorists than on scientific fact and Gladwell does not have a uniting theory that holds the anecdotes together. He encourages his readers to trust in their gut feelings, but then proceeds to describe how those instincts can sometimes be incorrect, so that he does not provide a tangible method for training yourself to think faster and more correctly. However, he does prove himself to be an excellent storyteller and if anything, Blink definitely encourages readers to scrutinize first impressions and second-guesses more carefully.
| The Geography of Thought: A Review Name: Nicolette Date: 2006-05-11 23:04:34 Link to this Comment: 19334 |
The author begins the book by outlining some of the major differences between ancient "Western", specifically Greek, philosophy and "Eastern", Chinese philosophy. Although it may be difficult to relate to this information from a modern day standpoint, as the book unfolds it becomes clear that these philosophies provide an excellent framework for understanding cultural differences in the East and West. It is these philosophies which have endured and stood out in European and Asian history and even today their tenets are reflected in societal norms. Notably, I became more interested in the book as I read about the Eastern philosophy. I realized that the ideas of Taoism seemed incredibly unique to me and the provided the first clue that reading the book from the perspective of an American student would have an impact on how I would react to it.
After finishing the book, it is clear to me how important it was for Nisbett to outline ancient Western and Eastern philosophy since they have formed the backbone not only of how individuals relate to one another but also how they solve problems. The author wrote in his introduction that he became interested in researching the psychological differences among Europeans and Americans because of the comments of a student of his who was Chinese. His student said that the Chinese see everything as interrelated whereas Westerners are more likely to think within the scope of individual people or objects. Indeed, his studies consistently show that this is the case.
One particularly interesting point contrasts American and Chinese children's books. The famous lines "See Dick run..." are much different than those in the equivalent Chinese primer which doesn't describe actions by an individual but instead describes information about relationships between people; "Big brother takes care of little brother..." Later in the book, the author describes the way children in Asia, Europe and America are raised by their parents but also the ways that they create relationships between things. For example, when given a series of images to pair together, an Asian child is more likely to group a cow with grass because a cow eats grass. An American child would be more likely to pair the cow with a chicken because they fit into the same "taxonomic" category.
As I read this book, the evidence supporting the author's points became increasingly overwhelming and it began to seem more and more obvious. In fact, I wondered why it never occurred to me that humans living in different societies would have a different perspective about nearly everything. My surprise demonstrated just how much I had created my own idea of the brain based on myself instead of taking into account the differences other people exhibit. However, it also became clear that differences in culture are not black and white, East or West.
It should be noted that on several occasions the author states that his conclusions are based on significant trends in his studies and that there are certainly Asians and Europeans that do not fit within the models for which he argues exist. Indeed, when presented with some of the experimental questions and tasks I sometimes responded the way is was predicted that an Asian person might. Some of the most meaningful pieces of information presented by the author to emphasize that he is not simply acting in the "Western" way of categorizing his subjects into dichotomies are data collected from studies structured not only around Asians and Americans, but also Asian-Americans and even Americans living in Asia. In most cases, the data collected from Asian-American subjects fell in between the results from Europeans or European Americans and Asians. This demonstrates the degree to which environment can affect the brain as well as the fact that the author's argument does not neatly categorize groups of people.
It is this information which makes the book the most useful for understanding the way the brain works. Surely everyone would agree that no two people are alike and that different people are likely to approach problems from different angles or have different perceptions of relationships. Yet, when reading about studies in psychology, it is far too easy to assume that results are representative of all human brains. The author particularly examines the technique of testing intelligence with IQ tests. These tests often involve categorization, which has been shown to be a strength of Westerners. IQ tests are just one cultural phenomenon based on assumptions about what constitutes "intelligence." Nisbett provides insight for readers about the assumptions that we make and hopefully inspire a new way of thinking about the brain.
Even though this book focuses on difference based on geography, it presents the problem on a much broader scale. If we can assume that people in Asia, who have clear cultural differences from Americans, think the same way as people in the United States, we also must make the same assumptions our own neighbors. Many of the points made in the book can be applied to the way we see others in general and not only relevant to an East vs. West perspective. For example, the author discusses differences in education in Asia and the United States. In Asia, it is believed that skills in math, for example, is not a talent but instead something that anyone can work hard to attain. As a result, students work hard and there is more support for teachers. In contrast, Americans are much more likely to assume that a talent for math is something a student either has or lacks. Asian-American school children who have trouble recognizing cause-and-effect relationships can be labeled "learning disabled," when in fact changing educational techniques could provide the student with the same information in a more understandable format. Cases such as this demonstrate that we are constantly making assumptions about others and that life could be easier for everyone if we realized that the "individuality" that we embrace is reflected in the brain.
The Geography of Thought helps the reader to step back and examine the way we perceive the mind. Though we may think we understand that no two brains are alike, it is likely that this book will expose to the reader the extent to which we fabricate our own understanding of how the brain works and the way that we carry on daily activities based on the assumption that all humans think alike. Although the book itself attempts outline the differences between two groups of people, it certainly does not draw distinct barriers between groups. As a Western scientist, Nisbett actively resists the tendency to create dichotomies. As a result, his book provides readers with a new perspective from which to view the brain. Although it is impossible to separate our understanding of ourselves and our understanding of the brain, the information in this book serves as a reminder that we overlook differences from person to person every day and as we struggle to understand the brain, we must not let these assumptions overcome scientific inquiry.
| Rhythms of Life: The Tick Tock of Our Biological C Name: Ebony Dix Date: 2006-05-11 23:24:31 Link to this Comment: 19336 |
In the first chapter of Rhythms of Life, Foster and Kreitzman posit that "everything we humans do shows these circadian rhythms" (11). They give the example of kidney function, which they claim is reduced at night so as to reduce urine production to prevent our sleep cycles from being blown out of phase. They also give the example of how our cognitive abilities change rhythmically over a 24-hour period, and how at the low point of the circadian cycle, the body is least resistant to cardiac and respiratory problems (12). The authors attempt to make a connection between the low point of the circadian cycle and man-made disasters. They state that it is not merely a coincidence that many of the most dramatic accidents of recent years such as Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Exxon Valdez all happened at night (12). This statement is problematic because the authors do not support their claim with empirical evidence to prove that such disasters were in fact the result of the careless mistakes made by sleep deprived individuals.
The second point of interest that deserves attention is Chapter 7 of Rhythms of Life, which describes a series of seemingly credible studies that were performed on Drosophila flies to prove that the molecular basis for biological clocks is coded within the genome of all living organisms. Based on the notion that the genetic blueprint of any organism lies within its DNA, experiments were performed on Drosophila flies to show that certain genes were responsible for the mechanisms of the circadian rhythm. In the mid-1950's, an American scientist named Seymour Benzer set out to first find the link between classical gene maps and the molecular mechanisms of DNA that had been discovered by Watson and Crick (98). Eventually, the series of experiments that enabled Benzer to show the correspondence between the linearity of the gene within a section of DNA, led to his search for the single gene associated with a specific behavior (99). He used observations of Drosophila flies to show that there was a genetic basis to their behavior of moving away or towards the light. Benzer observed the time-sensitive emergence of the adult Drosophila flies from its pupal case and concluded that "populations of flies had free-running rhythms of pupal emergence under constant conditions of light and temperature" (103). By observing different types of mutant Drosophila flies, Benzer and his assistant Ronald Konopka were able to identify the first clock gene tied to behavior, the period (per) gene (103). Using techniques similar to Benzer and Konopka, other groups of researchers were later able to identify new circadian mutants called the timeless (tim) gene, the Clock gene, and the Cycle gene. These genes consist of proteins that make up the biological clock of Drosophila flies. While the chapter does not go into detail about how these findings are significant to understanding the circadian rhythms of humans, Foster and Kreiztman do relate the findings to subsequent research done on mice that enabled the scientific community to draw conclusions based on the genetic similarities shared by mice and humans.
Other interesting points made by Foster and Kreitzman included the use of knowledge about circadian rhythms in humans to improve the treatment of diseases and the endurance of soldiers in the military. In Chapter 13 of Rhythms of Life, the authors offer a convincing argument that suggests certain diseases may be cured if medical professionals administer medication at the right time of day. Using malaria as the "quintessential chronobiologic disease" that is rhythmic in nature, the authors posit that medication that acts on specific stages in the life cycle of the parasites that infect the liver and red blood cells of a malaria patient can improve their "therapeutic efficacy" (213). Foster and Kreitzman also give the example of the ability of cancer treatments to destroy or inhibit the growth of rapidly dividing cells by acting at critical stages of the cell division process, such as S phase, the phase during which DNA synthesis and chromosome duplication occur. They propose that since the circadian variation in the timing of the cell cycle differs in non-cancerous cells, cancer treatments should be confined to the times of day in which lowest S-phase or DNA-synthesis activity occur in non-cancerous cells. This will reduce toxicity to the healthy cells and consequently enable the administration of higher doses of treatment to eliminate the cancerous cells (217). While the authors site an instance of successful infusion of rhythmically oscillating levels of medication to cure colon cancer in about 1,500 individuals around Europe, they don't offer any other evidence to support the idea that such treatment has been proven to be successful elsewhere for a significant portion of an infected population.
In Chapter 14, the final chapter of Rhythms of Life, Foster and Kreitzman state that research is in progress to create "a warrior who can fight 24 hours a day, seven days straight" (232). The question that this raises is whether or not sleep deprivation will have an impact on the cognitive abilities and other biological functions of these bioengineered warriors. The authors conclude this chapter by acknowledging the distinctions that must be recognized between timing and time, and that in certain instances, such as treating cancer, timing may be everything, but in times of extending our performance to fulfill some duty or goal over a short period of time, Foster and Kreitzman urge us to slow down and "look deep inside ourselves and decide whether we are sure we are going to become time-wise and not time-foolish" (243).
In general, the ideas presented by Foster and Kreitzman are in line with the main theme of the course, which deals with the concept of behavior being primarily a function of the brain. As mentioned in Rhythms of Life, the course acknowledged the ability of chemicals (drugs) to alter the brain which in turn can alter behavior. While the authors would probably agree with the idea that there are many other factors that must be taken into account when examining human behavior, such as the I-function, they seem to be focused on the concept of circadian rhythms as the driving force behind most of our actions. While the I-function and other areas of the brain were discussed at length in the course with respect to their impacts on behavior, the hypothalamus and SCN were not the focal points of the brain and behavior discussions, which seem to represent, at least according to Foster and Kreitzman, the major components of the brain responsible for our behavior. For instance, in Appendix I of Rhythms of Life, the authors provide a chart on rhythms in humans over a 24-hour period, which include the maximum and minimum levels of certain biological functions such as body temperature, gastric motility, concentration, and cardiovascular efficiency. This chart implies that circadian rhythms are the main cause of our performance, biochemistry, and physiological activities, perhaps even more than the I-function. Nevertheless, Rhythms of Life is a great starting point for those interested in gaining additional knowledge about biological clocks through different perspectives on the topic.
| Rhythms of Life: The Tick Tock of Our Biological C Name: Ebony Dix Date: 2006-05-12 03:04:38 Link to this Comment: 19342 |
What maintains our daily rhythms – the times of day during which we are most sleepy, most productive, or have the best sex? In their book, Rhythms of Life, Russell G. Foster and Leon Kreitzman offer a great introduction to the world of biological clocks that exist in many living things, and govern rhythmic behavior in humans. The authors focus on how circadian rhythms in humans account for most of our physiological and biochemical activities. They touch upon many interesting concepts such as the idea that time is embedded in our genes and the notion that light can seriously impact circadian rhythms to the point where some individuals develop seasonal depression due to lack of light. This paper intends to discuss some of the interesting topics made by Foster and Kreitzman, while offering a critical and laudatory analysis of these topics. In addition, this paper will compare and contrast the book to specific perspectives developed in the course.
The authors begin their book with a brief synopsis of biological clocks by providing a background and definition within the context of many different organisms, including humans. Foster and Kreitzman describe that the central driving force behind the mammalian biological clock is a small cluster of cells known as suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), which are located in the hypothalamus of the brain. These SCN control the daily rhythms of life, which are known as circadian rhythms. One aspect of the book that deserves some praise, is the acknowledgement by the authors of the fact that the book is not a complete guide to understanding the biology of circadian rhythms, nor is meant for the 'intelligent lay reader' who has no knowledge of biology (4). They recognize that there is quite a bit of terminology used throughout that may be unfamiliar to the non-biologist. Additionally, while there is a limit to the scope of detail they include in the book, Foster and Kreitzman attempt to be "scrupulously accurate within the bounds of current understanding" (4).
In the first chapter of Rhythms of Life, Foster and Kreitzman posit that "everything we humans do shows these circadian rhythms" (11). They give the example of kidney function, which they claim is reduced at night so as to reduce urine production to prevent our sleep cycles from being blown out of phase. They also give the example of how our cognitive abilities change rhythmically over a 24-hour period, and how at the low point of the circadian cycle, the body is least resistant to cardiac and respiratory problems (12). The authors attempt to make a connection between the low point of the circadian cycle and man-made disasters. They state that it is not merely a coincidence that many of the most dramatic accidents of recent years such as Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Exxon Valdez all happened at night (12). This statement is problematic because the authors do not support their claim with empirical evidence to prove that such disasters were in fact the result of the careless mistakes made by sleep deprived individuals.
The second point of interest that deserves attention is Chapter 7 of Rhythms of Life, which describes a series of seemingly credible studies that were performed on Drosophila flies to prove that the molecular basis for biological clocks is coded within the genome of all living organisms. Based on the notion that the genetic blueprint of any organism lies within its DNA, experiments were performed on Drosophila flies to show that certain genes were responsible for the mechanisms of the circadian rhythm. In the mid-1950's, an American scientist named Seymour Benzer set out to first find the link between classical gene maps and the molecular mechanisms of DNA that had been discovered by Watson and Crick (98). Eventually, the series of experiments that enabled Benzer to show the correspondence between the linearity of the gene within a section of DNA, led to his search for the single gene associated with a specific behavior (99). He used observations of Drosophila flies to show that there was a genetic basis to their behavior of moving away or towards the light. Benzer observed the time-sensitive emergence of the adult Drosophila flies from its pupal case and concluded that "populations of flies had free-running rhythms of pupal emergence under constant conditions of light and temperature" (103). By observing different types of mutant Drosophila flies, Benzer and his assistant Ronald Konopka were able to identify the first clock gene tied to behavior, the period (per) gene (103). Using techniques similar to Benzer and Konopka, other groups of researchers were later able to identify new circadian mutants called the timeless (tim) gene, the Clock gene, and the Cycle gene. These genes consist of proteins that make up the biological clock of Drosophila flies. While the chapter does not go into detail about how these findings are significant to understanding the circadian rhythms of humans, Foster and Kreiztman do relate the findings to subsequent research done on mice that enabled the scientific community to draw conclusions based on the genetic similarities shared by mice and humans.
Other interesting points made by Foster and Kreitzman included the use of knowledge about circadian rhythms in humans to improve the treatment of diseases and the endurance of soldiers in the military. In Chapter 13 of Rhythms of Life, the authors offer a convincing argument that suggests certain diseases may be cured if medical professionals administer medication at the right time of day. Using malaria as the "quintessential chronobiologic disease" that is rhythmic in nature, the authors posit that medication that acts on specific stages in the life cycle of the parasites that infect the liver and red blood cells of a malaria patient can improve their "therapeutic efficacy" (213). Foster and Kreitzman also give the example of the ability of cancer treatments to destroy or inhibit the growth of rapidly dividing cells by acting at critical stages of the cell division process, such as S phase, the phase during which DNA synthesis and chromosome duplication occur. They propose that since the circadian variation in the timing of the cell cycle differs in non-cancerous cells, cancer treatments should be confined to the times of day in which lowest S-phase or DNA-synthesis activity occur in non-cancerous cells. This will reduce toxicity to the healthy cells and consequently enable the administration of higher doses of treatment to eliminate the cancerous cells (217). While the authors site an instance of successful infusion of rhythmically oscillating levels of medication to cure colon cancer in about 1,500 individuals around Europe, they don't offer any other evidence to support the idea that such treatment has been proven to be successful elsewhere for a significant portion of an infected population.
In Chapter 14, the final chapter of Rhythms of Life, Foster and Kreitzman state that research is in progress to create "a warrior who can fight 24 hours a day, seven days straight" (232). The question that this raises is whether or not sleep deprivation will have an impact on the cognitive abilities and other biological functions of these bioengineered warriors. The authors conclude this chapter by acknowledging the distinctions that must be recognized between timing and time, and that in certain instances, such as treating cancer, timing may be everything, but in times of extending our performance to fulfill some duty or goal over a short period of time, Foster and Kreitzman urge us to slow down and "look deep inside ourselves and decide whether we are sure we are going to become time-wise and not time-foolish" (243).
In general, the ideas presented by Foster and Kreitzman are in line with the main theme of the course, which deals with the concept of behavior being primarily a function of the brain. As mentioned in Rhythms of Life, the course acknowledged the ability of chemicals (drugs) to alter the brain which in turn can alter behavior. While the authors would probably agree with the idea that there are many other factors that must be taken into account when examining human behavior, such as the I-function, they seem to be focused on the concept of circadian rhythms as the driving force behind most of our actions. While the I-function and other areas of the brain were discussed at length in the course with respect to their impacts on behavior, the hypothalamus and SCN were not the focal points of the brain and behavior discussions, which seem to represent, at least according to Foster and Kreitzman, the major components of the brain responsible for our behavior. For instance, in Appendix I of Rhythms of Life, the authors provide a chart on rhythms in humans over a 24-hour period, which include the maximum and minimum levels of certain biological functions such as body temperature, gastric motility, concentration, and cardiovascular efficiency. This chart implies that circadian rhythms are the main cause of our performance, biochemistry, and physiological activities, perhaps even more than the I-function. Nevertheless, Rhythms of Life is a great starting point for those interested in gaining additional knowledge about biological clocks through different perspectives on the topic.
| Commentary on: Information and Control in the Livi Name: Tamara Tom Date: 2006-05-12 03:50:22 Link to this Comment: 19343 |
The most interesting points raised by the author are similar to many of those that were raised in class. One of his first experiments deals with eye movements and perception of direction. The experimental results describe the differences seen when the eyes are moved from side to side and when they are moved manually (by pushing the eyeball with a finger). These experiments are similar to those that were done in class, and our conclusions were the same: the brain/CNS is receiving many signals from the outside world, and it is by sorting through these signals that we perceive what we do. In the first experiment (where the eyes are moved on their own), the picture does not seem to move with them-that is to say, the objects in the image that we see do not seem to change position relative to ourselves when our eyes move. When moving the eyes manually (by poking them with a finger) as in the second experiment, the picture that we perceive does seem to shift, with objects moving even though we have not moved. This is due to the fact that by moving themselves, the eyes are using muscles in the head that send signals to the brain, letting it know that even though they are moving, the rest of the body is not. This allows the picture to be seen as constant rather than shifting with our gaze. When the eyes are moved manually, the same muscles are not being employed and so no signal is being sent, meaning that the only signal the brain is receiving is that both the body and the eyes are still, leaving no way for it to compensate and correct for the manual movement of the eyes. Because of this lack of ability to correct the issue, the picture will continue to move even when we realise it to be an illusion.
This lack of control is another very interesting point the author makes over and over again with his experiments. The body is very good at interpreting signals and compensating for various movements in the body which allow us to see constant images and realise when our world is moving and when we are, but it can be easily fooled. Even worse, it often cannot remedy the situation and correct for the illusion even when it realises that it is being tricked and what it sees is not real!
The author also did many experiments with pupil contraction and dilation, leading to interesting observations that we did not cover in class. For example, when a bright light is introduced into the visual field of vision of one eye, the pupil will dilate as expected. However, the pupil of the other eye will also dilate together with the eye that was stimulated. This shows that the body is often programmed to do the fewest tasks necessary to survive. The contractions/dilations of the pupils are synchronized on the assumption that when one eye is experiencing a bring light or a dark space, the other eye is as well. This halves the amount of work the CNS/brain must do in regulating two potentially different signals.
Potentially what interested me most about the book were all of the different ways that the brain could be tricked into continuing to perpetuate illusions or being rendered unable to solve its issues with perception even when it realised that something was amiss. My favourite experiment involved using small black dots on glass slides to cover the pupil. When a size of dot comparable to the size of pupil dilation in the current light was found and placed in such a position that it covered the eye/pupil, the individual would observe a slight pulsation of the dot. This pulsation was due to the contraction and dilation of the pupil attempting to recover the balance between too much and too little light that it was used to. We didn't cover much about system confusions in class, but I think we might have come to a similar conclusion: that the brain tries in vain to return to what is "normal" under abnormal conditions, and no amount of realisation that what it sees is an illusion and there is no way to return to "normal" as long as the abnormal conditions persist will stop the brain from trying.
Overall, the ideas present by the author in this book seemed to correlate very well with the ideas that were present in class. Some areas are a bit more in-depth in the book, and they help to make more sense out of some ideas covered in the course. For example, the reason behind choosing electrical impulses as the signals for transmitting information between sensory neurons and the brain: in class, we talked briefly about how all of the signals were the same (all electrical impulses) and it was up to their destinations to determine what they actually meant. If the signals were crossed we would "see thunder and hear lightning". We also said that while the system was not perfect, it seemed to work well and quickly, and nature only goes for "good enough" not perfect. Hassenstein adds that perhaps this system for transporting information was chosen because it reduces the amount of "noise" in transmission. Because all of the signals are standardized in their value and duration, every active section returns the signal to its standard state before amplifying it and sending it off to the next active section. This return to the standardized state allows for any "noise", or misreading, of the information that occurred at the previous active section to be nullified at the following active section and so prevent the "noise" from accumulating at the end of the pathway. This elimination of "noise" allows for a cleaner, clearer signal, which may help explain why biological systems use this mode for transmitting messages rather than any other.
| A Book Commentary on Touched With Fire: Manic-Depr Name: Anna Dejda Date: 2006-05-12 03:55:57 Link to this Comment: 19344 |
I read the book Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness And The Artistic Temperament by Kay Redfield Jamison where she discusses Manic-Depressive Illness and its possible connection to the great achievements of many famous poets, writers, artists, and musicians. The book is very interesting because it not only provides an explanation and full description of the many aspects of manic-depressive illness, which is also called Bipolar Disorder, but it also gives accounts of the actual thoughts and behaviors of the people with manic-depressive illness and also the people who knew them. By having the various portrayals, it allowed me as the reader to get into their heads and to understand more fully the feelings that they were experiencing as a result of the illness. It was a more complete picture because it was not just a simple description of the criteria necessary for diagnosing manic-depressive illness, but it went beyond that. Furthermore, it was also clearly shown how the illness not only impacts the people who have it, but also the people in their lives because this was also demonstrated through the thoughts and eyes of someone not suffering from it, but someone who can see the changing behavior and thoughts of the person with the illness, which conveyed the effects of manic-depressive illness strongly. The descriptions were extremely important in the book and they made it more complete.
Another part that I enjoyed reading was when the author described the course of the illness and also the genetic history of several people with manic-depressive illness like Vincent Van Gogh, Lord Byron, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, and many others. It was appealing to read because the author provided a lot of evidence, both scientific findings from studies and also family history of people, whose symptoms seem to be characteristic of manic-depressive illness, supporting the strong issue of heritability in manic-depressive illness. As I stated earlier, these actual descriptions of the family members of the people and how they were described by others in terms of their behavior and feelings continued to provide a clearer picture about the real impacts of the illness on the entire family, where the people that go on to develop manic-depressive illness have a contribution both from their genes and also from their family environment. This interaction of the two could have serious effects.
Lastly, it was interesting to see how the author provided information about future treatment or developments in technology for manic-depressive illness and the implications that could go along with them, both ethical and scientific. She explored how early testing during pregnancy for manic-depressive illness, gene therapy, and even sterilization could seriously affect the future of everyone because she also discussed many examples of famous artists who have suffered from manic-depressive illness, illustrating a possible link. Through their examples, the author also discussed the positive and negative consequences from having the illness. She also stated the argument that there are many artists who do not have the illness, leaving the discussion still open for a definite link between manic-depressive illness and artists. As a result of the potential connection with artists, the author left many questions about how the possible future altering of genes may have an impact on other genes that might be connected to the artistic creativity, which would result in effects on future artists or if this technology had been available it could have seriously changed the lives of the previous great artists who had manic-depressive illness and then the world would have been different without their creative input into it. The altering of the genes could possibly reduce the symptoms of manic-depressive illness, but along with those symptoms, there could also be a loss of the creative and energetic spirit that might have inspired the creation of the art. This is an interesting and serious consideration to take into account and it was very well explored by the author where she gave a lot of information on the subject both with positive and negative aspects. Throughout the entire book, the author presents a very balanced view and provides a very clear and thorough representation of the many dimensions of manic-depressive illness, making it very understandable.
The book was also great to read because it had many perspectives that were similar to the way that our class, Neurobiology and Behavior was taught and therefore, for me it continued the approach to studying the neurobiology and the behavior of individuals that was introduced in the class. For example, the author provided a clear explanation of everything thoroughly so that it would be understood by everyone, making it greatly enjoyable and also very instructional. As a result I learned a great deal from reading it. This is similar to the presentation of material and subjects in the class, where the professor also explained everything very clearly and in terms that would be understandable to everyone. Furthermore, the professor gave examples to illustrate the points more clearly, which continued to be helpful in learning about the various functions of the brain and the connections to behavior. For example, in learning about the "I-Function"( (2)), which was a completely new concept for me, the professor provided actual examples from life in helping to both explain what the "I-Function" ( (2)) is and also how and when it can work. This was incredibly helpful and also interesting, which is a similar approach to the way that the author Kay Redfield Jamison writes her book where she also gives many examples, which also help to make the book more understandable and also more enjoyable.
Another similar approach is that the author explored the various aspects of manic-depressive illness, looking at it from multiple arguments and also viewpoints, which gave a fuller picture to the illness and presented different ways of looking at it, which showed the reader the various reasons for the theories, allowing the reader to have a better understanding. This also reminded me of the approach in our class, where for example with the organization of the nervous system, we went through the different thoughts about the organization, starting at the "Spaghetti Bowl" ( (2)) model and then ending at a more complex model with an "I-Function" ( (2)) and also the option of "signals starting in the middle of the box" ((2)). In a similar result to the approach of the book, this way allowed everyone to see the reasoning and the process to getting to the present model, but it also allowed everyone to be able to look at different explanations because it has not been found for certain that any model is correct, the other models are "less wrong" ((2)). Both the book and this course taught me a great deal about different approaches to different aspects of neurobiology and behavior.
References:
1. 1) Jamison, Redfield, Kay. Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness And The Artistic Temperament. New York: FREE PRESS PAPERBACK, Simon & Schuster, 1994.
2. 2) Grobstein, Paul. Neurobiology and Behavior. 2006.
| "The Tipping Point" in Social Phenomena Name: Sylvia Nch Date: 2006-05-12 04:37:22 Link to this Comment: 19346 |
How does an epidemic begin? What is that spark that causes an epidemic? "The Tipping Point" is the book that I read and the author Malcolm Gladwell tried to answer these questions. In search of answers, he looked at various social epidemics for example, the sudden resurgence of Hush puppies in the mid to late 90s and the spread of syphilis in Baltimore in the summers of 1995 and 1996. Gladwell also mentions how certain behaviors such a yawning can be emotionally contagious. Throughout the book, Gladwell reveals to the reader the power of word-of-mouth, the strong affect that a person of a certain character can have on a group of people, the affect of population size in the diffusion of responsibility in a social setting, and much more. He believes that social phenomena can be better understood by the principles of epidemiology, so ideas, behaviors, and products spread basically in the same manner as viruses do. Furthermore, to understand the sudden emergence of otherwise unpopular trends we should think of them as epidemics. The moment where behavioral changes reach epidemic proportions is what Gladwell calls the "tipping point".
Gladwell described three kinds of people who disproportionately affect social and behavioral epidemics, and from there he explains how the behavior of each type of person can get the ball rolling in any situation. For example, Connectors are people who know a lot of people and can spread an idea through any type of community; they are the ones who cause the word-of- mouth epidemics. Connectors are good at taking an idea and making it contagious. They also have a significant infectious influence on the preferences of people exposed to them. Gladwell then introduces a theory of "stickiness" that makes people who hear about a new idea actually remember it, and at some point they act or respond to the idea. He proposes that little changes in presentation of an idea can lead to a large outcome or can spark a potential epidemic. For the most part, Gladwell succeeds in getting his message across in how to cause a tipping point but in many parts of the book he goes of into a huge tangent especially when he is telling a story and he gets real into it, he just makes the great divergence into a whole new idea.
The most interesting part of this book, well at least one of them, was the infamous case of Bernhard Goetz, a white New York stockbroker who shot four young black men in 1984 on a New York subway and was later acquitted on charges of assault and attempted murder. New York City at the time was in one of the worst crime waves of its history and the subway system particularly had turned into a war zone full of garbage, graffiti, and pure chaos. This is partly the reason why in some areas of NY, Goetz was regarded as a hero. Gradually crime had dropped steeply and New York became a much safer city. To explain the reason for this, Gladwell argues in support of criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling's Broken Window theory.
This theory says that an environmental cue, such as a broken window, launches a message that no one is taking care of the window i.e. the property, and this is an open invitation to more serious crimes. So from this broken window theory, NY transit authorities removed all the graffiti from the trains and reprimanded fare beaters. I think Gladwell's point was that a lot of behavior in general is situational. Gladwell I think backs this idea up with another interesting example of the Zimbardo experiment at Stanford University. Here a few individuals were turned into prison guards and some were prisoners in a replicated prison setting, the purpose of this was to see how the situation would affect a person's psyche and mental state. From this experiment and from the way crime was in NY, I think it is safe to say that a given situation can definitely dictate how a person or a group of people will act, rather than actions based on their own dispositions. These situations show that stable people can become so degraded and animalistic in a short period of time given the right conditions. I found it a bit hard to tie in things that we talked about in class to this book because this book does not focus too much on the neurobiological aspects of epidemics or situational behavior; however the Zimbardo experiment reminded about the discussion we had in class on language.
We all grow up learning some language and overtime it gets harder for us to learn a second language. However, like the prison experiment, if you put someone in a situation by which all the people around them are speaking a certain language, then the person is forced to eventually pick up the new language. This seems a bit off from the Zimbardo experiment but this is how I understand it best, if you remove someone from their normal environment and put them in a new environment or situation, they will perform the necessary duties that will help them adjust best to the environment. With this idea, the way people live in prison today makes sense. It makes sense that one must join a gang in prison because if your are not in one, you are easy prey. So though you are from an outside world that did not require you to be on guard 24/7, you must now learn to be because that is what your new situation requires. This I think can be another example of the situational behavior that Gladwell refers to. People are influenced by their surroundings and the personalities around them, and we see this with the prison guards in the Zimbardo experiment.
Furthermore, "The Tipping Point" was a good account on just how much influence a person or a given situation, can lead to an epidemic or change in a person's behavior. There are many examples of how one can make a small change and in turn create a big change. Gladwell said that those people who succeed at creating social epidemics are good at testing their intuition and going past what is considered to be the norm, after all, the world does not accord with our intuition. An epidemic is successful once it is understood that great change is in fact possible.
Bibliography
Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point: How Little Can Make a Big Difference. Little, Brown and Company, New York. 2002
| Review of An Anthropologist in Mars Name: Anne-Marie Date: 2006-05-12 08:03:37 Link to this Comment: 19353 |
An Anthropologist on Mars is split into seven sections, each section dealing with patients and colleagues of the author's with different types of neurological conditions that the author believes to have resulted in them living in a different "world". In the "Case of the Colorblind Painter", an artist looses his ability to perceive color after an accident. After detailing the painter's case, the author uses it as a way to give the history of our current understanding of how vision works, and what can be learned from the artist's inability, not just to see color, but to remember it. Similarly, in "The Last Hippie", after telling the reader how the patient the author is describing came to be in his present state, a small history of knowledge about the functions of the frontal lobes of the brain, as well as some of the problems that come from damage to these lobes, is given. From there, the author looks at different types of memory and how they interact with one another.
"A Surgeon's Life" switches gears somewhat, dealing with a colleague who has Tourette's syndrome. Again a history of the condition is provided, along with similar syndromes, and tics. Unlike the previous chapters, the author dwells much more on how his colleague, and those around him, has adjusted to the tics caused by Tourette's syndrome. Relatively little information is given about what can be learned from the condition. It is almost as though the author is giving his colleague a different level of respect and discretion than the one that he gives his patients. This is strengthened by the way that the author treats the professor in "An Anthropologist on Mars". In "To See and Not See" the author describes a case where sight has been restored to a man who has been mostly blind for over forty years. Again, a history of the few cases where this has been possible is provided, along with the known reactions of the people who had their sight restored. The high incidence of depression among those with their sight restored is used as a jumping point to discuss certain mental illnesses, and the body's response to them.
"The Landscape of His Dreams" deals with obsession as a result of temporal lobe epilepsy. The case described in detail is that of a painter who has superbly detailed visions of his childhood town, and must deal with the changes that have come to the town. Very little history and discussion of the causes of temporal lobe epilepsy is given. "Prodigies" focuses on autism, and provides a slight history of its discovery. The author describes some of the different abilities that some of the people with autism may develop. A few of the possible causes of autism are detailed, along with some of the (at the time) recent discoveries. The author spends the majority of this chapter dealing with an internal struggle about how he should think about his autistic travel companion. The final chapter, "An Anthropologist on Mars" also deals with autism, this time focusing on Asperger's syndrome. Again, the history of autism is provided. The differences between the two types are compared. Again the author has problems determining how he should think of those with Asperger's syndrome, describing the temptation to characterize them as flat, and not completely "human".
An Anthropologist on Mars provides an interesting approach to neurobiology. Rather than just focusing on the various conditions that the people described in each chapter, the author attempts, sometimes more successfully than others, to discuss the individual as a whole, rather than just the various parts making him up. The author, Oliver Sacks, seems to show disdain for that line of thought, even though he still manages to slip into it from time to time (most notably in "Prodigies"; for the majority of the chapter, he seems unable to think of the autistic child not as a set of "plusses and minuses", but as a whole, if different, person). While the author seems to reject this line of thinking, and it can be inferred that he prefers a more holistic approach, he never clarifies his opinion on the various topics presented in the book, only detailing the various ideas that have been popular over time. While this may work well in some formats, when the author is spending a large portion of the book narrating for the readers, knowing clearly where he stands would be useful. Possibly due to the chapters being released individually at first, the book seems to jump around a bit, with some of the chapters covering mostly the same ground as previous ones. At times, the author seems to contradict himself, particularly with his encouraging of the treatment of all of the people described within the book as individuals, rather than just subjects. This, then, may be why the subtitle of the book is Seven Paradoxical Tales.
References
Sacks, Oliver. An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales. Alfred A Knopf, Inc.: New York. 1995.
| Listening to Prozac: A review and Commentary Name: Faiza Mahm Date: 2006-05-16 03:40:00 Link to this Comment: 19394 |
Psychiatrist, Peter Kramer in his book, Listening to Prozac, offers profound insight into the topic of depression and thoroughly examines the implications of Prozac in both societal terms and in the terms of the concept of ones self. The book was written during a time when Prozac was relatively new on the market. His book largely discusses how the anti depressant, Prozac has revolutionized the power of psychopharmological medication. However; the book is about more then a very successful anti-depressant. Kramer describes how the medication has revealed to both therapist and patient that it does more than alleviate depression. Kramer uses the term "cosmetic psychopharmacology" to describe how Prozac and other medications can be used to make people feel "better than well" – making them better then he/she was before they had their depressive episode. He proposes that Prozac has the ability to "transform" one's behavior, as well as the concept of self. Perhaps, more fascinating than the answers the book provides about the drug, depression and the neurobiology of humans, are the challenging questions and problems it raises about these topics as well.
Listening to Prozac consists of combination of interesting case studies of the author's various patients and their reactions to Prozac, biological and psychopharmacological data, and philosophical reflections on these matters. Listening to Prozac gives the reader insight into the world of depression and how it is treated with anti depressants and psychotherapy, although the emphasis lies on anti depressants. Speculative themes throughout the book include transformation, cosmetic pharmacology, biological reductionism, the biogenic amine hypothesis, rejection sensitivity, harm avoidance, social inhibition, stress hormones, and learned helpnesses to name a few. Many of these themes are still considered minor variants of depression by psychologists. The book also contains interesting information about the history of the development of the various classes of anti-depressants, including the class of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors that Prozac belongs to. The information is presented in a fairly nonmedicinal manner, one that is easily comprehendible by a very broad range of readers. The information incorporated throughout the book, includes how anti-depressants work, information about dopamine, serotonin, and how other neuro-transmitters work as well. The focus of the book however; lies in the case studies and philosophical exploration of the aforementioned. The case studies often have a tendency to keep you captivated and glued to the book in anticipation of the outcome. This is in large part attributed to whether the patient will become transformed with the usage of Prozac or not, and in what manner they will be transformed.
Many of the patients that Kramer discusses undergo this transformation, but what does this transformation consist of? This means that not only do they become "cured" of their depression, through mood elevation, but the medication seems to in certain cases have the ability to alter parts of an individual's personality. "Prozac seemed to give social confidence to the habitually timid, to make the sensitive brash, to lend the introvert the social skills of a salesman. It was transformative for patients, in the way an inspirational minister or high pressure group therapy can be."(14) Although, Kramer found that the changes in brain chemistry brought about by Prozac had a wide variety of effects, they were often transformed in this manner. He cites cases of mildly depressed patients who took the drug and not only felt better but underwent remarkable personality transformations. For example, a nurse has her failing marriage rescued when Prozac frees her from her obsessive concern with neatness and control. He had initially assumed that because most of the patients were only mildly depressed, such as in the case of the nurse, that Prozac would do nothing. Instead, what he observed both surprised and unsettled him. These transformations often extended to patients social, romantic, and business lives, as well as to their overall self-image. It often gave users greater feelings of self-worth and confidence, less sensitivity to social rejection, and even a greater willingness to take risks. It had the ability to affect multiple facets of an individuals behavior, including motivation, emotion, values, perceptions, sensitivity, and personality. He noted, the "cautious and inhibited" became "assertive and flexible" one patient "felt unencumbered, more vitally alive, less pessimistic" (52).
Kramer finds through experience with patients that the antidepressant Prozac is a powerful drug that alleviates the depression of most patients without significant side effects. Yet, Prozac was also affecting patient's personalities, which Kramer defines as "temperament as well as developed character" (95). It is the remarkable ability of Prozac to create personality changes that he finds disconcerting, as will the reader. Kramer unquestionably supports the use of medication to alleviate illness, but he does question using drugs to make a person feel "better than well." This induces Kramer and the reader to question whether the medicated or unmedicated version was the person's "real" self. It also raises the question of how much of our personality is biologically determined. Many believe that the conscious self or the I-function has a stronger influence on behavior than biology does because we tend to connect behavior with self-identity. Thus, by relying on a chemical to change biology and self without the knowledge or consent of the I-function, seems alarming and unnatural.
What then is the essence of self and personhood and what are the philosophical implications of using drugs to alter personality? The book raises these questions but does not necessarily provide answers to this. Kramer's unequivocal endorsement of Prozac for the treatment of depression and the questions he raises about the use of drugs for mood alteration are quite controversial The controversy that is raised, previously discussed, of which is the "true" reflection of a person remains to be answered. Do the transformations Prozac induces, reflect an unnatural idealized social norm or are they unveiling a healthy individual trapped in an unnatural state, that not of their "real" selves. Kramer asserts that "Patients believed that Prozac revealed what in them was biologically determined and what merely experiential."(170). Thus, "medication somehow removed a false self and replaced it with a true one?" (19). Kramer in accordance with this speculates that these changes represented the emergence of ones true personality and that their true personality was masked for most their lives by a depressive illness. Many of his patients upon ending taking the drug would say, "I'm not myself again" (10). For these individuals suffering from mild depression or anxiety, the medicated self ironically became the "real" self despite being in an altered state. The medication in this manner has the potential of becoming and defining a new self based entirely on the pill's neural actions while eliminating the old self as false and somehow untrue. (172)
The whole concept of self also brings to concern of whether we are willing to allow medications to tell us how we are constituted. Can who are we be altered by medication? "Prozac has the power," Kramer asserts "to transform the whole person—illness and temperament...."(247) This then raises the question "How is it that taking a capsule for depression can so alter a person's sense of self?"(332) Perhaps, Prozac has its own inherent characteristics and personality and that this personality contained in a pill is just replacing the persons "real" personality. Dr. Kramer himself notes that Prozac has "characteristics" and a "personality" which affect the human brain (257). Or perhaps it is really the opposite and we are innately all born with similar temperaments that do not include anxiety, compulsiveness, or sensitivity. Perhaps, personal experience in some manner damages our temperament, and Prozac can restore us to our undamaged self.
Throughout the book, Kramer struggles to put some of his mildly, or hardly depressed patients into the correct diagnostic category, such as those who experience hypersensitivity, or OCD. He however; seems to be aware of the danger in this. He seems concerned that psychiatrists might mask the difficulty posed by the diagnosis of these patients by defining less severe mental states as illness. (106). It seems as though the logic Kramer wants to avoid is: if it responds to an antidepressant, then it is depression. In the book he states that we have used medication response to infer the cause of the disease since the last half of the twentieth century (107), does this mean that medication is able to give insight into the constituion of ourselves?
For those aforementioned, such as those with OCD, the question naturally arises: if Prozac is not treating depression in these patients, what, if anything, is it "treating"? Is it treating unhappiness, angst, or something spiritual? Maybe it is acting as a remedy for emptiness, confusion, anxiety, or a lack of direction. Can this pill really cure all our discontents? Kramer hypothesized that Prozac is affecting certain areas of the brain concerned with "feelings of abandonment." (235) That is, it is not simply a matter of neurotransmitter and other chemical involvement but a matter of a rather malleable material, or brain area, through which the emergence of something deeper occurs.
Prozac's ability to cause such a drastic change on a biological level causes much concern because the change does not need to be processed cognitively or even consciously through the I-function. This fact therefore challenges "the model of healing through cognitive powers" (219), due entirely to its biologic effectiveness. Personalities through the use of Prozac can be altered instantly, and do not have to be painfully acquired through insight and hard practice. The power of biology here can is seen to be exerted over a large spectrum of human behavior. Prozac is able to do what only psychotherapy could have done in the past. It has the potential to alter a particular element of personality. For example, it can eliminate the specific trait of rejection sensitivity. It is quite a feat for just a pill to sculpt personality trait by trait.
However; in note of all this, does this mean psychotherapy is not needed anymore? This is not so. Prozac does not eliminate the need for psychotherapy. Dr. Kramer believes that for the treatment of minor depression and anxiety, psychotherapy is best. Medication can interfere with the patient's introspection, analysis, and understanding. He finds the results of Prozac much better if the patient has first undergone extensive psychotherapy and has insights of the origin of his symptoms. He believes it prepares the patient to be well and that Prozac works best on those whose conflicts have been resolved but who still have symptoms. (278) This means of thinking must be kept in mind as it is not hard to become blind sighted by the biological aspects of treatment. One patient for example, even on Prozac felt a great sense of urgency; however upon stepping back from the biological aspect of a possible side effect of the drug, Kramer observed that the urgency was not a side effect, but rather a psychological longing of her deceased mother.
Although Prozac seems to induce alarming effects, it does not mean that it should not be used. Kramer advocates its use. He notes patients seem to gain the insight and perspective that years of psychotherapy would aspire to achieve, but in a fraction of the time. He also claims that Prozac frequently seems to push patients toward a normal or near-normal condition, sometimes called by psychiatrists "hyperthymia," (27). He feels that, many patients including some who may never have had a diagnosable mental illness-are better able to explore both their past and their current circumstances while they are taking Prozac. To some medication constitutes help in recovery from childhood trauma or protection from the "threat of terrible decompensation.." (256) He feels the drug seems to aid rather than inhibit the struggle to locate the self.
Also something that must be noted is that although the case studies described narrate a significant change in functioning of individuals—transformation is not all that common. Not all patients respond in this manner, others merely recover from depression, as you would expect of an anti depressant. Medication after all, is supposed to heal not transform personality, right? This remains debatable. However, Kramer also notes that while certain patients seemed to be handicapped in aspects of their personality most of what we would call their personality persisted in a recognizable manner. (174)
Listening to Prozac raises many questions. Among these questions is whether it is ethical to prescribe a drug that increases things such as a person's self-confidence, resilience, and energy level without any ill effect, even when there is no underlying manifestation of illness? In this effect it may be possible for the medication to rob us of what is uniquely human such as characteristics, such as anxiety, guilt, shame, grief, self-consciousness. This raises the question of whether cosmetic psychopharmological medication will eventually convince us that these affects are not uniquely human. Are we not losing sight of something about ourselves that should be included in our conception of self, when we see things like guilt as something to be treated, rather then seeing them as part of the human condition? Prozac may eliminate illness, but in so doing it may also be eliminating what is a perfectly sensible response to life's circumstances. More so, the overuse of Prozac may mean that perhaps a sickness of the culture at large exists. A culture that is essentially seeking to anesthetize itself from the inherent pain of human existence. This does not just include cosmetic psychopharmacology; this is done on a regular basis through alcohol, drugs or gambling etc.
Prozac in this manner and by nature of what it is has the potential to move us in a dehumanizing direction. In people with minimal depression, Prozac acts as a type of social un-inhibitor, maybe even analogous to the equivalence of having a few drinks and becoming more sociable. However; just because our society favors social forwardness, does not give science the permission to change people's biology so they can derive happiness and pleasure in fulfilling a cultural ideals, or does it? Prozac has the potential of creating a homogeneous society with modified and standardized behaviors even despite a hereditary of biologic difference among people that Kramer notes. "All men are created equal in our political and moral ideal, but they are created biologically heterogeneous in temperament" (298) However, in contrast to this one might believe that curing minor depression induced by societies ideals elicits no substantial harm. It in fact alleviates the pain of some individuals. In argument of this, if society already has a narrow view of the ideal personality, wouldn't it make it more likely that we would diminish the open mindedness of personalities further? Thus eliciting the threat of a homogenous society and eliminating certain biological temperaments innate to human beings. Also, what does it signify that so many people who have shaped our manner of thought including philosophers, novelists, poets were depressed? As a culture we will increasingly face this dilemma of whether to broaden the definition of illness or to agree with the fact that treatments are being used to influence normal mental states
Listening to Prozac not only seems to reveal to patients what they believe to be their true selves, but for psychiatrists, such as Kramer seems to alter ideas about the human condition as well. For example, the author changed his ideas about basic personality theory as a result of listening to patient experiences with Prozac. He now accepts that many behaviors, which were believed to be inborn are actually "neurotic." Thus, is human individuality in danger of being eliminated by biotechnology, psychological reductionism, and behavior modification? It is fascinating and unnerving to think that a modern medication such as Prozac has the potential to allow a person to experience, on a stable and continuous basis, the feelings of someone with a different temperament and history.
The use of Prozac has shown that medication that induces a neurological change in one has the ability to transform a person's behavior, and conception of self. This thus, provides evidence that brain does indeed equal behavior. A portion of the brain, not part of the I-function, is inducing individuals to behave in a certain manner, and conceptualize themselves differently. Prozac contradicts the discussion of chemicals influencing the brain but not determining patterns of behavior. In this case the chemical makeup of Prozac is in fact determining the behavior of patients. There does however, exist, an element of unpredictability in the generation of the patterns even upon taking Prozac. It may not work for one individual as it does for another. This is evident in the fact that not all patients undergo transformation. Prozac also seem to oppose the idea that drugs are not capable of targeting the individual details of particular patterns, as evidenced by examples aforementioned; this is not always the case. It does not always influence patterns at fine scales, but can have the potential to do so.
Listening to Prozac brings to attention that what we often value, that of human conscious control, may be secondary to our biologic determination. We may just be largely a product of genetics. Kramer's book is a thoughtful, at times fragmented and inconclusive reflection on cosmetic psychopharmacology. Concepts such as mood personality and self become unstable and fascinating. Yet while Kramer ultimately defends cosmetic psychopharmacology, he does not pretend to have answers. Instead he suggests possibilities, and frequently offers opinions, but remains very candid about his own discomfort with the idea of cosmetic psychopharmacology. It seems his aim is more to explore what the effects of Prozac mean for larger philosophical questions about the self and how we come to be who we are.
References
1) Kramer, Peter M.D. Listening to Prozac. New York: Viking, 1993.
| Spinoza Book Review Name: Beatrice J Date: 2006-05-18 18:35:02 Link to this Comment: 19406 |
Beatrice Johnson
Biology 202
Neurobiology and Behavior
Looking for Spinoza Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain Antonio Damasio
let every man think what he wants and say what he thinks (1)
Looking for Spinozo is a complex, challenging, insightful narrative. Damasio is not only a neurologist, a neuroscientist, but he is also a historian. The narrative is a search with questions, and is also a search for answers. It is engrossed with ideas, facts that stimulate that search. It deals with neurology (the study of the nervous system), it deals with the past, with the present and with the future. It deals with Man, with men, it deals with the mind, the body, the brain. It deals with feelings, emotions, religion, nature, and God. Last it deals with a man named Bento (blessed), Baruch (blessed), Benedictus (blessed) Spinoza and his beliefs.
Damasio lists the reasons for writing this narrative:
The main purpose or writing of this book, then is to present a progress report on the nature
and human significance of feelings and related phenomena, as I see them now, as
neurologist, neuroscientist, and regular user. (2)
Given that many of the advances on the science of emotions and feelings are consonant
with proposals that Spinoza (the protobiologist) began to articulate, my second purpose in
this book is to connect this least-known Spinoza to some of the corresponding
neurobiology of today. (3)
Almost without noticing, I began looking for the person behind the strangeness of the
work. I simply wanted to meet the man in my imagination and chat a little, have him sign
The Ethics for me. Reporting on my search for Spinoza and the story of his life became the
third purpose of this book. (4)
With this in mind Damasio takes us to the times of Spinoza ( in the middle of Holland's Golden Age) He was born to resettled Portuguese Sephardic Jews in Amsterdam in 1632. He gives us a knowledge of the upbringing and the development of the man. He gives meaning to the three names attached to Spinoza which also seem significant in his development. Bento was his Potuguese name. Baruch was his name in the synagogue and amongst friends. Benedictus was the name he adopted when he was banished by the synagogue. We get a view of Spinoza' s God through Damasio when he writes:
Spinoza's God was neither Jewish or Christian. Spinoza's God was everywhere, could not
be spoken to, did not respond if prayed to, was very much in every particle of the universe,
without beginning and without end.(4)
It would seem that, with this type of view, Spinoza was frowned upon by many people of his day and probably with justification with their level of understanding at the time and, even now. Thoughts that had not been thought of before or had not been made known before.
As a neurologist ( who studies the nervous system) and a neuroscientist ( who studies anatomy, physiology, biochemistry of nerves with relation to behavior and learning), Damasio is extensive and exhausting in relaying this information throughout the book. But he always finds a connection with Spinoza. He writes:
Spinoza is thoroughly relevant to any discussion of human emotions and feelings. Spinoza
saw drives, motivations, emotions, and feelings — an ensemble Spinoza called affects as a
central aspect of humanity. Joy and sorrow were two concepts in his attempt to
comprehend human beings and suggest ways in which their lives could be lived better. (5)
Spinoza dealt with the subjects that preoccupy me most as a scientist — the nature of
emotions and feelings and the relation of mind to body — and those same subjects have
preoccupied many other thinkers of the past. To my eyes, however, he seemed to have
prefigured solutions that researchers are now offering on a number of these issues. (6)
Spinoza had described a functional arrangement that modern science is revealing as fact:
Living organisms are designed with an ability to react emotionally to different objects and
events. The reaction is followed by some pattern of feeling and a variation of pleasure or
pain is a necessary component of feeling. (7)
It is clear that Damasio relies heavily on the work of Spinoza.
In reading the narrative it is clear that Damasio has succeeded in fulfilling the purposes of the book. He has given us a progress report on the nature and human significance of feelings through Spinoza and his own work. He has connected Spinoza with some of the neurobiology of today. Third, he has given us a story, about the life and the times of the man Bento Baruch Benedictus Spinoza, which I enjoyed.
