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Prof. Grobstein mentioned a couple of examples in class of when the motor cortex was damaged and the resulting postures in different animals. A particular example used was a condition called Spastic Paralysis in humans where the arm was locked in a flexed position as a result of damage to the cortex. The person is paralyzed in the sense that he can not willingly move his arm, but the nervous system was still in control of the arm because it was sustaining it in a flexed upwards position, and also if you through a ball at the person the arm would block it as part of reflex programs.

Two conclusions were made from this:

1-     The body has evolved to adapt to gravity. When the cortex is damaged, the body positions itself to oppose gravity. This opposition to gravity is in the core programming and core hardwiring of our bodies. It’s like an essential central pattern generator and our bodies move otherwise by inhibiting this pattern. This incorporation of the scientific principles of gravity cannot be overlooked. In my viewpoint, it is clear supporting evidence of evolution because our bodies evolved systems and core central patterns to incorporate characteristics of the surrounding environment. In this way, this find is amazing.

2-     The ability for the I-function to interact with the nervous system and produce desired movements is inhibited when there is damage to the cortex. By default, it was concluded that the I-function is potentially located in the cortex. When we learned this it felt really good to give the I-function, what was an abstract concept since the beginning of class meetings, a potential physical definition. The ability for us to control our body lies in the cortex. Wow!

These astounding advances and conclusions naturally spawn other ethical issues. In the latest issue of The New York Times Magazine, Jeffrey Rosen wrote about how neuroscientific advances might amend the legal system. Some particular examples talked about studies by Adrian Raine who examined the brains of convicted murderers using PET scans and brains of people with antisocial personality disorder correlated with violence and found that the convicted murderers had reduced glucose metabolism in their prefrontal cortex and people with antisocial personality disorder had significantly less grey matter in their prefrontal cortex. This brings up the idea that the cortex which potentially allows for the I-function to function, if damaged or is not functioning properly, might influence or not inhibit our natural inherent actions, and things like spastic paralysis, or as Raine suggests, violence occur. A number of questions comes to mind.

Can we ever not hold people accountable for their actions if their cortex is not working properly? How much influence does the cortex hold over a person’s behavior? Is disinhibited behavior a result of cortex malfunction or is cortex malfunction a result of disinhibited behavior (outputs can influence inputs)?

Should we be further researching these findings, are we just giving criminals an excuse?