>>WOMAN: The last video we talked about the limitations of biological mind control
because neuroscience doesn't understand how information is encoded in the brain
and the central nervous system. Someone was cool enough to send me a link to an
article written in 2007 of August by Discover Magazine, and the article was called
Ten Unsolved Mysteries of the Brain. That's what we're going to talk about.
What are the ten top mysteries of the brain?
This is really interesting stuff, and it ties right into the last video that I did.
I'm going to go over all of the top ten mysteries of the brain and I'm going to make
comments about each one, but before I go over the top ten mysteries of the brain,
I want to make a comment about what all of the top ten mysteries have in common.
You see, in philosophy, in psychology, in fact, in just about any of the sciences,
an important distinction is made about the function of something and the structure
of something. By function we are talking about the intentions behind something;
its purpose, what it does, its activities and the result of that activity.
For example, if you have a fork, the function of that fork is to pick up food.
By structure we are referring to physical form; how the object is arranged, its shape,
it's physical parts and how those parts fit together into a whole.
This structure of a fork is a metal shaft with three or four sharp prongs pointed
out from the shaft. In psychology, the mind in terms of function means what the mind
does. For example, some of these functions would include memory, perception,
reasoning and emotional response. These different functions in the mind of psychology
are called mental faculties. In psychology, when we talk about structure we are talking
about
the brain; the physical structure of the brain, the parts of the brain, the neurons,
the neurotransmitters, etc.
The words mind and brain tend to be used interchangeably in common speech. However,
in psychology, and in the philosophy of mind, the brain is used to refer exclusively
to the structure of the brain. Mind is used to refer exclusively to the mental
functions of the mind. So, the basic assumption that biological psychology is based on,
meaning the actual foundation that the entire subject is built on top of
is that the physical structure of the brain is responsible for the non physical function
of the mind.
Mystery Number ten: What is consciousness?
Well, there's been a great deal of research done in an attempt to unlock the mystery
of just what consciousness is, but not only is the phenomena of consciousness not understood
on a structural level, but there isn't a good agreed upon functional model for just what
this phenomena is either. One thing that's interesting about consciousness is that on
a
functional level it appears to exist outside of the mind as if it's looking in.
For example, if you compare the mind to a computer, both the mind and the computer store
information. Both the mind and the computer input information. Both the mind and the
computer process information and both the mind and the computer output information.
But, no one assumes that the computer is aware of what it is doing. Now, consciousness
is the computer user. It knows what the computer is doing and it's guiding its operations.
Mystery number nine: How do the specialized systems of the brain integrate with one another?
This relates to consciousness. In other words, perceptional information flows to different
parts of the brain. Sight goes to one part of the brain. Sound goes to another part of
the brain. Taste goes to another part of the brain, and tactile sensation goes to another
part.
But, when you perceive the world you view all of these as an integrated whole even though
these areas of the brain are not connected together. How does this work? No one knows.
It's a mystery.
Mystery Number eight: Why do brains sleep and dream?
My comment: No one knows. But, what we do know is that if you deny someone of their
sleep
and dreaming, then they begin to exhibit signs of mental illnesses.
In fact, there was a study done where psychiatrists couldn't tell whether someone was
diagnosed as mentally ill or if they just had a lack of sleep.
Mystery number seven: How is time represented in the brain?
Again, no one knows, but what we do know is that it's not at all at uniformed rate.
After all, sometimes, time seems to pass very quickly and other times
time seems to drag on forever. We do know that it is probably related to
completed sequences of motion. For example, when you are very busy time passed very
quickly.
Mystery number six: What is intelligence?
Psychologists have yet to come up with a clear definition of intelligence that everyone
can agree on. Because of this, there is no objective standard of what intelligence is.
So, IQ is just an arbitrary number given to people when compared to other people who have
taken the test. But there is no actual standard that exists outside of people taking
this test. What we can tell is that intelligence is a combination of many, many
different factors. Imagination, perception, education, literacy, reasoning ability.
It's not just one thing, and all of us have different levels of abilities at each one
of these factors. We sort of lump all of these factors together and call it
intelligence.
Mystery number five: What are emotions?
Well, I already did a video about this, and if you're interested, go ahead and check out
Music, Emotions and Mind Control.
Mystery number four: How does the mind simulate the future?
In other words, how do people imaging future events and predict consequence.
My only comment on this is if you compared a mind to a super computer this one ability
would make the super computer look like a pocket calculator.
Mystery number three: What does the baseline activity in the brain represent?
This is a complex one and I don't have time to go over it in this video, but essentially,
I don't think scientists can establish a baseline, because I don't believe that
a baseline for brain activity even exists.
Mystery number two: How are memories stored and retrieved?
Now this point is fascinating and I'll have to do a whole video on the subject.
I will say that the scientist who is known as the father of neurology
and the scientist who won a Nobel Prize for discovering how neurotransmitters work,
both came up with the conclusion that memories are not stored in the brain.
How can that be? Well, You'll have to stay tuned!
And what is the biggest mystery of the brain?
Mystery number one: How is information encoded in the brain?
Now, this is the Holy Grail of biological psychology or psychiatry, and because
it's not understood, it dramatically limits what psychiatry is able to do.
I did a whole video on this earlier. If you're interested you can check it out.
It's called Biological Mind Control.
In a future video we'll be talking about brainwashing. What exactly is brainwashing?
Thanks for watching. Please rate my video and I'll see you next time!