The Idea of the Brain: The Past and Future of Neuroscience

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It is history, but it’s modern “we don’t know” science history. It’s about brain connections and how we actually still don’t know anything about them. Animals are not robots piloted by brains, we are all, whether maggots or humans, individuals with agency and a developmental and evolutionary history".

It’s not the glorious old super theories explaining everything and using the very little old research they have. Now philosophers are afraid of making huge claims as we know how the brain DOESN’T work. Of course we still even now, in 2021, don’t understand how the brain works. So these bigshot philosophers trying to sound clever just sound like noise making machines. They also promise that brains will be recreated via programming. This enthralling book starts at the earliest points of the halting journey to an experimental science of the brain and moves forward to the present era, where we simultaneously have a surfeit of data and a poverty of far-reaching, intellectually satisfying theories of brain function. Brain a machine. This philosophy is now boring. It’s not the cool creative philosophy of the past. Rather people are trying to actually explain how the brain works. So it’s largely statements like: the brain is like a computer, the brain calculates things, the brain reacts but can also be made to not react. https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/patient-caregiver-education/brain-basics-know-your-brainGoldie J. The implications of brain lateralisation for modern general practice. Br J Gen Pract. 2016;66(642):44-5. doi: 10.3399/bjgp16X683341 Klimova, B., et al. (2020). The effect of healthy diet on cognitive performance among healthy seniors – A mini review.

Wie weit ist dieses Hirn-Feld, was wissen wir und was wissen wir noch nicht? Auf was sollten wir in Zukunft einen Augenmerk werfen, damit wir beispielsweise Menschen mit ernsthaften Erkrankungen helfen können. Di Liegro CM, Schiera G, Proia P, Di Liegro I. Physical activity and brain health. Genes (Basel). 2019;10(9):720. doi:10.3390/genes10090720

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This is better. He spends a few paragraphs pointing out men and women have different brains and explains that brain regions are not completely independent. Still not great deep info, but it's fine. For thousands of years, thinkers and scientists have tried to understand what the brain does. Yet, despite the astonishing discoveries of science, we still have only the vaguest idea of how the brain works. In The Idea of the Brain, scientist and historian Matthew Cobb traces how our conception of the brain has evolved over the centuries. Although it might seem to be a story of ever-increasing knowledge of biology, Cobb shows how our ideas about the brain have been shaped by each era's most significant technologies. Today we might think the brain is like a supercomputer. In the past, it has been compared to a telegraph, a telephone exchange, or some kind of hydraulic system. What will we think the brain is like tomorrow, when new technology arises? The result is an essential read for anyone interested in the complex processes that drive science and the forces that have shaped our marvelous brains. Paradigmatic metaphor (the idea of the brain) has played an enormous role in guiding our thinking and inquiry. In the ancient western world the seat of emotion, perception, consciousness, and thought was the heart, not the brain. If you think of it, with whatever organ you choose, this makes sense. The brain just sits there. But the heart is always moving. You can’t ignore the heart. But you can’t feel the brain at all. What will be the next grand metaphor about the brain? Impossible to say, because we need to wait for the next world-changing technology. But in the mean time, Cobb suggests, the computer metaphor might be doing more harm than good. After all, he notes rightly: “Metaphors shape our ideas in ways that are not always helpful.”