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Learning a lot about the neocortex. Any recommendations on how to learn more? @7:45 It’s the size of a dinner napkin, 2.5mm think, uniform, and similar in othe

Learning a lot about the neocortex. Any recommendations on how to learn more? @7:45 It’s the size of a dinner napkin, 2.5mm think, uniform, and similar in other animals. @9:50 if you took the optic nerve and attached it to another part of the neocortex, that part would become the visual region. @34:30 Thousand brains theory of intelligence.

phreeza 7y ago
Note that the "uniform" part, on which the second part ist also conditioned, ist not universally accepted. There are certainly shared elements, but most likely also specialisations.
gnode 7y ago
Learn about the rest of the brain's components. Intelligence and cognition is greatly dependent on the limbic system. For example, while memory appears to be stored throughout the cortex, we can't form new spatial and event memories if our hippocampi are removed. It seems to me that the cortex functions like a kind of FPGA which the brain's core machinery uses to expand its capabilities. It has a uniform micro-anatomy, regardless of function; functions correlate with connectivity to nerves and other brain regions; in cases of damage to the cortex, it is capable of remapping and rerouting functions and connectivity.
Balgair 7y ago
> if you took the optic nerve and attached it to another part of the neocortex, that part would become the visual region. FYI, that is super hand-wavey and covers over a lot about how the path of the information from the cones/rods gets into V1. The chain of neurons that pass infomation from your eyes to V1 is well studied [0]. Interruptions in that path cause a lot of sightedness issues and are not fun diseases to have. The musician, Stevie Wonder, among others, aledgedly has a form of blindness known as blindsight [1] where relfexes to motion are perserved, but information is not passed into the conscious mind. In the end, though neuroscience is a facinating subject, we're just in the beginning of our understanding of the brain. More research is needed. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optic_chiasm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optic_chiasm a good place to start learning about the chain of information transfer. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight EDIT: Additionally, if you want to learn more about neuroscience, the best place to look is at Kandel's Principals of Neural Science [2]. It is a tome of a book, but is the best place to get a deep dive into the brain and our understanding of it. I've not yet seen anything else that is somewhat accessible to the general public but also gets into all the issues with any particular experiment. Most pop-sci book brush over a lot of the very important and thorny issues that each experiment has. I'd also love to know of a good book that is more accessible than Kandel. [2] https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Fifth-Kandel/dp/0071390111 https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Fifth-Kande...
- outworlder 7y ago
  Incidentally, Blindsight is the name of a science fiction novel which I really like. The name is inspired by that phenomenom, but it covers a lot of ground, from neurological processes to how aliens would look like (and how they would think), chinese room, etc. https://rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm https://rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
Upvoter33 7y ago
Reading Jeff's book is a great intro. Then you can read some intro books like one of C. Koch's - very accessible. Brain theory is actually pretty readable until you get down to the biochemistry of a neuron, which is wildly complex. But, they still don't know how it all works, so it is fairly incomplete to read about (unlike much of physics, chemistry, or even many areas of biology)

phreeza 7y ago

Note that the "uniform" part, on which the second part ist also conditioned, ist not universally accepted. There are certainly shared elements, but most likely also specialisations.

gnode 7y ago

Learn about the rest of the brain's components. Intelligence and cognition is greatly dependent on the limbic system. For example, while memory appears to be stored throughout the cortex, we can't form new spatial and event memories if our hippocampi are removed. It seems to me that the cortex functions like a kind of FPGA which the brain's core machinery uses to expand its capabilities. It has a uniform micro-anatomy, regardless of function; functions correlate with connectivity to nerves and other brain regions; in cases of damage to the cortex, it is capable of remapping and rerouting functions and connectivity.

Balgair 7y ago

> if you took the optic nerve and attached it to another part of the neocortex, that part would become the visual region. FYI, that is super hand-wavey and covers over a lot about how the path of the information from the cones/rods gets into V1. The chain of neurons that pass infomation from your eyes to V1 is well studied [0]. Interruptions in that path cause a lot of sightedness issues and are not fun diseases to have. The musician, Stevie Wonder, among others, aledgedly has a form of blindness known as blindsight [1] where relfexes to motion are perserved, but information is not passed into the conscious mind. In the end, though neuroscience is a facinating subject, we're just in the beginning of our understanding of the brain. More research is needed. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optic_chiasm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optic_chiasm a good place to start learning about the chain of information transfer. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight EDIT: Additionally, if you want to learn more about neuroscience, the best place to look is at Kandel's Principals of Neural Science [2]. It is a tome of a book, but is the best place to get a deep dive into the brain and our understanding of it. I've not yet seen anything else that is somewhat accessible to the general public but also gets into all the issues with any particular experiment. Most pop-sci book brush over a lot of the very important and thorny issues that each experiment has. I'd also love to know of a good book that is more accessible than Kandel. [2] https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Fifth-Kandel/dp/0071390111 https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Fifth-Kande...

outworlder 7y ago
Incidentally, Blindsight is the name of a science fiction novel which I really like. The name is inspired by that phenomenom, but it covers a lot of ground, from neurological processes to how aliens would look like (and how they would think), chinese room, etc. https://rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm https://rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

Upvoter33 7y ago

Reading Jeff's book is a great intro. Then you can read some intro books like one of C. Koch's - very accessible. Brain theory is actually pretty readable until you get down to the biochemistry of a neuron, which is wildly complex. But, they still don't know how it all works, so it is fairly incomplete to read about (unlike much of physics, chemistry, or even many areas of biology)