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> It's not some special thing that sits apart from it. It is an integral part of the whole, no different than your kidneys or liver. Except it is. The brain is
by dpark 7y ago
> It's not some special thing that sits apart from it. It is an integral part of the whole, no different than your kidneys or liver.
Except it is. The brain is a part of your body and the two are tightly integrated. Yet the brain is also not simply another organ. If you lose half of your liver, your personality might change due to the trauma, but you will still be you. If you lose a kidney, you’ll live on as if little happened (assuming modern medicine stops you from dying of infection). If you lose half your brain, you’re probably dead, and if not, you’ll be drastically impaired the rest of your life. You’ll also likely experience drastic personality changes.
The brain is part of the body but it is also special. To my knowledge it’s the only organ with a dedicated blood barrier. It’s also the only organ that modern medicine can’t keep “you” alive without. If your body is on life support but you are “brain dead”, then “you” are gone. Your heart can be replaced with a pump. Your kidneys can be replaced with dialysis. Your stomach can be replaced by a feeding tube. Yes, all of these are pretty poor alternatives but they affect quality of life. They don’t end life. If modern medicine could replace your brain with a computer, no one would consider this a lifesaving intervention.
No one says they’ve lost a parent to kidney failure while the parent is still alive. Many people have said they’ve lost a parent to dementia while the parent is still alive.
- jp555 7y agodo you mean the brain as in what's contained in our skull or also the central nervous system which would include controlling (both automatically and consciously) everything else, as well as sensing all of what we define as reality?
- creamynebula 7y agoI don't think there is proof that consciousness originates in the brain, or in anything material for that matter.
- jp555 7y agowell that's ironic. :P
- dragonwriter 7y ago> If you lose half your brain, you’re probably dead, and if not, you’ll be drastically impaired the rest of your life. You’ll also likely experience drastic personality changes. That's...not at all what the actual results of a hemispherectomy, in which you literally lose half of your brain, show.
- dpark 7y agoThat’s rarely performed on adults because the risks are so high. Even in children it’s a last resort reserved only for the most severe and morphine seizure cases.
- evilduck 7y agoAnd yet an unlucky blow to the head can alter you forever. It’s not black and white.
- UnpossibleJim 7y agoAnd a change to your gut biome can have drastic effects on your personality, with many leading psychiatrists thinking there may be an inherent link to gut bacteria and clinical depression.
- hhas01 7y ago“If you lose half your brain, you’re probably dead, and if not, you’ll be drastically impaired the rest of your life.” Depends. Patients who undergo hemispherectomy at a very young age can recover remarkably well; a testament to the incredible plasticity of the developing brain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemispherectomy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemispherectomy In adult brains, yeah, it’s a very different story. See also: stroke. Honestly, you’re both right. It is only one of a multitude of highly interconnected interdependent organs; but it can (and usually does) do some truly incredible stuff while running within that system.† -- † Assuming, of course, that Descartes/Wachowskis aren’t right after all.<g>
- bluesroo 7y agoThis is probably an example of an "exception that proves the rule".
- Balgair 7y agoThere are a fair few exceptions though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Molaison#See_also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Molaison#See_also Mind, these are the 'famous' people. My google-fu isn't super great here, so I've not sources, but I know of a few cases of French postmen that 'suffered' from hydranencephaly, were married, with many children, and otherwise 'normal'. It's not super uncommon that people with otherwise good balance but who cannot ride a bike also 'suffer' from a lack of a cerebellum. The wiki article on hydranencephaly is SUPER wild. Take a look at that picture of that baby! Though it is typically lethal, there are cases where those affected survive into adulthood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydranencephaly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydranencephaly
- Engineering-MD 7y agoAs an aside there is also the testis-blood-barrier, although this is not quite as tight as the blood brain barrier.
- philwelch 7y agoAlso, personalities tend to change if the testes are removed.
- JimboOmega 7y agoThere's a huge family of "Neurosteroids"[1], which impact various receptors in the brain in lots of super complicated ways that aren't entirely understood. They are synthesized in all kinds of ways naturally, and when it comes to "what they do" in terms of personality... "probably something" is the best we can do. There is massive complexity in all these things, all kinds of feedback mechanisms, genes and enzymes involved, etc. They do something but it's hard to say what exactly. I know about this personally; one of the amazing things about transgender medicine is that there is a huge range of responses to the hormones involved, and there's honestly no way to predict what will happen with a given person. There are tendencies in aggregate - like less testosterone = less libido - but how those come about biologically is unclear and the effect varies tremendously between different people. It's a joke to pretend like we fully understand or can predict how any of these things actually impact our lived experiences beyond very rough, bulk tendencies. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurosteroid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurosteroid
- allovernow 7y agoWhen we know so little, is it really ethical for a psychiatrist to prescribe these drugs to make people slightly more like the opposite gender, rather than teaching them to accept who they are and deal with the disorder like any other incurable condition?
- dpark 7y agoWhat “other incurable conditions” do doctors not even attempt to treat and simply tell patients to “accept who they are and deal with it”?
- BurningFrog 7y ago> > It's not some special thing that sits apart from it. > Except it is I'd half agree. It is a special thing, but it doesn't sit apart from the rest.
- heavyset_go 7y ago> If you lose half of your liver, your personality might change due to the trauma, but you will still be you. If your thyroid is damaged, it effects who you are through depression, lethargy, anxiety and significant behavioral changes. If your adrenal glands are overactive, it effects who you are through chronic stress, psychological conditioning and panic. Disorders of the gut effect who you are similarly, as does removal of parts of the lymphatic system. Hormonal changes from disease, consequences of genetics or supplementation can drastically change a person's personality.
- dpark 7y agoYep. The body is not independent of the brain. Your other organs and especially the hormones they produce absolutely affect it. But the brain is still not “just another organ”. The brain is special, as evidenced by the fact that the body gives it a special blood barrier. The brain also is you, to a greater extent than any other organ. This is why your thyroid can be removed and with appropriate hormone replacement, you’re mostly unaffected. No amount of hormones will replace the loss of your brain.
- polishdude20 7y agoAlso these psychological changes happen because these hormones ultimately go on to affect the brain
- MandieD 7y agoExcept that non/under-functioning thyroid can usually easily and cheaply be replaced with levothyroxin. Anyone who feels that they’ve slowly been getting more tired and just can’t stop gaining weight should ask their doctor to get their T3 and T4 levels checked. Finding out mine was underfunctioning and getting the levothyroxin dosage right made a ton of difference in my energy levels and stopped (but didn’t reverse) my weight gain.
- tbugrara 7y agoYou're taking that one line out of context in his post. Yes of course the brain is special because it's the only organ that makes you, you. Just like the heart is special because it's the only major organ that if you removed, blood would stop flowing. GP's point was that in the context of how medication affects our bodies, the brain and body are more connected than we tend to think. Medication doesn't either only affect our body or our only affect our brain. It affects the entire system.