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Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient?
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The human brain vs. the computer
When we contemplate which has more problem-solving power, the brain or the computer, we might think that the modern computer would come out on top. Indeed, computers have been built and programmed to beat human masters in complex games, such as chess.
However, humans still trump computers in many real-world tasks, such as identifying a particular pedestrian on a crowded city street. Computers are unable to beat humans at conceptualization and creativity.
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Advantages of computers
Comparing the computer and the brain has been instructive to both computer engineers and neuroscientists.
- Computers are faster with basic operations, at a speed of 10 billion operations per second, while the brain can perform at about a thousand basic operations per second.
- The computer has considerable advantages in the precision of basic operations. A 32-bit computer has a precision of 1 in 4,2 billion, while the brain has a precision of 1 in 100 at best.
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Serial and parallel processing
The brain is not slow nor imprecise in performing calculations.
For example, a professional tennis player can follow the trajectory of a tennis ball after it is served at speed as high as 160 miles per hour, move to the best spot, position his arm, and swing the racket to return the ball within a few hundred milliseconds. It can accomplish all these tasks with power consumption about tenfold less than a personal computer.
This is all possible because the brain employs serial and parallel processing, while computer tasks are mainly performed in serial steps.
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Parallel processing
The brain takes advantage of the large number of neurons (100 billion neurons) and the large number of connections each neuron makes. (100 trillion synapses)
Each neuron collects inputs from and sends output to many other neurons. At the same time, many neurons that work on the same information can pool their data to the same downstream neuron, thereby enhancing the precision of information processing.
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Signaling mode
In the signaling mode of their elementary units, the computer and the brain have similarities and differences. The transistor in a computer employs digital signaling, which uses zeros and ones to represent information. The brain uses digital as well as analog signaling.
Another important property of the brain is that the connection strengths between neurons can be changed in response to activity and experience. Repetitive training enables the neuronal circuits to become better configured and results in improved speed and precision.
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Improving computer design
Over the years, engineers have taken inspiration from the brain to improve computer design.
The principles of parallel processing and use-dependent modification of connection strength have been incorporated into modern computers, for example, increased parallelism such as the use of multiple processors in a computer, and deep learning in the discipline of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Yet the brain is still superior in flexibility, generalizability, and learning capability. As more secrets about the brain are uncovered, engineers can take more inspiration from the working of the brain to improve computers.
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About Consciousness
Consciousness is everything you experience - taste, pain, love, feeling. Where these experiences come from is a mystery.
Many modern analytic philosophers of mind either d...
Searching For Physical Footprints
What is it about brain matter that gives rise to consciousness? In particular, the neuronal correlates of consciousness (NCC) - the minimal neuronal mechanisms jointly sufficient for any conscious experience.
Consider this question: What must happen in your brain for you to experience a toothache?
Neuronal Correlates of Consciousness (NCC)
The whole brain can be considered an NCC because it generates experience continually.
- When parts of the cerebellum, the "little brain" underneath the back of the brain, are lost to a stroke or otherwise, patients may lose the ability to play the piano, for example. But they never lose any aspect of their consciousness. This is because the cerebellum is almost wholly a feed-forward circuit. There are no complex feedback loops.
- The spinal cord and the cerebellum are not enough to create consciousness. Available evidence suggests neocortical tissue in generating feelings.
- The next stages of processing are the broad set of cortical regions, collectively known as the posterior hot zone, that gives rise to conscious perception. In clinical sources of causal evidence, stimulating the posterior hot zone can trigger a diversity of distinct sensations and feelings.
- It appears that almost all conscious experiences have their origin in the posterior cortex. But it does not explain the crucial difference between the posterior regions and much of the prefrontal cortex, which does not directly contribute to subjective content.
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Untreated trauma and its negative effects
All individual who has ever dealt with trauma knows that healing can take a lot of time if it eventually happens. Untreated trauma seems to leave scars on our brain, altering the way we perceive...
Trauma changes our brain
After having experienced trauma, our brain can not function properly anymore, at least for a while.
Among the negative effects that trauma leads to there is the risk of developing physical illnesses or the so-called Post-traumatic stress disorder.
Post-traumatic stress disorder
When dealing with PTSD, the three parts of our brain, which are responsible for processing stress, suffer changes: the hippocampus, the amygdala function and the prefrontal/ anterior cingulate function.
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The olfactory sense at work
Our sense of smell works in wondrous ways since the chemical composition of our surrounding change instantly and constantly. Our noses pick up volatile airborne compounds that interact with...
Facts about our olfactory sense
- It is different from other sensory cortices in a way that it has a multidimensional stimulus.
- Some things can smell different not just between different people but also for the same person.
- Can measure an array of an uncertain variety of chemicals that can trace changes that detects pleasure, pain, or danger.
- It does not require a map mirroring because its chemical stimulus is constantly changing. It relies on the brain to recognize the pattern or memory associated with the smell.
Contributors to the study of the olfactory sense
- Santiago Ramón y Cajal: A founding father of neuroscience, he drew attention to the sense of smell as an exemplary model to learn how the brain makes sense of the world. He also believed that understanding smell would grant us better insight into other sensory systems
- Linda Buck & Richard Axel: They discovered the olfactory receptors which happened to be the most structurally diverse and sizable member of the largest multi-gene family of protein receptors. They received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.