A Sense of Free Will: requires a properly functioning brain (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, August 13, 2015, 14:31 (3390 days ago) @ David Turell

Our brain seems to anticipate being helpful: note the following study on new vs, recognized:-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150812200535.htm-"A novel learning and memory brain network has been discovered that processes incoming information based on whether it's something we've experienced previously or is deemed to be altogether new and unknown, helping us recognize, for instance, whether the face before us is that of a familiar friend or a complete stranger.-"'Activity in this network tells us if you're looking at something that you perceive to be novel or familiar," said Adrian Gilmore, first author of the study and a fifth-year psychology doctoral student in Arts & Sciences at Washington University. "When an individual sees a novel stimulus, this network shows a marked decrease in activity. When an individual sees a familiar stimulus, this network shows a marked increase in activity.'"-"Described by study authors as the Parietal Memory Network (PMN), the new memory and learning network shows consistent patterns of activation and deactivation in three distinct regions of the parietal cortex in the brain's left hemisphere -- the precuneus, the mid-cingulate cortex and the dorsal angular gyrus.-"Activity within the PMN during the processing of incoming information (encoding) can be used to predict how well that information will be stored in memory and later made available for successful retrieval. The PMN exhibits opposite patterns of activity depending on whether the information being retrieved is recognized as new or familiar -- the more familiar the information, the more activity in the PMN, the study found."-Comment: No, we do not fully control our brain, but I view our brain as being built to help us, even to anticipating needs. Of course, I see design.