Brain complexity:multidimensional areas in neocortex (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, 11:34 (2721 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTES: In 2015, Blue Brain published the first digital copy of a piece of the neocortex - the most evolved part of the brain and the seat of our sensations, actions, and consciousness. In this latest research, using algebraic topology, multiple tests were performed on the virtual brain tissue to show that the multi-dimensional brain structures discovered could never be produced by chance. (David’s bold) Experiments were then performed on real brain tissue in the Blue Brain's wet lab in Lausanne confirming that the earlier discoveries in the virtual tissue are biologically relevant and also suggesting that the brain constantly rewires during development to build a network with as many high-dimensional structures as possible. (dhw’s bold)

"The big question these researchers are asking now is whether the intricacy of tasks we can perform depends on the complexity of the multi-dimensional "sandcastles" the brain can build.” (dhw’s bold)

DAVID’s comment: note my bold: not by chance. Neo-cortex is the most evolved. It is part of the continuous enlargement of the brain which allows the most complex concepts to be developed, after primary enlargement has occurred. Size first, use second.

I agree that it’s not by chance. These cell communities seem to know what they’re doing. Maybe God set up the whole mechanism. Note my bold: what these researchers are examining are the complexities. Nothing to do with expansion, which ceased 200,000 years ago and is now slowly being reversed by shrinkage. Since rewiring (even if only in the form of temporary “sandcastles”) is the result of conceptualization, once again the process is concept followed by rewiring followed by “use”, i.e. making concepts into reality