Brain complexity: baby brains under study (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, March 02, 2018, 00:33 (2459 days ago) @ dhw

You did renege on this a week later, but then backed down. Now we have to start all over again:

DAVID (under “Big brain evolution”): The baby starts as a blank slate at birth. Yes, there is a genetic input to come, but as the brain develops the child develops its own particular construction of a s/s/c. The two must work together and advances in the s/s/c must wait until brain development is ready for each step.
And:
As with newborns concepts wait for brain development first.

dhw: I agree that a new born baby is unlikely to have any concepts when it emerges.

"Unlikely". There are none at birth.

dhw: Concepts will only arise out information in the form of experience, and in our material world that is provided by the brain. But from the moment the brain begins to provide information, it is the s/s/c that processes the information and in due course – almost immediately – begins to conceptualize. That is the first way in which they “work together”. Within a couple of days there were marked differences between my twin grandsons in their response to my holding them. One was totally placid and stayed in my arms, and the other immediately began to howl, but was pacified when passed back to his mother. This happened repeatedly during several visits. There is no blank slate!

Of course there is a blank slate. What you are describing happened several days or weeks after birth. Blank slate at birth.

dhw:Here the concept of security clearly gives rise to a material response (howl). Move forward a few months, when the brain has provided a great deal more information, and the second way of "working together" becomes crystal clear (whether you are a dualist or materialist). The babies are being spoonfed. They try to grasp the spoon and feed themselves. Mess everywhere. The new connections have to be established. The brain does NOT make the connections before the baby sees the spoon. The s/s/c makes the effort to implement the concept, and in due course the neurons get the message and make the necessary adjustments – precisely the same process as the illiterate women learning to write, and pre-sapiens learning to make and use the spear. Implementation of the s/s/c’s concept modifies the brain, which has provided the information that gives rise to the concept.

You are generally correct. Two things are going on. Appearance of new neurons and connections for no good reason other than developmental embryology going on after birth; and also connections of memory and conceptualization at a simple level.