Brain complexity: baby brains under study (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, March 06, 2018, 15:39 (2243 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Thinking in design is conceptualization, and according to you is the province of the self/soul/consciousness, and not of the brain, which does the implementing. Hence my pointing out the constantly repeated contradiction in your claim that the self is incapable of “thinking in design” without the larger brain.

DAVID: Can you tell me what part of the brain is used in the implementation of making the spear after the concept appears in the pre-frontal cortex? I can, and it is a point you skip over. To make the flint tip, the stone must be shaped by the hands and arm. The wooden shaft must be obtained by walking in the woods, finding a likely branch, stripping it of bark ( by hand) and then attaching it to the tip. Learning to throw it involves coordination of arm and shoulder muscles with twisting of the spine muscles. It also involves the eyes helping the coordination in learning to throw with aim. The implementation uses the motor strip of the brain, which is in the middle of the cortex, the visual area, which is in the back, and all the muscle activity is coordinated in the cerebellum under the back of the brain itself.

All very educational, thank you, but of course material implementation requires the use of material actions using the relevant parts of the brain and body. The big question is how the concept first “appeared” in the prefrontal cortex, and what directs all these material operations.

DAVID: Using Erectus as an example of this activity all of these areas were involved in simpler implementation activities in previous earlier hominins. In the skull fossil series, the primary enlarging region is not these. It is the prefrontal cortex where conceptual design takes place and which is the primary enlargement area.

What do you mean by “takes place”? Does the prefrontal cortex invent the design, or is it invented by the s/s/c?

DAVID: Recognize that the s/s/c has been shown to interface in specific areas. Materialism has a role to play. My theory is not a contradiction but a careful analysis of these facts. Your approach is all theory, not recognizing how the brain works. A larger more complex prefrontal cortex permits the development of more complex concepts. Artefacts prove it.

What do you mean by “permits”? Does the prefrontal cortex write out a licence for the s/s/c? Even if you visualize the s/s/c sitting inside the prefrontal cortex doing its thinking, you also believe that when the prefrontal cortex is dead, the s/s/c simply pops off to the other world and continues to do its thinking (as per NDEs). But I am not against your implied materialism. I remain neutral in the battle between dualism and materialism. So back to my question above: in your dualist’s opinion, what came up with the concept of the spear: the s/s/c or the prefrontal cortex?

For further pertinent questions, see “Big Brain Evolution”.