Introducing the brain: general (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, March 12, 2022, 08:32 (985 days ago) @ David Turell

New Study Changes Our Understanding of Human ... - Haaretz.com

DAVID: Again we are back to interpretation. I am allowed to reinterpret Darwinist articles. Broca's area was there before speech is the point, not that it also had something to do with tools. of course, we agree, it did something before language developed. It was there prepared to handle future speech.

dhw: The point is firstly, that the complications of the frontal lobe, which you claimed were unique to sapiens, in fact go back millions of years, and secondly that according to the article they came into existence to meet new requirements. They were not inserted as preparation for unknown uses millions of years later.

DAVID: Broca's area is not frontal lobe.

See numerous websites, such as: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broca%27s_area
"Broca's area, or the Broca area (/ˈbroʊkə/,[1][2][3] also UK: /ˈbrɒkə/, US: /ˈbroʊkɑː/[4]), is a region in the frontal lobe of the dominant hemisphere, usually the left, of the brain[5] with functions linked to speech production.

Memory formation

DAVID: We came with memory ability, without which nothing could be accomplished.

dhw: Agreed. The same applies to all life forms. That does not mean that your God operated on pre-sapiens brains in order to give them extra cells that would not be used until some vague future time.

DAVID: That is exactly how it works.

dhw: Ah well... I’d have thought it would make more sense for new cells to be created in response to new needs rather than just to stick around for a few thousand years doing nothing. (Or 7 million years – see under “our special genes”.) I wonder if all your ID-ers agree with this theory of yours.

DAVID: Start following ID to see how they think. The preparatory cells do something before eventual intended use.

dhw: What does that mean? That meeting the requirements of the time is NOT their intended use? And ID-ers think that God preprogrammed or dabbled pre-sapiens brains millions of years in advance of their “intended” use?

DAVID: We've agreed the early cells don't just sit there with nothing to do, waiting for their expected future job.

Yes, it took a while to get you to agree to that. Now tell us who or what “expects” their future job. Is it not possible that having come into existence to meet a particular requirement, the cells then complexify (or expand their number) to meet new requirements in an ongoing process of RESPONSE as opposed to anticipation?

DAVID: ID believes God designed the special sapiens brain, from teh less specialized Erectus brain.

You have just agreed that new cells respond to current requirements (they don’t just sit there with nothing to do), so do please tell me how your ID-ers explain why their God designed special areas of the brain millions of years in advance of their “intended” function.

Rebooting after deep anesthesia

The sting is in the tail:

QUOTE: How the brain recovers from states of unconsciousness is important clinically but also gives us insight into the neural basis of consciousness itself," said anesthesiologist George Mashour, from the University of Michigan."

One up for materialism versus dualism. But we needn’t reopen that discussion!