Submitted by theembryo t3_zzitid in explainlikeimfive
Comments
Truth-or-Peace t1_j2bw3my wrote
Well, the first clue was the way in which damage to the brain can alter the functioning of the mind, whereas damage to things like the foot or even the heart do not.
Later, as we developed imaging techniques, we were able to see how thinking different kinds of thoughts would alter the brain's electrical activity and blood flow patterns, in ways that it doesn't alter electrical activity or blood flow in organs such as the liver or stomach.
kikswi t1_j2bw71o wrote
We haven’t; we don’t know exactly what the mind is, but as exponentials noted, we’ve learned that lots of brain phenomena are correlated with mental phenomena. Strictly speaking, there isn’t a single account of what the mind is and how exactly it’s related to the brain. Some theorize that it is the brain, some theorize thar it’s produced by the brain, some theorize that it interacts with the brain, and others. There’s a lot we don’t know!
AllergicToStabWounds t1_j2bx5ez wrote
Most human cultures large enough to have major medical practices or dedicated healers were able to observe that injuries to the brain can cause changes or impairments to the mind.
It took more studies to get a more precise understanding, but the connection between the mind and the brain is pretty intuitive from just what can be observed.
coyote-1 t1_j2c22wv wrote
I kinda disagree with the conclusion drawn in your question. The mind is not exclusively the brain. There is no question that without the brain there is no mind, this is true…. but the mind is incomplete without the various other ‘messenger’ systems in the body.
Redditfordatohoneyo t1_j2c3y4n wrote
Brain injuries have to be the biggest one. In the past humans have to have noticed that even a swift smack upside their own head would let you know the difference when you're feeling foggy and out of it. But certainly cases like Phineas Gage and others must've been relatively common place; where an injury had made noticeable differences in before and after.
[deleted] t1_j2c62af wrote
This should be explained in depth, but simply, the fact that we should understand is; mind is not a physical part or organ and it's not located at a specific place or part of the brain. But brain involves to proceed the mind...
Blank_SKL t1_j2cai5c wrote
We realized that everything in the body moves due to electric stimuly and we followed it to the brain, everything the body does, everything it recieves and gives has to go through the brain so we did more experiments on animals to see what would happen if we like, messed around with the brain and found out that if we change the brain we change the fundamental way the body functions, and then we realized that every time we think and react to stimuly a part of the brain "turns on". The mind is not "in the brain" per se more like the mind and the brain are more of less the same thing.
EarlyAd29 t1_j2cbsbw wrote
For a long time, people thought the brains are responsible for regulating blood temperature. Only after a gruesome history in psychology do we now understand the different parts of the brain and their responsibilities. Scientists also experimented with monkeys and mice to find which part of the brain is for what. Did you know that a strong magnetic wave directed at your brain can mess your mind up but only for a short duration?
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[deleted] t1_j2chizi wrote
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uawithsprachgefuhl t1_j2cjwm2 wrote
This! I don’t think it took people long to notice what happens to a person’s mind after a serious head injury. Babies dropped on their head didn’t fair well, but the ones who had a broken bone grew up fine. I’m sure if a person lost all their ability to communicate, express emotions or have any sort of meaningful life after a serious leg injury, people would assume the mind must be in the leg.
[deleted] t1_j2cn6y0 wrote
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akayataya t1_j2cphp9 wrote
We haven't. We cannot point to anywhere in the physical brain where we can say, "There! That's it! That's the mind."
In fact it's backwards. We have to have our mind to be able to see a brain. That is self-evident and objective (you cannot observe a physical brain if you don't have a mind).
Personality, sensory perception, and things of that nature are absolutely affected by neurological processes, but we aren't really able to get outside of a mind to see if a brain can still be observed without one.
atfyfe t1_j2cplyb wrote
The mind isn't so much in the brain, the brain is more like a projector. Consciousness is the show, the brain is just the underlying physical machine that's generating it.
But if you break the projector, the show stops.
MrXwiix t1_j2cpmv1 wrote
>It took more studies to get a more precise understanding,
Just adding that in comparison to the rest of the body, we still know very little about the brain and that there's so much left to discover
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mnicolella t1_j2cqwt6 wrote
To be fair, I might too if every time I met someone they said, “hey what’s with the rod?”
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RoastedRhino t1_j2csbwx wrote
The observation of injury must be the main “scientific” reason to infer that, but notice that we look at the world from our head, because that’s where eyes are.
Yahallo139 t1_j2ct8bf wrote
Same, also when you have headache is easier to tell
grinning- t1_j2ctn4j wrote
I often say to my students, if you think the brain doesn't create the mind, let me take a melon baller to your brain, I promise I can wipe out/remove any part of your 'mind'.
grinning- t1_j2ctqm9 wrote
Take my upvote, that's hilarious!
sirtimes t1_j2cvf0y wrote
Disagree that it's self-evident and objective. Couldn't you just train an AI with a camera to observe a brain and tell you when it's seen one?
I tend to think that the brain is the structure, and what people call the mind is the activity.
[deleted] t1_j2cwdbq wrote
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TransSlutUK t1_j2cx5jp wrote
It has kind of been understood for a couple of generations at LEAST that this is not the case? There are three decision making centres in the body and only one of those is in the head. The sense of self is largely centered there so it 'feels' like it should be the answer. Plus, intuitively, you can lose arms and legs and function but not the head. So it made sense to assume that before they realised Neurons exited throughout the entire body.
oldmansalvatore t1_j2cy1xw wrote
Ok, even if I stretch to include the endocrine system as a "decision making centre" (it's not really), other than the nervous and endocrine systems what other "decision making centre" are you talking about.
oldmansalvatore t1_j2cymg9 wrote
I wish this comment was higher up. While it's true that our personality and a lot of what we consider as part of our minds, is significantly driven by hormones as well, the number of pseudoscientific comments claiming that the brain is not the primary organ responsible for human consciousness is just ridiculous.
[deleted] t1_j2cz3ds wrote
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lifesoidot t1_j2czdvi wrote
That explains the personality changes after I fractured my penis.
lifesoidot t1_j2czrzd wrote
Even extremely powerful magnets are quite benign. Take MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) for example. The tissues will warm a little, but well within what is safe.
Perhaps you are thinking of a shock wave? Like an IED outside an armoured vehicle. The armour might prevent any shrapnel penetration, but the shock wave alone can cause an acquired brain injury.
noonemustknowmysecre t1_j2czswz wrote
...eh, that's like saying that software doesn't physically exist.
But it does. The pattern in the RAM and CPU is a real electrical charge and has real physical manifestation. Same with the pattern of connections, electrochemical signals, and hormones in the head.
Lemme make that clear. You're claiming something exists, but doesn't physically exist, like it exists outside of physics or something. It's bullshit.
Nelewout t1_j2d01m5 wrote
Do you happen to be a gorilla or chimpanzee?
qbookfox t1_j2d0dr1 wrote
Just wanted to add that every persons visual perspective and inner voice, thinking, hearing, dreaming - it’s all coming from the head and not the stomach or the arms. I don’t think most people was in shock when they learned about the brain. Most probably intuitively knew and just called it the soul instead.
do_you_dare t1_j2d0hfp wrote
Absolutely! Same for me
Stock_Regular8696 t1_j2d0x36 wrote
It is possible to break your dingledong. Fracture might be the wrong word but it can certainly happen.
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DTux5249 t1_j2d1do1 wrote
If I hit your head hard enough with a rock, your personality can change, and you can lose memories. We also perceive all of our senses from the head.
It wasn't too hard to piece together. Then we started cutting chunks of it out, and that basically confirmed it
justfa_KBL t1_j2d1eut wrote
This!!
The mind is the "conceptual" brain, something like the operating system which runs in the hardware which is the human body. Consciousness being the show, as atfyfe said, is being aware that you are both your body acting as dictated by the mind and the mind controlling the body.
Additionally, I believe muscle memory is also part of the "mind" concept. Therefore, your full body is your mind and you must be mindful of your body.
If you go one step further then you exist also outside of your body, in the minds of other people with wich you interacted. It's not the real you, just a splinter.
However, we can go even further, if you believe in the power of a global consciousness, that speck in the mind of the people you interacted with is still your mind but in their body. But this sounds like sci-fi already so I'll stop here before getting to astral projections which are not bound by the speed of light, therefore not bound by the concept of time.
EmilyU1F984 t1_j2d1j0i wrote
Yea. That‘s how it works for every healthy human.
I don’t think even Stone Age people would have assumed anything else without thinking about it.
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Ruadhan2300 t1_j2d2jq7 wrote
Point to the one part of a cuckoo clock that knows what time it is.
FartyPants69 t1_j2d2qb0 wrote
That's a very interesting point, and raises a tangential question: What exactly causes that sensation?
Why do we feel like our head is the center of our body, rather than something like our center of mass (our torso)?
Is it possible to shift that sensation using mind-altering techniques like meditation, sensory deprivation, drugs, etc.? What's behind that, physiologically?
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FartyPants69 t1_j2d3ff0 wrote
Good point! Kind of analogous to a computer. A computer isn't "in" the CPU; it's an integrated system of CPU, memory, I/O devices (keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers), ports, sensors, etc.
The mind is a function of the entire nervous system, not just the brain.
I listen to a lot of Andrew Huberman, and one interesting thing he covers is how neurons don't just exist in the brain, and they aren't exclusively for processing thoughts. Your gut actually has hundreds of millions of neurons, and they signal all sorts of things subconsciously to your mind!
Nooms88 t1_j2d3xme wrote
Our main sensory organs and how we experience the world is focused around the head, our eyes, ears and nose. When we reach out to touch something we can see our arms with our eyes from the perspective of our head
TheArwingPilot t1_j2d4gut wrote
I like the way you think...or rather, I like your mind entering mine by my brain projecting what you typed into my reality.
But seriously, this post blew me away.
interstellargator t1_j2d4zog wrote
Do you interpret inner voice, thinking, and dreaming as occurring in the head because you innately know that's where it actually happens, or because you were told that's where it happens?
Plenty of emotions are felt in the chest. Excitement, love, despair, heartbreak. Seems just as reasonable to "intuitively know" that the soul lives in the heart or stomach.
TheArwingPilot t1_j2d5327 wrote
I like this argument. I think what this argument is missing is the question of what the mind actually is and where i, the observer, the controller, the one thinking thoughts, exists while the brain is functioning normally.
vavverro t1_j2d5fft wrote
It’s a cultural thing. Not a “healthy human” thing. We think that way because it’s a common knowledge now, and feels self evident. Google cardiocentric theory. Ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks believed that the source of thought and emotion was the heart, and that it controls movement.
vavverro t1_j2d5m6f wrote
Ancient Greeks and ancient Egyptians believed the heart was the source of thought, emotion, body control etc. it’s called cardiocentric theory. The fact that we feel our head to be the vessel of our consciousness is the result of scientific knowledge becoming common sense.
rogue303 t1_j2d6b2p wrote
Nope, he's probably talking about transcranial magnetic stimulation. You can use it to excite/suppress regions of the brain with interesting results.
FartyPants69 t1_j2d6b4m wrote
And that makes intuitive sense, but why does that feeling persist when I'm lying in bed in a dark, quiet, still room? My senses are basically idling, very little input, but my "center" remains in my head. I think something has to account for that aside from sensory input.
avataraustin t1_j2d6ppr wrote
Consciousness is not entirely local to the brain. Search out numerous stories of people who have had out of body experiences.
FartyPants69 t1_j2d6v5p wrote
Hmm, that's interesting but I don't know if that explains it exactly. I can recall being aware of the sensation of being "centered" in my head as a young child, long before I would have been aware of the physiology of my brain or nervous system.
Cryzgnik t1_j2d8lpm wrote
>the fact that we should understand is; mind is not a physical part or organ and it's not located at a specific place or part of the brain.
That's not a fact, that's one philosophical argument that is not definitive in the philosophy of mind and body.
aaaaaaaarrrrrgh t1_j2d9dtc wrote
Aka: "Poke it with a stick and see what happens".
[deleted] t1_j2d9tve wrote
Yes, you are right. It is an argument in philosophy. But there are long and deep explanations in Buddhism. Please, refer them...
[deleted] t1_j2da9x9 wrote
Yes, you are right. That's what I'm trying to tell in a simple way. And I haven't said that there isn't a thing like mind. I just said don't try to see it in a physical way...like your software example, it does not physically exist but it involves with other physical parts and it's an essential thing to function properly. Same matter for mind.
TheFfrog t1_j2damrr wrote
I had never thought of this, but i absolutely do and I'll never be able to unfeel this lol
Just_OneReason t1_j2darfj wrote
Sort of related anecdote: I’ve known multiple kids who at the age of about three or four telling me they did something because “their brain told them to”
PenguinSwordfighter t1_j2dc4h7 wrote
If people hurt their heads badly enough, their mind will start to do weird things. This doesn't happen for other body parts.
-Teltar t1_j2dciv5 wrote
There's probably more to it, but the fact that you're using your head senses the majority of the time could cause the sensation you are describing as the norm.
Even the smaller amount of time you're lying in bed in the dark, you will still be using your hearing and smell.
It's interesting to think about though.
nighthawk_something t1_j2ddv2r wrote
Likely because that's where we see and hear from
54yroldHOTMOM t1_j2ddx8d wrote
It could also be that the brain is simply a receiver and cpu. Like a dial up connection to the internet. But instead it connects to the mind. Which may or may not be present in the body. If the receiver breaks down or the cpu and mem gets damaged, the information downloaded obviously gets misinterpreted and or causes memory fails and bad computations.
laser50 t1_j2de1se wrote
Do we really though? Most people still think that's our soul and it is in our body.
54yroldHOTMOM t1_j2de3sm wrote
But does a processor equal the bios and or it’s OS?
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anonymopotamus t1_j2desax wrote
Ancient Greeks thought that thinking was in the heart, Plato was an early proponent of placing it in the head (in the Timaeus). Before then people in the region would have answered the same way as you, but would have pointed to the heart.
vavverro t1_j2dexay wrote
Well, I would argue that possibly at very early age there’s no yet fully formed concept of self consciousness, and by the time it develops, the child is already culturally primed to such an extent that it can’t help but have same mental concepts as all adults.
Its fascinating how sometimes things that we feel to be natural and innate to human nature are actually culture-based. There are societies where they don’t have notions for left and right, they perceive sides of objects and their own bodies in terms of global directions. And stuff like that.
tashkiira t1_j2dgvu4 wrote
nah, the medical term is 'penile fracture'.
EarlyAd29 t1_j2dgx75 wrote
I edited my comment to make more sense. the type of magnetic wave I mean are say you're counting numbers then you suddenly start talking gibberish because I directed a strong magnetic wave at your brain, but it's only temporary and should not, for some reason, be used for recreational purposes.
breadcreature t1_j2dh1fx wrote
It is possible to shift that with meditation, it can be used as a way to sort of train yourself to focus attention on different things. I'd say it's a bit like if someone tells you to "make yourself heavy", you can't literally change your weight with your mind but you don't consciously think which muscles to relax and so on either, you just sort of... be heavy. So you can try to "be in your foot" and think about how the other parts of your body are moving around that instead. I've had it click sometimes but it promptly surprises me out of the state.
Also with meditation, psychedelic/dissociative drugs and things like sensory deprivation chambers, people sometimes experience complete dissociation where their awareness is fully outside their body!
SirTruffleberry t1_j2dhe2n wrote
Sure, but ya know, Occam's Razor. Why suppose the brain is the middle man to an unseen object when treating it as the final object works fine?
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Ken_Field t1_j2divzy wrote
Recently read a theory like this, that consciousness is more of a universal field that our individual bodies “pick up on” with our brains acting as the sensing object, similar to how our ears might hear a noise in the distance but that doesn’t mean our ears are the object that generated that noise.
I don’t think it’s true tbh, but it’s an interesting thought experiment in the goal of understanding consciousness.
tommytraddles t1_j2diw4i wrote
Everyone everywhere has known that the answer to Did you get stabbed in head or kicked by horse in face? is You have thinky problems now.
pr3dato8 t1_j2dixkq wrote
So would it be medically accurate to call you a dickhead?
54yroldHOTMOM t1_j2dj0im wrote
Why philosophy when we all die anyway?
Splashfooz t1_j2djtvd wrote
'senile fracture'
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Jkarofwild t1_j2dk45d wrote
That question is one of the ones philosophy is all about.
lifesoidot t1_j2dkad6 wrote
Ok, so I am actually a dog, but I was hoping to still fly under the radar because humans can technically fracture their dingledong. It’s just not a bony dingledong.
lifesoidot t1_j2dkd07 wrote
Nah, my head is not that interesting.
tashkiira t1_j2dkepo wrote
Considering the average age of a sufferer of penile fracture is under 30, you might want to consider how 'senile' the victims are.
Jkarofwild t1_j2dkevh wrote
It's not the case that everyone everywhere everywhen has exposure to a corpus of knowledge about head injuries. Hence why some people went with "when I'm embarrassed/infatuated/etc I feel it in my 'heart', that must be where thinking happens".
mangoandsushi t1_j2dkhsd wrote
Don't you just feel it? I have always been aware of my head being crucial to my thinking and I should protect it more than anything else.
[deleted] t1_j2dklaq wrote
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Captinhairybely t1_j2dm3pe wrote
Worth noting that the ancient Egyptians used to think that the brain produced mucus and snot, and that your "mind" was actually in your heart.
peeping_somnambulist t1_j2dme5z wrote
Hitting people in the head hard enough either kills then or makes them unconscious.
Hit head means sleep for short time or forever is a pretty obvious cause and effect scenario.
Korenaut t1_j2do378 wrote
Alva Noe says the brain is necessary for a mind but not sufficient - it takes a whole body to mind!
USCanuck t1_j2do3eh wrote
So, like, am I alone in feeling that my consciousness resides in my skull?
SirTruffleberry t1_j2dpqw8 wrote
I don't think it reduces the quality or scope of philosophy if one doesn't assume a soul/immaterial mind.
Assuming unnecessary things to explain phenomena does, on the other hand, usually have negative consequences. Every one of your postulates is like a filter through which the truth must pass. More/stronger filters means it's more likely that the truth snags on one of those assumptions.
[deleted] t1_j2dqcdj wrote
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provocative_bear t1_j2dqp1m wrote
It came from observing changes in personality following head injury. Phineas Gage from the 1800s is the classical example. He had an iron rod go through his head while working on a railroad. He survived but his personality changed dramatically (he was no longer polite and inhibited as he was before, the accounts don’t seem to go into detail but the observers were clearly shocked by what they saw).
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Ellie-Bright t1_j2dsphx wrote
So where is the mind if not the brain, according to you?
Ellie-Bright t1_j2dsxay wrote
Out of body experiences, of which there is no reason to assume aren't entirely created by and still entirely within the brain?
Ellie-Bright t1_j2dt750 wrote
I don't know why a bunch of mind-body dualists come to a thread asking a question framed under mind-body materialism to give their spiritually motivated answers that are entirely irrelevant to the question asked. Proselytize elsewhere?
Ellie-Bright t1_j2dtk9k wrote
Why is it worth noting?
AnotherManDown t1_j2duhia wrote
The jury is still out. Despite our advancements and accomplishments we know astonishingly little about human consciousness, and how exactly is it that organic chemistry can produce a being that perceives, thinks, dreams and produces unbelievable achievements in every way imaginable.
But first things first, let's check the language we're using. Whereas the brain is a physical organ situated inside the skull, the mind is an abstraction. What we call "the mind" is actually a set of functions - our capacity to perceive, analyze, dream up and influence reality (there is probably a more comprehensive way to describe it, but I'm shooting from the hip here). My point being that "the mind" is a roof term not an observable object.
It's still a very useful term and I don't want to downplay it in the least, but, almost paradoxically, it only exists inside the mind via language.
Now whether our thoughts and dreams are produced inside our brains and we all make up our own minds (pun intended), or whether the brain is more akin to a receiver-broadcaster that channels the mind, is a matter of opinion, not fact. There's no evidence to support either, and science usually picks the more conservative estimate, whereas spiritualism is more liberal. But they both know exactly the same amount, which is almost nothing.
angrybird7677 t1_j2duhip wrote
When u are thinking a thought, do you feel the thought forms in your head or in other parts of your body? For me at least, I imagined myself having the thoughts coming through from my head... Perhaps I was brainwashed into learning that the brain is in my skull, therefore the thought comes from there? Hence my preconceived notion?
avataraustin t1_j2dvdzw wrote
There are cases of people being braindead and having them for example. This site has a decent collect of info and links if interested https://theformulaforcreatingheavenonearth.com/ndes-absolutely-positively-not-caused-by-malfunctioning-brains/
54yroldHOTMOM t1_j2dvxb3 wrote
What is truth? Are they facts or what someone believes to be true? And what if everything is true? Even the things that “aren’t”. Or if truth is in a state of flux until someone observes it.
Captinhairybely t1_j2dwsc0 wrote
Because this is a thread about how we came to realise the brain and mind were in the same place. It's just a bit of historical context that I thought was worth noting (as it just shows humans have had varied ideas about the mind and brain... Who's to say any of us are correct? Maybe the mind is just a localisation of a collective consciousness idk)
SirTruffleberry t1_j2dx0ol wrote
I would say that empirical truths (obviously not mathematical or abstract truths) are statements about an efficient model that seems to agree with sensory data and predicts incoming data. That's pretty streamlined but hits the biggest points, I think.
Nooms88 t1_j2e1j7t wrote
Because you're used to it from birth. I wonder what someone who was born blind and deaf would feel.
Tony2Punch t1_j2e1rf2 wrote
But that isn’t even fully true when you compare the massive amount of illnesses that would have been more common due to poor hygiene. Many of these diseases could infect through any open holes in the body or anything they eat and just give them a bad enough fever they get brain damage.
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atfyfe t1_j2e2j6t wrote
Not everything has a location. Where is time? Where is the possibility that WW2 didn't happen? Where is red? (if I destroy all the red things in the universe, have I destroyed red itself or just all the red things?) Where is the number '2' or multiplication? Where is the fact that masses attract or the fact that the rule that nothing can go faster than the speed of light or any of the physical laws? They govern physical objects, but they are physical themselves. I can't kick gravity.
Everything does seem to depend on the physical, but it doesn't appear to be true that everything is physical. In philosophy we say all these things at least appear to 'supervene' on the physical.
There are some philosophers who argue that everything is physical (eliminative physicalism), but that view has been losing support in favor of the view that everything depends upon the physical (non-reductive physicalism).
So the mind exists, but it isn't the sort of thing that has a location - just like numbers, physical laws, possibilities, time, etc. It's a part of the world, but not a physical part even if it's existence seems to depend on the physical (i.e your mind stops existing once your brain does and depends on your brain).
See: https://iep.utm.edu/supermin/
Typed on my phone, pls excuse typos.
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PckMan t1_j2e97ay wrote
In the old times people died a lot more than they do today, and many had various accidents. From the way people died or the way they were affected by accidents they were able to roughly deduce the role of each of our organs and what they do and how they affect us. Doctors did exist and they did examine patients post mortem as well as attempt surgery, with varying results. Also the same applied to animals, and people were able to understand that animals such as deer or livestock had the same organs as us so this allowed for further observation and experimentation.
Overall while there may have been several misconceptions and mysteries throughout history a surprising amount was understood about our bodies. Figuring out that the brain in particular is the center of thought and sense of self is relatively easy since they could easily observe how injury to the brain or other ailments like tumors could affect one's faculties.
54yroldHOTMOM t1_j2e9iz9 wrote
Thanks that’s a nice definition.
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michalsrb t1_j2ea38x wrote
I find it strange that people thought other places (like the heart) were where mind resides, because I can "feel" I am in my head, not other part of my body. Maybe it's just learned feeling from knowing the truth.
Also the placement of eyes and ears kinda place the center of self into the head.
[deleted] t1_j2edea6 wrote
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Unique_Resident8856 t1_j2ee1yd wrote
The heart is actually also part of the mind as well. The heart can store memories. There’s have been reports of personality changes after heart transplant surgeries. In cases that were looked into the change resembled the donor.
NotDaveBut t1_j2ee8h4 wrote
Well they might as well be if the fracture is bad enough lol
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SomeRandomBruhDude t1_j2erjyc wrote
Bravo sir.
RewRiteRealityWithMe t1_j2f1lbo wrote
A lot of brain science these days is basically "turn off this part of the brain, see what happens." We've gotten good at it and can usually guess the outcome, but at the core that is the usual idea. There is a drastic impact on people's ability to think, visualize, and a whole bunch of other "mind- related" tasks when we turn off brain areas or physically remove them so that is why the current assumption is that it's in the brain.
DrRob t1_j2f4pr7 wrote
Brain injuries, which have been with us as long as we've been a species. An interesting and surprising exception is Aristotle, who basically thought the brain was a radiator.
PassiveChemistry t1_j2f5d7p wrote
By seeing what happens when you poke it (sometimes quite violently, not always intentionally)
anonymopotamus t1_j2f96y3 wrote
Nope.
What is obvious to you isn't obvious to everyone.
Top_Refrigerator8679 t1_j2fasw7 wrote
Because you can transplant any other body part including the human heart and still be yourself. A brain transplant is impossible so the mind lives there!!!
marveloustoebeans t1_j2faul4 wrote
Well typically when people took a large rock or arrow to the head their mind stopped working but if they took one to the leg or arm it didn’t. Probably didn’t take long to put 2 and 2 together.
noonemustknowmysecre t1_j2fk38a wrote
Huh? You can't say I'm right and then double down on being wrong.
Software DOES physically exist. I just explained how and where.
QualityDialogue t1_j2fnkoe wrote
Phineas Gage (late 1800s) gave us a great input into this question. He got a pole stuck through his head and survived. However, his personality changed significantly after the event. It's considered a landmark case study in how mind and brain are deeply connected.
[deleted] t1_j2fptye wrote
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entheodelic t1_j2fshux wrote
This is a theory. It is known as the “hard problem” - determining where consciousness is birthed. Not sure why people are suggesting we know it “resides” in the brain. The brain is instrumental, but so is the heart and the rest of the body. And then there is the theory our bodies and minds only work as receivers for an externally emitted consciousness.
Would love to see some studies proving the idea that consciousness stems from the brain.
Milnoc t1_j2fsnjq wrote
It was realised by observing what happened to some people after they survived massive head injuries. The most revealing victim was Phineas Gage when a metal rod was accidentally driven through his head. He was literally never the same man after that incident.
[deleted] t1_j2fwpiv wrote
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exponentials t1_j2bvef5 wrote
Experiments. In one, electrical probes on the frontal cortex of dogs showed that they could produce changes in the amount of alertness and aggression. Studies of brain lesions in humans showed that damage to particular parts of the brain would lead to particular patterns of physical and psychological deficits.
Phineas Gage was a railroad worker who suffered a brain injury when a metal rod went through the front part of his brain. After the accident, he changed from a smart, kind guy to one who was impulsive and rude.