The essential, feature of a brain is the ability to tune into what is ongoing on out there using a variety of input devices. Brains work differently from digital computers and do instantaneous, real-time data processing.

There is a range of electromagnetic frequencies broadcast in the universe. Vision tunes into a small range of highly selected frequencies and extracts data from this continuous and prolific stream of information. Tuning is not a feature of digital computers but is found in radios. An old radio set with a tuning knob is a good place to start when you want to understand brain function.

Science has advanced by inventing devices, optical and electronic, that extend our ability to sense this wave information. We have invented devices that can tune into every known electromagnetic frequency and we detect photons as particles that expose film and activate photon-energy-sensitive electronic detectors. Our ability to magnify and amplify events in an otherwise unseen microcosm is the foundation of science and technological advances. All our marvelous devices are extensions of our native ability to sense what is going on out there.

Tuning in the brain involves clusters of processors for every sensory system. Careful studies of the visual cortex, for example, have revealed clusters of highly specialized cells that detect single features. Discrete columns of specialized neurons respond as if they were programmed  to deliver specific information such as <column 1 - detect all edges moving to the left>. The combination of tuning circuits extracting specific information (focal awareness) with a scanning, broadband information seeker (global awareness) appear to be the basic plan of interaction with the outside world.

Magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reveals assemblies of cortical processors that are specialized to the recognition of  visual objects, for example and are  assigned to different domains for different classes of objects. Ishai and colleagues described brain maps for the recognition of pictures of faces, houses and chairs. They stated: “Recently, we identified, using fMRI, three bilateral regions in the ventral temporal cortex that responded preferentially to faces, houses, and chairs …Here, we report differential patterns of activation, similar to those seen in the ventral temporal cortex, in the bilateral regions of the ventral occipital cortex. We also found category-related responses in the dorsal occipital cortex and in the superior temporal sulcus. Rather than activating discrete, segregated areas, each category was associated with its own differential pattern of response across a broad expanse of cortex. The distributed patterns of response were similar across tasks (passive viewing, delayed matching) and presentation formats (photographs, line drawings). We propose that the representation of objects in the ventral visual pathway, including both occipital and temporal regions, is not restricted to small, highly selective patches of cortex but, instead, is a distributed representation of information about object form. Within this distributed system, the representation of faces appears to be less extensive as compared to the representations of nonface objects. “

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Human Brain in Health and Disease

Neuroscience Notes

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