Does your brain actually store any information?
DISCLAIMER: I am no neuroscientist. I am about to complete my fourth year as a psychology student at a private college. I am simply
providing some of what I have learned, and postulating a theory based upon that info.
So what I'm about to attempt to guide you through is a very interesting, but at times intense topic:
Neuroscience.
Neuroscience is
The scientific study of the brain and of the links between brain activity and behavior.
Source
I am going to do my best to make my case as simple as possible because this is such a complex topic.
So.
The brain does not perceive anything but electrical signals.
A stimulus comes in, and our senses perceive it in different ways.
Sensory neurons in our
skin record the frequency, pressure, and duration of touch.
Chemical detectors on our
tongues, and in our
noses take in chemical information about materials.
Rods and cones in the backs of our
eyes take in information about different frequencies of light waves and send them to the brain.
Different frequencies of sound enter the
ear, creating a vibrational frequency, which is picked up by small hairs in the inner ear,
translating the sound into something the brain can understand.
This part is very important.
The brain does not understand what the outside world is saying.
It needs to be translated first.
So every signal that is sent in, is translated into electrical signals.
Now the electrical signals are not the message.
The electrical signals simply allow the message to get through.
The electricity produced opens chemical channels at the end of the neuron, allowing for chemical messengers to go through to the next neuron, and so
on and so forth, until the chemicals make it to the brain.
Once the signals make it to the brain, they go through certain patterns of firings to get to the processing centers for those senses.
Vision for example, is processed in the back of the brain, about halfway up, in an area called the occipital cortex.
Now here is the main point I'm trying to get at.
Physically in the brain, once the messages get to the brain, the only things that happen are all chemically and electrically based.
As said before, the electrical signals, open up the channels for the chemical messengers to get through.
But this is the point.
Stimulus comes in,
It is converted to a electrical frequency,
this is converted to a chemical message,
the message makes it to the brain,
and this just continues in the brain in a more complicated manner, going to more neurons, in different parts of the brain based upon what type of
information it is.
Do you see it?
I do.
It's simple.
There's no 'message.'
There is no information.
It's just an interpretation of a physical stimulus converted into chemical messengers so the brain can understand it.
When you experience something,
everything about that 'experience' is recorded, and 'translated' into a language that the brain can understand.
It's all just reactions to that initial action.
Sort of like a biological Rube Goldberg machine.
So the information is
represented by those chemical messengers, but it is not actually there.
The information is
inferred by the actions taken by the brain, but it is not actually recording or storing anything.
It is all just a chain of changes within the biological construct of the brain.
So how does this resonate with everyone?
Thoughts?
Ideas, Comments?
Throw em at me.
Im curious as to what everyone thinks about this.