THINK PIECES—Earlier this week, this blog
celebrated Ben Franklin’s birthday. The
man whose face is on the $100 bill didn’t invent newspapers or magazines but
his creativity certainly went a long way to fashion what we now call feature
writing. His brand of early journalism
gave readers much to think about.
Earlier
this week, NPR and ABC in their various Internet incarnations posted two
interesting “think pieces” on brain related topics. Studies of our mysterious brain and how it
operates makes for interesting reading:
IS FREE WILL AN ILLUSION?
Another
home run from NPR’s Cosmos and Culture series on the Internet is an essay by
regular contributor Marcelo Gleiser. In
his essay, “The Problem With A Clockwork Universe,” Gleiser delves into a
discussion of free will in humans that ranges from the cognitive neuroscience
to philosophy.
 |
| Free will or pre-determined? |
Interesting
thoughts abound in this short report.
For example, Gleiser writes that any discussion of free will must touch
bases with a branch of semi-physics called determinism.
In
beginning his essay, Gleiser asks: Are we agents of our own decisions? Or, has free will been predetermined by a
better understanding of physical science? “In practice, deterministic physical
systems are described by equations that allow us to predict precisely their
advance in time,” he explains.
“Is free
will nothing more than an illusion: subconscious processes in our brain seem to
make decisions before we are consciously aware of it?”
“Is
everything determined in advance by the laws of mechanics: the writing of this
essay, the winner of the World Cup in Brazil and the rate of inflation in the
year 2045.”
Gleiser
makes sense of all this in true NPR style: clear and concise.
For
Gleiser’s essay link to:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/01/22/264504218/the-problem-with-a-clockwork-universe
ADAM AND EVE DIDN’T READ
On the
heels of National Reading Day Saturday, we ran across an interesting article on
the human brain and reading.
Lee Dye
writing for ABC News points out “...It's amazing you can read these words.
It took
millions of years for humans, and our recent ancestors, to develop the visual
and motor and auditory skills that let us function in the complex world we
inhabit today. But in less than 5,000 years, a brief span in human history, we
learned how to read...”
Dye’s
column goes on to point out that when it comes to reading the brain is still
evolving and results of recent scientific studies acknowledge blood rushes to
the parts of the brain that are active, thus telling researchers which areas
are responsible for different functions, like dreaming, and reading, and
thinking about making love.
 |
| Active brain sections turn red while in use |
Says Dye,
Neuroscientists at Emory University in Atlanta have determined that just
reading a gripping novel makes changes in the way the brain connects with
different circuits, and most importantly, those changes last for at least five
days. They may not be permanent, but that at least suggests that the rewards
from reading last longer than the act itself.
Over at
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, scientists there found
that even the seemingly simple act of reading involves 17 regions of the brain,
but not all at the same time. They studied 30 persons ranging in age from seven
to 35 and found that some regions actually grew less active with age, so even
the physical activity in the human brain is not constant.
Bottom
line: Read often give your brain new challenges.
For the
rest of the ABC News report link to the following:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/reading-improve-brain/story?id=21501657
Factoid:
National
Geographic Society was founded on this day in 1888.
The
Marilyn Monroe Marathon is a one-day film fest, February 22 at the Birch North
Park Theatre (29th and University).
Presenting group is FilmOut San Diego.
