Part 2: Mind
Weary with toil,
I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travail tired;
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind, when body's work's expired: ~ From Shakespeare's sonnets
Shakespeare was not just a writer of genius, for whom the human brain is the complex niche of all the emotions that drive the plots of his greatest plays. From Julius Caesar, and Othello to Coriolanus and The Tempest, the playwright is acutely aware of the ways in which the implementation of our ‘grey matter’ can have multi-colored theatrical effects. There are four plays, in particular, three tragedies and a comedy, that illustrate Shakespeare’s deep understanding of ‘states of mind’: Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, and King Lear. Each of these plays, successively, illustrates a darkening and deepening of the poet’s neurological understanding. Each has something quite specific to teach the 21st-century mind. It’s often said that Shakespeare was a psychoanalyst 300 years before Freud. We might also suggest, similarly, that the poet was a proto-neurologist for whom states of mind in dramatic conflict contained the essence of his approach to drama.
Canst thou not minister t a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain, And with some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart?~ Macbeth
Inside the womb, epigenetic influences can change the developing brain in ways that increase the risk of eventual suicide. In February 2008 a study revealed that baby boys who are born either short or with low birth weight are more likely to commit violent suicide as adults than longer and heavier babies are, irrespective of their height and weight as adults. Similarly, baby boys born prematurely are four times more likely to attempt violent suicide than those born at full term.
The most common pathway to suicide is through depression, which afflicts people who kill themselves. Researchers found that the depressed who commit suicide have an abnormal distribution of receptors for the chemical GABA, one of the most abundant neurotransmitters in the brain. GABA’s role is to inhibit neuron activity. “If you think about the gas pedal and brakes on a car, GABA is the brakes." ~ The Origins of Suicidal Brains
With deft and faultless thriftiness, Shakespeare has nailed the tragedy of old age, its fears, and fretfulness, and nailed it to a larger
drama that gives it both meaning and consequence. In a
highly modern twist, Lear is neither redeemed nor absolved by his sufferings, his death is brought on by the torments of grief for the loss of his child (Cordelia) and the breaking of an old man’s heart. Shakespeare does not say this—he does not need to—but the monarch without the comforts of reason or the love of family has no future. Neurologists know this, but Shakespeare got
there first.
In chapter 8 of Dorian Gray, Dorian reflects on the terrifying discovery, which he had made the previous night, that the painting has been somehow altered to express his own moral state.
He speculates thus on a possible explanation for the change in the picture:
Was there some subtle affinity between the chemical atoms, that shaped themselves into form and color on the canvas, and the soul that was within him? Could it be that what that soul thought, they realized? –that what it dreamed, they made true?
At the end of the chapter, he thinks along similar lines:
Might there not be some curious scientific reason for it all? If thought could exercise its influence upon a living organism, might not thought to exercise an influence upon dead and inorganic things? Nay, without thought or conscious desire, might not things external to ourselves vibrate in unison with our moods and passions, atom calling to atom in secret love or strange affinity?
Atoms are a paradox making up the painting and Dorian’s own body, and this reminder of the materiality of both. This reminds us, in turn, of the possibility that Dorian, and all human selves, may occupy an insignificant yet inescapable place in the wider processes of the physical world.
Anxieties about one such material process –of evolution, and especially that of degeneration –haunt expressions of the individual. In Dorian’s thoughts about “atoms” lies the extreme possibility that the very distinction between organic and inorganic may be blurred, a doubtful sense that human evolutionary kinship extends beyond even the simplest organisms to matter itself, and that the category of the human is thus under greater threat than ever in the light of scientific theories of the material world. At the same time, the questions that Dorian asks himself envisage not the reduction of the mind to matter but the near-opposite of this: the possibility that “thought” may somehow “influence” the matter of the painting.
In Wilde’s story, the soul is threatened with disintegration in the wake of physiological and evolutionary forces. Equally, however, these fluid possibilities illustrate Wilde’s sense of the self’s fundamental indeterminacy and resistance. Mind and body exist in intimate and yet dubious combination, each necessarily part of the self and neither reducible to the other. Each, too, is vulnerable to incalculable influences.
Mind, was thought of as the complex of faculties involved in perceiving, remembering, considering evaluating, and deciding. The mind is in some sense reflected in such occurrences as sensations, perceptions, emotions, memory, desires, various types of reasoning, motives, choices, traits of personality, and the unconscious.
Years ago there was little knowledge of the functions of
the subregions of the human prefrontal cortex. Over the years there has been a great change in the amount of information available on the topic. The major source has been functional imaging. There are enough studies on a variety of different types of task where there are significant differences in activation in complex patterns across prefrontal regions. Thus, a process such as episodic memory (autobiographical memory), previously thought not to be strongly related to frontal functions, now seems to involve five, if not six, anterior regions, which are differentially involved depending on subtle
variations in the tasks. There are a large number of different types of subprocesses that are frontally localized.
Sir, Albert Einstein, and his extraordinary intelligence fascinated all but the genius of his mind remained a mystery.
Einstein’s brain had an extraordinary prefrontal cortex and that inferior portions of the primary somatosensory and motor cortices were greatly expanded in the left hemisphere.
The corpus callosum is the largest nerve fibre bundle that connects the cortical regions of the cerebral hemispheres in human brains and it plays an essential role in the integration of information transferred between the hemispheres over thousands of axons.
It is a large C shape of white matter that divides the cerebral cortex into the right and left hemispheres.
Einstein’s corpus callosum circularity is significantly larger.
In most of the genu, midbody, isthmus, and part of the splenium, Einstein’s corpus callosum is thicker than normal but thinner in the most rostral body.
Einstein’s brain weight was very similar to the mean brain weight of the elderly control group. Einstein’s brain was normal for his age
Einstein’s corpus callosum in the genu(knee-like anterior curvature of the corpus callosum of the brain, ending in the rostrum or beak of that organ: as, the genu of the optic tract)is wider.
The corpus callosum (The anterior one-fourth of the callosum is considered the genu. The rostral body begins directly behind the genu, extending back to include the anterior one-third of the callosum. The center one-third of the callosum is split into two equal sections, the anterior and posterior midbody. The isthmus extends from the posterior one-third to the posterior one-fifth of the callosum. Finally, the most posterior one-fifth is considered the selenium)is the largest bundle of white matter neural fibres in the brain that connects the interhemispheric cortices, and it may be involved in any neuroanatomical substrate of hemisphere specialization.
The fibres that pass through the callosal rostrum and genu appear to connect the interhemispheric regions of orbital gyri (The orbital gyri are located on the inferior surface of the frontal lobe. There are four gyri and they are divided by the H-shaped orbital sulci. They have a role in the perception of odors) and prefrontal cortices corresponding with the left and right Brodmann areas 11/10(Brodmann’s areas are typically shown on a map of the brain surface, but each region is continued through the depth of cerebral cortex), which are involved in planning, reasoning, decision-making, memory retrieval, and executive function.
Brodmann areas 1, 2 & 3: primary somatosensory cortex (postcentral gyrus)
Brodmann area 4: primary motor cortex (precentral gyrus)
Brodmann area 5: somatosensory association cortex (superior parietal lobule)
Brodmann area 6: premotor cortex and supplementary motor cortex
Brodmann area 7: visuo-motor coordination (superior parietal lobule)
Brodmann area 8: frontal eye fields
Brodmann area 9: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Brodmann area 10: anterior prefrontal cortex
Brodmann area 11 & 12: orbitofrontal area (orbital gyri, gyrus rectus, rostral gyrus and part of superior frontal gyrus)
Brodmann area 13 & 16: insular cortex
Brodmann area 17: primary visual cortex (V1)
Brodmann area 18: secondary visual cortex (V2)
Brodmann area 19: associative visual cortex (V3, V4 & V5)
Brodmann area 20: inferior temporal gyrus
Brodmann area 21: middle temporal gyrus
Brodmann area 22: superior temporal gyrus (including Wernicke area)
Brodmann area 23, 24, 28 to 33: cingulate cortex
Brodmann area 25: subgenual area
Brodmann area 26: ectosplenial portion of the retrosplenial region of the cerebral cortex
Brodmann area 27: piriform cortex
Brodmann area 34: dorsal entorhinal cortex
Brodmann area 35 & 36: perirhinal cortex & ectorhinal area
Brodmann area 37: fusiform gyrus
Brodmann area 38: temporal pole
Brodmann area 39: angular gyrus
Brodmann area 40: supramarginal gyrus
Brodmann area 41 & 42: primary auditory cortex (Heschl gyrus)
Brodmann area 43: primary gustatory cortex
Brodmann area 44: part of Broca area (pars opercularis, part of the inferior frontal gyrus)
Brodmann area 45: part of Broca area (pars triangularis, part of the inferior frontal gyrus)
Brodmann area 46: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Brodmann area 47: pars orbitalis, part of the inferior frontal gyrus
Brodmann area 48: retrosubicular area
Brodmann area 52: parainsular area
There is a hypothesis consistent with the finding that Einstein had relatively expanded prefrontal cortices. The morphology of both his corpus callosum and prefrontal cortex may have provided the foundation for his exceptional cognitive abilities and remarkable thought experiments.
The neural fibre bundle that passes through the callosal midbody and isthmus mainly connects corresponding interhemispheric pre-motor cortices (Brodmann area 6), primary motor cortices (Brodmann area 4), primary somatosensory cortices (Brodmann areas 1/2/3), secondary somatosensory cortices (Brodmann area 5) and parts of the parietal region. These fibres have the largest and most heavily myelinated axons, which transfer information faster. Einstein had an enlarged omega-shaped fold in his right primary motor cortex, which probably represented the motor cortex for his left hand, an unusual feature that may have been associated with the fact that he was a right-handed violin-player from childhood.
Fibers of the posterior isthmus and splenium are thought to connect corresponding parts of the superior parietal lobules (Brodmann area 7), inferior parietal lobules (Brodmann areas 39/40), and temporal cortices (Brodmann areas 20/21/37), whereas other fibres of the splenium have been shown to connect extensive cortical regions including the occipital cortex (Brodmann areas 17/18/19).
The superior parietal lobules are involved in visuomotor coordination, spatial attention, and spatial imagery. Recent functional MRI studies indicate that the superior parietal lobule and the intraparietal sulcus (groove)are both activated during mental arithmetic and digit memory tasks. The inferior parietal lobules are concerned with language, mathematical operations (especially on the left), spatial perception, and visuomotor integration. The occipital cortices are in charge of visual processing and can be activated during imagery with eyes closed. The inferior temporal gyri (Brodmann area 20) are involved in high-level visual processing, recognition memory, face and body recognition, and processing of color information. The parietal lobes of Einstein’s brain were 15% wider. Einstein’s right superior parietal lobule (Brodmann area 7) was considerably wider than the left, his right intraparietal sulcus was highly unusual, his left inferior parietal lobule appeared to be relatively expanded compared to the right, and the cortical surfaces of Einstein’s occipital lobes were very convoluted. The ratio of glial to neuronal cells was significantly greater in Einstein’s left compared to right Brodmann area 39 and relatively increased in the bilateral temporal neocortices. The glia affects neuronal excitability, synaptic transmission and coordinate activity across networks of neurons.
It was observed significant positive correlations between posterior callosal thickness and intelligence measures. Einstein’s extraordinary spatial imagery and mathematical gifts were grounded on definable neurological substrates. Although the intelligence of human beings cannot be fully explained by regional cortical volumes, Einstein’s extraordinary cognition was related not only to his unique cortical structure and cytoarchitectonics, but also involved enhanced communication routes between at least some parts of his two cerebral hemispheres.
Thus Einstein’s cerebral hemispheres by comparing the morphology of his corpus callosum with that of 15 elderly healthy males and 52 young healthy males. We found that Einstein’s corpus callosum was thicker in the vast majority of subregions and that Einstein’s corpus callosum was thicker in the rostrum, genu, midbody, isthmus, and (especially) the splenium. These findings show that the connectivity between the two hemispheres was generally enhanced in Einstein compared with control The results of our study suggest that Einstein’s intellectual gifts were not only related to specializations of cortical folding and cytoarchitecture in certain brain regions but also involved coordinated communication between the cerebral hemispheres. Last but not the least, the improved approach for corpus callosum measurement used in this study may have more general applications in corpus callosum studies.
~ From Brain a Journal of Neurology
The corpus callosum of Albert Einstein‘s brain: another clue to his high intelligence?
To explain the relationship between intelligence and the internal and external world of the individual; the analytical, creative, and practical comprise each sub-theory category respectively.
Understanding the nature of the components of intelligence is not alone sufficient to understand the nature of intelligence because there is more to intelligence than a set of information processing components. Sternberg held that we could scarcely understand what makes one person more intelligent than another, by only understanding the components of processing based on an intelligence test.
In Sternberg’s view, the three-part triarchic model breaks down intelligence into analytical, creative, and practical intelligence. For example, someone may be book smart but lack creativity and street smarts.
Another person may be creative, but lack analytical and practical skills; another may be quite practical but lack the creative and analytical abilities others have.
By incorporating analytical, critical, and practical intelligence you can achieve successful intelligence.
Most intelligent people fail due to: a lack of motivation, a lack of impulse control, a lack of perseverance, a fear of failure, procrastination, the inability to delay gratification, and due to having too little or too much self-confidence.
A new powerful metaphor was spreading rapidly: that the mind is to the brain as a computer program is to the hardware of the computer on which it runs. This, to a large extent, remains the dominant paradigm in present-day cognitive science.
Being a bibliophile, loving knowledge, and having a chronic disease abliophobia I believe in esteemed Mr.Sherlock Holmes' words
“I consider that a man’s brain originally is like an empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time for every addition of knowledge you forget something you knew before. It is of highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
My mental states and processes are supposedly made up of a different sort of stuff and take place in a different sort of realm. I disregard the view of this prevalent tendency to equate mind with brain, and the accompanying assumptions about the spatial boundaries of the human cognitive realm. My brain is naturally adaptive and the natural plasticity and unique brain's circuitry, partially busted makes it plastic par excellence and makes me endure anything and not be a victim but a Warrior 👸 Princess.
