[extropy-chat] Big Brain Thinking

[Mehran]

Monday, February 13, 2006

Big Brain Thinking

http://www.technologyreview.com/BioTech/wtr_16325,306,p1.html

Stanford neuroscientist Bill Newsome wants to implant an electrode 
in his brain to better understand human consciousness.

By Emily Singer

Scientists are learning volumes about the brain -- how it can make 
split-second decisions, how it learns from past mistakes, how it 
converts pulses of light into a complex visual scene. But, for some, 
deciphering the "language" of the electrical pulses that travel 
through our brains is only half the story. The second part, and one 
that is far more philosophical and complex, is how that brain 
activity translates into consciousness -- a person's self-awareness 
and perception of the world around them. 


Bill Newsome, a neuroscientist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, 
CA, has spent the last twenty years studying how neurons encode 
information and how they use it to make decisions about the world. 
In the 1990s, he and collaborators were able to change the way a 
monkey responded to its environment by sending electric jolts to 
certain parts of its brain. The findings gave neuroscientists 
enormous insight into the inner workings of the brain. 


But Newsome is obsessed with a lingering question: How does 
consciousness arise from brain function? He feels the best way to 
answer that question is by implanting an electrode into his own 
brain -- and seeing how the electric current changes his perception 
of the world. 


Newsome would not be the first person with a brain implant. Epilepsy 
patients undergo electrical stimulation prior to brain surgery. A 
paralyzed man in New England has an experimental implant that 
translates his brain activity into movements of a robotic arm. And, 
perhaps most famously, Kevin Warwick, a cybernetics professor at the 
University of Reading, U.K., first implanted a chip into nerve 
fibers in his arm in 2002, then implanted a chip in his wife's arm, 
as part of his quest to become a cyborg. 


It's not certain that Newsome will get approval for such a radical 
undertaking. But, if he does, his experiment won't be in the 
interest of curing a disease or become a human machine. He's hoping 
to do something broader: understand consciousness.


Technology Review: Why is understanding consciousness so important 
to you?


Bill Newsome: I think that how consciousness arises out of brain 
function is one of the most fascinating and important questions in 
all of neurobiology. If we understand the system completely (from 
input to output) at a cellular level, but still do not know exactly 
what causes conscious mental phenomena, we will have failed.

....

http://www.technologyreview.com/BioTech/wtr_16325,306,p1.html