All Articles by Jared Tanner, MS
Mr. Tanner has an M.S. degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate in clinical psychology with an emphasis in neuropsychology. His interests are mainly neuroimaging and neuroanatomy. He spends his research time looking at the structure of gray and white matter in the brains of people with Parkinson's disease. With a focus on neuropsychology, he is also interested in how normal and abnormal brain structure relates to cognitive and behavioral functioning.
Creating an Artificial Brain
Dr. Henry Markram recently announced that he expects to have a computer model of the human brain in ten years. As part of the Blue Brain Project, he is part of a team trying to "reverse-engineer the mammalian brain."The human brain is exceedingly complex. There are about 100 billion neurons within the human central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) with an estimated 100 trillion synapses (connections between neurons).
What is Free Will?
This post continues my discussion of free will and determinism in neuroscience. Due to the relatively brief nature of these posts, this discussion is incomplete. However, I hope it spurs additional discussion. I believe addressing free will and determinism allows us to understand the underlying theories and implications of neuroscience and social science research as well as the practical application of that research.For this article, the main questions are: "Is behavior biologically determined?" and "Do humans have free will?" I will not address in this post the argument between compatibilism and incompatibilism. In response to comments and questions about my previous post, I thought it necessary to attempt to define free will before I write further posts on this general topic of free will and biological determinism in the neurosciences.
Free Will and the Philosophy of Science
For many years the discussion over the existence of free will was limited to philosophers and theologians. Scientists started talking about free will once science started separating as a discipline from philosophy. However, it wasn’t until the rise of functional neuroimaging that some neuroscientists started studying if the brain and deterministic brain processes could explain away free will. In short, some scientists want to discover whether or not free will is merely an illusion, an idea humans create out of an innate desire to feel in control.
Cognitive Theories and Brain Damage
Cognitive theorists postulate how information is processed. For example, is it like a computer where all the information is broken down into bits, processed, and then reassembled for output? Or is processing handled in a completely different manner? One prevalent way to test theories of cognitive psychology is by studying patients (whether human or animal) with brain damage. There are both advantages and disadvantages to using brain-damaged patients to test and construct cognitive theories.
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Future Posts
- The Brain’s Buying Power
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Comments
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