BRAIN

1. BRAIN Neil Greenberg Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Tennessee, Knoxville God in the Brain 2011 Brain

2. God in the Brain 2011

3. "Men ought to know that from nothing else but the brain come joys, delights, laughter and sports, and sorrows, griefs, despondency, and lamentations.“ –Hippocrates (“On the Sacred Disease” 400BCE) BRAIN

4. Normal brain functions become known when they are expressed as DEFICITS or EXCESSES of activity The processes that lead us into DYSFUNCTION are often in DYNAMIC BALANCE with each other [leading to the “Golden Mean” of Aristotle?] … BRAIN

5. BRAIN: SENSITIVITY Triggers for an experience “It is only necessary to behold the least fact or phenomenon, however familiar, from a point a hair's breadth aside from our habitual path or routine, to be overcome, enchanted by its beauty and significance ...” –Thoreau, Journal 8:44) The human brain manifests “self-organized criticality” it lives "on the edge of chaos", at a critical transition point between randomness and order. … REDINTEGRATION: reconstructing forgotten connections or an entire memory, after observing or remembering only a fragment of it." Brain

6. BRAIN: RECEPTIVE EXPERIENCE We are immersed in a turbulent ocean of stimuli and yet we perceive only what our congenital and acquired abilities allow in a particular circumstance WE MUST distinguish internally generated percepts (dreams, hallucinations) from those that are trustworthy representations of the external environment in which we seek to survive and thrive Every perception is structured by a combination of past experience AND current expectations … a cascade of reciprocal feed-forward and feed-back connections grounded in memory and imagination --- all in competition with each other [e.g., the BOLD response] Brain

7. But of all the congenital and acquired functions of brain many elude conscious awareness, intentionality, or intuition:for example, MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE But of all the congenital and acquired functions of brain many elude conscious awareness, intentionality, or intuition:for example, MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE • Ineffable: defies expression, cannot be described in words. • Noetic: gives insight and knowledge into deep truths. • Transient: Brief and cannot be accurately remembered, though easily recognized if it recurs. • Passivity: facilitated by preparation, but once begun it seems out of one’s control as if controlled by a superior power William James 1918 Is this so different from an aesthetic experience? Where is the threshold for such an experience being “transformative?” (aren’t they always?)

8. GOD in the BRAIN AJ Mandell (1980): “God in the Brain” may be a “...manifestation of the drive-arrest-release sequence in biogenic amine inhibitory systems, releasing temporal lobe limbic, hippocampal-septal hypersynchrony that lasts for long periods of afterdischarge.” (1980:439) (biogenic amines inhibit serotonin synthesis enabling hyperexcitability in hippocampal CA3 cells) God in the Brain 2011

9. GOD EXPERIENCE Persinger (1987): the “God Experience” may be a “temporal lobe transient” (seizure-like activity) in hippocampal part of temporal lobe. (short lived theta (4-7 Hz) activity in temporal lobe) God in the Brain 2011

10. DIFFICULTIES in INTERPRETING NEURAL CORROLARIES of EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCES: DEVELOPMENTAL(morphological change to support sustained physiological activation) ECOLOGICAL(responding/coping to context – external stimuli; familiar/unfamiliar) EVOLUTIONARY (dialectical change: traits change INDIVIDUALLY and IN RELATIONSHIP – the “CO-EVOLVE”) PHYSIOLOGICAL(excitatory/ inhibitory/ disinhibitory; sympathetic/parasympathetic (=ergotrophic/trophotrophic) balance; multiple associations converge in areas with enhanced opioid receptors) God in the Brain 2011

11. DIFFICULTIES in INTERPRETING NEURAL CORROLARIES of EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCES: all RECEPTIVE INTEGRATIVE and EXPRESSIVE Phenomena INVOLVE and constantly modulate EACH OTHER : dozens of pathways and neural activity centers are activated in varying proportions God in the Brain 2011

12. EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCES:DEVELOPMENTAL • Physiological demands of active neurons signal nearby tissue to provide more resources (glucose, oxygen); • Adjacent neural tissues may compete for these resources • Sustained physiological demands on neural structures may evoke morphological change to enable enhanced efficiency • Habit formation: synapses can be seen changing with repeated stimulation • Enduring changes with behavior: physical therapy, meditation … link • Enlarged pathways in “experts” – including meditators (e.g., Davidson) God in the Brain 2011

13. EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCES: ECOLOGICAL Context enables or impairs efficient function directly … or through expectations We expect different to responses in museums or other sacred places because of the investment our culture has placed in them God in the Brain 2011

14. EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCES:EVOLUTIONARY EVOLUTION is about TRAITS that have been transmitted from our ancestors, and traits that we will transmit to out descendants “Parts and wholes evolve in consequence of their relationship, and the relationship itself evolves. These are the properties of things that we call dialectical: that one thing cannot exist without the other, that one acquires its properties from its relation to the other, that the properties of both evolve as a consequence of their interpenetration”(Levins and Lewontin 1985:3) God in the Brain 2011

15. ANTAGONISTIC AND COMPLEMENTARY INTERACTIONS OF... • HOMEOSTATIC PROCESSES (“dynamic balance” of multiple structures and their functions) • INCLUDING THE layers of PARTS and WHOLES (systems) in the BRAIN and the behavior it controls ... Including PERIPHERAL systems • SYMPATHETIC (ERGOTROPHIC: ENHANCES ENERGETIC COPING, HEART, RESPIRATION, THERMOREGULATION) AND • PARASYMPATHETIC (TROPHOTROPHIC; CONSERVING RESOURCES, RECOVERY ) • NEURO-ENDOCRINE INTERACTION (particularly biogenic amines and endogenous opioids) EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCES:PHYSIOLOGICAL “EMBODIED COGNITION” – refers to the participation of the body in the cognitive processes we used to associate solely with the brain

16. EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCES:PHYSIOLOGICAL BLOOD-OXYGEN-LEVEL-DEPENDENCE (BOLD) response … hemodynamic response to energy use by brain cells that enables “real time neuro-imaging of activity” (fMRI) Cells “call for resources” when they are stressed ... And different cell aggregates functionally “compete” for them God in the Brain 2011

17. AN ASIDE on NEEDS Meeting NEEDS is the basic business of life. NEEDS can be arrayed in a hierarchy of urgencies. When the most urgent need is met, the organism’s energy is focused on the next need. God in the Brain 2011 God in the Brain

18. NEED HIERARCHY Health --- physiology Safety --- shelter, nurture Sociality --- social construction, culture Esteem --- distinctiveness, arete Self actualization --- biological fitness God in the Brain 2011 Apologies to Abraham Maslow God in the Brain

19. MEETING NEEDS Needs map on to motivational systems of brain Organisms have ancient and powerful mechanisms that respond to real or perceived challenges to our ability to meet needs: the stress response, which utilizes the autonomic nervous system. God in the Brain 2011 God in the Brain

20. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . . Communications are BIASED by past experience .. Development as well as proximate context God in the Brain 2011

21. An Aside about Stress The brain structures and circuitry of the stress response -- mainly the autonomic nervous system – are always mildly in play – like muscle tone, autonomic tone keeps us ready to act and prevents atrophy … all coping with dissonance is at least a mild stress. If more stressful episodes are too frequent, too great or sustained for too long, the subsequent reallocation of energy can lead to “diseases of adaptation.” God in the Brain

22. MEETING NEEDS Basic physiological functions are guided by subclinical stress or subordinated to coping with emergency or pervasive change Internal correlates of coping changes the relative activities of brain areas regulating sensory acuity, central arousal and specific attention, motivation, cognition, and action. God in the Brain 2011 God in the Brain

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24. INTRODUCTION : SOME ASSUMPTIONS • PHYSIOLOGY • INPUT: current stimuli interpreted in the light of past experience and expectations. • INTEGRATION : Cognition, affect, and motivation interact to interpret converging information, assign emotional valence and alert autonomic (stress) responses, and establish coherent sense of reality. • OUTPUT: motor systems or internal state responds to integrated information. God in the Brain 2011 God in the Brain

25. INTRODUCTION : SOME ASSUMPTIONS • PHYSIOLOGY • NEUROPLASTICITY … development of the nervous system, structuring and structured by experience. • STRESS, the physiological response to challenges to meeting needs, adjusts the biological agenda. • PLEASURE and PAIN guide experience as present and future biological NEEDS are met . God in the Brain 2011 God in the Brain

26. We must come to termsin an environment of perpetual change and apparent paradox For example, We are “wired” to seek stability "La fixité du milieu intérieur est la condition d'une vie libre et indépendante" –Claude Bernard We are “wired” to explore, to seek novelty “We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.”-- Little Gidding God in the Brain 2011 God in the Brain

27. We must come to termsin an environment of perpetual change and apparent paradox Seeking stability and novelty, like seeking to minimize stress and experience stress ... The ESSENTIAL TENSION (Kuhn) between INNOVATION and TRADITION reflect the wisdom of the body in maintaining an developmentally and environmentally appropriate level of growth and alertness. Like relaxation and exercise: the maintaining of “tone” (as in muscle tone) assures an organism rapidly ready to take action to cope with the exigencies of its environment. God in the Brain 2011 God in the Brain

28. We must come to termsin an environment of perpetual change and apparent paradox Seeking individuation andsociality, seeking to know one’s SELF and be a member of a group ... The personal SPIRITUAL quest is conducted in the context of a social RELIGION Each have their respective neurological substrate God in the Brain 2011 God in the Brain

29. An Aside About Bias We possess perceptual and conceptual mechanisms –BIASES-- that both enable and constrain the validity of our beliefs: CAUSATION (Association of ideas (along with contiguity and resemblance) – Hume 1740) SIMPLICITY (HOLISM) (Occam’s Razor, Morgan’s Canon, the search for a “Theory of Everything”) STRESS-REDUCTION (by means of reconciling accommodating or assimilating anomalies; minimizing cognitive dissonance) God in the Brain

30. CAUSATION Sequencing of elements as abstracted from sense perceptions (d’Aquili 1978) LEFT INFERIOR PARIETAL LOBULE ANTERIOR CONV RECIPROCAL INTERACTIONS Luria 1966, Pribram 1973 God in the Brain

31. HOLISM Perceiving as a whole, or Gestalt… POSTERIOR/SUPERIOR PARIETAL LOBULE of nondominant hemisphere ANTERIOR CONV RECIPROCAL INTERACTIONS Luria 1966, Pribram 1973 God in the Brain

32. “the boundaries of my body dissolved, I felt one with everything” – Jill Taylor Left temporal lobe stimulation creates a “sense of self” … when the left temporal lobe is stimulated but the right temporal lobe is quiet, the sensation is that of A sensed presence that is not you. God in the Brain 2011 God in the Brain

33. “the boundaries of my body dissolved, I felt one with everything” superior parietal lobe, toward the top and back of the brain (orientation association area) processes information about space and time and the orientation of the body in space. right orientation area deprived of input, defaults to a sense of infinite space. The left orientation area creates the sensation of a physically delimited body. God in the Brain 2011 God in the Brain

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35. Disorders of Belief Acceptance of experience that doesn’t correspond to external reality (False positive (confident match with memories); Type I Error; gullible, trusting) hallucinations; Bonnet’s Syndrome (filling in scotoma); dismorphic body; pareidolia. God in the Brain 2011

36. Denial of experience that corresponds to external reality (False negative (failure to match with memories); Type II Error; skeptical, wary) agnosias: eg, visual (left occip), associative, anosognosia (denial of dysfunction / right cerebral cortices), prosopagnosia (faces) Disorders of Belief God in the Brain 2011

37. DISORDERS of BELIEF? Acceptance of experience that doesn’t correspond to external reality:kinds of hallucinations; Bonnet’s Syndrome(filling in scotoma); dismorphic body; pareidolia. (False positive (confident match with memories); Type I Error; gullible, trusting) God in the Brain 2011

38. Anosognosia • ANOSOGNOSIA(from the Greek: A + nosos (disease) + gnosis (knowledge) • Ignorance or denial of the presence of disease • Most famously of paralysis in patients with non-dominant (usually right) parietal lobe damage -- patients deny their hemiparesis, & confabulate rationalizations • Detection of discrepancies impaired • When the right hemisphere is denied input from the reality-testing of the left hemisphere; internal model is “untested” by feedback, leaving left-side function seemingly “hallucinated.” God in the Brain 2011

39. Putative Causes of Anosognosia • Freudian denial: avoidance of confrontation with dysfunction, preserve self image. • Phantom function: as with phantom limbs, signals from motor cortex go to parietal monitoring area AND to muscles (that no longer exist). In the absence of feedback (confirming dysfunction) parietal area prevails • Right hemisphere impairmentby muting emotionality, and flattening affect, might create the appearance of indifference Brain

40. LEFT - RIGHT HEMISPHERE LATERALITY • When separated, EACH hemisphere is UNAWARE of the ipsilateral world • Yet neither is aware of being incomplete • Each functions as best it can with the information available God in the Brain 2011

41. MODES of REALITY TESTING are LATERALIZED LEFT HEMISPHERE Coherence: creates a consistent belief system – works to “save appearances” (Ramachandran 1998) Probabilistic reasoning (Osherson et al 1998) Abstract object recognition (Marsolek 1999) Activated by familiar percepts (Goldberg 2001) RIGHT HEMISPHERE Correspondence: “skeptical,” tests reality and if damaged, confabulation runs rampant (Ramachandran 1998) Deductive reasoning (Osherson et al 1998) Specific object recognition (Marsolek 1999) Activated by unfamiliar percepts (Goldberg 2001) God in the Brain 2011

42. God in the Brain 2011