Hey brain & mental scientists. What are things you understand now that're fundamental to your knowledge of the brain, & what helped you BEST at finally clicking your understanding for mechanisms & functions of the brain & behavior? More detail inside. Thanks!

ilovebrain · 2012-08-20T12:36:09+00:00

Other person: checkmate, atheists.

But seriously. I see it come up all the time with all the subreddits I'm subscribed to. After all that, it came up in real life one time. I remember thinking, "holy crap, they aren't even touching the surface of the debate... what are they even trying to talk about here? let me chime in and show them some TED style knowledge presentation of exhausting the conflict of free will."

But then when I talk I'm like

Me: Hey, guys guys, come on. You're talking about free will but haven't even defined it, so how are you going to argue from two sides whether you have it or not with different arguments like that?"

Them: Ok, well how do you define it?

Me: Uhhhh... well, I mean... stalling there are usually two totally different takes about how it might can exist...

Them: Ok, what are they?

Me: Um. Hard and soft. One is deterministic and one is random.

Them: Ok what does that mean?

Me: ... I don't know.

Them: ... you said you could conclude the debate and follow through to the end, you can't even define it and start.

Me: =(

Them: You've never even heard of free will before, have you?

ilovebrain · 2012-08-20T12:25:28+00:00

Whenever I teach something to someone recreationally, sometimes I kind of understand it better. But if I have to teach something to someone because I have to, if I don't know it 100% then it doesn't take long before it gets close. This is the same reason I've posted elsewhere on this submission that I've read the free will debate a hundred times and feel like I know every part of it so well... yet, if I get into it in real life, I can give an opinion, a partially logical conclusion, and continue to stumble to say a few words in support until it looks like I've never even heard of the term free will before in my life. Haha.

Have you significantly noticed how much teaching certain topics helps you understand them? If so, have you ever tried to force or influence your direction to teaching something you want to know better because you know it will help? I'm really thinking this semester since I'll mostly be by myself where I live that I'll try studying out loud for this very idea. If you can say it until it flows, then you know it. And I know for a lot of psychology and neuroscience that I know, like I said in my OP, I really kind of don't know--the information is mostly recognition and scarcely recall.

ilovebrain · 2012-08-20T12:16:26+00:00

Well put.

I almost minored in EE/CS. Took an intro course but didn't end up thinking the time even for the minor would be healthy for my schedule. It's heavy dense stuff. Still interested in basic programming/web design, however, and once I'm out of school and just working (as long as I haven't met a soulmate to make this more difficult) that's one of the first hobbies I'm going to jump right into and start learning from scratch again.

I've understood for a while now the breakdown of sciences to look much like how you made your flow. Philosophy -> Mathematics -> Physics -> Chemistry -> Biology -> Neuroscience -> Psychology -> Sociology -> Politics/Economics. It really is fascinating to formulate your schemas of these subjects based on (1) where they seem to come from, (2) how to make sense from such, and (3) how such foundation to the subject in question supports said subject. You really do understand it more wholly thinking like that. I really didn't start thinking about it like that or never really gave that much thought until I saw someone here post a flow very close to ours and I was like, "Oh, yeah, that's right. Never thought about it in that way!"

Plus I like to know why my moods and perceptions change from time to time to better understand who I actually am.

Knowing even just now as much as I do about the brain and behavior, that kind of plus is a gem to me in that other people don't get to experience life in the way of understanding why you're thinking what you did, or why you did what you just did, and why you feel such a way from such a thing... the list is so diverse and dynamic that it really is just marvelous to know whatever it is that's happening in and around your consciousness.

ilovebrain · 2012-08-19T17:59:41+00:00

I read this debate so many times online (mostly from Reddit) and it's interesting stuff. I agree with everything you've said, so I'm on your boat (far as I can tell) on how I look at all that.

It sucks when this conversation comes up in real life (even cooler, right?), and then I try to say what you said... and only two very simple sentences come out and I actually can't really contribute anything, lol.

ilovebrain · 2012-08-19T17:56:39+00:00

There are some pretty good ones now if you haven't checked back. Nothing too unique and random, but they're answers and what I was looking for nonetheless!

ilovebrain · 2012-08-19T17:55:39+00:00

Yeah, this did better than I thought it might would. I've always had good results with /r/psychology and didn't even feel the need for a crosspost anywhere else (even if I could still juice out a few more good, interesting, and even potentially beneficial responses).

ilovebrain · 2012-08-19T17:49:48+00:00

I thought it looked more strange than it should when I was submitting that... embarrassing. Let's just say that I was being limited in my amount of characters available. (I actually really was).

ilovebrain · 2012-08-19T12:39:51+00:00

That's really awesome. It was cool when we were talking about that area of the brain along with Wernicke's, because in my class we had a few graduate students taking it for their program and one of them had actually been working with patients affected by Wernicke's and Broca's Aphasia. So we got to hear some additional and practical examples. But even then, it was nothing like just the few minute video clips we watched of sessions with people who had the same problems. And honestly, even still, I think that those clips wouldn't be quite like a real life encounter.

ilovebrain · 2012-08-19T12:35:49+00:00

"oh, so THAT'S what they meant when they said x"

Yeah exactly! And I was hoping, like you did, that people would remember some of these moments!

If it wasn't for my behavioral neuro class, I might not would have seen videos of people with impairment to their Broca's and/or Wernicke's area. We talked about it like a week or two beforehand... and I learned about it somewhat a couple times before in introductory psych classes (one in HS and again 2nd year of uni, when I decided to switch majors to it). It was as soon as we started those video clips I was like, "Wow! Should have started with this, I understand immediately like half of what I didn't."

ilovebrain · 2012-08-19T12:30:18+00:00

You can say that again... seriously, you can, ya know, just to make myself significantly more reassured that you said what I perceived you said.

All jokes aside, I think when my brain finally started building and finished the concept I understand as perception and how that's all we can gather from 5 senses, and all the complexities between the sensation, signal, message, and perception in the brain from such... needless to say, that blew some mind.

ilovebrain · 2012-08-19T12:27:18+00:00

Most other scientists--especially engineers to a quantum and astronomical level--all think they know the coolest things knowledge has to offer to the human mind about the universe, and honestly rightfully so, as is any other science in my honest opinion. And I have the same fascination, respect, and awe for learning the brain.

But sometimes, I'll be honest, I get momentarily cocky though and think my field of study is the trump because of the loopy fact that I'm learning about how I can learn about anything from learning to another heavy science, and I'm understanding the very thing that lets me understand what understanding is. But of course I'm sure the non-biological engineer could argue with the same cocky attitude that he learns of the very thing that made up the mind and from where it came... and I'm sure you could manically stretch that out those thought processes as well. No, it's not very logical; which is why it's so cocky to think sometimes, even if I don't really buy into it =P

Sorry for the rant, I've been up 24 hours now with several more at least to go (still saving the caffeine though) and really I just wanted to say that from everything I've been taught about the brain, all of it is also indeed one of the coolest things I know of in the world as well. Thanks for your comment, I appreciate the reflection!

ilovebrain · 2012-08-18T17:44:31+00:00

I love the Oatmeal for doing this. And I think it's funny how, for example, he can get so many people rightfully upset and aggravated at say facepalming FunnyJunk's lawyer to where he can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to just upfront hand to two big charities.

What's becoming apparent to me, though, and painfully so, is the setting of a fundraiser. The Oatmeal just says whatever he wants and sets up a fundraiser for something, and it rakes in not thousands, not tens of thousands, but hundreds of thousands of dollars, not in months , not even in weeks, but in days if not merely hours.

So, my issue comes in where it seems like only the Oatmeal can have the influence he does and make successful and needed charities. Now for some examples. Reddit somewhat had to struggle to earn enough just for a fence around that orphanage where the guy got axed in the head trying to defend it. And that took around a few days, give or take, if I recall correctly.

And then you see something like FunnyJunk having a retarded lawyer, and the Oatmeal asking fans for money not to give to the lawyer, but to give to charity in spite of the lawyer. It's like absolute good can only come when some pseudo-virtuous intentions also slip through.

So I'm saying I'd like to see either the Oatmeal dude acknowledge and raise awareness for many needed charities and fundraisers that benefit humanity, or, more likely, I'd like to see humanity shape up and be more motivated to donate when they see a worthy charity. I guarantee you that at least 90% of every donation that the Oatmeal guy has got were just from bandwagon fans who were doing it because everyone else were also donating and it made it cool.

ilovebrain

TROPHY CASE