07/07/2020
Neuroscience needs new ideas
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Neuroscience needs new ideas
A history of metaphors in brain research ... between a dark past and a perplexing future.
Stephen Casper
Nature (2020)
doi: 10.1038 / d41586-020-00913-9
English article
Published online: 28 Apr 2020

Hologram MRI of the brain.
Tom Barrick, Chris Clark, SGHMS / SPL
Describing the human brain, American poet Emily Dickinson says he is more welcome from heaven, deeper than the sea, and a paradox for the sensory world as if it were a god. As for the scientists who tackle this daunting task - the task of describing the brain - they usually evoke other types and colors of metaphor; They liken it to the government at times, and they portray it as a map, or a network of infrastructures and connections at other times. They may make it into a machine, robot, computer, or the Internet. Dense analogies .. The common denominator between them was that they are based on reality, however these metaphorical images that we depend on in understanding the nature of the brain often pass on us without thought or scrutiny, and this may be due to their common sense, as we forget that they are only descriptive tools, and we deal with them As if they are natural properties.
These hidden dangers are the bedrock of the book The Idea of the Brain, biologist and historian Matthew Cope. It is an ambitious, historical and intellectual work that traces our changing understanding of the brain from ancient times to the present day, in Western thought in particular. Cobb highlights mounting questions about the utility of metaphor to guide the pathway and interpretation of neuroscience. And he asserts - in unique humility - that science is far from understanding the functions that the brain performs, and the way in which they perform these functions, since there is no such thing.
The author shows how our perceptions of the brain have always been drawn from the ethical, philosophical, and technical frameworks determined by those who formulate narratives prevalent in every era. In the seventeenth century, the French philosopher Rene Descartes believed that the animal's brain worked through hydraulic mechanisms, believing - at the same time - that there was a divine mind of a substance that was divine. Later flags of Western thought, such as Julian Overy de Lamitri, the physician and philosopher who lived in the eighteenth century, adopted a more secular conception, likening humans to the machine, while Italian physicist Alessandro Volta opposed the idea of "animal electrocution", which was proposed by one of his peers, Luigi Galvani, describing it as the vital force that breathes life into organic matter. Perhaps Volta's aversion to mechanical character is what drove him to come out with this perception.
New metaphors were also borrowed from nineteenth-century brainstorming, as well as from evolutionary theory, and the theory of inhibition in physiology, which said that the nervous system can suppress actions and behaviors, then the era of communication came, and we looked at a new language to describe the brain.
A clash of perceptions
The discovery of neurons in the late nineteenth century led to a clash between several opposing images; Reformers portrayed these cells as separate components, which could be likened to wires and signals in telecommunications facilities, which were new at the time. On the other side, conservatives have portrayed the nervous system as a connected network, similar to blood circulation, believing that this explains how emotions and mind work. For them, contrasting signs were unconventional perceptions of the mind, and perhaps also of the soul.
Then came the decade of the forties of the last century, when these basic concepts resulted in an abundance of referrals: to the enchanted loom, ghosts inhabiting machines, logical circuits, reptile brains, parallel manipulations, and load of mind. Cope - a passing reference - indicates that we need to create new metaphors that enable us to accommodate research developments, from artificial intelligence to laboratory brains miniatures to brain implants, but the author has not come up with examples of such new images.
Cope's narrative is not a new offering, as historians of science and philosophers have long recognized the metaphorical strength of knowledge in the field of science. As for the non-specialized readers whom the author targets in his book, this presentation represents an important contribution .. Few of those offered such palatable visions, supported by selected examples, and clear explanations of the societal factors that depend on them. The author does not stop there, as he excels at showing how figurative language has a role far beyond simply elaborating or simplifying complex topics that are difficult to understand. Metaphors change the way scientific perception is shaped, by allowing new interpretations to exist, or drawing inspiration from new experiences.
Despite all this, Cope reminds us that the metaphor hides as much as it shows. When allegorical images display convincingly all convincingly, they usually ignore key elements of these ideas. A computer-like brain, for example, may come from a good position in the soul, but it ignores that the brain is a member of the body, and in this case a conscious member. The limitations of what we now possess metaphors and linguistic expressions appear when it comes to imagining a situation in which the mental, the sensory, and the embodied mental are closely intertwined.
Thus, the metaphor, for his strength, had only a limited role in narrowing the divide gap that emerged as scientists sought to understand what the brain was. After centuries of scientific research, including recent developments in the exploration of awareness through imaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, we are still unable to answer Shakespeare's question in the play "The Merchant of Venice": "Tell me, where is love born, is my heart broken, Or in the mind? "
We cannot stop using metaphors, as scientists rely on metaphoric language to organize and communicate ideas and opinions. Neuroscience is approaching a convincing vision of the brain over the coming decades, perhaps depending on the full understanding of the role of metaphors. Hence, the first thing that researchers should pay attention to is to realize that the choices of words, even if some of them appear innocent, often contain harmful suggestions; Our thoughts of the brain often carry bias and images of prejudice and inequity, whether they are related to race, social class, gender, s*xual orientation, or effectiveness.
Cobb had to dwell more on this stuff; The word "racist" - for example - was mentioned only a few times throughout the book, but only in footnotes. However, if we do some thinking, it becomes clear to us that apparently innocent figurative images, such as characterizing certain functions as “superior” or “inferior”, or describing specific anatomical structures as “primitive”, such expressions are not without racism. When the descriptions were released for the first time, they reflected an ugly view, that the nervous systems of white men belonging to the upper social class, made them progressively more sophisticated than those who were oppressed inside and outside the country. Likewise, it is disturbing to know that the Broca region, famous for its language treatment, has been named after the French physician, Paul Broca, who has embraced the principle of hierarchy of peoples. Moreover, to be in 2020, and find scientists still talking about "the female brain" - the idea that the author frowns on deservingly deserved - this is evidence that the s*x factor (the term whose mention is only mentioned in the book references) It remains a decisive factor in the perceptions of many regarding the structure of the brain. Cope also did not address what it might mean to promote neural diversity in relation to figurative language. Whatever allegorical images may appear in the future, those that accept the differences in a way that includes everyone will be the most profound and foresight.
"Brain Idea" puts our current predicament in its proper framework, and it combines its two issues with many issues that require attention. Although the book as a whole is very good, it was able to provide more, especially at a time when the scientific community accepts the shortcomings embodied in the perspective of the white, western, wealthy man, who does not belong to gay groups and does not suffer from a disability, but I hope that This book urges the contemplation of the reasons for the stability of some figurative images, and not others, and from where they arose, how they lasted, and how they bear the burden of hidden connotations that belong to ancient cultures.
Stephen Casper is Professor of History at Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York, USA.
Email: scasper@clarkson.edu
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