Mind

[ydoaPs]

What is the mind. I was told the brain controls the brain. That makes no sense. If the brain controlled itself, then all thought and or movement is random. I thought the mind is what controls the chemical processes(thoughts) in you brain. If something didn't control them, then wouldn't you be a vegetable? I am confused.

[badchad]

Quite the philosophical question. I don't think theres a concrete answer to this question. Some people view the brain/mind as being purely mechanical. That is, our thoughts come from neurotransmitters acting upon neurons. There seems to be a logical basis for this. My professor always pointed to the fact that even complex human emotions, such as "love" can be mimiced by synthetic chemicals (e.g. exstasy). Other drugs releasing dopamine and epinephrine and such cause joy.

 

The downside of this would be that as a human, we like to think of ourselves as individuals and "special" if you will. It would make your life seem insignificant if we eere simply made up of a bunch of chemicals and neuronal firings (e.g. matrix). Guess this didn't answer your question, but I don't think theres really anyone who knows the actual answer

[LucidDreamer]

The theist uses the concept of the mind to assert that there is a component of man’s intelligence that exists outside the physical, that the soul is in ultimate control of his actions and thoughts. The philosopher uses the concept of the mind to describe how he is greater than the sum of his parts. For the philosopher the mind is used to describe the synergistic result of the different parts of his intellect.

 

The scientist uses the concept of the mind in a similar way. The mind is used to describe the result of all of the mechanisms of the brain and how they create intelligence. When you look at all the parts that make up the brain and its sensory mechanisms like all of the connections of the neurons, all of the glial cells, the two hemispheres, the different sections of the brain, the many kinds of neurotransmitters, the way an electrical impulse is created and transmitted you find that they create an intellect that cannot be fully understood. The mechanisms of the brain are hard to grasp. The ability to put all of the mechanisms of the brain together in your thoughts and then understand how these mechanisms work to establish those thoughts is even harder. When you try to put the complexity of the brain together you find that its complexity prevents you from understanding more than a small part of it at once. Since your brain is limited to holding more than 7-12 components at once it has to focus its attention on one aspect of the brains functioning or drastically reduce the brain’s functioning to understand it as a whole (like any other complex system). The mind is used to describe the end result of the brain’s functioning.

 

Whether you are a theist, a philosopher, or a scientist it is difficult to adequately separate the end result of the mind from the physical organ called the brain. Is it the mind that controls the brain or the other way around? The mind is an abstract concept and its definition is not concrete. It means different things to different people.

[ydoaPs]

What controls the chemical reactions then? Somehow, they are controlled. Thinking is proof of that.

[LucidDreamer]

I think that is an even more interesting question. The simple answer is enzymes. But that doesn't really answer your question. Life today, with all of its complexities, is a result of the life that came before it. The means by which your mind and your body control all of the intricate chemical reactions has evolved over billions of years. The storage of information that regulates these processes is passed down to its progeny through DNA. DNA then makes a copy in the form of RNA and then from the RNA enzymes are created, which control the chemical reactions. Of course you already know that.

 

To really answer that question you have to look at the point when a new individual is formed. So right after conception you have a single cell that contains a mixture of their parents DNA. The DNA contains all of the information necessary to carry out all of the reactions of the body. But what gets them started? When the embryo is formed there are already reactions occurring in the cell. There are already enzymes regulating the chemical reactions. The cell that the sperm combined its DNA with was formed by the mother's body. That cell already contains enzymes that control the chemical reactions. These enzymes control reactions that start a chain of reactions that begins splitting the cell into two cells, which continue to double. As the embryo continues to grow it unlocks new pieces of information from the DNA, which make more enzymes and hormones which control still more reactions. What then started the reactions that led to the embryo? Life today is a continuation of reactions that forms an unbroken chain of reactions from its predecessors, all the way back to the first cell and beyond that cell to the first self-organizing system which developed the ability to reproduce from the input of energy.

 

The reactions of the brain are also controlled from enzymes and hormones. The brain, like every other organ or cell in your body modifies its production of hormones and enzymes based on the stimuli it receives. This stimulus comes in two forms. One is from the other parts of the body and the other is from the organisms environment, which is collected from receptors. A baby’s brain grows into an adult’s brain by a series of chemical reactions that are influenced by stimulation from the environment. All of this is controlled by the information contained in the DNA and is started by the enzymes that are already present in the first cell of the embryo. I think that part of the reason that it’s so difficult to bring something back from the dead is because you have stopped a chain of reactions that spans billions of years.

[Quixix]

What controls the chemical reactions then? Somehow, they are controlled. Thinking is proof of that.

Not necessarily, thinking may be just a process of reactivation of established neuronal circuits, be it by an external or an internal stimulus. AN external stimulus may activate circuits that were previously formed, and which activate other circuits. Neurotransmitters, hormones, amines, which are segregated by different parts of the body or brain when activated, regulate the same processes of activation.