Map of the mind

[petrushka.googol]

What exactly is the mind ? Our nervous system or an extension of it?

 

What are the attributes of our mind? Euphoria ? Intelligence ? Imagination ?

 

Will the same set of stimuli (in a controlled environment) produce identical mental states?

 

Please advise.

[EdEarl]

There are a variety of opinions from spiritual to scientific; although, scientific opinions are vague. The brain is physical, neurons, axons, dendrites and synapse can be counted and plotted. However, the mind is ephemeral and transient, similar to a database or program that is always in flux. At the moment there is no way to record the changing states of a 100-billion neurons and 500-million-million synapses, and if we could, we would not know how to interpret them. At the moment we can monitor the flow of blood in areas of the brain that contain thousands of synapses. And, we can monitor the electrochemical firing of a few neurons.

 

A gross map of the brain shows where we hear, see, smell, taste, and feel. Similarly, we know the motor neurons that control various muscles, and the areas that process sight, language, mathematics, etc. A few neurons have been found that elicit memories of someone or some thing. A considerable amount is know about the physiology and processes in neurons. However, I would liken our knowledge of the brain to that of our galaxy, the Milky Way. We know quite a bit about the Earth, a little bit about the Solar system, and almost nothing about the 100 billion stars that comprise the galaxy, nor the 500-million-million planets that obit those stars. We are a long way from understanding the brain, much less the mind.