The truth that remains mysterious: the brain

THE MYSTERIOUS FACT: THE BRAIN

The epitome I like the most among the definitions of experienced people about intelligence is from the United American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. He stated in his book „The crack-up“ that „Superior intelligence is the ability to keep two opposite ideas in mind at the same time and to continue working without disturbing the balance“. Humans have the largest brain in terms of body proportion among living things. We also determine intelligence according to humans (Table 1). Although it seems very difficult to learn both the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, which has always kept its mystery while I was a medical student, it has always been the reason for me to be perceived as the goal of achieving the difficult. As I dive into its depths, it becomes compatible with mathematical judgment by reinforcing the dialectic, life-death, 0-1, ying-yang philosophy. it was way easier. I was surprised by this too. But I paid the price as I couldn’t bear to see the brain salad that I used to love to eat on the table anymore. In my opinion, within the medical community, the most difficult branch is psychiatry. Since we can’t fix the secrets of the brain, the causes of which we still cannot solve, to a visible (organic) disease (pathology), succumbing to the treatment, the helplessness of a person with that organ that I consider sacred, or the calmness in the solution he thinks he has found, rather than being hopeless, I will be more successful in the fight against visible diseases. With his vision, I turned to neurosurgery.

Body and intelligence

Recent studies show that the brain is the first messenger of a disease that appears in our body. It has now been proven that a series of defense cells called dendritic and stem cells exist in different parts of the brain to target the diseased organ. It is he who activates these cells, which have the ability to defend and fight against a disease, but the causes of disease are sometimes so equipped and prepared that they can hit a person at their weakest point. “corporalita”, one of the seven principles of Leonardo da Vinci, which expresses the balance of body and mind, emphasizes the elegance of substance processing, the perfect use of both hands, vitality and self-confidence. Leonardo’s perfect physique combined with his artistic and intellectual genius. The body-intelligence association consolidates biochemistry, physiology, and anatomy, as well as kneads ideas, belief systems, and hope. We have always equated love, affection and heroism with the heart, with the habits from ancient times. However, it is the nuclei in the center of the brain that govern it. In the information age, the target is no longer hearts but brains. The brain should not be perceived as a symbol of logic either. The left half of the brain is equipped with the ability to make more realistic analyzes for life. The right half is intertwined with the values ​​that make the communication and cognitive world of creativity more human-specific.

Can we use our brains fully?

Functional Magnetic Resonance (fMR) studies show that the living human brain activates nerve cells in almost every curve of the brain in functional position “for example, when humming a song”, both right, left, front (frontal) and side (temporal) ) an increase in metabolic activity in different parts of the lobes can be made visible. For this reason, the claim that we can only use 20% of our brain, which was put forward in the 1930s, has now disappeared with new scientific evidence. Steno, a conservative student, strongly objected to the facts about the brain, which Willis and Descartes looked at with certainty, and said, “I must say frankly and confess that I know nothing about the working of the brain, and again openly and I warn that it takes a few moments to decipher it. It will cost the generations to pass.”

Computer and brain and neural networks

With the complex structuring of biological giant neural networks, the brain, which is now likened to computer systems that have entered our daily lives thoroughly, is actually a special electrical and chemical infrastructure that we do not encounter in any other cell of the organism. It is a unique brand with a cell form whose designed genetic code is prevented from being copied. The famous British physiologist Charles Scott Sherrington, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1932, said at a conference at Yale University in 1906 that “Although it can be divided into separate mechanisms, the central nervous system is a whole, acting in harmony.” The philosophy is still valid. The brain burns enough energy to light a dim lamp. Thick nerve fibers can carry a message at a speed of 400 km. With these biological properties, it has led to the production of co-production chips (chip) with computers. Peter Fromberz and Günther Zeck from the Max Planck Institute in Munich in 2001 successfully placed pond snail (Lymnaea Stagnalis) neurons on a silicon chip (microchip) and demonstrated their functional connection with each other is considered the first step of the neuroelectronic circuit (Figure 1*). The stimulus below each neuron produced a change in voltage and communicated throughout the cell. The electrical stimulation applied to the chip was transmitted from one neuron to the next and returned to the chip, making a trip with the silicon switch. This circuit is generally a live circuit. Eve Marder of Brandeis University in Waltham, who deals with neural networks, thinks that these neuron-derived circuits will be a research tool in which we can observe how the nervous system works, for example, we can improve our knowledge of how memory is formed. The main hurdle in neuroelectronics is being able to safely combine chips with living tissue. Fromherz and Zeck overcame this problem by using silicon and built electronic devices in a standard chip. Initially targeted with these neuronal chips are projects such as biological sensors and neuroprostheses that will test the effects of toxic and pharmacological substances on neurons. An example of these exciting projects would be to act as a bridge to repair the damaged area of ​​the spinal cord. However, all these projects are called “neuro-computers living with brains or neurons” according to Fromherz in the field of science fiction. This method is suitable for examining the long effects of synaptic modulation of small neuronal-networks connected by chemical synapses. We can also hope to learn how these neural-networks work by mimicking the features of the brain. This year, the European Union countries, including our country, and apart from this, the “Human Brain Project” was launched in two different focuses with the directives of the US President Obama, and it will be possible to go deeper into the causes of many brain disorders, especially Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Diseases and schizophrenia.

Speech ability

Strumwasser argues that there are 4 main behavioral features that distinguish Homo sapiens from the chimpanzees that were closest to us in the evolutionary development process. These are creativity, speaking ability, knowing (curiosity), self-reflection and self-analysis. Most of us would argue that none of this is uniquely human. However, speech is one of the mysterious topics of neuroscience. The speech gene found in the 31st locus of the q arm of the 7th chromosome in humans has been found to be problematic in some speech disorders (Figure 2). The researches of linguists on those who are able to speak many languages ​​easily show the fact that there are different modules of speech-related information, and interesting studies are still ongoing.

Sleeping brain

The retina of the eye is an extension of the brain. The optic nerve is a part of the brain that can be seen with the naked eye during a neurological examination. Sleep is another mysterious world, the cause of which is still unknown, which scientists argue. If you observe the eyes of a person in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, you would think that they are watching a movie with their eyes closed. In a research they conducted on the dreams of Russians, children and young people, it was revealed that the left brain half had an effect on the realization of the dream, and the right half had an effect on the vividness, transformational shaping and emotional depth of the dream. A mechanism like when we have to reload a cell phone that has run out of battery to make it work? What is the function of the electrical waves recorded in the brain electrolyte (EEG) while in deep sleep? The mystery of alpha waves recorded from neurons in brain regions close to the visual center still continues. While the earth is revolving around the sun, do the creatures in the dark half share their energy with another power while they are asleep? Should the cerebral energies of hibernating creatures be perceived as another system’s backup mode?

The famous Avicenna, whose medical book was used as a standard textbook in Europe until the 17th century, said: “All that is thought exists, and what exists are intelligible forms that can be conceived”. Avicenna, who eats one meal a day and tries not to sleep for days with the argument that the brain works harder, says with this method, “Can I activate the idle brain centers?”

Modern philosophy: Neuroscience

After the “Quantum and Intelligence” conference, first held in Northern Arizona in 1999, the level of consciousness in the light of revolutionary information technologies such as quantum measurement, quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation, quantum physics and brain-related meetings are aimed at a synthesis between quantum information and the brain (Figure 3). Studies of the synaptic connections of the brain will help the development of the structure of neural networks, and biological quantum information will help the development of quantum information technologies. Quantum tunneling of electrons at the inter-neuron junction was proposed by Evan Harris Walker in 1970. The tight junctions between dendrites also enable quantum tunneling. Memory is defined by the storage and recall of information in neural networks, the unifying tubulin electron event of quantum consciousness. The function of the biogenic ferrimagnetic substance in the brain, ion channels, what size does the brain experience consciousness? The answers to the questions are sought in the light of quantum information. Studies on the quantum state of consciousness and biological cycle superposition, and the maintenance of the quantum cycle of microtubulins on both sides of the synapse that connects neurons seem to be at the forefront. Other areas of interest of neuro-quantology are visual attention, vision from photons to phenomenology, gamma oscillation, discrete brain, chaos and brain, etc.

In the last century, our understanding of the physical world was empirical. Quantum physics has changed our world with its knowledge of matter and field theories. In the next century, quantum mechanics will continue to be important as a fundamental concept and a prime tool in all branches of science as well as basic neurological sciences.

As can be seen in this short brainstorming article, the brain has extended its sphere of interest to almost all branches of science. We can make references to all branches of science by prefixing it with the prefix neuro-.

In the past, philosophy covered all branches of science; neuroscience can be shown as the strongest candidate for this position today.

As a neurosurgeon, the brain we encounter every time we open the skull may be morphologically similar to each other, but it is different in every patient, every disease, every tumor. As we approach it, we see it as the brain of a Mozart, a Van Gogh, an Einstein, a Yunus Emre, and enter as if entering a holy temple. We are the students of the generation that taught respect to the brain tissue of the famous neurosurgeon Mahmut Gazi Yaşargil. We learn something new with every approach we take.

Table 1.

Intelligence detection

Figure 1. L.Stagnalis’ Electromicrography of each neuron from the foot ganglion after three days in culture with microchip; Extensions at touch sites without displacement in cell bodies, formation of sprouts in nerve cells (scale: 20µm) [*This image is from “Copyright (2001) National Academy of Sciences, USA” “Noninvasive neuroelectronic interfacing with synaptically connected snail neurons on a semiconductor chip.” Reprinted electronically with permission by, Zeck, G. & Fromherz, P. published in PNAS, August 28, 2001;98,10457-10462. Thank them]

Figure 2. Broca and Wernicke are known as the motor and sensory centers of speech (white areas). What about other centers when people are talking?

Figure 3. To what extent do we reconcile with sleep and dream, consciousness level and brain, to whom do we surrender? The answers are still full of unknowns.

Figure 4. Neuroquantology, chaos, entropy, negentropy, the limits of the brain point to neuroscience as the Kaaba of modern philosophy.