The voice in my head

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Hello folks,

Just wanted to share a quick thought/question with you.
If I schematize quickly how sound gets processed by the brain:
- soundwaves make the eardrum move ;
- the eardrum moves turn into electrical signals ;
- the electric signals get processed by the brain.

Yet, as you read the lines of this post, or when you think out loud with opening your mouth you can hear your own voice.
My question is: how does the brain = mind paradigm explain this? how can the bain be the source of the stimulae and the processor of it?

Whether it is sight or hearing, it's all coming from the outside. Yet you can still have the phenomenon that I just describe above.
Same can be applied to dreams. How can we see/visualize/hear something when our eyes arent opened?

One of the first thing I learned in biology class is that we respond to external stimulae. The question here is how can be the source and the process of the stimulae both at the same time?
 
Hello folks,

Just wanted to share a quick thought/question with you.
If I schematize quickly how sound gets processed by the brain:
- soundwaves make the eardrum move ;
- the eardrum moves turn into electrical signals ;
- the electric signals get processed by the brain.

Yet, as you read the lines of this post, or when you think out loud with opening your mouth you can hear your own voice.
My question is: how does the brain = mind paradigm explain this? how can the bain be the source of the stimulae and the processor of it?

Whether it is sight or hearing, it's all coming from the outside. Yet you can still have the phenomenon that I just describe above.
Same can be applied to dreams. How can we see/visualize/hear something when our eyes arent opened?

One of the first thing I learned in biology class is that we respond to external stimulae. The question here is how can be the source and the process of the stimulae both at the same time?
Perhaps there are several processes rather than just one?
 
Perhaps there are several processes rather than just one?

I don't think you got what I was saying malf and most likely because I didnt express myself properly.

I am yet to see an explanation for the fact that, as I am writing you, I am "reading" this outloud in my head. The materialistic/mechanistic model has no explanation for this. To hear something means that a source is emitting a sound. Who emits the sound in the aforementioned case? Myself and I am not even opening my mouth.

To me this seems to give me weight to the transreceiver model and goes along the lines of telepathy...

Same for dreams... I am not less conscious when I am dreaming than when I am aware. Where does the light/sound come from in my dreams to be processed by my brain.
 
Hello folks,

Just wanted to share a quick thought/question with you.
If I schematize quickly how sound gets processed by the brain:
- soundwaves make the eardrum move ;
- the eardrum moves turn into electrical signals ;
- the electric signals get processed by the brain.

Yet, as you read the lines of this post, or when you think out loud with opening your mouth you can hear your own voice.
My question is: how does the brain = mind paradigm explain this? how can the bain be the source of the stimulae and the processor of it?

Whether it is sight or hearing, it's all coming from the outside. Yet you can still have the phenomenon that I just describe above.
Same can be applied to dreams. How can we see/visualize/hear something when our eyes arent opened?

One of the first thing I learned in biology class is that we respond to external stimulae. The question here is how can be the source and the process of the stimulae both at the same time?

I don't actually understand your final question, but as regards 'thoughts' in your head, I've tried to show that 'thoughts' may be just a different temporo-spatial perspective of the same thing...
 
There is some interesting work in Neuroscience regarding the formation of images in the brain by the blind. Blind people, even those who have never had physical sight, create images in the brain using the same areas as sighted people. Their brain scans look identical. Neuroscience is coming around to the idea that eyes may not be necessary to see. I would imagine hearing may be similar, but I haven't heard much about it. I know I started a thread elsewhere with this same podcast, but I think it is appropriate to link here.

http://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/

Also, this ability to "self-talk" is called executive function. They claim only humans have this ability, but how could they really know that for sure?
 
There is some interesting work in Neuroscience regarding the formation of images in the brain by the blind. Blind people, even those who have never had physical sight, create images in the brain using the same areas as sighted people. Their brain scans look identical. Neuroscience is coming around to the idea that eyes may not be necessary to see. I would imagine hearing may be similar, but I haven't heard much about it. I know I started a thread elsewhere with this same podcast, but I think it is appropriate to link here.

http://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/

Also, this ability to "self-talk" is called executive function. They claim only humans have this ability, but how could they really know that for sure?

How can you see without eyes? I would tend to think that the brain/mind is reconstructing the environment but that is no longer seeing.

As for the claim of self talk, I dont think humans are anymore privileged than other animals. You say that it's an executive function. My question back to you is who commands the execution? The same "entity" that processes it ie the brain?
 
How can you see without eyes? I would tend to think that the brain/mind is reconstructing the environment but that is no longer seeing.

The podcast explains what they mean, but I would imagine it being a lot like the images you conjure while dreaming. The point is, it was always thought that the blind were blind period. No images created, nothing. And that the visual processing centers in the brain would be delegated to other senses. The research mentioned that in spite of no sensory information coming in from the retina, the visual processing centers worked the same as it would if it had been receiving actual sensory input from the retina. In fact, it has been thought for a while now, that the raw data coming in through our eyes likely looks nothing like the images our brain creates out of that data. Our brain creates the images, not necessarily the "real world" out there. This research just lends more proof that this seems to be the case.
 
As for the claim of self talk, I dont think humans are anymore privileged than other animals. You say that it's an executive function. My question back to you is who commands the execution? The same "entity" that processes it ie the brain?

I ended with the same type of question. How is it that neuroscience "knows" that this is a privilege only humans can have? Animals may very well have the same executive function, especially primates. I'm going to guess that they do, perhaps not as well developed. As for what I think the "executive" may be and what neuroscience believes it is, are two different things. Neuroscience believes it to be the cortex, especially the frontal lobe and the left hemisphere. The cortex is responsible for "higher" cognitive functions, with the left brain being the analytical side, where the "voice" so to speak, originates. The frontal lobe contains the executive center where things like personality, morality and impulse control are said to originate from. And there is very good evidence to support this is true. People who have injuries to their frontal lobes often undergo personality changes and have issues with impulse control.

As to what I think may be happening is that the brain acts as a filter. I'm generally a proponent of the filter model of consciousness, but will readily admit that it could be wrong. However, I think that these "operating centers" they have found are the centers which correspond with the filtering function of that particular aspect of consciousness. So, if the filter is damaged, it doesn't receive or process that aspect of consciousness correctly. I also think that perhaps the so called executive function is just that, our higher consciousness that in conjunction with various parts of the brain, calls the shots, so to speak.
One criticism I have with the materialist model is that they seem to constantly be making THE BRAIN out to be it's own entity. It almost seems like, try as we may, we have a very difficult time explaining consciousness without putting someone or something in charge. For the religious, they call it God or the soul. For the spiritualist, they call it consciousness, the universe or universal consciousness. For the materialist, they call it THE BRAIN.
 
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