Can lab-grown brains have "consciousness"?

Sara Chodosh (popsci.com, 4/26/18); Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

A bulbous human brain in a jar, dead utterly dead and inert (Kaushik Narasimhan)

.

As our ability to create organs expands, ethical questions come into play

There are lots of reasons one might want to grow brains. For starters, they would allow humans to study human neurological issues in detail, which is otherwise quite challenging to do.

Neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s have devastated millions of people, and brains in a jar (so to speak) could allow us to study disease progression and test potential [herbs, interventions, and if worse comes to worst, toxic-allopathic] medications.
 
The prospect of a lab-grown brain is so compelling that the authors of an editorial in Nature published this week wrote:

“The promise of brain surrogates is such that abandoning them seems itself unethical, given the vast amount of human suffering caused by neurological and psychiatric disorders, and given that most therapies for these diseases developed in animal models fail to work in people.”
 
But there’s a problem. The closer we get to growing a full human brain, the more ethically risky it becomes....

A pickled brain in a saline solution

Given how tantalizing -- and [potentially] genuinely beneficial -- the promise of lab-grown brains is, they [the writers of the editorial] write that we can almost be certain that we will, at some point, grow a whole brain. We’re far from that point.

All we can do now is grow clumps of brain cells -- but now is the time to consider the ethics. The authors advocate for careful consideration by lawmakers, bioethicists, researchers, and any other experts who’ll have a say.
 

Buddha's Brain (Rick Hanson)

And there’s one more group who should be thinking about these issues: all of us. Yes, us, the readers of this piece, should start rolling these ideas in our minds. We may not have the power to directly influence policy about brain research (or who knows, maybe we do), but these policies will be public policies.

They will influence the kind of research our government institutions are allowed to carry out. Our tax dollars will fund that research. Think about it now, before it matters.
 
The editorial itself raises a number of hugely important issues: How would you dispose of a living bit of brain? Who has ownership of the brain bits if the cells come from a donor? But non-neurologists tend to leap to one big question in particular: More
 
When would a brain to be its own person?
 Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson (COMMENTARY)

We might also ask the more provocative, Can robots ever have "consciousness"?

 

Unraveling Mind & Body thru Abhidhamma

The physical "seat of consciousness" is probably distributed. It is spread throughout our holographic body, with each cell and its DNA participating. But the Buddha and ancient texts were careful never to specify the exact location.

However, the commentary as embodied in the Abhidharma ("the Dharma in Ultimate Terms") does specify. That seat is in the area of the heart (hrdraya). Here resides what is called the "mind door."

If emerging from meditative-absorption (jhana, dhyana, zen, chan, seon, thien), which is temporarily purifying, one turns attention between the ears where the brain is, one will see nothing!

But if attention is redirected to the area just above the heart, one will see a green reflective surface that "mirrors" the mind. This is the mind door. Consciousness is seated here. It is really, according to at least one great living Buddhist master and enlightened scholar-monk, in the blood.

Now that's how a whole brain really looks!

Realizing that it is in the blood passing through this spot in the heart is crucial. Self-consciousness (one's own six senses) are not in one spot but in the interaction of one spot and the blood that pervades the entire body down into the marrow of the bones.

This understanding solves the obvious problem of logically deducing (from insufficient information) that if consciousness really resided in or around the heart, a heart transplant would cause a shift in consciousness. Which, of course, it partly does.

Not every memory comes over from the heart donor in a transplant, just some. (It could be supposed that a hand, face, or other organ transplant would have a similar though less powerful affect on a person's consciousness).

The brain continues down the spinal cord

Where are neurons in the human body? We think the answer is in the brain, particularly the cortex and neocortex. But there are many, many neurons in the lining of the gut and in the heart. The whole human body is conscious. Why do brain scientists foolishly stick electrodes in living brains of conscious subjects and, with the stimulation of a vivid memory, jump to the false conclusion that all memories therefore reside in the brain?

Why in the world do they not take those same electrodes to the gut and heart, to the neurons in these locations, to see the exact same thing happen? The brain is important, almost as important as the spinal column. How big is the brain? The real answer is that it extends from the crown of the head to the base of the spine and the long nerves the emanate from the spinal column, the sciatic nerve and such.

Cap detects brain activity (MARC.ucla.edu)

Now, as to the question at hand, would organized brain cells in a jar have consciousness? Yes, probably, but not the sort of fully formed consciousness a whole body would have. Buddhism recognizes six general senses (and science now realizes there are many more than five such as proprioception, etc.), the sixth being mind.

A tactile sense reaction, like burning the hand, bypasses the brain. It goes from the hand to the spinal cord back to the hand to pull away, then the brain comes into consciousness about what just happened. Therefore, in a very real sense, there is "consciousness" in the body without the bulbous end of the brain at the top of the spinal cord or what we call "the brain."

The brain stem, the "reptilian brain," are all still the brain. And some suffering from microencephaly (little to no brain matter between the ears) can go about and graduate from college and never know. Our sense of "self" and our ability to be conscious is not fully brain-dependent. The brain is a part of it, not the whole story.

What are "consciousness" and "mind"? Buddhism knows. Read about it in Unravelling the Mysteries of Mind & Body Through Abhidhamma by Sayalay Susila, edited by Dhr. Seven.

 
If a hand is grown in a jar and stimulated, it is likely to twitch. Is someone somewhere twitching? We don't even ask. Think of all those discarnate frog's legs in lab doing liminal and subliminal testing. Is any being feeling those electrical impulses and reflexive jerks? In a sense, yes. Where is that consciousness without a frog "brain"?

Maybe there are a few neurons around, or neuronal bodies, ganglia, synapses, "nerve wires," all of which play their part in our embodied consciousness. And when we die, when there's no working body (as measured by EEG and heart monitors), we are perfectly conscious and aware. Ask a NDE survivor. How did that happen?

Dr. Jill Bolte had a stroke of insight (TED).

"Consciousness" (cittas and cetasikas or "mind moments and the concomitants of consciousness") are interdependent with this body not fully dependent on it, for there are other more subtle bodies here unseen (astral, etc.), at least in seven sheaths of subtle bodies. And the subtle light-body of "spontaneously-born" (opapatika) beings, which is what we'll have from the first moment of death, has that interdependence on mind when this dense body no longer serves that function.

It's complicated, and we'll have to return to this topic when scientists announce that they've been growing brains and callously disposing of them for a long time just as they grown in vitro humans without telling anyone for the ethics firestorm it would ignite.

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A look at minorities in previous Disney productions

"Teleporting" captured on traffic cam (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; The Kepler Telescope Channel/YouTube


Power of Human Brain (Mind Over Matter)
(Documentary Videos) The Brain

The human brain has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but has a more developed cerebral cortex than any other. Large animals such as whales and elephants have larger brains in absolute terms, but when measured using the encephalization quotient, which compensates for body size, the human brain is almost twice as large as the brain of the bottlenose dolphin, and three times as large as the brain of a chimpanzee. Much of the expansion comes from the cerebral cortex, especially the frontal lobes, which are associated with executive functions such as self-control, planning, reasoning, and abstract thought. The portion of the cerebral cortex devoted to vision, the visual cortex, is also greatly enlarged in humans.

The human cerebral cortex is a thick layer of neural tissue that covers most of the brain. This layer is folded in a way that increases the amount of surface that can fit into the volume available. The pattern of folds is similar across individuals, although there are many small variations. The cortex is divided into four "lobes", called the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, and occipital lobe. (Some classification systems also include a limbic lobe and treat the insular cortex as a lobe.) Within each lobe are numerous cortical areas, each associated with a particular function, including vision, motor control, and language. The left and right sides of the cortex are broadly similar in shape, and most cortical areas are replicated on both sides. Some areas, though, show strong lateralization, particularly areas that are involved in language. In most people, the left hemisphere is "dominant" for language, with the right hemisphere playing only a minor role. There are other functions, such as spatiotemporal reasoning, for which the right hemisphere is usually dominant.

Despite being protected by the thick bones of the skull, suspended in cerebrospinal fluid, and isolated from the bloodstream by the blood–brain barrier, the human brain is susceptible to damage and disease. The most common forms of physical damage are closed head injuries such as a blow to the head, a stroke, or poisoning by a variety of chemicals that can act as neurotoxins. Infection of the brain, though serious, is rare due to the biological barriers that protect it. The human brain is also susceptible to degenerative disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer's disease. A number of psychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia and depression, are thought to be associated with brain dysfunctions, although the nature of such brain anomalies is not well understood.

Scientifically, the techniques that are used to study the human brain differ in important ways from those that are used to study the brains of other mammals. On the one hand, invasive techniques such as inserting electrodes into the brain, or disabling parts of the brain in order to examine the effect on behavior, are used with non-human species, but for ethical reasons, are generally not performed with humans. On the other hand, humans are the only subjects who can respond to complex verbal instructions. Thus, it is often possible to use non-invasive techniques such as functional neuroimaging or EEG recording more productively with humans than with non-humans. Furthermore, some of the most important topics, such as language, can hardly be studied at all except in humans. In many cases, human and non-human studies form essential complements to each other. Individual brain cells (except where tissue samples are taken for biopsy for suspected brain tumors) can only be studied in non-humans; complex cognitive tasks can only be studied in humans. Combining the two sources of information to yield a complete functional understanding of the human brain is an ongoing challenge for neuroscience.

Left Brain versus Right Brain (myth)

Rick Nauert, PhD (Senior Editor, PsychCentral.com), reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

Visual creativity uses both right, left brain

The common belief that the right hemisphere of the brain is the source of creativity while the left brain is responsible for logic and math may well be less true than once thought.

In a quest to determine the exact source of creativity in the brain, researchers have found that the left hemisphere of your brain is critical for creative thinking. The finding adds an asterisk to the belief that if you paint or sculpt, you are right-brained.

Researchers discovered that while the right half of the brain performs the bulk of the creative process, the left half makes important contributions.

The study, posted online in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, focuses on how the brain... More

Understanding the Myth and Reality of Left Brain and Right Brain Dominance

Kendra Cherry (About.com Guide)

Have you ever heard people say that they tend to be more of a right-brain or left-brain thinker?

From books to TV programs, you've probably heard the phrase mentioned numerous times or perhaps you've even taken an online test to determine which type best describes you.

What is Left Brain-Right Brain Theory?
According to the theory of left-brain versus right-brain dominance, each side of the brain controls different types of thinking. Additionally, people are said to prefer one type of thinking over the other. For example, a person who is "left-brained" is often said to be more logical, analytical, and objective, while a person who is "right-brained" is said to be more intuitive, [creative] thoughtful, and subjective. More

6: Science Meets Spirituality

Barbara Bradley Hagerty (NPR)

Scientists have long dismissed reports of people "seeing the light" during near-death experiences. But now researchers are taking a closer look and asking whether a mind can operate while the brain has stopped (iStockphoto.com).

Decoding the Mystery of Near-Death Experiences

All Things Considered, May 22, 2009 · We've all heard the stories about near-death experiences: the tunnel, the white light, the encounter with long-dead relatives now looking very much alive.

• Listen Now [10 min 4 sec]

Scientists have cast a skeptical eye on these accounts. They say that these feelings and visions are simply the result of a brain shutting down.

But now some researchers are giving a closer neurological look at near-death experiences and asking: Can your mind operate when your brain has stopped?

"I Popped Up Out The Top Of My Head"
I met Pam Reynolds in her tour bus. She's a big deal in the music world — her company, Southern Tracks, has recorded music by everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Pearl Jam to REM. But you've probably never heard her favorite song. It's the one Reynolds wrote about the time she traveled to death's door and back. The experience has made her something of a rock star in the near-death world. Believers say she is proof positive that the mind can operate when the brain is stilled. Nonbelievers say she's nothing of the sort.

Reynolds' journey began one hot August day in 1991.

"I was in Virginia Beach, Va., with my husband," she recalls. "We were promoting a new record. And I inexplicably forgot how to talk. I've got a big mouth. I never forget how to talk."

An MRI revealed an aneurysm on her brain stem. It was already leaking, a ticking time bomb. Her doctor in Atlanta said her best hope was a young brain surgeon at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona named Robert Spetzler.

"The aneurysm was very large, which meant the risk of rupture was also very large," Spetzler says. "And it was in a location where the only way to really give her the very best odds of fixing it required what we call 'cardiac standstill.' "

It was a daring operation: Chilling her body, draining the blood out of her head like oil from a car engine, snipping the aneurysm and then bringing her back from the edge of death.

"She is as deeply comatose as you can be and still be alive," Spetzler observes.

When the operation began, the surgeons taped shut Reynolds' eyes and put molded speakers in her ears. The ear speakers, which made clicking sounds as loud as a jet plane taking off, allowed the surgeons to measure her brain stem activity and let them know when they could drain her blood.

"I was lying there on the gurney minding my own business, seriously unconscious, when I started to hear a noise," Reynolds recalls. "It was a natural D, and as the sound continued — I don't know how to explain this, other than to go ahead and say it — I popped up out the top of my head."

A Tunnel And Bright Light
She says she found herself looking down at the operating table. She says she could see 20 people around the table and hear what sounded like a dentist's drill. She looked at the instrument in the surgeon's hand.

"It was an odd-looking thing," she says. "It looked like the handle on my electric toothbrush."

Reynolds observed the Midas Rex bone saw the surgeons used to cut open her head, the drill bits, and the case, which looked like the one where her father kept his socket wrenches. Then she noticed a surgeon at her left groin.

"I heard a female voice say, 'Her arteries are too small.' And Dr. Spetzler — I think it was him — said, 'Use the other side,' " Reynolds says.

Soon after, the surgeons began to lower her body temperature to 60 degrees. It was about that time that Reynolds believes she noticed a tunnel and bright light. She eventually flat-lined completely, and the surgeons drained the blood out of her head.

During her near-death experience, she says she chatted with her dead grandmother and uncle, who escorted her back to the operating room. She says as they looked down on her body, she could hear the Eagles' song "Hotel California" playing in the operating room as the doctors restarted her heart. She says her body looked like a train wreck, and she said she didn't want to return.

"My uncle pushed me," she says, laughing. "And when I hit the body, the line in the song was, 'You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.' And I opened my eyes and I said, 'You know, that is really insensitive!' "

A Vision That Matches The Record
Afterwards, Reynolds assumed she had been hallucinating. But a year later, she mentioned the details to her neurosurgeon. Spetzler says her account matched his memory.

"From a scientific perspective," he says, "I have absolutely no explanation about how it could have happened."

Spetzler did not check out all the details, but Michael Sabom did. Sabom is a cardiologist in Atlanta who was researching near-death experiences.

"With Pam's permission, they sent me her records from the surgery," he says. "And long story short, what she said happened to her is actually what Spetzler did with her out in Arizona."

According to the records, there were 20 doctors in the room. There was a conversation about the veins in her left leg. She was defibrillated. They were playing "Hotel California." How about that bone saw? Sabom got a photo from the manufacturer — and it does look like an electric toothbrush.

How, Sabom wonders, could she know these things?

"She could not have heard [it], because of what they did to her ears," he says. "In addition, both of her eyes were taped shut, so she couldn't open her eyes and see what was going on. So her physical sensory perception was off the table."

An Alternative Explanation?
That's preposterous, says anesthesiologist Gerald Woerlee.

"This report provides absolutely no evidence for survival of any sort of consciousness outside the body during near-death experiences or any other such experiences," he says.

Woerlee, an Australian researcher and near-death experience debunker who has investigated Reynolds' case, says what happened to her is easy to explain. He says when they cut into her head, she was jolted into consciousness. At that point, they had not yet drained blood from her brain. He believes she could hear — despite the clicking earplugs.... Full story>>

A Permanent Change In Brain Activity?
For the experiment, Bedard is shut into an isolation chamber at Beauregard's Montreal lab. Bedard's head sprouts 32 electrodes, which will record his brain wave activity. He's told to relax for a few moments. Then he'll be instructed to imagine his near-death experience.

A few minutes later, Beauregard and his research assistant are peering at a computer screen recording Bedard's brain waves. They cluck happily at the slow, large-amplitude Delta waves undulating across the screen — typical of a person in deep meditation or deep sleep.

Afterward, the researcher asks Bedard if he was able to connect with the light.

"Yeah, it was coming from within," he says. "It was loving, intelligent…very powerful."

It would take Beauregard a year to complete his research on near-death experiences. A few weeks ago, I called to ask him what he had found.

"It's like the near-death experience triggered something at a neural level in the brain," he said. "And perhaps this change, in terms of brain activity, is sort of permanent."

Beauregard says it's as if touching death jump-started the spiritual lives of these people. Their brains in the spiritual state look a lot like those of Catholic nuns and Buddhist monks who have spent tens of thousands of hours in prayer and meditation. Both groups showed extremely slow brain wave activity.

The researchers also saw significant changes in brain regions associated with positive emotions, attention and personal boundaries, as subjects who had had near-death experiences lost their sense of their physical bodies and merged with God or the "light."

Brain Chemistry Or A Trip To Heaven?
Skeptic Woerlee says there's nothing remarkable — and certainly nothing spiritual — about these findings.

"The brain function of many of these people who have undergone a near-death experience is altered," Woerlee says. "That's correct. It is altered. Extreme oxygen starvation does change brain function — because it causes brain damage to the larger cells in the brain."

It's brain chemistry, he says, not a trip to heaven.

In other words, Woerlee and Beauregard looked at the same images and came to opposite conclusions.

I found that dichotomy everywhere as I interviewed experts about the emerging science of spirituality. It's kind of like a Rorschach test: Some researchers look at the data and say spiritual experience is only an electrical storm in the temporal lobe, or a brain gasping for oxygen — all fully explainable by science. Others say our brains are reflecting an encounter with the divine.

And almost invariably, where a scientist stands on that issue has little to do with the clinical findings of any study. It has almost everything to do with the scientist's personal beliefs. Source

Decoding the Mystery of Near-Death Experiences
Some researchers are exploring whether a mind can operate when the brain has stopped. One neuroscientist says that after a near-death experience, people's brains appear to undergo changes at the neural level, so that they resemble to those of long-term meditators.

• Bradley Hagerty on Science and God
• Is this your brain on God?
• May 18, 2009: The God Chemical: Brain Chemistry And Mysticism
• May 19, 2009: Are Spiritual Encounters All In Your Head?
• May 20, 2009: Prayer May Reshape Your Brain ... And Your Reality
• May 21, 2009: Can Positive Thoughts Help Heal Another Person?

De-stress with Brain Wave Vibration

Learn how to release stress, clear your thoughts, and allow your body to take care of itself. See brainwavevibration.com for personal stories, news, and other features. Brain Wave Vibration training is one of the simplest forms of Brain Education and also one of the most effective.

It focuses on the most basic part of the brain, the brain stem. The brain stem is critical to health because it is the area of the brain that controls breathing, heart rate, stress response, and many other autonomic functions of the body.

This method is designed to get the neocortex (the thinking part of the brain) out of the way of the brain stem. That is one of the main purposes of meditation.

If one is under continuous stress, it is likely the brain stem cannot reestablish equilibrium in the body. The neocortex is constantly sending messages to the brain stem that keeps one in a fight-flight-or-freeze state. Over time, this leads to tremendous wear and tear on the body and mind.

So what is the way out of this vicious cycle of stress?

One gets out of the way and lets the brain stem do its work. By helping to calm and empty the thinking mind, Brain Wave Vibration training allows one to transcend the negative thought patterns and emotions that keep one constantly in a state of stress.

Brain Wave Vibration training uses vibrations in the body to change the vibrations in the brain, creating waves that resonate properly with the rest of the body's functions. Through the gentle rhythms created in the body, release bodily tension and bring the brain toward a calm, meditative state.

Tiny 'brains' found between brain cells

This bulge of brain cells should not be that hard to understand. What we need are tools.

Behold, the physical base of consciousness? NO

Between and around the billions of neurons in the human brain is an equally vital scaffold, the extracellular matrix (ECM).

An interlinked net of proteins and sugars that surrounds brain cells, the ECM is more than simple structural support; changes in the ECM can regulate complex brain functions including memory, learning, and behavior.

Buddha's Brain (Rick Hanson)

But studies of the brain's ECM have been limited by the lack of tools to observe dynamic changes to its structure. Now, a new genetic labeling tool developed by University of Utah Health researchers Dr. Igal Sterin, Ph.D. and Dr. Sungjin Park, Ph.D. has revealed new patterns in brain ECM in mice, including differences in the amount of matrix deposited on different types of neurons.

A major advantage of the tool is that it can detect changes in the ECM over time, giving new insights into how the brain develops.

The research is published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

• In biology, the extracellular matrix (ECM) [1, 2] also called intercellular matrix (ICM), is a network consisting of extracellular macromolecules and minerals, such as collagen, enzymes, glycoproteins, and hydroxyapatite that provide structural and biochemical support to surrounding [brain] cells [called neurons] [3, 4, 5]. Because multicellularity evolved independently in different multicellular lineages, the composition of ECM varies between multicellular structures; however, cell adhesion, cell-to-cell communication, and differentiation are common functions of the ECM [6]. More: extracellular matrix

Hacking of the American Mind (How? Dopamine)

The new tool has two main parts -- a protein that binds to the main ingredients of the brain ECM fused to another protein that irreversibly sticks to a variety of synthetic fluorescent dyes.

When scientists introduced the tool into neurons, it bound to the surrounding matrix. They then added a fluorescent dye to make matrix structures visible.

Using this tool, the researchers were able to watch as ECM was deposited over time in cultured rodent brain cells, making out dense clusters of matrix that appeared on only certain neurons and at different times.

More on this breakthrough: New tool reveals details of the microscopic brain structures between neurons

• Fluorescent microscopy image of a section of mouse brain, where green is a conventional brain ECM marker. Magenta is the new tool developed by the researchers. Credit: The Journal of Neuroscience (2024). DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0666-24.2024.
• The Practical Neuroscience of Buddha's Brain: Happiness, Love, & Wisdom by Dr. Rick Hanson
• The Hacking of the American Mind by Dr. Robert Lustig, M.D.

Neuroscientists come up with new brain map

Pandora Dewan, Newsweek, 2/26/24; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Buddha's Brain (Rick Hanson)

A comprehensive map of the brain's "dysfunctome" — the regions that become dysfunctional during various neurological conditions — has been created by neuroscientists for the first time.

The research offers hope for millions of patients, paving the way toward more tailored treatments based on specific dysfunctionality in certain areas of the brain.

Dysfunctionality in key brain areas can result in a range of debilitating conditions, including

• Parkinson's disease [which is just due to the loss of myelin sheath of the nervous system, which is easily revered by Dr. Joel Wallach at criticalhealthnews.com, even in serious and advanced cases like famous Michael J. Fox if only he knew],
• obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD),
• dystonia (a movement disorder where the muscles contract involuntarily), and
• Tourette's syndrome [like Billie Pirate Eilish suffers from].

Pictures are a poor way of looking for subtleties.

These disorders have a broad spectrum of different symptoms, from information processing and mood disorders to motor deficits.

But the one thing they all have in common is an underlying malfunction in brain circuitry.

Deep brain stimulation — that is, delivering an electric current directly to specific areas of the brain using small electrodes — can target these brain circuits and has been shown to alleviate symptoms for various conditions.

The brain is here, but the "mind" is elsewhere.

[Cary Harrison, whose radio show on KPFK Pacifica Los Angeles, says one cure for depression is an uncomfortable tapping using strong magnets in a repeated series of sessions over a few weeks, which has been shown to work on recovering soldiers, like a guest he had on talking about his remarkable success with this method when nothing else worked.]

• Researchers use deep brain stimulation to map therapeutic targets for four brain disorders
• Rhythmically stimulating the brain with electrical currents could boost cognitive function, according to analysis of over 100 studies

What does Buddhism know about neurology?

However, this treatment method is not always successful, and even small discrepancies in electrode placement can significantly dampen its efficacy.

Also, it is not always clear which brain circuits need to be stimulated to achieve optimal outcomes.

• [In any case, there's lots of hope for the future of mental conditions because MAPS and other organization are completing successful trials of psychedelics (DMT/the spirit molecule, Ecstasy/MDMA, psilocybin/magic mushrooms, ketamine/Special K, LSD/acid, and other substances that are having a remarkable effect on many mood disorders and even autism. MORE:] Neuroscientists say new brain map could help tackle disorders

Buddhist neuroscientist Dr. Rick Hansen gives an introduction to "Neurodharma" (Lion's Roar)

Mind Control: Cat and Mouse example

Wisdom Quarterly ANALYSIS

This event, captured by student photographer Casey Gutteridge, gives a new meaning to cat and mouse games. Or does it? The behavior captured at the Santago Rare Leopard Project in Hertfordshire, England is even more bizarre than it appears. It is mind control by parasites. Gutteridge, who was photographing the leopard for a course project when the mouse appeared, said:

"I have no idea where the mouse came from. He just appeared in the enclosure after the keeper had dropped in the meat for the leopard. He didn't take any notice of the leopard, just went straight over to the meat and started feeding himself. But the leopard was pretty surprised. She bent down and sniffed the mouse and flinched a bit like she was scared. In the meantime the mouse just carried on eating like nothing had happened...but even a gentle shove does not deter the little creature from getting his fill... It was amazing. Even the keeper who had thrown the meat into the enclosure was shocked. He said he'd never seen anything like it before."

Project owner Jackie James added: "It was so funny to see. Sheena batted the mouse a couple of times to try to get it away from her food. But the determined little thing took no notice and just carried on."

Sheena was brought in to the Santago Rare Leopard Project from a UK zoo when she was just four months old. She is one of 14 big cats in the private collection started by Jackie's late husband Peter in 1989. The African Leopard can be found in the continent's forests, grasslands, savannas, and rainforests.

The mouse continued to eat the leopard's lunch and show the leopard who was the boss. But what is driving this behavior? It is neither bravery nor foolishness. It's actually much stranger than that: There exists a cat parasite whose life-cycle includes the brains of mice. The only way for it to complete its life-cycle in a cat's intestines is to alter fear in mice so that they will venture out and be eaten. Stranger still is that this brain parasite can affect humans.

• Cat parasite may affect cultural traits in human pop.
  (LiveScience) Parasite found in cats may be affecting human behavior.
• Mind Control by Parasites
  Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite found in the guts of cats that gets to cats through intermediate rat hosts.
• Toxoplasma -- the brain parasite that influences human culture...
  Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled brain parasite spread by cats. Our feline companions are its preferred home and only in their bodies...
• Bizarre Human Brain Parasite Precisely Alters Fear
  After they get infected with the brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii, however, rats become attracted to cat urine, increasing the chance they'll be eaten...
• Brain parasite drives human culture
  The brain parasite is spread by cats and affects a huge proportion of the world's population.
• Parasites on the Brain
  Melanie said: "A lot of people in France have it..."
• Cat-Borne Brain Parasite Attracts Rats to Feline...
  (Fox News) Cat-borne brain parasite attracts rats to feline urine. Toxoplasmids, thought to alter human brain activity, now shown to alter rat thinking...
• Brain Parasite (Cuterebra) in Cats: (PetMD) Feline ischemic encephalopathy (FIE) is caused by the presence of a parasite (Cuterebra larva) in the cat's brain.
• Toxoplasmosis (Wikipedia)
  Louis Wain was a prominent cat artist who later developed schizophrenia... "Can the common brain parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, influence human culture?"

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life

Your Brain as Meditation Hindrance


Functional scan of one American brain: "Swiss cheese" (photo)

Brain damage or dysfunction can radically impede meditation progress. Letting go and entering a state of deep serenity by holding attention-awareness on a single thing (like one's breath) would flood the brain with feelgood chemicals that would begin to heal it.

Recently a WQ staffer discovered that damage or dysfunction in the cingulate gyrus (an executive portion of the brain dealing with emotion and inhibition) can ruin one's meditation to the point of hopeless frustration.

This area functions as an integral part of the limbic system involved with emotion formation as well as processing, learning, and memory. The executive control needed to inhibit inappropriate unconscious priming is also known to involve the anterior cingulate gyrus (Reference).

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life

The morale of the story may simply be for those facing this hindrance to have their brains checked. It can be done simply enough. Do it yourself, to begin with, using Dr. Amen's questionnaires. The surveys give clues that brain SPECT images can confirm or debunk.

The Amen Clinic has found that meditation lights up the brain rather than resting it. So it is soothing and healing to meditate correctly. Frustration, ambition, speculation, and so on harm rather than help. A brain scan on top of the survey confirms a diagnosis then a healing regimen can be undertaken with natural foods, removal of toxins from the environment, and lifestyle alterations. Every brain can be healthy.

(about.com)

1. Gyrus* rectus
2. Superior frontal gyrus
3. Cingulate gyrus
4. Cingulate sulcus
5. Paracentral sulcus
6. Central sulcus
7. Precuneus
8. Cuneus
9. Lingual gyrus

*Note: gyrus simply means "bump"

• More on Brain SPECT imaging
• 14 Reasons to get a Brain Scan
• Diet (repeated trauma) is leading correctable cause of brain dysfunction: Food allergies in U.S. children on the rise, study finds

It's "my" brain, but what's in control? (video)

NOVA PBS Official, May 31, 2023; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Your Brain: Who's in Control? | Full Documentary | NOVA | PBS

(NOVA PBS Official) If I am not me, who is? If this is not MY brain, my mind, my consciousness, my will, whose is it? Let's dive into the subconscious to see what’s really driving the decisions we make.

Buddha's Brain (Rick Hanson)

[The Buddha went to great pains to answer these and similar questions, defining consciousness (vinnana, citta, cetasika) as a process (not a thing), a series of mind-moments and concomitants. Buddhism's Abhidharma or "Doctrine in Ultimate Terms" lays it all out in startling detail. Moreover, Buddhist meditation practices bring these things to light for direct experience and verification, the only things that lead to liberation. This is not academic. This is to be experienced. Buddhism invites skeptics and those with confidence (faith or saddha) to "come and see," to verify, with the thinking that the Truth sets one free.]

Monkey mind vs. the Buddha's brain

Are we in control, or are our brains controlling us? Dive into the latest research on the subconscious with neuroscientist Heather Berlin.

Sleepwalking, anesthesia, game theory, and more reveal surprising insights on this eye-opening journey to discover what’s really driving the decisions we make.

Official website: to.pbs.org/3pUGv1s. #novapbs #subconsciousmind #neuroscience

CHAPTERS

• 00:00 Introduction
• 03:22 Sleepwalking and the Brain
• 08:36 Anesthesia and the Brain
• 14:18 Results of Split-Brain Surgery
• 22:23 Emotions and the Brain
• 30:01 How Does Trauma Affect the Brain?
• 35:39 How Much Control Do We Have of Our Brain?
• 45:44 Creativity and the Brain
• 50:17 Conclusion

Autopsy "brain" shown by DaVinci in his famous God touches Man Sistine Chapel mural

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#brainscience #perception #neuroscience #consciousness #subconscious #subconsciousmind