13
votes
Accepted
What is the information storage capacity of the human brain?
Disclaimer: Quantifying the capacity of the human brain is quiet complex as you might imagine. And although in cognitive neuroscience we often compare the brain to computers this is not an exact ...
- 1,196
12
votes
How do we hear our inner voice?
No, inner speech does not follow the same neural pathway as speech coming in from outside.
Rather, inner speech uses the same neural mechanism as outer speech - that is, speech going out. The neural ...
- 19.4k
9
votes
Accepted
Can a brain be modeled as a simplified interaction of different states and their triggers?
My answer is probably a weird hodgepodge of sometimes poorly explained stuff, but hopefully it's coherent enough :P
For many decades in psychology, we've had a mechanistic stimulus-organism-response ...
- 4,388
9
votes
Accepted
Can music be addictive?
According to the article "Addiction to Music Has Biochemical Basis" on Softpedia News by Tudor Vieru, which reports on findings by Robert Zatorre and Valorie Salimpoor (Salimpoor & ...
- 547
9
votes
Accepted
If I think of a checkerboard, is there a similar structure to see in my visual cortex?
Probably. What you mentioned in your question is called retinotopy. There is a mapping between locations on your retina and areas on your cortex. As you go further up the visual processing streams, ...
- 981
8
votes
Is praying the Catholic rosary a meditation and does it enhance brain plasticity?
The accepted method of praying the Rosary is to actually complete five (5) decades, each containing the Hail Mary (Ave Maria) repeated 10 times (hence the term "decade"). Each decade is followed by an ...
- 81
8
votes
Accepted
Can you get sad by sniffing onions, just like you can get happy by forcing yourself to smile?
I assume you're referring to the experiment by Strack, Martin, and Stepper (1988) in which people rated a cartoon as funnier when they had to hold their face in a smile shape by gripping a pencil in ...
- 361
7
votes
What is "Attention" in terms of brain activity?
Firstly its important to note that attention basically the outcome of automatic processes, although attention may easily be directed by conscious choices.
As a previous poster mentioned the ...
- 1,196
7
votes
Accepted
Is there a neural network model of Pavlovian Learning?
In general, what you're looking for is a biologically plausible model of reinforcement learning and/or conditioning. I know of two publications in particular that address this.
The first is A ...
- 8,833
7
votes
Can LSD connect sensory regions in the brain?
The phenomenon you are referring to is called synesthesia, which can be defined as (Sinke et al., 2012):
Synesthesia (Greek: syn = together; aesthesis = perception) is [...] a crossing of sensory ...
- 20.5k
7
votes
What is the computational role of the cortical column?
Cortical columns are groups of neurons in the brain that are oriented perpendicularly to the cortical surface. Cells within a column respond to the same stimulus property (Fig. 1). For example, ...
- 20.5k
7
votes
Is quick left brain vs right brain test fake?
Without references, you state:
In this picture if you noticed her rotating clockwise you are right
brain dominant.
We discourage asking questions on this site (or in science in general) which ...
- 3,513
6
votes
Can humans keep track of two unrelated rhythms?
I never thought that my Bachelor Thesis would ever come in handy. Thank you for this question!
Short answer
No, you cannot keep up two unrelated rhythms in a stable coordinated fashion when tapping ...
- 3,172
6
votes
Accepted
Is the brain inherently social?
The "social brain" concept likely originated with Robin Dunbar's Social Brain Hypothesis, proposed in 1998. However, Dunbar was not suggesting that the brain has dedicated "social modules". Rather, ...
- 19.4k
6
votes
Accepted
Can humans be reduced to a function?
I think the key concept to tackle this question is to consider the concept of abstraction.
Abstract models are generalized models of some kind "reality" that we are interested in, with the aim to ...
- 348
6
votes
Can humans be reduced to a function?
For a review of how this question is debated in Cognitive Science, search for Searle's Chinese Room Thought Experiment.
In the Chinese Room Thought Experiment, Searle argues there is something ...
- 8,833
6
votes
Accepted
Can normal brain activity arise from no (or random) brain activity?
There is no such thing as "zero" activity in regards to brain circuits. Even when you record neurons from a brain slice in vitro, you have spontaneous network activity. There is a few studies that ...
- 76
6
votes
How does the brain structure 3D visual data?
This question cannot be answered in the form in which you asked it both because of the limits of current neuroscientific theories and methodologies when it comes to determining the structures of ...
- 181
6
votes
How often are complex networks and graph theory useful in computational neuroscience?
In my opinion as a computational neuroscience researcher, graph theory has not made major inroads into computational neuroscience because we don't have good evidence for what graphs characterise ...
6
votes
Accepted
What are the advantages of 2AFC in a psychophysical discrimination task?
What makes a task a two alternative forced choice task?
I am beginning my answer with this question because there is a general misconception about what 2AFC really means. Many people believe that ...
- 261
6
votes
How does the neocortex distinguish between perception and imagination?
Short answer
Perception and imagination in the visual system use pretty much the same neural machinery, but in opposite directions - perception goes bottom-up, from the periphery to the central ...
- 20.5k
6
votes
Accepted
When your two eyes disagree sharply
Binocular rivalry refers to a situation where you present different images to each eye (often in the context of an experiment, although you also point out some quick 'at home' ways to achieve this), ...
- 7,172
6
votes
Why can't human thoughts be stored in metals?
First off, you mention 'metals'. What is a metal?
In common speech, a metal is a shiny material that conducts electricity and heat well.
In physics, a metal is regarded as a substance capable ...
- 20.5k
5
votes
Is there evidence to suggest that music can trigger release of a particular kind of neurotransmitter?
Music is known as a form of an abstract stimulus, which can arouse feelings of euphoria, similar to tangible rewards that involve the striatal (corpus striatum) dopamine system.
In a study, ...
- 433
5
votes
How to get anatomical masks?
I'm a TMS, but not an fMRI, researcher but I have experience using anatomical masks. I can guide you through the steps to make an anatomical mask, but unfortunately I don't have any code to offer you.
...
5
votes
What brain areas are involved in memorizing sections of a song?
I would read this paper, its mighty interesting.
Books
Snyder, B.(2000) Music and memory: An introduction. The MIT Press. Cambridge 291.
Hemispheric Coordination and Conflict
"...while listening ...
- 1,192
5
votes
Accepted
Is it possible for any arbitrary able bodied human to develop exceptional cognitive talent & genius across multiple disciplines?
Can any arbitrary [able bodied] human become a genius across multiple
disciplines or at least one discipline assuming that they have some
Secondary Eduction in these disciplines?
No, not all able ...
- 1,123
5
votes
Are axons in the brain weighted?
Is it known whether the connection strength of synapses is important
to the functioning of the brain or does just the binary existence of a
synapse matter?
I think it's safe to say that ...
- 522
5
votes
Can LSD connect sensory regions in the brain?
In a recent study, brain scans revealed that people under the influence of LSD experience images through information drawn from many parts of their brains, and not just the visual cortex at the back ...
- 306
5
votes
What leaps in technology would be needed to scan the total state of the human brain?
Your question can be reduced to "What level of detail do we need to know about a brain to be able to simulate it?"
The answer to this question is we have no idea. The Blue Brain project has bet on ...
- 8,833
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible