Falling up.

In a new blog I've recently taken to, there's a story about a woman whose inner ear betrayed her, and what she did about it. This sort of thing always makes me sit up and pay attention. I love the idea of the human brain, and how it gets changed. The story includes a link to a book called The Brain that Changes Itself, but that seems a little misleading to me. Does the brain really change itself? I say, no.

That's not to say that the brain isn't an amazing piece of biological hardware, or that it doesn't change in strange and fascinating ways. But in this particular instance, the first change was brought about because of an overdose of antibiotics, and the corrective change uses some clever electrical engineering worked into a helmet. That's the brain reacting to outside influences in my book- something my car does on a daily basis.

Let's get a little more philosophical about this: both changes, the drug and the helmet, were the products of other people's brains. Human brains made these tools, and human brains decided to use them. And the decisions in this case were brought about because of the patient's brain going wonky. Shouldn't that count as the patient's brain changing itself, then changing itself back (albeit through a strange route)?

Again, I say no. Once you get back to first causes, the human brain seems to react to its external environment. Stuff happens to the brain, and it reacts according to a poorly understood rule-system based on its structure and chemical makeup. At least, that's how I understand it. People have evolved to have exceedingly complex behaviors, but I believe any given behavior is just the simultaneous expression of a number of rules, any one of which evolved because it gives an advantage for reproduction over competing rules for behavior in a given situation. And any given "rule" is really just a way for the brain to send signals around itself, or more specifically, for one part of the brain to send signals to another part, or even more specifically, for one neuron to either fire or not.

For more on the subject, track down the most recent episode of Radio Lab that I know of. It's called Emergence. Hey, look at that! It's tracked down.

Of course, I'm not a neurologist, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Unless not doing so gives you a reproductive advantage.