According to Benjamin Libet, there is a delay of 0.3 sec between the arrival of a sensory stimulus in our brain and its conscious recognition. There is a similar delay between initiation of action and its awareness.
Yes ! Its true "We" are 0.3 sec behind our brains, both in apprehending external world and responding to it !
This may be the time taken for the neurons and synapses to complete the underlying electrical and chemical processes. Please follow the link below for reading a discussion.
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/231
ഇന്ത്യ
1 week ago
6 comments:
Now we have a relative free will and a lagged consciousness. Let’s move into another subject. What is ‘madness’? Why does it exist? How did it evolve? Did evolution support it? Does it exist for good, has it any evolutional advantage? Nothing can go wrong in evolution as it is guided by natural selection. There are reports of many scientists and artists were troubled by mental illness. It includes schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia ran in the families of both Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. The list is long and it includes George Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Pablo Picasso, Sylvia Plath, Eugene O’Neill, Leo Tolstoy, Vincent van Gogh, John Keats etc… Poets are more notorious but scientists are also there. We all know about John Forbes Nash, he was schizophrenic and he said once that his mathematical inventions and revelations came the same way the delusions came. Both great ideas in mathematics and the ideas of supernatural beings were equal to John Nash. All were delusions or hallucinations to him. Nash said he didn’t take antipsychotics regularly. May be we got all those great ideas about game theory because he didn’t take the drugs. It is a possibility, isn’t it? Sylvia Plath wrote all great poems, it may be because she is also not treated properly. She killed herself at the age of 30. An important question emerges here, how to treat psychotic people with creative talents, especially those who can give great contributions to art and science?
It may be speculation but I think there must be some structural differences in the neural network of great people. Einstein, Hawking or Newton, all of these people lived on the same earth with us. They looked at things and interpreted it differently. We do not believe in any independent consciousness or mind other than the brain. So we are forced to believe that those great men should have something different in their brain, otherwise it will not possible to have such perception and interpretations occurred to them. Many days have gone and we learnt a lot but still it is difficult for common men to think that time is an illusion, and we are living in a curved space with limits but no outside, evolved from a big bang but nothing before that. It is all nonsense for a ‘normal mind’. Is madness an experiment gone wrong in the nature’s laboratory? Is it an evolution’s wild attempt for more diversity and better species? Can we imagine of a species better than us? Is it possible in any way? Do the same genes play for both madness and creativity?
I am giving you an imaginary patient with psychosis; he has both negative and positive symptoms of schizophrenia. He is a great mathematician developing new theorems valuable for all human beings. He is also writing great poetry at sometimes that may be published and enjoyed by all people for ever. Prior treatment history has shown that drug treatment is interfering with his creative talents. What will you do with him? Will you let him suffer for the sake of others?
Dear friends who read here, especially Dr.Harish and Sashi are welcomed to put a comment here.
Thank you.
hi ajeesh, when you talk of evolution you say nothing in evnlttion can go wrong because the process of natural selection operates. The very phrase 'survival of the fittest' implies that there is a situation where there are specimens that are fitter than others. otherwise the above statement would not have existed. We call them fittest because we look at them with our own preconcieved notions. A dog would look on a van gogh painting as a good place to mark his boundary in his customary way ! If a senior dog saw it admiring the painting, it would not be thought of as being a hhghly evolved creature. The occurence ol mental illnesses in a few people whn have produced works of great interest to some people , should not blind us to the obvious fact that a vast majority of them do not do so. And make their and their family's life miserable. Most peopke who do thhngs that enhance quality of human lifd are not documented to be crazy blighters ! We remember only the sensatinalism, look at the way the media in kerala got the people here into a a blue funk about an harmless illness like chickengunya ?! Exactly who would be considered ' mad " is an issue i think harish is better placed to enlighten us. Thank you
I wont be able to give detailed reply for next 2 or 3 days as I am out of station with some engagements. Shall resume the discussions by Monday. Sorry for the delay. I thank Ajeesh, Sashi and all others who give me good company in the cyber world. Best wishes. Thank you
Dear Sashi, I asked you about the particular cases, people with both creative talent and psychosis. What will you do if you have to treat them? I know all the things you said and I am well aware that only a very small percentage of the psychotic people have creative talents. Most of the psychotics are problems to the society. But what I am asking you about those rare, particular cases. Is there anything you can do to sustain their creativity when treating with drugs? Psychotherapy may not be effective in severe cases of schizophrenia.
There is a statistically significant increased incidence of mental illness in both artists and scientists. The percentage is very high compared to the general population.
Frontotemporal dementia and autism produce great artistic, painting or drawing skills all of a sudden in many people. A lot of other studies are coming from the fields like neuroaesthetics or neurophilosophy.
Thank you.
Here is a lecture discussing the Neurobiology of Art.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/lecture3.shtml
Dear Ajeesh, Sashi and other friends,
Sorry for the delay. I was away for a conference for 3 days. I shall take up the issue of art, creativity, normalcy and mental illness in a separate post as this needs detailed discussion. Ajeesh's mathematician (in his first comment) may well be John Nash. He is a famous scientist and has made significant contribution to mathematics. But he also suffered from Psychotic episodes diagnosed as schizophrenia. 'A beautiful mind' the Hollywood masterpiece is based on his story.
Shall add more later.
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