The discovery of new possibilities of the human brain is happening more and more often. At the same time, scientists cannot fully understand how he still works. Svyatoslav Medvedev, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Human Brain Institute, told Rosbalt in an interview with Rosbalt as part of the Better Half of Life project about which secrets and mysteries of the brain remain unsolved.
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Human Brain Institute Svyatoslav Medvedev.
Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, people have been studying the brain for hundreds of years. How much progress have you made during this time?
- Not even hundreds of years, but thousands. The first craniotomy - craniotomy - was done around 5000 BC. Even Hippocrates argued that intelligence is somewhere in the anterior ventricle, that is, he correctly guessed the leading role of the frontal cortex. And the student of the ancient anatomist Herophilus became famous for the fact that, opening corpses, he came to the conclusion: the brain, firstly, is the center of the entire nervous system, and secondly, the organ of thinking.
People have always been interested in their own device. But the human brain remained a mystery. Because it is located under a rather strong skull, and it is difficult to get to it. Even if this box is opened, the brain gives the impression of, shall we say, jelly. It seems nothing special. But when this "jelly" began to be investigated, amazing things came to light.
It turned out that the brain of an ordinary adult weighs 1-2 kg, and the largest brain is in morons. That is, it cannot be said that the larger the brain, the smarter the person. The brain consumes a quarter of all the energy that the body needs - 20% oxygen and 25% glucose. The rat cerebral cortex is 5 sq. cm, chimpanzees - 500 sq. cm, and a person - as much as 2300 sq. see In the cortex there are about 10 billion neurons, and the number of connections between them is greater than the number of particles in the Universe. At the same time, the thinking abilities of animals, for example, dogs, and humans are radically different, despite the fact that dogs are very intelligent. What makes the difference? What makes the human brain the most perfect object known? How does a person think? The controversy of researchers around these issues continues today.
What scientific discoveries shed light on the mysteries of the brain?
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- The discovery of the electroencephalogram in the twentieth century made it possible to observe the electrical activity of the brain from the surface of the scalp. And the next breakthrough in research was recording activity from electrodes implanted for therapeutic purposes in patients in specific areas of the brain. With their help, the neurophysiologist Natalya Petrovna Bekhtereva made an amazing discovery: the famous error detector. In 1968, she discovered that the brain has a mechanism that stabilizes both its work and human behavior. He continually checks to see if everything is going right.
The fact is that for the vast majority of our activities there is a standard for their implementation. It allows you not to be distracted by the routine, maintains a stable state in a healthy body, as well as the correct performance of daily activities, reacting to the discrepancy between the real situation and the model that is stored in the memory matrix.
When a person makes a mistake - say, says that twice two is five, or makes an inaccuracy in a poem that he knew, an emergency light comes on in the matrix. An error detector checks your every action. You leave the house and think: "Something is wrong!" You come back - it is: you forgot your wallet, didn't turn off the light, iron or stove in the kitchen. If this brain "device" works correctly, you can calmly go about your daily activities, which are usually done automatically.
Do malfunctions of this detector happen?
- Of course, and often become the cause of mental illness. The detector, as the basic mechanism of the brain, is highly resistant. But if it breaks down, then it turns, so to speak, into an error determinant - and stabilizes the pathological state. Let's say you had a terminal illness but survived. And then the error detector prefers not to experiment, not to change anything for the better or for the worse. For example, the right arm was broken, the person began to do everything with the left. The plaster was removed, and he continues to work with his left hand … Previously, they even tied the injured hand to the body so that the person would develop a healthy one anew.
The same applies to obsessions, such as drug addiction. A person understands that this is not necessary, but he cannot resist the breakdown of the main mechanism of the brain. In some cases, this completely disorganizes his life.
This is the price to pay for the high stability of the brain, which is provided by the detector not only in the "norm", but also in pathology. Physiologically, this is understandable: the survival of the organism is at least ensured, and any change is fraught with destabilization and deterioration - after all, error detectors do not know what is good and what is bad.
And if a person makes a mistake deliberately? For example, for the purpose of manipulation - that is, lying?
- Even with a deliberate and profitable lie, the detector still reports a "disorder". This is necessary so that a person does not believe in his own lies. For example, if you say to someone: "Go, the ice is strong enough", knowing that in reality it is not, then you yourself will not follow.
It is impossible to deliberately block the error detector. Therefore, any coercion in this area - for example, attempts to put police officers on drug addicts - is senseless.
What methods of brain research are used today?
- Positron emission tomography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, magnetoencephalography, electroencephalography and others. For example, the EEG is used to accurately map the electrical activity of the cortex. You can see how the centers of excitation of the brain move in the process of its activity (the so-called "bright spot of consciousness", as formulated by physiologist Ivan Pavlov). At the same time, all existing and constantly developing technical means of recording brain activity are significantly ahead of the accepted computational approaches to data analysis. There are also physiological limitations - for example, you can increase the spatial resolution of PET, but this will automatically lead to an increase in radiation exposure, which is unacceptable for human health.
Technological progress has made it possible to obtain a huge amount of new information about the brain over the past decades. Some annual scientific forums gather more than 3,000 participants - these are kilometers of posters with an incredible array of information. Almost every brain area and cerebral supply of almost all conceivable body functions have been investigated. However, the data that researchers receive is often misinterpreted. We have accumulated a huge amount of factual material on brain mapping. But knowledge of the laws of the brain is quite modest.
But what did you understand? What is the brain for you?
- The brain is an interface, an intermediary, a link between the material and the ideal. It is an organ that connects the world of the human psyche, the world of ideas and the world of reality. A tool with which our thoughts turn into deeds. That is, the brain transforms what exists in our imagination into reality. And, as physiologist Ivan Sechenov said, does Garibaldi smile when he is scolded for excessive love for his homeland, does the girl tremble before the first date - both ultimately turn into movement.
Moreover, the brain is a system. Its higher functions are provided not by the work of individual areas, but by their interaction. As a result, something more is generated than their initial specialization, for example: speech, creativity, etc., that is, what a person develops in the process of life.
You said that the brain is very resistant to damage. How much?
- Very much. There are astonishing cases. For example, in the 19th century, an Englishman was knocked through the head with a crowbar, so much so that an iron rod went through the eye socket and came out on the other side of the skull. But this man survived, retained complete sanity and lived for a long time. He became very quarrelsome and grumpy, and everything else remained unchanged. History also knows a case when a certain army captain received a through bullet wound to the eye: a musket bullet most likely smashed the front sections of the frontal lobe - the exit hole was in the temple. Nevertheless, later this captain by the name of Kutuzov became a field marshal …
Can the brain "survive" without a skull at all?
- What for? Technically, it may be feasible, but what is the point of such an operation? If the brain does not die, being separated from the body, it will be in a state of “locked in” - “a locked person”. This phenomenon is observed in patients in a coma. The autonomous brain does not have any connections with the sense organs, it will not feel anything, it will not be possible to communicate with it. You won't even be able to understand whether he is thinking or not. Science does not need this and is not interesting.
Is it realistic to create an artificial prosthesis of a part of the brain, a neurochip, which will replace some diseased, damaged area?
- I guess, yes. Most likely, an auditory prosthesis or vision prosthesis can be made. But so far we are still far from it.
They say that American scientists have found a way to rid people of bad memories, phobias and depression using a device similar to the "memory eraser" from the science fiction movie "Men in Black". I pressed the button and got rid of the nightmare or psychotrauma … Is this possible?
- Even if it is, then in a highly developed being this memory is still restored. Everything in our brain is extremely intertwined. You grab one episode from your memory, the connection with it disappears, but the brain somehow still finds it, and does not ask your permission. The subconscious is an unpredictable thing.
And here's another piece of news: neurophysiologists from Israel have developed a device that allows blind people to "see" with their ears. The image from the camera is translated into a sound wave, which, in turn, is processed by the visual cortex of the brain. As a result, the brain gives a person a "picture" like the one that dolphins see …
- You can't see with your ears! It is not those areas of the brain that are working here that receive primary information, that is, the organs of vision, but those that analyze it. When a person does not see, he begins to understand the signals. It's like parking your car: if you park your car using radar, the system beeps. You hear the sounds of "pee-pee-pee …" and from them you estimate the distance to the obstacle, although you do not see it. This is not a vision, but the transmission of information about some specific things. To admire in this way, for example, a picture in all its diversity will not work.
And if the picture is stuffed with chips that will start to publish this very "pee-peep …" at different frequencies? What then?
- Let's count. The resolution in the works of painting is somewhere in the region of fractions of a millimeter. This means that on a canvas, say, a meter by two, there should be almost a billion chips. It will be simply unrealistic to process all their signals, and a blind person will not be able to look at the picture in this way.
Can a person type text using thought?
- Easy. Only it will be longer than usual
The English theoretical physicist Stephen William Hawking, completely immobilized as a result of an illness, controls the computer using a sensor attached to the facial muscles of his cheek. In your opinion, does he really do scientific work and communicate with others in this way?
- Indeed - there is a possibility of such control.
But even the usual typing in this way must be incredibly slow …
- And he does it quickly enough - he got used to it … Recently I saw how one girl stood in line in a store and typed text messages at the same speed as professional typists are typing. She had a long fingernail, and she quickly, quickly pounded on the display with it. It's a matter of habit.
You said that the problem for brain researchers now is to manage to analyze the entire flow of incoming information. That is, new data arrives faster than you can process it?
- Yes - and how we understand how to process them.
Does this mean that brain science is in some kind of crisis?
- On the contrary, it is developing intensively. The more we don't understand something, the more interesting it is.
Interviewed by Vladimir Voskresensky