> According to this myth, the brain is like a collection of puzzle pieces, each with a dedicated mental function. One puzzle piece is for vision, another is for memory, a third is for emotions, and so on.
The author makes too much about parts of the brain not being specialized.
As a neurosurgery resident in a former life who actually operated on brains and took care of people with strokes and trauma, yes, different parts of the brain are specialized to do different things. Yes, there is plasticity, but there are limits to it, especially once you reach adulthood.
I will give some anecdotes, but these are very, very typical.
Example, frontal lobe and impulse control. Saw an older patient with a giant tumor in the frontal lobe. His family came with him. Seeing where the tumor was, I asked the family if they had noticed any recent decline in his impulse control. Their response: "Now that you mention it,..." and out came all sorts of stories how their previously very proper father, was now doing all sorts of very things with very poor judgement and had even gotten in trouble with the law. If your frontal lobes get damaged, you will have issues with impulse control, long term planning, etc.
Another example is speech. Speech is very localized to areas of the left brain. As an example, there was patient with seizures in the left brain so bad that we would have to remove parts of the brain to control them. We did a surgery where we opened up the skull, and then woke the patient up. Psychologists asked the patient to do various verbal tasks, while we touched different parts of the brain with an electrode. When the electrode touched the parts of the brain that control speech, the effect was instantaneous, the patient suddenly stopped talking mid-word. By doing this, were were able to map precisely which parts were being used for speech, and in the surgery, avoid those areas. The patient had a very good outcome with his seizures stopped, and still able to speak.
Another example is movement disorders. Worked with a surgeon who is a world class expert in deep brain stimulation. In there you precisely place an electrode into a specific part of the brain and turn it on. Once you do that, you can have someone with severe tremor or Parkinson's who has been unable to even write their name for years, suddenly are able to write. You turn off the electrode, and the effect goes away. If the electrode is off by a millimeter, it does not work. It has to be precisely positioned.
In terms of mental illness, I have seen patients with severe depression and obsessive, compulsive disorder improve significantly after precise placement of an electrode in the correct part of the brain.
This thing about parts of the brain specializing is not just abstract theory. It is used every day by neurosurgeons, neurologists, etc to make life and death decisions. It has a lot of real world evidence backing it up. The most important question to answer when you see someone with a stroke or brain trauma, is "where is it located?" The same size injury can have vastly different effects on the person depending on where it is.
Your examples of localised point effects such as speech and Parkinsonian tremor responses to probes don't negate the article's observation that brain functions are distributed, and regions participate in multiple functions.
By way of analogy, you can disable a car sooner or later by breaking the ignition switch or the gas tank lid. But those points are not alone responsible for the transportation function of the car.
The wheels of the car are involved with and vital for acceleration, steering, and braking. Without transmission and suspension, wheels do none of this.
The transmission of the car is capable of both propulsion and braking.
To think of speech as a function of a small part of the left side of the brain is incomplete. Speech requires a number of motor, sensory, respiratory and data systems to work together in a coordinated pipeline that exists across the whole brain and body. The neurons involved in those circuits also work to perform other functions.
I’m firmly in the zone of “I don’t know what I don’t know” when it comes to neuroscience but the hard emphasis on the areas of the brain not being specialised was in stark contrast to literally everything I’ve read about the brain and neuroscience to date.
I wonder if the author is pushing both sides of the coin of “myth” and “reality” way to far to the extremes.
I agree with another commenter that perhaps the author is trying to push back against older, more rigid ideas of much more extreme separation of functions of the brain in a more primitive sense.
But some detail is lost here, because as far as I’m concerned (and I’m heartened by the support that your more experienced and expertise-led comment provides) the brain absolutely and demonstrably has specialised areas that focus on certain functions.
So in an effort to bust these “myths” I feel parts of this article just serve to muddy the water and add some confusion rather than clarity.
The author makes too much about parts of the brain not being specialized.
As a neurosurgery resident in a former life who actually operated on brains and took care of people with strokes and trauma, yes, different parts of the brain are specialized to do different things. Yes, there is plasticity, but there are limits to it, especially once you reach adulthood.
I will give some anecdotes, but these are very, very typical.
Example, frontal lobe and impulse control. Saw an older patient with a giant tumor in the frontal lobe. His family came with him. Seeing where the tumor was, I asked the family if they had noticed any recent decline in his impulse control. Their response: "Now that you mention it,..." and out came all sorts of stories how their previously very proper father, was now doing all sorts of very things with very poor judgement and had even gotten in trouble with the law. If your frontal lobes get damaged, you will have issues with impulse control, long term planning, etc.
Another example is speech. Speech is very localized to areas of the left brain. As an example, there was patient with seizures in the left brain so bad that we would have to remove parts of the brain to control them. We did a surgery where we opened up the skull, and then woke the patient up. Psychologists asked the patient to do various verbal tasks, while we touched different parts of the brain with an electrode. When the electrode touched the parts of the brain that control speech, the effect was instantaneous, the patient suddenly stopped talking mid-word. By doing this, were were able to map precisely which parts were being used for speech, and in the surgery, avoid those areas. The patient had a very good outcome with his seizures stopped, and still able to speak.
Another example is movement disorders. Worked with a surgeon who is a world class expert in deep brain stimulation. In there you precisely place an electrode into a specific part of the brain and turn it on. Once you do that, you can have someone with severe tremor or Parkinson's who has been unable to even write their name for years, suddenly are able to write. You turn off the electrode, and the effect goes away. If the electrode is off by a millimeter, it does not work. It has to be precisely positioned.
In terms of mental illness, I have seen patients with severe depression and obsessive, compulsive disorder improve significantly after precise placement of an electrode in the correct part of the brain.
This thing about parts of the brain specializing is not just abstract theory. It is used every day by neurosurgeons, neurologists, etc to make life and death decisions. It has a lot of real world evidence backing it up. The most important question to answer when you see someone with a stroke or brain trauma, is "where is it located?" The same size injury can have vastly different effects on the person depending on where it is.