Everyone knows that the human brain is not a computer, but everyone acts as if it were. This causes all sorts of misunderstandings and problems. I'd like to describe some of these problems and encourage people to view the brain differently, with the goal of creating greater harmony and easier cooperation with others.
While the computer-specific metaphors are recent, popular misunderstanding of how human behavior originates has been causing cultural problems for as long as civilization has existed. If people acted in strange or undesirable ways, they would be assumed to be possessed by demons, or accused of being witches. A failure to understand mental illness, or a failure to tolerate simple non-conformity has resulted in imprisonment, banishment, and execution throughout history. The same is true today, where addicts are imprisoned, gays are beaten, and people are driven to suicide by work-related stress. A better understanding of how the human brain shapes behavior could let us be better brain operators, and help instill compassion for those who are different or struggling.
We (Mis)Understand the Brain As Computer
Today's (incorrect) computer-based metaphor for how the human brain works goes something like this. The brain's hardware is what was inherited via the genes, and it can't be changed. The brain's software are the ideas and skills we download from our culture through education and training.
When a baby grows in the womb, it's like manufacturing new computer hardware of a certain brand. The genes the baby obtains from the parents completely determines the quality of the hardware that will be created. Pretty much all brains will be capable of running the "watch TV" program, but only the highest quality brains can run the "astrophysics" program. The brain simply completes its construction on its own as the child grows up, and then stops growing or changing. Further education or training simply downloads more programs into the mature brain.
Your brain boots up in the morning when you get out of bed, and you resume the programs you were running the previous day. You multitask as you go through your day at school or work, running several programs at once. Learning new ideas or gaining new skills are like upgrading to the latest version of a program. Having a false belief or a mental illness is like having a bug in a program, or getting a computer virus. Sometimes it can be corrected, sometimes it can't, especially if it's a bug in the hardware. People with good brains can reprogram them more readily, while people with poor quality or defective brains can't download new software.
How the Computer Analogy Breaks Down
You could read a bunch of neurobiology and psychology books to see how wrong this model is, and I recommend a few here for those so inclined. However, you really only need to observe how the computer analogy fails to explain phenomena from ordinary life. If learning new facts was really like downloading new software, then people would instantly change their beliefs and behaviors when they learned new information that invalidated the old beliefs of motivations. We see that knowledge and habits are not software precisely because they are so hard to change. People remain attached to political parties and religions long after they've learned facts that disillusion them. You can easily convince an addict that his habits are ruining his life and will eventually kill him. Why doesn't he change his ways? Alternatively, most people can eventually change their habits if given enough time and incentive, proving that they are not hardware either.
The other way the analogy breaks down is when you consider how a computer runs: it's either on or it's off. If a program makes a single mistake, it crashes and needs to start from scratch. We think our brains work this way too, that we always have a certain set of capabilities as long as we are awake. That's not the case, of course, but we tend to act surprised and confused when our abilities differ from time to time. Like all biological systems, the brain degrades gracefully. If a computer doesn't have enough power, it shuts down. If a human doesn't have enough power, it shuts down non-essential systems, and runs at reduced capability. But it continues to run.
How the Brain Really Is
The brain does not have hardware or software. Your long-term memories are not stored in anything resembling a computer's RAM in your skull, and there's no place to store software. Neither does the brain have unchanging hardware like a computer. If that were the case, you would never be able to learn a new skill or fact. Instead of hardware and software, the brain is made of one thing, sometimes called wetware.
The brain's wetware (i.e., neurons and associated support cells) has the combined characteristics of both hardware and software. Like hardware, it's persistent. When you go to sleep, your memories aren't erased. However, like software, wetware can be changed. But here's the big difference, changing wetware takes two things: time and effort. Understanding this makes human behavior much easier to comprehend.
I recently finished listening to the audiobook "101 Theory Drive", which chronicles the fascinating career of neuroscientist Gary Lynch as he has uncovered the biological basis of memory. The fact that we actually know what memory is (at the lowest level) was news to me, and you might be equally fascinated to learn that the biological basis of it is the process of cellular change known as long-term potentiation (LTP). This process causes shape changes on the post-synaptic neuron which gives rise to additional neurotransmitter receptors. This strengthens the synapse, making it more likely that the neurons will fire together in the future. Moreover, this is not just the basis of how our memories store facts. LTP is the basis of everything the brain does, from learning skills, forming beliefs, and controlling perception based on previous experience. We also know now that the brain is extremely plastic (changable) throughout life. The fact that a (non-demented) 90-year-old in nursing home can learn new names and faces should have made this obvious, but it's fairly recent that neuroscience has recognized that plasticity is the normal state of the brain.
It takes time and repetition to strengthen synapses through LTP. That's why we have to practice everything we want to learn. We do have a small short-term memory that resembles RAM, but to encode knowledge or skills long-term, we need to transfer them from short-term memory to long-term memory traces. Long-term memory does not store data and program separately like a computer. The wetware that originally experiences a phenomenon or idea is strengthened so that it can be used again, to recall that experience or idea. Learning is not like storing new programs or data that the single CPU can run. It's more like constructing a new CPU, each new CPU hardcoded to run each new program (memory). However, all the brain circuits overlap, so no analogy to human-engineered computers can be complete.
We have also learned, though both low-level LTP research, and high-level cognitive research, that LTP, and thus change and learning, only happens when we pay attention to things. The amazing consequence of this fact is that expending effort thinking about things literally changes your brain through LTP. This capacity for change in the brain is explained in simple and practical terms in Dan Siegel's amazing book Mindsight. Another way to put this is: Brains Make Minds, and Minds Make Brains.
With all of this constant brain making, there also needs to be a way to weaken or break synapses that are not needed, or else the brain would get overstuffed. Much as we might wish for it, there is no way to consciously forget something. The only way to make a memory disappear is to not think about it, and wait for the pruning mechanism to reclaim it. For you computer geeks, the brain has garbage collection, but it's very slow, and there's no way to explicitly invoke it.
While we now know a lot about the inner workings of the brain at a low level, we barely know anything about the higher levels of organization in the brain. Any significant thought or memory requires not one or two synapses, but thousands or millions, arranged in complex networks that fire at certain frequencies. Each neuron can be involved in a limitless number of networks, which is one way the brain stores so much information in such a small space. With new experimental methods like fMRI and Diffusion Tensor Imaging, we're starting to be able to map the connections and watch the brain in action as people do various mental tasks. In the coming decades, we will be able to build a functional model of the brain's networks to understand how it really works. However, knowing such networks in detail is not needed to understand the points I'm trying to make in this essay.
Consequences of How the Brain Works
When you understand that human thought, memory, and habit is composed of complex networks of slowly changing neurons, it becomes clear why people behave and change the way they do. If a brain has a complex belief like "the Democrats are the good guys", or "booze helps me survive", that belief is embodied in a large number of very complex networks comprising tens or hundreds of millions of neurons. To change such a belief will take reorganization of a large fraction of those networks, and this will take a lot of time and a lot of mental effort, not to mention willingness. One new fact, such as "Obama violated the constitution to invade Libya" or "your spouse will leave you if you take that drink" is not sufficient to delete the existing belief networks. Unlike upgrading software or overwriting a file, beliefs can only be replaced over long periods of time by having the mind pay attention to new networks and neglect the old, obsolete networks.
The other thing that's helpful is to be more aware of how and why the brain degrades gracefully. As a biological organ in a complex organism, the brain can run well or run badly, depending on a lot of pretty obvious factors. When you learn to observe your brain and associate degraded performance with these factors, you can start to learn how to stay at peak performance more often. In The Origin of Everyday Moods, Robert Thayer explains how not just performance and tiredness, but also moods are explained by simple facts like how much sleep you've had, how well you've been eating, and what mental stress you're under. You may know this at least in certain cases, like the kids get cranky when they're hungry, but adults can compensate for these deficiencies pretty well, and we don't look closely enough at our behavior patterns to really be able to explain our moods. We just have "good days" and "bad days" without understanding that this is completely predictable and under our control. As Thayer recommends, systematic self-observation is the key to managing moods, rather than being victimized by them. It's also important to distinguish between adequate nutrition and optimal nutrition. The former will keep you alive and prevent diseases of deficiency, but you need the latter if you want your brain to be able to perform at the limits of your genetic endowment. See Primal Body, Primal Mind for more information on optimal nutrition for brains.
This ties in with the brain science of Mindsight when you take the time to notice how you're feeling and consciously make associations with the factors in your recent past that affect you. For instance, if you feel irritable because you stayed up late binge-watching a TV series, take the time to notice how you feel and consciously make the association with the late night. Since your brain and body are a single integrated system, the association will be stored as a memory in the whole body. Making the conscious mental effort is key to determining if this association will be made in a temporary, fleeting way, or a long-lasting way. Then, the next time you're wondering if you should start watching that next season, you can ask your body how you will feel the next day. The memory comes back, and you can make an informed choice. Over time, your habits will change, if you pay attention and encourage new networks to grow.
Next time you're having a political discussion with a stubborn person on Facebook, or asking one of your family members "Why do you act that way?!", think about whether you might be unfairly expecting them to act like a computer. It's likely that our slowly evolving wetware is more like a feature than a bug, so let's appreciate how it gives us consistency of thought over time. And let's be patient with ourselves and our fellow humans and give our wetware time to change.
The other way the analogy breaks down is when you consider how a computer runs: it's either on or it's off. If a program makes a single mistake, it crashes and needs to start from scratch. We think our brains work this way too, that we always have a certain set of capabilities as long as we are awake. That's not the case, of course, but we tend to act surprised and confused when our abilities differ from time to time. Like all biological systems, the brain degrades gracefully. If a computer doesn't have enough power, it shuts down. If a human doesn't have enough power, it shuts down non-essential systems, and runs at reduced capability. But it continues to run.
How the Brain Really Is
The brain does not have hardware or software. Your long-term memories are not stored in anything resembling a computer's RAM in your skull, and there's no place to store software. Neither does the brain have unchanging hardware like a computer. If that were the case, you would never be able to learn a new skill or fact. Instead of hardware and software, the brain is made of one thing, sometimes called wetware.
The brain's wetware (i.e., neurons and associated support cells) has the combined characteristics of both hardware and software. Like hardware, it's persistent. When you go to sleep, your memories aren't erased. However, like software, wetware can be changed. But here's the big difference, changing wetware takes two things: time and effort. Understanding this makes human behavior much easier to comprehend.
I recently finished listening to the audiobook "101 Theory Drive", which chronicles the fascinating career of neuroscientist Gary Lynch as he has uncovered the biological basis of memory. The fact that we actually know what memory is (at the lowest level) was news to me, and you might be equally fascinated to learn that the biological basis of it is the process of cellular change known as long-term potentiation (LTP). This process causes shape changes on the post-synaptic neuron which gives rise to additional neurotransmitter receptors. This strengthens the synapse, making it more likely that the neurons will fire together in the future. Moreover, this is not just the basis of how our memories store facts. LTP is the basis of everything the brain does, from learning skills, forming beliefs, and controlling perception based on previous experience. We also know now that the brain is extremely plastic (changable) throughout life. The fact that a (non-demented) 90-year-old in nursing home can learn new names and faces should have made this obvious, but it's fairly recent that neuroscience has recognized that plasticity is the normal state of the brain.
It takes time and repetition to strengthen synapses through LTP. That's why we have to practice everything we want to learn. We do have a small short-term memory that resembles RAM, but to encode knowledge or skills long-term, we need to transfer them from short-term memory to long-term memory traces. Long-term memory does not store data and program separately like a computer. The wetware that originally experiences a phenomenon or idea is strengthened so that it can be used again, to recall that experience or idea. Learning is not like storing new programs or data that the single CPU can run. It's more like constructing a new CPU, each new CPU hardcoded to run each new program (memory). However, all the brain circuits overlap, so no analogy to human-engineered computers can be complete.
We have also learned, though both low-level LTP research, and high-level cognitive research, that LTP, and thus change and learning, only happens when we pay attention to things. The amazing consequence of this fact is that expending effort thinking about things literally changes your brain through LTP. This capacity for change in the brain is explained in simple and practical terms in Dan Siegel's amazing book Mindsight. Another way to put this is: Brains Make Minds, and Minds Make Brains.
With all of this constant brain making, there also needs to be a way to weaken or break synapses that are not needed, or else the brain would get overstuffed. Much as we might wish for it, there is no way to consciously forget something. The only way to make a memory disappear is to not think about it, and wait for the pruning mechanism to reclaim it. For you computer geeks, the brain has garbage collection, but it's very slow, and there's no way to explicitly invoke it.
While we now know a lot about the inner workings of the brain at a low level, we barely know anything about the higher levels of organization in the brain. Any significant thought or memory requires not one or two synapses, but thousands or millions, arranged in complex networks that fire at certain frequencies. Each neuron can be involved in a limitless number of networks, which is one way the brain stores so much information in such a small space. With new experimental methods like fMRI and Diffusion Tensor Imaging, we're starting to be able to map the connections and watch the brain in action as people do various mental tasks. In the coming decades, we will be able to build a functional model of the brain's networks to understand how it really works. However, knowing such networks in detail is not needed to understand the points I'm trying to make in this essay.
Consequences of How the Brain Works
When you understand that human thought, memory, and habit is composed of complex networks of slowly changing neurons, it becomes clear why people behave and change the way they do. If a brain has a complex belief like "the Democrats are the good guys", or "booze helps me survive", that belief is embodied in a large number of very complex networks comprising tens or hundreds of millions of neurons. To change such a belief will take reorganization of a large fraction of those networks, and this will take a lot of time and a lot of mental effort, not to mention willingness. One new fact, such as "Obama violated the constitution to invade Libya" or "your spouse will leave you if you take that drink" is not sufficient to delete the existing belief networks. Unlike upgrading software or overwriting a file, beliefs can only be replaced over long periods of time by having the mind pay attention to new networks and neglect the old, obsolete networks.
The other thing that's helpful is to be more aware of how and why the brain degrades gracefully. As a biological organ in a complex organism, the brain can run well or run badly, depending on a lot of pretty obvious factors. When you learn to observe your brain and associate degraded performance with these factors, you can start to learn how to stay at peak performance more often. In The Origin of Everyday Moods, Robert Thayer explains how not just performance and tiredness, but also moods are explained by simple facts like how much sleep you've had, how well you've been eating, and what mental stress you're under. You may know this at least in certain cases, like the kids get cranky when they're hungry, but adults can compensate for these deficiencies pretty well, and we don't look closely enough at our behavior patterns to really be able to explain our moods. We just have "good days" and "bad days" without understanding that this is completely predictable and under our control. As Thayer recommends, systematic self-observation is the key to managing moods, rather than being victimized by them. It's also important to distinguish between adequate nutrition and optimal nutrition. The former will keep you alive and prevent diseases of deficiency, but you need the latter if you want your brain to be able to perform at the limits of your genetic endowment. See Primal Body, Primal Mind for more information on optimal nutrition for brains.
This ties in with the brain science of Mindsight when you take the time to notice how you're feeling and consciously make associations with the factors in your recent past that affect you. For instance, if you feel irritable because you stayed up late binge-watching a TV series, take the time to notice how you feel and consciously make the association with the late night. Since your brain and body are a single integrated system, the association will be stored as a memory in the whole body. Making the conscious mental effort is key to determining if this association will be made in a temporary, fleeting way, or a long-lasting way. Then, the next time you're wondering if you should start watching that next season, you can ask your body how you will feel the next day. The memory comes back, and you can make an informed choice. Over time, your habits will change, if you pay attention and encourage new networks to grow.
Next time you're having a political discussion with a stubborn person on Facebook, or asking one of your family members "Why do you act that way?!", think about whether you might be unfairly expecting them to act like a computer. It's likely that our slowly evolving wetware is more like a feature than a bug, so let's appreciate how it gives us consistency of thought over time. And let's be patient with ourselves and our fellow humans and give our wetware time to change.
