Lisa Feldman Barrett

Question 1

Plato and his idea of the brain consisting of 3 parts

Answer 1

Two horses and a …
Horses = instinct and emotion
Middel part: rationale, controlling the two beasts

Question 2

Popular idea middle 20th century

Answer 2

Triune brain:
1 Inner reptilian core: inner lizard brain, for instinct
2 On top of that: Limbic system for mammals, gave them capacity for emotions
3 And on top of evolved the cerebral cortex. In primates and very large in humans.

But evidence from molecular genetics (peering into cells in the brain to look at molecular makeup of genes) showed that the brain did not evolve this way.

But the idea of three layered brain with an inner lizard that can hijack your behavior, popularized in the book the dragons of eden, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002, was already showed to be a myth by evolutionary neuroscience.

Question 3

Problem with triune brain?

Answer 3

Laws and economics are based on it, but it is wrong and also it let’s people off the hook for nasty behavior + says emotions can’t be a source of wisdom which is often is (no emotions = psychopath)

Question 4

Evidence of what instinct or reflex is is not quite right (…)
How does the brain work?

Answer 4

E.g. look at ecology and animals in their ecological context: even reflexes are very context sensitive. Brains of animals are executing instinctual actions in a very context sensitive way

Reflex is not a robotic response, like a leg kicking forward when a doctor presses on the knee is influenced by all kinds of factors

How brain works is really counter intuitive. Does not react to things in the world (stimulus-response: reacting to things in the world via eyes etc). React immediately is system 1, or exercise some control, stop oneself from immediately responding, which is system 2.

Brain is constantly predicting, talking to itself and the body. Constantly responding to the world and the body, and those signals confirm or corrects those predictions.

Question 5

Why is a predicting brain useful?

Answer 5

Constantly predicting and correcting more useful than only responding, because responding brings much more uncertainty (to keep one alive) because you don’t anticipate what will happen

Reflex: brain doesn’t check against sense data

Only information brain receives is through senses (eyes etc) and the body. So external and internal. The senses it receives are the effects of causes, the brain doesn’t know the cause. Inverse inference problem for the brain = If you only receive effects how do you know what causes the effects?

E.g. flash of light or change in air pressure or tug in the body. How does the brain know what caused them to know what to do next to keep you alive and well? One other source for the brain: memory

Question 6

Besides sense data one other source of the brain …

Answer 6

Memory,

The brain is in a state in what it believes is going on in the body and the world, and predicting what will happen next based on past experiences. What’s most probable to happen next? Begins to prepare your action, experience

And when those data come in, either the prediction is confirmed and the action executes, or something happens the brain didn’t except, takes it in (encodes it) (the brain ‘learns’), updates it’s storehouse of knowledge (internal model).

So reflex is a brain that doesn’t check against sense data. Eg in a life threatening situation (makes predicting and executes action without checking)

Question 7

Why did the senses evolve?

Answer 7

Predation: at some point an animal ate the other animal, which launches an arms race between predator and pray, and it became useful to have senses.

So sense data did not evolve for the purpose of consciousness, but it evolved in the surface of motor control.

Teleology: why things evolve, not how (which can be explained). We don’t really know the know, it’s speculation.