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Computers: a brain model?

Posted Oct 06, 2006 at 01:18PM by Robert S. Listed in: Biology Tags: iqs, Matrix
Ó

Brain According to researchers, a part of the brain can be likened to a computer. Professor Randall O'Reilly of the University of Colorado said that the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia functions pretty much like your average PC or Mac.


Computers operate by manipulating electrical signals into binary "on and off" states. In the human grey matter, the prefrontal cortex is the binary while the basal ganglia is the switch. Basically, the two does the same thing. What can this new knowledge do for us?

Since the cortex is essential to intellectual ability, more understanding on how it works will allow scientists to suggest drugs or modifications that might enhance the human learning process. They can find a way to manually turn on or off some neurons to allow a more steady flow of info into the brain. Imagine a pill that will grant you high IQs for a limited amount of time. It's all nice, but how will they study this part of the brain?

According to the good professor, researchers can conduct studies on it like they do weather modelling. If enough information is collected, it can tell you how the system works. We'll see if this study can also help students improve studying habits, eh?

[Via physorg] Permalink  |   Email this  |   Linking Blogs   |   Digg It!

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2 Comments


Sort by:
   by Advertising -
   by deanspeed - 2006-10-07
 » cool
cool maybe they will learn how to hook a computer up to the brain :D

   by your name (Unregistered) - 2006-10-13
 » tests
Next thing you know we're going to need drug tests to write an exam.



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