New Map IDs the Core of the Human Brain

gerald626 writes "An international team of researchers has created the first complete high-resolution map of how millions of neural fibers in the human cerebral cortex — the outer layer of the brain responsible for higher-level thinking — connect and communicate. Their groundbreaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain. So basically our brain is a network connected to a hub. I wonder if I can get an upgrade to a GigE switch?"

hub?

I always thought the geek brain was based on token ring topology with the different nodes responsible for:

• eat
• sleep
• video games
• pr0n

all running round robin =)

Re:hub?

I initially misread that as tolkien ring, and I still agreed.

Re:

Token ring? But that means we don't get Terminators! How will we rid the world of Skynet now???
D:

Google Brain

Come on, you know it's coming.

We knew that already.

Their groundbreaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain.

...pfft! The male gender of the species' "hub" is connected by a pair of some really long leads... they go down the spine, and connect directly to the testicles.

The female of the species' "hub" goes straight to the left ring finger.

How much friggin' tax money did these guys spend discovering what we've already known for at least six millennia now?

/P

Re:We knew that already.

Their groundbreaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain.

...pfft! The male gender of the species' "hub" is connected by a pair of some really long leads... they go down the spine, and connect directly to the testicles.

The female of the species' "hub" goes straight to the left ring finger.

/P

Absolutely. And one needs to insert Gateway to establish a VPN.

It's different story that females PKI mechanism is still unknown, and male species have to rely on brute force techniques to decipher some of the data, which unfortunately takes years after VPN is established.

So if our brains are like a hub...

Are schitzophrenics equipped with a neural equivalent of a dlink hub?

Now to find out what it does.

So we've found a candidate for the centre of consciousness in the brain. Who's up to volunteer to have it removed to see if they turn into a philosophical zombie?

Re:

Imagine fitting your kids with filters and "plug-ins" to make sure they turn out a certain way... there will be modules for "Kindness".... or "Pride" (no matter whether it is earned- your child will always feel proud).

"Christian" filters... "Jihad" algorithms.... Conservative and Liberal perception devices.... Behavioral controls, perhaps used as terms of parole (for violent criminals OR political prisoners).

Why have disagreeable children when you can program perfectly behaved clones of yourself?

Re:Now to find out what it does.

> Imagine fitting your kids with filters and "plug-ins" to make sure they turn out a certain way.

We already do. It's called "parenting". You do it by talking to them, and yes, it does work if you do it properly.

Re:Find someone on death row?

Hell, let's make it entertaining while we're at it, equip them with guns and send out guards in funny themed suits to hunt them down. Maybe use a CGI representation of that guy who hosted Family Fued to MC the whole event.

Not a switch.

You would not want a switch. Isolating all but broadcast packets to just their destination would stifle creativity. It has to be a hub and bandwidth in a highly-interconnected net may be unimportant.

Re:Not a switch.

I'm trying to figure out what you mean by this, but I'm not sure I have it. If you meant the hub metaphor the whole way, then no that isn't how it works. If all messages went to all destinations, you can imagine how difficult it would be to make any sense of them. Further, when an area receives input, it is not a stateless message. It is received in a state of "sensitivity" (for lack of a more detailed explanation) and the fact that it is received in its state also alters the local state for future messages. The easiest example is sensory desensitization... like when you no longer smell that horrible smell once you've been in the sysadmin's office for a few minutes. The same destinations are getting the same inputs, but the local state has changed due to previous inputs and therefore there is a different result.

So you can see that if all destinations got all inputs the brain would basically "white out" and be useless. The fact is that there is a very specific network structure. Each local network has projections into other local networks, which is why emotions and different sensory modalities have impacts on each other and on other "unrelated" areas of the brain.

Maybe Descartes wasn't so far off...

Their newly mapped "medial and parietal cortex hub" is pretty close to the pineal gland [wikipedia.org], after all :).

Hmm...

Now we just need to figure out how to perform a denial of service attack.

Re:

Two words, sensory overload: http://www.myspace.com/soybuddha [myspace.com]

Re:Hmm...

Thanks, asshole. That link crashed Firefox.

Re:Hmm...

Now we just need to figure out how to perform a denial of service attack.

'Support the troops...'

'Think of the children...'

'Pater noster...'

'Microsoft Sucks...'

Al Gore's next project: Interbrain

So basically our brain is a network connected to a hub.

Now it's just a matter of figuring out the protocol used and hooking up a few brains together. Seriously

Required Statement:

Imagine a Beowolf Cluster of these... Wait, isn't that basically a "Think Tank"?

Male VS female brain

I'd like to see the maps of both the male and the female brain. The female brain is smaller but has a larger hub between the RH and LH of the brain. That is why females can think of many things at ones. Another big difference between males and females is that males fixate all the power of their brains on a single thing, while females spread the power of their brain of many things. So the male and the female brain must differ a lot. It should be quite interesting to compare both brain maps.

Re:If I was from Control

I thought Control was located somewhat further south.

Re:If I was from Control

Overnight being the last 14 years.

It comes from
Deep Space Homer [wikipedia.org], an episode of the simpsons that first aired on February 24, 1994.

Spoiler:
When in space Homer flies into the Ant colony, breaking it open sending Ants everywhere. The ants make it onto the camera. Since the ants are so close to the camera, they appear very large. Kent Brockman (the Simpsons news anchor) then says "And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords".

The more you know(tm)

Re:If I was from Control

...and you probably graduated first in your class only to become the friendless office psychopath. Ya know, the one guy who's the reason why the employees are no longer allowed to play music or have eye-contact with each other.

Pull the stick out of your ass and learn to take a fucking joke.

Re:Who needs an IQ score...

GP started typing that post a few weeks ago.