Does this research prove that our Brain behaves like a computer?

[rov1100]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...-environment-16844432

[Ankou]

not surprising. the brain uses electrical signals and magnetic stimulation to function. this (amongs many other things) was demonstrated in the very excellent royal institution christmas lectures (meet the brain) in december.

worth catching it, if you are interested.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00nhky3

[scowie]

I dunno, I'd say it makes our brains look more analog than digital.

...I always thought that digital tv was a step back from good old analog though! :-)

[flump1]

Quite possibly it does, brilliant research .

[rojash]

No. A computer is used to analyse electrical impulses in the brain and correlate them with known sounds.

Computers may be used to analyse and reconstruct many things but that doesn't mean that the things they are analysing are automatically analogous of computers.

For example, you could use a computer to analyse seismographic readings and reproduce in a model the actions of an earthquake.

I doubt though that anyone would seriously ask if that proved that an earthquake behaved like a computer :-)

[Old_Geezer]

I guess that would depend on what is meant by "like a computer". The brain has to have some method for achieving what it does, and it had to happen at some time, being able to monitor and interpret the internal signals. To generate speech there had to be a signal, all the scientists do is detect that signal and convert it to speech artificially, as it were.

[rov1100]

Scowie
///I dunno, I'd say it makes our brains look more analog than digital.///

You may be right but the brain being so complex there is no reason why all known systems may come into play.

A few years ago I was involved in some research that studied muscle movement. Two probes were put into muscle nerve fibres recording digital signals that occurred at 100ms and 110ms. Like a capacitor the neuron received many inputs but only discharged when reaching a set level and this gave the different digital timed signals being sent along the axon and reaching the muscle

The conclusion of the experiments showed that muscle operation acted in a damped sinusoidal fashion. If you were to compare it with an engineering example it would be similar to a car's damping system that allows a smooth ride over bumbs in the road. This makes sense else your muscle movement would be very unstable rather than a smooth transition.

[Annna]

Actually brains came first, a computer acts surprisingly like a brain.......