Scientists compared the brains of humans and monkeys to find out what processes information passes through the human brain and why humans are better than other creatures in terms of consciousness.
As far as consciousness is concerned, no other creature can come close to man. Why don't we say that because so far no other creature has sent research missions to other planets, developed life-saving vaccines or organized poetry festivals? What is the process of information in the human brain to make all this possible?
Our understanding and knowledge of how the brain functions perform changes over time, but current theoretical models present the brain as a 'distributed information processing system'.
This means that the brain consists of separate components that are tightly connected to each other through their wiring. These different pieces to communicate with each other, and all this is done through a system of input and output signals.
Although this is just a small part of a very complex picture. With the help of research published in Nature Neuroscience, using evidence from a variety of neuroscience disciplines, we make it clear that information processing in the brain is not just one type. There is a difference in the processing of information between humans and other primates, which may help to explain why human beings have better abilities than others.
To learn how the brain uses information, we have borrowed concepts from the mathematical framework of information theory. The mathematical framework of information theory is actually the study of measuring digital information, encapsulating it and using it for communication, which is indispensable for technologies like internet and artificial intelligence. We came to the conclusion that different parts of the brain actually use different strategies to communicate with each other.
Some parts of the brain exchange information with other parts in a very traditional way, using input and output. This way, the signals are sure to reach the other in a more reliable and reusable condition. It refers to the parts of the brain that are specific to the functions of sensory and motor neurons (such as processing sound, visual and kinetic information).
Take, for example, the eyes, which send signals to the back of the brain for processing. Most of the information sent through both eyes is duplicate. In other words, half the information is too much. So we call this type of input-output information processing 'redundant or redundant'.
But this redundancy gives strength and credibility, which is what enables us to see even when one eye is working. This ability is essential for survival. In fact, it is important to note that there is a physical network of hard-wires in the brain for communication between these parts of the brain, which can be compared to a wire telephone system.
However, not all the information provided by the eye is useless or superfluous. Combining the information received from both eyes ultimately enables the brain to reach a decision with depth and distinction between objects. This is the basis on which many types of 3D glasses are used in cinema.
This is an example of a completely different way of using information, in such a way that its quantity exceeds its aggregate information of individual parts. We call this type of information processing synergistic, in which complex signals from different brain networks are interconnected.
The process of co-ordination is most prevalent in those parts of the brain on which a wide range of complex conscious functions depend, such as concentration, learning, usable memory, social and numerical consciousness. It is not that this web of communication, in turn, combines information from different parts to change our experiences. Its job is to facilitate the integration of information.
Parts where a lot of coordination takes place, that is, in front and in the middle of the outer layer of the brain, the cortex, they connect different sources of information spread throughout the brain. Therefore, they are more closely and efficiently interconnected than the rest of the brain, which deals primarily with sensory and movement information.
The highly coordinated parts that manage to connect information also usually have many synapses, that is, microscopic connections that make it possible for nerve cells to connect.
Does harmony set us apart from other creatures?
We wanted to find out if this ability of the brain to collect and innovate information through sophisticated networks makes humans evolutionarily unique from their close relatives.
To find out, we studied a variety of brain imaging data and genetic analysis. We conclude that if the overall flow of information is taken into account, the proportion of coherence interactions in the human brain is much higher than that of macaque monkeys.
In contrast, both types of brains are similar in terms of relying on superfluous information.
However, we also examined the prefrontal cortex, the frontal lobe of the brain, which performs more advanced cognitive functions. I have more harmony.
The prefrontal cortex also expanded exponentially with evolution. When we examined the brains of chimpanzees, we discovered that in the evolutionary stages, the more extensive the human brain was than that of chimpanzees, the greater its dependence on synergy.
We also studied the genetic analysis of human brains donated by different people to scientific research. This suggests that information processing operations in the coherent parts of the brain are more likely to have genes that are specific to humans and their brain development and determine the characteristics of intelligence
This led us to conclude that the extra human brain tissue that evolved was probably devoted to harmonization. In turn, the hypothesis that the predominance of better coordination may be somewhat responsive to human extravagant abilities. Harmony may be the key to the evolution of the human brain, which was previously missing.
Ultimately, however, our work demonstrates how the human brain can reliably transmit and combine information, both of which are essential to us. Importantly, the framework we've developed raises the possibility of new insightful questions in a broader field of neuroscience, ranging from general awareness to disorders.
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