The Fluidity of the Brain

Perhaps not surprisingly (but still interesting), the processing of sign language uses similar brain regions as the processing of speech. However, it goes a layer deeper. Constituent components of signs (overlapping hand shapes) activate a similar brain region as the detection of rhymes in speech. There are therefore many layers to the task which share overlap in processing!

This hints at the ability of the brain to repurpose circuitry for alternative tasks. For the last 300 years (and likely long before), neuroscientists have oscillated between two general understandings of the brain: 1) The brain is made up of individual regions which specialize in certain tasks, and 2) The brain is a fluid computational system which can host a variety of calculations which are distributed throughout the brain. These two camps have fought aggressively with each other over the years. In the end, the brain is likely striking a balance between the two.

If a system were too rigid (like a stone), it would hold information really well, but it wouldn’t be able to learn new things. If a system were too fluid (like water), it would respond well to new influences, but those would ripple away into nothing. If we have something in between (like sand), we can influence the system and that system would hold structure over time. We could draw patterns in the structure with ease, but the structure would also hold those patterns until something new came along to change them. This is how modern neuroscientists view the brain.

Interestingly, psychedelics appear to push the brain further towards the fluid end of this spectrum. This is demonstrated neuroscientifically by increases in entropy (variability) of brain activity as well as desynchronization and decreases in modularity. Somewhat poetically, but also reassuring to our assumptions of the brain and mind relationship, we can observe that individual personalities often become more fluid after psychedelics.

This fluidity has great utility for those who are seeking change. Whether it be rigid bad habits or full blown mental illness, the power to change the mind can be of great utility. While a powerful tool, it can be equally as dangerous if change is resisted or undesired. This (speculatively) can lead to an unstable breakdown of the psyche, resulting in some of the well documented (perhaps overly documented) examples of psychotic breaks after psychedelics.

Psychedelics are an incredible tool for our understanding of the brains potential fluidity. Probing the brain and mind with these substances will allow us to make deep connections between philosophical and neuroscientific aspects of the human mind.

Next time you learn something new, be grateful for your brain’s incredible abiltiy to adapt to an ever changing world

With love,

Michael