Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2015-08-12]: The capacity for imagery, enabling us to visualise absent items and events, is a ubiquitous feature of our experience. A scientific paper which can be found here describes the case of a patient, MX, who abruptly lost the ability to generate visual images. He rated himself as experiencing almost no imagery on standard questionnaires, yet performed normally on standard tests of perception, visual imagery and visual memory. These unexpected findings were explored using functional MRI scanning (fMRI). Activation patterns while viewing famous faces were not significantly different between MX and controls, including expected activity in the fusiform gyrus. However, during attempted imagery, activation in MX's brain was significantly reduced in a network of posterior regions while activity in frontal regions was increased compared to controls. These findings were interpreted as suggesting that MX adopted a different cognitive strategy from controls when performing the imagery task.
A constantly changing brain. In a constantly changing world.
Never ending change to support a specific set of capabilities.
Plasticity of the brain. To support conscious perception.
Even a damaged brain can see after all. Because it is not the brain that sees.
We are part of the cosmos. We are the cosmos.
Destined to see. Even without being able to see…
Because nothing changes after all.
(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…
(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…
