What is the "home" of the mind?

Question

What exactly constitutes the Mind? Thought? Consciousness?
I've read the wikipedia articles on these three subjects and it seems that no answer has been written to it.

Save for the mind. According to Wikipedia "It is possible with modern technology to see which part of the brain is more active during certain thoughts". But this becomes irrelevant when looking at this link

http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4824

She lacks certain areas of the brain (a whole half of it)! So if the brain is central in thought, than how come she can still think?

I found no answers to Consciousness or Thought on wikipedia. So anyone with a link please answer.

Answer 1

The brain is the "home" of the mind, but the brain is designed in such a way that there are redundancies built into it, meaning that a person will still be able to function at a certain capacity even though part of the brain is damaged. This is very much evident in recent studies of the human brain, where people have lost certain functions due to car accidents or disease, or were born with the deficiencies. These people still have some thinking capabilities, and can carry on normal daily routines, but they will never be able to function at their full capacity.

Many people like to think that the Mind and the Consciousness are independent of the brain, but I would ask that has there ever been ONE solid piece of evidence that would support this idea. Our mind and consciousness are inseparable from our brain, which is like the hardware component of a computer. The brain must exist before the mind or the consciousness can exist. And just like a computer, the brain can be programmed. This is what happens when we learn. The software in our brains are the neurochemical connections made among the trillions of neurons (you might say that the brain is a piece of programmable hardware). These connections can be strengthed or weakened (via constant exposure to the same stimulus, or through a very vivid experience). When the program is running, it is equivalent to the brain being awake or conscious. So our mind or consciousness is the manifestation of an actively running software running in the brain.

Perhaps this analogy I have made here is a bit crude, but I think it is essentially what's going on in our brain.

Answer 2

A very good question! Yes, it's the brain, and yes, the brain is structured with considerable redundancy, so it still functions even with significant damage. Few computers do as well.

Who has a mind? Your pet dog? hamster? a fly? a sunflower which responds to its surroundings and faces the sun?

Thought involves more than just observing your surroundings and responding. The signal from your finger on a hot stove doesn't reach the brain before it's acted upon and a reflex pulls your hand away. I say that's not thought. A cat stalking a mouse strategizes. That probably is thought. It involves concepts, alternatives, and planning before any action takes place. Some level of abstraction is taking place.

One kind of consciousness is what you have when you're awake but not when you're asleep, comatose, or dead. But when you're dreaming, you are aware of yourself. I think the self-awareness is the kind you're asking about. Your dog probably does have that. Christof Koch (reference below) states, "brain activity is both necessary and sufficient for biological creatures to experience something." His book is an excellent place to start your search.

Answer 3

Perhaps thjis belongs in Philosophy. But then perhaps you will not get an answer un tainted by a belief system there.

In my view Mind is "That which you want to do." Desire to eat comes from the stomach. Desire to live often comes from the adrenals (fight & Flight ie survival). The brain serves as a processing centre for all these as well as assserting it's own desires; such as mental stimulation growth altruism computation etc. The contex I am using is similiat to "He changed his Mind." meaning the desire have been reconfigured by the intellect. We like to quote modern technology and brain scans to argue the brain being the seat of the mind but this is something many cultures have believed for many years prior to scans which is interesting. We all seem to hear ourselves in our head. When i was a boy I used to practice trying to hear my thoughts else where; say the thumb. It worked; interestingly this often changed my mood.

Answer 4

There have been many scholarly works written attempting to explain the relationship between the physical brain and the mind, soul, or consciousness.

It would seem to me that the mind is something incorporeal. It is an essence, an energy, a collection of will, emotion, and ideas, cognitions which make up the total person that is you. It doesn't seem that such things could trully arise strictly from random chemical causes.