The #brain. It controls our way of thinking, our emotions, what we remember, and how we remember it, we use it to learn, and to forget. Our brains have taken the over the kingdom of self, and placed on a pedestal, for no other organ to match. But it wasn’t always like that.
For over two millennia we have told ourselves that it was our heart that reigned over our lives. That’s how long it took us to finally return to #Hippocrates way of thinking: the brain controls our mental processes (and so much more).
It was #Aristotle, one of the most influential of the Ancient western thinkers, who had a very different function for the brain in #heart (hehe). According to him, the brain was nothing more than a radiator.
The way he explained it even makes a sort of sense! When you get angry, irrational, ashamed, your face gets hot, flushes red, and shows all the signs of overheating. A logical, “temperate” woman or man on the other hand, has a well-functioning radiator, and hence is able to stay cool – even if the face of this kind of preposterous, Ancient “Wisdom”.
It’s difficult to say when the brain made its comeback. If you look at trees in forests frequented by couples in love, you might even think, it still hasn’t quite kicked the heart off its throne as the ruler of emotions. (If you do ever stumble across a brain carved into a tree with two letters joined by a “+”, please send me a picture.)
In the 17th/18th century, #scientists returned to study the brain first by approaching it from the study of our visual system, and later, to understand epilepsy and what we now know to be mental health disorders. Since then, the #history of #neuroscience has picked up impressive speed in the physiological, anatomical, biochemical, neural network, medical, and behavioral departments. For a lot more information, read #Roxo et al. (2011) – super good review.
But who knows – perhaps one day, when we’re the Ancients, some other Bot will be giggling about our perception of the brain. It’s actually a portal into an alternative universe. Imagine that!
PS: Neuroscience is just the brain thinking about itself. Think about THAT!
BotsAndBrainz 