mind parts & function

7/31/2019 Mind Parts & Function

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SUMMARY

As a result of the work reported here there has emerged a much clearer appreciation of whathappens during the course of a night's sleep, and clear explanations of the role of dreamingand the meaning of dreams.

The report explores the functioning and role of the two halves of the human brain and therelationship between them. It is the right half which usually communicates with the primitiveparts of the human brain and this is related to the functioning of the autonomic nervoussystem and the immune system.

The report also relates the functioning of the brain to behaviour, showing to some extent howhuman behaviour is affected by the primitive instincts of our reptilian ancestors.

CONTENTS

THE BRAIN

How the Human Brain EvolvedReptilian BrainMammalian BrainHuman BrainBrain WavesBrain Scanning

SLEEP AND SLEEPINGBody-Temperature and Sleep RhythmsSleepingDeep Sleep and REM SleepRole of DEEP Sleep

Role of REM SleepDREAMING AND DREAMS

Content of DreamsRole of Dreams

LEARNING, MEMORISING AND REMEMBERING (Receiving, Storing and Recalling)Types of MemoryProcedural MemoryDeclarative MemoryAssociating Memories and their ComponentsWorking MemoryExternal Memory

Stored Information (Perceived Content)Learning (Memorising) and UnderstandingDevelopment of Brain Functions in HumansDevelopment of Brain Functioning in Foetus and NewbornRole of REM Sleep in InfantsChanges in Sleep-wakefulness Rhythm during First Year of Infant's LifeLearning by Playing and by ExperienceChange from Eidetic to Linear Memory

CONCLUSIONS - BRAIN, MIND AND BEHAVIOUR (Human Behaviour and how the Mindworks)

Instincts and Instinctive BehaviourConscious Behaviour: Learning and Evaluating, Memory and MemorisingCommunicating Non-verbally: Conveying Information by Using ImagesInstinctive BehaviourSubconscious Behaviour (Functioning)Memorising


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Adapting to the Environment: Changing Instinctive BehaviourAdapting to the World in which we Live: Changing Behaviour PatternsEvaluation and UnderstandingThe Struggle for a Better LifeMain Conclusions

NOTES AND REFERENCESNotes References {..}

ILLUSTRATIONS (Click any illustration to see the full-size chart)1. Sleep Pattern: Day-Night-Day2. One Sleep Period (One Night)3. The Human Brain

Relevant Current and Associated Works, Relevant Subject Index Pages and Site Overview

THE BRAIN

HOW THE HUMAN BRAIN EVOLVED

We slowly ascended from lower life forms to what we are today, by a process of naturalselection from randomly occurring changes. Each change had to prove its worth by survivingthe continual battle for existence, being against being, species against species and thisprocess has gone on for many millions of years.

As far as we know the human brain evolved in three main stages {3}. Its ancient and primitivepart is the innermost core reptilian brain. Next evolved the mammalian brain by adding newfunctions and new ways of controlling the body. Then evolved the third part of the brain, theneocortex, the grey matter, the bulk of the brain in two symmetrical hemispheres, separate

but communicating. To a considerable extent it is our neocortex which enables us to behavelike human beings.

So the human brain consists of these three different but interconnected brains and the way inwhich these three brains interact with each other underlies human behaviour. {3}

How the brain evolved and functions is explored and described in the immediately followingchapters which cover how the brain evolved, sleep and sleeping, dreaming and dreams, andhow we learn, memorise and remember.

The final chapters contain conclusions which describe how the functioning of the human

brain and of the human mind determine behaviour.

What we see in this report raises a number of pertinent questions which need answering.Questions such as why do we have to struggle for a better life and what motivates humanbeings.

Reptilian Brain

Innermost in our brain is what is called the reptilian brain, its oldest and most primitive part.The reptilian brain appears to be largely unchanged by evolution and we share it with allother animals which have a backbone.

This reptilian brain controls body functions required for sustaining life such as breathing andbody temperature. Reptiles are cold-blooded animals which are warmed by the daylight sunand conserve energy by restricting activities when it is dark. The biological clock (controller)for their activity-rest cycle is located in the eye itself {10}.


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At this level of evolution, behaviour relating to survival of the species, such as sexualbehaviour, is instinctive and responses are automatic. Territory is acquired by force anddefended. Might is right.

Mammalian Brain

Next to evolve from the reptilian brain was the mammalian brain. An enormous change tookplace as mammals evolved from reptiles, the mammalian brain containing organs {11, 12}:

For the automatic control of body functions such as digestion, the fluid balance, bodytemperature and blood pressure (autonomic nervous system, hypothalamus).

For filing new experiences as they happen and so creating a store of experience-based memories (hippocampus).

For experience-based recognition of danger and for responding to this according topast experience. And for some conscious feelings about events (amygdala).

To this extent the mammal is more consciously aware of itself in relation to the environment.Millions of neural pathways connect the hippocampal and amygdala structures to the reptilianbrain and behaviour is less rigidly controlled by instincts. It seems that feelings such asattachment, anger and fear have emerged with associated behavioural response patterns ofcare, fight or flight. {4}

Human Brain

And the mammalian brain became the human brain by adding the massive grey matter(neocortex) which envelopes most of the earlier brain and amounts to about 85 per cent of

the human brain mass.

This massive addition consists mostly of two hemispheres which are covered by an outerlayer and interconnected by a string of nerve fibres. {13}

The brain is actually divided into its 'hemispheres' by a prominent groove. At the base of thisgroove lies the thick bundle of nerve fibres which enable these two halves of the brain tocommunicate with each other.

But the left hemisphere usually controls movement and sensation in the right side of thebody, while the right hemisphere similarly controls the left side of the body.

We saw that with the mammalian brain emerged feelings such as attachment, fear and angerand associated behavioural response patterns.

And human emotional responses depend on neuronal pathways which link the righthemisphere to the mammalian brain {4} which in turn is linked to the even older reptilianbrain.

Fascinating is the way in which work is divided between the two halves of the brain, theirdifferent functions and the way in which they supplement and co-operate with each other.

Most people (about 80 per cent) are right-handed and in the vast majority of right-handed people, the ability to organise speech and the ability to speak are predominantlylocalised in the left side of the brain. But the right side can understand written and spokenlanguage to some extent at least. {14}


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"Appreciating spatial perceptions depends more on the right hemisphere, although there is aleft hemisphere contribution. This is especially true when handling objects" {14} andconcerning abstract geometric shapes and music.

Roger Sperry, Michael Gazzaniga and their colleagues found that, when presented with astimulus, both hemispheres were active and could recognise the nature of visual stimuli aswell as spoken words.

But while the left hemisphere can express itself by verbally describing a stimulus, the righthemisphere can express itself non-verbally by selecting the matching stimulus.

The left hemisphere deals with word choice, rules of grammar, and the meaning of words.The right hemisphere apparently determines the emotional content of speech. {14}

So a general overview of the functional division of activities between the two hemisphereswould be:

Left HemisphereCommunicates by using words, has highly developed verbal abilities, is logical andsystematic, concerned with matters as they are.

Right HemisphereCommunicates using images (pictures), has highly developed spatial abilities, isintuitive and imaginative, concerned with emotions and feelings.

But the two hemispheres are interconnected and communicate, the human mind bringstogether these abilities and skills into a comprehensive whole whose operation depends onthe way in which its parts contribute and co-operate with each other.

The right hemisphere links to the primitive older part of the brain, and I consider that itcommunicates using images with its primitive 'unconscious' functions. Thinking in pictures isfast. Think of how long it takes to describe a picture, a scene, in words and compare this withthe speed of taking it in by looking at it. But images may be described, or transformed into anarrative, by the left hemisphere.

Language is both spoken as well as written, verbal and visual. And speech and languageand associated pictures, images and memories appear to be located all over the brain.Cognition of meaning (knowing and understanding sentences, for example) is high levelprocessing which includes both semantic and visual processing. And behaviour involves the

integration of activities in many different parts of the brain.

So now the human brain includes the processing and memorising of images and of theircomponents. And the development of language and corresponding mental processingconnected with memory and memorising. As well as the development of a wide range ofemotions, of feelings, of care and affection, and the capability for objective and logicalthinking and evaluation. And the later development of written languages and artificial images.

BRAIN WAVES

The brain functions by sending electrical signals from one place to another. Very smallcharges pass between nerve cells, accompanied by changes in electrical potential, involtage.


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This activity can be measured and displayed as a wave form called brain wave or brainrhythm. The height of the wave is a measure of the potential difference, its frequency is ameasure of the rate at which electrical charges pass through a nerve cell or nerve fibre. {1}

A person's brain is active all the time, waking and sleeping, producing and shifting betweendistinct wave forms which are commonly grouped as follows:

Table 1

Brain Waves

Frequency band(cycles/second)

Name ofWave Band

Description

1 - 3 DeltaGenerally strongest when a person is

in a deep dreamless sleep.

4 - 7 ThetaMay be associated with dreamy,creative, intuitive states.

8 - 10 AlphaAssociated with a calm and relaxedstate when the person is not thinking.

15 - 30 BetaAssociated with being alert, withnormal thinking, with processinginformation.

When delta waves predominate then one is said to be in a delta state.

People can think of relaxing and so strengthen alpha waves, or can do mental arithmetic andso weaken them. This enables people 'to perform an on-off decision, switching a light on oroff or moving a cursor on a screen'. {5}

BRAIN SCANNING

Electroencephalograph (EEG) {1}

The EEG measures electrical activity of the brain using pairs of electrodes placed at different(internationally specified) points on the scalp. It is used by doctors for diagnosis andresearch.

It seemed that the EEG would provide the key to understanding how the brain functions, butit proved very difficult to interpret these brain waves, or to deduce from where in the brainthey originated.

Magnetoencephalograph (MEG) {2, 7}

The MEG, however, can measurethe oscillating millisecond fluxes of the brain in real time. Furthermore, unlike the EEG,granted enough mathematical sophistication and computing power, you get a goodidea of the location of the electromagnetic source in the brain.

And it can be used to


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record magnetic and electrical fields within the brain simultaneously, tracking impulsesmoving (a distance of) a few millimetres at up to 200 miles per hour.

In real time, that is 'in perhaps 10 milliseconds'. And 'usually accurate to within one or twomillimetres in pre-surgical mapping'.

And in this way enabling responses to be tracked within the brain.

SLEEP AND SLEEPING

BODY-TEMPERATURE AND SLEEP RHYTHMS

Day and night alternate over 24 hours due to the rotation of the planet, and the start and

length of daylight varies with the seasons.

So internal biological clocks (controllers) evolved for controlling activities related to theenvironment such as those of cold-blooded animals which need to maintain their bodytemperature by warming themselves in the sun. Reptiles are cold-blooded animals warmedby the daylight sun and conserve energy by restricting activities when it is dark. And thebiological clock which controls their activity-rest cycle is located within the eye. {10}

But about 180 million years ago, warm-blooded mammals evolved from their cold-bloodedreptilian ancestors by developing the ability to maintain a constant body temperature bybiological processes. This freed them from depending on daylight and the weather for

survival. Deep sleep appeared at the same time. {4}

The earlier mammals were reproducing themselves by hatching their young out of eggs. Butabout 180 to 130 million years ago, many mammals evolved into giving birth directly from thewomb, their young being born alive after having been developed for a considerable periodwithin the womb. Their young have to grow and learn much for a long time before they cansurvive independently, for many years in the case of human beings. The human brain nowhas much greater learning capacity.

In mammals, information about light and darkness is transmitted from the eye to a biologicalclock, now situated in the mammalian brain, which controls the sleep-wakefulness rhythm.

Another biological clock controls the body-temperature rhythm, and these biological clockstogether control the related body-temperature and sleep-wakefulness rhythms. {10}

While the body's temperature is held at a constant level, it varies by about 0.5 deg C from alow at about 05.00 hours to a high at about 18.00 hours. It appears that we tend to go tosleep after our body temperature has began to fall and tend to wake up after it has started torise.

"The length of the geophysical day is 24 hours. Our sleep-wakefulness rhythm (circadianrhythm) has a duration which varies from individual to individual (usually between 25 and 28hours) but is always longer than 24 hours. And our biological rhythms are adjustedaccordingly, day by day," by these internal biological clocks, to the external geophysical day,to the environment. People sleep, on average, between 6.5 and 8.5 hours. {10}

The body-temperature clock also controls the appearance of REM sleep.


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SLEEPING

There are key mental states each characterised by its own brain wave pattern . Whenawake we can be attending or concentrating, or we can be relaxed. When asleep we couldbe in SHALLOW sleep, DEEP sleep, or REM sleep.

Shallow sleep is often referred to as 'Stage 2' sleep, and Deep sleep as 'Stage 4' sleep.

During REM sleep (Rapid-Eye-Movement sleep), the eyes move rapidly and continuously. Attimes REM sleep is referred to as dreaming sleep and sometimes called paradoxical sleep,or called paradoxical sleep only when referring to animals.

During Deep sleep the body's muscles are relaxed, heart beat and breathing are slow andregular. In REM sleep the body's muscles are paralysed while heart beat and breathingfluctuate as they would during emotional upsets in waking life.

Brain-wave frequency of the different sleep stages we pass through in the course of a night

are outlined in Figure 1 'Sleep Pattern: Day-Night-Day'. From being wide awake before goingto sleep, we relax, sleep lightly (shallow) for ten to fifteen minutes before sleeping deeply.Following Deep sleep we REM sleep after which we wake up through relaxing to being fullyawake.

Figure 1Sleep Pattern: Day -

Night - Day

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Deep sleep is followed by REM sleep. In order to achieve this as far as possible within anight, the brain arranges alternating periods of deep sleep followed by REM sleep .

The illustration shows graphically what happens to the brain's electrical activity as the nightprogresses, illustrated by the frequency of the brain waves. As we progress from beingawake through sleep to being awake again, the frequency drops, reaching its lowest pointwhile in deep sleep and then rises again to the wide-awake level.

Amplitude, that is voltage, changes inversely. It increases when the frequency drops,reaching its highest level during deep sleep, and then decreases again to the wide-awakelevel.

Considering adults, that is excluding the young and the elderly, on the whole we 'Deep Sleep'during the first half of the night, and 'REM Sleep' during the second. But possibly because wecannot be certain how long we will sleep, whether our sleeping period will be interruptedunexpectedly, Deep sleep and REM sleep are divided into shorter sleep periods whichalternate, something like:


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Table 2

One Sleep Period (One complete night)

One Sleep Period (One night)

Deep Sleep(minutes)

REM Sleep(minutes)

Beginning of Sleep Period

40

7

20

13

25

10

25End of Sleep Period

Figure 2One Sleep Period

(One Night)


That we Deep sleep first and that REM sleep follows Deep sleep is clearly shown in Figure 2.This shows how the two kinds of sleep alternate as Deep sleep ends and REM sleep beginsand proceeds.

Deep Sleep and REM Sleep each take up about 20 to 25 percent of the night's sleep. Theremainder is largely taken up by transition 'Shallow' sleep' periods which enable brain andbody to adjust to the next type of sleep, and by occasional brief periods of intermediate'Stage 1' and 'Stage 3' sleep .

DEEP SLEEP AND REM SLEEP

We have already seen much about Deep sleep and about REM sleep so this seems a goodpoint to include in this section also what has been said so far.

Both Deep sleep and REM sleep appeared about 180 million to 130 million years ago inmammals as they evolved from reptiles.


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Deep sleep and REM sleep are the core sleep activities, each taking up about 20 to 25percent of the night's sleep, the remainder being taken up by shallow transition sleepperiods.

On the whole we Deep sleep during the first half of the night, and REM sleep during thesecond. Deep sleep and REM sleep are divided up into shorter sleep periods whichalternate.

So now we can list the characteristics of Deep sleep and of REM sleep, as follows:

Deep Sleep

Deep sleep appeared at about the time warm blooded mammals evolved from their cold-blooded reptilian ancestors by developing the ability to maintain a constant body temperatureby biological processes.

As we progress from being awake through sleeping to being awake again, the frequency of

the brain waves drops, reaching its lowest point while in Deep sleep and then rises again tothe wide-awake level. (See Figure 1 'Sleep Pattern: Day - Night - Day')

During Deep Sleep the body's muscles are relaxed and heart beat and breathing are slowand regular.

Deep sleep 'dream-like experiences are more like ordinary everyday thoughts and areusually rather banal and repetitive in content'. During Deep sleep 'one is not dreaming butthinking.' {4}

REM Sleep (Rapid-Eye-Movement sleep)

REM sleep also appeared at about the time warm blooded mammals evolved from their cold-blooded reptilian ancestors by developing the ability to maintain a constant level of bodytemperature by biological processes.

At this constant level there is a small but closely controlled body temperature rhythm (wetend to go to sleep after our body temperature has began to fall and tend to wake up after ithas started to rise) and the body-temperature clock also controls the appearance of REMsleep.

On the whole we REM sleep during the second half of the night, after Deep sleep and beforewaking up through relaxing to being fully awake.

In REM sleep the body's muscles are paralysed while heart-beat and breathing fluctuate asthey would during emotional upsets in waking life. Brain waves look like the waking pattern.The eyes move rapidly and continuously.

Persistent rapid eye movement shows that dreaming is taking place and the brain paralysesthe sleeper so that the dreams cannot be acted out.

Dreams tend to consist of "sensory illusions or hallucinated dramas" (imagined feelings orawarenesses), are not usually remembered unless the dreamer wakes up from the dreamitself. "The length of time taken to dream of certain events is about the same as the time itwould take to experience those events in waking reality." {4}


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ROLE OF DEEP SLEEP

We saw that Deep sleep appeared about 180 million to 130 million years ago in mammals asthey evolved from reptiles. And that during Deep sleep the body's muscles are relaxed andheart beat and breathing are slow and regular. In Deep sleep 'one is not dreaming butthinking'.

As reptiles evolved into mammals and mammals into human beings, complicated andinterrelated physiological and biological changes took place. And it seems as if bodymaintenance and development takes place during Deep sleep.

For example, "during sleep, the endocrine organs come to life and secrete into thebloodstream hormones that affect the entire body" {10}.

ROLE OF REM SLEEP

"If REM sleep is prevented, it takes precedence over other kinds of sleep until the lack of

REM sleep has been made good, at least to some extent. So human beings need REMsleep." {10}

Professor Lavie heads Haifa Technion's Sleep Laboratory. He reports {10} "that in some wayor other, we can maintain contact with reality during REM sleep and even decide when towake up with the help of internal signals", and that "REM sleep allows a smooth and rapidtransition from sleep to wakefulness, and so can be viewed as a gate to wakefulness duringsleep."

"Further findings at the Technion Sleep Laboratory demonstrated an additional advantage inawakening from REM sleep. When we examined how people functioned after awakening

from REM sleep, we found that they performed very well at tasks which included orientationin space. These tasks, which are controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain, wereperformed with a lesser success rate after awakening from the Deep sleep of stages 3 and 4.In other words, a person awakening from REM sleep is immediately orientated in hissurroundings, which is of cardinal importance to a smooth transition from sleep towakefulness."

Which suggests to me that the left hemisphere is involved in Deep sleep 'dreaming' and theright hemisphere in REM sleep dreaming.

REM sleep appeared when, as we saw already, mammals evolved into giving birth directly

from the womb, their young being born alive after having been developed for a considerableperiod within the womb. The young have to grow and learn much for a long time before theycan survive independently, for many years in the case of human beings. Which appliesparticularly to the brain which now has much greater learning capacity.

During the first few days after birth the actual amount of REM sleep is very great and Lavieconcluded that "it plays a vital role in the maturing stage of the nervous system" and that "it ispossible that REM sleep is particularly important for procedural types of learning in whichhumans acquire motor and perceptual skills. Since during the first few months of life infantsare busy acquiring new motor and perceptual skills, these findings may also explain theabundance of REM sleep at that particular time in our life".

Lavie also reports that REM sleep in cats "seems to be training their neural networks inmainly instinctive behaviour" and that "several studies have indicated a possibility that theconsolidation of memory traces for at least certain types of learning occurs during REMsleep".


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So the role of REM sleep appears to be that of generating dreams, of filing away memoriesfor later use, and to enable us to wake up quickly and fully orientated.

DREAMING AND DREAMS

Dreaming, whatever this may be or whatever is taking place during REM sleeping periods, islikely to perform an essential function as otherwise the brain would not be paralysing thebody to enable dreaming to take place.

Important also because it takes place regularly as a matter of routine and as all individualsare normally subject to this procedure.

In other words, there must be an important reason for sleeping in this way and for dreaming.

CONTENT OF DREAMS

The content of an individual's dreams normally corresponds with that individual's language

and memories, beliefs and culture, depends on an individual's day-to-day life, experiences,preoccupations, likes and dislikes.

But at times dreams seem to originate from an unknown apparently internal source whichhas been given labels such as the 'unconscious' or the 'subconscious'. Occasionally dreamscontain information beyond the experience, knowledge or understanding of the dreamer.

The dreams of the blind do not include sights or scenes but include noises, the sense ofcontact and emotional experiences. Lavie found that there were only single eye movementsduring their nonpictorial dream sleep. The longer they had been blind, the sparser the eyemovements of blind people and so Lavie showed that grouped eye movements indicate

dream pictures. {10}

Lavie records that early-REM-period dreams deal with the present, and in most cases lackstory or central character. But "dream reports made in the early hours of the morning arericher in detail, central characters, and feelings, and, compared with dreams from the firsthalf of the night, they tend to deal more with the dreamer's early childhood".

First dreams are not remembered in the morning but last dreams are, and it is these lastdreams which the psychiatrist is most likely to hear.

Dreams may deal with what happened during the day which has just passed, or are about

what took place more than a week ago, but do not as a rule deal with the events of the sevendays or so which come in between. This gap seems to show that two kinds of memory areinvolved, a short-term working memory and a more permanent long-term memory, and that itmay take a week or so before at least some of the information which reached the workingmemory is processed and stored in the long-term memory.

ROLE OF DREAMS

According to Jouvet "dreams arise from bursts of activity in biologically ancient parts of thebrain, and both animals and humans get up and act out their dreams when the brain centresresponsible for inhibiting movements during sleep are incapacitated". {4}

Theta rhythms have been observed not only in REM sleep periods in humans but also inanimals when performing activities such as hunting on which survival depends.


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"Instincts are an innate form of behaviour - in other words, patterns of motor behaviour whichare not learned but stamped on the nervous system before birth. The behavioral patterns ofnumerous species which involve attack, defense, or copulation are instinctive, and the animalperforms these actions from birth, without being trained to do so." {10}

According to Lavie, Jouvet hypothesised

"that one of the roles of paradoxical sleep was to train the neural networks which arerelated to instinctive behavior",

"that during paradoxical sleep these neural networks are activated independently ofthe muscles which are linked to the nerve cells and inhibited by the brain stem",

and that "because of the decisive importance of the instincts to the survival of thespecies, the neural networks linked to instincts are checked every night".

Dreams may "provide help in solving problems (or solutions to everyday problems), even

scientific ones" and may "also be an inspiration for artistic creativity (for discovery andcreativity)" and have also been the source of literary and musical inspiration.

There are many stories indicating that at least some dreams may be predicting events.

Dreams which predict events would be based on the situation as it exists just before thedream is dreamt, and the dream itself introduces another factor into the situation which hasbeen predicted.

Bearing in mind the vast total number of dreams being dreamt every night by so manypeople world-wide, I also think that similarities or dream components which after the event

has occurred are said to have predicted it or to refer to it, cannot at this time be credited withbeing more than coincidences.

Some people consider that dreams may be caused "by supernatural agencies such as godsor demons and are to be understood as messages. Dreams caused by gods are 'good'dreams sent to guide us; dreams caused by demons are 'bad' dreams sent to destroy us"and "people have tried to distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' dreams and to find rules fordiscovering what they mean." {4}

An inquiry commissioned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists has concluded that anymemory of severely traumatic events 'recovered through ... dream interpretation ... is almost

certainly false'. Dream interpretations "usually reflect the training and personal convictions ofthe therapist". Beliefs that certain events took place are apparently being implanted andreferred to as memories. {16}

LEARNING, MEMORISING AND REMEMBERING (Receiving, Storing and Recalling)

Human beings are learning all the time, storing information and then recalling it when it isrequired.

Massive volumes of information are being received continually. But only some of thisinformation is selected and stored, and so becomes available for recalling later whenrequired. Selection seems to be necessary as otherwise it may take far too long to recall anyspecific memory or possibly because we may not have sufficient capacity for storingeverything in our brain.


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But on the other hand we may not be able to recall a specific memory when we want toremember it, some stored information may have been forgotten.

TYPES OF MEMORY

Memory and memories have been defined or classified in different ways. Established is thatthere are two main types of memory, namely 'procedural memory' with information about howto proceed when doing something, and 'declarative memory' which contains what we know.

Both procedural and declarative memories are long-term memories and we also have aworking (short-term) memory which enables the brain to evaluate the mass of incominginformation and select what is to be retained and memorised and what is to be rejected.

Distinctions have been drawn also between different kinds of memory and memories, suchas semantic (verbal), episodic (events as part of a sequence), eidetic (detailed mentalimages) and visual (images as seen). In addition to what we see, we also remember othersensory information such as sounds, smells, tastes and what we touch.

Procedural Memory

This memory stores information about how to proceed when doing something, storesinformation such as how to drive a car, play football or play an instrument.

This type of memory is long-lasting. The memories are actions, habits or skills which arelearned by repetition and which can be changed by many repetitions, by training. {11, 14}

Declarative Memory

This is long-term memory and it contains all you have experienced or learned, all theinformation gained by you from childhood onwards.

No one really knows where this enormous database is located but it seems that each type ofcomponent memory is located in a kind of memory location of its own.

Associating Memories and their Components

Suppose we remember a person saying something. The component parts of this memory,components such as shape of face, sound of voice, colour of hair, are stored in differentlocations. They are associated with each other, cross-indexed if you like, so that a memory

can be recalled from remembering just one of its components. Component memories arecontinually being associated with other old or new component memories, enormouslyincreasing the range and flexibility of what can be recalled.

And so we may be able to recall a person's name by remembering the colour of his hair, orthe shape of his face.

Working Memory

The working memory enables the brain to evaluate the mass of incoming information and

select what is to be retained and memorised and what is to be rejected.


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External Memory

In addition we have the vast mass of externally prepared and stored information which isaccumulating. It has accumulated ever since people told stories to their young who in turnretold them to later generations and ever since writing was invented and the printed wordaccumulated, followed by pictures, photographs, films and videos, television andcomputerised manipulation of text and images. All of which spread and proliferated togetherwith corresponding search (recall, retrieval, associating and selecting) procedures.

STORED INFORMATION (PERCEIVED CONTENT)

Much of what we are storing includes semantic information, that is information which consistsof words and is about words, information relating to what words mean and imply.

And images, that is scenes, including events and sequences of events, and theircomponents.

Including what happened, when it happened and the sequence in which it happened.

People with an eidetic (image-retaining) memory remember images, often clearly and indetail . "Many, if not all, young children apparently do normally see and remembereidetically, but this capacity is lost to most as they grow up. What is in young children anapparently general capacity has become a remarkable rarity in adults." {6}

The information one receives may be fact or fiction, right or wrong, intended to inform or tomislead, understood or misunderstood. Even so, what is stored is the perceived content ofthe received information.

LEARNING (MEMORISING) AND UNDERSTANDING

Rose defines an animal's learning by "learning is a response by an animal to a novelsituation such that, when confronted subsequently with a comparable situation, the animal'sbehaviour is reliably modified in such a way as to make its response more appropriate" {6}

Pointing out that human memory is very different from that of a non-human animal, Rosesays that "procedural memory dominates the lives of non-human animals, ... but declarativememory profoundly shapes our every act and thought." Our memory includes a verbalmemory which "means the possibility of learning and remembering without manifest

behaviour."

But our memory consists of much more than just verbal memories.

Continually associating new information with older information, and older information withother older information, is much more than random cross-referencing.

It is because of the meaningful way in which we associate over such large volumes of storedinformation, that the process of associating amounts also to the seeking of meaningfulassociations.

So to me it seems that all the information we take in and retain results in a morecomprehensive view and deeper understanding of the world in which we live, of our socialorganisation and physical environment. Thus, in the end, at some time and in some way, theinformation we have taken in affects and changes what we do, changes our behaviour.


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DEVELOPMENT OF BRAIN FUNCTIONS IN HUMANS

Development of Brain Functioning in Foetus and Newborn

Rose describes how the human brain develops before and after birth, saying "Early braindevelopment in the foetus and newborn is itself associated first with a massive proliferationof cells, and then by a steady drop in numbers, but the space once occupied by the lost cellsis taken up by an increase in the branching and synaptic connections made by those thatremain."

Role of REM Sleep in Infants

Lavie pointed out that in animals which are born fairly mature, such as sheep, REM sleep islow and near adult level. In species which are born immature, "such as rats, cats, andhumans, initial amounts of paradoxical (REM) sleep are very large. In kittens, during the first

ten days of life paradoxical (REM) sleep occupies 90 percent of their time." {10}

We already saw that Jouvet hypothesised that one of the roles of REM sleep in animals wasto train the neural networks which are related to instinctive behaviour.

We also saw that during the first few days after birth the actual amount of REM sleep inbabies is very great and Lavie concluded that "it plays a vital role in the maturing stage of thenervous system" and that "it is possible that REM sleep is particularly important forprocedural types of learning in which humans acquire motor and perceptual skills. Sinceduring the first few months of life infants are busy acquiring new motor and perceptual skills,these findings may also explain the abundance of REM sleep at that particular time in our

life". {10}

Stevens {4} says "REM sleep is thought to play an important role in developing the infantbrain and in activating those neural programmes responsible for basic and characteristicpatterns of behaviour, such as maternal bonding, environmental exploration and play."

He added that common childhood fears "of the dark, of strangers, of rapidly approachingobjects, are all ... early warning devices put there by evolution because of the constantdangers in the ancestral environment".

Children do not distinguish between dreams and waking life until they are three or four years

old, but can usually understand the difference when between five and eight years old.

Changes in Sleep-wakefulness Rhythm during First Year of Infant's Life

A baby wakes and sleeps roughly every four hours in its first month. This changes graduallyuntil at about six months "the baby begins sleeping almost through the night and the sleep-wakefulness rhythm stabilises at twenty-four hours". And so during the first year "a singleand continuous sleep period and a period of continuous wakefulness begin to emerge, and atthe same time a pattern of coordination between the sleep-wakefulness rhythm and thedemands of the external environment slowly begins to develop". {10}

Lavie notes that it is during the first months of life that the longest duration of REM sleepoccurs and that this coincides with the time when sleep becomes consolidated into a singleand continuous sleep period.


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Learning by Playing and by Experience

Playing is a way of learning how to behave, of learning about social co-operation and conflict,about family relations and about bringing up a family.

Social responsibility, the caring, giving and sharing with others, the taking on of responsibilityfor others, including conflict management, can be and is being taught. {15}

From infant through child and adolescent to being an adult, we go through a long period inwhich we learn through playing and by experience, and also absorb information from externalmemory, from the mass of information now available to us from sources external toourselves.

And learning by experience and by gaining knowledge continues while we are alive. Eachnew experience adds to our knowledge and plays a part in shaping our view of thecommunity and society in which we live, of the world at large, and helps to determine whatwe do and how we do it, helps to determine our behaviour.

Change from Eidetic to Linear Memory

We already saw that many, if not all, young children apparently do normally see andremember eidetically , but that this capacity is lost to most as they grow up.

Rose considers that at birth all types of input are likely to be seen as about equally relevant,that all input is registered and ordered "so as to enable each individual to build up his or herown criteria of significance". Eidetic memory gives equal importance to all inputs so that allinputs are analysed, are processed and stored.

It seems that children remember everything. But at some time before puberty most of uscease to remember eidetically, 'there is for most of us a transition in how we perceive andremember the world ... as we consciously or unconsciously learn to select salient informationthat we need to commit to memory from the environment around us." {6}

CONCLUSIONS - BRAIN, MIND AND BEHAVIOUR (Human Behaviour and How TheMind Works)

INSTINCTS AND INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOUR

We saw that instincts are an innate form of behaviour, that is a form of behaviour which is not

learned but which the animal performs from birth, without being trained to do so.

Behaviour relating to survival of a species, such as attack, defence and sexual behaviour, isinstinctive and responses are automatic. Territory is acquired by force and defended. Might isright.

CONSCIOUS BEHAVIOUR: LEARNING AND EVALUATING, MEMORY ANDMEMORISING

As mammals evolved from reptiles, there evolved the ability for storing new experiences as

they happen and so creating a store of experience-based memories.

A primitive animal's memory seems to be largely procedural. Both procedural and declarativememories are long-term memories, but declarative memory is located and used in a differentway.


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Human beings are learning all the time, memorising information and then recalling it when itis required.

What is being memorised includes what we are taught, what happens to us and to othersand any lessons learned as a result. And when it happened and the sequence in which ithappened. Including also the meaning of words and what is implied. And in addition we havethe vast mass of externally prepared and stored information which is accumulating at anaccelerating pace.

Massive volumes of information are being received. The incoming information is evaluatedand we memorise only information which seems to matter. Some is retained, the restrejected. Retained short-term (working) memories are converted to long-term memories. Soonly a part of the incoming information is retained and stored, that is memorised, sobecoming available for recalling later when required.

Aspects of memories are stored in different locations. Aspects such as colour, shape,event, phrase, place, time, date. Aspects like shape of face, sound of voice, colour of hair.

Memories are associated, crossindexed if you like, with their different aspects and can berecalled by recalling an aspect associated with the memory one wishes to recall. Componentmemories are continually being associated with other old or new component memories,enormously increasing the range and flexibility of what can be recalled.

A process which continually keeps available memory components which relate to those ofcurrent interest, and memory components which are more frequently used than others.

Human beings store memories by means of changed neural pathways, by means ofpersistent modifications to the structure of neurons and their synaptic connections, by means

of biochemical changes. {6}

So we are strengthening neural pathways or associations by frequently using or recallingthem, weakening memory components which are not being used.

Hence using neural pathways holds memories at higher, more easily accessible levels ofmemory, makes them more readily available. Infrequently recalled memories would seem tobe overlaid by more frequently used ones, seem to be reduced to lower levels of awareness,of accessibility.

COMMUNICATING NON-VERBALLY: CONVEYING INFORMATION BY USING IMAGES

Instinctive Behaviour

Dreaming trains animals and human beings in instinctive responses and then keepsinstinctive behaviour fully trained.

Dreaming does so by generating situations which require responses of the fight, flight,affection kind. A dream produces a corresponding response which, however, is nottranslated into action as the dreamer's body is normally paralysed by the mind for duration ofdreaming (REM) sleep.

Frequent replaying strengthens corresponding neural pathways and so trains the individualto respond and to respond quickly.

Subconscious Behaviour (Functioning)


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As mammals evolved from reptiles, the added functions included organs such as theautonomic nervous system for the automatic control of body functions, of functions such asdigestion, the fluid balance, body temperature and blood pressure.

A key finding of this report is that the right hemisphere of the human brain is able tocommunicate by using images with the brain's older and more primitive component organswhich have no verbal skills. And this enables us to communicate intentionally (that is'consciously') with our autonomic nervous system and ask it by visualising to control bodyfunctions and to affect our body's immune system. Any or all our senses can be includedwhen visualising.

Clinical trials have shown remarkable success in areas such as the treatment of cancer andheart disease.

Communicating with one's autonomic nervous system by visualising is a conscious activity.

Hence it is possible to direct and use the mind's subconscious maintenance and control

capabilities, and so enable environmental experience and knowledge to be applied for one'sbenefit. That is, one's knowledge and experience can be consciously applied towardsmodifying the mind's subconscious control of body functions for the benefit of the individual.

Memorising

It is while REM sleeping that dreams are generated and that we appear to be filing away(memorising) memories for later use.

Much of dreaming may then be the creating and recalling of associations. As the nightprogresses this process seems to become more intuitive, delving deeper into stored

memories and associations, associating with earlier memories and their aspects, tending togo back in time towards childhood.

Becoming more intuitive by going through likely or apparently associated filed images orother stored memory components (aspects) in their different locations.

In this way keeping long-term memories intact and relevant by continually associating andreassociating their various parts.

So we are strengthening neural pathways or associations by frequently using or recallingthem.

This process at the same time would seem to weaken those memory components we are notthinking about or which are not being used.

ADAPTING TO THE ENVIRONMENT: CHANGING INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOUR

A key feature which distinguishes mammals from the reptiles from which they evolved wouldseem to be that the mammalian brain contains organs for the experience-based recognitionof danger and for responding to this according to past experience. And for some consciousfeelings about events.

Millions of neural pathways connect the organs which generate experience-based memories,and also those which generate conscious feelings with associated behavioural responsepatterns, to the reptilian parts of the mammalian brain.


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It seems that feelings such as attachment, anger and fear have emerged with associatedbehavioural response patterns, and that behaviour is less rigidly controlled by instincts.

So it seems that instinctive behaviour can be modified by feelings of care and affection andalso by experience, particularly when repeated frequently.

Neural pathways are created and strengthened by being used, others weakened by notbeing used. We react accordingly and it seems as if memories are being created whichmodify instinctive behavioural responses.

It also seems that instinctive behaviour has to be controlled, and modified according to theenvironment in which we find ourselves, in every generation, and that the mammalian andhuman parts of the brain play a major part in this.

ADAPTING TO THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE: CHANGING BEHAVIOUR PATTERNS

We adapt to the world in which we live in much the same way. What happens to us and what

we do, and what happens as a result, changes neural pathways. A trace is left, neuralpathways are changed, memories are formed.

Playing is one way of learning how to behave, of learning about social co-operation andconflict, about family relations and about bringing up a family. From infant through child andadolescence to being an adult, we go through a long period in which we learn throughplaying and by experience. And learning by experience and by gaining knowledge continueswhile we are alive.

Social responsibility, the caring, giving and sharing with others, the taking on of responsibilityfor others, including conflict management, can be and is being taught.

What human beings do, what happens to us, is also memorised if thought relevant. Thesememories can be recalled when required and in this way will affect our future behaviour.

Additionally we also absorb information from external memory, from the mass of informationnow available to us from sources external to ourselves. And the action we take, what we do,depends on evaluating the situation, what we know and how we feel about it. The outcomeitself is evaluated and becomes part of our memories.

It seems that on the whole people may not be able to recall feelings, that most people canonly recall how they felt about something at the time.

Each new experience adds to our knowledge and plays a part in shaping our view of thecommunity and society in which we live, of the world at large, and helps to determine ourbehaviour.

EVALUATION AND UNDERSTANDING

Behaviour of the primitive animals from which human beings evolved is instinctive. Whichmeans that behaviour relating to survival, such as attack, defence or sexual, is automatic.Territory is acquired by force and defended. Might is right.

The mammalian brain includes the older reptilian brain and is linked to it. With themammalian brain emerged feelings such as attachment, fear and anger together withassociated behavioural response patterns. Mammalian behaviour is less rigidly controlled byinstincts.


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The human brain (see Figure 3 'The Human Brain') includes the mammalian brain andhuman emotional responses depend on neuronal pathways which link the right hemisphereto the mammalian brain.

It takes human beings many years to bring up their children and it is the right hemispherewhich is concerned with a wide range of emotions and feelings of care and affection for theyoung and for the family, and then for other people and the community.

Figure 3The Human Brain


For human beings, primitive (reptilian) instinctive urges and behaviour are overlaid bymammalian care and affection for one's young and human care and affection for one's familyand community. Behaviour is aimed at survival of the young and of the family, and then is forthe good of family, other people, community.

The right hemisphere is linked to the primitive older part of the brain which has no verbal,semantic or reasoning ability and so functions subconsciously (below the level of

consciousness). Hence the right hemisphere communicates with the 'subconscious' functionsof the older part of the brain by using images. Communicating by using images is fast.

And so the right hemisphere communicates using images (pictures) and has highlydeveloped spatial abilities, is intuitive and imaginative, is concerned with emotions andfeelings.

Speech, that is thinking and communicating by using words, seems to have evolved later.The left hemisphere communicates by using words, has highly developed verbal andsemantic abilities, is logical and systematic, concerned with matters as they are. Images maybe described, or transformed into a narrative, by the left hemisphere.

Hence behaviour is not only determined by feelings but also by knowledge, understandingand reason.

So the human brain includes the processing and memorising of images and of theircomponents, and the development of language and corresponding mental processingconnected with memory and memorising. It also includes a wide range of emotions, offeelings, of care and affection, and the capability for objective and logical thinking andevaluation. And the later development of written languages and artificial images.

We are continually gaining information by learning, by reading or studying, learning from theexperiences of others, gaining verbal information and pictorial images from external memory.The mind evaluates this incoming information and decides what is to be retained andmemorised, rejecting the remainder. Information about what has been happening to oneselfis treated in the same way.


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And when something is happening to oneself, when one is doing something or planning to dosomething, we recall relevant information from memory, add other available information, andbefore taking action we evaluate all the information we now have. What happens as a resultof the action we took is again evaluated and memorised for later use.

So we are continually evaluating information and this is a key feature of the human mind.Evaluation means estimating significance, relevance and reliability. In other words,estimating meaning and importance, bearing on or reference to the matter in hand, whether itcan be relied on. In this way continually becoming more aware of explanations and causes,gaining understanding.

We memorise both verbal and image information. However, we do not memorise feelings,possibly because they may originate within the earlier mammalian parts of the brain . What isrecalled is how we felt at the time, the actual feeling is not reproduced, cannot be recalled.

And memorising images is fast and this would seem to apply to their component parts and toassociating. The eidetic memory of young children usually changes to linear memory as they

become more adult. It appears that as we grow older so we start evaluating and then ceasemerely to take in such information as we come across. As we become adult we start toevaluate and develop and extend our evaluating skills. In other words, as adults what wememorise and how we recall and use recalled information is then governed by reason andaids understanding.

Continually associating new information with older information, and older information withother older information, is much more than random cross-referencing.

It is because of the meaningful way in which we associate over such large volumes of storedinformation, that the process of associating amounts also to the seeking of meaningful

associations.

So to me it seems that all the information we take in and retain results in a morecomprehensive view and understanding of the world in which we live, of our socialorganisation and physical environment. And thus, in the end, at some time and in some way,the information we have taken in affects and changes what we do, changes our behaviour.

THE STRUGGLE FOR A BETTER LIFE

When identical same-sex twins are brought up in exactly the same environment and treatedexactly the same (clothing included), they usually behave and feel much the same.

But identical same-sex twins brought up as individuals have different personalities, aredifferent people. Usually one is more dominant while the other is more emotional.

It is apparently easier for people who are 'cold and calculating' to be dominant, to dominatethose who are 'emotional'.

Add that those dominating others may in this way acquire power over others, or social andeconomic gains from using, and from misusing, people.

Such a system rewards primitive inhuman brutal (beastlike) behaviour (acquiring territory byforce, might is right), held in check only by the fear of consequences.


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We also see that dominating others is conditioned, that is unnatural, behaviour which isdestructive of humane behaviour. A throw-back to the level of the unthinking unfeelingprimitive animal.

Humane behaviour is based on feelings of care and affection for the young and for thefamily, and then for other people and the community. From this emerges a sense of socialresponsibility: people matter and are important, need to be treated well and looked after, areentitled to share equally. Backed up by knowledge, understanding and reason.

And, in the hostile environment in which humanity finds itself, what is also needed isdedicated effort, strength and power to achieve a humane way of living, to achieve a goodstandard of living and a high quality of life.

Part of the hostile environment is an almost intentional-seeming conditioning whichfrequently portrays brutal behaviour as a norm, by media and other opinion-forming sources.This has the effect of brutalising society, seemingly legalising, making acceptable,inconsiderate and unfeeling behaviour towards other people.

What we see is a world-wide struggle for a humane life {8, 9} which shows people strugglingto achieve a humane way of life, each struggling to advance at their own level ofdevelopment and achievement, struggling against those who wish to dominate others,against those who wish to exploit others, against those who wish to oppress so as to exploit.

Struggling to achieve the satisfaction of needs which are entirely in line with what we haveseen here in this report about the evolution and development of the human brain and humanmind. Needs and wants such as those for survival (food, shelter, clothing) and secureexistence, affection and esteem, friendly and trustful co-operation and companionship,independence from domination by others, high quality of life and living, self-realisation and

development. And "people will co-operate with each other and work hard and well to satisfythese needs and gain much satisfaction from doing so". {8, 9}

MAIN CONCLUSIONS

As a result of the work reported here there has emerged a much clearer appreciation of whathappens during the course of a night's sleep, and clear explanations of the role of dreamingand the meaning of dreams.

The report explores the functioning and role of the two halves of the human brain and therelationship between them. It is the right half which usually communicates with the primitive

parts of the human brain.

A key finding of this report is that the right hemisphere of the human brain is able tocommunicate by using images with the brain's older and more primitive component organswhich have no verbal skills. This enables us to communicate intentionally (that is'consciously') with our autonomic nervous system and ask it by visualising to control bodyfunctions and to affect our body's immune system. Any or all our senses can be includedwhen visualising.

Hence it is possible to direct and use the mind's subconscious maintenance and controlcapabilities, and so enable environmental experience and knowledge to be applied for one'sbenefit. That is, one's knowledge and experience can be consciously applied towardsmodifying the mind's subconscious control of body functions for the benefit of the individual.

The report also relates the functioning of the brain to behaviour, showing to some extent howhuman behaviour is affected by the primitive instincts of our reptilian ancestors.


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NOTES AND REFERENCES

NOTES

The name 'photographic' memory is not an adequate description ofthis kind of memory since the memoriser can manipulate the image.{6}

The original report was submitted to the Royal College ofPsychiatrists in the summer of 1996, "watered-down" guidelineswere issued in October 1997, and a revised version of the originalreport is to be published as an article in the British Journal ofPsychiatry in April 1998 "thus distancing the College from thecontroversy".

This book {6} is a comprehensive description of the biochemical,physiological, chemical and electrical processes which are and may

be taking place in the brain, and of the structures of neurons, theirsynaptic connections and electrical properties. Also covered is theauthor's leading work on what takes place in the brain whenlearning, memorising or recalling information.

Implies that the left side of the brain has more highly developedhand-controlling circuits. {14}

The summary descriptions given here are based to a considerableextent on information published by Professor Peretz Lavie {10}. Thisbook contains much detailed and background information, providing

fascinating insights based on comprehensive knowledge clearlyexpressed in meaningful language.

Correlations and illustrations are my own.

What are commonly known as 'Stage 1' and 'Stage 3' sleep periodsare brief periods of intermediate transition sleep during which brainand body adjust from one activity to the next. These brief transitionsleep periods are not listed or described in Figure 1, nor are theydiscussed in this report.

REM sleep is sometimes called 'paradoxical' sleep or 'dreaming'sleep. 'Paradoxical' refers to the apparent contradiction betweenbrain activity resembling waking life while the body's muscles areparalysed.

Much can happen during the course of a night. One can wake upearly or late. Alternating the periods of the two kinds of sleep is aprocedure which ensures that REM sleep follows Deep sleep atleast to some extent even when the night's sleep is interrupted, isshort.

Memories of images and of speech. Visual, verbal and audio(sound) memories.


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REFERENCES

{ 1} How it Works: ElectroencephalographHelen DaviesGuardian, 14/05/96

{ 2} Scanner can see Brain in ActionJohn IllmanObserver, 10/11/96

{ 3} A Triune Concept of the Brain and BehaviourP D MacLeanUniversity of Toronto Press, 1973

{ 4} Private Myths: Dreams and DreamingAnthony StevensPenguin Books, 1996

{ 5} Scientists aim to 'talk' to patients in comaTim RadfordGuardian, 11/09/96

{ 6} The Making of Memory (From molecules to mind)Professor Steven RoseBantam Books, 1993

{ 7} The Life of the BrainProfessor Steven Rose

Guardian, 01/12/94

{ 8} Motivation Summaryhttp://www.solhaam.org/Manfred Davidmann

{ 9} The Will to Work: What People Struggle to Achievehttp://www.solhaam.org/Manfred Davidmann

{10} The Enchanted World of Sleep

Peretz LavieYale University Press, 1996

{11} Limbic systemDiana Weedman MolaviWashington University School of Medicinehttp://thalamus.wustl.edu/course/limbic.html13/8/97

{12} Hypothalamus and autonomic nervous systemDiana Weedman MolaviWashington University School of Medicinehttp://thalamus.wustl.edu/course/hypoANS.html13/8/97

{13} Brain and Mind (Cogito)


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http://www.educ.drake.edu/romig/cogito/brain_and_mind.htmlSep 1997

{14} Cerebral Cortex IIRobert Wood Johnson Medical SchoolLecture Handout; Spring 1996http://www2.umdnj.edu/~neuro/neuro/handouts/cortex2.html

{15} To Give or Not To Give'Everyman' TV documentaryEditor: Jane Drabble; Producer: Angela KayeBroadcast on 5/1/92 by BBC 1Based on book 'The Altruistic Person' by Professor Sam Oliner

{16} Row over Psychiatrists who Destroy LivesRory CarrollGuardian, 12/1/98

mind parts & function

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