Spontaneous Brain Activity and Human Behavior

Dr. Eggman writes "Ars Technica is featuring an article summarizing an interesting and perhaps controversial paper which finds links between spontaneous brain activity and human behavior. Spontaneous, yet organized brain activity has been observed without stimulation and even in humans under anesthesia. This paper attempts to link this activity to the observed variability of human performance in even simple, repeated tasks, hoping to establish a new avenue of research into alternative brain processing theories. 'The subtraction provided a much cleaner connection between the button press and brain activity in the left SMC. Once spontaneous activity was accounted for, noise was down by 60 percent, and the signal to noise ratio in the experiments doubled. Putting this another way, spontaneous activity accounted for about 60 percent of the variation between tests. The authors say that these results show that spontaneous brain activity is more than simply a physiological artifact; it helps account for some of the variability in human behavior. In that sense, they argue for a greater acceptance of the view that our brain may have some intrinsic activity that's somewhat independent of sensory input.'"

Comments

Uh Yeah..

[imstanny]

They argue for a greater acceptance of the view that our brain may have some intrinsic activity that's somewhat independent of sensory input.

This has been a postulate of mine for a while. It's the only rational explanation for me thinking about sex every 5 seconds - with our without sensory input.

testing methods

[User 956]

an article summarizing an interesting and perhaps controversial paper which finds links between spontaneous brain activity and human behavior.

This study would have been way more exciting if they had used goatse to elicit the neural response.

Bah

[ericfitz]

I wish my coworkers would show some spontaneous brain activity.

Re:Bah

[ackthpt]

I wish my coworkers would show some spontaneous brain activity.

Rules of the Office
1. The boss's jokes are always funny.
2. When in doubt, see rule 1

Are you certain you want your co-workers (or are these cow-workers?) to be funny?

I worked with someone once who was silly at the most inappropriate of times. I finally hit him (just a tap) in the shoulder and insisted he be serious. I regretted hitting him, but not because he didn't deserve it.

Re:Brain activity and behavior

[mrbluze]

Spontaneous, yet organized brain activity has been observed without stimulation and even in humans under anesthesia. This may be so, but it has also been shown that all organized brain activity ceases once on becomes President.

wow!

[m2943]

So you're saying that some people actually think even when they're not receiving sensory input, and that their thinking might influence future behavior? What will they think of next?

(Of course, looking at the media and politicians, perhaps people do come to the conclusion that all humans are simple input/output response systems.)

You there!

[ColdWetDog]

The only thing that's dynamic about my experience at the moment is the banner ads.

Push your chair slowly away from the desk (use your legs). Disconnect the power cord to the computer (the black rubbery thing that is poking out of the wall).

Find the stairs - go UP them.

Find a door - go OUT the door. Keep doing this until you determine that you are out-of-doors (hint: no more roof).

Look around, walk a bit. Careful of the cars. Watch out for women - they're much more dangerous in real life.

Keep going.

Re:Stuck in a Strange Loop

[Raenex]

At least that's how I understand it. :) As I understand it, it's all handwavy bullshit that doesn't provide any answers.

Re:Mind

[Cuppa 'Joe' Black]

Believe what you will, pedants! Your nervous system is but an interface betwixt the shimmering perfection of mind and the karmic shithole to which you desperately cling. Wake up! Wake up!