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New Map IDs the Core of the Human Brain

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-want-to-see-what-you're-thinking dept.

gerald626 writes "An international team of researchers has created the first complete high-resolution map of how millions of neural fibers in the human cerebral cortex — the outer layer of the brain responsible for higher-level thinking — connect and communicate. Their groundbreaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain. So basically our brain is a network connected to a hub. I wonder if I can get an upgrade to a GigE switch?"

22 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. hub? by JazzyMusicMan · · Score: 5, Funny
    I always thought the geek brain was based on token ring topology with the different nodes responsible for:
    • eat
    • sleep
    • video games
    • pr0n

    all running round robin =)

    1. Re:hub? by Tarison · · Score: 4, Funny

      I initially misread that as tolkien ring, and I still agreed.

  2. Google Brain by Dyne09 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Come on, you know it's coming.

  3. We knew that already. by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Funny

    Their groundbreaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain.

    ...pfft! The male gender of the species' "hub" is connected by a pair of some really long leads... they go down the spine, and connect directly to the testicles.

    The female of the species' "hub" goes straight to the left ring finger.

    How much friggin' tax money did these guys spend discovering what we've already known for at least six millennia now?

    /P

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    1. Re:We knew that already. by William+Robinson · · Score: 5, Funny

      Their groundbreaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain.

      ...pfft! The male gender of the species' "hub" is connected by a pair of some really long leads... they go down the spine, and connect directly to the testicles.

      The female of the species' "hub" goes straight to the left ring finger.

      /P

      Absolutely. And one needs to insert Gateway to establish a VPN.

      It's different story that females PKI mechanism is still unknown, and male species have to rely on brute force techniques to decipher some of the data, which unfortunately takes years after VPN is established.

      --
      hilarious
  4. So if our brains are like a hub... by Jailbrekr · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are schitzophrenics equipped with a neural equivalent of a dlink hub?

    --
    Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
  5. Re:If I was from Control by CAIMLAS · · Score: 4, Funny

    I thought Control was located somewhat further south.

    --
    ~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
  6. Now to find out what it does. by geckipede · · Score: 3, Funny

    So we've found a candidate for the centre of consciousness in the brain. Who's up to volunteer to have it removed to see if they turn into a philosophical zombie?

    1. Re:Now to find out what it does. by Chemisor · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > Imagine fitting your kids with filters and "plug-ins" to make sure they turn out a certain way.

      We already do. It's called "parenting". You do it by talking to them, and yes, it does work if you do it properly.

  7. Not a switch. by BobandMax · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You would not want a switch. Isolating all but broadcast packets to just their destination would stifle creativity. It has to be a hub and bandwidth in a highly-interconnected net may be unimportant.

    --

    "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
    -- Pablo Picasso
    1. Re:Not a switch. by mattwarden · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm trying to figure out what you mean by this, but I'm not sure I have it. If you meant the hub metaphor the whole way, then no that isn't how it works. If all messages went to all destinations, you can imagine how difficult it would be to make any sense of them. Further, when an area receives input, it is not a stateless message. It is received in a state of "sensitivity" (for lack of a more detailed explanation) and the fact that it is received in its state also alters the local state for future messages. The easiest example is sensory desensitization... like when you no longer smell that horrible smell once you've been in the sysadmin's office for a few minutes. The same destinations are getting the same inputs, but the local state has changed due to previous inputs and therefore there is a different result.

      So you can see that if all destinations got all inputs the brain would basically "white out" and be useless. The fact is that there is a very specific network structure. Each local network has projections into other local networks, which is why emotions and different sensory modalities have impacts on each other and on other "unrelated" areas of the brain.

  8. Maybe Descartes wasn't so far off... by wherrera · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Their newly mapped "medial and parietal cortex hub" is pretty close to the pineal gland, after all :).

  9. Hmm... by MarshMan1101 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now we just need to figure out how to perform a denial of service attack.

    1. Re:Hmm... by meringuoid · · Score: 5, Funny
      Now we just need to figure out how to perform a denial of service attack.

      'Support the troops...'

      'Think of the children...'

      'Pater noster...'

      'Microsoft Sucks...'

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    2. Re:Hmm... by PakProtector · · Score: 4, Funny

      Thanks, asshole. That link crashed Firefox.

      --

      Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
      man: no entry for woman in the manual.
      "Qua!?"

  10. Re:If I was from Control by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Overnight being the last 14 years.

    It comes from
    Deep Space Homer, an episode of the simpsons that first aired on February 24, 1994.

    Spoiler:
    When in space Homer flies into the Ant colony, breaking it open sending Ants everywhere. The ants make it onto the camera. Since the ants are so close to the camera, they appear very large. Kent Brockman (the Simpsons news anchor) then says "And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords".

    The more you know(tm)

  11. Re:If I was from Control by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...and you probably graduated first in your class only to become the friendless office psychopath. Ya know, the one guy who's the reason why the employees are no longer allowed to play music or have eye-contact with each other.

    Pull the stick out of your ass and learn to take a fucking joke.

  12. Re:Find someone on death row? by servognome · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hell, let's make it entertaining while we're at it, equip them with guns and send out guards in funny themed suits to hunt them down. Maybe use a CGI representation of that guy who hosted Family Fued to MC the whole event.

    --
    D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
  13. Required Statement: by iamwhoiamtoday · · Score: 5, Funny

    Imagine a Beowolf Cluster of these... Wait, isn't that basically a "Think Tank"?

  14. Male VS female brain by V!NCENT · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd like to see the maps of both the male and the female brain. The female brain is smaller but has a larger hub between the RH and LH of the brain. That is why females can think of many things at ones. Another big difference between males and females is that males fixate all the power of their brains on a single thing, while females spread the power of their brain of many things. So the male and the female brain must differ a lot. It should be quite interesting to compare both brain maps.

    --
    Here be signatures
  15. I still keep it with... by hoodrat1140 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...Prof. C. McGinn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_McGinn) Quote: ...He goes on to point out that "if one could know everything about your brain of a neural kind ...its anatomy, its chemical ingredients, the pattern of electrical activity in its various segments ...the position of every atom and its subatomic structure ...everything that that materialist says your mind is, do I thereby know everything about your mind? It certainly seems not. On the contrary, I know nothing about your mind, I know nothing about which conscious states you are in ... and what those states feel like to you ... knowledge of the brain does not give me knowledge of your mind. How then can the two be said to be identical?"...(The Mysterian Manifesto: Shakespeare, McGinn and Me, http://www.observer.com/node/43473)

  16. Re:Who needs an IQ score... by Thiez · · Score: 4, Funny

    GP started typing that post a few weeks ago.