Unsolved mysteries of the brain.

Tweet

During the course of a week I read of lot of medical articles and am amazed at the variety of research that goes on about how our bodies actually work. Also, during the week, the young bride and I take to our bikes and try and see as much as we can of the great outdoors and all the glorious things that are "out there". These two diverse processes are all computed in my brain, and I'm finding it tough to reconcile the two!

During the week I read of how Psychologists at Concordia University report that they have found where the " Love and Desire related areas" are in the brain. They go on to detail the specifics of their studies and then discuss the structural areas of the brain involved - for those interested, they are the Insula and the Striatum.

Part of my early years of medicine involved teaching anatomy and performing human dissection, so I have some insight into what the brain looks like, and it's an odd structure - usually described as grey and white matter - and notable for only all the waves and grooves on the surface. The experts tell us that our emotions and memories are created by Neuro-transmitters and hormones - chemical substances - that have different cause and effects in various parts of the brain.

Now here's my problem: I see the world in glorious colour, I hear music from birds and symphonies, I read great prose and poetry and when I think of love not even words can capture what I am feeling. When I look at a brain - the real thing, not those colour enhanced, 3D images generated by computers from brain scans - I see an amorphous, grey, jelly-like ovoid mass with lots of wrinkles on the surface: no colour, no words, no poetry, no love .... and I wonder how it all got in there and why?

image
reference