Learning

Learning new knowledge comes from rigorous repetition and time. Human beings learn new concepts based on knowledge that they previously know. A reorganization of previously learned knowledge intuitively is how we grasp a new concept. A step by step foundation of knowledge is built from childhood to adolescence and finally to adulthood.

When we are infants, we are like empty canvas's solely seeking items necessary for survival. It is food, water, and the nurturing presence of our Mother's that occupy our simple minds. A foundation of knowledge which helps us gain more knowledge is what we build as children. The first words we learn are usually "Mom" and "Dad" because they are the ones who give nourishment for survival. These words which are one syllable each are easy for a child to manipulate muscles in their lips and vocal chords to produce the sound. After a making the sound "Mom" or "Dad", a reaction occurs from a respective parent producing a neural arrangement that solidifies the manipulation of muscles in the vocal chord and lips. Physiologically, a cluster of neurons work together to transmit acetylcholine(ACH) to the muscles in the vocal chords and the mouth to pronounce a synchronized sound. An astounding way this could have been learned is through the mirror effect. A rigorous observation of the bay analyzing an external human saying "Mom" or "Dad" could attribute to its learning of the word.

Symbols

Everything in the universe which contains a certain mass contains a symbol of representation. History has changed these representations or symbols of these pieces of mass, but the objects themselves have remained constant. With our ability to tie vision, sound, smell, and taste for survival, these objects have been given symbols to therefore adhere to languages.

A room filled with people at a party contains a number of conversations which represent numerous subjects and emotions. Thousands of symbols are perceived as sound waves varying in amplitude represent different symbols. An abundance of unique sounds stemming from our vocal chords represent an overall subject in a sentence by eclectically placing together individual sounds of letters, words, and sentences. A sentence such as, "Wow, your family is amazing, I love the way each person carries themselves and smiles" contains fifteen words to carry out a message of gratification. Our brains are phenomenal at decoding sounds like this previously stated sentence and it acts as a computer processing sounds at an astounding speed. It pieces together each sound of a letter that makes up a word which represents a symbol to place the symbol in the context of a sentence. For example, "Wow" is a symbol for excitement, "your family" is a symbol that makes your brain feel excitement about your family, "is amazing" augments your previous thought by adding positivity about your family, etc.

Body language has an astounding correlation with symbols. One could pose as being sad, happy, depressed, mad, etc. If we observe someone, we make a conclusion based on their body language on whether they are happy, sad, or angry. These symbols(happy, sad, angry) in our brain contain a number of responses based on our conclusive observation. It is like a program which contains "if" statements. This has much to do with language decoding because observing one's body language and decoding various sounds both contain learned response.

Physiologically, a unique set of neurons represent a sentence in where we could understand every word. This is why when we do not know what a word means, we figure out what it means in context of words we understand therefore realigning a new set of neurons that represent this newly learned word. To test this theory of a unique set of neurons representing a sentence, I used my EPOC neuroheadset. I played the first ten seconds of a song called "Say Hello to Heaven" to see how the sensors responded. I did ten trials of listening to the first ten seconds of the song to see if the headset responded and it did.

This gives into the argument that our brains act as extremely complex programs which run through our memory just as a computer runs through it's hard drive. Symbols associated with language are learned in the early years of a human being's life. The abundance of symbols and associations in language make it hard for neuroscientists to come up with a correlation between clinical observation and physiological explanation.

]The human brain weights 1.35kg(3 lbs). It consists of the forebrain (prosencephalon), the midbrain (mesoncephalon), and the hindbrain ( rhombencephalon). All vertebrate brains contain these three structures.

Natural selection not only sifted out physical characteristics, but also selected mental characteristics for future survival. The brain's evolution was carried out in three steps. The first mental aspect to evolve was its increase in volume. The relative size of a brain of a mammal and a reptile are proportionately different. For example, a 100g mouse contains a much larger brain than a 100g frog. The second aspect of the brain that evolved was compartmentalization of the brain. With time, distinct areas in an organism's brain carried out distinct functions. For example, the cerebellum is involved with the coordination of body parts. The third and most astounding evolutionary trait of the vertebrate brain is the development of the forebrain. When amphibians began venturing on land from water senses such as vision and hearing became more important in their survival. Hence, natural selection chose organisms with a larger midbrain and hindbrain. More complex behaviors parallel the growth of the forebrain, or the cerebrum.

The hindbrain and the midbrain make up the brainstem and they form a cap on the spinal chord that extends to about the middle of the brain. Development stems from these two areas which is located anterior end of the spinal chord. It consists of three parts that serve to maintain homeostasis, balance movement coordination, and signal conduction. The pons and the medulla oblongata both serve to carry out autonamic and homeostatic functions. These include breathing, heard and blood vessel activity, swallowing, vomiting, and digestion.

The midbrain, or the upper portion of the brainstem contains centers for processing sensory input. All fibers involved with hearing either terminate or pass in the inferior colliculi, and the superiors colliculi is involved with visual input. The major nuclei in the midbrain are involved with a sector called the reticular formation which regulates arousal.

The most intricate section in the brain is the forebrain where most thought such as emotion, learning, and memory occur. Integrating motor and sensory pathways allow image perception. The two major portion of the forebrain are the diencephalon, and the telencephalon. The diencephalon contains the thalamus and the hypothalamus. The upper portion of the telencephalon contains the cerebrum

Playing Around With the Emotiv Headset

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a Emotiv Epoc headset thanks to my older brother Pankaj. At first after experimenting with its given interface I came to the conclusion that this entire product was a bit of a scam due to its inaccuracy in reading my thoughts. The interface contains three modes which are the following expressive suite, attentive suite, and the cognitive suite. The attentive suite outputs graphs that monitors you mood, the cognitive suite responds to a given thought, and the expressive suite mimics your facial expressions. These three features are very basic and there is only a limited amount of things you can do with them.

My second day of experimenting with this product and its interface was much more successful than my first. The cognitive suite contains a floating box that represents your brain's thought. It first asks you to record a neutral thought for eight seconds to keep the floating box in one place. It then asks you to record a non-neutral thought to either lift, rotate, or push the box in any direction (your choice). The first time I used this suite I chose to push the box away from me by thinking of constantly pushing a box. I attempted this and the box's response to my "neutral" thought and "pushing" thought was completely out of sync. I did not rule out the possibility of my thoughts being inconsistent and volatile causing the Epoc headset to irregularly respond so I attempted to trick the headset for more consistency. For a neutral thought I decided to add a two to every integer starting from zero. Hence, 0+2=2, 2+2=4, 4+2=6, and so on. It is a simple mathematical calculation which allows your brain to focus on one task and not meander off into a thought cluster. Then to push the box I decided to rapidly wave my hands. Believe it or not waving your hands back and forth is a cognitive task. With these more concrete brain tasks the box accurately stayed in one place when I computed the mathematical calculation in my brain, and it moved away from me when I swayed my hands back and forth. I came to the final conclusion that this product is extremely accurate in recognizing cognition.

Unfortunately, the software development kit costs the consumer 750 dollars. A hacker has put up a series of code called the Emokit to intercept the information the headset sends the USB receiver. The information from your brain is represented by a series of graphs each depicting a sensor on the headset. This means that a certain cognitive function such as adding contains a unique eclectic depiction of these graphs. In the given software, these unique graphs are recognized by your computer every time you add and it outputs the box being neutral. This exemplifies the powerful nature of this piece of technology's potential to recognize a unique cognitive function.

With that being said, a number of feats can potentially be accomplished with this headset.

1) Concentration. With its ability to respond to a certain function, one could easily practice concentration on a task such as reading by using the headgear and reading. When the user digresses away from processing words(recognized cognitive function by unique sets of graphs) a ringer can go off to remind the reader to stay on track.

2) Perfection. With its ability to recognize physical cognitive function an athlete can perfect his golf swing by recording a perfect shot(represented by a unique set of graphs) then continue to mimic this swing by wearing a headset and ringing a bell whenever he perfects his swing.