There are some really silly myths about the brain 🤣 

I know, whenever I teach an intro class that’s what my first lecture is about 😄

We’ve got some oldies in there, for context, like the Reticular Theory

I must confess I don’t know that one … 🤨                                  

Oh, this is from the 19th century, before we could clearly make out single neurons and synapses ..

people like Golgi thought it was one giant network without gaps

Wow, I did not know that …  😯                                                      

We use some of the old misconceptions to show that people seriously believed stuff we now know is nonsense 

so that the readers might get that some of the things they seriously believe …

… may very well turn out to be nonsense as well. 😊                

We do all the classics: left vs right, male vs female, the brain works like a computer, etc.

That last one is so very annoying! Lots of students think that. 😊    

We actually don’t go into the whole “artificial neural network” thing, but just point out that the brain isn’t organized like the PC on your desk.

That’s helpful, but as long we keep talking about “intelligent” machines, the metaphor will keep working both ways.

Maybe we could point out something like that in the article too …

I’d like to add a myth, if you don’t have it yet: mirror neurons  

Aren’t they real? 😄

Sure, but they’ve been overhyped and people tried to use them to explain anything and everything

I see. You’re right, I remember there were a lot of publication linking them to empathy, autism, learning any physical skill, etc.

That’s what I mean: hype. They exist and are interesting, but can’t explain everything.

OK, good one, I’ll check with the other writers and likely add a paragraph about that. ☺️

So we know the brain isn’t just “neurons”

Indeed, there are many different types, with different functions      

Describing the brain as “neurons” would be like describing the body as “cells” 🤭

Exactly, well said!  😉                                                                                 

So we do talk quite a bit about various types of neurons and Glia cells

Very good, that should be informative                                                   

What should we mention besides Interneurons , pyramidal cells , and rosehip neurons ?

Oh, but you’re forgetting all about the cerebellum! Purkinje and Golgi cells  

Oops! You’re absolutely right, we were too much focused on the cerebrum 😊😊

That’s what most people do, they assume “brain” is actually just the two main hemispheres                                                                      

Thanks for reminding us there’s more 😊

No problem  😉                                                                                          

But we’re not going to go into too much detail about the brainstem in this article

Fair enough, can’t do everything  😉                                                      

We do mention that the brain is mostly fat and water … 🧠

Well, that’s not very helpful …  most types of cells are ..                     

… to introduce our next article topic: myths about the brain 🧠

Ah!   Yes, I see why you would mention it then 😄                               

“We only use 10% of our brain”

🙄🙄🙄                                                                                                       

So here is a list of examples of people who thought they could find the exact spot where consciousness is located in the brain

Longet thought it would be in the corpus callosum, Drelincourt in the cerebellum, Lotze and Herbart in the pons

Cool! We didn’t have Lotze and Herbart, I think I might add those …

Be sure to check in with my student, she might have more information for you                                                                     

Certainly, I’ll acknowledge her in the article if I use her paper 😊

Good! They all tried to put consciousness in some unique, asymmetrical part of the brain                                                            

Yeah, like Descartes with the pineal gland 😊

There still are people trying to do that, you know. Churchland wrote a whole Book about it                                              

I don’t think we have him in the list … 🤔

He proposed that consciousness would be located in the intralaminar nucleus                                

I’ll jot that down now, can you mail me the precise reference later?

Sure, no problem. 😊                                                                                

This has been very helpful!

So what’s next?  😊                                                                                    

We’ve got an article on what the brain is actually made of

Oh, good one, people make the weirdest assumptions about that  

Yes, they do!

Like it would all just be neurons …  😊                                                   

Hi Cho, can I ask your help for something?

Sure John, what’s up? 😊                                                                          

I’m working on a series of articles on the brain for a magazine …

Nice! 😊                                                                                                       

… and I just wanted to do some fact-checking

OK, what can I do for you?                                                                        

So the first article is about consciousness

Oh, interesting, I recently had a conversation with a student about that                                                                       

Good, so the topic is whether we can localize consciousness in the brain 

Ha, I don’t think so!                                                                                    

That’s the conclusion of the article as well, but we want to show why people weren’t crazy to think that it could be done

Fair enough, but what are you basing that on?                                     

Well, we start in the 19th century when people like Flourens were trying to find the “vital node”

I remember reading about that in an intro class, he just started cutting in the brainstem of rabbits!                                    

Yep, to see what would happen, until he found one spot where the animal stopped moving completely

My kids would kill me if I did work like that …  😄                                

Sure, stuff like this isn’t really justifiable anymore, but he thought he had found something really fundamental

My student had a whole list of people trying to find something like that by various means                                                

Interesting! Do you remember who? We might include some more examples …

Sure, let met pull up the paper she wrote …  😊