So which new brain-things are your going to discuss  😉                   

Some medical technology, but mainly BCI’s

BCI’s???   😯                                                                                                 

Brain Computer Interfaces

I know what it means, I was just surprised  😄                                     

Why? 😊

There’s a limited number of legitimate applications in medicine, like brain-controlled prosthetics, but for now it is mostly hype

What do you mean?

Like the Neuralink, and getting a brain implant so you can change the channel on your TV

That’s not actually how it is marketed you know … and not all BCI require surgery

Fine, I’m just a bit skeptical about it for now. 😏                                  

That’s OK, we’re writing about the future possibilities, so we’re allowed a bit of science fiction here

So, learning stuff overnight without having to study and augmentation

A little bit of that, but also some very different stuff

Such as?                                                                                                       

Besides BCI’s we talk about possibilities for healing the brain through stem cell transplants

OK, that is something quite different indeed …                                    

Or using brain organoids to replace pieces of the brain affected by a stroke or cancer removal

Now those are indeed very interesting to me! Send me the article and I’ll happily go through it

Sending as we speak! 😉

The last topic I wanted to discuss with you is brain damage and diseases

I suppose you also have the classics here … Gage, Tan, HM, Clive Wearing

Not so fast! Yes, Phineas Gage we have, “Tan” … that’s Louis Leborgne , right?

Right, and “HM” is Henry Molaison 😉                                                   

Oh, of course, we have him! Everyone knows him now because of the movie “Memento”.

I liked that movie because it is surprisingly accurate 😊                    

Can I quote you on that? 😊

Sure, most blockbusters deal with memory loss in totally implausible ways, so … 👍

We actually have him in the article for multiple reasons.

Obviously: like Leborgne, he too suffered from epileptic seizures, and his memory loss was due to the operation to “cure” them

Indeed! We go into detail about why splitting the brain in half sometimes works

Yeah, it isn’t really a “cure” though 😏                                                          

That’s what we try to point out, but it is similar to brain cancer: better to cut it out

I see your point, the lesser evil, but it is frustrating                             

What is? 

Not actually being able to heal it, only to treat it with such coarse interventions

The next article actually is about the future and the brain

Meaning new medical technologies?                                                      

Yes and no … 😉

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. ☺️