The following essays serve as white papers. Their main purpose is to enable a more complete understanding of the mind-to-brain mapping method developed by Mind Brain Insights, LLC. They are useful to anyone considering collaborating, or working on a project, with Mind Brain Insights, LLC.
A second purpose is to shine light on some key brain myths I argue have developed over the past few decades. These obscure an accurate understanding of how brains work. To be clear the myths are no one’s fault. They’re the inevitable result of an incomplete theoretical understanding. Understanding how mind and brain connect (the mind brain problem) is in its infancy. This results in many widespread assumptions (both explicit and implicit) which I argue are inaccurate. Shedding light on these paves the way for an alternative, and potentially correct, view of the system to emerge.
Absent an accurate mind/brain framework, the development of wrong ideas are inevitable. The good news is the brain science community has tremendous potential. It possesses a vast amount of knowledge, skills and expertise. Cognitive neuroscience for example is critical to functional neuroimaging, and signal decoding. What if this understanding and ability were combined with a correct cognitive ontology (parts list of the mind), mind model (their activity through space and time), and ability to connect this to the brain? Now an accurate understanding of the meaning of (large scale, coordinated) neural activity is possible. The result is quick and dramatic enhancement of brain signal decoding & classification, neuroimaging, BCI, and applied neuroscience.
The mental states and processes of people, and their neural manifestation, is a fascinating topic. Brain science has only uncovered the tip of the iceberg. All we perceive, recognize, identify, feel, think, imagine, plan, believe, know, intend, attend to — any aspect of human experience and knowledge — is encompassed by the mind. Combinations of these quickly form combinatorial explosions. And incredibly, this is all enabled by the human brain.