Intelligence (extracted from forum "So who is this God person anyway")
Created | Updated Oct 20, 2010
Intelligence doesn't really come from the cortex, though a lot of the 'higher' brain
functions of which we can make use by means of our intelligence besides the basic
animal drives are controlled therein. Although animals that are thought to have more
intelligence are usually seen as the ones with more corrugations (sulci/gyri) in the
cortex and thus more surface area and thus essentially more cortex, this is only really
a measure of the fine-control of motor and sensory systems of the animal in question.
The defining criterion of 'intelligence' is often considered to be self-conciousness.
For instance, it is argued that dogs have no self-awareness because they're freaked
out by being placed in front of a mirror. Great apes, meanwhile, will pull faces at their
reflection, a behaviour considered to represent the fact that they realise the fact of
their existence as an entity within an environment.
One role of the cortex is to regulate, mediate and co-ordinate commands and
information relayed from the basal ganglia of the brain - this can involve movement
and sensory information. The cortex is, for instance, used in the mediation of reflex
actions above the level of teh simple spinal reflex (eg the knee-jerk). If we're carrying
a tray of hot drinks and one of them slops over on to our hand, the reflex that makes
us draw back from pain would require that the tray be dropped and the hands brought
in to the chest to prevent further injury. The cortex can prevent this from happening
because our conciousness overrides the reflex, knowing that the pain is temporary,
slight and the problem of dropping the tray is greater than the problem of a few drops
of tea on the hand. In a system such as this the somatosensory cortex is involved with
the perception of the pain, the cerebellum with the fine control of all movements
involved (such as keeping the tray steady throughout the event), the motor cortex is
initiating the basic motor events of carrying the tray, walking etc and the
conciousness is observing all and directing the mediation of events. The cortex itself
does not originate the command either to walk or keep hold of the tray.
The major parts of the cortex (mostly derived from lesion studies) and divided into the
occipital, temporal, parietal, frontal lobes and the insula beneath the frontal lobe are
the motor, visual, auditory, somatosensory, olfactory as well as Broca's and
Wernicke's areas, responsible for production and comprehension of speech. The
oldest part of the cortex, the insula, contains the limbic system, possessed by most
mammals and described as the seat of basic animal drives. (The reason smells are
so evocative is because the olfactory system connects directly adjacent to the limbic
system, resulting in smells being closely associated with emotions. (This is also why
lobotomised patients are cabbages - their emotions [insula] and drives [frontal lobes]
have been physically removed whilst they can still operate as an organisms)
Emotions themselves are an extension and interpretation of the basic drives, and it
could be said that some of our conciousness is resident herein. However, emotions
in themselves do not make intelligence or conciousness - they are merely used by
intelligence in reaction and initiation of thought.
Besides the cortex, the rest of the brain is similar in structure between animals - the
basic layouts of wiring, structure and so forth differ only in their physical position,
relative size and so on. Intelligence has possibly arisen due to the increasing size of
some areas of the brain. Possibly as a by-product from our evolutionary steps such
as walking upright and developing the extra-pyramidal system to enable individual
movement of the fingers, our brains have increased in complexity - developing the
necessary structures to initiate movement in ten digits (one opposable) might have,
as a side-effect, enabled the capability of not directly necessary thought,
introspection and cogitation. Because evolution is such a hit-and-miss affair as it is
actually taking place (it is only with the benefit of hindsight that we can consider the
'moves' made between discrete species) it was purely by chance that the route our
ancestors took to bipedalism and multi-digital manipulation also resulted in idle
experimentation, often using these digits which eventually led to tool experimentation.
Once this point had been reached it was but a simple matter for evolution to favour
those with a little more of this emerging feature called curiosity until experimentation
developed into insight, reasoning and finally cogitation.
It is another piece of evolutionary luck that we became bipedal before our brains
started swelling - a large, heavy brain is easier to carry if the structures supporting it
have their centres of gravity directly beneath - any increase in brain size was able to
be borne by the bodies of our ancestors.
Insight and reasoning are the qualities associated with true intelligence - many
animals show curiosity, tool-usage and experimentation but few actually seem to
consider themselves and their actions in relation to not only the present but the past
and future too. There is no part of the brain responsible for this, it is merely the
degree of complication of neuronal structure in the brains of 'intelligent' creatures that
allows it. In a crude sense, these animals have enough 'spare brain' left over after
capability to perform their basic actions as an organisms to allow a little of it to be
used in idle speculation.
functions of which we can make use by means of our intelligence besides the basic
animal drives are controlled therein. Although animals that are thought to have more
intelligence are usually seen as the ones with more corrugations (sulci/gyri) in the
cortex and thus more surface area and thus essentially more cortex, this is only really
a measure of the fine-control of motor and sensory systems of the animal in question.
The defining criterion of 'intelligence' is often considered to be self-conciousness.
For instance, it is argued that dogs have no self-awareness because they're freaked
out by being placed in front of a mirror. Great apes, meanwhile, will pull faces at their
reflection, a behaviour considered to represent the fact that they realise the fact of
their existence as an entity within an environment.
One role of the cortex is to regulate, mediate and co-ordinate commands and
information relayed from the basal ganglia of the brain - this can involve movement
and sensory information. The cortex is, for instance, used in the mediation of reflex
actions above the level of teh simple spinal reflex (eg the knee-jerk). If we're carrying
a tray of hot drinks and one of them slops over on to our hand, the reflex that makes
us draw back from pain would require that the tray be dropped and the hands brought
in to the chest to prevent further injury. The cortex can prevent this from happening
because our conciousness overrides the reflex, knowing that the pain is temporary,
slight and the problem of dropping the tray is greater than the problem of a few drops
of tea on the hand. In a system such as this the somatosensory cortex is involved with
the perception of the pain, the cerebellum with the fine control of all movements
involved (such as keeping the tray steady throughout the event), the motor cortex is
initiating the basic motor events of carrying the tray, walking etc and the
conciousness is observing all and directing the mediation of events. The cortex itself
does not originate the command either to walk or keep hold of the tray.
The major parts of the cortex (mostly derived from lesion studies) and divided into the
occipital, temporal, parietal, frontal lobes and the insula beneath the frontal lobe are
the motor, visual, auditory, somatosensory, olfactory as well as Broca's and
Wernicke's areas, responsible for production and comprehension of speech. The
oldest part of the cortex, the insula, contains the limbic system, possessed by most
mammals and described as the seat of basic animal drives. (The reason smells are
so evocative is because the olfactory system connects directly adjacent to the limbic
system, resulting in smells being closely associated with emotions. (This is also why
lobotomised patients are cabbages - their emotions [insula] and drives [frontal lobes]
have been physically removed whilst they can still operate as an organisms)
Emotions themselves are an extension and interpretation of the basic drives, and it
could be said that some of our conciousness is resident herein. However, emotions
in themselves do not make intelligence or conciousness - they are merely used by
intelligence in reaction and initiation of thought.
Besides the cortex, the rest of the brain is similar in structure between animals - the
basic layouts of wiring, structure and so forth differ only in their physical position,
relative size and so on. Intelligence has possibly arisen due to the increasing size of
some areas of the brain. Possibly as a by-product from our evolutionary steps such
as walking upright and developing the extra-pyramidal system to enable individual
movement of the fingers, our brains have increased in complexity - developing the
necessary structures to initiate movement in ten digits (one opposable) might have,
as a side-effect, enabled the capability of not directly necessary thought,
introspection and cogitation. Because evolution is such a hit-and-miss affair as it is
actually taking place (it is only with the benefit of hindsight that we can consider the
'moves' made between discrete species) it was purely by chance that the route our
ancestors took to bipedalism and multi-digital manipulation also resulted in idle
experimentation, often using these digits which eventually led to tool experimentation.
Once this point had been reached it was but a simple matter for evolution to favour
those with a little more of this emerging feature called curiosity until experimentation
developed into insight, reasoning and finally cogitation.
It is another piece of evolutionary luck that we became bipedal before our brains
started swelling - a large, heavy brain is easier to carry if the structures supporting it
have their centres of gravity directly beneath - any increase in brain size was able to
be borne by the bodies of our ancestors.
Insight and reasoning are the qualities associated with true intelligence - many
animals show curiosity, tool-usage and experimentation but few actually seem to
consider themselves and their actions in relation to not only the present but the past
and future too. There is no part of the brain responsible for this, it is merely the
degree of complication of neuronal structure in the brains of 'intelligent' creatures that
allows it. In a crude sense, these animals have enough 'spare brain' left over after
capability to perform their basic actions as an organisms to allow a little of it to be
used in idle speculation.
