Not long ago I wrote about my utter fascination with the art and science of . . . dreams. I mean think about it – in dreaming, our crafty minds don’t just create random scenes. Oh no. Instead, the “sleeping, inactive” brain comes up with incredibly complex narratives that involve all sorts of activities and actors. Sheesh what will I dream tonight?
Lately I’ve been thinking more about, well, “thinking.”
In my professional training I received a basic education in brain anatomy and neural mechanisms of action, but the magic of it simply astonishes me still.
Ever thought how outlandish is the fact that you can see things in your mind? People’s faces, scenes from the past, all with photographic, cinematic clarity. For instance, I can picture every detail of the bedroom that I occupied as a seven-year-old, every nuance of the setup of my first dental office. I can see my long-deceased grandparents’ faces in realistic detail.
So, how does that work? Is there a little man in your head who pulls out – on demand – the images from a library of millions of images of all description from one’s entire lifetime and uses a little projector and screen to show them on? And the eyes are not even involved at all in this movie show. The eyes – cornea, retina, rods and cones, optic nerves, etc – were utilized when the “films,” both stills and movies, were originally recorded, but that optical stuff is not necessary for mental replay.
Pretty cool, huh?
It’s neat that in your mind you can do things like walk through your old neighborhood, climb up into that half-built treehouse you made in your backyard, tour your college campus. Or even stroll into Mr. Goodman’s high school geometry class and sit at the desk behind my classmate Byron Osborne. Amazing beyond belief.
And not only can you “see” in your mind but you can “hear” too. How fabulous. I can hear people’s voices as clear as a bell. Even people I haven’t seen in a long time, I can experience perfectly their distinctive speech in my head. Preciously, the voices I can hear in my mind include those of dear ones who have departed this life. I can hear “recordings” of my mom and dad talking and laughing. What a gift.
And music! In our heads we can “hear” music in super high-fidelity. Wow. And yes, sometimes songs get stuck in a loop in your head – and not necessarily ones you like! I wonder why. When you figure out how to turn that off let me know.
As with images, it seems that we have an onboard sound recorder that stores these audio files for all time. How do we “listen” to them? Well, I know it doesn’t require speakers or earbuds or any kind of acoustic gear. Indeed, our physical hearing apparatus, consisting of ears and associated parts, is not even involved in this kind of “listening.” Are you kidding me?
So yes, we have capability far beyond “just” being able to interpret audio data, such as conversation or music, as it comes in. That is amazing in itself, but to be able to revisit such sounds in part or in whole later on – many years later even – is, well, freakin’ unbelievable.
So it seems like pretty much everything we have ever heard – waves crashing on the beach, the murmur of a mountain stream, the barks of dogs in the distance, the wind in the leaves of autumn, the voices of loved ones, is utilized immediately but also ‘recorded’ and preserved.
Can you “smell” in your mind, like you can “see” and “hear?” Hmm not that well; it must not be so evolutionarily important, but on the other hand I can conjure up right now the smell of the interior of my old 1972 Land Cruiser which I sold thirty years ago.
I do know that a mere whiff of a distinct odor can instantly transport me to another time, another place. And not only to a general time and place, like the smell of my down-the-street neighbor’s house when I was a kid, but to a specific singular episode in one’s life, like when I first smelled the knock out aroma of rolls baking at my grandmother’s house on that cold drizzly day so long ago. It’s always a delight to me to be so unexpectedly carried off in this way.
I love how your brain will work on figuring out problems and logistical challenges, or weighing important decisions, subconsciously. You focus on the issue for a while then basically forget it. When you consciously return to the issue in a day or so the solution is often clear. Amazing. We’re so acquainted with this concept that we have a name for it: Sleeping on it.
Something else related to your brain churning upon some subject subconsciously is when you – doggone it – can’t remember something, like the name of a person whom you’ve just run into. Often, later on, long after you have written off remembering it, voila it pops foremost in your mind – boom! And that happens right in the middle of some other conscious thought process. Wild.
How about this one? Your brain has the uncanny ability to recognize people’s faces with a high degree of accuracy. Walking down a busy sidewalk your subconscious mind is ever scanning the environment, the people’s faces. Everything is calm and baseline and you don’t even think about it until BAM! you recognize a face in the crowd. Ding! ding! ding! goes the facial recognition alarm. I know that person!
If that’s not more evidence of the importance of friends and family I don’t know what is. We need each other and the brain puts a premium on recognizing such people out in the wild world.
It seems like we tend to take the miraculous neural wizardry we possess for granted – just like we do anything else that’s right and good. Of course, we really notice it when our brain doesn’t work flawlessly, as in when we can’t remember something. “I can’t believe I forgot that!” we wail, instead of noting with gratitude the myriad, truly miraculous, ultra-high level operation of it all the rest of the time.
Funny how that is.
Speaking of funny, what is funny anyway? What is a “sense of humor?” Why do babies giggle? Why do we chuckle? Well, let’s just say it sure is fun to laugh – and leave it at that for now.
And we won’t get into the brain’s role in tickling, or why yawns are contagious. That’s another very far bridge for another day!
– Johnny Robinson
