Studies of the human brain and human capabilities. What possibilities are hidden in the human brain

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The brain is the most mysterious and mysterious human organ. Paradoxically, our understanding of his work and how it actually happens are diametrically opposed things. The following experiments and hypotheses will lift the veil over some of the secrets of the functioning of this "stronghold of thinking", which scientists have not been able to take to this day.

1. Fatigue is the peak of creativity

The work of the biological clock internal system organism, which determines the rhythm of its life activity - has a direct impact on everyday life person and his productivity in general. If you are a "lark", then it is most reasonable to do complex analytical work that requires serious mental effort in the morning or before noon. For night owls, in other words - "owls" - this is the second half of the day, smoothly turning into night.

On the other hand, for more creative work that requires activation of the right hemisphere, scientists advise to be taken when the body feels physical and mental exhaustion, and the brain is simply unable to understand the proof of Goldbach's ternary problem. It sounds crazy, but if you dig a little deeper, you can still find a rational grain in this hypothesis. Somehow, this explains why moments like "Eureka!" occur while riding public transport after a long day at work or, if the story is to be believed, in the bathroom. :)

With a lack of strength and energy, it is extremely difficult to filter the flow of information, analyze statistical data, and, most importantly, remember causal relationships. When it comes to creativity, the listed negative points take on a positive color, since this type of mental work involves the generation of new ideas and irrational thinking. In other words, a tired nervous system is more efficient when working on creative projects.

An article in the American popular science magazine Scientific American talks about why distraction plays an important role in the creative thinking process:

“The ability to distract is very often a source of non-standard solutions and original thoughts. At these moments, a person is less concentrated and can perceive a wider range of information. This “openness” makes it possible to evaluate alternatives solving problems from a new angle, promotes the adoption and creation of completely new fresh ideas.

2. Effect of stress on brain size

Stress is one of the most powerful factors affecting the normal functioning of the human brain. Recently, scientists from Yale University (Yale University) proved that frequent experiences and depression literally reduce the size of the central part of the nervous system of the body.

The human brain cannot synchronize decision-making processes in relation to two separate problems. Trying to do two things at the same time only exhausts our cognitive abilities by switching from one problem to another.

If a person is focused on one thing, the main role is played by the prefrontal cortex, which controls all excitatory and depressing impulses.

“The anterior (Anterior part) prefrontal cortex of the brain is responsible for the formation of goals and intentions. For example, the desire “I want to eat that piece of cake” as an excitatory impulse travels through the neural network, reaches the posterior prefrontal cortex, and you are already enjoying the treat.

4. Short sleep increases mental alertness

It is well known what effect healthy sleep. The question is, what impact does napping have? As it turned out, short “blackouts” throughout the day have no less positive effect on mental activity.

Memory improvement

After the end of the experiment on memorizing 40 illustrated cards, one group of participants slept for 40 minutes, while the second was awake. As a result of subsequent testing, it turned out that the participants who had the chance to take a short nap remembered the flashcards much better:

“It’s hard to believe, but the sleepy group managed to resume 85% of the cards in memory, while the rest remembered only 55%.”

Obviously, short sleep helps our central computer to "crystallize" memories:

“The study shows that once formed memories in the hippocampus are very fragile and can be easily erased from memory, especially if space is needed for new information. A nap appears to “push” newly learned data to the new cortex (neocortex), the place of long-term storage of memories, thus protecting them from being destroyed.”

Improving the learning process

In a study conducted by professors at The University of California, a group of students were given a rather difficult task that required them to learn a lot of new information. Two hours after the start of the experiment, half of the volunteers, just like in the case of the cards, slept for a short period of time.

At the end of the day, the sleepy participants not only completed the task better and learned the material better, but their “evening” productivity significantly exceeded the indicators obtained before the start of the study.

What happens during sleep?

Several recent studies have shown that during sleep, the activity of the right hemisphere is significantly increased, while the left is extremely quiet. :)

Such behavior is completely uncharacteristic of him, since in 95% of the world's population the left hemisphere is dominant. Andrey Medvedev, the author of this study, made a very amusing comparison:

"While we sleep, the right hemisphere is incessantly busy with the house."

5. Vision is the main "trump card" of the sensory system

Although vision is one of the five components of the sensory system, the ability to perceive electromagnetic radiation visible spectrum in its importance significantly prevails over the others:

“Three days after studying any textual material, you will remember only 10% of what you read. A few relevant images can increase this figure by 55%.

Illustrations are much more effective than text, in part because reading alone does not bring the expected results. Our brain perceives words as tiny images. It takes more time and energy to grasp the meaning of one sentence than to look at a colorful picture.”

In fact, relying so heavily on our visual system has several downsides. Here is one of them:

“Our brain is forced to constantly speculate, since it has no idea where exactly the visible objects are. A person lives in a three-dimensional space, while the light on the retina of his eye falls in a two-dimensional plane. Thus, we think out everything that we cannot see.”

The picture below shows which part of the brain is responsible for processing visual information and how it interacts with other areas of the brain.

6. Influence of personality type

The mental activity of extroverts increases significantly when a risky transaction "burns out" or manages to pull off some kind of adventure. On the one hand, this is just a genetic predisposition of sociable and impulsive people, and on the other hand, different levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain different types personality.

“When it became known that the risky transaction was successful, increased activity was traced in two areas of the brain of extraverts: the amygdala (Latin corpus amygdaloidum) and the nucleus accumbens (Latin nucleus accumbens).”

The nucleus accumbens is part of the dopaminergic system, which causes a feeling of pleasure and influences the processes of motivation and learning. Dopamine, produced in the brain of extroverts, pushes them to commit crazy acts and makes it possible to fully enjoy the events taking place around them. The amygdala, in turn, plays a key role in the formation of emotions and is responsible for processing excitatory and depressing impulses.

Other studies have shown that the biggest difference between introverts and extroverts is in how the brain processes the different stimuli. For extroverts, this path is much shorter - excitatory factors move through the areas responsible for processing sensory information. For introverts, the trajectory of stimuli is much more complex - they pass through areas associated with the processes of memorization, planning and decision making.

7. The effect of "total failure"

Elliot Aronson, a professor of social psychology at Stanford University, has justified the existence of the so-called Pratfall Effect. Its essence is that by making mistakes, people like us more.

“The one who never makes a mistake is less sympathetic to others than the one who sometimes does stupid things. Perfection creates distance and an invisible aura of inaccessibility. That is why the winner is always the one who has at least some flaws.

Elliot Aronson did a wonderful experiment that confirmed his hypothesis. A group of participants were asked to listen to two audio recordings made during the interviews. On one of them, a man could be heard knocking over a cup of coffee. When the participants were asked which of the applicants they liked more, they all voted for the clumsy applicant.”

8. Meditation is a recharge for the brain

Meditation is good for more than just improving focus and staying calm throughout the day. Various psycho physical exercises have many positive effects.

calmness

The more we meditate, the calmer we become. This statement is somewhat controversial, but quite interesting. As it turned out, the reason for this is the destruction of the nerve endings of the brain. This is what the prefrontal cortex looks like before and after a 20-minute meditation:

During meditation, nerve connections are significantly weakened. At the same time, the connections between the areas of the brain responsible for reasoning and decision-making, bodily sensations and the center of fear, on the contrary, are strengthened. Therefore, experiencing stressful situations, we can evaluate them more rationally.

Creativity

Researchers at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, studying focused meditation and mindfulness meditation, found that participants who practiced the focused meditation style did not show much change in brain regions that regulate creative thinking. Those who opted for clear mind meditation far outperformed the rest of the participants in subsequent testing.

Memory

Catherine Kerr, Ph.D., of the MGH (Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging) Center for Biomedical Scanning and the Osher Research Center at Harvard Medical School, claims that meditation increases many mental abilities, in particular, quick memorization of material. The ability to completely disengage from all distractions allows meditators to concentrate as much as possible on the task at hand.

9. Exercise - reorganization and education of willpower

Of course, physical exercise is very beneficial for our body, but what about the work of the brain? There is exactly the same connection between training and mental activity as between training and positive emotions.

“Regular physical activity can lead to a significant improvement in a person’s cognitive abilities. As a result of the testing, it turned out that people who are actively involved in sports, unlike homebodies, have a good memory, quickly make the right decisions, easily concentrate on completing the task and are able to identify cause-and-effect relationships.”

If you have just started exercising, your brain will perceive this event as nothing more than stress. Palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, cramps, muscle pain, etc. - all these symptoms occur not only in gyms, but also in more extreme life situations. If you have felt something like this before, these unpleasant memories will definitely pop up in your memory.

To protect against stress, during exercise, the brain produces the protein BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). This is why after exercising we feel at ease and eventually even happy. In addition, as a protective reaction in response to stress, the production of endorphins increases:

“Endorphins minimize discomfort during exercise, block pain, and promote feelings of euphoria.”

10. New information slows down time.

Have you ever dreamed that time didn't fly so fast? Probably repeatedly. Knowing how a person perceives time, it is possible to artificially slow down its course.

By absorbing a huge amount of information coming from different senses, our brain structures the data in such a way that we can easily use them in the future.

“Since the information perceived by the brain is completely disordered, it must be reorganized and assimilated in a form that is understandable to us. Even though the process of processing data takes milliseconds, it takes a little longer for the brain to absorb new information. Thus, it seems to a person that time stretches for eternity.

More strangely, almost all areas of the nervous system are responsible for the perception of time.

When a person receives a lot of information, the brain needs a certain amount of time to process it, and the longer this process lasts, the more time slows down.

When we once again work on painfully familiar material, everything happens exactly the opposite - time flies almost imperceptibly, since there is no need to make special mental efforts.

AT educational institutions they try to give us general knowledge from various spheres of life, but they do not teach us to think directly. While studying, children memorize certain formulas, facts, cause-and-effect relationships, but there is almost no independent productive work of the brain. And the ability to think outside the box, creatively is just the tool that helps millionaires become millionaires, inventors produce new ideas, scientists improve technologies, etc. For the progress of the whole society, individuals need to use their latent capabilities. Imagine if each of us began to use their abilities to the fullest? We would be able to preserve nature, and find new sources of energy, and invent cures for all diseases, and we would live without wars and disasters.

How does our brain work?

In standard everyday situations, a person does not need any supernatural actions or knowledge, therefore the brain does not produce any new ideas and does not use hidden possibilities. In non-standard, emergency situations, on the contrary, the brain “turns on” to the fullest and offers a specific solution in order to relieve psycho-emotional stress. All limits on what we can or cannot do are only in our head. Everyone can memorize huge amounts of information, solve complex problems, remember what seemed long forgotten.

Ways to develop lateral thinking

To use those opportunities that are not really needed in everyday life, you need to offer your brain non-standard tasks. This is the daily memorization of 5-7 foreign words, and the solution of logical puzzles, and the implementation in the mind of complex mathematical operations with three-digit numbers. The method of developing one's hidden potential and developing mental abilities can be any.

To start developing your brain, to establish interhemispheric connections in it, to give the brain and yourself a certain impetus to work, you can use the following techniques and exercises:

1) Perform cross movements, for example, swings, when the right leg, bent at the knee, should touch the left elbow and vice versa. These exercises activate both hemispheres of the brain and relieve mental fatigue.

2) Try to simultaneously rotate with both hands in opposite directions: the straight right hand rotates clockwise, and the left hand counterclockwise.

3) Connect your fingers into rings: on right hand- from the index to the little finger, connecting them in turn with the thumb, and on the left - in the opposite direction.

4) Choose an item that is available in your apartment and come up with 5-10 ways to use it in everyday life.

5) On a blank sheet of paper, write one word with your dominant hand. Then try to write this word with your second hand. Next, take pens or pencils in both hands and try to write with both hands at once: with one straight and the other in a mirror image. If writing is difficult, you can first draw shapes: from a square to an asterisk.

6) Say long words backwards without writing them down. For example, chicken - atsiruk.

7) Having bought another book by your favorite author, do not look at the annotation, but start reading. When you get to some exciting moment, close the book and try to imagine what will happen next. Then compare your views. So you can develop the ability to anticipate events.

8) Learn to observe and remember. At first, you can focus on one subject, throwing a glance at it and trying to reproduce as many details as possible that characterize it. Then focus on the environment in the house or on the street and also reproduce the details as fully as possible. The most difficult exercise is to remember in the evening all the events that happened during the day: who you talked to, who you met, what cars passed by, what you ate for lunch, etc.

There are a lot of such ways. You can develop your brain through games with friends: come up with associations, make new names for long-familiar objects, compose poetry. It is only important not to let your brain stagnate, but to constantly throw new tasks at it.

Academician N. BEKHTEREV.

The seditious ideas set forth in this
article - they are seditious,
but there are no others yet,
maybe it won't.
And yet ... Everything happens.
N. P. Bekhtereva

Bekhtereva Natalya Petrovna - full member (academician) Russian Academy Sciences.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev (1857-1927) - an outstanding Russian psychiatrist, morphologist and physiologist.

Error detector.

Test "Detection of semantic and grammatical features speech". Histograms of impulse activity of neurons in certain zones (Brodmann fields) of the human brain during the test.

Features of infraslow physiological processes, which in the human brain are associated with the formation of emotional reactions and states, in a patient with parkinsonism.

The 20th century turned out to be a century of mutually enriching inventions and discoveries in various fields. Modern man has gone from a primer to the Internet, but nevertheless he cannot cope with the organization of a balanced world. Its "biological" in many parts of the world, and sometimes globally, triumphs over the mind and is realized by aggression, so beneficial in small doses as an activator of brain capabilities, so destructive in large ones. The age of scientific and technological progress and the bloody age... It seems to me that the key to the transition from the bloody age to the era (age?) of prosperity is hidden under several mechanical protections and shells, on the surface and in the depths of the human brain...

The 20th century contributed a lot of value to the treasury of fundamental knowledge about the human brain. Some of this knowledge has already found application in medicine, but relatively little is used in education and training. Man as an individual already enjoys the achievements of the fundamental sciences of the brain. A person as a member of society still has little "profit" both for himself and for society, which is largely due to the conservatism of social foundations and the difficulty of forming common language between sociology and neurophysiology. This refers to the translation of achievements in the study of the laws of the brain from the language of neurophysiology into an acceptable form for education and training.

Let's try to figure out if we are "on the way" to the mystical wisdom of "Shambhala" (the fabulous country of sages in Tibet. - Note. ed.), if we are, then where? The only reliable path to the necessary and sufficient wisdom in interpersonal, personal-social and intersocial relations, the rational-real path to "Shambhala" lies through further knowledge of the laws of the brain. The path to this knowledge is being paved by mankind through the joint efforts of neurophysiology and neuropsychology, strengthened by today's and tomorrow's technological solutions.

The twentieth century inherited and developed data and ideas about the basic mechanisms of the brain (Sechenov, Pavlov), including the human brain (Bekhterev). The complex method of studying the human brain and technological progress in medicine in the twentieth century brought the greatest achievements in understanding the principles and mechanisms of the human brain. The forms of organizing the brain support of human intellectual activity, the reliability of the functioning of his brain, the mechanism of stable states (health and illness) are formulated, the presence of error detection in the brain is shown, its cortical and subcortical links are described, various mechanisms of the brain's own defense are found. The significance of these discoveries for understanding the possibilities and limitations of healthy and diseased brains cannot be overestimated.

The capabilities of the brain are being intensively studied and will continue to be studied; the task of opening (or closing?) the brain code of mental processes is on the threshold. The human brain is ready for everything in advance, it lives, as it were, not in our century, but in the future, ahead of itself.

What do we know today about those conditions, those principles on the basis of which not only the possibilities, but also the superpowers of the human brain are realized? And what are its defense mechanisms, overprotection, and maybe prohibitions?

Once - and in the super-accelerating run of time, perhaps a long time ago - already more than thirty years ago, stimulating one of the subcortical nuclei, my colleague Vladimir Mikhailovich Smirnov saw how the patient literally became two times "smarter" before his eyes: more than two times increased his ability to remember. Let's put it this way: before stimulating this quite definite point of the brain (I know, but I won't say which one!) the patient memorized 7 + 2 (that is, within the normal range) words. And right after stimulation - 15 and more. An iron rule: "to each given patient - only what is shown to him." We did not know then how to "put the genie back in the bottle", and did not flirt with him, but actively pushed him to return - in the interests of the patient. And this was an artificially induced superpower of the human brain!

We have known about the superpowers of the brain for a long time. These are, first of all, the innate properties of the brain, which determine the presence in human society of those who are able to find the maximum correct solutions in the face of a shortage of information entered into the consciousness. extreme cases. People of this kind are evaluated by society as the owners of talents and even geniuses! A vivid example of the superpowers of the brain are various creations of geniuses, the so-called high-speed counting, almost instantaneous vision of the events of a lifetime in extreme situations, and much more. It is known that individuals can be taught many living and dead languages, although usually 3-4 foreign languages are almost the limit, and 2-3 is the optimal and sufficient amount. In life, not only talent, but also the so-called ordinary person at times, states of insight arise, and sometimes as a result of these insights, a lot of gold is deposited in the treasury of human knowledge.

V. M. Smirnov’s observation shows a kind of reverse event compared to those mentioned below, however, perhaps it also contains the answer to the question to the brain that has not yet been formulated here: what and how provides superpowers? The answer is both expected and simple: the activation of certain, and probably many brain structures plays the most important role in providing intellectual superpowers. Simple, expected, but incomplete. The stimulation was short, the phenomenon "not stuck". We were all so afraid then of the possible payment of the brain for superpowers, so suddenly revealed. After all, they were revealed here not in the real conditions of insight, but in a semi-controlled, instrumental way.

Thus, superpowers are initial (talent, genius) and can, under certain conditions of an optimal emotional regime, manifest themselves in the form of insight with a change in the regime (speed) of time and, in extreme situations, also, apparently, with a change in the regime of time. And, what is most important in our knowledge of superpowers, they can be formed during special training, as well as in the case of setting a supertask.

Life brought me into contact with a group of people who, under the guidance of V. M. Bronnikov, are learning a lot, in particular, to see with their eyes closed. "Bronnikov's Boys" have received and demonstrate their superpowers, acquired as a result of systematic long-term training, carefully revealing the ability to alternative (direct) vision. In an objective study, it was possible to show that in the electroencephalogram (EEG) such training manifests conditionally pathological mechanisms that work for the excess. "Conditionally pathological", apparently, in the conditions of their own, special brain defense mechanisms.

Quantitative accumulation of data on the possibilities and prohibitions of the brain, on the duality - at least many, if not all of its mechanisms - is now on the verge of transition into quality - on the verge of obtaining the possibility of purposeful formation of a conscious person. However, the transition from the knowledge of the laws of nature to the rational use of them is not always quick, not always easy, but always thorny.

And yet, if you think about alternatives - life in anticipation of pressing the button of a nuclear suitcase, ecological catastrophe, global terrorism, you understand that no matter how difficult this path is, it is the best: the path of forming a conscious person and, as a result, society and communities of conscious people. And it is possible to form a conscious person only on the basis of knowledge of the principles and mechanisms of the brain, its capabilities and superpowers, protection mechanisms and limits, as well as understanding the duality of these mechanisms.

So, what are these dual mechanisms of the brain, the two faces of Janus, what are we talking about here? Superpowers and illness, protection as a reasonable prohibition, and illness and much, much more.

AT ideal an example of superpowers is long-lived geniuses who are able to make the right decisions on the minimum of information entered into consciousness and do not burn out because they have adequate protection of their own. But how often does a genius seem to "devour" itself, as if "searching" for the end. What's this? The lack of the brain's own protection, both "inside" providing one function, and in interaction various functions? Or maybe it, this protection, can be formed, strengthened - especially from childhood, recognizing in a capable child the inclinations of intellectual superpowers?

For many decades and even centuries, the teaching of practically important knowledge was accompanied by education (fixing moral values ​​in the memory) and memory training. The riddle of memory is still unsolved, despite Nobel Prizes in medecine. And the significance of the early formation of the "moral" basis of memory (although it is not called that) for society was very great, for the vast majority, first of children, and then of adults, the commandments turned into a hardened matrix in the brain - a fence that did not allow them to be transgressed, practically determining behavior person and painfully punishing the offender. The pangs of conscience (if it has formed!), the tragedy of repentance - all this, activated through the error detectors, revived in the brain of the offender, together with the "terrible punishments" promised already in early childhood for the violation of the commandments, in society as a whole worked stronger than judicial penalties. In today's real life, many things, including "terrible punishments", pangs of conscience, etc., have been transformed, to put it mildly, and in the past, far from stopping everyone. Neglecting the prohibitions of the memory matrix, laid down in past generations and not laid down now, a person steps towards the freedom of both the spirit and crime.

In the case mentioned above, memory worked primarily as a mechanism of inhibition, or, if you prefer, as a mechanism of "local neurosis." But if they didn’t know anything about the memory matrix in the brain, and they didn’t call it that, then memory itself as the main mechanism that allows us to survive in health and illness, in the old version of education, was still treated much more carefully than now.

Memory from early childhood forms matrices, where automatisms work further. Thus, it frees our brain to process and use the huge information flow of the modern world, maintaining a stable state of health. But memory itself needs help, and it is especially important to help its most fragile mechanism, reading, in advance. Previously, this appears to have been done with large volume learning by heart, and especially the hard-to-learn prose of dead languages. Memory, "sliding" and "sliding" everything stereotyped into automatic mode, liberates it again and again, reveals to us the enormous possibilities of the brain. The reliability of these enormous possibilities is determined by many factors, and the most important of them are daily constant training of the brain by any and every factor of novelty (orienting reflex!), the multi-link nature of brain systems, the presence of these systems, while ensuring non-stereotypical activity, not only rigid, that is, permanent links, but also flexible links (variables) and much more. In the process of creating conditions for the realization of the possibilities and superpowers of the brain, the same mechanisms - and above all the basic mechanism - memory - build a palisade of protection and, in particular, protection of a person from himself, the biological in him, his negative aspirations, as well as from various emergency life situations.

This is the restrictive role of the memory matrix in behavior ("Thou shalt not kill"...). This is also its selective mechanism of limitations, a mechanism for detecting errors.

What is this error protection mechanism, restriction, prohibition - error detector? We do not know whether nature gives this mechanism to a person from birth. But most likely not. The human brain develops by processing the flow (influx!) of information, adapting to the environment by trial and error. At the same time, in the learning brain, along with zones that provide activity due to activation, zones are formed that react selectively or predominantly to a deviation from a favorable, "correct under given conditions" reaction to an error. These zones, judging by the subjective reaction (type of anxiety), are associated with the attributes of emotional activation entering consciousness. In human language - although error detectors are apparently not only a human mechanism - it sounds like this: "something ... somewhere ... is wrong, something ... somewhere is wrong .. .".

Until now, we have talked (including about the most important discovery of V. M. Smirnov) about the possibilities and the physiological basis of superpowers. And how can one call up superpowers under normal conditions, and is it always possible and, what is very important, permissible?

The answer to the question "always" is no. However, it is possible to invoke superpowers much more often than it happens in everyday life.

It has already been said that the brain of a genius is able to statistically correctly solve problems based on a minimum of information entered into consciousness. It is like an ideal combination of intuitive and logical mindset.

We see the manifestation of the brain of a genius by the supertasks he solves - be it the "Sistine Madonna", "Eugene Onegin" or the discovery of heterojunctions. Ease of decision-making occurs with the help of optimal activation mechanisms, mainly, apparently, of an emotional nature. They are also responsible for the joy of creativity, especially if the process is combined with the optimal protection of the brain... And this optimal protection consists primarily of the balance of brain rearrangements during emotions (in physiological terms, in the spatial multidirectionality of the development of infraslow physiological processes in the brain). different sign) and the optimal slow-wave nightly "cleansing" of the brain (one must "not throw the child out with water" and not leave too much "garbage")...

And yet, although memory is the basic mechanism for providing opportunities and superpowers, neither talent, nor even genius can be reduced to it alone. Remember at least the book of the Russian scientist-psychologist A. R. Luria "The Great Memory of a Little Man" ...

Superpowers in "ordinary" people, unlike geniuses, appear - if they appear - when it is necessary to solve super-tasks. In this case, the brain is able, in the interests of optimizing its work, to use conditionally pathological mechanisms, in particular, hyperactivation, of course, with sufficient protection, preventing the powerful assistant from turning into an epileptic discharge. Life can set a super-task, but it can be solved both independently and with the help of teachers, and there are solutions in this life when you can pay a high price for the result. Please don't confuse it with the infamous "end justifies the means".

As is known from the history of religion, Jesus Christ gave sight to a blind believer, presumably by touching him. Until very recently, in an attempt not to explain where there is, but at least to understand the possibility of this possibility, it was necessary to involve the concept of so-called mental blindness - a rare hysterical state when "everything is in order, but a person does not see", but can see clearly with a strong emotional shake.

But now, already at the very end of my life, I am sitting with Larisa at a large "advisory" table. I'm wearing a bright red wool mohair poncho given to me by my son. "Larisa, what color are my clothes?" - "Red," Larisa calmly answers and begins to doubt my stunned silence, "maybe blue?" - Under the poncho I have a dark blue dress. “Yes,” Larisa says further, “I still can’t always clearly define the color and shape, I still have to practice.” Behind a few months of very intense work of Larisa and her teachers - Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Bronnikov, his collaborator doctor Lyubov Yuryevna and from time to time - Bronnikov's beautiful daughter, 22-year-old Natasha. She can do it too... They all taught Larisa to see. I attended almost every vision training session for the completely blind Larisa, who lost her eyes at the age of eight - and now she is 26! A blind girl - a girl adapted to life and, of course, primarily thanks to her incredibly caring father. And because she probably tried very hard, because the evil fate seemed to leave her no choice.

When she was told about the possibility of seeing after special training according to the method of V. M. Bronnikov, neither she nor we imagined the difficulty, the laboriousness of teaching as a payment for the desired result.

How pretty is Larisa now! How she straightened up, cheered up, how she believes in a new future for her .. It’s even scary! After all, she has not yet reached that amazing ability to see without the help of the eyes, which is shown to us by the more "old" students of Bronnikov. But she has already learned a lot, and this needs a special story.

Stories about what already exists in reality, people usually do not believe. Journalists make films, show, tell. It seems (or maybe it really is), nothing is hidden. And all the same, the vast majority are cautious: “I don’t know what, but there’s something tricky here” or “They peek through the bandage” - a black blind bandage over their eyes.

And after an amazing film about the possibilities of Bronnikov’s technique, I thought not so much about science, a scientific miracle, but about Larisa - Larisa as an unfortunate, tragically robbed girl, Larisa, as a person who, in her great misfortune, has nothing to peep at - she has no eyes at all .

Larisa - what is called a difficult case for learning. What deprived her of her sight is from the arsenal of the most terrible "horror stories". Hence her changing mental attitude. Along with new opportunities, probably, a terrible picture of the crime comes to life in her brain, a new awareness of its tragic consequences, many years of trial and error in adapting to the changed world. But in the girl over these long years the dream did not die. “I always believed that I would see,” Larisa whispers. She, Larisa, them, "Bronnikov's boys" (Bronnikov's son, patients at different stages of education), we examined using the so-called objective research methods.

The electroencephalogram (EEG), Larisa's brain biocurrents differ sharply from the usual EEG picture of a healthy adult. A frequent rhythm, normally usually barely visible (the so-called beta rhythm), is present in a girl in all leads, at all points of the brain. This, as traditionally considered, reflects the predominance of excitatory processes. Well, still, Larisa's life is difficult, it requires stress. But at first, Larisa had very little alpha rhythm, a slower rhythm of healthy people associated with the visual canal. But Larisa's EEG as a whole is not on the weak nerves of a specialist. If it were not for knowing whose EEG it is, one could think of a serious brain disease - epilepsy. Larisa's encephalogram is full of so-called epileptiform activity. However, what we see here once again emphasizes the often forgotten (golden!) rule of clinical physiology: "An EEG conclusion is one thing, but a medical diagnosis, a diagnosis of a disease, is made necessarily in its clinical manifestations." Well, of course, plus an EEG to clarify the form of the disease. Epileptiform activity, especially of the type of sharp waves and groups of sharp waves, is also a rhythm of excitation. Usually - in a diseased brain. There are many of these waves in Larisa's EEG, and occasionally an almost "local seizure" is visible, which does not even spread to neighboring areas of the brain, the EEG is the "equivalent" of a seizure.

Larissa's brain is activated. And, apparently, in addition to those that we know about, it is necessary to look for and discover new mechanisms that firmly protected Larisa's brain for many years from the spread of pathological excitation, which alone is the main cause of the development of the disease - epilepsy. (With the obligatory insufficiency of protective mechanisms or as a result of this insufficiency, of course.)

An objective study of brain biopotentials can be assessed in different ways. You can write: the dominance of the beta rhythm and single and group sharp waves. Not scary? Yes, and besides, it's true. It can be done differently: widespread and local epileptiform activity. Scary? Yes, and in addition - leads somewhere away from the truth about Larisa's brain. The absence of any manifestations of epilepsy in Larisa's medical biography does not give grounds for a generally unjustified diagnosis of the disease. Including according to the set of EEGs that were registered with Larisa in the process of learning to see according to the Bronnikov method. I believe that in this case it is legitimate to talk about the use of Larisa's brain in the conditions of her life's super-task not only of ordinary excitatory processes, but also of hyper-excitation. In the EEG, this is reflected by the already described combination of widespread beta activity and single and group acute (conditionally epileptiform) waves. The connection between what was observed in the EEG and the real state of Larisa was very clearly traced: the EEG was clearly dynamic, and its dynamics was dependent both on the initial EEG background and on training sessions.

We also had infraslow processes, their various ratios, and the so-called evoked potentials in our reserve of research methods. The analysis of infraslow potentials also emphasized the high dynamism and depth, intensity of physiological changes in Larisa's brain.

The widely used method of evoked potentials usually gives fairly reliable information about the brain inputs of signals coming through the channels of the sense organs. Now, apparently, it is already possible to study the reaction to some light signals in Larisa - the reaction to bright light has already appeared in the EEG, but a few months ago it seemed to us more appropriate (reliable) to obtain this kind of information from a person with good natural vision and fully trained alternative (direct) vision.

The most "advanced" student and son of teacher V. M. Bronnikov, Volodya Bronnikov, was presented with visual images (on the monitor - animals, furniture) with open eyes and eyes closed with a deaf massive black bandage. The number of presentations of these signals was sufficient for statistically significant detection of local evoked responses (evoked potential). The evoked response to visual signals presented with the eyes open showed rather trivial results: the evoked response was recorded in the posterior parts of the hemispheres. The first attempts to register evoked potentials to similar (same) visual signals with tightly closed eyes failed - the analysis was hindered by a huge number of artifacts, usually observed during eyelid trembling or eyeball movement. To eliminate these artifacts, an additional bandage was put on Volodya's eyes, but already tightly fitting to the eyelids. (This is from the practice of clinical physiology.) Artifacts have disappeared. But disappeared (for a while) and alternative vision, vision without the participation of the eyes! After a couple of days, Volodya again restored the alternative vision, giving the correct verbal answers when closing his eyes twice. His EEG changed both in the first and in this case. However, when Volodya's eyes were literally "walled up" with our additional bandage, visual evoked potentials were not recorded. And Volodya continued to give the correct answers to the signals, correctly identified the objects presented! According to the EEG, the impression was created that the signal enters the brain directly, changing its general state. But the entry of the signal into the brain - evoked potentials - after the restoration of the alternative vision, ceased to be registered. One could imagine... - as always, an explanation can be found. But this is what sharply narrowed the possibilities of "simply" explaining the disappearance of evoked potentials with closed eyes.

The fact is that after Volodya mastered alternative vision, let's say, under complicated conditions - an ordinary bandage plus slight pressure on the eyeballs - the evoked potentials ceased to be recorded during examination with open eyes. According to objective methods, which we are accustomed to trust more than subjective ones, Volodya Bronnikov, as it were, also used an alternative vision in conditions when it was possible to use the usual one ... This statement is serious. It needs to be checked and rechecked. In addition to Volodya, there are others who are already well trained in alternative vision. Finally, Larisa is already ripe for such research. But if this phenomenon is confirmed, we will have to think about alternative (what channels?) transmission of visual information or about the direct flow of information into the human brain, bypassing the senses. Is it possible? The brain is fenced off from the outside world by several shells, it is decently protected from mechanical damage. However, through all these shells, we register what is happening in the brain, and the loss in signal amplitude when passing through these shells is surprisingly small - in relation to direct recording from the brain, the signal decreases in amplitude by no more than two to three times (if it decreases at all). !).

So what are we talking about here, what do the observed facts lead us to?

Physicist S. Davitaya proposed to evaluate the formation of alternative vision as a phenomenon direct vision. Thus, we are talking about the possibility of direct information entering the brain, bypassing the sense organs.

The possibility of direct activation of brain cells by environmental factors and, in particular, electromagnetic waves in the process of therapeutic electromagnetic stimulation is easily proved by the developing effect. It can apparently be assumed that under the conditions of the most important task - the formation of alternative vision - the result is really achieved through direct vision, direct activation of brain cells by environmental factors. However, this is now nothing more than a fragile hypothesis. Or maybe the electric waves of the brain themselves are able to "search" the outside world? Like "radar"? Or maybe there is another explanation for all this? Need to think! And study!

What kind of protective mechanism should play a leading role in the ability of Larisa's brain to use both normal and conditionally pathological types of activity? Many years ago, while specifically studying the epileptic brain, I came to the conclusion that not only local slow activity, reflecting changes in the brain tissue, also has a protective function (as the famous English physiologist Gray Walter showed in 1953). The function of suppression of epileptogenesis is inherent in physiological processes, manifested by high-voltage slow activity of the paroxysmal type. The assumption was verified: a local sinusoidal current was applied to the area of ​​epileptogenesis, modulating these slow waves - it clearly suppressed epileptiform activity!

In epilepsy, we see this protection is no longer active enough, it "ceases" to suppress epileptogenesis. And then, intensifying, this most important physiological defense of ours becomes a pathological phenomenon itself, turning off consciousness for an ever longer period. In every possible way protecting Larisa from an unnecessary overload, we have not yet recorded her sleep EEG. This is mostly interesting for us, although not dangerous for Larisa - and may even be useful. According to Larisa's EEG and by analogy with that vast international experience in the study of epileptiform activity and epilepsy, Larisa works on the formation of vision (direct vision) through various activation mechanisms balanced by her own physiological protection. However, it would be wrong to completely neglect the fact that Larisa's EEG contains a lot of single and group acute, including high-voltage, activity - here it is, as it were, "on the verge" of physiological; and the fact that in her EEG, recorded in the waking state, high-voltage paroxysmal slow activity is occasionally detected - the dual mechanism of the brain, its reliable protection, is also already "on the verge" of turning into a pathological manifestation. I remind here those who are not familiar with this area of ​​our work: the appearance of sudden high-voltage slow waves in the EEG in the waking state reflects the transition of the physiological process of defense into a pathological phenomenon! In this particular case, however, apparently still fulfilling its most important physiological role, since there are no clinical manifestations epilepsy.

The ability to control oneself is regarded primarily as a manifestation of adaptation. Physiologically, the realization of emotions "with little blood" (without the spread of pathological excitation) is carried out with a balance of infraslow processes - those that are associated with the development of emotions in the brain, and those that in the same brain limit their spread (infraslow physiological processes of a different sign). This form of defense, like the one described above, can also have its own pathological face - intensifying, the defense prevents the development of emotions, up to the appearance of states defined as emotional dullness. Is the defense considered by the EEG not only a defense, but also a prohibition? To a certain extent and to a certain extent, yes. And above all in relation to pathology or conditional pathology, in this case - conditionally epileptogenic activity. Even here it is possible, however, with some stretch to speak of the dual unity of physiological protection. Protection "from" and prohibition "on" the development of emotion is much more definite in the second defense mechanism.

As we move from the physiological process to the pathological, its prohibitive function becomes more and more pronounced.

Both of the defense mechanisms presented here, in contrast to the one formed by memory, have physiological correlates, which makes them, as it were, "manual" for study. Information about them is given here in connection with the conversation about Larisa, but not all of them are the result of direct research, the "prohibitive" role of the error detector is not manifested in its physiological correlates, although they are present. The prohibitive properties of the error detector are manifested in the subjective, emotional, and then often in the behavioral and motor components. However, the potential duality of the error detection phenomenon also exists. The error detector is normally our defense, but in hyperfunction it causes pathological manifestations such as neurosis, obsessive-compulsive states; from fear, which protects us from the often very sensitive consequences of our mistakes, to neurosis, when the detector does not "offer" (reminds, hints!), but demands, dominates and, in an extreme form, takes a person out of social life.

In contrast to what was said above, everything known about memory - the most important, basic mechanism that determines a stable state of both health and illness, which largely supports the behavior of the majority of members of society within the framework of moral values, the moral "code of laws" - is so far the result of analysis only manifestations of human activity. As I wrote at the beginning, we - so far, at least - see only the results of the invisible work of memory; direct physiological correlates of this most important brain mechanism are unknown.

The mechanisms of the brain must continue to be intensively studied. In my opinion, the physiological regularities known today, including those given here, should already be found in the teaching of human studies or, more simply, the subject: "know thyself."

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