Patrick Haggard - Does Brain Make Mind?

The mind consists of sensations, thoughts, cogitations, intentions, feelings. How could these inner mental capacities, these felt experiences, be produced by the three pounds of rubbery moist meat encased in our skulls? What must the brain do to generate the mind? Is it even possible for mental experiences to be produced by physical brains alone?

Patrick Haggard is a neuroscientist and current Deputy Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, where he is a professor in the department of Psychology.

Closer to Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[robertdavenport]

The most clever pain/fright reducer for a blood sample being taken is the tech saying "You're going to feel a slight pinch. " As opposed to 'brace yourself for me sticking a needle in your arm.' Even works on old needle chickens like me.

[petermartin]

I have found that pain is reduced if you pay close mental attention to it and visualise its precise shape and nature. This is the opposite of the natural inclination to mentally look away and push the pain away. I think the mind registers that you have now attended to the pain, and closes down its salience, at least for a while.

[mlg]

Bergson and Krishnamurti both talked about this, btu I only have a Bergson reference handy at the moment:
According to Bergson, perception becomes something like a projection of our incipient action into a specific site or location,
and to this extent it both includes a temporal dimension that pertains to the future and filters the whole of the given
to let pass only that part of it that interests our incipient action.

[patrickkillabrew]

Your hand hurts less when you watch the laser hit it because you know your hand isn’t actually on fire, or being bitten by an insect. The pain is more acute when you’re looking away because you’re body perceives an imminent threat that requires immediate attention and possible action.

[theotormon]

This really has big implications for the Gom Jabbar scene in Dune.

[patientson]

When a human so clear minded like Patrick Haggard described the brain, top down and bottom up approach, it filled my mind with existential hope and grace (gradual-race) to come.

[rhyfelur]

Could it be that, by looking at the pain afflicted area, we are able to visually assess the damage being done and that the absence of bloody lacerations, missing digits, blistered skin, etc, lowers the physiological pain response? Or maybe that the fear of not being able to visually assess the damage adds some extra chemicals to the pain equation?

Would sticking your hand in a hole in a rock and being bitten by something unknown be more painful than being bitten by the same something that you can see? I wonder

[wisedupearly]

Our pain is not an external box or ball. Our pain is an internal event so no independent reference/confirmation is possible. Pain can be suppressed by will alone
.

[patientson]

Reduce pain, increase strength and consciousness.

[quartamile]

I think you possibly used the wrong title for this video. The mind was not really discussed, mostly a video about pain, , or maybe I'm dumb, , was the question posed in the title directly answered?

[KestyJoe]

As usual for this series, interesting video with a wildly inappropriate click bait title

[Omerta_]

While i have zero expertise in this field i do know there have been several times where i had a cut and did not even
realize it until i visually saw the cut bleeding? It had not hurt at all a second before i looked at it but the instance i
visually seen blood and the cut itself it started to sting? This has always fascinated me!

[dvdmon]

I was very averse to needles as a kid, as most kids are, but learned eventually that if I looked away, that was actually less scary. I don't know if it changed the pain quality/quantity, but that seems to vary quite a bit depending on how skilled the practitioner is. It's never been so painful that I was scared to go back and do it again, though, as an adult. So I think in general, the pain amount has never bothered me that much, what bothered me was the idea of someone sticking a needle under my skin.

On a separate note, I have chronic pain for at least a couple of different ailments and I've found meditation and practices adjacent to it to be extremely "analgesic." Basically, unless the pain is truly extreme, which it rarely is, I can diminish its effect quite a bit by simply "studying it." That is, trying to break it down into component parts like pressure, heat, tingling, etc. Doing this makes the pain less "pain" and less "my" pain and rather just a bunch of sensations that are arising in awareness, that I know will arise and then eventually subside, just as weather patterns come and go. Obviously it's easier said than done, but fortunately or unfortunately I get a lot of practice opportunities with this and the more practice, the easier it gets...

[David.C.Velasquez]

Put your hand in the box! What's in the box? Pain...

[SkyDarmos]

Chaos is unpleasant for the brain, because chaos is correlated with solitude and death, and those feel bad. Feeling bad is simply the absence of rich correlations. When something is not present in all the senses, then it is not entirely clear what is happening. We may know it on a conscious level, but the subconscious mind must see it directly. It cannot keep in mind at every moment that the doctor had planned to insert a needle. The brain doesn't like surprises, and that is why we want to actually see the needle as it enters. Not seeing it takes away control and that is never pleasant.

[markfischer]

Nerve endings in the skin are sensitive to photons at a given frequency and intensity. That is how they sense heat. It is interesting that when you touch something you don't actually come into physical contact with it. When things collide they never touch each other. Instead the valence electrons on the surface atoms interact to exchange energy. The solidity of objects including your hand is an illusion. They are all almost entirely empty space. When you see your hand it as it is being overheated your brain is triggered to secrete hormones in your brain like endorphins which block pain centers in the brain. This is an evolutionary manifestation that improves the chances of survival. With sufficient pain you will become unconscious, your brain will shut down its conscious areas so that you become unaware of the pain. This is called going into shock. These are all controlled by chemical reactions which in turn like all other chemical reactions are explained by the quantum mechanics of chemistry. The conclusion is that mind is a manifestation of the physical and chemical interactions within the brain whether by internal or external chemical or physical stimuli. The effort to ascribe mind to something that transcends the physical existence of human beings is a manifestation of the fear of eternal death. Humans may be the only animals that know eventually they are going to die. They cannot accept that it will be the end of them forever as far as we know. Therefore they invent various theories such as supernatural religions that transcend the physical universe and an infinite eternal universe or an infinite number of universes to rationalize denial of their mortality. However there is no evidence to support any of it. Believers call it faith. Non believers call it superstition. Which category do you fall into.

If thee was some kind of intelligence or intent in the creation of the universe you might say that the existence of life is the universe's invention to become aware of its own existence. However for me, that is also an unsupportable theory with no evidence in facts. I'm surprised someone hasn't created a religion out of it to make some money. People will pay to find a way to rationalize their existence and eternal existence.

[Ed-quadF]

"We can cause pain without using a hammer". Good to know. Did this guy work for the mob?

[nickbrutanna]

Be interesting to see if any other animals have the capacity to override their pain sensors or not, the way humans do.

[tomazflegar]

Mind is something intangible and he is keep on pushin on brains

[bernardcohen]

I never realized Hugh grant was so smart