Animals too dream just like humans! And, the brain functions totally different the manner in which functions when humans or animals are in the sleep as against when they are wide awake. While cleansing the system and stacking of memories have been attributed to sleep, the complete understanding is not yet known, said Mriganka Sur — Newton Professor of Neuroscience, Director of Simons Centre for the Social Brain, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, US.
The brain is continuously interpreting and introspecting with the 80 billion neurons constantly sending electrical signals triggering visual or motor movements. In fact, the idea of catching a ball when it is thrown at you itself is a fascinating aspect of how the brain reacts to the impulse, said Mr. Sur, in a highly engaging talk at the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) on Tuesday.
Delivering the seventh Dr. M.V.N. Shirodkar endowment lecture on “How does the brain create the mind” organised by the Telangana Akademy of Sciences, heard in rapt attention by scientists and students in a packed hall, he said sleep has been through the evolutionary process and the idea by itself is dangerous for animals having their predators. Incidentally, study of their sleep movements showed animals to have similar sleep patterns like humans!
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Animal creativity
Mr. Sur, an electrical engineer turned neuroscientist and alumnus of IIT-Kanpur, in his presentation showed how mice have been trained to react in a particular manner in his lab to test for response to various situations indicating that the brain can function not only the way it has been ‘conditioned to’ or out of ‘memory’ but at times it can also improvise or have alternative behaviour which, perhaps is the answer for creativity. Animals too can have cognitive behaviour though they cannot do say so like us and mice brain is eerily similar to the humans but small in size “so think twice when you kill it next time,” he laughed.
Artificial intelligence and computers are becoming smarter by the day yet within a controlled ambience. For instance, a computer chess programme can beat any world chess champion hollow now and recent experiments showed that a computer game like AlphaGo has been made to evolve into more smarter versions but again it was the human programmer who has helped it move in that direction. “It sure gives us a glimpse of how our brain works too,” he said.
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IICT Director S. Chandrasekhar, former CCMB director Ch. Mohan Rao, ex-NIN director Sesikeran, TAS chairman K. Narasimha Reddy and others spoke.