Comments on: Aging with grace http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/06/29/aging-with-grace/ The blog of John D. Cook Sat, 31 Jul 2010 07:45:27 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: John Venier http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/06/29/aging-with-grace/comment-page-1/#comment-2038 John Venier Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:47:32 +0000 http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/06/29/aging-with-grace/#comment-2038 I read an article recently which reported the results of a study into "memory problems" in older people. IIRC they found that those with "memory problems" did better on tasks requiring answering questions about a passage they had read than those without memory problems, when those questions involved reading comprehension. The study conductors hypothesized that what seems to be memory problems may be an advantageous adaptation of the brain. We still are a long way from understanding the brain IMO. Over 10 years ago I worked with a group studying cognitive tasks in primates and possible neurological correlates. They would isolate a single neuron in the brain area of interest and listen to is fire while the monkey performed tasks. I was amazed that they found anything meaningful at all -- can you imagine trying to figure out how a computer (probably much simpler) funtions by randomly inseritng a potentiometer into the box with only the position withing the opaque box to guide you until you found something active, then recorded the voltage fluctuations as you did things with it? However, one guy did find a neuron whose activity nicely matched the cosine of the angle of rotation of his head when images of his head at different rotations were presented to the monkey. I read an article recently which reported the results of a study into “memory problems” in older people. IIRC they found that those with “memory problems” did better on tasks requiring answering questions about a passage they had read than those without memory problems, when those questions involved reading comprehension. The study conductors hypothesized that what seems to be memory problems may be an advantageous adaptation of the brain.

We still are a long way from understanding the brain IMO. Over 10 years ago I worked with a group studying cognitive tasks in primates and possible neurological correlates. They would isolate a single neuron in the brain area of interest and listen to is fire while the monkey performed tasks. I was amazed that they found anything meaningful at all — can you imagine trying to figure out how a computer (probably much simpler) funtions by randomly inseritng a potentiometer into the box with only the position withing the opaque box to guide you until you found something active, then recorded the voltage fluctuations as you did things with it?

However, one guy did find a neuron whose activity nicely matched the cosine of the angle of rotation of his head when images of his head at different rotations were presented to the monkey.

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