Brain-Body-Mind in the Nebulous Cartesian System: A Holistic Approach by Oscillations wwwwww Erol Başar Brain-Body-Mind in the Nebulous Cartesian System: A Holistic Approach by Oscillations Erol Başar Istanbul Kültür University Istanbul Turkey [email protected] ISBN 978-1-4419-6134-1 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-6136-5 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6136-5 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) In Memory of The Renowned Physicist and Natural Philosopher CARL FRIEDRICH VON WEIZSÄCKER Whose Advice Illuminated My Multidisciplinary Research Pathway wwwwww Prologue Everything in the universe could be explained in terms of a few intelligible systems and simple approaches, upon which the stars and the earth and all visible worlds may have been produced. René Descartes All matter in the universe is made up of elementary particles of only few kinds. It is like seeing in one town buildings of different sizes, construction and architecture, but from shack to skyscraper only few different kind of bricks were used, the same in all the buildings. So all known elements of our material world, from hydrogen the lightest, to uranium the heavi- est, are built of the same kinds of bricks, that is, the same kinds of elementary particles. Albert Einstein Brain-Body-Mind Syncytium Are the philosophical views of Descartes and Einstein suggestive of the search for elementary principles of brain-body-mind Integration? The core idea of the book is reflected in the following: EEG oscillations, ultraslow oscillations, and neurotransmitters are quasi-invariants in brain-body- mind function and during the evolution of species. The brain, spinal cord, overall myogenic system, brain-body rhythms, and neu- rotransmitters form a functional syncytium. Accordingly, the concept of syncytium brain-body-mind replaces the concept of mind. In this syncytium, neurons, smooth muscles, neurotransmitters, EEG-, and ultraslow-oscillations that govern all functional processes, are possibly the few intelligible systems or elementary bricks in the sense implied by Descartes and Einstein, respectively. In future, genetic codes that should be jointly analyzed with cognitive processes, will belong to the few intelligible systems The multiplicity of functional links in brain-body integration does not allow a deterministic description of sensory/cognitive events. The observed uncertainty, and/or deterministic chaos impose the proposition of a nebulous Cartesian system, which should integrate analyses so as to understand brain-body-mind. vii wwwwww Essentials of the Book Rationale This is a research book with didactical features on the mechanisms of the mind, encom- passing a wide spectrum of results and analyses. Its goal is to develop an empirical- analytical construct denoted as “reasonings to approach the mind.” It includes analyses from several disciplines, such as neurophysiology, psychophysiology, neuropsychiatry, vegetative physiology, Darwinian biology, physics, and philosophy; therefore, it should appeal to scientists, graduate students, and students from these fields. To achieve this task, the book brings together results from brain, vegetative sys- tem, brains in evolution of species, emotional processes, neurological, and psychi- atric data (specifically, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorders), which are comparatively evaluated from the perspective of brain oscillations and neurotransmitters. In addition, data from the central nervous system are linked to cardiovascular and overall myogenic coordination of the vegetative system. In furtherance of a large number of empirical psychophysiological observations, the data were re-evaluated to establish common fundaments and principles in brain- body-mind mechanisms that are governed by the web of multiple large-scale oscilla- tions and neurotransmitters. The probabilistic nature of findings within the scope of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle led to the concept of the quantum brain. Emerging interpretations are discussed in the light of philosophy, especially guided by the prin- ciples of René Descartes and dominated by the time and intuition concepts of Henri Bergson. Based on interpretation of considerable empirical evidence, it is tentatively proposed to extend Descartes’ Cartesian system with a new framework, denoted as the nebulous Cartesian system,1 which is also based on the uncertainty principle. 1 According to F. Capra (1984) the Cartesian model needs a major revolution. In his words:2“Transcending the Cartesian model will amount to a major revolution in medical science, and since current medical research is closely linked to research in biology—both conceptually and in its organization—such a revolution is bound to have a strong impact on further development of biology. To see where this development may lead, it is useful to review the evolution of the Cartesian model in the history of biology. Such a historical perspective also shows that the asso- ciation of biology with medicine is not something new but goes back to ancient times and has been an important factor throughout its history.” ix x Essentials of the Book Certainly this is not unique in representing a possible framework; one person’s work is not sufficient to achieve a necessary breakthrough in neuroscience compa- rable with those in physics at the turn of the twentieth century. Accordingly, the author considers the present book a crude workshop, by hoping that multidisci- plinary neuroscientists may try to establish a trend similar to that of the Copenhagen School in the 1920s. It is also hoped that young scientists reading the results pre- sented from multidisciplinary fields and several theoretical conclusions may amal- gamate all of these and develop new thoughts or theories, as I did after reading Cybernetics by Norbert Wiener 45 years ago. Seven Major Factors Encouraged Me to Write the Present Monograph The writing of a monograph on brain-body-mind is extremely ambitious. This is because I think that Friedrich von Hayek was correct when he stated (1952), “The mind must remain forever in a realm of its own, which we shall never be able fully to explain.” Although I am aware of such difficulties, my education in the fields of quantum physics, conventional physiology, and philosophy was the major impetus to begin this project. Seven factors finally influenced my decision to embark on this endeavor, of which the first two have provided the greatest encouragement: 1. Brain oscillations has evolved to become a hot and fundamental branch of neu- roscience, although during the 1970s Walter Freeman in Berkeley, California and myself were almost alone in publishing a series of studies in this field.2,3 Presently, the key theme, event-related oscillations, has become a fundamental trademark in studies of memory and cognitive processes. 2. Quantum Mechanics and Fundamentals of Natural Philosophy were taught to me by Werner Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, who accepted me into their circle first as a student and then as a graduate student – events that were to initiate a tide of good fortune.4 Quantum mechanics introduced an unavoid- able element of unpredictability or randomness into science and also, over the last 3 decades, into brain research as well.5 2 Freeman (1975), and Başar (1976, 1980). Measurements of the gamma activity at the cellular level by the groups of Eckhorn et al. (1988) and Singer (1989) were made approximately 12 years later and added important value to research on brain oscillations. 3 Mountcastle (1992, 1998) stated that the paradigm shift introduced by using brain oscillations has become one of the most important conceptual and analytical tools for the understanding of cogni- tive processes. He proposes that a major task for neuroscience is to devise ways to study and analyze the activity of distributed systems in waking brains, in particular, human brains. 4 How did this tide of fortune occur? See the Prelude to Part I. 5 Başar 1983, Eccles 1986, Hammerhof and Penrose, 1996, etc. For more up to date reviews refer to the March 2010 issue of the online journal, NeuroQuantology. Essentials of the Book xi The other five factors also have been vital: 3. Nervous Systems. Theodore Holmes Bullock’s opinion is that comparative neu- roscience promises important insights into the structure and function of nervous systems. Achieving this potential requires pursuit on a wide front, both in terms of interdisciplinary research and with respect to the species, stages, and states compared (Bullock 1984a,1984b). Starting in 1982 in California, and later in Lübeck, Germany, during a period of almost 25 years of joint research, publish- ing, and strong friendship with T.H. Bullock, I studied Charles Darwin’s theory from an experimental viewpoint. 4. Research on Cardiovascular System and Vegetative Physiology provided me experience and knowledge to bridge brain and body. Although after publishing the monograph, Vasculature and Circulation (Elsevier 1981), I did not carry out experimental research on this topic, my 20 years of teaching physiology to medi- cal students at The Medical University Lübeck (until 2000) allowed me to keep track of developments in vegetative physiology. In turn, this indicated the neces- sity of including the vegetative system within the understanding of mind.