Skip to main content
Book cover

Code Biology pp 111–127Cite as

Brain and Mind

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
  • 1283 Accesses

Abstract

An organism has mind when it has feelings and instincts, in a word when it has first-person experiences. The origin of mind was therefore the origin of subjectivity, the event that transformed some living objects into living subjects. There is a large consensus today that mental events are produced by brain events. More precisely, it is widely acknowledged that mind is made of higher-level brain processes, such as feelings and instincts, that are produced by lower-level brain processes such as neuron firings and synaptic connections. We need therefore to understand how does the brain produce the mind, and in particular what is the difference between them.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Barbieri M (2006b) Semantic biology and the mind-body problem: the theory of the conventional mind. Biol Theory 1(4):352–356

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basañez G, Hardwick JM (2008) Unravelling the Bcl-2 apoptosis code with a simple model system. PLoS Biol 6(6):e154. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060154

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brandon MP, Hasselmo ME (2009) Sources of the spatial code within the hippocampus. Biol Rep 1:3–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Changeaux J-P (1983) L’Homme neuronal. Libraire Arthème Fayard, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Churchland PS, Sejnowski TJ (1993) The computational brain. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Crick FHC (1994) The astonishing hypothesis: the scientific search for the soul. Scribner, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Delbrück M (1986) Mind from matter? Blackwell Scientific Publications, Palo Alto

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Lorenzo PM (2000) The neural code for taste in the brain stem: response profiles. Physiol Behav 69:87–96

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dudai Y (1999) The smell of representations. Neuron 23:633–635

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Edelman GM (1989) Neural Darwinism: the theory of neuronal group selection. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Flames N, Pla R, Gelman DM, Rubenstein JLR, Puelles L, Marìn O (2007) Delineation of multiple subpallial progenitor domains by the combinatorial expression of transcriptional codes. J Neurosci 27(36):9682–9695

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fodor J (1975) The language of thought. Thomas Crowell Co., New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fodor J (1983) The modularity of mind: an essay on faculty psychology. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Füllgrabe J, Hajji N, Joseph B (2010) Cracking the death code: apoptosis-related histone modifications. Cell Death Differ 17:1238–1243

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hafting T, Fyhn M, Molden S, Moser MB, Moser EI (2005) Microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex. Nature 436:801–806

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hallock RM, Di Lorenzo PM (2006) Temporal coding in the gustatory system. Neurosci Behav Rev 30:1145–1160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hilschmann N, Barnikol HU, Barnikol-Watanabe S, Götz H, Kratzin H, Thinnes FP (2001) The immunoglobulin-like genetic predetermination of the brain: the protocadherins, blueprint of the neuronal network. Naturwissenschaften 88:2–12

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Holland JA (1992) Adaptation in natural and artificial systems. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopfield JJ (1982) Neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 79:2554–2558

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hubel DH, Wiesel TN (1962) Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat’s visual cortex. J Physiol 160:106–154

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hubel DH, Wiesel TN (1979) Brain mechanisms of vision. Sci Am 241(3):150–182

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • James W (1890) The principles of psychology. Holt, New York. Reprinted in 1983 by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Jessell TM (2000) Neuronal specification in the spinal cord: inductive signals and transcriptional codes. Nat Genet 1:20–29

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson-Laird PN (1983) Mental models. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohonen T (1984) Self-organization and associative memory. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Levi-Montalcini R (1975) NGF: an uncharted route. In: Worden FG (ed) The neurosciences – paths of discoveries. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Levi-Montalcini R (1987) The nerve growth factor 35 years later. Science 237:1154–1162

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Libet B (1985) Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action. Behav Brain Sci 8:529–566

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lotman J (1991) Universe of the mind: a semiotic theory of culture. Indiana University Press, Bloomington

    Google Scholar 

  • Marquard T, Pfaff SL (2001) Cracking the transcriptional code for cell specification in the neural tube. Cell 106:651–654

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marshall IN (1989) Consciousness and Bose-Einstein condensates. New Ideas Physiol 7:73–83

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan Lloyd C (1923) Emergent evolution. Williams and Norgate, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicolelis M (2011) Beyond boundaries: the new neuroscience of connecting brains with machines and how it will change our lives. Times Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicolelis M, Ribeiro S (2006) Seeking the neural code. Sci Am 295:70–77

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • O’Keefe J, Burgess N (1996) Geometric determinants of the place fields of hippocampal neurons. Nature 381:425–428

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • O’Keefe J, Burgess N (2005) Dual phase and rate coding in hippocampal place cells: theoretical significance and relationship to entorhinal grid cells. Hippocampus 15:853–866

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Osborne LC, Palmer SE, Lisberger SG, Bialek W (2008) The neural basis for combinatorial coding in a cortical population response. J Neurosci 28(50):13522–13531

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peirce CS (1906) The basis of pragmaticism. In: Hartshorne C, Weiss P (eds) The collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, vols I-VI (1931–1935). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Ray A, van der Goes van Naters W, Shiraiwa T, Carlson JR (2006) Mechanisms of odor receptor gene choice in Drosophila. Neuron 53:353–369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Redies C, Takeichi M (1996) Cadherine in the developing central nervous system: an adhesive code for segmental and functional subdivisions. Dev Biol 180:413–423

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ruiz i Altaba A, Nguien V, Palma V (2003) The emergent design of the neural tube: prepattern, SHH morphogen and GLI code. Curr Opin Genet Dev 13:513–521

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rumelhart DE, McClelland JL (1986) Parallel distributed processing: explorations in the microstructure of cognition. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Searle JR (1980) Minds, brains and programs. Behav Brain Sci 3:417–457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Searle JR (2002) Consciousness and language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok TA, Danesi M (2000) The forms of meaning: modeling systems theory and semiotic analysis. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro L, Colman DR (1999) The diversity of cadherins and implications for a synaptic adhesive code in the CNS. Neuron 23:427–430

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shen Q, Wang Y, Dimos JT, Fasano CA, Phoenix TN, Lemischka IR, Ivanova NB, Stifani S, Morrisey EE, Temple S (2006) The timing of cortical neurogenesis is encoded within lineages of individual progenitor cells. Nat Neurosci 9(6):743–751

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shepard RN, Metzler J (1971) Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects. Science 171:701–703

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sperry RW (1943) Visuomotor coordination in the newt (Triturus viridescensis) after regeneration of the optic nerve. J Comp Neurol 79:33–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sperry RW (1963) Chemoaffinity in the orderly growth of nerve fibers patterns and connections. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 50:703–710

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stapp HP (1993) Mind, matter and quantum mechanics. Springer, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • von Uexküll J (1909) Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere. Julius Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Zohar D (1990) The quantum self. William Morrow, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Papoutsi M, de Zwart JA, Jansma JM, Pickering MJ, Bednar JA, Horwitz B (2009) From phonemes to articulatory codes: an fMRI study of the role of Broca’s area in speech production. Cereb Cortex 19:2156–2165

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Barbieri, M. (2015). Brain and Mind. In: Code Biology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14535-8_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics