Getting our Head Around the Brain

The Network of Cognition

background photo: Designecologist on Unsplash, drawing of neural networks from Gray's anatomy, public domain

By going out of your mind, you come to your senses

〰 Alan Watts 〰

The Chief Executive Organ of Mammals

'It’s all in the head,’ says the vernacular. The human head, allegedly, contains the most vital ‘operating system’ for human knowledge, intelligence, learning, understanding, and perception. This theory has been firmly backed by cognitive sciences until recently.

Without head, we’re not just an entity without its chief component ~ a creature minus its number-one organ. We’re literally dead. Given this fact, one might expect that the functions of comprehension and cognition are reflected in our language, don’t you think?

Let’s find out.

The word head [from Old English heafod = top of the body] refers to the location if this bodypart. Centuries of popular use have produced a range of figurative meanings and associations based on the dominant position of our brainbox, including :::

upper end of a slope

source, origin

chief, leader

capital

source of a river

blossom of a flower

portrait side of a coin

Early combinations with other words have given us the nouns forehead, arrowhead, headhunter, head-count; head-gear, headdress and headmaster; as well as the verbs to head, behead and spearhead.

None of these early meanings give any indication of the head as a tool for cognitive processes, but remain limited to positions, status and external qualities.

The physical location/ position also takes priority in adverbs where head plays a role to qualify certain actions:::

Tackling sth. headfirst, headlings or headlong

falling in love head over heels

attacking a problem head-on

These expressions imply some level of rational functions, albeit in the negative form. All these phrases are associated with recklessness rather than a significant degree of reckoning or reasoning.

Here are the main noun-combinations, composed in the past 500 years:::

headquarters (residence of a military commander, 1640s)
headline (1670s)
headstone (as a gravestone, from 1775),
head-rest (1833)
sore-head (1848)
letter-head and match-head (1860s)
headphone (= telephone receiver1887)
head-shrinker (= psychologist 1926)
headache (in the sense of a problem, from 1934)
beach-head (= a position on a beach taken from the enemy by assault from the sea and used as a base for further attack1940)
head case (1960)
shithead (1961)
head shop (1969)
airhead (as a military term in 1950)
head game (1972).

The verb to head combined with prepositions doesn’t relate to what’s going on inside the head, but rather shows a movement charged with an intention or direction :::

to head back

head off

head out

head towards

head up

So far these lists of ‘heady words’ give no direct indication of significant mental activity ~ except occasionally in the negative sense as in airhead (= mindless or stupid person), head case (= eccentric or insane person), and head game (= mental manipulation).

But the original English head is not the only verbiont growing in our florilegium. The Latin word for head ~ caput ~ has given birth to a number of English words too :::

achieve – [from Latin ad = to + caput] to reach an end, accomplish, complete, finish

biceps – [from Latin biceps = doubleheaded] (from 1640s) biceps muscle of the upper arm

cabbage – [from Latin caput] the familiar green or red vegetable which grows into a rounded sphere of thick leaves, reminiscent of a head

capitulate – [from Latin capitulum = little head] to draw up a writing in chapters

capitulation – originally an agreement on specific terms, from 1640s narrowed sense in relation to ‘agreement on terms of surrender’

capsize – to turn upside down, literally ‘sink by the head’

capital – [from Latin capitale = property, stock] a person's wealth; main city or town (Old English heofodstol)

cattle – [from Latin capitale] mid 13 c. property of any kind, including money, land and livestock (from counting the heads of the animals)

chapter – [from Latin capitulum] part of a book; branch of an organisation

chattel – [from Latin capitale] early 13 c chattels, goods, wealth, possessions, property; profit; cattle; (from 1640s) slaves

chef – [from French chef de cuisine = head of the kichen] 1842, head cook

chief – [from Latin caput = head in the sense of leader] captain, leader, most important person of a group, or of a part of anything

precipitate – [from Latin praecipitare = to throw headlong] 1620s, to cause to happen suddenly

recapitulate – [from Latin recapitulare = repeat heads of chapters] summarise what has already been said

triceps – [from Latin triceps = threeheaded] from 1704, extensor muscle of the arm

In summary, the offspring of head & caput are showing us that the workings of the ‘chief bodypart’ are associated with physical and material achievements, physical movement, status and position, including being ‘ahead of the game’ ~ whether you’re crossing the finishing line or keeling over in a boat.

illustration of the human nervous system by Henry Vandyke Carter (1831-1897)

The Mush in the Skull and Storms in the Brain

The English word brain, related to the German Bregen, is so ancient, nobody can tell exactly where it came from and what it was used for. Notwithstanding the misty conditions surrounding its origins, some German etymologists have speculated that it is related to Brei (= pulp, mash, soft mass).

The explanation appears reasonable, given the mushy consistency of our cerebral matter. Even the official definition is "soft, grayish mass filling the cranial cavity of a vertebrate.” Moreover, the old Germanic Verb bregen (= boil, cook) produced the conjecture that the mind of man was being cooked in the brainmush.

In the English language, brain as a root-word has produced the following terminology related to the assumed activities of the brain:::

late 15 c. – brainless (= witless, stupid)

1540s – brainstorm (= medical term for a sudden attack or violent intensification of a disease or symptom)

1630 – brain-brat (= early version of brain-child)

1850 – brain-child (= idea, creation of one’s own mind)

1861 – brainstorm (= fit of acute delirious mania, sudden suspension of reason and will under the stress of strong emotions, usually accompanied by violence)

1875 – brain-stem (= central trunk of a mammal’s brain)

1893 – brain-teaser (= difficult puzzle or problem)

1934 – brainstorm (= brilliant idea, mental excitement)

1947 – brainstorming (= make a focussed effort to solve a problem by gathering spontaneous ideas)

1963 – braindrain (emigration of experts and well educated people from poorer to wealthier countries)

1971 – brain-dead (= complete loss of brain function)

1982 – brainiac (= very smart person)

This set of verbionts is beginning to reveal a relationship between mental activity and the vital organ inside the head.
The emergence of brain-brat (1630) and brain-child (1850) via brain-teaser (1893) and brainstorm (1934) to brainiac (1982) illustrate an evolution towards associations between brain and creative ideas, rational thinking and level of intelligence.

In addition to individual brainy terms, the vernacular has sprinkled the word brain into a number of phrases :::

Having a brain like a sieve = unable to remember information

Having something on the brain = obsessive thinking about a certain topic

To pick someone’s brain = to ask a series of questions to obtain advice or information or gain clarity about a situation

To rack one’s brain = try very hard to remember something

The brains behind something = Someone who is the ‘mastermind’, planner or organiser behind a project.

These expressions are no-brainers (= need no further explanation). They largely rely on the assumption that the brain is our chief cognitive organ ~ a theory which is currently under scientific review.

Drawing of nerve cells of a cat brain by Santiago Ramón y Cajal

The Nerve!

The revelations of our head- and brain-related language shouldn’t come as a huge surprise ~ if you are a neuroscientist and/ or up to date with latest research in this field. In her book 7 and 1/2 Lessons about the Brain, Lisa Feldman-Barrett teaches her readers that whatever we’ve learned about the brain from the scientists of the 20th century has been superseded by ‘new science’.

The first 1/2 + 1 lessons present the general idea :::

1/2 Lesson – Your Brain is not for Thinking

Cognitive functions are not the main task of the brain ~ perhaps not primarily related to the brain at all.

“Your brain’s most important job is to control your body—to manage allostasis—by predicting energy needs before they arise so you can efficiently make worthwhile movements and survive.”

1st Lesson – You have One Brain, not Three

In the second half of the 20th century, scientists declared that the human brain consists of three parts ~ the primitive reptilian brain, the limbic system, and the neocortex.

The threefold division was based on the evolutionary theory, proposed by neuroscientist Paul D. Maclean in the 1960s, popularised through Carl Sagan’s Pulitzer prize winning book The Dragons of Eden in 1977, and implanted into the knowledge base of Western civilisation as scientifically proven facts.

Barrett reveals that 21st century scientists have recently dismantled the very foundations of this ‘evidence based brain-science.’

“The triune brain story is one of the most successful and widespread errors in all of science,” she declares, as if the triune brain story-hoax was something to be proud of.

The lighthearted confession of a massive scientific blunder, which has impacted the medical treatment (and lives) of millions of people, is followed swiftly by another bombshell:

“The triune brain idea and its epic battle between emotion, instinct, and rationality is a modern myth.”

[We’ll have to explore this ‘modern myth’ in another wordcast.]

On a slightly different note ~ are you familiar with the name Santiago Ramón Cajal?

I must admit, I only stumbled across his work through my research for this wordcast. What an inspiring human being, creative mind, free spirit!

“Santiago Ramón y Cajal 1 May 1852 – 17 October 1934) was a Spanish neuroscientist, pathologist, and histologist specializing in neuroanatomy and the central nervous system. He and Camillo Golgi received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1906,” it says in the introduction on his Wikipedia page.

Some sources refer to Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) as the first neuroscientist. Almost forgotten soon after his death, he is now hailed as the ‘founder of modern neuroscience’.

Not only a medical doctor and ingenious neuropathologist, Cajal was a multitalent ~ keen painter, gifted artist, gymnast, and prolific writer. Many detailed drawings of nerve celt'ls and neural networks are part of his legacy. His original sketches of nerves in animal and human brains capture the now familiar arborescent structure of this vital organ of any specimen of living fauna (from a certain size upwards).

Five or six years ago, Cajal’s anatomical sketches captured the attention of some gallerists in Spain and New York. The result ~ The Beautiful Brain ~ an exhibition of Cajal’s artwork at The Grey Art gallery NY in 2018 ~ has inspired a flurry of brain related digital artwork, and catalysed a new wave of brain scanning and research at departments of neuroscience, e.g. at the Brain Research Imaging Centre of Cardiff University.

(Barrett's book 7 and 1/2 Lessons about the Brain was first published in 2020)

The word plexus [from Latin plectere = to braid] has been in use in the English language since 1666 in the sense of a network of anastomosing or interlacing blood vessels or nerves.

Anastomosis [from Greek Ana = without + stoma = mouth, opening] has been around since 1541 in the sense of the union of parts or branches (as of streams, blood vessels, or leaf veins) so as to intercommunicate or interconnect.

As a psychologist, Barrett may not have been aware of the history of neuroscience, or of the great contributions of Cajal (despite his work being honoured with a Nobel prize in 1906, plus a series of other major recognitions), or of the origins of some key words in neuroscientific terminology. Such compartmentalisation of science and academic knowledge is a characteristic feature of the Anthropocentric mind and can seriously obstruct communication channels.

In the Symbiocene, cross-disciplinary explorations facilitate and stimulate not only a broadening awareness, and the deepening of human understanding, they also promote quantum leaps in the evolution of human consciousness.