{"id":10271,"date":"2022-02-16T00:08:30","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T00:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1380561"},"modified":"2022-02-16T00:08:30","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T00:08:30","slug":"your-brain-might-be-a-quantum-computer-that-hallucinates-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=10271","title":{"rendered":"Your brain might be a quantum computer that hallucinates math"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Quick: what\u2019s 4 + 5? Nine right? Slightly less quick: what\u2019s five plus four? Still nine, right?<\/p>\n

Okay, let\u2019s wait a few seconds. Bear with me. Feel free to have a quick stretch.<\/p>\n

Now, without looking, what was the answer to the first question?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still nine, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve just performed a series of advanced brain functions. You did math based on prompts designed to appeal to entirely different parts of your brain and you displayed the ability to recall previous information when queried later. Great job!<\/p>\n

This might seem like old hat to most of us, but it\u2019s actually quite an amazing feat of brain power.<\/p>\n

And, based on some recent research<\/a> by a pair of teams from the University of Bonn and the University of T\u00fcbingen, these simple processes could indicate that you\u2019re a quantum<\/a> computer.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s do the math<\/h2>\n

Your brain probably isn\u2019t wired for numbers. It\u2019s great at math, but numbers are a relatively new concept for humans.<\/p>\n

Numbers showed up in human history approximately 6,000 years ago with the Mesopotamians, but our species has been around for about 300,000 years.<\/p>\n

Prehistoric humans still had things to count. They didn\u2019t randomly forget how many children they had just because there wasn\u2019t a bespoke language for numerals yet.<\/p>\n

Instead, they found other methods for expressing quantities or tracking objects such as holding up their fingers or using representative models.<\/p>\n

If you had to keep track of dozens of cave-mates, for example, you might carry a pebble to represent each one. As people trickled in from a hard day of hunting, gathering, and whatnot, you could shift the pebbles from one container to another as an accounting method.<\/p>\n

It might seem sub-optimal, but the human brain really doesn\u2019t care whether you use numbers, words, or concepts when it comes to math.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s do the research<\/h2>\n

The aforementioned research teams recently published a fascinating paper<\/a> titled \u201cNeuronal codes for arithmetic rule processing in the human brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the title intimates, the researchers identified an abstract code for processing addition and subtraction inside the human brain. This is significant because we really don\u2019t know how the brain handles math.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t just slap some electrodes on someone\u2019s scalp or stick them in a CAT scan machine to suss out the nature of human calculation.<\/p>\n

Math happens at the individual neuron level inside the human brain. EKG readings and CAT scans can only provide a general picture of all the noise our neurons produce.<\/p>\n

And, as there are some 86 billion neurons making noise inside our heads, those kinds of readings aren\u2019t what you\u2019d call an \u201cexact science.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bonn and T\u00fcbingen teams got around this problem by conducting their research on volunteers who already had subcranial electrode implants for the treatment of epilepsy.<\/p>\n

Nine volunteers met the study\u2019s criteria and, because of the nature of their implants, they were able to provide what might be the world\u2019s first glimpse into how the brain actually handles math.<\/p>\n

Per the research paper:<\/p>\n

\n

We found abstract and notation-independent codes for addition and subtraction in neuronal populations.<\/p>\n

Decoders applied to time-resolved recordings demonstrate a static code in hippocampus based on persistently rule-selective neurons, in contrast to a dynamic code in parahippocampal cortex originating from neurons carrying rapidly changing rule information.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"An
<\/i><\/a>Single neurons across multiple brain sectors responding to different encoded rules for math.<\/figcaption>