Your Brain as a House

I've previously shared a few different Theories of Mind. (It's a really good post, you should go read it.) Now I'm going to present a slightly different look at the way the brain works.

Everyone has seen the maps of the brain that show which part of the brain does what. However, that's an extreme oversimplification. If you are born blind, the part of the brain that would typically be used for sight is taken over by other functions - typically hearing and memory. Every part of the brain can do multiple functions depending on how it is trained/used.

Think of your brain like a house. You can completely remodel it with only a few limitations. The basic structure can't be easily changed, but you can always rearrange furniture. Turn a bedroom into an office, upgrade the bathroom, etc. Moving the entire kitchen into the half bath isn't feasible though. The brain works essentially the same way. You can upgrade and do some basic remodeling, but you can't completely shift functions too far away from where they should be located. Your brain can always be improved (as can your IQ).

One of the ways researchers study the functions of the brain is by looking at the effects of lesions. If you look at 100 people who all have just one brain lesion in the exact same place, you would expect them to all have the same symptom or behavioral abnormality. However that isn't the case. The reverse would be looking at 100 people who all have the same symptom or behavioral abnormality. You would expect to find they all have the same lesion. Once again this isn't true. One brain lesion can affect many behaviors and the same behavioral abnormality can be caused by damage in multiple places.

There is so much more we still need to learn about the brain.