A brain analogy


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Our brain is a very organic and complex system much like a beehive. To begin with, it is in constant connection with its surroundings. From the environment, elements are filtered in and out of it, like the input that our sensorial channels capture from our surroundings to be filtered by our perception. Also, the beehive is densely packed, formed by cells that store food and nurture their colony. The same can be said about our brain, with its kilometer worth of gyruses set in intricate ridges made so in order to improve cognitive function (Burrows, 2016; Nuwer, 2013), populated by cells that store information and processes and nurture our 'self' (Damasio, 2010). Inside a beehive, there's also a basic architecture that runs from top down; polen, the rich produce of the beehive, is stored in the upper part, much like our pre frontal cortex houses cognition; below that, the pollen-storage cells, just like the associative networks between the primary cortices provide for our necessary homeostasis. Further below are the worker and drone brood cells, where emotions run high similarly to our limbic system, where the amygdala, the hippocampus and the thalamus work around the clock to manage our prime states. (Bear, Connors and Paradiso, 2007; Myers, 2010). The honeycombs within the beehives are a set of fixed structures with multipurpose functions; likewise, the brain has a fixed set of structures primarily responsible for certain processes but their complex regulation and execution come true via the networks, that is what bees are industriously responsible for.

What is the best brain analogy for you?

 References

Bear, M. F., Connors, B. W., & Paradiso, M. A. (Eds.). (2007). Neuroscience (Vol. 2). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Burrows, L. (2016). How, not why, the human brain folds. Harvard Gazette (February 1).
Damasio, A. (2010). Self comes to mind. Pantheon.[MS]. Myers, D. (2010). Psychology. Worth Publishers
Nuwer, R. (2013). Why our brain is wrinkly. (Links to an external site.)Smithsonian.com. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute.

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