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 One of the expressions of the dependence of the psyche on material processes occurring in the brain is the change in the electrical activity of the brain during external stimuli.
Recording of electrical processes from the surface of the scalp is called electroencephalograms (EEG). They reflect the rhythms of electrical activity in the cerebral cortex. It was found that the most pronounced and frequent are the following rhythms:
1) Alpha rhythm with a frequency of 8 to 13 vibrations per second;
2) Beta rhythm 14 - 35;
3) Theta rhythm 4 - 8;
4) Delta rhythm 1 - 4;
5) Gamma rhythm (rarely found) 35 - 55.
The alpha rhythm discovered in 1929 by Berger attracts the most attention. This rhythm is associated with the physiological rest of the parieto-occipital region of the brain. It is immediately and most noticeably revealed on the EEG, and the rest of the rhythms are, as it were, superimposed on it. Particular interest in the alpha rhythm is also due to the fact that it most sensitively reacts to external stimuli, is typical for most healthy people during wakefulness, when attention is not drawn to anything, and maintains the constancy of its frequency over a long period of a person's life.
The beta rhythm is recorded in people who are in a state of wakefulness, prevails in the frontal and parietal regions of the brain, its frequency increases with mental activity and emotions. Theta rhythm occurs in all healthy, awake adults; it is also associated with emotions. The delta rhythm is very rare in normal people. In a state of wakefulness in adults, the delta rhythm occurs in pathological cases - with dystrophy, degenerations and tumors of brain tissue, with epilepsy.
Electroencephalograms indicate that energy processes based on metabolism are continuously running in the cerebral cortex, that there is a continuous effect of various stimuli on the brain cells. Such constant irritants are nutrients and humoral substances of the internal fluid environment that bathes the brain, and impulses from the receptors of the external environment and internal organs.
Thus, the EEG reflects the directional activity of the cortex, proceeding in rhythms. The activity of the cortex proceeds in rhythms because the activity of parts of the body is based on rhythms, and the cortex controls and unites the work of all organs of the body. The impulses going from the receptors to the central nervous system also have the form of rhythms. And the cortex itself consists of elements (nerve cells) that function rhythmically.
Despite the great importance that electro-encephalographic studies have, their role in solving the mysteries of the psyche cannot be overestimated. The rhythms mentioned above do not reflect higher mental phenomena, except that the course of the EEG is influenced by a special concentration of the subject's attention on some stimulus or an arisen task. EEG reflects mainly the energy side of brain activity. It was not possible to establish the correspondence between the EEG and the mental development, temperament, character, height and weight of people. EEGs of genius and ordinary people are generally the same. EEG does not depend on the content of a person's thinking. It is the average response of hundreds of millions of neurons, the electrical signals of which are mixed with each other according to the laws of physics.
The study of the electrical activity of the brain can be carried out not only by removing electrical potentials from the surface of the scalp. There is also a method for registering electrical potentials in the deep regions of the brain. It is done like this.Holes are drilled in the proper place in the skull through which wire electrodes are inserted into the brain, insulated along the entire length except the tip itself. The immersion depth of the electrode is determined by what brain structure needs to be investigated in this case. The outer ends of the electrodes are connected to devices that register the electrical potentials that arise in the tissue under study.
But the same electrodes can be used for another purpose - artificial stimulation of the brain by an external electric current. In this case, the outer ends of the electrodes are connected to a current source.
The first to use the method of implantation of electrodes was the Swiss physiologist V.R.Hess. He electrocuted various parts of the cat's upper brain stem. Irritating the so-called thalamic region, the researcher noticed that at one position of the electrodes the animal continuously moves in a small circle, irritation of another point caused a rhythmic raising of the paws.
Irritation of various points of the hypothalamus also caused heterogeneous reactions: either a change in the heart rate, then vomiting, or the release of urine and feces. In the same region of the brain, Hess found a region, when irritated, the animal showed a reaction corresponding to the emotion of rage.
The experiments of James Olds, which indicate the presence in the brain of regions that form various emotional states and forms of behavior, are of considerable interest.
The meaning of Olds's experiments is that the animal (rat) irritates itself or avoids it. A rat with an electrode inserted in a certain place in the brain is admitted into a chamber where there is a pedal for self-stimulation. The pedal was connected to an external electrical circuit so that every time the rat pressed the pedal, an irritating electric current was sent through the animal's brain.
The first irritation is applied to the rat. After that, she has rapid movements around the camera and sniffing until she accidentally steps on the pedal a second time. After the second or third pressure, the search stops and the systematic pressing of the pedal begins. The circuit is designed in such a way that the stimulation stops half a second after switching on, even if the rat continues to press the pedal, therefore, to apply repeated stimulation, the rat must release the pedal and press it again. The animal can press the pedal several thousand times per hour for 1-2 days, until it learns physical exhaustion. If the rat is not fed at the same time, and then put into a cage, where, in addition to the pedal, there will be food, then it will not pay any attention to the food, go straight to the pedal and engage in continuous self-irritation.
Irritation of certain areas of the brain causes different types of pleasant emotions in the rat. So, Oldz was able to identify the "food center" and "sex center" of the brain stem. It is characteristic that the effect of self-irritation, measured by the frequency of the reaction, decreases as the electrode moves towards the cerebral cortex.
In addition to the group of cells, to the excitation of which the animal seeks, there are cell groups, the stimulation of which the animal avoids ("centers of punishment"). At the same time, there are also such groups of cells, the excitation of which the organism does not achieve and does not avoid.
Much is still unclear about the location and function of the centers of pleasure and punishment. Scientists are painstakingly investigating this problem. However, it is known that these centers are in close proximity. This can be seen from those experiments with animals, when the effects of irritation changed dramatically when the irritating electrode was moved by only 0.5 millimeters. In this case, the emotion of pleasure can be abruptly replaced by extreme pain or fear. Various hypotheses are put forward about the causes of this phenomenon.
Is the implantable electrode method applicable in human studies? Yes, it is applicable, but, as a rule, not for experimental purposes and, of course, not on a healthy person, but on a sick person.
In cases of certain diseases, it may be necessary to immerse the electrodes deep into the brain. It was found that electrical stimulation of various centers of the brain caused mental states, which the patient characterized as joy, tranquility. When other parts of the brain were irritated, patients reported feelings of depression, anxiety, anxiety, and even horror. In some cases, electrical stimulation of the deep regions of the brain leads to getting rid of the disease.
We have cited separate data on the electrical activity of the brain, from which it can be seen that brain cells cause the formation of physical fields, in this case an electric field. It is possible that the matter is not limited to this; it is possible for the cells of the brain to form other material fields about which we do not know anything yet.
Here one cannot but touch upon the problem of the so-called telepathy or "suggestion of thoughts at a distance", about which much has been said and written recently abroad and here.
"Suggestion of thoughts at a distance" is presented, in particular, in the following (as described in works of fiction, historical memoirs, magazine articles and newspaper notes, in the registration catalogs of the corresponding scientific societies, etc.): if one person at the moment dies or is in mortal danger, or an important, exciting event happens to him, then often another person associated with the first ties of kinship, love, etc. and being far from the first person, at the same time, he experiences a mental state that somehow reflects the event that occurs with the first person. In other cases, such a nature of the connection may be established between two people, in which one person "inspires" the other to reproduce the sign or image depicted first on paper or transmitted in representation. It is allowed for the subjects to perform the movements that were suggested to them without words and gestures.
Thousands of references have been recorded regarding this.
The opinions of scientists on the whole problem associated with the "transmission of thoughts at a distance" differ. This concerns not only the question of the nature of this phenomenon, which has received the name of the phenomenon of psi in science, but also the possibility of its existence in general.
Some argue that we are witnessing how telepathy (that is, belief in the possibility of transmitting thoughts at a distance), expelled from the framework of scientific concepts in the last century, again gains its supporters, but under new names.
The basis of the argumentation in this case is the assertion that thinking is closely related to language, that there is no wordless thinking, that an attempt to discover the expression of thought in biocurrents is unscientific, that thinking is a property of brain matter and is inseparable from it.
These arguments from the natural-scientific and methodological point of view are absolutely correct, and one cannot object to them. Indeed, thought as such, that is, as a generalized and mediated reflection of reality, is inseparable from the brain, and the question of the transmission of thought in the considered plan cannot be called scientific.
But the speech in this case is, apparently, not about the transmission of thought, not about the suggestion of thought, but about the transmission of information in specific images that are imprinted in the mind. You can even, perhaps, express, as some scientists do, that what is meant is some information about the thought, and not the thought itself.
In this light, the very name of the problem as the problem of the transmission of thought at a distance seems inconvenient: it does not reflect the actual nature of the psi phenomenon and leads to the erroneous idea of the revival of unscientific telepathic views in new conditions. Even those authors who support the concept of the psi phenomenon sometimes use the unfortunate expression "transmission of thoughts at a distance."
Why is this expression unfortunate, unscientific? The fact is that even when we say that people exchange thoughts by means of words, by means of speech, it should not be taken literally that during a conversation there is an exchange of thoughts; it should not be presented in such a way that those vibrations of the air that are caused by the articulation of the speaker's speech apparatus contain in direct expression the semantic nature of his thought. Thought in this way does not pass from one head to another.
In reality, something like the following takes place. When we think aloud, say, talk, then the word is pronounced due to the revitalization of certain nerve connections in the brain. These connections are not accidental, they reflect individual experience, are the result of previous communication with other people, the acquisition of certain knowledge.
When the sounds of speech reach the listener, they cause in his brain the revival of previously formed neural connections, similar to those that operate in the speaker; the listener's thinking apparatuses begin to work, which are tuned, as it were, in unison with the speaker's thinking apparatuses. Therefore, for example, a person who is not familiar with the English language will not understand the English speech he has heard.
There is no doubt that the facts of telepathic communication, due to their mysteriousness, are very close to mysticism. But facts are facts, there is no escape from them, and science is obliged to explain them. So far, neither those who consider telepathic communication a natural phenomenon, nor those who completely deny it have not presented sufficiently convincing arguments.
It is possible that the solution lies in the peculiarities of the processes that are beyond the limits of existing scientific concepts. We should take into account the idea that not all the properties of neurons are known to us, that in general the properties of neurons cannot be exhausted. Therefore, it is natural to assume the possibility of the existence of some physical field, still unknown to science, associated with the activity of neurons. It is also suggested that the influence of the brain on the brain occurs on the basis of pre-field states of matter.
The assumption that the "giftedness" in question is not a phenomenon progressing in the process of evolution, but rather a rudimentary property preserved in humans from zoological ancestors and reviving in some neuro or mentally handicapped persons in the form of a kind of atavism, is not without reason. It is known that the best subjects for experiments on mental suggestion were determined among just such persons. This is consistent with the position of I.P. Pavlov on the functional dominance of the second signal system. I.P. Pavlov said that the second signaling system controls the first signaling system and the nearest subcortex, directs their work. And in people with nervous disorders, with underdeveloped higher parts of the brain, the received perceptions are not controlled and do not change.
It is characteristic, in this regard, that Mary Sinclair (the wife of the writer E. Sinclair), who was good at capturing wordless suggestions, before the sessions artificially introduced herself into a state, in her words, “on the verge of sleep,” that is, to use language Pavlovian physiology, it inhibited the higher parts of the brain through self-hypnosis.
All this has the meaning that it testifies to some connection between the facts on which the hypothesis of the psi phenomenon is based, with the already established modern scientific positions.
Methodologically, the existence of a hypothesis about the psi phenomenon is quite justified. Like any hypothesis, it proceeds from certain facts, observations, which, although still completely insufficient for constructing a complete theory, are sufficient as material for a hypothesis. In the future, science will either confirm or refute it.
It is necessary to distinguish from the problem of telepathy the issues of the so-called guessing of other people's thoughts. Sessions of "guessing thoughts" are sometimes given on the stage. Great art in this achieved, in particular, Wolf Messing.
These sessions go something like this. The participants in the experiment, in the absence of the guesser, contemplate some action, for example, find a hidden object. Then the guesser appears, one of the participants in the session takes his hand, and the process of finding the object begins. A prerequisite for the experience: it is necessary that the guide (the one who took the guesser by the hand) concentrates all his attention on what the guesser has to do. The guesser, moving ahead of the guide, gradually reaches the goal - he finds the hidden object.
For people unfamiliar with the essence of the matter, these sessions cause great surprise. And everything is as follows. The guesser, of course, does not guess any thoughts of the guide and cannot guess; he is only guided in finding the object by the muscular signals that the guide gives him, thinking about where to go to complete the task. If the guesser goes in the wrong place, then he experiences subtle resistance from the side of the conductor. With the correct movement, the guide seems to walk freely, but even in this case the guesser feels very weak "encouraging" shocks, the existence of which the guide does not even suspect.
This whole process is based on the properties of the motor (kinesthetic) cells of the cerebral cortex.
It has been established that motor cells, being associated with all cells of the cerebral cortex, stimulated by a certain passive movement, produce the same movement when they are stimulated not from the periphery, that is, not through the sensory organs, but centrally, that is, with appropriate thoughts and views. “It was noticed long ago,” writes IP Pavlov, “that since you think about a certain movement (that is, you have a kinesthetic idea), you involuntarily, without noticing it, produce it. The same - in a well-known trick with a person solving an unknown problem: to go somewhere, to do something with the help of another person who knows the problem, but does not think and does not want to help him. However, for real help, it is enough for the first to hold the hand of the second in his hand. "
Thus, if the facts related to the problem of telepathy do not yet find a scientific explanation, then in the sessions of "guessing thoughts" there is nothing mysterious now.
V. Kovalgin - Revealing the secrets of the psyche
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