The Psychologist As Systems Analyst

The Hardware of the Brain

A schematic of the human biocontroller is presented in Figure 1. This shows that the biocontroller is segregated into three levels operating in parallel. These three levels give rise to the basic mental processes:

 q       Thought - the topmost level contains at least eight independent processors giving rise to cognition: thoughts, perceptions, plans, and images. Our stream of awareness is crowded with content arising from this layer. This is the most programmable part of the brain. During any particular task, various processors are combined to produce a functional system. A functional system engaged in control of behavior is said to be on line, while one being used primarily for computation or thought is off line. The eight hypothesized processors arise from three orthogonal dimensions of cognition:

1. Objective vs. subjective frame of reference. This corresponds to the anatomical distinction of left and right cerebral hemispheres. It may be that we use one cerebral hemisphere on line for control   and the other off line for computation.

2. Concrete vs. abstract, or depth of processing. This dimension arises from the anatomical feature of peripheral to central processing.

3. Present vs. future time orientation. This relates anatomically to the posterior to anterior axis of the brain. Future oriented processors with an objective frame of reference produce plans, while those with a subjective frame of reference give rise to expectations. Plans and expectations can be either abstract or concrete.

The wealth of data on specialization of functioning in the cerebral hemispheres (e.g. Gazzaniga, 1985) bears on these distinctions. There is also considerable evidence from the study of thinking styles fitting this conception, such as arising from instruments like the Myers‑Briggs Type Inventory (Myers, 1980) and the InQ (Harrison & Bramson, 1982). Of the three dimensions, there has been least study of the hypothesized future projection mechanisms.

q       Emotion - the middle level gives rise to what we experience as emotions: hunger, lust, curiosity, fear, sadness and so on. It houses control processes, the Control Modes, that are more primitive than the cortical processors, but quite powerful in their own way. There is a degree of programming possible at this level. Even though these programs are embodied in firmware, they are open (Mayr, 1964) in that they can be modified by environmental input. These systems pattern behavior to achieve established reference levels or goal states. At any given time, only one Mode is acting on the external world, although others can be influencing the internal environment, a view similar to that proposed by Shallice (1972). The Control Modes each have loadings based on deprivation conditions and other factors, giving rise to motivational phenomena. Programming can alter the functioning of the predominant Mode as well as influence the sequencing of Modes.

 There is evidence that newborns show several discrete patterns of behavior (Prechtl 1974). In adults, this is less obvious because of the smooth shifting from one Mode to another and the overlay of programs at the cortical level. The hypothesized Control Modes can account for phenomena as diverse as displacement behavior (Kehner & Tente 1969) to the Premack Principal (Premack, 1965). Powers (1973) has proposed similar feedback control processes. The different loadings of the Control Modes, like trays in a cafeteria, can account for Maslow's (1962) hierarchy of needs. To be precise, however, these give rise to wants rather than needs.

 q       Action - the lowest level has circuits that essentially perform housekeeping functions. This Autopilot controls the inner environment of the body, regulating body temperature, weight, breathing, blood pressure, digestion and the like.

 In addition to these systems, there are three transverse processes running through all the levels, giving rise to other basic elements of psychological functioning:

q       Sensation - The sensory or input systems gather information from the environment, analyze it and enter it into other systems of the biocontroller. In the Autopilot, sensory input drives reflex mechanisms. At the Control Mode level, inputs from the environment feed parameters that continually modulate the ongoing patterns of behavior being produced. At the cognitive level, much more complex analysis is performed, which we experience as perception.

 Of course, there are subsystems within the input processes that transduce and analyze information from light, sound, temperature, pressure, chemicals and other aspects of the physical environment.

 q       Movement – Next are the output or motor systems, which allow the biocontroller to act on the environment. There are two principal output systems, one that controls fine voluntary movements like of the fingers, and the other that produces coordinated activities like walking. 

 q    Attention - the third transverse process is the central core of the brain, which maintains arousal or activation of the other systems. It controls sleep/wakefulness cycles and the moment-to-moment fluctuations of attention. It also appears to be intimately involved in memory. This process is located in the Reticular Activating System.

 The final major hypothesized system of the biocontroller is the most speculative:

q       Integration System - This system combines all the information coming from the brain's operations into one coherent whole, which gives rise to our conscious experience of reality. While an understanding of the physiological mechanism is not necessary to the psychological concept, I propose that this is accomplished through a high frequency fluid pressure wave in the ventricles that integrates the information carried in the high order neuronal bundles surrounding the ventricles. This process is similar to an integral photograph, which has properties like a hologram. It is hypothesized that mechanical waves along the nerve membrane are associated with nerve activation. These give rise to the wave of depolarization in the axon through mechanical deformation of the membrane or through a piezoelectric effect (Guzelsu & Akcasu, 1974). The interplay of many such waves produces an interference pattern in the ventricles. This complex waveform may interact with neuronal systems in the Reticular System to give rise to memory. I further propose that this information is transmitted to all the cells of the body through the low pressure various blood system. The implication of this is that conscious experience occurs within each cell, not exclusively in the brain. Shared information may help the integration of individual cells into a unified community.

 Integration of information could be accomplished in other ways (e.g. Marshall, 1989) and the pressure wave concept is largely speculative now. However, there is evidence for it. First is the long evolutionary period of simple life in the ocean. It is not unreasonable to surmise that early life developed an ability to read pressure waves during two billion years of swimming in the ebb and flow of the primeval oceans still coursing through our veins. Indeed, modern day paramecia are responsive to fluid pressure waves (Naitoh, 1974). That action potentials give rise to mechanical waves has been theoretically supported (Lundstrom, 1974).  Most compellingly, high frequency pressure waves of “obscure origins" have actually been observed in the ventricles of the brain (Dunbar, Guthrie and Karpell. 1966). A clinical study of loss of consciousness due to changes in cerebrospinal fluid pressure without loss of cortical EEG also provides support for this view (Klein, Woodhall and Heymann, 1962). Finally, the venous blood system is a low pressure system (Talbot and Stanley, 1974) which is ideal for propagating high frequency pressure waves and fluid pressure waves are known to conduct for long distances, such as whale songs in the ocean.

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