The term Dynamics of the Human Brain is not very new. Many scientists have spoken about dynamic characteristics of the brain, as we know now that the brain must solve differential equations. Talking about differential equations solved by the brain means that we must talk about movement and moreover we must also talk about dynamic of the movement. As the brain controls the movement we can talk about dynamics of the brain. Dynamics of the human brain is very important parameter that shows us much about human behavior and about human psychics.
(Note: The animal brain is subset to the human brain so I will concentrate upon the human brain.)
The human brain solves very complex sets of differential equations. However we can simplify them to the smaller sets of differential equations. In the beginning of this paper I would depict something about basic types of differential equations and then I would explain meaning of them to the human brain function.
Therefore do not leave this page before you read it till the end.
I would like to avoid using term that most of people do not understand. The term differential equations is so hard to understand for people that when somebody starts talking about them, people stop perceiving all rest of information.
Let us take information from book --The Astonishing Hypothesis. The Scientific Search for the Soul -- by Francis Crick. Professor Crick in the chapter 17 used figure where he has shown how waves in the brain arise. The higher density of impulses generated in a neuron means higher voltage and lower density of impulses means lower voltage. If you imagine that density of impulses changes regularly, the every neuron can generate regular waves. These waves are called harmonic waves. Harmonic waves are always represented by the solution to the differential equations. So when I used term solution to the differential equations in my book I kept on my mind also harmonic waves depicted by Professor Crick in his book.
The harmonic waves are only a special example of the second order differential.
A*y” + B*y’+ C*y = 0
Solution to this equation looks like this.
y = exp(-k*x)*sin(a*x+b)
Where A, B, C, a, b, k are constants and y, x are variables.
The differntial equation is depicted in more details in the figure Graph.
The different values of all constants allow solving different situations using differential equations. This differential equation solves harmonic waves as well as problems of dynamic changes from one status to the second status. The sudden change of the system recalls the waves that stabilize after some time. The typical sudden change of the system is stone thrown to the water from a bridge. The waves on the water surface show the change of the system. Same it is with the human brain. Sudden change in the life causes stress. The stress is type of system change that lasts for certain time. The time is different for different types of stress.
I compare these two types of system change, as we know that the brain solves differential equations. So I understand it as any dynamic system we can find in the nature. As we talk about human brain as about dynamic system we must use same characteristics for the human brain as for other systems. This paper is to show some of them in here.
Let us come back to the stress. The term stress is very similar to the solution to the differential equation depicted above in this paper. Now I would derive ad compare some characteristics of the human brain and solution to this differential equation.
The level of stress is dependent upon the level of external or internal stimulus. This is known and most people know it. Therefore we do not need to write about it more than it is necessary.
The level of stress depends also on the quality of the brain tissue. This is more interesting information than the first one. What is it quality of the brain tissue and how to understand it; is the main theme of my book advertised in this site. As we talk about dynamic properties of the brain I have analyzed the brain using mathematical formulas based on solution to the differential equations.
We can see that some people are able better to overcome problems of stress whereas some are more affected by it and some suffer from mental discrepancies or diseases. The problems coming in the life to the human brain are very often sudden and people are not able forecast them. Therefore good ability to overcome these problems is very important for people.
Let us talk about healthy people only and about differences how they can balance the brain after stress has occurred. The typical effect of stress is changing euphoria with depression. If the stress is negative, depression is prevalent, If the stress is positive, the euphoria is prevalent. However both terms mean stress or consequence of stress. The typical demonstration of stress is changing depression and euphoria. Frequency of these waves is very slow. One period can be long of some hours or some days.
The time that is necessary to balance brain is important to assess quality of the brain. The second important value is difference between maximum euphoria and maximum depression. This difference shows how person can suppress emotions.
It is not very good if the difference is too small or too big. Same holds for period for balancing the brain. Both values must be kept in the certain intervals to avoid problems.
The important parameter of the brain is sensitivity. More sensitive people have higher problems with stability than less sensitive people. However, higher sensitivity means higher intelligence. The less sensitive people can better balance brain but they do not have mostly very high intelligence. Typical people are somewhere between these two borders. Many people are in either of them.
Frequency characteristic of the brain
As we talk about human brain in terms of dynamic systems, we can use also term frequency characteristics of the brain. Such term is technical one. For some people, can this term look not very useful for description of the brain. Let me show how it is with frequency characteristics of the brain.
Let us imagine work of secretary in an office. The secretary writes a letter. During the work is his or her interrupted by the phone call. The phone call is either transferred to director or solved another way. Then some person enters to the office. The secretary must respond to its requirement, etc. We could continue counting other occurrences that happen during working day.
It is possible to count these occurrences and to divide that number with some time unit, one hour or one minute or one day or so. We could get average number of interactions per chosen time unit.
The every person is able to process different number of interactions per time unit. Therefore we can say that everybody has different frequency characteristic of the brain. We could measure the frequency of changes per time period for every person. However it is not very easy because everyone can for some time increase his or her working activity and measurement could be distorted.
In spite of this it is possible to find some maximum on the curve of the human activity. This maximum means that for each person exists necessary activity level that must be maintained during the life of that person. For lower activity the person feels bored. For higher activity the person feels overworked.
It is typical also for most devices. The typical example is car. The graphs giving torque of engine has its maximum somewhere in the middle of the range. Other words, it means that for every car can go with optimum speed at which the fuel consumption is minimum and engine gets minimum worn.
Same holds for human brain. The brain overload is noxious as well as low brain’s activity. There is, however, difference in the consequences of both extremes.
Appropriate activity of the brain is very important for every person. But it is not constant parameter of the brain. Everybody can change that value of such parameter via training. The training starts at school at the low age of a person. If the person wants to start at higher age, results are not so evident.
Sensitivity
The term sensitivity has already been depicted in this paper. Now let us attempt to talk about it in details. The sensitivity is parameter of the human brain that is very well known but not well described. There is question, how it happens that people have different sensitivity. The sensitivity is side effect of utilization of certain part of the human brain. (Will be continued...)
Copyright 1997,1998 by Ales Grmela