Untitled Document

The Unified Theory of the Nervous System
and Behavior

Cognitive Philosophy /Brain Theory by Steven Michael Harris

Nobel Announcement

A few years back they announced the winners for the Nobel Prize in Medicine. The work of these doctors that are being honored was good work that contributed to the understanding of the nervous system, but the conclusions that were drawn from that work about the workings of the brain are going to be found wrong enough that they are making it almost impossible to understand how the brain actually functions.

I believe that this year's award will eventually be understood as one of the great Nobel mistakes almost on par with the 1951 award to Egas Moniz, the discoverer of the lobotomy. It promotes a theory of basic science by using the language of "brain chemistry" that is supporting the pharmaceutical approach to solving problems and ignores many observations that conflict with the theories (or, rather, the language of the theories) put forth by this group of doctors.

This year's Nobel Prize in Medicine further institutionalizes the language used to talk about the nervous system that is getting in the way of really comprehending the way it works.

I'll present the BBC press release that was posted at http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_963000/963516.stm

and then comment on the text of that particular article:

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Monday, 9 October, 2000, 10:28 GMT 11:28 UK

Brain pioneers share Nobel prize

The three winners worked on brain chemistry

Three scientists whose discoveries shed light on the workings of the brain and nervous system have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

Professors Arvid Carlsson, Paul Greengard and Eric Kandel were jointly awarded the prize on Monday.

All three have opened up potential new avenues of treatment for brain conditions such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

The scientists share an award of just under $1m.

Signalling pathways

Professor Greengard, currently working at the Rockefeller University in the US, has devoted more than 40 years working out how nerve cells communicate between each other on a biochemical level.

In the 1970s, he revealed new information about the way the chemical dopamine affects the brain. He managed to trace the signalling pathways used by the chemical.

Professor Greengard's work has applications in the fight against many conditions to which dopamine is key, such as Parkinson's, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's.

Likewise, Dr Arvid Carlsson, Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Göteborg, Sweden, has also helped make huge strides forward in helping doctors understand the importance and role of dopamine in the brain - and ways in which drugs can influence the way the brain works.

Parkinson's breakthrough

His discoveries in the field have led to new effective treatments for schizophrenia, depression and Parkinson's.

His studies in the mid-1950s at the University of Lund laid the groundwork for the discovery of dopamine depletion in Parkinson's and subsequent treatment with levadopa, which is still the principal drug used by doctors to delay the disease's devastating advance.

In the late 1960's, Dr Carlsson's group developed the first clinically active inhibitor of serotonin re-uptake (SSRI) for depression, zimelidine.

This research contributed to the development of SSRIs such as Prozac, now one of the world's most popular drugs for the treatment of depressive disorders.

Short-term memory

Professor Eric Kandel, from the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University in the US, has also worked extensively to uncover the hidden processes that drive the human mind.

His discoveries have included the molecular mechanisms which lie under the acquisition of memory, both short and long-term.

In the mid-1970s, Professor Kandel's team discovered the importance of the neurotransmitter called serotonin to the memory process.

Their results showed that serotonin triggered a series of steps in which a chemical reaction strengthened the electrical connections between neurons in the brain for several minutes - the foundation of short-term memory.

Professor Kandel later found genes which appear vital in the conversion of short to long-term memory.

Again, understanding these processes could help doctors one day unravel the reason why memory is lost in conditions such as Alzheimer's, and could even produce memory-enhancing drugs.

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One of the first problems mentioned in this article is the theme of the award that "The three winners worked on brain chemistry." The implication of this statement is that all thinking, all neurological processing is controlled by chemistry. This is the language of the pharmaceutical companies (and the doctors who make a lot of money with the pharmaceutical companies) that implies that all problems will be solved through chemistry as well. Yes, chemistry is part of the equation but the current approach to fiddling with that chemistry through medication is just wrong.

This idea that the brain is a genetically-created piece of hardware gets in the way. Genetics is just the kick-start of the way the system works. The brain grows itself into its final form through the application of the logic it uses. The reason that the brains of so many animals look so similar is not so much because of the similarities of their genetics, but the result of the way nerve cells follow a particular language of logic that grows these brains in similar ways using that logic to make sense of the different information presented by different types of bodies.

When the celebrated observations of these doctors draw parallels from the microscopic/cellular/chemical level to the level of behavior and functioning of the entire organism, they are not explaining the missing pieces in-between and leaving a big gap in understanding open for future revelation, so they are only showing "statistically important" implications of their observations based mostly on how people respond to changes in their chemistry through the use of drugs. (And there are always some or many patients who don't respond within the "norms" of this statistical approach to medical understanding.)

Greengard is rewarded because "he revealed new information about the way the chemical dopamine affects the brain. He managed to trace the signaling pathways used by the chemical." The chemical does not use pathways. The chemical is one of the markers in the brain. The amount of that chemical in a synapse has an effect on the firings of the cell receiving this chemical. Different cells use different amounts of all chemicals. Different cells make different decisions. Global changes in that chemical (or any chemical) will have different effects on the organism than caused by other chemicals, but it does not mean that that chemical is regulating that function. Such a statement is a leap to conclusion.

Greengard and Carlsson are rewarded because they both "helped make huge strides forward in helping doctors understand the importance and role of dopamine in the brain - and ways in which drugs can influence the way the brain works." Yes, drugs do influence the way the brain works, but the brain doesn't necessarily use drugs to think. The drugs in the brain are the medium of the process that is involved, but the drugs are not that process.

The article says that Carlsson's "discoveries in the field have led to new effective treatments for schizophrenia, depression and Parkinson's.

His studies in the mid-1950s at the University of Lund laid the groundwork for the discovery of dopamine depletion in Parkinson's and subsequent treatment with levadopa, which is still the principal drug used by doctors to delay the disease's devastating advance." There is a great deal of observation available that conflicts with this statement. There is a very low bar of standard expressed here in deciding what an "effective" treatment might be. Levadopa does not delay the disease's advance. Levadopa treatments reduce symptoms for a period of time (and only for a portion of each day with enormous problems with rebound occurring in other times during the day). Levadopa treatments shorten the life-span of these patients. It is common for a doctor to promise five good years by going on L-dopa or such but to also admit that the patient could die five years sooner than would happen without any treatment at all. This is not delaying the advance of the disease. It is advancing the disease but with a period of time where relief of symptoms can be offered in exchange. [This is the part about this year's award that really bothers me.]

(Read my essay: A very big clue.)

Carlsson's group developed the first SSRI that led to the new depression drugs such as Prozac.

(Read my essays: A Test and Beneficial damage and A fatal flaw in medical logic.)

Kandel's work was very useful but he makes a mistake if assuming that the serotinergic regions of the brain are responsible for memory. Memory occurs in the entire brain. Every cell in the nervous system has a part in the memory mechanisms (even though some cells always represent the same piece of information as part of a greater memory). Memory, short or long-term, does not only take place in cells that use serotonin.

The article says that "Kandel later found genes which appear vital in the conversion of short to long-term memory.

Again, understanding these processes could help doctors one day unravel the reason why memory is lost in conditions such as Alzheimer's, and could even produce memory-enhancing drugs."

The genes have an effect on the way the body works, but there are processes inherent in the nature of the ways nerve cells relate to each other that are the reason for conversions from short to long-term memory. (Certain activities cause cells to grow, others cause them to atrophy; cells develop new connections to other cells according to rules - these are some of the factors to look into in understanding memory.) The genetics movements in medicine are getting a bit grandiose in the claims of how much they will be able to accomplish following that route. (The announcement that the recent mapping of the human genome is the greatest modern medical accomplishment is premature and probably wrong.)

The article ends with the statement that Kandel's work could produce new memory-enhancing drugs reads like a pharmaceutical company press-release. It is wishful thinking of these companies that they could market yet another drug that would cause dependence, create withdrawal when suspended, and require you to spend large amounts of money to get the promised results. They want you to buy into the idea of that being your goal as a patient.

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