the brain’s behavior doesn’t come from isolated parts but from interacting components linked by feedforward and feedback loops, so key properties (and problems) emerge from their interactions rather than from a single node or pathway. “Adaptive” points to homeostasis and allostasis—the brain continuously predicts needs and adjusts internal setpoints via feedback to keep the organism stable while responding to change. Because of this architecture, brains are robust yet fragile and often operate near a critical ‘edge of chaos,’ where small nudges can push dynamics toward dysfunction (e.g., coma or seizures) or back to healthier regimes. “Computes” retains the information-processing idea that the brain carries out algorithms or computations on representations. (View Highlight)
This research work suggests that mood changes are driven by prediction errors. While mood is adaptive, helping organisms learn about changes in their environments, it is also fragile, since repeated negative surprises can create self-reinforcing downward spirals characteristic of depression. (View Highlight)
Relación entre ánimo y errores de predicción
Complex adaptive systems, Rust observes, are designed to be robust, but that very robustness introduces fragilities. The immune system, for example, protects us by adapting to pathogens, but occasionally that adaptability misfires, producing autoimmune disorders. (View Highlight)
Por qué se da esta relación de robustez-fragilidad en los CAS?
Experiences and behaviors are notoriously difficult to measure. Measurements depend on definitions, and here the field falters. There is a circular problem: to define these concepts we need understanding, but to gain understanding we need measurements. To tackle this, Rust turns to the history of measuring temperature. Early scientists developed thermometers long before they understood molecular motion or heat transfer. These instruments allowed systematic study, which in turn enabled later theories. Neuroscience, she suggests, needs analogous strategies of creating usable measures of mental phenomena without requiring complete theoretical understanding from the start. (View Highlight)
Estudio y medición de la temperatura como referente para la neurociencia y el estudio del cerebro-mente y su disfunción.
Rust draws on examples from chaos theory and weather systems. Complex systems can operate in chaotic regimes, where tiny changes have vast, unpredictable consequences. Just as meteorologists avoid trying to redirect hurricanes, neuroscientists must recognize that attempts to push on one neural pathway can cascade in unexpected ways. Even when a system is not fully chaotic, its interdependence makes control extremely difficult. Treatments cannot simply achieve change; they must achieve the right change with minimal side effects while avoiding the adaptive responses that produce treatment tolerance. (View Highlight)
A propósito de que la mente es un ecosistema y no se puede pensar que forzar un parámetro a lo bruto no pueda causar un problema en otro nivel del sistema.