"Why Doesn't Maths Add Up":- Documentary

[michaellxv (Michael)]

Have to agree with you. The show did not come to any great conclusions and I was left wondering 'is it a series, when is the next episode'.

My wife and one of the kids watched it and it did generate some discussion which I suppose makes it a success. Thank goodness we can pause live TV or we would have missed most of it.

[avandonk]

Originally Posted by CraigS

Well .. overall, I found the doco to be a little superficial .. but what could one expect from a one-hour program, I suppose. 'Twould be great if they could've teased it out to say, a six part series !

I'm not all that convinced by the 'brain activation' scanning technique to determine the 'centres' activated within the brain. I know we hear lots about this in many of these documentaries, but I'm always left wondering … just exactly what are we really looking at when we see these fuzzy, coloured pictures (?) We seem to read lots into such scans, but are we looking at the cause centre culminating from undertaking particular functions, (like mathematical reasoning), or the effect ? (Ie: the aggregation point resulting from having undertaken these functions) ?

I read a book once about the human brain and the author was a brain surgeon. He traced the history of the brain in medical science, and came to the concept of thought perhaps being distributed throughout the body .. not just a product of it being concentrated in the brain.

Anyway, I'd like to see more material about maths coming into mainstream media. The fractal craze and maybe chaos theory, were the last major exposures of it all, that I can remember.

Time to do it again ! Well overdue !

Cheers & thanks to all for this thread - very interesting!

You may as well say the 'soul' of a car is in the badge or emblem that it carries.

You are the sum total of all your atoms! Your whole nervous system is you sitting on dumb muscles and organs. Really!

All of the parts working together are greater than the sum of all!

Why do you think that in your least lucid moments your brain still protects your a_r_s_e!

I rest my case.

Bert

[CraigS]

Hmm …
So external electrical stimulation also improves performance in maths tests, eh ? …

Thinking cap makes brain waves in Australia.

Scientists in Australia say they are encouraged by initial results of a revolutionary "thinking cap" that aims to promote creativity by passing low levels of electricity through the brain.

The device, which consists of two conductors fastened to the head by a rubber strap, boosted results significantly in a simple arithmetic test, they said.

Three times as many people who wore the "thinking cap" were able to complete the test, compared with those who did not use the equipment. Sixty people took part.

There ya go … next time I need to do some maths, I'll strap a 'TENS' machine 'onto me scone' … who needs a documentary to sort out this question ? .. problem solved !!



Cheers

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by CraigS

Hmm …
So external electrical stimulation also improves performance in maths tests, eh ? …

Thinking cap makes brain waves in Australia.



There ya go … next time I need to do some maths, I'll strap a 'TENS' machine 'onto me scone' … who needs a documentary to sort out this question ? .. problem solved !!



Cheers

Yeah.....what's the square root of -1.....WRONG!!! <throws switch> 10000V runs through skullcap

[avandonk]

That reminds me of the opening scene of Ghost Busters. An other charletan posing as a scientist!.

Craig you are still young and foolish. NMR scans are not any sort of definitive answer to any sort of questions. It gives us a direction. It is a bit like analysing a computer chip's operation by seeing where the heat is generated. It does NOT give an underlying mechanism. Other information will fill out the true picture.

You are misinterpreting reality.

Bert

[CraigS]

Originally Posted by avandonk

That reminds me of the opening scene of Ghost Busters. An other charletan posing as a scientist!.

He got the girl though, didn’t he ? .. by ‘any and all means’ .. whatever it takes!

Originally Posted by avandonk

Craig you are still young and foolish.

.. You mean there’s still time for me to recover ??

Originally Posted by avandonk

NMR scans are not any sort of definitive answer to any sort of questions. It gives us a direction. It is a bit like analysing a computer chip's operation by seeing where the heat is generated. It does NOT give an underlying mechanism. Other information will fill out the true picture.

I think they were using EEG brain scanning technology in the documentary as an attempt at localising and comparing neural electrical activity between the professor and the comedian, during a maths test. The low spatial resolution of this technique, when applied in order to seek the differences between two human brains under deep thought, would seem to serve little purpose other than to produce brightly coloured images for the cameras.

TMS stimulation in combination with MRI technology, seems to be the preferred method for detailed mapping of specific brain functions. This technique at least, eliminates false positives, compared with other methods. I'm not sure whether any of these techniques are used for any serious mappings of higher order brain functions, though.

The 'thinking cap' development may challenge my assumptions on this however.
[EDIT: PS - Correction - It wasn't an EEG they used .. they measured the amount of oxygenated blood flowing into areas of the brain during the test. That sounds even less indicative to me …]

Originally Posted by avandonk

You are misinterpreting reality.

.. or interpreting unreality, eh ?

Cheers

[CraigS]

Just for the record, more info on the technique is here.

The person on the documentary who conducted the scans is Professor Clare Elwell, PhD, Professor of Medial Physics, London Uni.
Interestingly, she's the Head of the Near Infrared Spectroscopy Group as well.

Cheers