Does anyone else feel that unraveling the “neural code” is counterproductive and barking up the wrong tree? New articles, journals and theories come out daily regarding the “neural code”, likening it to a language that we don’t understand yet. As if neurons in the brain “talk” to eachother using a sophisticated language. The theory goes that by studying this language, usually in the form of neuron spiking, we can eventually learn what the neurons are saying.

And I think thats just plain wrong. Thoughts and arguments after the jump.

Recent research adds another piece to the mountain of neural coding, this time regarding timescale:

“We discovered that the specific timing of these electrical pulses is crucial to interpreting how the neural code works as the brain represents what it sees in the natural environment. Understanding the ‘time scales’ that matter to the brain gives us insight into which units of the neural code we need to focus on if we ever hope to decode it,” explains lead author Dr. Daniel A. Butts

“Imagine — if we knew what specific signals meant, we might very easily diagnose brain illnesses, based on those electrical signatures. We could also track a patient’s recovery, much like cardiologists track the health of heart patients using EKGs,” Dr. Butts says. “Understanding the neural code would also greatly aid in psychiatric drug research; we could understand a medicine’s effect in the brain based on its known effects on its electrical activity, for example. And then there’s the field of ‘neural prosthetics’ — building direct links between the brain and machines that might allow the paralyzed to regain movement or the blind to see.”

Unfortunately, right now, most of the neural code is just so much “static” to even the most learned neuroscientists.

Maybe I’m a minority in this opinion but I feel that research on “neural coding” is ignoring previous research on the adaptive nature of the brain. Most neuroscientists will agree that the brain is a highly adaptive, plastic system. Regions of the brain can gain new functions or lose old ones. Functionality migrates to new regions after injury. The brain is constantly adjusting itself in a highly flexible manner.

And yet, research continues trying to find a common “language” shared by all human brains. Does this strike anyone else as odd? If our brains are highly flexible and capable of adjusting themselves, isn’t it likely that the “language” used in a particular brain vastly different from other brains?

The human brain has been pegged at roughly 100 billion neurons and impossibly large number of connections joining those neurons together. If we assume that each neuron has an ability to converse with neighbors (ie. action potentials and spiking), it would be safe to assume that any one neuron most likely has a small community that it belongs to. This community most likely communicates with the communities surrounding it, doing whatever business they do. Each community sits next to another, so on and so forth, across the brain. Just as people form social networks, neurons form social networks with who they communicate with.

Taking this analogy a step further, it is easy to see that as you move further from one community the local dialect changes. Given enough distance or difference in fundamental properties (perhaps different types of input), the language that these neurons communicate with will be different. I would suggest that it is highly likely that communities of neurons on one side of the brain are completely incapable of communicating with those on the opposite side. Of course, this anthropomorphises neurons by giving them human traits but the analogy is still useful.

If we agree that the language of neurons most likely changes radically from one side of the brain to another, it is even easier to see how neuron communication in one brain is completely different from any other. My brain has adapted to the unique formation and configuration of my brain, as well as the unique situations I have experienced in my life. Expecting my brain to speak the same language as your brain is completely irrational. It is like expecting to find an intelligent, sentient life form on another language that just happens to speak English.

Which is why research into neural coding is silly, put bluntly. I concede things can be learned from studying how neurons interact with eachother but these results must be taken with a grain of salt. The above quoted article reflects the ideas of many neuroscientists interested in neural coding - if we can crack this language, we will be able to speak brain.

And that is just plain false. The incredible plasticity of the brain will inevitably give rise to completely unique solutions to problems in every brain. My brain has adapted to situations pertinent to my life and my individual neuronal makeup. Yours has done the same. Like snowflakes, no two brains are identical. The quantity, location and connectivity of my brain is vastly different from others.

Assuming that, despite these huge differences, we still speak the same language is foolish.