About the human brain, modern research and paranormalnyh phenomena told the correspondent member of RAS, Director of Institute of human brain (St. Petersburg) Svyatoslav Medvedev


"AiF": - the Secrets of the human brain is always worried, worried now and will excite people. Svyatoslav, what research is currently underway in your brain Institute? What are the secrets of the brain you have opened and what you plan to work in the future?

Svyatoslav Medvedev: - the most important Task of our Institute is to understand the difference between a human brain from the brain even the most highly organized animals. I in their reports usually take slide My family. This three girls, two women and two dogs, and the head of the big dogs more than mine. They are very smart dog, but intelligence is different. What the human brain makes the human brain?

This is perhaps one of the most complex issues that had been set before mankind. The answer is still unknown. It is very important that, knowing how the brain begin to understand how to treat his illness. On the other hand, the disease is created by the nature of the experiment. We cannot perform experiments on man as on cats, monkeys or rats. What is the experiment? This artificially induced infringement of functions, and it is investigated how the animal reacts to this violation.


We artificially it cannot do, and the disease can, therefore we work with the clinic. We see what happens when violations, and try this violation to fix. The more we know about the brain, the better we get treatment, because if you know, how much more or less clear how to fix it. That is why we have science laboratories, there is a clinic for 160 beds. To separate these things are impossible. The laboratory staff are working in the clinic, the clinic staff in laboratories. We find out how creativity is the most human activity, attention, language, generally thinking, why are there remorse as a person is lying.

"AiF": - Any discoveries can be expected in the coming years? What you're now working?

S.M.: - We are working on many issues. We are working to understand how a man does, what is the creative process. Continue to work hard as a person is lying, what happens when a person is cheating. Look how human speech. For example, there is a right and irregular verbs. People just remembers all the irregular verbs or is there still some rule by which he forms. We study the disease. For example, now we can say that a person comes out of coma or not. I think in the future in this way progress is possible, because very often coma actually is not irreversible brain damage. Study epilepsy, parkinsonism, how to treat a range of diseases, how to treat tumors.

We are the only medical institution located not in Moscow, who has a steady flow of patients from Moscow. If the past 8 years ago, we had no one re sick, they died after our diagnostics, because the survival of the person with certain types of tumors was in the region of half a year, now we learn how to diagnose and treat that come to us patients are already in the sixth time. This means that instead, they have lived for six years due to the fact that well-diagnosed and properly treated. Further naturally our task is to understand how the brain works and how to treat serious diseases. It is our task was, is and will be.

"AiF": - what kind Of diseases you can say that they or being treated for easier compared to what it was a year or two ago, or are you already on the threshold of discovery?

S.M.: " I was on the report of one of the academician, very large neurosurgeon. He cited statistics. If from certain diseases mortality in 1955 was 80%, now 5%. Treated easier for almost all diseases, but we, unfortunately, very few diseases can be cured. We are able to stabilize person. For example, parkinsonism. Now there are treatments - and pharmacological, and surgical who had great help, but they do not eliminate the cause, the disease continues to develop. Epilepsy - we treat, sometimes instead of 10 seizures a day 1 remains an attack in a year, but to treat epilepsy we cannot yet do. Viral disease we can not treat none. Progress is very big, but it's not a victory. I think that complete victory will not, because people still have something to die and there are other diseases, because what we are now faced with stroke, cardiovascular disease...

"AiF": - it is Possible to say that Russia in this area ahead of the entire planet?

S.M.: " No, you cannot. Ahead there can be no state. Something we do better, something they do better. Within 5 years our Institute has been a member of the so-called center of Excellence. This 8 laboratories of the Nordic (North) countries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and the Leningrad region. We investigated the problem of cognitive control, that is, how people control their behavior. I was involved in one aspect of this problem, someone else who is third. This is a natural division of labour. Something we do better, so we at the Institute were patients from abroad, sometimes we send patients abroad. It is a natural thing.

"AiF": with regard brain, his work is very interesting. But as you do your research? On the brains of people?

S.M.: " We work with subjects which there is no harm. They asked questions and they removed electric potentials, or non-invasive methods. We do not get to them in the brain. Either we work with patients, which act on the brain in order to disinfect them. For example, patients in a coma, that is, people who cannot speak, or even as something to share information. We act on the brain: it and operative intervention and stimulation, and pharmacological therapy. Realizing that obtained under certain interventions, we understand how the brain. We do it for the sole purpose to help the patient. You don't just try to do something to the patient somehow reacted. Or you couldn't do that this patient, we will not help you, but we will get information that will be relevant for other patients. Any intervention should help to this particular patient, and the results of this intervention give us the necessary information.

Establishment of the artificial brain

"AiF": - Science is making great strides towards creating an artificial brain. Isn't that a suicide? Where are the guarantees that the brain does not want to incinerate its Creator, that is, man? And why do we need an artificial brain? Its that little?

S.M.: - Answer on the need to create an artificial brain. There was a major scientist grey Walter, in fact, he is the founder of cognitive neurophysiology. To the question how he refers to the idea of creating artificial human and artificial brain, he answered that he is still quite young, so he was interested in the problem of creating a natural way. Why artificial brain, I have little understanding of why we need artificial intelligence is another question. People confuse artificial brain and artificial intelligence. If we use an incredible effort will create a brain artificially, which will not differ from our natural brain, it will be on anecdote: a scientist within ten years of work have proved that the "Odyssey" was not written by Homer, but quite another old blind man, who lived at the same time, and which bore his name. But intelligence is another matter. Artificial intelligence can create evil that destroys anything, you can create good, you can create it with restrictions, for example, applying the three laws of robotics by Isaac Asimov.

You create it with a specific purpose. For example, now the plane can make a blind landing without the participation of the pilot. Here is an example of artificial intelligence. It sometimes can do it better than the pilot. People that something can't do and is necessary for these purposes artificial intelligence, i.e. to work in a place where man is hard to work with. Most importantly, if, creating a brain, you can invest in it aggression, it is necessary to raise the level of certain substances in the brain. In the natural brain we can not yet say how exactly to adjust its properties. And artificial intelligence is quite simple - put a certain number of restrictions.

You can create artificial soldier. If my friend from the street near forced to go to war, let it sits better in a convenient location and manages artificial intelligence, than comes under fire itself.


Memory capacity

"AiF": - Some researchers argue that the human brain came up to the peak of its development. In their opinion, if the brain to try to load more, he will not have enough oxygen and people will die. Conclusion: further progress is impossible. What do you think about this statement?

S.M.: - the fact that we are all the time is dispensed. We are talking about the fact that we live in a world of stress, it is so heavy, badly. Let me at minus 20 in swimsuit will send you to the taiga with a knife, matches and I will give you a task: to reach the town 20 kilometers. Because our ancestors lived. People wrote a book about how people traveled from one village to another in Switzerland, he drove for a week and had suffered such that wrote about this book in the middle ages. He had information, Pathfinder was looking for traces so that I had read like an open book. I recently looked at the animals in their natural setting, I don't see the beast, until the accompanying shows me exactly where to look on the background of their mimicry unprepared man is hard to see them.

So the Pathfinder brain works not worse than mine, it just works in a different key. I process information and weed out a lot of information and more will be screenings of General information, like the ancient hunter - it will be concentrating on any specific things: on the tracks of the beast and is to move away from the tiger, we will concentrate on the work and rest homes.

"AiF": - And the rest of the information will be forgotten or delayed in some files?

S.M.: - actually still do not know the capacity of our memory. It seems to me that the only limit that will have the brain is the memory capacity, but it is still far from being fully used, it is unknown what it is. People don't forget, the problem at the recollection. It has now become topical for us, when you look for a file on disk, you have a lot of information to find the file that you recorded a year ago is a big problem. In the same way for you to remember something: where were you, what were you doing on a given day, where did you see that face. Property forget is the most important property of a person. If he didn't forget he could not live with him all the time on the desktop, roughly speaking, would all information.

"AiF": - How do you feel about the issue unusual paranormal abilities of people?

S.M.: - For a very long time I have worked with people who said that they possess paranormal abilities. I never say, "This is impossible". I said, "Show".

Now for 20 years I have never seen a real manifestation of the paranormal. Show me and I will work, I will try to explain it, but I don't see it.