Steven Johnson gives a great talk on the topic of his book, Mind Wide Open. [I wish I could write like Steve. Total author envy.]

First he recounts the result of his own brain scans: When he was floundering, trying to come up with an idea, much of his brain lit up. When he was focused, the amount of brain activity went down. “People say that it’s a shame that we only use 10% of our brains. But that’s like saying that in many words, Shakespeare only uses 10% of the alphabet…how much better it would be if he used all the letters in every word.”

He says that dopamine causes the brain to explore its environment it has been disappointed in an expectation. Fascinating.

He ties this then to why video games are addictive. Video games have a clear reward structure, and frequently the reward is the desire to explore new areas (“I just need to play another 4 hours to unlock the next level of Myst!”). [Hmm, now that I think of it, shouldn’t the desire to explore new territory be tied to the failure to get a reward?]

Q: Are you now a determinist?

A: It’s important not to have discussions of the brain’s physiology get turned into determinism. We’re a mix of culture and genetics. The brain evolved to capture the idiosyncracies of an individual life.

Q: [Cory Doctorow] How can we neuro-amateurs distinguish crap from non-crap?

A: The Symphony in the Brain is a good book on the topic.

Q: [Neal Stephenson] Did the scan show any activity in your cerebellum.

A: No.

Q: Has this knowledge made you a better person?

A: Not really. You can recognize some patterns and that can be helpful.

Q: Who’s winning, the reductionists or the emergence-ists?

A: I tried to stay away from the question of the origin of consciousness, an incredibly difficult question.

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