OPinionatED

or

VOX POPULI

by

 Aam Admi

Issue: 163                           Date:  08.08.2016

Contents:

1.       The 'Foot in the Mouth' Disease Is Back In The BJP

2.       Swimming In High Inflationary Waters Until End-2017

3.       The Human Brain: Research’s Last Frontier

The 'Foot in the Mouth' Disease Is Back In The BJP

The 'foot in the mouth' disease that had been plaguing the BJP close to almost 6 months ago now seems to have come back with renewed vigour and it seems to be hitting right at the top echelon of the Cabinet at this time. The first victim of this disease is the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar who for no rhyme or reason and without any undue provocation raised the issue of Aamir Khan's statements in the past about intolerance spreading in the country and how his wife had mentioned that they should consider leaving India. The matter was for all purposes dead as a doornail to use a cliched phrase and had been forgotten until Parrikar with his immaturity gave it new life by saying that people like Aamir Khan have to be 'taught a lesson'. The paternalistic overtones that the words raised were compounded by the pettiness of the further comments by the country's Defence Minister saying how the BJP/RSS cadres forced an e-commerce Co. to drop Aamir Khan as brand ambassador by mass placements of orders and then canceling them. This kind of vindictiveness is clearly not appreciated and is tantamount to goondagiri with shades of blackmail which a senior minister indulges in a public gathering. It is time therefore that PM Narendra Modi cautioned his senior ministers and sent them and the rest of his Cabinet for a refresher course in public relations. This should at least encourage them to have a civil tongue in their mouths when they speak in public. The PM had suggested a refresher course for bureaucrats but the priority seems to be the public relations course for the Cabinet. Another related aspect that this incident brings out is that senior ministers need to realise that when they speak it is considered the official and sanctioned line of the government particularly when you consider how our illiterate masses take these things. Thus at this time where we have the cauldron already simmering across the country with the attacks on the Dalits by the 'go rakshaks', we will have the communal issues adding to the tension. The last thing that we need to realise is that people like Aamir Khan have the resources to face such situations and look after their security and that of their family. But when an atmosphere of uncertainty and division is created by such statements then the lower ranks of the Hindutva brigade will take it upon themselves to pick on unsuspecting and helpless people around the country leading to unfortunate deaths for no fault of the poor victims.

Swimming In High Inflationary Waters Until End-2017

With the passage of the GST bill in Parliament and the likelihood of a flat rate of direct tax across the country from April 2017, we should be prepared for an incendiary mix of runaway inflation starting from now and until end 2017. The reason for this is as follows, the 7th Pay Commission will be implemented  by the Centre from this month, August 2016 and some of the states will follow accepting it as we go into the new year. With this there will be more money in the hands of the salaried class to be extracted by rising prices. At the same time food prices particularly fruits and vegetables which showed a dip last month are likely to go up with news already coming in from Delhi that an increase of 35 - 40 % in prices of vegetables has happened because of the rains and floods dislocating supply lines. This pattern will follow across the country since with copious rains many parts of the country are reeling under floods particularly Bihar, Assam & Orissa. Already onions which prices had come down are likely to go up through September to November since the market will have to wait for the rabi crop to come in to stabilise prices. The prices of pulses have not changed much though the media has been used by the government in its drum-beating exercise of claiming that farmers have increased the acreage under pulse cultivation on the back of the hike in the MSP and that with the good rains there is a likelihood of a bumper harvest. But like they say the proof of the pudding is in the eating and with the gap in the demand and supply being so large, there is not much likelihood that prices of pulses will change dramatically. Thus as we go into the new financial year we will have then the GST implementation, if things happen according to plan, from April 2017 and it is expected that there will be a spike in inflation by doing this. This has happened in all countries that have moved to the GST plan and India will be no exception. This spike will be more accentuated by the fighting between the Centre and the States to set the GST rate in excess of the revenue neutral 18% to around 21-22% so that the States do not lose out on revenue. Where in the developed world you see the equivalent of GST being levied in single digit numbers, in India we are going to almost double of what is considered normal! This rate in excess of 21% will fuel the rising of inflation to exorbitant proportions. Why the governments, both the Centre and that of the States, not take a considered and unanimous decision that they will insulate the common man from these additional inflation woes and set the GST rate at 15% is something that the average citizen cannot fathom? Why is it that the common man has to always shoulder the financial burden of any government measure? For once let the government bear the cross and spread the under-recoveries into the future. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley the advocate turned quack economist has said that the spike in inflation because of GST will be short-term. Little does he realise or he realises but does not say so, that in India nothing  which goes up ever comes down back to the level where it started its upward journey. If questioned in the future Jaitley, will bow out by saying - You know how it is? Try and Manage. That is the typical reaction of our jugad ministers in a jugad country. Thus concluding one must say we have stoked our inflation engine with enough fuel to fly until end 2017 and God help the common man.

The Human Brain: Research’s Last Frontier

Even after the wonderful advances in science and technology that we have seen in the last 150 years, understanding the human brain still remains in equivalent terms to the Dark Continent as Africa was called in the early 19th century. The brain’s structure remains largely unknown and it’s functioning mysterious and elusive to researchers. That is the reason why it is called the last frontier for research today.

Have you wondered how a thought can transport you through time and put you in a situation or event in your life that you cherish? Maybe the pictures are a bit hazy of the other people who were at that moment present or related to that memory but it still warms the cockles of your heart and brings that contented smile to your face. This journey is like you are placed in a vehicle somewhat like a space/time machine that is triggered by a thought related to an image or a taste or a smell or a touch while you are going through your daily schedule of work. The process of transporting yourself does not require you to remove yourself from what you are doing at that moment in time but the feeling co-exists. These fleeting moments give you joy and relieve you from stress or the tedium of what you are then doing. If you so desire you can settle back in a kind of reverie indulging yourself in that memory. This transportation is not limited by any boundaries of space and time but finds you flying across continents or through decades of years depending upon how variegated your life has been. That similar taste will remind you of some food that your wife or mother cooked or that you had in some restaurant many long years ago or the smell of flowers or a perfume will bring back memories of a happy event or of that girl on the street that passed you by some 50 years ago.

Can this experience which elevates you mentally without having to take anything like imbibing alcohol or indulge in substance abuse be made to be available on call or on demand for each one of us? The necessity being that if this experience gives us joy and pleasure and gets us into a frame of mind that is enervating, then it enhances one’s happiness index which is a catalyst to help us perform better at whatever we are doing and share this happiness with those around us. Would this not make the world a happier place to live in?

The present status of research into the human brain is to assist those who are physically and mentally challenged to be able to do routine tasks and somewhat also ease their condition and reduce their suffering. Additionally the human brain is being investigated to perform tasks with computers and maybe long-term serve as a memory for computers or at best form the model on which computer memories would be based on if they can be created out of living tissue. Thus you see or will see paraplegics and those mentally challenged perform day to day tasks with the help of computers. You have also the brain interfacing with computers as some of the advanced labs in the US have shown. It is understood that the CIA has been working for long on telepathy and telekinesis, the manner of communicating of thoughts with another individual or a group of individuals in the first and the ability to move things with the brain. Most of this is hush-hush and shrouded behind the veils of secrecy. The seeming lack of path-breaking progress in any research on the human brain is implied in two seemingly innocuous statements. The first made in the attached article that the human brain is being investigated with tools of artificial intelligence that we have currently available. This means that something like the human brain with a higher order of performance is being attempted to be assessed by devices or techniques which are of an order of much lower performance. The question therefore is – Will we see any success or will success be delayed? The other is that sometime back it was reported in the papers that electric shock is again being used on mentally ill patients. The use of electric shock widespread until the early part of the 20^th century for treating mental patients was sought to be dispensed with since it involved essentially cruelty to the patient and gave no remarkable and repeatable results for cure. Is going back to the electric shock treatment an admission by our researchers that they are at sea with alternative methods of treatment? These comments are not to denigrate or make light of those who are working in this area of research into the human brain but to position that possibly we are not getting anywhere and we need to look at using more different and more advanced methodologies to decipher the mystery of the human brain.

The research on the human brain as it is reported to the outside world seems to be concentrating as covered earlier into helping those who are a small proportion of humankind, that is the physically and mentally challenged.  This though a crucial and necessary area tends to be limited and restricts the understanding of the brain for the larger benefit of the whole of humanity. The proposition here is that we should look at this matter in another way and that is focus on what can be done with the human brain to help the larger majority.  As mentioned at the beginning if we can make an apparatus that can control at will the transportation of humans into a state of re-enjoying their memories in a navigable manner then we will enhance the happiness of the world many times over. This apparatus can be in the form of a headgear which we see today being used for experiences relating to virtual reality. It will have electrodes or hardware to stimulate the brain to re-create what is required by the individual. Since we know at least that the brain works through neurons or electrical impulses, such an apparatus is not absolutely beyond the scope of reality. If such a device can be made then it will have a mass market which will create the necessary resources to invest further into the research into the brain. This apart from bringing down the cost of the headgear will also help in more allocation of money to be given to help in making devices to assist those who are mentally and/or physically challenged, the present focus of research.

For those who would like to read up a little more on the human brain an article entitled – Unknown Regions of the Brain – that came out recently in the Deccan Herald, Bangalore is attached.

Taken From The Deccan Herald, Bangalore Spectrum Supplement 2.8.2016

Unknown regions of the brain...

Carl Zimmer August 2, 2016, The New York Times

The brain looks like a featureless expanse of folds and bulges, but it’s actually carved up into invisible territories. Each is specialised: Some groups of neurons become active when we recognise faces, others when we read, others when we raise our hands. Last month, in what many experts are calling a milestone in neuroscience, researchers published a spectacular new map of the brain, detailing nearly 100 previously unknown regions — an unprecedented glimpse into the machinery of the human mind. Scientists will rely on this guide as they attempt to understand virtually every aspect of the brain, from how it develops in children and ages over decades, to how it can be corrupted by diseases like Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia. “It’s a step towards understanding why we’re us,” said David Kleinfeld, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the research.

Scientists created the map with advanced scanners and computers running artificial intelligence programmes that ‘learned’ to identify the brain’s hidden regions from vast amounts of data collected from hundreds of test subjects, a far more sophisticated and broader effort than had been previously attempted. While an important advance, the new atlas is hardly the final word on the brain’s workings. It may take decades for scientists to figure out what each region is doing, and more will be discovered in the coming decades. “This map you should think of as version 1.0,” said Matthew F Glasser, a neuroscientist at Washington University School of Medicine, USA and lead author of the new research. “There may be a version 2.0 as the data get better and more eyes look at the data. We hope the map can evolve as the science progresses.”

The first hints of the brain’s hidden geography emerged more than 150 years ago. In the 1860s, physician Pierre Paul Broca was intrigued by two of his patients who were unable to speak. After they died, Pierre examined their brains. On the outer layer, called the cortex, he found that both had suffered damage to the same patch of tissue. That region came to be known as Broca’s area. In recent decades, scientists have found that it becomes active when people speak and when they try to understand the speech of other people. In the late 1800s, a group of German researchers identified other regions of the cortex, each having distinct types of cells packed together in unique ways. In 1907, Korbinian Brodmann published a catalogue of 52 brain regions. Neuroscientists have relied on his hand-drawn map ever since, adding a modest number of new regions with their own research.

Establishing a new standard

“This is the standard for where you are in the brain,” said Matthew. Three years ago, Matthew and his colleagues set out to create a new standard. They drew on data collected by the Human Connectome Project, in which 1,200 volunteers were studied with powerful new scanners. The project team recorded high-resolution images of each participant’s brain, and then recorded its activity during hours of tests on memory, language and other kinds of thought. In previous attempts to map the cortex, scientists typically had looked only at one kind of evidence at a time — say, the arrangements of cells.

The Human Connectome Project has made it possible to study the brain in much greater detail. In addition to looking at the activity of the brain, the scientists also looked at its anatomy. They measured the amount of myelin, for example, a fatty substance that insulated neurons. They found sharp contrasts in myelin levels from one region of the cortex to the next. “We have 112 different types of information we can tap into,” said David C Van Essen, a principal investigator with the Human Connectome Project at Washington University Medical School.

Using these variables, the scientists trained a computer with data from 210 brains to recognise discrete regions of the cortex. Once the computer profiled the distinctive combinations of myelin, activity and other characteristics, they tested it on 210 other brains. The computer pinpointed the regions in the new brains 96.6% of the time. The scientists found that only a small number of features were required to map the brain. That means that researchers will be able to use their method to map an individual’s brain in a little over an hour of scanning. The map produced by the computer includes 83 familiar regions, such as Broca’s area, but includes 97 that were unknown — or just forgotten. In the 1950s, for example, German researchers noticed a patch on the side of the brain in which neurons had little myelin, compared with neighbouring regions. But the finding was soon neglected. “People tended to ignore it, and it was lost in the literature,” said David.

The computer rediscovered the odd territory and David and his colleagues found that it becomes unusually active when people listen to stories. That finding suggests the region, which they call 55b, is part of a language network in the brain, along with Broca’s area. In other parts of the cortex, the scientists were able to partition previously identified regions into smaller ones. For example, they discovered that a large region near the front of the brain, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, actually is made up of a dozen smaller zones. The region becomes active during many different kinds of thought, ranging from decision-making to deception. It’s possible that each of the newly identified smaller parts is important for one of those tasks.

Adept mapping

The computer program developed by the scientists became so adept at mapping the cortex that it could identify hidden regions even when they took on unusual shapes. Twelve of the research subjects, for example, have a 55b region that’s split into two isolated patches. Other neuroscientists hope that the new map will sharpen their experiments, allowing them to discover how the brain’s cogs mesh. “The next big step is seeing what this can do for us in terms of buying more power,” said Emily S Finn, a graduate student at Yale University, USA who has used Human Connectome Project data to find links between brain activity and intelligence.

David predicted that other researchers will find ways to verify the new map’s accuracy. Genetic testing, for example: If 180 regions of the cortex really are distinct, then the neurons in each should share a distinct combination of active genes. “You can imagine going to these 180 regions, taking a punch of tissue, and seeing if you can really genetically differentiate them,” said David. Many experts believe that the brain, on closer inspection, will turn out to be an even greater collective of regions that somehow cooperate for the common good.

David said that he and other scientists will be using the map to track the development of young brains and to look for changes caused by disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. “We shouldn’t expect miracles and easy answers,” he said, “but we’re positioned to accelerate progress.”

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