Do you ever tire of this issue? If the brain controls the body, it is
also true that the body controls the brain. It is an oversimplification
no matter how its stated. We do not benefit from such broad
generalizations. Your relentless quest for a controller of the brain is a
search for a humunculus. Your thinking would be much better clarified by
examining specific issues than by vague, loosely defined notions.
For example, what things control you? What things do you control? Can
you decide? Can you draw a firm distinction? Can you be certain those
things that you control do not control you, and vice-versa?
What makes this an interesting or productive question?
Consider the possibility that while things control (or influence) one
another, the relationship is rarely unidirectional. In fact, the most
interesting, complex and relevant examples are of reciprocal influence,
recurrent networks, feedback, modulation, interaction. The rest of it is
all plebian, pedestrian and simple. Fodder for the dim-witted.
------
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of
those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have
too little. -Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Anthony J Greene, PhD
Department of Neurosurgery e-mail: ajg3x@virginia.edu
HSC Box 420 phone: 804.924.0356
University of Virginia fax: 804.982.3829
Charlottesville, VA 22908 website: http://avery.med.virginia.edu/~ajg3x