Ben Carson is well - known for saying plenty ofcrazy , unfounded , and just plain wrongthings .
But his data track disc as a neurosurgeon is well - abide by . The gentleman is , after all , a star sawbones whose feats in the operating elbow room include the only successful separation of Gemini the Twins unite at the back of the oral sex and the first neurosurgery on a fetus still in the womb .
Carson is a man of skill ( sort of ) . Which is why it was specially puzzling when on Monday the Department of Housing and Urban Development directortold employeesthat a brain surgeon such as himself could — if they desired — simply bore a hole in your top dog , stimulate your genius with electricity , and make you tell word - for - word a book you take decades originally . Uh , that is not possible .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDTa0GCAt0w
Carson , it seems , was attempt to make a point about the awing ability of the human brain — and it is astonishing , in accession to being so complicated that we still do n’t understand a whole lot of detail about how it works .
For starters , neuroscience isnot quite advancedenough for a sawbones to even know which area of the brain to get to achieve such a desire effect . DARPA , the Department of Defense ’s enquiry subdivision , currently hasa project in the workstrying to achieve exactly what Carson is talking about , but so far , all it has accomplish is achiever in implant computer memory in mouse . The undertaking , dubbedRestoring Active Memory , hopes to eventually also allow patient to recall computer storage once lose . But even if they succeed , it ’s potential that newer memories will be much sluttish to recall than older ace . It would still be unmanageable , if not impossible , to remember thing like a long - forgotten Holy Scripture that was read years earlier .
“ Using electrodes place in the human brain to implant retentiveness or to recall forgotten retentivity is simply not possible at this meter , ” Darin Dougherty , the director of the Division of Neurotherapeutics at Massachusetts General Hospital , told Gizmodo .
disregarded memoriesmay still be in your brain , but its unreadable if applied science will ever allow us to get at them . It certainly ca n’t right now .
The totally unscientific brain science lesson was n’t Carson ’s only blunder while addressing his employee . Carson also referred to slaves as “ immigrants , ” which as you could opine was not precisely appreciated by chemical group like the NAACP .
Immigrants???https://t.co / f0RH7iXBrn
— NAACP ( @NAACP)March 6 , 2017
But Carson ’s remarks on brain arousal were interest , especially because he was speaking on the one topic that he in reality does have significant knowledge and authority on . Ben , we know it ’s been a while since your med schooling days , but you might desire to brush up on your neuroscience before you step in front of a crowd to talk about brains .
Oh , uh , and while you ’re at it , possibly take a look at the account of slaveholding , too .
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