Relationship of The Brain and The Mind
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The mind can be defined as a person's set of intellectual or mental faculties. The human mind refers to the group of cognitive psychiatric processes that includes functions like perception, memory, reasoning (executive functions), etc. Depending on how the neurons are activated and connected to the different parts of the brain, our mental skills will be more or less efficient.
Main cognitive skills that make up our mind:
- Attention: Attention is the ability to choose and concentrate on relevant stimuli. Attention is the cognitive process that makes it possible to position ourselves towards relevant stimuli and consequently respond to it.
- Perception: Perception is the ability to capture, process, and actively make sense of the information that our senses receive. It is the cognitive process that makes it possible to interpret our surroundings with the stimuli that we receive throughout sensory organs.
- Memory: Memory is brain's ability to retain information and voluntarily recover it when needed. In other words, memory is what makes it possible to remember facts, ideas, feelings, relationships between concepts.
- Reasoning (Executive Functions): Superior cognitive functions, like reasoning, make it possible to relate the information that we perceive with the information that we have stored, which helps hypothesize and resolve problems that arise in daily life.
- Coordination: Coordination is the skill that makes it possible to move efficiently and precisely. It is the mental function responsible for making we efficiently interact with the environment.
Types of mental processes:
If you look closely, it's possible to divide mental processes into two different groups:
- Conscious Processes: The mental processes that we are aware of and know when they are happening. For example, remembering information that you studied for a test would be a conscious process, as you have to voluntarily and consciously work to remember a stored memory.
- Subconscious Processes: The mental processes that occur without us realizing. There are studies that show that the body experiences physiological changes (i.e.body temperature) when we are exposed to emotional stimuli for a short period of time (milliseconds), that go unnoticed. This means that even though we are not conscious of these stimuli, the mind is able to react to them. Another example would be when we are exposed to subliminal advertising. Even though we are not conscious of the can that we saw in an ad for a fraction of a second, we suddenly have the urge to go and buy a certain soda.
Are the brain and the mind the same?
Improve and strengthen your mind
Our basic mental or cognitive skills are the basis of how the mind works. Throughout our lives, we continue to develop these skills according to genetics and experiences lived. How can you improve your mind? Neuroplasticity makes it possible for the brain to adapt to the needs of the environment, which means that depending on how you stimulate your cognitive skills, they can be developed and improved according to each individual's possibilities.
CogniFit is an easy-to-use scientific tool that measures more than 20 cognitive skills. The precision of these assessments makes it possible to detect a deterioration or alteration in these skills that can later be trained by CogniFit personalized training. These assessments are made up of different tasks in the form of online games. The interactive format makes helps motivate the user find out information about their mind, helping children, adults and seniors improve important mental skills.
Mental disorders and illnesses are a type of mental health alteration that affects well-being of the person suffering and those around them. The main mental illnesses are presented in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and the ICD (International Classification of Diseases). While these two classifications have a different organization, the content is the same. Below, you will see the types of mental disorders broken into classifications:
Types of mental disorders according to the DSM-5:
Types of mental disorders according to the ICD-10:
These alterations often cause deficits in certain cognitive areas. It is important to mention that cognitive stimulation and rehabilitation can be helpful for a successful intervention as it helps to reduce the cognitive deficits that the patient faces.
Studying The Mind
Psychology is the area of study most responsible for studying the mind. While psychiatry and philosophy also touch on this subject, multiple areas of psychology center on the mind.
In the beginning, psychoanalysis the existence of a dynamic unconscious related to the concept of the mind. However, given that psychoanalysis does not follow the scientific method, it only contributed non-testable theories to the study of the mind.
After this, the behaviorist current argued that the mind could not be scientifically studied. They focused their study on observable behavior so that the study of the mind was relegated to the background.
Finally, cognitive psychology has tried to understand the functioning of the mind through computational models, which provide an important basis for the study of this concept. Unlike behavioral currents and psychoanalysis, cognitive psychology relies on mental processes to study the mind scientifically.
References: [1] Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. (2009). Part I. Foundations, Chapter 1: Development of Neuropsychology. In Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology (pp.5-6). New York, New York [2] American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing. [3]Morales, P., Medina, J., Guitiérrez, C., Abejaro, L., Hijazo, L., & Losantos, R.(2016). Los trastornos relacionados con traumas y factores de estrés en la Junta Médico Pericial Psiquiátrica de la Sanidad Militar Española. Sanid. mil., 72 (2), p. 16. [4] World Health Organization. (1992). The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders: Clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines. Geneva: World Health Organization. Shatil E (2013). Does combined cognitive training and physical activity training enhance cognitive abilities more than either alone? A four-condition randomized controlled trial among healthy older adults. Front. Aging Neurosci. 5:8. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2013.00008 Korczyn AD, Peretz C, Aharonson V, et al. - Computer based cognitive training with CogniFit improved cognitive performance above the effect of classic computer games: prospective, randomized, double blind intervention study in the elderly. Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association 2007; 3(3):S171.Shatil E, Korczyn AD, Peretz C, et al. - Improving cognitive performance in elderly subjects using computerized cognitive training - Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association 2008; 4(4):T492.Verghese J, Mahoney J, Ambrose AF, Wang C, Holtzer R. - Effect of cognitive remediation on gait in sedentary seniors - J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2010 Dec;65(12):1338-43.Evelyn Shatil, Jaroslava Mikulecká, Francesco Bellotti, Vladimír Burěs - Novel Television-Based Cognitive Training Improves Working Memory and Executive Function - PLOS ONE July 03, 2014. 10.1371/journal.pone.0101472. Gard T, Hölzel BK, Lazar SW. The potential effects of meditation on age-related cognitive decline: a systematic review. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2014 Jan; 1307:89-103. doi: 10.1111/nyas.12348. 2. Voss MW et al. Plasticity of brain networks in a randomized intervention trial of exercise training in older adults. Front Aging Neurosci. 2010 Aug 26;2. pii: 32. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2010.00032.