Neuroscience 2nd Century BCE

Last night this book called Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra was at hand, and I picked it up absentmindedly and opened a page that described the time lag between perception and cognition. Specifically verse 9 of the Vibhuti Pada. I’ll skip the sanskrit verse and straight to Taimini’s translation:

Nirodha Parinama is that transformation of the mind in which it becomes progressively permeated by that condition of Nirodha which intervenes momentarily between an impression which is disappearing and the impression which is taking place.

Nirodha = restraint+suppression / Parinama = transformation+result

Now this kind of bounced me, because I’m fresh from reading about Dr. David Eagleman’s research on Time perception and I immediately recognised the connect that it had to the last part of the sutra.

… intervenes momentarily between an impression which is disappearing and the impression which is taking place.

See a video by Eagleman labs about how the brain dilates time.

Patanjali is discussing perception, and he’s plainly making the distinction between mediate and immediate perception as well as pointing out the serial order of the impressions. Now, I know that the rest of the book is about modifying the mind to learn how to integrate it’s falsely conceived dualism, and Patanjali in the very begining makes the distinction between the atheist and the theist by claiming that you could either use a deity or not to practise yoga. Just so we know that religion isn’t being pushed in the name of science here.

MRI technology has helped co-relate thought to it’s physical centres in the brain, actually showing areas where the firing is taking place. Allowing that thought has a physical counterpart, we can also say that the mind can be conditioned for the brain to actually grow cells. Dr. Ramachandran’s experiment where he is able to locate the physical centre (on the face…) of the phantom limb shows that the brain actually grew cells to support information for the physically missing arm.

If I were to use the Dongle analogy here it may make more sense. High end 3d imaging technology comes with an anti-piracy directed DONGLE or hardware lock. This is a physical device that plugs into the computer. When the application starts up, it communicates with the dongle which pings back it’s existence. The software now knows that the dongle exists and that everything is all right for it to boot up. Software crackers get around this problem by inserting code into the cracked software. The crack intercepts the application’s message at boot up and mimics the dongle. The application is fooled into believing that the dongle exists and carries on booting up. Everything seems all right.

Say the right arm is missing and the corresponding cells in the brain have no use anymore, does the brain abandon them or rewire them? It seems they are rewired. I would think it’s for simple everyday functions such as maintaining balance. Perhaps a message is sent to the right arm to steady the body, the message is intercepted by the newly grown neurons which are the corresponding cells of the phantom right arm. Now if the non-existent phantom arm is really a psychological problem, then why are the neurons associated with the phantom arm. Localisation of the neurons and their exclusivity was proved by Ramachandran dropping ice water on areas of the patient’s face with the patient relating the area of sensation.

From Dr. V.S Ramachandran's Slides. Copyright: V.S. Ramachandran. PPT available here

The Phantom limb then is not a simple thought construct. Do the neurons exist for the phantom limb? Or is it the other way around? The Mirror Box technique resolves this question after the patient called Ramachandran back to tell him that the box had helped him get rid of the phantom limb. Did the neurons stop acknowledging the phantom limb after they started ’seeing’ the ‘regrown arm’?

So thought then does have a necessary co-relation to the physical counterpart lending completely new meaning to the concept of Samskaras in Vedic Literature. It is held that thought is as powerful as action and has it’s counterpart in the physical world. But this is just a side note. Back to Patanjali.

Seem from this view Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra are a precise set of instructions designed to allow the Yogi or practitioner to change the physical structure of his brain in such a way that it stops creating distinctions between impressions. RIght now the universal human condition lies in the editing of the brain. The brain provides edited information, always in context, always seemingly complete. He claims that his system will PHYSICALLY alter the body, and his claims are verified by other mystics though science has a hard time believing the subjective nature of their experiences.

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Edit

This post led to me starting this blog on Patanjali’s Yogasutras.