The human brain as a system of complex nervous processes and patterns, can be explained in terms of its stratification into interacting functional areas that serve purposes of the cybernetic behavioral integration of the human organism. From this model, the mind can be seen primarily as the "ghost in the machine": i.e., the emergent property of symbolic awareness that is the outcome of the functional organization of the brain. When we figure out this functional organization, perhaps, we may be able then to design soft-ware programs or even hard-ware digital-analog computer configurations that actually replicate in some genuine and realistic way the standard of Artificial Intelligence.

Earlier research in aphasias, particularly among those suffering battle wounds during and after World War II, has coupled with more recent advances in magnetic resonance imaging techniques to reveal with unprecedented detail the functional organization of the living brain and what happens when certain specific sections of the brain are destroyed. We cannot achieve this functional insight into the inner workings of the brain and its behavioral associations in the world by the dissection and pickling of a dead brain. We cannot ethically operate and expose upon a living brain or experiment with a living brain in a manner that would provide us systematic insight into its functional centers of organization.

In the performance of complex operations, like reading a book, or watching a movie, or surfing the web, certain regions of the brain are turned on and utilized in a definite pattern. And the human brain appears to have this remarkable capacity, not only for almost unlimited learning and limited recovery, but for actually improving its skill performance of complex action sets over the structure of the long run, what some have referred to as the "wisdom paradox." 

The mind then, can be seen as the emergent property of the functional organization of different areas of the brain, of which there are many, and we can track long term trajectories in the development of the mind and the organization of the brain as a function of the life-experience and learning that an individual undergoes in the course of a life-time. This calls to question the plasticity of the brain, and, more specifically, the functional plasticity of the organization of the brain, to not only perform certain complex sets of tasks, but in time to develop short-cuts and improvements in this task performance. A modicum of transference of function from one area to another has been noted--for instance in cases of deaf people who lack verbal speech, or people who are blinded.

Two basic processes of higher order brain function appear interrelated--pattern recognition or "pattern formulation" on one hand, and problem solving, on the other. The lateralization of brain function is not completely or well understood, but it has been suggested that the right side is preoccupied with pattern recognition, and the left-side with problem solving. More important perhaps than the mystery of functional lateralization of the brain has been the development of the neo-cortex and its functional differentiation and development on both sides of the brain. The layering and interiorization of brain connections, and the possible differentiation of brain function by layer, brings an added dimension of complexity to the entire problem of its functional organization.

My dog responds to me intelligently in many ways, and can even do simple tasks and tricks when I show and train it. But there are some things my dog just doesn't seem able to do--like see its own reflection in the mirror, as a reflection of itself at least, or recognize on a page a drawing or meaningful representation. I think teaching a dog to read or write has a long way to go. Even Koko, the best known and most successful of the signing Great Apes, appears to have after many years of training and practice, a vocabulary of only about a thousand words. Of course, a thousand word vocabulary is probably the minimum number of words necessary for a basic human language about the world, but the average child achieves this capacity and repertory by about three and a half years of age, and probably sooner.

Learning new behavioral sets or repertories of reaction and habit, for instance, may rely on different parts of the brain than when experience and expertise with an complex task and its performance are well developed. As people age, and as they practice and get better at doing what it is they do, their functional activity and reliance of the brain shifts and changes in its functional patterning. These shifts can relate to alterations of behavior and personality, changes in mood, temperament and emotional response.

Understanding the functional organization of the brain through the consequences of specific aphasias and brain process imaging techniques is an important first step towards understanding the foundations of human intelligence and mind. I hypothesize that there occur central integrative structures in the brain that have general and specialized functions in tying together other areas of brain activity and serve the purpose of binding this activity into a seamless, "filmstrip" whole. I hypothesize that the breakdown of these central structures, and of the functional integration of the brain, can account for various forms of mental illness, especially schizophrenias and I think certain personality disorders and psychopathologies.