CRO MT 2018 — Questão 38 · Língua Inglesa - Compreensão e Interpretação de Texto

Why the brain-body connection is more

important than we think

Our brains aren’t flying solo; our emotions also come into play when we’re interacting with the world, new research finds.

1$$ $$ $$ $$ The book The Biological Mind explores two opposing

ways of looking at the brain: one in which our bodies and the

environment we live in affect how we think and what we do,

4$$ and the idea that the brain is an isolated and all-powerful

entity.

$$ $$ $$ $$ The idea that our brains are like giant

7$$ supercomputers, orchestrating and determining everything

we do, has gained ground in recent years. So too have ideas

that a short time ago would have been regarded as science

10$$fiction, like downloading the Internet directly to our brains,

or creating a new kind of human, one with enhanced

cognitive powers.

13$$ $$ $$ In his new book, Alan Jasanoff, professor of

biological engineering at MIT, explains why this “cerebral

mystique” creates a false dichotomy between the brain and

16$$the body and ignores bodily influences on our psychology,

from chemicals in the blood to bacteria in the gut.

$$ $$ $$ Speaking from his office at MIT, he explained why

19$$Red Sox legend Ted Williams had his body frozen in hopes

he could be thawed and re-animated someday; why changes

in temperature influence how much Dutch police shoot

22$$ their guns; and why the idea of downloading the Internet

directly into our brains is not a good one.

$$ $$ $$ This book is largely about two opposite ideas: the

25$$biological mind centered on the brain, in which influences

from the rest of the body and outside the body shape what

we think and do, and the cerebral mystique, a complex of

28$$stereotypes and ideals about the brain, which tend to treat

it as an isolated and all-powerful entity, almost like a

modern version of the soul.

31$$ $$ $$ The problem with having a dualistic view of the brain

and its relationship to the physical body, and the physical

world, is that it makes us see ourselves as unnaturally

34$$self-contained, both as minds and as autonomous agents.

In other words, we view ourselves as things that operate

from within, so we’re less sensitive to things that influence

37$$us on the outside. The idea that the brain is a machine, an

abstract entity like a giant supercomputer, has been around

for a while, basically since computers. Other people have

40$$used a quantum analogy for the brain. But the idea of the

brain as a computer is the most common in this day and

age.

Internet: <https://news.nationalgeographic.com> (adapted).

Based on the text, judge the items below.

The word “too”, in “So too have ideas that a short time ago would have been regarded as science fiction” (lines from 8 to 10), expresses result.