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The Social-Emotional Brain

Unplugging the Computer Metaphor
by Eddie Harmon-Jones, Ph.D.
Eddie Harmon-Jones is a Professor of Psychology at Texas A&M University whose research is focused on social, affective, and motivational neuroscience. See full bio
July 22, 2009

Responses to Oddballs: A Robust Finding in Neuroscience

One of the most robust findings in neuroscience research is increased brain activity to the unexpected. This finding would not be predicted by a computer model of how the brain functions. However, it fits well with a model that emphasizes motivation. Read More

April 28, 2009

Unplugging the Computer Metaphor

The cognitive revolution began in the 1960s, and since then psychological research has been dominated by an information-processing model of brain function based on the computer metaphor. Recent social and affective neuroscience research shows that a computer is an inadequate and misleading metaphor for the human brain. The brain is much too hot and wet to be represented by a computer. Read More

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The human brain has been called the most complex object in the known universe, and in many ways it's the final frontier of science. A hundred billion neurons, close to a quadrillion connections between them, and we don't even fully understand a single cell.

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