Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with brain

My brain is broken.

relucent — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:25:52 -0800

I think I may have a thyroid disorder. What now? Details inside. 25-year-old healthy white male. No medical history to speak of.

For the past five months, I have gradually lost my ability to concentrate or focus on anything for more than a few minutes at a time. (I have always been prone to distraction, but not like this.) My ability to process information has decreased, and I am constantly in a state of what can only be described as "brain fog".

I used to be quick-witted, but now I often will forget what I'm saying in the middle of a sentence. My conversational skills have tanked. I write a lot, but I go back and read the things I've written recently and they lack the clarity and cohesiveness that I used to have. I also fidget constantly. If I'm sitting at my desk, my leg is shaking almost 100% of the time. I am frustrated to no end with all of this.

The start of it coincided with a stressful project at work over the summer which lasted about 2 months. We also moved to a new city in October for my wife to take a job, and I am now working from home after being in an office environment for the past three years. So there were the factors of stress and and a big lifestyle change that could have contributed. It may be worth pointing out that I probably do not get as much exercise as I should, but I have recently started running a few times a week and it hasn't helped a bit. I also quit drinking coffee, but no help there either.

Most of these symptoms are indicative of a thyroid disorder of some sort (probably hypothyroidism). Both of my parents have had a history of minor thyroid problems so this would not be unprecedented, though they were both over 40 when they had their issues, so 25 is awfully young.

So I think I have a problem and I think I may know what it is. I'm scheduling my yearly physical in the next couple of days, and will see if I can get some tests done. (I am terrified that they won't find anything. The worst thing I could hear is that I don't have a problem.) But is there anything else I can do in the mean time? Any other steps I should be taking?

I know self-diagnosis is a dangerous thing, and I know hypothyroidism is an easy scapegoat for life failures. But I don't have anything to blame on it... I'm not overweight and I haven't really failed at anything. My work performance has actually been excellent despite all of this. I just can't think.

Is something wrong with my brain??

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:17:17 -0800

Something odd happened to me cognitively last night. Have you experienced anything similar? After a dinner party at my own house at which I'd had only ONE drink (hours earlier) I went out to walk the dog. I was very tired but felt normal. I looked at the house numbers that are stuck on my mailbox and they looked "wrong" -- I thought the number was off by one digit. That is, the mailbox said 7889 and I thought it was supposed to read 7859. 7889 looked totally unfamiliar. For a moment I thought the lawn guys who were there that afternoon must have knocked the numbers off the mailbox and put them on in the wrong order, so I assumed the other side of the mailbox would now say 7559. But again, it was 7889. I got a chill. This didn't seem like my address. Suddenly a fog lifted and I remembered that indeed it is my address and has been for the last 4 years that I've lived here: 7889. No 5s in it at all, ever. The episode lasted about 40 seconds I guess. The number 7859 seemed weirdly familiar to me all day until I remembered it was indeed the house number of a place I lived years ago, and where a friend still lives -- I sent her a letter there a few weeks ago so I guess it was in the back of my mind.
Last week I had a concussion. I'm a little freaked out. I can't see going to the emergency room over this though.
Has anything like this ever happened to you? Do I have early alzheimer's or brain damage? Or was I just tired and having a weird moment? I am 45.

What was this weird temporary recognition failure

srboisvert — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:07:46 -0800

This morning I suffered from a disturbing failure of my recognition memory. I couldn't figure out what Dexter or Californication were even though I had watched both series from start to end. Even after asking my wife the names of the shows seemed completely unfamiliar though I could recall the general content. I have had some trouble sleeping lately and am pretty tired. I am also on a calorie restriction diet with an aim to lose 1.8 lbs a week.

It recovered pretty quickly. I felt normal in about 15 minutes.

Anybody know what was going on?

If it doesn't hurt, you're not doing it right...

Zé Pequeno — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:15:07 -0800

The old adage 'No Pain, No Gain' appears intuitive when it comes to developing physical prowess. I only started to see gains in the gym after pushing myself to the point where I'd wake up thinking I'd be crippled for the rest of my life. Is the same true for cognitive improvements too? I'm not normally prone to headaches but I've started to notice that after reading very difficult text books, I am left with a headache varying in severity from the mildly inconvenient to the unbearable. Since starting to play Dual N-back, an insanely difficult game scientifically-proven to improve fluid intelligence and working memory, it has got even worse.

I'll be the first to admit that I've not used my brain properly in a long time. Should I take this as evidence that my efforts are paying off or indication of a more serious health concern? I might be wrong but I doubt that it's the latter because I only have headaches when I engage in something that significantly pushes me to my limits.

A game of Dual N-back is normally followed by the need to lie down and rest for 15 minutes or so. I like to think that the headache is merely an outward manifestation of my brain producing new neurons and better connections. Is there any scientific explanation that might confirm this?

To be a musician, or to be depressed?

emilyw — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:43:02 -0800

Can ECT affect musical ability? Does anyone have any experience of someone with a very high level of musical ability (particularly perfect pitch) who has been through ECT?

Looking for anecdotal evidence of the effect (or hopefully lack of effect) of ECT on advanced musical skills. Proper studies would be good too, but I doubt there are any :-(

How far have we come in 25 years?

jonathanbell — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:12:38 -0800

Seeking accurate data points for improving survival rates for neurological disorders, but have no idea where to start. I'm looking for information on how patient survival rates have improved in the last 25 years, specifically for diseases like Parkinsons and Alzheimers, and what advances in treatment, surgery, drugs, etc., are behind the figures.

As a total medical ignoramus, I would also be interested in learning about the key developments in neuro surgery over the last quarter century. I'm in the UK, but global perspectives are always helpful.

Apologies in advance for the rather simplistic approach and thank you.

I need to run chkdsk on my brain...

Salvor Hardin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:35:01 -0800

My mind is blown, it's not my own, where did my idea go? I'm feeling fine, but I've lost my mind! Help? Three days ago, while walking somewhere, I came up with a cool idea. A really cool idea. I mean, an astoundingly awesome idea.

And now I can't remember what it is.

Do you have any tips for recovering memories like this? I was distracted by something immediately after getting the idea, and I guess it didn't get stored into permanent memory in my brain.

It probably wasn't as incredibly brilliant as I am remembering, but it's been persistently bugging me that I've forgotten what it is. I really don't remember anything about it, except that I was excited about it. This has happened before, but it's never been so frustrating for so long! It feels like a big pothole in my mind.

So, mefites, do you have any tips, tricks, mindhacks, etc, for remembering stuff like this? Should I stare at a candle cross-eyed while huffing ginkgo-biloba vapour? Hang upside down blindfolded and think about it as hard as possible? I've tried NOT thinking about it, but it hasn't worked, and it keeps coming back to haunt me. Have you found anything that works for this? I don't even know if there's anything that can help, but I'm open to suggestions. Thanks!

help it all go away

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:51:18 -0800

Bad memories are interrupting my life. What do I do and how do I cope with it? I had a great upbringing in lots of ways and my mum remains a great lady, but my feeling about family is coloured by the way my dad behaved - from age 9 to when I left home, I was subject to his enormous mood swings and temper - when my mother was out at work, he would often find a small misdemeanour to get angry about, then spend hours shouting at me until I was hysterical, then shout at me again for 'snivelling', calling me names (stupid, boring, moronic, that my untidy room caused his heart attack), and hitting me over the head, sometimes with implements such as a book or a teatray. On one occasion he didn't believe me when I said I had not taken his batteries, and kicked a hole in the bathroom door while a schoolfriend of mine who was staying over was on the other side. (Perhaps co-incidentally, I've suffered from migraine since I was nine, and my brother has recently seen the hospital after severe headaches and they found something in his brain which requires medication.) Outside of this, he was overbearing, wouldn't allow me to speak up or disagree with him (at twenty, saying 'calm down' led to him getting so angry he spat in my face and told me that if I spoke to him like that again I'd never be allowed to cross the doorstep ever again) didn't take an interest in my life or congratulate me if something went well, would ignore visiting friends
and boyfriends in favour of the TV but say things like 'when you go out looking scruffy people I know might see you and it will embarrass me' and would be incredibly rude and dismissive about anything he didn't agree with, down to the smallest choices. In my early twenties I undertook therapy on this as I was waking up with flashbacks and wanted to leave it behind. When he died, my family forgot how much of an arsehole he could be (my mother and he did not speak for six months because she shouted at him during an argument, and he would throw his rubbish in bags out of the upstairs window rather than walk through the livingroom, where she was, to the bin) and thought that I was less upset about his death because I was pretending it wasn't happening - I'd rather not change that. What did upset me was the effect it had and has on my mum.

Anyway, last time I had the flashback thoughts was just before a nervous breakdown, and for the past couple of months it's been happening again. It feels like I'm back in that situation again and equally powerless - like someone's yelling at me and telling me that all the negative thoughts I have are true, and I can't answer back. I'm terrified something is about to break again, and I don't know how to deal with it - I found therapy the first time very difficult, there's almost a taboo on discussing less than perfect family relationships (for years nobody knew why I would get in a bad mood before father's day) and I find this extremely difficult to talk about. I had an argument with my boyfriend at the weekend and one of the things he said unwittingly reminded me of it all, and I couldn't stop crying - as I find it difficult enough to talk about this, I couldn't explain to someone who was angry with me, and he just thought I was putting it on. I finished a relationship once before - albeit one that had been going wrong for some time - because the way he was acting (breaking my things, shouting at me in an incredibly nasty way, getting physical, not giving a shit if I was upset) reminded me too much of the situation in my teenage years and I felt pretty angry with myself for putting myself in one like that again. Now it seems like it's wrecked another relationship and it's not generally doing me any good, either.

I feel like I've spent years not able to tell people why I get upset, and I feel like I don't want to go through it anymore - being someone with 'triggers' or 'daddy issues'. hearing that critical voice constantly in my head and not being able to take the present at face value, going through another breakdown and losing aspects of my life that I've worked hard to keep in place.But I don't think I can go through life with this happening every few months or couple of years. I'm not sure what to do anymore.

Bedshaped

Sutekh — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:33:56 -0800

Please help me remember the name of this stage of psychological development, where you can begin to discern the volumetric differences between containers of different sizes. Some time ago I remember reading an anecdote about a psychologist who was visiting his friend's family. The family consisted of the mother and the father, both also psychologists, and a five year old boy and seven year old girl.

As he was helping prepare lunch, he showed the boy two different glasses and said, "which holds the most water?"

And the boy said, "I'd say this one, but you should ask my sister. She already has XXXXX".

What is XXXXX?

Who am I really?

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:44:28 -0800

Facebook has an application dedicated to Top Five lists called Living Social. I find it distressing that, when attempting to list five things – books, for example – according to how highly I rate them, I can’t seem to do it. Quotes, a particular love of mine, are also problematic. As are memories, foods and anything else you might feel compelled to ask me. Sure, most of the time I can think of something when asked that sounds convincing enough to at least convey a semblance of intelligence, but I can rarely come up with the ones that truly define who I am until often hours afterward - sometimes I can't even do that. Yesterday, when prompted to speak about classic films, I couldn’t even think of three when asked, despite having watched hundreds over the years. It’s as if my brain just shuts down and the harder I try to think, the emptier the space between my ears becomes and the phonier and more pathetic-looking this so-called personality of mine begins to appear. For someone so academically and professionally successful, on paper at least, this is starting to worry me. I just seem incapable of spontaneous thought without the aid of a trigger. Funnily enough, once stimulated to speak about an idea, they tend to flow and a magical process seems to take hold whereby one idea feeds another. I actually feel knowledgeable and authoritative. To what extent is this normal? In real life, my problem translates to embarrassing situations in which I’m asked important questions and am able to give only the vaguest of responses, though luckily, being reasonably articulate – a good bullshitter, according to friends – I am often able to make them sound convincing enough to satisfy my interrogator, but rarely ever myself. My greatest fear is that one day soon I am going to be exposed as the fraud that I almost certainly am. I just seem incapable of organising my thoughts properly and have even started to convince myself that any ‘success’ I have had has come about more from luck and my ability to bullshit than any truly innate talent. Re-reading my Masters dissertation today, I couldn’t help castigating myself with the phrase, “Throw enough shit, and it’ll stick,” whilst questioning the intelligence of my tutors who also appear to have been too stupid to have seen through my ruse.

This has all come to a head today and left me feeling thoroughly depressed. I’m teaching English in a leading Latin American business school as a way to kill time – and make money – before I start my first full-time job within a fast-paced, demanding multinational in November. One of my students, a 30-something, self-assertive MBA, asked me to give examples of British slang, something I should be more than familiar with considering that I’ve been using slang on a day-to-day basis since arriving in kindergarten. My mind just went blank – completely blank, as if a light had been switched off and every nook and cranny had descended into pitch darkness. After an embarrassing few moments where I felt his gaze almost begin to burn a hole through me, I laughed and said I’d prepare an activity using slang next week.

One other thing, you know on social network sites where it asks you to describe yourself? Forget it. I just can't do it. I end up feeling like a complete non-entity.

Despite the existence of a wealth of evidence to the contrary, by most people’s definitions I think I’d probably be considered to be of above-average intelligence. The dire predictions of my high school teachers, confounded by the fact that I never, ever seemed to do any work, in the end proved baseless and I went on to graduate with a respectable – but hard won - degree from Cambridge and, most recently of all, an even harder-won Masters from an equally respectable French institution. I mention this not to brag but merely to illustrate that I haven’t always been so dumb as I feel now.

What is wrong with me? ADHD? Depression? Early-onset Dementia? Brain tumour? Deficit Syndrome-predominant Schizophrenia? Just going bat shit insane? What? If not illness, how can I learn to think better on the spot.

Posting anonymously for obvious reasons.

Do you remember the day you started thinking in your current spoken language?

querty — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:10:45 -0800

Those who have learned to speak and think in another language, do you remember the age (and day) you started thinking in your current spoken language? I thought about this while reading At what age do your memories begin?

I think this is an important question (especially for immigrants who spoke a different language) because for example, let's say a Japanese man started learning French at the age of 35, he might be able to master the French language; but I would highly doubt that he would be able to think in French because he has been conditioned so long under the Japanese language. So one might say that kids under a certain age would have an advantage in learning a second language.

And it would be interesting to know if anybody out there actually remembers the day when their brain switched to another language.

Are there studies/research done based on this?

How to produce specific audio tones?

shazzam — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:27:34 -0800

Is there an instrument or gadget that will allow me to produce multiple tones of specified frequency simultaneously? I just finished reading much MeFi-recommended "This Is Your Brain On Music". Levitin talks about a lot of things I would like to experiment with. Most of these can be tried out on a regular keyboard: perfect fifths are great, difference between major/minor chords, etc. However, the things he says to explain why we have the 12 tone plus octaves system depend on trying out tones not on a regular keyboard and concluding that they suck.

One thing I would love to try is the perfect half-octave: two tones with a frequency ratio of square root of 2 to 1. That combination is supposed to be particularly unpleasant but (or hence) not available on a keyboard. Or what happens if we displace the whole 440 Hz based progression by one based on some random frequency: do major/minor chords still carry similar meaning?

Is there a way to do these things that doesn't cost more than a few hundred bucks? I suppose I could download some software for this, but I'm not sure if the tones produced by the puny speaker on a Mac will be reliable enough.

TBI Resources

trbrts — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:25:49 -0800

Looking of resources to help a friend recover from a Traumatic Brain Injury. Where can I get started? A very close friend of mine was in a bicycle accident 2 weeks ago. His health situation is stabilizing slowly, but, it looks like his recovery is going to be a long one. I'm looking for resources about his injury and ways to help him recover. Thanks in advance.

Why does caffeine give me a paradoxical effect?

the jam — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:00:08 -0800

For the past year, caffeine has had a strange effect on me. I drink soda or coffee -- and within minutes, I feel groggy, fuzzy headed, and almost kind of drunk. I get absolutely no stimulating effects. The more I drink, the more fuzzy-drunk I feel. Caffeine used to make me feel wonderful -- awake, cheerful, on-point. I've never drank an excessive amount (2 coffees a day, max). Can anyone explain what might be going on in my brain chemicals?

Incense and brain function

pranalaxmi — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:39:04 -0800

Does incense hinder or help the thinking process? Have there been studies on which kind of incense might boost brain function? Can one light up a stick of ginkgo biloba?

It's what's inside that counts.

elektrotechnicus — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:53:29 -0800

I just had an MRI and MRA in response to these issues, and the radiologist's report should be relayed to me in a day or two. I've already had one normal CT scan. I received a copy of all the images from this scan - should I look at them? On the one hand, I have no medical training and if I'm not sure what if anything I could glean from looking. On the other hand, there is a ton of reference material on the web and I feel like I could at least reassure myself that there are no gross structural defects or abnormalities. Then again, if there were anything "obvious" it would have been seen on the CT, right?

If I do decide to look, what should I look for?

Preventing brain auto-pilot?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:58:39 -0800

How can I stop my brain switching to auto-pilot? Occasionally throughout my life I will notice that I am not really engaging my brain very much any more, and that I am running almost fully on auto pilot. By this I mean that I am functioning almost completely without thinking and am simply giving the correct response to, well, anything actually, based on past responses.

Then "a thing" happens which requires more brain power, and I'm back again, for a few months or longer.

These auto-pilot episodes are not anything that other people notice, except perhaps that i am not as quick as usual or think as deeply as usual, but it's something I'd prefer to avoid.

Does anyone else experience this? How do you prevent your brain switching to auto-pilot? I'm 30.

Music - Rockin Rockin Music

orville sash — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:01:11 -0800

Why don't I pay attention to lyrics? I am a huge music fan, as well as being a musician. As long as I can remember I have had a serious infatuation with music, and I generally like to have it on during all waking hours. Which is why I am wondering - why don't I pay attention to lyrics? Unlike most music fans, I generally couldn't tell you the lyrics to a lot of my favorite songs. I even listen to a ton of hip-hop, but generally don't remember the lyrics (Enter the 36 Chambers excepted, as I've probably listened to that album more than any other album ever.)

My questions:

1.) Is this a known phenomenon?
2.) Does it have to do with conditioning, or is this how my brain was wired?

How do I get a medical loan for upcoming brain surgery?

sickinthehead — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:34:54 -0800

I'm having brain surgery and need to get a medical loan for about 150k. Help? I'm having brain surgery - possibly within the next 3 weeks if I can get everything in order that fast. The price tag is 150k. I'm not sure how much insurance is going to cover, but I am dubious because it is a preexisting condition and I went through a half year where I was uninsured. My husband and I are looking into medical loans. I am overwhelmed by googling. Please, do any of you have any experience and advice that you can share with me about how to do this?

If anyone reading this has ever had brain surgery, please feel free to share any tips on anxiety management, etc.

What are some good vitamins for brain and general health?

peregrine81 — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:36:55 -0800

What are some good vitamins for brain and general health? I currently take Vitamin D and omega 3 supplements cause the potential positives outweigh the chance its snake oil. I notice the Omega 3's increase my ability to focus and relax a little bit so that's good.

What other things can I take to improve my brain functioning/focus and keep me in good health? Especially with the new flu going around I want to be in peak condition.

I already exercise semi-regularly and use my brain in excessive amounts, get enough sleep. I don't eat particularly well as I live in a dorm and have little time/money for good food, but I try.

Especially with the new flu going around I want to be in peak condition.

What other things can I take to improve my brain functioning/focus and keep me in good health?

Does too much constant incoming content = dangerous, or damaging somehow?

Ash3000 — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:35:22 -0800

Can you think of any recent writing, or art, about it being somehow intellectually damaging, or spiritually dangerous, or in any other way harmful to constantly be plugged into content, particularly via an ipod or some other mp3 player? Have you ever gotten into a state where you have your ipod available whenever you are, say, exercising, or going for a walk, or on a subway - really, any kind of stasis made use of such a background-filler, listening to podcasts, audiobooks, music, etc.? And then you inevitably have headphones on when you're on the computer, whether it's to block out distractions, or for its own sake? And if headphones aren't the carrying agent, there's some other way you always have *something* in front of you, some fount of content, be it the computer in front of you or the book in your knapsack? (Though, if I'm being honest with myself, for me it's more often electronically-based than not.)

I've been thinking about this lately, how I will sometimes live like this for a bit, but eventually feel a kind of nausea growing in me and have to take the headphones off, have to remove the informational source...and yet I'll sheepishly admit that sometimes I delay even this.

And it's got me to wondering - surely people have written about this in some way, about it somehow being a danger to constantly be receiving content, rather than in just taking part in neutral, unmediated experience, or creating content yourself? Surely there must be some neuroscience-based case that this is unhealthy, or some sociological polemic someone wrote against this phenomenon, or some case that it's spiritually draining? And yet the closest thing I can think of to this offhand is a passage in A.J. Jacobs' book The Know-It-All, an account of a year spent reading the Encyclopedia Britannica in its entirety that I read a while back, where a Buddhist friend warns that the author that his undertaking might truly warp his mind. (This isn't, as far as I remember, ever explicated, so I have no idea if he's citing some piece of Buddhist thinking on memorization, or monkey mind, or something else entirely.)

This need not even be a modern question; someone 20 years ago who finished a book and immediately put pick up another without a moment's reflection might be guilty of the same, not to mention getting ready in the morning with the public/talk-radio on, etc. But it seems more probable in an age where you can have many GB of information loaded up on your ipod or whatever other device at all times, and somehow I feel like I want to read more about this issue - I just don't know where to look.

At what age do your memories begin?

Billegible — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 06:25:40 -0800

At what age do your memories begin? I've always been curious about this - how old are people, generally, when they start remembering things?
My first memories are from age 6; I know from family history that we moved that year, and the memory is of walking into the new house and seeing a familiar toy in an unfamiliar room. So maybe our first memory is always of an important, striking event that was big enough to write itself deep in our brain cells; or is there just an age when the brain starts to work that way?

Is lizard brain consciousness real?

Not Supplied — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:38:03 -0800

Can human beings achieve a 'lizard brain consciousness? Is it scientifically documented? What techniques can one use to access this. I've have heard anecdotally in martial arts circles and from hippies about people achieving a lizard consciousness. They think that it's accessing the 'hindbrain' or reptilian parts of the human brain.

Is this documented in any way as some meditation stuff is - like scans showing that mainly this part of the brain is active or whatever?

Do any medications or psychoactive drugs have this effect? (for interest only, I don't eat that kind of thing)

Are there any techniques one can use to do it that I can try?

Does watching television rot a person's brain?

Houyhnhnm — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:39:30 -0800

How does frequent television viewing affect the developing brain? I heard someone say that children "should not watch television prior to age 5 or 6". I am interested in the veracity of this statement, so I am seeking scientific articles that explore the relationship between frequent television viewing and neurological development. Articles in academic databases welcome.

(Note: I am not interested in the effects of televised violence or the correlation between television and obesity.)

is the brain a bit like a massive max-msp patch?

compound eye — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:32:52 -0800

it seems no question, no matter how absurd, is too strange. Everything seems to get a sensible answer. So from the deepest pockets of my private imaginings: is the brain a bit like a massive max-msp patch? is the brain a bit like a massive max-msp patch?

clearly I am not a neuroscientist.
but just like everybody else i cobble together half explanations about how the things I see around me work.
I was hoping someone who does understands a little more about neuroscience could tell me whether the overlap between how i imagine that my brain works, and the current state of understanding is some, plenty or none.

As this is simply the product of my own imagining, it is spectacularly uninformed about the current state of brain science,
so if it comes across as a little bit like:

"Nikola Tesla was an alien who first came to earth as Ramses II and is still alive chained to a secret altar six hunded and sixty six cubits beneath the skull and crossbones headquarters"

please keep in mind, I am not claiming to be right, I'm certainly not claiming to have made any breakthroughs, or have any insights that might in anyway useful for the wider world, I'm just curious

cheers

mat

ok heres what i've been wondering:

I think of the brain as a humoungous max-msp patch

nervous impulses are basically oscillating electrical signals
our simpler ancestors must have have simple behaviours that were triggered by certain sensory signals

subsequent ancestors developed more sophisticated ways of processing these signals to refine the responses.

Once you've got all this signal processing brain infrastructure in place it seems that the easiest way to keep a memory is to find a way
to keep bouncing a sensory signal round and in a loop. The next easiest way, is to encode the signal so that it can be stored and recreated on demand.
But if memories are stored in a static form, the memory can't be used in the stored form, the signal would actually need to be played, recreated to be used.

Replaying a memory is a bit like experiencing the sensory signals as they originally occurred.

As sensory input signals - both current and recalled memories - go through all kinds of processing, the line between sense signals and higher order thoughts which are developed from that input becomes quite blurry.
So it makes sense that higher order thoughts would take place in an extension of the same
infrastructure that handles sensory signals. That way higher order thoughts can be stored and recalled just like sensory information.

which brings me to the crux of my question, is thought a bit like signal processing, is my brain essentially adding,
subtracting, modulating, inverting, high/low pass filtering, fft ing thought waveforms?