Looking for analogy regarding how the brain makes decisions

August 18, 2015 1:32 PM

I read an interesting analogy a few years back about the brain and how decisions are made prior to your consciousness realizing that a decision has been made. It was something along the lines of your consciousness being the queen while something else was doing the real thinking and then convincing the queen it was her idea all along.. Although I think there were three parts at play. Does this ring a bell with anyone?
posted by zeoslap to Science & Nature (8 answers total)

Was it the war of 1812 ending while the message was still being transmitted to the soldiers? Daniel Dennett uses that one.
posted by LobsterMitten at 2:20 PM on August 18, 2015

Could it be Jonathan Haidt's elephant/rider metaphor?
posted by AwkwardPause at 2:42 PM on August 18, 2015

You may have heard it from this NPR program.
posted by H. Roark at 3:11 PM on August 18, 2015

Yeah, this definately sounds like a Dennettism. Do you think that is where you got it?
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 3:52 PM on August 18, 2015

Response by poster: It wasn't from the npr piece or the book referenced but it was along those lines. It talked about free will being an illusion. Will check my book shelf and see if I can find it, I thought it was a Carl Zimmer book but don't think that's the case. Thanks for the help though.
posted by zeoslap at 6:03 PM on August 18, 2015

Response by poster: This is along the right lines http://thinkinghard.com/consciousness/feelings.html

as is this

http://bernardbaars.pbworks.com/f/Lect7_Baars_Volition_Nov07.pdf

but the metaphor I'd read summed this up in a paragraph or two. Ah well the search continues :)
posted by zeoslap at 6:31 PM on August 18, 2015

Could it be here The Female Brain?

It talks about one part of the brain (the Anterior Cingulate Cortex) which among other things "makes the decisions". Then the Prefronal Cortex is describes as "The Queen that rules the emotions"

I don't think it's what you're looking for though.
posted by guy72277 at 1:41 AM on August 20, 2015

The second point of entry into the realm of consciousness and free will is the identification of emergent phenomena — entities and processes that come into existence only with the joining of preexisting entities and processes. They will be found, if the results of current research are indicative, in the linkage and synchronized activity of various parts of both the sensory system and the brain.
The nervous system can be usefully conceived as a superbly well-organized superorganism built on a division of labor and specialization in the society of cells — around which the body plays a primarily supportive role. An analog, if you will, is to be found in a queen ant’s or termite’s relationship with her supporting swarm of workers. Each worker on its own is relatively stupid. It follows a program of blind, untutored instinct, which is subject to only a small amount of flexibility in its expression. The program directs the worker to specialize in one or two tasks at a time and to change programs in a particular sequence — typically nurse to builder or guard to forager — as it ages. All the workers together, however, are brilliant. They address all needed tasks simultaneously and can shift the weight of their effort to meet potentially lethal emergencies, such as flooding, starvation, and attacks by enemy colonies.

https://www.facebook.com/bo.bergstrom3/posts/10202713487820118?_fb_noscript=1
posted by guy72277 at 6:47 AM on August 21, 2015