The human brain is probably the most complex system on this planet, the ultimate puzzle. Understanding the brain may help us make sense of some of the strangeness in human behavior. The problem is, we can’t take the brain apart to find out how it works. It’s not like an auto engine. The scale is different, the materials dissimilar, and the structure is, well, organic.
Scientists sometimes can find out what a particular part of the brain does by observing people who’ve had that area damaged. Alternatively, normal brains can be scanned by any of several techniques: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Computed tomography (CT), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Electroencephalography (EEG), Magnetoencephalography (MEG), and Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). More on these various scans can be found here:
https://psychcentral.com/lib/types-of-brain-imaging-techniques/
In basic terms, the scans detect activity in particular parts of the brain which have been stimulated by some means. If, for example, the subject is performing arithmetic, that will cause the scan to show increased activity in a corresponding part of the brain.
There are limitations in both of these techniques. Someone likened the use of scanning to someone standing in front of a building at night and observing one floor brightly lit up, assuming that the occupants there are the ones mostly responsible for the business. He remains unaware that on one of the darkened floors, computer boffins are generating all of the company’s profit, while janitors are vacuuming the other, better-lit floor.
Recently an experiment linked a small area of the brain stem with consciousness, a vitally important function for such a tiny collection of neurons and for something that took such a long time to discover. Undoubtedly, more such findings will be made in years to come.
I’ve developed a hypothesis that there is a relatively obscure part of the brain that is responsible for or associated with over a dozen facets of human behavior, some of them anomalous. The hypothesis is located here on ResearchGate.org:
Please comment below. I’ll try to answer any questions. Thanks.
jguentherauthor 