Mental-state shifts are as real as physical reconfigurations in machines

Evidence

The production of new neurons therefore does not simply serve to replace cells that have died; it participates in modulational plasticity and, in doing so, opens the concept of plasticity slightly more, just far enough to unsettle the concept of stability. Once more: the statue is alive, the program quickens itself; right where we have so often believed we would find only mechanism, we find a complex entanglement of different types of plasticity, which contradicts the ordinary representation of the brain as machine. — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 98 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The brain contradicts the machine metaphor through entangled plastic processes — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 98; Milgram treated mental attitude shifts as real changes comparable to reprogrammed automata. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3933; Intensive learning physically rewires brain structure and perceptual habits. (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• The brain contradicts the machine metaphor through entangled plastic processes #complicates (0.78) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 98