I am including excerpts from the article by Richard Anderson, Tyson Aflalo and Spencer Kellis entitled, “From Thought to action: The Brain-Machine Interface in Posterior Parietal Cortex,” published in PNAS, December 26, 2019, Vol. 116, No. 52, 26274-26279. This is a very recent work that builds on previous studies by Aflalo and coworkers.

The authors identified the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) as “a high-level cortical area in . . . humans . . . that represents intentions to move. . . . [It is] an area where the initial intentions to act are made [italics added] and then transferred to the motor cortex. . . . We find that the human PPC encodes many action-related variables, and we can decode intended movements of most of the body from a small population of neurons. . . . Intention activity is simply defined as the neural correlate of the planned action.”

This is a sophisticated and important study, and I commend its reading to you. However, I still must point out the absence of reference to the cognitive mind per se. Upon reading this article one could conclude that thoughts are formulated and based in the PPC and its encoded synaptic networks. Indeed, neuronal networks are encoded with structure, meaning and purpose so that specified information can be transmitted through the brain and peripheral nervous system to bring about intended movements, or actions. I have offered in my writings that it is the thoughts of the cognitive mind that generate the initial framework for the instantiation of neural synaptic network codes. I have proposed that it requires an interaction between the immaterial mind and the material components of the brain, in this case the PPC, that could involve wave forms that emanate from the mind, its will and intent - its thoughts. The wave forms become instantiated as codes within spike trains of action potentials in neural networks.

Tyson Aflalo, Spencer Kellis et al have continued their studies to apply motor imagery in tetraplegic patients to brain-machine interface technology. These are admirable studies designed to enable paralyzed patients to move all or parts of neuroprosthetic extremities. This particular article is published in Science, 2015 May 22; 348 (6237): 906-910.

The investigators recorded neural population activity with arrays of microelectrodes implanted in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) of a tetraplegic subject, paralyzed at C3-4 ten years earlier with all limbs involved. It was found that “the subject could control the activity of single cells through imagining particular actions. . . . In many cases, the subject could exert volitional control of single neurons by imagining simple movements of the upper arm, elbow, wrist and hand.” The subject’s “neurons coded both the goal and imagined trajectory of movements. . . . [theirs was] the first known instance of decoding high-level motor intentions from human neuronal populations.”

No reference was made by the investigators to a nonmaterial cognitive mind. It was recognized that neural networks that transmitted motor imagery were encoded, and the authors stated that “One unexplored possibility is that the PPC also encodes nonmotor intentions such as the desire to turn on the television, or preheat the oven.” The spontaneous intent to perform such actions as these two cannot reflect neural networks encoded in advance of will, of intent. This point has been made in previous blogs and in my books. I submit that an accounting of such an “unexplored possibility” has to be by an immaterial cognitive mind, the action of which instantiates codes within neural networks through experience archived in memory.

I close my review of this article with the following excerpts and personal comments:

“These studies are consistent with views in which cognition recruits sensorimotor cortical regions. . . . We acknowledge that, as with all passive neural recording studies, ours cannot establish a causal role for these neurons in tactile cognition. . . . The precise neural correlates of tactile imagery are unknown, but evidence suggests that both imagined and actual touch may engage the same internal mental representations. . . . during the imagery task, no stimulus was delivered to the participant. . . . The response during the imagery task lends support to the idea that despite the lack of peripheral input from the hand due to the participant’s SCI [spinal cord injury], the brain maintains an internal representation of tactile sensations.”

Again, the investigators do not specifically mention a proposed role of the immaterial cognitive mind in the recruitment of “sensorimotor cortical regions”. Was this via a generation of wave forms by the mind that interacted with synchronous modular wave forms that are transmitted through neural synaptic networks as specified codes within spike trains of action potentials? [This process has been addressed in previous blog posts.] The “same internal mental representations” engaged by both imagined and actual touch likely represent neural memory codes derived by lifelong learning, also discussed in my books and blogs. These would be the “internal representation of tactile sensations.” I refer the reader to the sections in my books that consider the supplementary motor area and how the immaterial mind interacts with it in both hemispheres.

In summary, we are seeing in more recent neurophysiology articles that cognitive imagery in the absence of the delivery of stimuli to study subjects “recruits” neural synaptic networks to transmit semantic, meaningful neural codes. I submit that these kinds of studies are increasingly pointing to an unacknowledged role of the immaterial mind in interaction with the material brain. Please review the articles I cite and review so that you can come to your own “take-aways.” My search goes on.

Finally, since the Holy Spirit indwells those who are in repentance with faith in the Truth of the Gospel, it is reasonable to expect that the Holy Spirit communes with us Mind-to-mind in ways that are, at least in part, identical to what is being learned about cognitive communication in humans, giving credence to dualist interactionism.

I am posting several excerpts from the article by Chivukula et al and will also include comments when my research writings are relevant.

“Recent human neuroimaging studies suggest that the PPC [posterior parietal cortex] is . . . recruited during touch cognition in the absence of actual tactile input (e.g., seen touch or imagined touch), supporting a notion that both higher-level touch processing and tactile cognition share a neural substrate. . . . we investigated single- and multi-unit neural activity during the presentation of actual touch and during imagined touch to sensate dermatomes above the level of the participant’s injury [a tetraplegic human subject with a complete spinal cord injury at cervical level C3-4 with an electrode array implanted in the left PPC]. We found that neurons recorded at the junction of the postcentral and intraparietal sulci in humans . . . encoded actual touch at short latency (~50 ms) with bilateral spatially structured receptive fields, covering all tested, sensate regions within the head, face, neck, and shoulders. The tactile imagery task evoked body part-specific responses that shared a neural substrate with actual touch. Our results demonstrate that PPC neurons that discriminate touch are partially reactivated during a tactile imagery task in a body part-specific manner. . . . Recordings were made from a chronic implanted array, and thus neuronal waveform sorting resulted in both well-isolated neuronal waveforms and multi-neuron groupings.”

“Higher-level touch processing” mentioned by the authors is of interest. The investigators do not give mention to an immaterial cognitive mind in their study design, but I have endeavored to justify in my books and blog posts that imagery first occurs at the level of the mind. It must be acknowledged that many neuroscientists today deny dualism, reducing all mental activity to the brain’s material components. The questions I raise are (1) how the “evoked neural responses” described by the authors are generated, (2) how their generation relates to the cognitive immaterial mind, and (3) how the “evoked neural responses” may relate to the “neuronal waveforms” that I propose are generated by the immaterial mind. In my next blog post I will provide an elaboration on this important point of interest.

My research continues to find current articles that provide support for interaction between the immaterial mind of humans and neural synaptic networks. I am posting an excerpt from the abstract of a very recent article published in March, 2021. It is a lengthy article, so as I study it I will post additional relevant comments. The article is by Srinivas Chivukula, Carey Y. Zhang, Tyson Aflalo et al, entitled “Neural Encoding of Actual and Imagined Touch within Human Posterior Parietal Cortex,” eLife 2021; 10:e61646.

“We recorded neurons within the PPC of a human clinical trial participant during actual touch presentation and during a tactile imagery task. Neurons encoded actual touch at short latency with bilateral receptive fields, organized by body part, and covered all tested regions. The tactile imagery task evoked body part-specific responses that shared a neural substrate with actual touch. Our results are the first neuron-level evidence of touch encoding in human PPC and its cognitive engagement during a tactile imagery task, which may reflect semantic processing, attention, sensory anticipation, or imagined touch.”

I have posted similar study results in previous blogs, but this is the most recent study I have come across in my search.

On this special day across the world people are giving thanks for the birth of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the God-Man, sent to restore mankind to an intimate, personal communion with our Creator’s holy spirit through His sin sacrifice and resurrection, defeating death and offering everlasting life to all who have faith in repentance. Merry Christmas!

I am sharing several Scriptures from the Book of Galatians, referred to as “Luther’s Book.” The basic message of the book brought about the Protestant Reformation, and it is also referred to as the “Magna Carta of Christian liberty.” These Scriptures attest to the indwelling of repentant believers by the Holy Spirit with whom our personal communion has been restored by the grace of God through the sin sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.

“But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts [souls], the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” (Gal 4:4-7)

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Gal 5:22-25)

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” (Gal 6:18) [I include this benediction at the end of the book since it identifies the human spirit [s in lower case] which is indwelled by the Holy Spirit [S in upper case], by whose Counsel our souls [minds, wills and emotions] strive to live.

I conclude my posting of excerpts from Gordon Fee’s book, Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God, with this one from Chapter 15:

“The Spirit’s major role in Paul’s view lies with his being the essential element of the whole of Christian life, from beginning to end. The Spirit thus empowers ethical life in all its dimensions - individually, within the community, and to the world. Believers in Christ, who are Spirit people first and foremost, are variously described as living by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, and sowing to the Spirit. Ethics for Paul is likewise founded in the Trinity: the Spirit of God conforms the believer into the likeness of Christ to the glory of God. The Spirit is thus the empowering presence of God for living the life of God in the present. There is therefore no Christian life that is not at the same time a holy life, made so by the Holy Spirit whom God gives to his people (1 Thess 4:8). At the same time, life in the Spirit also includes every other imaginable dimension of the believer’s present end-time existence, including being empowered by the Spirit to abound in hope, to live in joy, to pray without ceasing, to exercise self-control, to experience a robust conscience, to have insight into God’s will and purposes, and to endure in every kind of present hardship and suffering. To be a believer means nothing less than being filled with and thus to live in and by the Spirit.”

I pray that the excerpts I have posted from the books by Ryrie and Fee are seen to be in concordance with what I have described as dualist interaction in my books and blogs. The Holy Spirit indwells believers who are in repentance and accept the truth of the Gospel in our time. This indwelling of the Holy Spirit by the grace and boundless love of God through his living, glorified Son, Jesus Christ, did not cease with the closure of the Canon, as believed by some. No, it is a reality now in our end-times existence as we await the final promised consummation upon the return of Jesus Christ.

I am continuing my search for current articles from neuroscience that lend further support to dualist interactionism between the immaterial Mind of God and mind of Man through God’s created neural synaptic networks. John 10:27

Gordon Fee discusses life in the Spirit, that it “is not passive; nor is obedience automatic. We continue to live in the real world; we are, after all, both already and not yet. Therefore, the imperative for the already is walk in/by the Spirit. That assumes that we live in a world very much controlled by the flesh; but it also assumes that we now live in that world as different people, led by the Spirit and empowered by the Spirit to produce the fruit of righteousness, rather than to continue in the works of the flesh.”

Fee defines “the new model [as] the cross: the power lies not in externals but in the Spirit, who indwells believers and by grace is renewing the ‘inner person’ (2 Cor 4:16), transforming us into God’s own likeness (ultimately portrayed in Christ through the cross.”