Number of voices in my head - 2. Practice, or rehearsal seem to develop neural pathways for behavior. There is a complex relationship that goes beyond simply sharing information. One brain compensates for deficiencies in the other brain, and has the capability to produce whatever it needs to do this. Are language, personality, and the internal voice a singular function(x) of cognitive development as related neural pathways form to solve problems presented by both rehearsal and experience? A little side, the internet gives us the ability to open multiple windows at the same time to remote locations using any number of multimedia formats. It is an extraordinary tool for communication and learning. How better to internalize this experience than by developing function(x) of cognitive development. Normally, the dominate function (me) integrates ideas, so why not exploit the function(x) to produce multiple 'submissive' personalities for complex problem solving in this environment? I think that integration naturally occurs in rem sleep anyway. I could have discrete personalities soaking up and reacting with specialized knowledge that would be integrated during sleep to solve a complex problem like building a skyscraper. I would have a civil engineer, an architect, skilled craftsmen, and leadership all taking in their specialized information that is integrated during sleep, and expressed as behavior following the integration period. The emphasis is on discrete in this case. Rehearsal often involves taking the viewpoint of other players.
I think you are confusing schizophrenia with multiple personality disorder. Schizophrenia is an umbrella term, IMHO, to group a huge group of mental illnesses. However, the general symptom is usually defined with the inability of a person to distinguish between reality and fantasy. As for your other point of creating simple singular functions to simplify the complex function of human psychology, well that seems a little fantastical. I think you would have to go down many branches of the human psyche tree until you could accurately describe a personality trait in a singular function. I haven't read much about REM lately and I do not know if there has been any advance in the understanding of this behavior. My understanding is that during REM sleep the brain is active in a more random order, exciting different parts of the brain in a more random order than normal brain activity while you are awake. This causes random memories to be processed. So for example, if by chance you excite a memory of a rainbow, an alligator, and the sensitization of flying, your brain, as it always does, will try and make logical sense of these stimuli and you might dream you are flying on an alligator over a rainbow. Like, I said I have minimal experience on REM sleep but that is how I understand it.
Ok, I deleted the sentence: "That is, could schizophrenia be a normal neural function of the brain where given a normal person these properties would be beneficial in problem solving?" People solve problems just before sleep and just before awakening. I'll confess I'm not sure of the term for these times. I thought it was REM. The brain has no 'hard' coding, even language and personality can be dramatically changed by information. So why not shape and direct parts of the brain to internalize the multiple source information input by creating (by force of will) multiple personalities, and shape the sleep cycle to integrate the information they process? Rehearsal creates and shapes neural pathways. So there is just one tool that can be used to manipulate thinking at a very deep level. Why not do it intentionally to accept multiple source information such as that afforded by large monitors? I know there is a known quantity of pixel information that can be processed by the eyes (as sensors). I'm also wondering the data throughput of the brain as it attends to multiple sources. There are two sensors at least, the eyes and ears feeding info to the brain. I've had 10 windows running at once on my home computer. That would be like ten teachers executing 10 lesson plans. Don't suppose we would need 10 personalities to make sense of them especially if they were integrated properly to begin with, but I suppose it would help if they were not. Fantastical?
REM - "Rapid Eye Movement" does not occur usually right when you fall asleep. It is considered deep sleep and is considered to be the part of the sleep cycle in which dreams occur. Figuring out problems right before someone falls asleep might just be the simple fact that when you relax, your thoughts become clearer. I figure a lot of problems out (Mainly work related, I'm a computer programmer) when I am using the bathroom or taking a shower. However, without sleep you do start hallucinating so there is a necessary function that is performed during sleep that "resets" your brain or some kind of house cleaning. So, yes sleep does help you think clearer. As for creating neural pathways by rehearsal, I think you are right. It has been shown in children that play music at a very young age, that statistics show they will have a faster processing brain later in life. Music is one of the more complex activities that the human mind preforms. It involves vision, hearing, and touch all at the same time plus all the processing of these inputs in relation to rhythm, melodies, and emotion. They have done studies where they wire up someone’s brain and see how active it is doing different tasks, and while playing music the brain is more active than any other task in the study. Then they monitored children who play a lot of music at a young age. They came to the conclusion because of all the rehearsal (practice) of a complex activity during a stage of brain development, where formation of neural pathways is high, that it did result in to higher intelligence and quicker processing. Of course there are some many variables that I don’t think you can prove such a theory but I am comfortable to say preforming such activities during periods of high neural pathway formations does increase your brain's functionality in a positive way. Now trying to integrate this learning while sleeping is a little more difficult. Mainly because that actual function of sleep is so undefined from what I know. It is hard to hijack a process when you don't even know what that process is actually doing. However, I think there are some studies on listening to language tapes, or learning tapes while you are sleeping, and some say you do learn while doing that. However, I don't know if anyone has actually proved anything scientifically that this beneficial to human learning. Also, do you really want to mess with such a highly important brain activity that you don't know much about?
I found a better idea, or at least a more usable approach, and that is to process the information through an algorithm to generate information maps. The video Trains of Thought: Generating Information Maps with speaker Dafna Shahaf explains such an algorithm. Applying the technique to visual media might be more difficult, but the framework is provided by an algorithm. Rather than changing the human interface the modulation can be done in software. Much easier I admit.
Say you were a versatile actor who can play many different roles. To win an academy award you need to be very convincing in the role of the character, so people think you are that character. The actor has to form an alternate personality that has its own subroutine and even autonomy. The ego studies the role and sets up the subroutine until the secondary is self sufficient. The role can then take little effort but becomes almost second nature. There is one actor role that has led to two suicides; Joker. Several actors after setting up this subroutine to second nature autonomy have had the subroutine go renegade since the character is a sociopath. What you have in mind is connected to subroutines that can process specific forms of data. There is also brain firmware for this. These firmware are different from the type of firmware that are used by the actor of their subroutines. These are harder to access and develop. The actor can become the "doctor", in terms of buzz words and bedside manner, but doing surgery is another thing.
People (the audience) to some degree internalize and have some empathy with (the resonance) of their sensory data. They will make of it what they will. Actors must keep a perspective on their work that includes their own lives. Its a matter of study and discipline as anything else. Any appetite unchecked will take on a life of its own. It is entirely possible to do without physical damage. That is to say physical damage is probably an indicator of prior inclination rather than a spinoff of their current work. The more a person resonates with their environment (holistically) the less likely that such a tragedy is likely to occur. Multiple discrete streams was the initial notion. More like an actor taking on multiple roles in the analogy. There is probably something neurological going on related to their work for people who take part in those adventures. In a sense, viewing and listening to multiple Internet channels, and making sense of them requires some focused attention (scholasticism). So better to integrate the subject matter as much as possible before the presentation. Yes, secondly the problem of media types other than text if the algorithm solution is used. Sure I'm aware of artificial neurotransmitters fixed to specific areas of the brain. More so of the hardware, but less so of the software. The idea of directly programming the mind via the brain using software seems quite plausible if applied to normal sensory ports. More people seem to be getting into neurolinguistic programming (NLP) probably do to the focus on marketing these days in mass media. The downside of that technology might lead to a Borg civilization. - I'll pass. I'm sure Global corporate interests would be happy to invest in the project, but they have policies and the working classes already in place and functioning. What else do they need? - oops Manipulating the mind would seem to be easily done via sensory ports. Suppose we jacked in a google map with three routes through a maze, and the correct route in a bright color (for the rat), right into their field of vision. How fast would they learn the maze, and to take the correct route? Maybe less than a second. That's some pretty speedy learning. What if we added some audible clues, maybe faster, and add olfactory clues - even faster. Add a network and a bunch of other rats - what do you get? A pilot of modern aircraft equipment wears electronic sensory enablers. The pilot is usually doing a (simple) processing function in flying the aircraft. It takes significantly longer to actually learn from the data, because that is adding more data to the data you already have which in itself may be at the boundaries of human ability.
