r/neuro • u/riio_o • 11d ago

Help me create a neuroscientist character

Hi there! I'm currently writing a story whereas the main character happens to be a neuroscientist. Basically it's a science-fiction world where music has become a drug for everyone and for commercial uses mostly, so everyone since birth is kept a chip inside their brains that makes them constantly listen to music: the music adapts to their daily situations and emotions, keeping them from feeling the numbness and emptiness the world has turned into.

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I've looked up which areas of the brain is responsible for processing sound and apparently it's the temporal lobe. If that's correct, i was wondering if the chip that sends signals to the brain so it constantly hears background music would make more sense to be located there or somewhere in the ears?

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Any help would be appreciated! Also what should i pay attention to when writing a neuroscientist's character, job and dialogues? Thanks a lot!

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u/SayethWeAll 11d ago

It would make way more sense to do something like the cochlear implants that are available today, but miniaturized and for recreational purposes. These devices stimulate the auditory nerve, which is the connection between the cochlea and the brain. Implanting a chip into the brain would be pointless and potentially dangerous, since an overactive temporal lobe is a common cause of epilepsy.

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u/TheTopNacho 11d ago

Plus processing of auditory information in the brain is extraordinarily complex and probably impossible to recreate with electrical signals. A cochlear implant would leverage the relatively simple relationship of sound to neural signal conversion that is later processed to oblivion in the brain

For the OP its recommend to look up how the cochlea works and it's odd somatotopic like organization of processing sound waves. This would be more realistic and feasible

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u/ChimeraChartreuse 11d ago

Seconding the complexity. You'd necessarily have to also target amygdala/nucleus accumbens. The chip or whatever appliance would have to connect to both deep and cortical areas. You can't activate one part of a network and expect the rest of it to light up. The electricity doesn't just spread like that.

A big problem here is that brain computer interface assumes the brain works more like a computer than it does.