<p>The <a href="https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/8989/can-the-mind-affect-the-physical-brain-a-simple-thought-experiment">question that you are referring to</a> is worded in a way that I think is leading to the confusion. The question in the title is "Can the mind affect the brain?" but in the question body the final question posed is "Does [a thought producing a tear] not contradict the (physical) law of cause and effect?". </p>

<p>The answer is <em>yes</em> to the title question: the mind can affect the brain. The answer is <em>no</em> to the question posed in the body: it is not a contradiction of the law of cause and effect because the mind is a physical entity.</p>

<p>So you are exactly right, that the two are mutually interactive.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-29T04:10:36.627Z
Isn't there a philosophy of psychology? Wittgenstein , Kant , Daniel C Dennett and many others have written about the mind and consciousness.
201044
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-09T14:21:19.703Z
2015-01-09T14:21:19.703Z
2017-04-13T12:56:16.467Z
Josh
<p>About the question <a href="https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/8989/can-the-mind-affect-the-physical-brain-a-simple-thought-experiment">'Can the mind mind affect the brain?'</a>: Some responses are 'no' because the mind is a physical 'thing' or structure (if I read it correctly). Yet if the Mind is only a physical structure why couldn't the mind affect the brain if they are <strong>both</strong> physical systems? The brain, the physical system regarding active neural excitation events and the mind, the physical system dealing with the manipulation and organization of 'established' patterns of neural-signalling. The 'higher-level' organization of the physical system, the mind, could manipulate or alter the physical system called the brain.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-19T09:16:07.587Z
The mind is not a physical structure. The brain is. The mind exists because the brain does.
AliceD
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-19T17:03:11.387Z
The operating system in a computer system like an A.I. system is a physical structure even though it is a 'conglomeration' of dynamic processes that is organizing and manipulating other programs and packages of information. What about a personality simulation , it is a collection of self- sustaining programs that presumedly can run on many different computer systems , like multiple realizability? It is 'made' of dynamic physical structures yet it can simulate a 'mind'.
201044
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-08T17:32:45.137Z
Can certain behavioral 'programs' of the 'mind' be consciously repeated and over time this cause actual changes in the physical architecture of the brain?
201044
<neuroscience><philosophy-of-mind>
Regarding the mind and what it can affect
201044
# Regarding the mind and what it can affect

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-01-09)

About the question ['Can the mind mind affect the brain?'](https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/8989/can-the-mind-affect-the-physical-brain-a-simple-thought-experiment): Some responses are 'no' because the mind is a physical 'thing' or structure (if I read it correctly). Yet if the Mind is only a physical structure why couldn't the mind affect the brain if they are **both** physical systems? The brain, the physical system regarding active neural excitation events and the mind, the physical system dealing with the manipulation and organization of 'established' patterns of neural-signalling. The 'higher-level' organization of the physical system, the mind, could manipulate or alter the physical system called the brain.

**Tags:** neuroscience, philosophy-of-mind

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The mind is not a physical structure. The brain is. The mind exists because the brain does.  
> **username_0**: The operating system in a computer system like an A.I. system is a physical structure even though it is a 'conglomeration' of dynamic processes that is organizing and manipulating other programs and packages of information. What about a personality simulation , it is a collection of self- sustaining programs that presumedly can run on many different computer systems , like multiple realizability? It is 'made' of dynamic physical structures yet it can simulate a 'mind'.  
> **username_0**: Can certain behavioral 'programs' of the 'mind' be consciously repeated and over time this cause actual changes in the physical architecture of the brain?  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2015-01-09. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

The [question that you are referring to](https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/8989/can-the-mind-affect-the-physical-brain-a-simple-thought-experiment) is worded in a way that I think is leading to the confusion. The question in the title is "Can the mind affect the brain?" but in the question body the final question posed is "Does [a thought producing a tear] not contradict the (physical) law of cause and effect?".

The answer is *yes* to the title question: the mind can affect the brain. The answer is *no* to the question posed in the body: it is not a contradiction of the law of cause and effect because the mind is a physical entity.

So you are exactly right, that the two are mutually interactive.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Isn't there a philosophy of psychology? Wittgenstein , Kant , Daniel C Dennett and many others have written about the mind and consciousness.  

---

