Following my post on “Metaphors: Does how we think about the brain matter?”, a reader asked me about alternative brain metaphors that would be helpful to understand this complex organ and it’s functioning.

My answer: I think that’s a definite “it depends”.

The most accurate all-around metaphors will be the use of other complex systems. In my book-in-progress, I refer to water movement +/- sailing (vs motorboats), earthquakes, ecosystems, social groups…

But these are only metaphors in the sense that we don’t tend to think of them as all operating under the same core principles. But they do. So are they metaphors or are they just an opportunity to “see” the functioning of the brain through a different lens?

Apart from those options, it depends on the point we want to make.

There are times when computers might be useful (I used this in my post on the brain going on “stand-by”) – not literally like a computer, but in a true metaphorical sense. Dancing is one of my favorites when I want to talk about change or habit development. Probably anything really can be used, depending on the match and the intended use of the comparison.

What I don’t think we can do is have one overarching metaphor that maps onto the brain in every respect, the way people try to use computers.

A brain is like a …brain. Not overall like anything else except other complex dynamical systems made up of large numbers of interconnected and interacting elements.