Nikos Makris: Our common scientific goal is to understand how the brain works using multi-modal neuroimaging
How and when did you end up in Aalto?
I came 91青青草 for a year in November 2023. But even after the visit I will continue returning, since we are working together with Risto Ilmoniemi. We wrote a paper together and we are also applying for local and US funding.
With Risto Ilmoniemi, we both knew Jack Belliveau, who showed for the first time that cerebral activation could be imaged using high-resolution MRI in humans and pioneered the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for human applications. He was a visionary, who passed away ten years ago, at the age of 55. Anecdotally, he was thinking that there is a way of recording your thoughts and memories, and putting them on a disc. Then you can restore back your body and put the memory back. It鈥檚 sci-fi I know, but these are also the current ideas aligned with AI. Belliveau was very creative and playful, like a child.
Jack Belliveau also realized that fMRI was not sufficient. We have to know the processing and sequencing of information in the brain. Belliveau thought that magnetoencephalography (MEG) was critical for that, and his main focus was to bring the two fields together. He was visiting Finland very frequently, and he was also one of the principal catalysts for bringing MEG to Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard.
Because of Jack Belliveau, I knew about Risto Ilmoniemi long ago. Jack was talking volumes about him; how Risto is a great person and scientist.
Then Pantelis Lioumis, who also comes from Greece like I do, had contacted me. He works with language processing. With transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), you can stimulate or interrupt the area of the brain that is used in the processing of language. I work with brain circuits, and TMS and MEG are two great ways to study language and other kinds of behavior in the brain.
Matti H盲m盲l盲inen used to be the director of MEG in Boston, and he moved to Finland and Aalto to be the head of the Department of Neuroscience and Medical Engineering. We have a tight relationship between the Martinos Center in Boston and Aalto, and a common, very important scientific goal to really understand how the brain works using multi-modal neuroimaging.
Finland is the world leader in MEG and TMS, and this is the main reason I鈥檓 here. In order to understand how the brain works, you need to understand the time sequence of the events in the brain, millisecond by millisecond since the initial moment of brain activation. And MEG can take up this challenge.
We also organized a course together with Pantelis Lioumis and Risto Ilmoniemi this autumn. There were 18 PhD and master鈥檚 students; this was a short course on brain circuits.
Can you tell us something about your interest in the educational systems?
I grew up in Greece, and I left for Italy at the age of 18. I did all my medical and psychiatry studies in Italy. And I鈥檝e spent considerable time in Germany, Spain, France and UK as well, in addition to the US where I did a PhD in behavioral neurosciences. Each country has its characteristics.
In the US, I took a course in comparative education by Fernando Reimers. In that course, the system in Finland stuck out as best in the world. It was presented as an extension of the playground in the classroom. In addition to being playful, the students also do serious educational work. And Reimers said that education should make people happier. The purpose of education is not just to find a job, but also to have fun. In Greece, they currently prepare you for a test to get to the university and not necessarily in creating a critical mind, which should be the most important goal in education.
I don鈥檛 know if the Finnish education system is the best in the world, but it is highly developed.
What do you think of happiness?
It has been demonstrated neuro-scientifically that when you are creative, the brain uses a slow alpha rhythm, a frequency that starts from the back part of the brain, in the occipital areas. This happens just before you have these creative 鈥渁haa鈥 moments. Alpha rhythm has been demonstrated to be present also in meditation states and during play, especially when play is not competitive.
Happiness and playful behavior in my mind are related to your true nature. Albert Einstein said that 鈥渃reativity is intelligence having fun鈥. This means that the brain has a property of manifesting its intelligence also when it is in the state of having fun and, thus, being creative. Jack Belliveau was that type of person, representing the principle of 鈥渋ocari serio et studiosissime ludere鈥 (play seriously and study playfully) used as motus operandi in education during the renaissance and earlier by Socratic and Platonic Greeks. This motto reflected the effort to apply ourselves seriously, assiduously, but also in a playful, or childish way if you鈥檇 like, in trying to understand and learn in depth the objects of our inquiries.
And how about AI?
AI, while a greatly beneficial and useful asset for several reasons, there are safety issues we will have to take seriously into account as well. If you put AI together with the novel advances in invasive brain stimulation procedures, it may lead to a different nature of human being. Transhumanism is a gigantic issue. We have to consider this carefully as a society, because it could become easily uncontrollable if not regulated wisely.
The first principle of the Stoics is to educate ourselves in developing our own true nature. The purpose of this is to fulfil meaningfulness in our lives in an ethical way. Transhumanism will be devastating if it will be going against our true nature, which is biological in nature. You just need to know how to deal with this issue wisely and, in particular where to stop.
I鈥檓 curious to see how you will regulate these issues as a country.
What is it like to walk in your shoes?
I feel extremely comfortable. I don鈥檛 see anybody judging and I have total freedom of speech. I was once discussing strong issues such as regulations and corporate influence with Iiro J盲盲skel盲inen, who has visited Boston in 2000 and was also working with Jack Belliveau. I feel there is more awareness in this regard in Finland than in the US.
What do you do in your free time in Finland and why is that important to you?
I read mostly and also use YouTube as an educational-learning tool. I try to put whatever I learn and do in neuroscience in a philosophical context and in a practical perspective for social use in daily life.
I feel very well in Finland, both in my work and in my spiritual life. I go to the Uspenski Cathedral on Sundays. During divine liturgy services they have a wonderful church choir. When the human voice is extremely well educated and cultivated, as happens to be the case with the Christian Uspenski Cathedral choir, it can greatly assist you to focus and reach your spiritual dimension during prayer.
Ren茅 Descartes was saying in his Meditations on First Philosophy that the two most important open questions needed to be demonstrated were 鈥淕od and the Soul鈥. I believe these questions are still open, not only as topics of philosophical investigation but especially as critically important matters of neuroscientific inquiry. In trying to answer these questions as well as 鈥渉ow the brain works鈥, we should be playful, because, ultimately, it should be fun!
Walk in my shoes
Inspired by the saying that you should walk a mile in someone鈥檚 shoes to understand them, the 鈥榃alk in my shoes鈥 series aims to share some of the experiences, thoughts, perspectives and challenges faced by members of the Aalto community.
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