Burbank, Calif. - While much has been learned about human psychology and, more recently, about the basic neural circuitry of the brain, no one yet has hit on a scheme that links the two. However, a new software package designed to help authors construct storylines may contain a clue to the missing hierarchy of the brain.

The authors have devised a basic story unit, called a "quad," that appears to have much wider applicability to psychology and neurobiology. "We aren't academic scientists and our model is not meant to necessarily represent the actual physiology of the brain, but we think it could be used as a model of the dynamic functions present in the brain as well as the psychological functions of the mind," said Melanie Phillips, who along with colleague Chris Huntley, wrote the software.

Phillips and Huntley spent a good part of the last 15 years developing quad theory and finding applications for it in both psychology and, at a higher level, in understanding human interaction as portrayed in stories and dramatic works.

Quad theory establishes relationships across a wide spectrum of dynamic systems, from neuron behavior to human behavior, finding the same invariants at each level. At a given dimensional level, an entire quad fits into a quadrant at the next higher level. That property is called codependence, since all four parts of the old quad act together to form the quadrant in the new quad. Likewise, any quadrant can descend to the microscopic by being further subdivided into a new quad-called independence, since the new quad is created by the independent action of one quadrant from the old quad.

"Even the mind can be explained by a quad relating to its underlying neurobiology," said Phillips.

Emergent psychology

The psychology of mind begins to emerge from the physiology of the brain when going up from the neuron level to the ganglion level (ganglia are encapsulated groups of related neurons), according to Phillips. That is the first level at which mind stuff can begin to emerge-because a minimum of two hierarchically related things, and their respective processes, are required to create a "mind" quad. Of course, real human brains involve many more hierarchies above the ganglia--from brain stem to the cerebral cortex. Each higher level further enriches the complexity of the mind, but at every juncture the same basic quads apply.

Knowing that, the quad approach helped Phillips and Huntley to recast the neurological principles of the brain's neurons into the psychological principles of the mind. From the level of psychology, they have further expanded their system another level to describe the characters in a story-what they call the "story mind." The Dramatica software package from Screenplay Systems employs the quad principles at that level to assist authors and screenwriters to explore the story mind using a computer.

"Any good story is an analogy to the viewpoint of a single human mind trying to resolve an inequity," said Phillips. Dramatica thus enables authors to construct a bulletproof story argument for "resolving an inequity," which, because of their quad pattern, theoretically affects the psychology and ultimately the neurology of readers. "It's the same system at every level; it's just a matter of what you are looking at and from where you are looking," Phillips said.

As with all quads, the basic principle is that all four parts are needed to explain the six dynamic relations there. "Nothing is complete and whole without its four parts," Phillips said.

Placement of these four parts in the quad depends on the purpose of the quad-each of the four elements can take its turn in each of the four quadrants. This is because in quad theory, the positions have a meaning independent of their content. For instance, the ganglion is placed in the upper left corner here, because we are concerned with the emergence of mind structures from brain structure; that is, we are viewing the move up from the individual neuron level (lower right) to a higher-level function (upper left)

Once the blanks are filled in, the quad defines six pairs of relationships in three groups of two:two diagonal pairs, top and bottom pairs, left and right pairs. The two dynamic pairs are located in diagonally opposite quadrants (upper left to lower right and lower left to upper right). Dynamic pairs are extreme opposites, but they are at different fractal dimensions-here, ganglia, as opposed to individual neurons on the main diagonal, and the overall biochemistry of the brain in general, as opposed to the micro-biochemical environment inside the ganglion's membrane.The horizontal pairs-the top and bottom two pairs-represent a companion relationship.

Each companion pair shares a common focus, but from opposite points of view. The top pair will often reflect an external focus on the environment of the problem; here the ganglion and the overall biochemistry both externally "oversee." The bottom pair, by contrast, reflects an internal focus; here the internal microbiochemistry of the ganglion matches with the individuality of each neuron.

The vertical pairs are the dependent pairs of "likes." Here, ganglia depend on their microbiochemistry, just as the individual neurons depend on the overall biochemistry of the brain.

Essential ingredient

All four elements are necessary to describe any natural system. Each element is interdependent with each other element, but on different spatial and time scales. Consequently, neither linear nor non-linear models can fully describe all six relationships.

Knowledge is akin to mass in its inert and monolithic aspects. Thought is akin to energy as the prime mover in the mind. Abilities are akin to space in their expansive applicability. And desires are akin to time, since their satisfaction is yet to come.

Desire's dependence on the passage of time is especially revealing of the mind's essential nature, according to Phillips. In fact, time is not a precondition for the emergence of mind; rather, it is the essential ingredient of mind.

"Carver Mead is correct about time being its own representation, but I would go further. To me, the mind is time-a standing wave in the brain caused by the interference pattern among different brain systems, operating on different time scales, that can change, learn, adapt and evolve," Phillips said.

Unlike the simple quads describing cosmic-sized systems, the complexity of the human mind translates into hundreds of different quads about its many psychological aspects.

An example of a quad describing a psychological aspect of mind is conceptualizing/being//becoming/conceiving.

Here, conceptualizing means just "trying on" an idea, whereas conceiving means originating a new idea. For instance, conceiving of expanding a house's floor plan is armchair work, but conceptualizing requires footwork to figure out how the addition might fit into your unique landscape and existing floor plan. In another example, the invention of the light bulb involved conceiving of a new means of making light, but at another fractal dimension, conceptualizing was needed to bring electricity into everybody's house.

Being and becoming are likewise opposed in the quad. Here, "being" means temporarily adopting a way of life-such as looking "mean" while in a potentially dangerous place-whereas "becoming" means rising to a higher fractal dimension by transforming one's very nature. To become something, an existing part must be given up and everything else rearranged to fill in the gap. For instance, if you stop smoking you might start chewing gum to fill the gap as you "become" a non-smoker.

Companion pairs

In accordance with quad theory, the top companion pairs-conceptualizing/being-both focus on external appearances, whereas the bottom companion pairs-becoming/conceiving-both focus on internal struggles.

For instance, at the top of the quad the smoker conceptualizes a smoke-free environment in which she can be a non-smoker, and on the bottom she struggles with becoming the non-smoker she conceived.