The Human Brain Testifies Against Evolution:
Confession of a neurosurgeon
Dr. CP Yu *
The theory of Evolution states that life originates from matter by mere chance; that life began with single cell organisms; and through mutation, natural selection, and constant adaptability to the environment, spanning billions of years, evolving to the diversified life forms today.
Evolution is so firmly rooted into our mind that it is rarely challenged. Otherwise be prepared to be attacked! The Wall Street Journal, August 16, 1999 reported: "A Chinese palaeontologist lectures around the world saying that recent fossil finds in his country are inconsistent with the Darwinian theory of evolution. His reason: The major animal groups appear abruptly in the rocks over a relatively short time, rather than evolving gradually from a common ancestor as Darwin's theory predicts. When this conclusion upsets American scientists, he wryly comments: "In China we can criticize Darwin but not the government. In America you can criticize the government but not Darwin."
With modern advances in neuroscience, neurosurgeons have unique opportunities to study the brain, the most complex 3 pound structure of this Universe. The basic unit is consisted of a neurone and glial cells. There are at least 10 to 30 billion neurones and ten times that number of glial cells. Each neurone has 10,000 to 50,000 interconnections with other neurones. Electron microscopy differentiates excitatory from inhibitory neurones by the presence of a micro-spine.
An excitatory neurone with a spine. Inside every nucleus of a neurone, there is the unravelled ladder-shaped DNA molecule which is a meter long within a cell 1/30,000 the size of a pinhead!
The brain is such a fragile structure that a natural helmet, the skull, is a built in feature.
The latter has an extremely complex geometry. It consists of eight layered bones of irregular thickness joined by sutures. The base of the skull is a thick irregular plate with openings for cranial nerves, blood vessels, and the spinal cord. All neurosurgeons must be familiar with skull base anatomy. 
Here we create tiny corridors to approach the deep structures without damaging the brain itself. Inside, the brain is surrounded by pressurised cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), the latter providing nutrition and serving as an active suspension system for the brain. If you lose CSF for whatever reasons, you will experience headache from lack of cushioning effect.
The law of irreducible complexity applies here. Without all the components acting together in unison, the system just will not function. Imagine your car without suspensions or chassis or body panels. No amount of mutation or natural selection will give you air bags, anti-roll bars or other active safety gadgets.
What about the 5 senses? Smell, taste, hearing, touch, and vision.
Olfaction
Our brain can distinguish more than 10,000 odours through tiny olfactory nerves at the roof of our nose. The biology of smell is well described in an article entitled The Molecular Logic of Smell by Richard Axel appeared in the October 1995 issue of Scientific American.
The olfactory system is intimately connected to the limbic system which controls emotions and memory. As such, great bouquet stimulates the soul and nourishes the mind, a wine specialist and eminent obstetrician claims.
Hearing
The human ear with its 24,000 "hair cells" which convert vibrations to electrical impulses, is capable of hearing sounds of astonishing low level acoustic energy. Under favourable conditions a normal person may actually perceive sound waves with the power of only 10-16 (1/10,000,000, 000,000,000) of a watt.
The internal ear shows extremely delicate anatomy. The nerve of hearing, as seen in the MRI image below, enters the internal auditory meatus which houses 3 other nerves, 2 vestibular and 1 facial nerve, all tightly packed together and yet never pose any electrical leak or cross-over distortion!
Vision -- The Visual Pathway
The Human Eye
When we come to the human eye, it is even more fascinating. Apart from having auto-focus, auto-exposure, excellent low light response, excellent depth perception that no camera comes close, the eye can perceive:
1. Velocity, 2. Direction, 3. Location, 4. Texture, 5. Identity, and 6. Colour.
The visual pathway is unique in human anatomy with its cris and crosses. The visual cortex is now the subject of intensive research. Functional MRI provides the best vehicle to study visual evoked brain responses in an awake subject. The primary visual cortex, V1, is "ignited" when the subject sees an object:
The most amazing finding is: if the subject is asked to project a mental image without any external visual stimulus, another part of the visual cortex, V5, is then "ignited"! If this particular mental image possess special qualities, then the corresponding physical response of the body will be triggered off. Fantasia! 
Can evolutionist please explain such remarkable process.
Functional MRI is also used to map the speech area and areas responsible for memory. This is highly relevant when epilepsy surgery is contemplated. One is constantly surprised by the large areas of different parts of the brain that are involved in speech and memory. The hippocampus and the mesial temporal structures are highly organised in their respective roles in short and long term memory. By performing elaborate tests such as the Wada test, and recently functional MRI brain mapping, the neurosurgeon can resect the epileptogenic part of the brain while preserving speech and memory.
Areas of the brain "lit" up during a memory task
The Pacemaker of the Brain
When we walk, play tennis, golf, or perform microsurgery, we never ponder why our actions are so smooth and co-ordinated. Yet, sufferers of Parkinsonic Disease (PD) cannot. They move like a car with a hyperactive and disorganised brake system. Why? Because their basal ganglia is having problems. Recent research (Nature 400:677-682) indicates that a tiny structure called the Subthalamic Nucleus (STN) is the pace-maker of the body. Numerous feedback loops and connections between the STN and other nuclei within the entire basal ganglia are responsible for the ultra-smoothness of movements.
The Subthalamic Nucleus
Parkinsonic Disease (PD) is a progressive disease which affects millions of people worldwide. 10% of patients eventually become medically refractory. Surgery for PD revives the hope of many such patients. By stimulating the STN via an implanted electrode, most symptoms will be alleviated. The procedure, called deep brain stimulation, is now gaining wide acceptance. Yet, when the electrode is just one millimetre wrong, the patient may see bright lights or experience acute depression! Such is the extreme complexity of the basal ganglia. A senior neurosurgeon used to say: "If you want to fail anybody in neuro-anatomy, ask him how the thalamic nuclei, the globus pallidum and the putamen are connected."
Bilateral deep brain stimulators and electrodes in place for PD
On can go on and on with other hidden treasures of the brain. Areas responsible for emotions, religious experience, cognition, and multi-tasking are now identified. A recent study even confirmed the validity of near death experience (NED), suggesting the possibility of after life and soul (the new study is to be published in the respected medical journal Resuscitation in 2001).
The fact is: the more you dig deep into neuroscience research, the more amazing discoveries are waiting ahead. It is only with today's supercomputer technology that we have glimpses of the wonders of our built in CPU. One simply marvels at the order, ingenuity, and complexity and yet simplicity of the highest order. The evidence of design is everywhere.
In medicine, much of our practice is based on probability. We use p values, confidence intervals and the null hypothesis in our statistical analysis. What is the probability of life arising from atoms to molecules, amino acids to protein (don't forget all life proteins are left-handed in configuration), DNA to messenger RNA, single cell to sexual reproduction, all the way to the human body with wonders of the brain and its senses, the heart and the circulation, the clotting cascade, the immune system, the wound repair and healing mechanisms? Bear in mind that all these have to go against the second law of thermodynamics, law of irreducible complexity, and the fact that most mutations are harmful.
An evolutionist once claims: time, in terms of billions of years, will make wonders even the chance is infinitesimally small. The human brain may be too complex to comprehend. Ask a monkey to sit in front of a piano. Give him endless time. What is the chance of our "ancestor" striking the notes of Beethoven's Fur Elise correctly?
"Professing themselves to be wise they became fools." Romans 1:22
"I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." Psalm 139:14.
Some useful links:
BrainMapping.
National Parkinsonism Foundation.
Functional MRI.
Epilepsy Foundation.
* Dr. CP Yu is a neuro-surgeon and a Fellow of the Hong Kong College of Surgeons.
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**Views expressed by the author are his personal views and do not represent the views of the Academy.
Comments and counterpoints are welcome. They will be published here as soon as they are received.