Do the bots have some sort of mechanical or electronic brain or do they simply have computer chips that are very small? I ask because despite the amount of damage done to Megatron's head at the end of ROTF, he didn't seem to be mentally or intellectually deficient in any way. Heck, is their central nervous system (or their equivalence of one) even located in their heads?

 

They do seem to have something of a "mechanical brain", as ripping off their heads kills them instantly [and Sentinel Prime seemed to have a series of wires inside his head, those can be seen when he is shot by Optimus].

On Megatron's case, there's four things to consider:

1 - The shot might have damaged his head, but not his brain [as in, just destroying a good chunk of his "head-armor" and of his "skull", but narrowly missing his brain].

2 - Megatron was already a power-hungry psycho, the shot seems to have made him worse [He was ordering ELEPHANTS to hail him in the start of DOTM for crying out loud], his plotting abilities seem as sharp as ever, but I'm not so sure about his grip on reality [which can be further seen as he talks to himself in a lonely alley of Chicago about how happy he is to see Cybertron again], he was borderlining schizoprenia on the events of DOTM.

3 - In real-life, there was a guy who got [accidentely, from a short distance] shot in the head, he lost HALF of his brain but his intellect is perfectly fine, Megatron might be like that.

4 - Megatron was decaying physically on DOTM, rusting and he looked like he was about to fall apart at any second, the shot in the head might have caused that.

 

When Optimus blasted Sentinel's head, I saw something inside his head that looked to me like a mechanical brain.

 

Yes, they do have what coudl be called a brain as far as we can describe. the Reason Megatron isn't left mentally damaged is because the blast was entirely cosmetic. His "brain" would still be undamaged.

Severing the head will kill a normal giant TF just as it would a human, the only exceptions being Frenzy and Laserbeak, who (Laserbeak presumably) can function as just heads, so in their case destroying the head is the only way to kill them.

 

I wouldn't say that Megatron was "all there" mentally anyway, as pointed out by Overlord Balder... So I think it's safe to say that his "brain" (processor?) was in fact, at least partially, damaged from the ROTF shot to the face.

 

Does humans have brains? Yes, but most of them don't use them. Same with bots  

 

They do have a structure similar to a brain. They dont actually have chips as those are human creations reverse engineered from components found in Megatron. So, in addition to a brain, they have components similar to microchips. Also they have processors of several kinds, as Ratchet mentions Bumblebee's processor.

Optimus' shot to Megatron's head clearly didnt damage his brain, only his head. It seems it did affect Megatron's brain a bit, but not enough to kill him. The shot may have barely missed his brain, thats why he lived.

They have brains but some of them can live without a head. In the same way they have more than two ears or eyes, as they can see or hear when in their alt mode, without the need of their heads sticking out like a periscope to see or hear whats happening xD

 

thread won.

 

Shockwave is a candidate. He didn't even learn the English language!

 

How is Shockwave supposed ta read when the damn parachutes keep falling over his eye?!

 

Nope. He lives with Sam, Wheelie and Carly, not the Autobots.

 

I think Megatron was slowly loosing his mind because of getting shot in the head the way he was.

He ordered elephants to Obey him in English
He sits on his ass watching Cybertron instead of getting into the fight
and he doesn't realize that bringing Cybertron to earth would screw up planet.

 

I thought the "All hail Megatron!" scene of him in Africa was simply him admitting how low the "Mighty Megatron" had fallen. His tone suggests disgust with himself and his situation, IMO, and had some sarcasm to it.

 

THREAD RE-WON! 

 

pics?

 

Ouch.

 

I have to ask what part sparks play in this. BayFormers have sparks as they've been mentioned a few times in the films. What relation are they to brains in terms of Transformer life? Are the sparks the 'life' and the brains the 'person'? Without a spark both die. Without a brain does the spark still survive as life, just without the person it had become? Kinda like someone can be brain dead but their body can still be kept alive. Are the brains just some way of channelling the life from the spark into being a person? So damage to the brain means the spark can't relay all that it could to the thinky head gubbins.

This does raise some additional questions though. Would that mean all the head 'deaths' leave a personless spark behind? That could be used for someone else if a new personality brain was provided for it to activate. And if the brain was really the place where the person was stored, would that mean Jetfire could be revived with a new spark if his brain module was still intact? That could actually put a whole new spin on when Optimus told Sam to shove the Allspark into his spark in the first film. He'd just need a new spark to reactivate his personality brain and not have really been suggesting his own sacrifice after all. Could also explain Megatron being revived right as rain in ROTF even though his spark had been toasted. The Allspark shard just gave him a new spark to run his personality brain again.

Or should I just take the easy route and say both spark and brain function together and without one the other is effectively dead?

I've probably thought too much about this stuff.  

 

So.... headmasters, how do they fit into all of this? XD And Jazz when he was ripped in half at the stomach by Megatron?

And I agree with Megatron being depressed/ironic/sarcastic in that Africa scene. He fully realizes elephants are just animals and can't understand him but he likes to terrorize them anyway just because he can lord his power over something.

 

Positronic brain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
And it was pretty obvious that Megatron was losing his brain functions in DOTM. He even collapsed in an alley near the end.

 

this is the winner