I believe that it really was worth spending an entire week on action potentials. Action potentials are the basis of the entire nervous system. If you don't understand the way in which action potentials work, then you won't be able to understand the nervous system. Learning about action potentials has helped me to better comprehend how behaviors are carried out. Action potentials explain how information can be carried throught the body without using matter. I like the idea that information travels as a wave. It seems to make sense when you think of the nervous system and its many somas and axons. Understanding action potentials helped me to be able to picture the journey of information through the body.

Action potentials also show how the nervous system isn't totally perfect. Because action potentials take time to travel thourought the body, there can sometimes be a significant delay between the time of the input and the time of the output. Therefore, it makes sense that not all behaviors happen quickly enough and why people are clumsy. (i think that the time for the action potential to take effect in my nervous system must be very delayed. maybe that is why i always run into things. it's not that i myself am clumbsy, but it is that my nervous system functions to slowly. although this is probably not true, because in humans, even the longest axons are probably short enough that there couldn't be enough of a delay time that would greatly affect our behavior. oh, well, i tried to find an excuse.)

another thing i don't understand, but that i know we will be discussing this week is how different messages can be sent when all action potentials are the same throught the nervous system. what could possibly be different about the action potential that would allow more than message to travel through when the same type of mechanism is used all the time? is it maybe where the action potential is located? or could it be where the information originally came from? i'm very interested to find out how this can happen.

Appropriate thoughts/concerns. We did take on how can all action potentials be the same question. You satisfied? And yes, is actually true that nervous system activity takes time, measurable amounts of time (partly because of finite velocity of action potentials). And that MAY account for at least some limitations of particular nervous systems (we'll talk more about this). PG