I could never question that fact that it is very important to spend time to fully understand action potentials. If the neuron is the building block of the nervous system then we need to know all about it (especially its communication mechanism) in order to understand the nervous system.

The most fascinating point brought up so far has to do with how fundamental the mechanisms of the neuron are. I am extremely interested by the thought that autonomy begins at the cellular level, though on an intellectual basis this is only logical. Where else would something begin than at jumping off point of the nervous system? But at the same time how does the cell "choose" to fire? Is it a random occurrence that later on appears as a choice or is it stimulated by some intracellular instance or is there another explanation? Of course this brings up more questions because if we knew how autonomy worked then we could understand behavior on a grand scale from minute behavrios to larger trends in behaviors. Then this would bring into play controls over behavior and so on. If autonomy turned out to be an event based on another random event then behavior would become even more mysterious.

Fair enough. Can now understand that neuron might just fire without itself or anything else "choosing" to? Because of sodium continually leaking in? Or perhaps because of some random events? Yes, that too will come up, and makes the thing even more interesting (more mysterious? or less so?). PG