As we have become more specific about the concepts that are associated with the production of behavior, the idea of corollary discharge and central pattern generators addresses this issue in a new light. It would seem that a lot of behavioral information is then stored in the nervous system somewhere, so that these signals can be generated. Corollary discharge sends the impulses through to the ganglions, yet they are not seeing the whole picture of how their individual signals are affecting the behavior. Where is the ultimate CPG then for these types of actions? Is it in fact the brain, or does this governing force lie somewhere else within the body? We've talked about how the brain is not the be all end all of behavior...can the spinal chord be responsible for the action we may see generated before us? Where is it that we learn all of these behaviors that end up being stored to automatically occur anyway? The process of learning behavior so that it becomes automatic is an interesting process. It would seem to me that these behaviors do NOT always have this CPG/corollary discharge system. Something must be done prior to that so that the behavior can set up the map that it then follows. The biology behind that is absolutely fascinating. The impulses are like a stream of water that is running down a sand pile. After a bit of time, the water has created a groove for itself and it doesn't have to do the work anymore; it just flows right on down to the bottom. So is the process of learning these automatic behaviors. If you tilt the bucket of sand, or put a rock in the way of the path of water, it is going to have to re-route before it can be comfortable again. This happens when a behavior has to be modified due to any of the possible circumstances. The old tract will still be present for a while which means that the behavior can slip back into its old groove it the switch is soon enough. When the tract does not get used for a while it might begin to fill in, but will be easier to carve out again if needed. So it seems to happen with respect to behavior. This is especially true with respect to addiction. Although it might be questionable as to whether or not the addictive behaviors have been taken over by corollary discharge due to the enormous amount of factors involved with this particular example, the CPGs seem to be sending ( or forced to send) these signals indicating severe need. I question how much of our behavior is being generated by central pattern generators and corollary discharge. We seem to act so differently to situations depending on our mood, the weather, what happened at lunch, that a great deal of what we do seems like it must be generated on the spot without any direct sort of model. It's not even the differences between people that scare me, I can understand that people will not see and react to situations in the same way due to the multitude of individual differences, it is when we, ourselves, start changing everything around. When we don't produce these same behaviors each time, it makes me wonder where the boundaires lie with respect to how much of our behavior can be thought of as a stored resevoir wating to be tapped.
Lots of different, interesting ideas, needing to be disentangled at bit more (which is fine, that's what the class is all about). Yes, lots stored in the nervous system. No, probably no "master CPG", but only a lot of semi-autonomous parts (we'll like more closely at the brain to show this). And yes, what we are is changing all the time. Boundaries? Worth thinking more about. You want some, or not? PG