Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

James Damascus's picture

Response

I would agree that 10^12 neurons allow for all of the complex thoughts, behaviors and tendencies people exhibit. While afferent neurons, such as those sending signals to Jayme's brain (to let her know she's itchy) might be comparably similar in their arrangement, structure and function from person to person, the self contained inter-neurons, which we learned on Thursday compose some 99.9% of our neuronal cells, may be comparably more heterogeneous, meaning that there is potentially more variation in their geometrical arrangement, physiology and cellular density across organisms as compared with afferent/efferent neurons (if for no other reason than there being so many more non-afferent/efferent cells) . Also, if the morphological structure of our brain cells change with accrued experiences and learning, then it follows logically that our afferent/efferent connections would be comparably more similar across healthy bodies than our inter-neuronal system.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                I also think that the distinction we made in class between the spaghetti (stimulus-driven) model and the “boxes within boxes” model, was meant to suggest that the brain is a generative and in some sense-autonomous organ, meaning that it is capable of generating complex outputs involved in such things as thought and decision-making. It is my opinion that the second model of the brain suggests sufficient complexity and interface to be responsible for such actions as choice, moral judgments etc. It may be the case (as Jayme might suggest) that the distinctions we draw between mind and brain-linked processes actually demarcate the areas of brain structure and function that we do and do not understand in an empirical fashion.That said, things are not entirely cut-and-dry. I'm not sure what to make of 10^12 neurons firing chaotically to produce crystal clear images and thought processes- there must be an extraordinarily complex interface at play.                                 

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
5 + 5 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.