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Like Jackie, I found the idea of action potentials being like a battery interesting. While the idea makes sense to me, I don't necessarily understand the need for the analogy, and am looking forward to seeing where this goes.

If we accept this analogy, we have to look at what this means in respect to the whole system. If the system is simply a flow “like" an electric circuit, we don't have a way yet to explain how the action potentials are propagated, and how each neuron speaks to the next.

I really liked Jackie's "proof" for the battery idea, by discussing the Intro Bio lab. I didn't think about it that way, but it's true. Using a naked nerve cord that was "dead" but physiologically active still, is similar to a battery that you can just remove. This way of utilizing the analogy shows that the signals, arguably one of the lowest levels of work in brain, are nothing more than a mechanical/electrical system.

I think that an important thing to remember when were talking about action potentials all being the same is that sensory organs are made up of specialized cells. So that while action potentials may all be the same, the cells that are receiving them take that input and translate them to the i-function in different ways.