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Like Anna, I understand the analogy, and I can see how it can be useful in understanding how the brain works. Last week, the New York Times had an article about migraines that seems to be particularly relevant for this discussion. Oliver Sacks, a neurobiologist who is familiar with visual migraines from childhood, describes the “aura” just before the migraine arrives, attempts to articulate the visual images that appear as the migraine is occurring, and then offers insight into what he believes causes migraine images. He discusses the symptoms, the implications, and possible revelations of visual migraines in relation to the brain itself.

“These geometric and scrolling motifs seemed somehow familiar to me, though it did not dawn on me until years later that this was because I had seen them not only in my environment but in my own head that these patterns resonated with my own inner experience of the intricate tilings and swirls of migraine.”

Could it be that stimulation in the brain generates action potentials that show up as these complex geometrical patterns that expose the crystalline structure of our consciousness? Could these visualizations not only be coming from the brain, but also in fact, be visions of the brain? I think the action potential idea is a fascinating way to think about this. To answer these questions, I am planning to read one of his books.

For more on this topic, see http://migraine.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/patterns/