Reply to comment

Anna, you bring up a very interesting point. So far, we have discussed that action potentials that fire 'with purpose' from an identified input and those that are fired 'without purpose' from an unidentified input (such as a leaky membrane), are two key factors that influence behavior. I too, was wondering about where randomness and reason fits in.

For example, although the emotions, behavioral patterns, desires, and interests differ from person to person on a very broad basis, why is it that the grand majority of us can recognize the smell of popcorn, or that we all withdraw our hands from a hot object, or that so many of us are bothered by the sound of nails scratching a chalkboard? Which sorts of outputs are a result of leaky membranes, and which are the result of non-leaky membranes? Or, one could think about it the other way; which sorts of inputs are a result of leaky membranes, and which are the result of non-leaky membranes? Do leaky and non-leaky membranes correlate with common and uncommon behaviors in any special way? How could we even go about measuring/quantifying in the first place?