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Ah yes, now (in my opinion) we are starting to touch on the meat of neurobiology as it relates to other disciplines (such as philosophy). With the discovery/categorization of central pattern generators we have encountered some new problems. Where is consciousness is all this? Who or what or where are these central pattern generators controlled? How do they communicate? Are these patterns the same across all species? And the questions go on, and so many remain.

My current concern is with purpose and control of purpose in these central pattern generators. I can’t help but think back to Richard Dawkin’s The Selfish Gene when it comes to the “control” situation. How much is really I-function? And is I-function either directly or indirectly influenced by our genes? Take an example: let’s say that you are scared of heights. So your I-function experience of heights may be altered by your genes and then this I-function information again influences your central pattern generators which may have varied effects (produce sweat or nausea when being exposed to a height-ful situation, etc.). I don’t know that it is so easy to define the control of not only these central pattern generators but also the I-function’s influence on them.

The next piece is communication. Does the I-function communicate with central pattern generators in the same way that action potentials are propagated? Can the I-function not only receive and transfer information but also censor it? Could this be why you don’t remember trauma or a traumatic incident because you have been able to censor it out of memory? And how does the I-function communicate with central pattern generators? Are there neural signals alone or could there be endocrine and neuroendocrine and other ways that we don’t yet even understand? Certainly I think neural signals are conserved in the body as an extremely useful (and for that matter) used way of communication, but can the I-function even be more subtle?

All of this leads me to the idea of purpose with respect to control. Who or what is really in control here? Right now it seems like the I-function is batting cleanup for whatever doesn’t fit nicely into our already developed scheme. I’m not sure that I am so okay with all of this. It seems unlikely that the I-function has complete and ultimate control since actions seem to be able to enter and leave this I-function-related capability box. An action can become so instinctive that you don’t even realize you are doing it, but then you are in a car accident and you have to learn everything all over again. And I have to ask, where is the I-function located? Does it have a physical location or is it something within the different parts.

Control (in my mind) is directly linked with purpose. We think of purposeful actions and we like to assume that we have some control over it. But could we train our central pattern generators to assume this role of purpose for us. How trainable are we? (This has some daunting implications…) I’m not sure what role the I-function has in our purpose, both our executable purpose (day-to-day activities) and this idea of ultimate “purpose.” It seems to me we are at a point where we need to identify who is really in control here.