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I like the headless chicken metaphor as a way to help us to understand the importance of inhibitory synapes/neurons. Although it seems to lead to the conclusion that a chicken who never had a head with be running around randomly all the time because of the 'action potentials' coming from its spinal cord (though I recognize that the brain might be needed for other things!)

The conversation about the internal generation of action potentials makes me think of schizophrenics, who can't discrimminate between an internal and an external source of information, hence their audio and visual hallucinations. I think this explanation of their psychosis is much kinder, and more accurate.

This is tough stuff to understand and I have read and seen it many times, each time picking up a little peice more of understanding- though I am not there yet.

One very funny and enjoyable article that I found last night while researching brain imaging. It's about the field of 'neuromarketing' which I think means reading our minds to find out what we will buy. Click here for 'My Amygdala, My Self'