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1. The idea that neurons in the brain receive many moreinhibitory signals than excitatory signals is very interesting if you think ofthe energetics of the process. The human body is designed to be efficient. Ourcells each have specialized functions, each protein has a specific job, and ourbody is designed to run smoothly and without much waste. It seems that thehuman body is wasting a lot of resources by requiring so many inhibitorysignals in the nervous system. Is an excitatory signal stronger than aninhibitory signal?

2. Could inputs produce inhibitory signals? I think thatthis process is possible because of my experience with distraction. I may bedaydreaming in class and suddenly be startled from my thoughts by a persondropping a book on the ground. In this scenario, my thoughts have been stoppedby an output from my environment. Does this mean that the sound of the bookdropping on the floor produced inhibitory signals that halted the actionpotentials produced by my thinking? Or does the book dropping produceexcitatory signals that are able to “overpower” the signals produced by mythoughts? I don’t think that an input has to be all inhibitory or allexcitatory. The noise of the book dropping may produce inhibitory signals thattravel to the box in my brain that is controlling my thoughts, while otherreceptors in my ears pick up excitatory signals that travel to another box inmy nervous system that makes me turn my head towards the sound. Without boththe excitatory and inhibitory signals, I would never be able to react to theoutside world because there would by no way to turn off the action potentialsthat started without an input. I think that most excitatory signals come frominside the nervous system. Our nervous system is constantly producing actionpotentials that are interrupted by action potentials that are produced frominputs.