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bpyenson's picture

Are we ever dealing with the same machine?

We learned from the classes a couple of weeks ago that the brain acts very much like a computer, transferring inputs into outputs like a mathematical function.  Even when discussing reafference loops, we still viewed the brain in a machine-like manner.

In this given reflexive machine model, it might seem that the machine is relatively static: a particular input creates a particular output consistently.  The machine, though, seems to be in flux constantly since the inputs do generate seemingly unpredicted outputs, as well as creating spontaneous inputs within the system.

Given these understandings of the brain and reflexive nervous system, can we effectively separate inputs that come from the environment from the seemingly 'spontaneous' or genetic inputs that emerge from within the system without any apparent origin.  In particular, can we ever say that there are 'genetic' portions of the nervous system, or is at least somewhat involved with the environment.  Is it possible though that a signal could be entirely 'environmental' in origin and lack any genetic component? 

 

Certainly with my thesis research on environmental sex determination, there seems to be a heavy environmental component, but I'm not yet audacious enough to say that the environmental components are entirely separated from the genetic components.

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