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I read Julia's posts on Dramamine and box-to-box conflict. They made me think about the potential relationship between box-to-box conflict and general stress.

During a bout of motion sickness, the body becomes nauseated as a result of spatial disorientation. The body's balance is thrown off by abnormal movement in the environment. The body cannot ground itself. As a result, the rest of the senses are thrown off and the body focuses itself on relieving the motion and restoring balance. The "pain"of nausea signals the rest of the body/senses that something is wrong. In this way one box (the box or group of boxes attentive to equilibrium) disrupts all other boxes. Instead of enjoying the beautiful sunset or the light sea breeze we put our heads between our knees or take Dramamine to calm our stomachs. Maybe it isn't the brain "choosing" which box to listen to in a conflict. Maybe there are built-in overrides that, when aroused, temporarily cancel out other boxes.

Also, I thought it interesting that Dramamine is a sedative of sorts. The brain seems to have a fight or flight response to high levels of environmental discord. If the action potential for the response is reached the brain elects to fall asleep. This speaks to the brains capacity. It seems that there is such a thing as sensory overload. My question now is, where does this potential sit? How much can the brain take from its environment before it shuts down? There is an interesting dichotomy here, I think. We discussed the need humans have for sensory inputs; these inputs help us retain a sense of self (we spoke of sensory deprivation tanks and their capacity to remove this sense). It seems we need to be grounded by some sensation. However, too much stimulation results in an equally removed sense of self ( in the form of sleep).