Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

Lauren McD's picture

Filling the gap

I'm glad that we went into great detail about the inner-workings of neuron firings this week in class. We started off the course with more general thinking and now are delving into the science behind everything. It's absolutely miraculous how a simple 'battery' is responsible for all the functions of a human being. It is difficult sometimes to force oneself to associate the change in permeability of a membrane with a significantly complex output such as thinking. I think we still need to fill in all the empty space between the two, but I'm sure that's coming up in class soon. We have already discussed this difficult transition in previous blogs, acknowledging that it's near impossible to make the transition any easier. However, I am certainly curious about the information that will fill the gap. I've learned about neuron firings and I've learned about behavior in previous classes, but I never truly had a course in which I learned the processes between the two. I suppose it's like a vast network, but how does a simple electrical/chemical signal get processed into running, reading, or eating? This is what I am most interested in learning about: how a neuron firing becomes a behavior. I assume the next step is discussing propagation along neurons, although we did touch upon synapses and their functions in class. While these topics will greatly help our understanding of all human behavior and experience, in response to the prompt, we never can make sense of all human behavior and experience. Sure there are patterns and associations, but there will always be exceptions to the rule unless we make up enough rules for every possibility. This is a discouraging goal, but the necessary information to fill in the gap between neuron firings and behavior will greatly help us as students understand human experiences to a greater extent.

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
3 + 4 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.