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	The Brain - is wider than the Sky - For - put them side by side - The one the other will contain With ease - and You - beside- Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)	Even though its common knowledge these days, it never ceases to amaze me that all the richness of our mental life - all our feelings, our emotions, our thoughts, our ambitions, our love life, our religious sentiments and even what each of us regards as his own intimate private self - is simply the activity of these little specks of jelly in your head, in your brain. There is nothing else. Vilayanur Ramachandran, 2003
Brain = Behavior ... a true story? a good story? Because of ... personal observations? observations made by others (personally verified or not)? social stories (heard from others)? usefulness? Let's tell some stories, make some observations, revise the stories, explore usefulness ...

Neurons and Neuronal Signalling

• The nervous system is a complex assembly of a very large number of interacting neurons
• All behaviors/experiences reflect patterns of signals in those neurons
• Neurons are largely the same in different parts of the nervous system and in the nervous systems of different organisms
• Neuronal signals are largely the same in different parts of the nervous system and in the nervous system of different organisms
• Neuronal signals may originate either inside or outside of the nervous system, and can be influenced by a variety of material agents (including chemicals)
• There is some degree of indeterminacy in the generation of neuronal signals
• The organization of the nervous system in influenced by its own activity

The trend of the evidence re brain=behavior

• epilepsy
• schizophrenia
• depression
• autism
• "To Fight Stuttering, Doctors Take a Close Look at the Brain", NY Times 12 September 2006
• "An Image of Consciousness Creates a Stir", NY Times 20 September 2006
• "Is Hysteria Real? Brain Images Say Yes", NY Times, 26 September 2006

The current story ...

If behavior/experiences are different then assemblies of neurons are different Everyone has a somewhat different assembly of neurons, influenced by genes, experiences, culture, randomness Enormous diversity inherent in variety of possible assemblies Diversity rather than disability Everyone's assembly of neurons is continually changing No one is "stuck" with what they have What we need to better understand is the architecture of the nervous system and its ongoing capacity for architectural change

| Introduction | Science | Brain: Basics | Brain: General Architecture | Brain: Bipartite | Implications | Metacognition | Science as Story Telling On-Line Forum |