>folks who've got a copy of my 1983 presentation paper (given at the NRL),
>which
>provides an a completely-integrated-with-the-rest-of-the-nervous-system,
>fully-functional model of cortical functioning, will see that, if they're
>sustained, the only thing that these new findings do is impart new robustness
>to NDT's position.
>>course, the 1983 paper was Censored, so how could anyone know?
>>i've sent out other copies, but've never heard back.
never do :-)
anyway, i'll discuss the basics of NDT's neocortical model, so that folks've a
view into the stuff of my comments, quoted above.
although it's still deemed to be 'mysterious', be-cause of it's highly-ordered
neural architecture, 'neocortex' is one of the easiest things to get sorted
out... there's a 'caveat' involved, though... 'neocortex' only becomes easy
=after= everything else within the nervous system is integrated. this
circumstance results from the fact of the very-same highly-ordered neural
architecture that makes understanding 'neocortex' easy... kind of 'amusing',
no? ('who's on first?" 'neuroscience' responds, "I don't know." :-)
'cortex' (dispense with the 'neo' (i'll use 'allo' if necessary, which won't be
in this particular post)) is 'just' another "crumpled-bag 'nucleus'... as are,
for instance, the inferior olives and the cerebellum.
the main thing about all 'crumpled-bag nuclei is that their gross structure
exists to deal with the problem of coordinate translation, which, within the
nervous system is also a problem of informational cross-correlation...
be-cause, when neurons either 'fire' or remain quiescent, what's actually
happening is that information is being manifested, integrated, and acted-upon.
'you' can explore all this by taking 'your' own small (for convenience) brown
paper bags and crumpling them into a ball... then mostly-un-crumple them.
note the 'gyri' and 'sulci' ('hills' and 'valleys') that remain in the
semi-crumpled 'state'. these are analogous to the gyri and sulci of the cortex.
why these topological features are important is that, in their deviations from
a horizontal plane, is that they allow local topological mapping to adhere to
the minimal-circuit-length 'rule' which is 'just' another embodiment of the TD
E/I-minimization principle. (The long-prevailing notion - that cortex is
'crumpled' in order to maximize surface area is also True, but it's 'only' a
serendipitous tag-along-thing, relative to the Geometrical wonder stuff that
underpins the existences of cortical 'gyri' and 'sclci'. see for 'yourself' by
drawing arrow on 'your' crumpled paper bag... go into the 'sulci', up over the
'gyri', etc., to 'your' "heart's" 'desire', all the while, studying carefully
how the correlations of the Geometry of arrows which, if they'd been drawn on a
horizontal plane, is very-different from the correlations of the 'same' arrows
when they are drawn upon 'your' paper bag's 'gyri' and 'sulci'. [BTW, i'm using
quotes around 'you'-stuff because i'm not really talking to any particular
folks, but rather, the 'wind'... if anyone's 'curious'.]
'you' see?
the existence of the 'gyri' and 'sulci' make possible minimized circuit lengths
within, and among, various cortical loci... which is all very-important with
respect to optimization of nervous system function with respect to survival...
shorter circuit lengths reduce activation latencies, and, thus, action and
reaction 'times', all the while, minimizing energy 'consumption' (which, within
nervous systems, is what that which is referred to as 'time' actually is.
spend some 'time' (er... energy) exploring the wonders inherent... see how,
depending upon where an arrow is drawn on a 'gyrus' or 'sulcus', any arrow can
'point' in pretty-much any 'direction' with respect to pretty-much any other
arrow... more of the way our nervous systems are 'engineered' to cope with
infinity... more of the 'engineering' that 'corrals' infinity within our
nervous systems... kind of neat, huh?
work on it until you've got-it... this's the only stuff that needs work-filled
'thought', so give it what it needs before moving-on.
done?
good.
let's move-on to what happens within 'cortex' when particular circuits are
activated.
it's all straight-forward. the 'layered' structure of cortex exists to
facilitate the dynamic creation of 'loop' circuits. these loop circuits are
converged upon via straight-forward TD E/I-minimization. the single
most-important factor in such convergence is the seemingly-anti-convergence
functionality of the 'reticular system'... the 'stochastic-input generator'
(see AoK, Ap5).
the 'stochastic-input generator (SIG) is constantly 'bombarding' cortex with
it's relatively-random outputs ('efferent' activation). this =creates= 'chance'
fluctuations in the activation that's occurring in cortex, and it's through
this 'chance' stuff that =new= cortical 'loop' circuits are converged upon...
it's so highly-functional be-cause the TD E/I-minimization mechanisms (see AoK)
are constantly working to 'strip' away all activation that can be eliminated
without resulting in TD E/I(up).
so, via TD E/I-minimization, the cortical loop circuits become
increasingly-well-tuned (their activation becomes increasingly-'finitized'
(AoK, Ap4)), and as a result of such convergence upon minimal activation
'states', newly =created= loop circuits gain 'biological mass' (AoK, Ap5) which
imparts 'behavioral inertia' (AoK, Ap5) to them... all via
extraordinarily-'simple', bur nonlinear, activation dependence... (all
individual neurons have to do is "follow standard 'rules'" for blind
neurotrophy (growth) in response to the fact of 'activation', or the relative
lack of it, and the whole thing self-organizes... pretty-neat, huh?
anyway, it's =this= 'biological mass'-'behavioral inertia' stuff that =is= what
'memory' is.
now, to the main 'point' of this post, which is to show that the
'new-cortical-neuron' stuff that's much in the news these days, only
strengthens this stuff which has been in NDT all along (and which was
presented, in the olden days of 1983, at the NRL.
check it out... 'migrate' some new neurons into the realm of the cortical loop
circuits... voi la... 'just' more stuff with which to do the same,
more-strongly.
'memory' is preserved, despite the migration of the new neurons, be-cause the
new neurons migrate into the already-established
'biological-mass'-'behaviroal-inertia' stuff of pre-existing loop circuits, and
being tablo-rasa things, the new neurons' activation is quickly 'moulded' in
conformity with the previously-established
'biological-mass'-'behaviroal-inertia'.
work hard, get it straight... 'memory' is a function of all of this structrue
and all of the dynamics through which order is imposed upon it... 'memories'
are =not= 'stored in synapses', as if synapses were some little storage
compartments.
rather, 'memory' occurs as a function of the =whole=.
of course, different 'areas' experience different activations, so their
contributions to 'memory' can only reflect the activation that's actually
coocured within them.
so, 70 years ago, back in 1929, Karl Lashley had gotten it right (after his 30
years' work, making it 100 years since enough has been known, given Cajalhs
awesome productivity, to get 'memory' sorted out robustly.
but folks 'just' let all of this gorgeous work sit on the shelf, collecting
dust.
do folks see why my 'heart' breaks-so?
such a waste!
both great World Wars could've been prevented, if only resources had been given
to Neuroscience, rather than to 'singing the same ol' song' to the tune of the
"Beast's" Dictates... one, two, three... "We don't know anything about the
brain."
Not True... Sadly, Not True.
beyond the 'conveyance', inherent, and all that that entails, i was delighted
to hear of the new-neuron stuff... seeing what's going-on within cortex,
without being able to invoke such new-neuron stuff (because the literature said
that it just didn't occur) was one of the most-difficult exercises in the
course of developing NDT... but that was serendipity that worked out for the
best because, during this period, i also worked out the
active-in-information-processing roles of neuralglia, which, perhaps, i
would've overlooked if there had, then, been new-neuron stuff for me to 'play'
with.
except for the new-neuron stuff, everything discussed here, and
exceedingly-very-much-more, has been in AoK all along. it was, also, all
diagrammed, schematically, in the Censored 1983 NRL paper.
as far as i Know, AoK, as it stands, all old, and long-in-the-tooth, is
Censored, still.
i see our Children 'wandering', lost, and how can it be that anybody does not
comprehend my 'frustration'?
for goodness' sake, i must ask, how much longer will non-sense be allowed to
continue?
other matter:
i was informed, via private msg from an online acquaintance, that it's the case
that the only Nobel that the Norwegian Selection Committee decides on is the
Peace Prize".
if it's so, then everything else i've been monitoring 'only' becomes all the
more 'interesting'... there's been Murder happening, right in the light of day.
K. P. Collins
