IUBio

Robot Dreams

jacek jbzebrow at zsku.p.lodz.pl
Mon Sep 11 10:36:47 EST 2000


 
>In article <8pi14q$grl$1 at nnrp1.deja.com>,
>  George Bajszar <gyuri at usa.net> wrote:
>>
  
>
>Perhaps sleeping has yet another purpose. I just came up with this
>small theory:
>
>As the day goes by, our neural nets storing memory are forming with
>data. But as I already described, a lot of memory that is unneeded is
>also stored during the day into random neurons. At the end of the day
>we go to sleep, and the brain if full with garbage data. As we go to
>sleep, the brain slowly shuts off into deep sleep mode. All this is
>controlled by chemical processes.
>
>Then from the deep sleep mode slowly arises a less deep sleep state
>where certain neurons wake up. Neurons that are in a stable network
>representing strong connections remain asleep. The chemical nature of
>strong connections allows this to take place.
>
>However unstable neurons that did not form significant network
>connections during the day will begin in this state to fire random
>signals. This random process sparks the dreaming process.
>
>The purpose of this would be for the brain to identify garbage neurons
>and reset them. Maybe that is why we don't remember dreams typically
>because those neurons that sparked those responses that lead to the
>dream were cleaned up for good from any further signaling.
>
>George Bajszar
>
>
 

It sounds plausible. A dreaming as a period of the silent filtering of 
unnecesary conections, a simulation of the work of the brain evaulating 
learned mechanisms during the day . If they proved to be work correctly ( in 
the absence of the external stimuli) they would stay.
							DZ






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