IUBio

The Celebral Code - is it still reliable ?

Brian zhil at online.no
Sat Oct 20 11:20:53 EST 2001


Hello Yin,

"yan king yin" <y.k.y@(no spam)lycos.com> skrev i melding
news:9qq7qs$q081 at imsp212.netvigator.com...
> Hey Brain
>
> sorry i have been lazy to reply.  Im reading some papers by Squire
> and Kandel also, so we can talk about them.
>
> re the Cerebral Code, you seem to be very satisfied with this new
> theory you bought =)  Can you explain his theory about memory?
> I dont have the book here.

Yes, it provided some insight - but I think that I gained a lot by reading
"Memory" to understand more of "The Celebral Code".
"The Celebral Code" sees the Cortex as a "battleground" between ideas, were
sensations from outside AND long term memories provide the input by which
the ideas are initiated.
It basically starts in what they call the Hebbian cell-assembly.
The first Hebbian cell-assembly will affect through the axon it's nearest
neighbour, and the Cortex is such structured that they are 0.5 mm away from
each other, and they are arranged in a roughly hexagonal pattern.
There will of course be new ideas and new thoughts that will be initiated
and die, but the "strongest" one will through what he call the Darwinian
Machine develope and be presented as either as one part of a
string-of-thought, or an action.
But I regret that I didn't read the basics much earlier, and jumped on the
greatest hurdle first.
I have a better understanding now, than just 3 or 4 days ago.

> re the temporal aspect of neural coding..  I think the question is
> somewhat artificial.  The real question is, what are the neurons
> doing with the information?

They deal with it quite well in "Memory".
They began with Habituation and Sensitation in the Aplysia, and followed it
up with Classical Conditioning.
That is part of what they call non-declarative memory (unconscious memory).
And they continued first with a structural approach and then with the
molecular 'machinery' in the neuron of declarative memory.
(Wow !! Feel like an expert knowing this stuff now....<*grin*>).
Basically it's a 'free ride' now, as they dissect priming, perceptual
learning and emotional learning.
But it won't be as easy later on, I think.
Anyway, I think that approaching the Thalamus/Hippocampus will be easier
too, as I know a little more what they do.
So, I think that book about the connections in the Thalamus is going to be
the next one I'll order.
Don't worry about finances, it is worth it - and I'm not a big spender
anyway :-)
I'm also saving up to buy myself an appartment (it isn't cheap in the
capitol of Norway, it reminds people of the living-cost in Tokyo.......).

> I think anatomical data might be key to understanding the brain.
> ie how do we understand the connections between various regions.
> but im not sure... sometimes it feels like we might *never* figure out
> how the brain works, and it feels suffocating.

Of course the anatomical will be important !
Don't despair Yin, I have had this feeling before when I didn't have a clue
as to how the electromagnetic waves went through waveleaders, and easy part
was unfortunately not that easy [the math made my head hurt :-( but easy
enough when the thread was discovered.......].
So, as long as you repeat the basics over and over, so it will get stored in
long term memory, you'll see things in another perspective.
And here is were I can see where it will end for me - you're going for it as
a profession, while I'm a little uncertain about it (reading a lot).
I have a job already, but it doesn't give me as much pleasure to see the
logic behind the tests and experiments as what I read from various authors
books.
Maybe they're making it seem so easy, while it is not..........

Brian





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