IUBio

An Experiment to do

kenneth collins kenneth.p.collins at worldnet.att.net
Sat Dec 4 15:24:40 EST 2004


"kenneth collins" <kenneth.p.collins at worldnet.att.net> wrote in 
message 
news:PLZqd.74745$7i4.41540 at bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
| [...]
 1. and 2. are actually the Same-
| Stuff -- 'just' 'blindly'-automated
| TD E/I-minimization left uncom-
| prehended, but, in that absence-
| of-understanding, nervous system
| function becomes 'blindly' and
| automatically aligned, subjectively,
| to divide all that is experienced
| into the two main "categories"
| that are discussed in AoK, Ap4 -- 
| 1. stuff that can be "finitized" [TD
| E/I-minimized] by 'moving toward',
| and 2. stuff that can be "finitized"
| by 'moving away from'.
|
| That's all there is. It's an either-or
| dynamic.
|
| The 'Hard" part about it is that 1.
| always maps-into 'blindly'-auto-
| mated TD E/I-minimization 'pos-
| itively' and 2. always maps-into
| it 'negatively', and "affect" is 'blind-
| ly'-and-automatically aligned con-
| sistently, so that, when one migrates
| from a 1.-predominant experiential
| environment to a 2.-predominant
| experiential environment, absent
| understanding of how and why
| nervous systems process informa-
| tion via 'blindly'-automated TD E/I-
| minimization, one always experien-
| ces 'being-oppressed'.
| [...]

This's relatively-easy to Verify ex-
perimentally, via 'standard' scan-
ning methodologies.

Carefully gather universally-"attract-
ive" stimuli, and universally-"repuls-
ive stimuli. I'd start, first, with
aromas. Gentle fragrences that can
be the scent of a rose, buttered-pop-
corn, "new car", a fresh, sunny spring
'day's clean air [how to get this into
your lab is your problem :-], etc.,
and vinegar, old cigarette-butts,
rotten eggs, etc.

Of course, with stuff like buttered-
popcorn, whether or not that's "at-
tractive" will depend on other stuff,
like 'state' of "hunger", and personal
taste [I prefer my popcorn plain, but
the smell of buttered-popcorn always
gets my attention when I'm hungry.]

The experiment entails scanning
while subjecting the volunteers to
such aromas.

There are some complications in
resort to scanning, as I've discus-
sed in other posts, because there's
always hugely-more going on with-
in a scanned nervous system [brain]
than is what's concise in the exper-
imental design, but this can be con-
trolled-for, in this "aroma" approach,
by summing across scans within "at-
tractive" and "repulsive" stimulus
categories [keeping the category-
sums separate]. All the other stuff
that's going on within the scanned
brain will "smear", because it's
relatively-variable, and the cate-
gory stuff will "resolve" [attain
higher-resolution] as the inter-
trial catagory summation occurs,
allowing it to stand-out. [If there's
an algorithm available to remove
the "smeared" stuff, that will help.]
[I chose olfaction because it's =rel-
atively= 'independent' of higher-
'level' cognition, which is what dom-
inates the "smearing", but, after
mastering the technique [and work-
ing-out the "kinks" and going ahead
with refining it as is useful] with olfac-
tion, go on to use it to explore
everything else.]

NDT Predicts that 1. and 2., in my
prior post, will literally map in a
Directionally-converse way in the
resultant scans.

It's Testable.

Variations in the technigue include
using it to explore the neural dyn-
amics that underpin "curiosity's"
behavioral orientation dynamics
as they are discussed in AoK,
Ap5. [Here, the problems of
getting "novelty" into the scan-
ning apparatus, and of scanning
regardless of orientation move-
ment are left to the Experimenter
to resolve :-] [I know it can be
accomplished, but I've no hands-
on experience with "scanning",
and I'd need that before I can
figure out how I'd do it.]

The other problem, in scanning
orientation-to-novelty is that it
occurs deep-within the brain
[see the discussion of "ramp
architecture in AoK, Ap3], so
the data will have to "focus"
deep. I don't know if such
focusing capability is currently
available, but know that it can
be accomplished.

The results, if achieved, will
also literally map, Directionally,
within the neural Topology.

This Directional-mapping is,
literally, the physical embodi-
ment of 'moving toward' and
'moving away from' [which is
why I use that nomenclature -- 
to emphasize Directionality
that's literally =mapped= with-
in neural dynamics].

There's no 'magic' happening.

Directionality is mapped in
dynamic relative TD E/I.

What has to be kept-separate,
though is that =each= sub-
process' Directionality derives
in the sub-process' information-
processing =purpose=.

For instance, the neural activation
that underpins mutually-exclusive
"drives" will vary inversely, but,
when observed externally, can be
=anything= with respect to the
Directionalities that are being
scanned-for above. The "Dir-
ectionalities" of these sub-pro-
cesses correlate to 'moving to-
ward' or 'moving away from'
functional-dominance with re-
spect to the =sub-process'=
'world'.

Get it?

It's why grasping the concept
of the nervous system as a
"multi-"Mobius-ed Klein bottle"
is Important.

Directionality is mapped within
the nervous system in rigorous
accord with that single-surface
neural Topology, but, looking
at it, all at once, from outside,
leaves one 'seeing' the "convol-
uted"-ness without Seeing
the integrated-Whole.

So just use the "multi-"Mobius-
ed Klein bottle" to read the
"convoluted" stuff as a unified-
Whole. [I can attach a pattern
of a useful Learning-aid as a
JPEG image if I'm allowed by
b.n to do so. I've had it for -- 
let's see -- 32 'years', have
tried to give it to others, but
just got 'moved away from'.

I need permission. Then I have
to scan it, and it'll be a fairly-
large JPEG image [3-10 Mb].]

Anyway, knowing about how
Directionality maps within rel-
ative TD E/I is what enables
one to comprehend nervous-
system information-processing
dynamics. [I've worked to
communicate this in long-former
posts, and am reiterating it in
this post -- because I'm not
sure that folks got-it, way back
when.]

Directionality is =Important=,
and can be read directly in TD
E/I [and, literally, in the neural
Topology, itself, as in the "ramp
architecture" and the front-motor,
rear-sensory cortical mappings
as is discussed in AoK, Ap5],
with "volition" front-most [can
folks See, in terms of what I've
discussed in this post, =why= it's
so?].

k. p. collins





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