"N" <nicki.cee at virgin.net> wrote in message
news:aaf60521.0406191548.4dc7209b at posting.google.com...
> [...]
> Is the number of connections per neuron in the region of eight
> or less I was wondering?
Again, depends heavily on where in the CNS you're talking about.
interneurons in, say, the cerebral cortex are going to have on the
order of 1,000 connections, whereas, neurons on the order of
10 or so connections are more likely to be found in the peripheral
system (like motor neurons, sensory neurons, etc.). I think most
of the neurons that do serious computation have quite a few
connections.
> [...]
> What time will it take for them to disconnect or reconnect then..
> I was wondering about that tto?
I think axons can grow at the rate of a few inches per hour, so
it depends on how far the connection has to go. For very local
connections, I imagine that they could be made on the order of
minutes. As far as disconnecting, I'm not sure how that process
works, so I couldn't make a very informed guess, but a wild
estimate would also be on the order of minutes.
> All in all then if there was a suggeted link made between neuron
> connections and simple mathes, it might sound a bit fuzzy d'ya
> say?
> [...]
Not sure what you mean. Do you mean mathematical ability?
Surely mathematical ability is something that requires a fairly
non-trivial neural system. Not because neurons themselves are
bad at doing math, but because they tend to be noisy, and
interfacing with the rest of the brain is non-trivial. That, and you
have biological constraints to contend with. It's usually pretty
hard to specify an exact layout for something biologically when
dealing with just a few cells.
Dave
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