On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 11:56 AM, Craig Weinberg <[email protected]> wrote:
> We do see neurons firing in response to no other stimulation other > than the subjects conscious attention and intention. It's not magic, > it's how it actually works. It's how you are making sense of these > words right now. You can have your neurons move a mouse around, either > through your hand or directly through one of those scalp rigs. It's > only magic if you arbitrarily deny the subjects observation of their > own subjective behavior. The neurons are firing in my brain as I'm thinking, but if you could go down to the microscopic level you would see that they are firing due to the various physical factors that make neurons fire, eg. fluxes of calcium and potassium caused by ion channels opening due to neurotransmitter molecules binding to the receptors and changing their conformation. If you take each neuron in the brain in turn at any given time it will always be the case that it is doing what it is doing due to these factors. You will never find a ligand-activated ion channel opening in the absence of a ligand, for example. That would be like a door opening in the absence of any force. Just because doors and protein molecules are different sizes doesn't mean that one can do magical things and the other not. -- Stathis Papaioannou -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
