Adrie, Squids and the like are a fascinating subject. Their neurons work very differently from ours. Speed is an important factor in the transmission of neural impulses. As you should know there is an electrical and a chemical part to neural functioning. There are two ways to speed up the flow of neural firing. The one we use us to wrap the neuron fibers with a coating of fatty cells called myelin. This provides insulation and a serious speed boost. About two years ago my immune system decided my myelin was tasty and ate it. That sucked but fortunately is seems to be able to repair itself which I think is nice. It is an interesting experience to have your nervous system crap out. Everything kind of tingles like its fallen asleep and you can't wake it up or even shake it.
A second way to speed neurons up is just to make them bigger. That's what squids do. In fact giant squids can have individual nerve cells that are as much as a millimeter in diameter. Eric Kandel studied the nervous systems of sea slugs because they have a relatively small number of these relatively large neurons. He got a Nobel for figuring out that memory works by increasing the efficiency of the action of neurotransmitters across the synapse (the chemical part of nerve activity.) It is kind of like explorers blazing a trail through the impenetrable Amazon. The first explorer makes a narrow path which each successive explorer widens until a path becomes a dirt road, which gets paved and widened... That's kind of a bad metaphor since it implies increased size to allow efficiency. Maybe it's more like pouring water on a playground slide. IDK, something like that anyway. Krimel -----Original Message----- From: ADRIE KINTZIGER [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, August 27, 2010 12:16 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MD] Social level for humans only Yep, Krimel_o,probably it passed by the MoQ-ers eye's some time ago, But in an interaction with Arlo , i launched a link once , some time ago, about intellect in Cephalopods , Squids so to speak, the complete group;..to provide some evidence of my earlier statement that the intellect in animals differs from zero-- In that specific link, one was able to read that the brain of some squids is different from other brains , in so far , that parts of the neural network , part of the brain, part of the neural cell's are in fact residing in the arms of the cephalopods. Strangely they seem to be there as stand alone entity's. But of course , this only appears to be so. nobody knows until today what the function is of this differentiated neurons in the arms, but if they are having a mirror function for touch and recognition, then this points out towards intellect outside of the brain..try to imagine the implications. cephalopods owning a handshake verification-protokol that exchanges info , like a personal area network., interacting with other ceph.... good , aint it? And BTW, newly discovered is always controversial, as Darwin found out , in evolution. If i stumble upon the link again i will relaunch it. 2010/8/27 Krimel <[email protected]> > Dave and Adrie, > Mirror neurons are new and slightly controversial but it is an > extraordinarily interesting idea. It helps explain for example empathy and > how 30 min. old newborns can imitate adult facial expressions. They > highlight several problems that have been kicking around the MoQ lately as > well. > > First is the idea that consciousness is king. Mirror neurons are yet > another > example of a non-conscious process taking place outside of awareness and > yet > heavily influence both our behavior and our "attitudes". > > A second interesting point is that they show how memory and conscious > processes are not just restricted to the brain. As James points out the > whole body is involved. Our memories are not recorded simply as sight and > sound but as physical sensation and emotional commitments. > > Krimel > -------------------------------------- > > -----Original Message----- > From: David Thomas [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Friday, August 27, 2010 11:33 AM > To: MoQ > Subject: Re: [MD] Social level for humans only > > On 8/27/10 10:04 AM, "ADRIE KINTZIGER" <[email protected]> wrote: > >[Adrie said] > > There is a lot to find i think on wiki-- The triggering switches are > called > > "mirror neurons" > > It is still terra incognita for most part, everybody seems to have this > > mirror neurons, they fire simultaniously > > and fast if a behaviour is observed.i was aware of it briefly. > > Yeah this is a nice piece on the implications which correlates quite nicely > with my theory that "designing" may have been as or more fundamental in > intellectual development as language. > > http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/ramachandran/ramachandran_index.html > > Dave > > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html > -- parser Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
