I read
a bunch on that when my son turned 16 and started behaving
strangely... I think that's generally correct, but there's a second
big wave in adolescence. Some huge work has been done with
longitudinal NMR scans I think it was. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/Publicat/teenbrain.cfm is
one good link that comes up with a web search for 'teen brain
scan' . There's also been a long series of discoveries on how
neurons remain somewhat adaptable throughout life and able to regrow in some
circumstances, though I still have nerves I injured as a kid and still
don't work about the same. One of the really interesting things
about nerve cells I think is accurate to say is that they develop like
arteries and capillaries, branching out within the body, being drawn to where
they're needed apparently (and then provided in overabundance which is shed as
some later time for some reason...).
Phil
Henshaw
¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯
`·.¸¸¸¸
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680
Ft. Washington Ave
NY NY
10040
tel:
212-795-4844
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explorations: www.synapse9.com
It was my
understanding that in the first four years of life, brain development is
characterized by the selective breaking of connections. More connections
exist at birth than are needed. In this way the early architecture of
the brain is etched rather than written. Later we lose brain cells at
the rate of 17,000 a day. It's a small percentage: over 80 yrs it
amounts to 4.96*10^8 or 0.5% of a brain with 10^11 neurons. Later
development, through adult life, is characteriszed by new brain connections
and cells being created.
Is this still accurate or is there a better
picture now?
Thanks
Robert
www.cirrillian.com
Louis Macovsky,
Dynamic BioSystems wrote:
At birth [and before], one neuron does not "know" which other neuron to
which it should make "contact." It is from internal and external stimuli
from which specific contacts are selected. The ability of the developed
brain to "normally" react to an external stimuli comes from an architecture
that has been created during development stages. A child raised chained and
in a closet for 18 years will react differently, physically and emotionally,
to external stimuli as compared to a child that has been going to school.
Most if not all of the connections made during development are permanent.
Synapses allows for this flexibility of "choosing" connections during
development rather than being hardwired at the get go.
IMHO
Lou
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Henshaw" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 4:49 AM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Neurons.
Yes, the connection at synapses does seem to be a special case of how
cells are connected generally, through the blood stream or other medium
of exchange. That relationship, cells creating a larger system by
'floating messages in a bottle' to each other is this same extremely
improbable means of running things that nature uses and seems completely
illogical from a machine design point of view. When cells interact with
each other they just dump stuff in the stream and grab stuff from the
stream (or have it sucked out of them and pushed into them), but there's
actually no connection between the cells.
Phil Henshaw ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave
NY NY 10040
tel: 212-795-4844
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
explorations: www.synapse9.com
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Jochen Fromm
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 9:01 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Neurons.
Gaps exists because neurons are not only the building block
of the brain and the neural system, they are also cells,
the basic building block of any organic lifeform. Cells
existed long before any neural system (in eukaroytic
and prokaryotic form). To connect neurons by synapses has
the additional advantage of high flexibility and adaptivity
by providing countless possible combinations that are
modifiable during the "runtime" of the system, and
by offering the possibility of modulation at the gaps.
Emotions in general have indeed a strong correlation to
modulation, they seem to be a kind of archaic control system
which evaluates
situations and controls the behavior (damping undesirable behavior
while amplifying desirable actions). They signal the state of
the system and control it at the same time - with the help of
the reward system, neural modulators and reinforcment
learning. It is no accident that
pleasant stimuli are commonly associated with reinforcing
neural modulators as dopamine.
-J.
-----Original Message-----
From: Russell Standish
Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 4:02 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity
Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Neurons.
My guess is that the "gaps" or synapses, have a lot to do
with fine tuning the amount of damping in the brain's
dynamical function. It appears that brains need to operate
near the "edge of chaos", and some global control system fine
tuning this would be desirable.
This probably explains the evolution of emotions.
Phil Husband's group in Sussex have done a fair bit of work
with "GasNets", which is inspired by the design, to make
effective robotic controllers.
Cheers
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
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