If the entire brain can be viewed as a big chemical system, does anyone have any idea how we can store memories and stories as chemicals? When I have a conscious thought, does it form a new memory chemical? It must. And how does that activate some sort of receptor site or something to cause the memory to be used?
HUH?
I used to know that, but I don’t remember.
Saying that memories are chemicals is the same as saying you are chemicals. It’s not really untrue but it’s extremely misleading.
Your brain is made of boatloads of little neuron cells and chemical receptors though dopamine is the only one I can think of right now. All the details are not understood but it’s the way that combinations of neurons are connected to each other that make a brain what it is including memories. There is not a specific chemical for the memory of antie Mame pinching you on the cheek as a child.
If that seems abstract remember that all the information and programs on all the digital computers in the while world is made of nothing more than ones and zeros.
My Jesus fish can beat up your Darwin fish but forgives it instead.
The gap between cells is bridged chemically. There are little nodes or sacks of chemical and when the chemical is released reduce the resistance to an electrical impulse. The more that an electrical path is used the larger the nodes get - easier it gets to bridge connections, better memory.
I studied this for nerve cells years ago and have forgotten quite a bit. It would be nice to get detail.
The internet is amazing.
A neuron:
http://users.rcn.com/trouts1/sd/neu.jpg
Roughly: a charge will get stimulated out of the hilloc (the red area) and progress along the neurotransmitter (chemical substance) the axons the hairy legs going off the hilloc.
For an interactive animated tutorial:
http://www.wwnorton.com/gleitman/ch2/tutorials/2tut2.htm
Oops: Axons above should be dendrites. The axon is the thicker long guy.
Note on the interactive tutorial the action potential graph changing over time.
You may simulate the graph by taking some LSD or other off the street drug and plugging the leads of an oscilloscope in your ears. When you have those fuzzy hallucinations your mucking with the chemicals.
Nice link & graphic, trouts.
I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like like to clarify your summary of how a neuron works, though.
Dendrites receive information. In the brain this is in the form of neurotransmitters released from neighboring neurons’ axons. The neurotransmitter binds to a receptor on the dendrite which sends a weak electrical signal towards the cell body.
If enough electrical signal gets to the cell body at the same time, the cell body generates a strong electrical signal which is transmitted down the axon.
At the end of the axon, the electrical stimulus triggers the release of stored granules with a specific neurotransmitter. The membrane around the granule fuses with the cell membrane & the neurotransmitter is released into the extracellular space, where it can bind to receptors on neighboring dendrites & begin the process anew.
Memory seems to involve changes in the network of dendrites, but I’m fuzzy there.
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.