This content originally appeared on HackerNoon and was authored by Stephen
In contrast to the declaration by Nature that "the neuron is the fundamental unit of the nervous system", it is theorized here that electrical and chemical signals are instead the fundamental unit of the nervous system.
\ The search for how the brain organizes information presents a refutation for neurons as the core stops. The anatomy [and individual physiology] of neurons are quite established. There is nothing that says a part of the neuron can structure a kind of smell or different smells—or a smell from a sight.
\ Neurons are also incapable of the kinds of changes [or dynamism] that are necessary for complex interpretations and representations that are necessary for life.
\ Even when genes are expressed for several neural functions, neurons are simply not special among cells because of the possession of genes—like other cells. Whenever genes are expressed, electrical and chemical signals are still at work—maintaining their wheel across functions, even if genes may be engines in many.
\ The next options for neurons are synapses. However, in the thousands of synapses that a neuron has, what are their shapes? It can be assumed that synapses between neurons are made at availability. This means that a neuron connects to another neuron at the nearest or earliest possibility, indicating that synapses are not structured to shape but to possibility. Synapses could be near-straight lines in some cases.
\ They could be bends, curves, or around some other synapses, but synapses are not organized to be different because some synapses are for smell while others are for touch, some for some aspects of vision, and others for language. Synapses go and meet—so to speak—as what they have to do, not to meet in particularly specific ways [other than not joining] because they have to do one function differently from others.
\ These rule out synapses as the option within neurons for how they organize information—or establish functions. The lowest possible but most important units of all functions based on the nervous system are the electrical and chemical signals of neurons. There is no function for which the central and peripheral nervous systems are described that does not involve electrical and chemical signals. It is the signals that also decide if neurons would be activated or inhibited, giving them veto power most times.
Neural Communications
This makes it possible to theorize that the human mind is the collection of all the electrical and chemical signals with their interactions and features, in clusters of neurons across the central and peripheral nervous systems. This indicates that the mind is the signals, while the body is everything else, including neurons—postulating a clear distinction between mind and body.
\ Signals are simply not how neurons communicate, but are the basis for which they structure functions. Communication between neurons would mean that neurons produce information and are passing what they have produced around, or that they have information and are passing it on. Neurons may only communicate this way, say there is something within their anatomy [or physiology] that the others have to know, especially around sustenance—so to speak.
\ But with information organization, for relationships with the external world, for the human organism, neurons are the medium or the conduit for electrical and chemical signals to have sway. Neurons position, align, cluster, prepare, and are subservient to the signals, in sets. Neurons do not communicate smell or sound. The signals are configuring those and passing them on, while neurons are the highways.
Interactions
In sets, electrical and chemical signals have to interact. This means that electrical signals have to strike at chemical signals, in interactions, to define functions. Simply, functions in sets have to involve electrical signals striking chemical signals.
\ This theory breaks from the general perspective that action potentials trigger neurotransmitters—around synapses. It states that electrical signals strike to set in motion the configuration that chemical signals hold for functions. This means that chemical signals are sometimes "almost ready", but it is when they are struck that all that they have to specify what a function is, gets accessed.
\ Configuration of chemical signals includes the total available chemical signals in a set over an interactive interval. This may involve those at the synaptic cleft in an interval, such that those that leave at the receptors, or get taken up by the presynaptic neuron, or those that get broken down by enzymes, would have had to be available at the right measure—in an interval—for the configuration.
\ This means that how they 'excuse or clear out' may not be the key focus, but that they were available in a certain formation within an interval, especially in the 'strike era' of electrical signals.
\ When electrical signals strike chemical signals, they press in with what they bear, then pressure out what the chemical signals hold. Electrical signals [in sets] often bear summaries of information from sets of chemical signals. So, on arrival, they deliver that, which then allows them to also be able to take and leave.
\ This delivery of what they hold by electrical signals makes it possible to refute that action potentials are simply triggering because they have [cargo—so to speak] to deliver.
\ For example, in motor neurons, where axon terminals lay over muscle fibers, chemical configurations are provisioned, which electrical signals then carry summaries of, to other sets. This says that electrical signals almost always arrive with "something" or "some configuration." This is similar to the olfactory bulb, where chemical signals "integrate" or set up configuration [in a blend for higher order areas of the brain] for the smell, then electrical signals cart them away.
\ This implies that chemical signals [in sets] are the stations for which configurations of information are provisioned, while electrical signals [in sets] do relays—or distributions.
\ In some initiating instances, chemical signals configure information alone, but generally, as the information enters the higher-order areas of the brain, access and completion of those configurations are made in interactions with electrical signals. Which, subsequently, electrical signals can then take summaries of that set, then relay—or distribute—again.
\ Interpretation is different from learning. For learning, strikes have to be intense, setting out a configuration inscription or dent pathway, so that for the next interpretation, the fit is sought. A reason that learning takes a while, conceptually, is because of the necessity to have this configuration crater, as well as the need for some graders—like [new] sequences and [sharp] intensity.
Fruit Fly Connectome
It was stated that some neurons in the fruit fly brain have a staggering 148,000 synapses. That there are some neurons that are integrators, taking so much information, and others are broadcasters, distributing much. There is no function of neurons that makes them integrators or broadcasters. Distributions, configurations, or relays are functions of sets of signals, not neurons. Thousands of synapses for one neuron are not as important as the set of signals for which those synapses work within. It is the sets that collect them that then decide how the synapses are useful, not simply the connection to other neurons.
\ There is a recent immersive in Nature, The FlyWire connectome: neuronal wiring diagram of a complete fly brain, stating that, "The fundamental unit of the nervous system is the neuron. Individual neurons are connected by synapses to form circuits. Evolution has driven the formation of ever more elaborate circuits to enable complex behaviours, such as social interactions, navigation and even flying. A foundational step in understanding the nervous system is to know the complete connectivity of the circuits down to the synapse level — a field of neuroscience known as ‘connectomics’. This is easier said than done because even small animals, such as flies, have hundreds of thousands of neurons and millions of synapses. The complete connectome of an adult female fly brain with carefully curated annotation of the neurons and over 8,000 cell types. This is accompanied by a statistical analysis of the structure of the connectome. Particular attention has been given to the visual system because most of the fly brain is dedicated to vision. This is the first time the cell types and connections of a biological visual system have been revealed in their entirety. In total, the group has identified around 140,000 neurons — 98% of which have been typed — and over 50 million synapses."
\ There is a recent Nature Index, Will the big neuroscience brainstorm pay off? stating that "But concerns remain that core questions in neuroscience have not been addressed by big projects. It’s not clear how cognitive function emerges from patterns of brain activity, for instance, let alone how these processes go awry caused by disease. The future of BRAIN Initiative-supported research is also unclear."
\ There is a recent press release, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Approves Bristol Myers Squibb’s COBENFY™ (xanomeline and trospium chloride), a First-In-Class Muscarinic Agonist for the Treatment of Schizophrenia in Adults, stating that, "Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved COBENFY™ (xanomeline and trospium chloride), an oral medication for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults. COBENFY represents the first new class of medicine in several decades and introduces a fundamentally new approach to treating schizophrenia by selectively targeting M 1 and M 4 receptors in the brain without blocking D 2 receptors. Schizophrenia is a persistent and often disabling mental illness affecting how a person thinks, feels and behaves. It is estimated to impact approximately 2.8 million people in the United States. Symptoms typically first appear in early adulthood and present differently in each person, making symptoms difficult to diagnose and manage. While the current standard of care can be effective in managing symptoms of schizophrenia, up to 60% of people experience inadequate improvement in symptoms or intolerable side effects during therapy."
Feature image [source](https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/40-million-awarded-trace-human-brains-connections @step)
This content originally appeared on HackerNoon and was authored by Stephen
Stephen | Sciencx (2024-10-06T18:30:15+00:00) Fruit Fly Connectome: An Expansive Theory of Signals. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2024/10/06/fruit-fly-connectome-an-expansive-theory-of-signals/
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