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emily's picture

Isolated Outputs?

 Our "loopy" model of the nervous system works for me! Last week, I was thinking about how the infinite combinations of chemical interactions in the brain allow us all to have personality and thoughts, to be different, and to be individual. This week, we discussed an evolving model of the nervous system opposed to an astimulus/response machine, which, because it is invariant would prohibit individuality. Our evolving model of the NS, with its numerous layers of "boxes" and countless neurons and neuronal connections, supports my previous thoughts about infinite possibilities for the brain.

My only question now is where do "outputs" from within the brain come from? Do impulses, such as desires and needs, other emotions, and thoughts, come from permanent evolutionary stores? If so, what triggers them to go off? Wouldn't environmental factors, which affect emotions and thoughts, act as stimuli to these outputs from within the brain, and thus be external inputs? Aren't all "outputs" caused by subconscious "inputs", like evolutionary instincts, chemical interactions in the brain requiring us to breath or causing us to become hungry?

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