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mcurrie's picture

Ramblings

 When talking about the weight set point I thought about my dad who stayed the same weight from 18 until a few years ago and since then has gained some weight. But it seemed that he gained weight more because he was not moving around as much as he did while with the forest service. I see that the nervous system has something to do with weight but also the environment or activity of a person. So I am glad that we are now including the external input since it does not always seem that your behavior is only due to the nervous system. With paralysis after a stroke, although the I-function is not able to create an action due to the lack of connection although it seems since a person can still move their arm when a ball is thrown at them that the central pattern generator is still active and can be activated in order to protect the body. As if even though you’re not aware of the paralyzed part of your body it is still aware of your surroundings and keeps its function in keeping the body aware of dangers or other stimuli. What about a person in a coma, they still have their CPG's intact, but I don't think they respond to a ball being thrown at them. Are their CPG's damaged or latent due to the nervous system shutting down portions in order to extend energy to places in the body that need it? Do they still have an I-function? I guess I would say that they still have the nerves that form the I-function but that the function is dormant. I guess I'm just thinking about all the connections and keep wondering about what occurs when one of the connections, CPG's, I-function, corollary discharge is not functioning properly. With paralysis the I-function has no effect but the CPG's are still able to respond, while in a coma the I-function doesn't seem to be working or CPG's but maybe corollary discharge is still telling neurons what's going on in the body, keeping it aware of the outside although I'm not completely sure.

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