Brain and Behavior Institute, 2002

BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR INSTITUTE 2002

Forum 6- What aspects of neurons make you think about behavior most differently from how you used to think about it?

Name:  Aliya
Username:  aliyabradley@aol.com
Subject:  By George She's Got it!
Date:  2002-07-10 13:02:29
Message Id:  2199
Comments:
Aliya:

Here is a summary of my observations based on what I think I have learned today:

First and foremost - I do not see how anyone cannot believe in God after knowing so much so indepth about the body. Our bodies are not simple coincidences of matter, but a highly organized set of properties when put in certain patterns create certain actions. The fact that man cannot reproduce or even fix these things, just studying them should be a definite signal of the Greater being.

Next:
Eat plenty of K

Next:
An external source cannot only affect an individual when that source can change the chemistry, battery and all of that "stuff"
Practical meaning for me: I may not be able to single handly connect everything to every child because the stimulus that i am giving may not connect with that person - continue to create something new with that child.

Next:
How about this - nuerons can react to internal stimulus - to me: there is no explanation that I can give for every action of a child. It may have been caused but not always caused by some external factor.

Next:
Reality is based on transducers:
Children can't always react to things as readily as we would like them to - several events must happen internally first

Finally: Think about behavior backwards:

Sometimes behavior is not caused but just that the inhibition for that behavior was temporaily removed: meaning: sometimes that kid that yelled in the room didn't just yell due to a certain stimuli, but the action of yelling is always present and the inhibitors are steadily working to override it.

Question: How much of this is I Function (spelled it right) and we (other folks) override someone else's I fuction for reasons of communiaction?????

Name:  Hope M. Glover
Username:  hg7151@aol.com
Subject:  Changes in permeablity and Na
Date:  2002-07-10 13:17:07
Message Id:  2200
Comments:
I learned alot today. I knew that there was a reason why I was slow to respond to let's say touching a hot object. By the time I realized that I was touching the hot object and removing my hand I would have the start of a severe burn. I always thought it was because I had slow reflexes. Today I learned that there is time between the action potiential. This also explained for me how someone could be shot or stabbed and not realize it for a few seconds. I remember taking a course on drug addiction and how alchol sits on the outside of cell blocking transmissions? I quess this would explain why we move slower when under the influence of alcohol? But the "I function" insists in this situation that it has everything under control.

I also am facinated with the idea that axion lenght varies somewhat but is basically the same for all animals. I guess this would explain why an elephant moves slower than a mouse?

My next thoughts are on how various chemicals can slow down or impair the action potiential of neurons.

Name:  Ray/Bob
Username:  Anonymous
Subject:  neuron
Date:  2002-07-10 13:21:45
Message Id:  2201
Comments:
Taking into consideration that a single neuron may be reguarded as a computer or decision maker, and recieves data from at least one thousand other neurons, and sends information to another thousand and further considering that there are 10 to the 12 power of them, this makes one hell of a committee for deciding what color of socks to wear in the morning.

Name:  Shellie
Username:  Anonymous
Subject:  Neurons/behavior
Date:  2002-07-10 13:22:36
Message Id:  2202
Comments:
First of all, now I think of behavior as possibly just happening not caused by any outside stimuli. For instance a student may throw a book just because---not because of anything happening in the environment to cause it.

Of course there are plenty of times when outside stimuli may cause behavior. Now I think that many neurons react to this stimuli and then sometimes a behavior will result and other times the behavior will be inhibited.I am not sure that I am less wrong with this. ( Now I am able to express these thoughts and not feel that I must be right---it's ok to experiment with thoughts. What a change for me!)

Also I see behavior a result of many small computers(neurons) reacting and not just the brain.

Name:  RaMona Adams/Michael Boyd
Username:  RWarner@ucw.philly.com
Subject:  Neurons
Date:  2002-07-10 13:33:44
Message Id:  2203
Comments:
Neurons appear to be very complicated. The nervous systems is no joke. It works harder than I ever imagined. I now know that there is not a reaction to a stimulus. I'm still a little foggy on the input/output situation of neurons. It is clear that neurons take in information and put out information but, is the information that is put out a reaction? Or do reactions only occur inside the box?
It is hard to change the thoughts of an older person. I was taught to believe that when given a stimulus it would create a response. I can now relate to the children that are medicated in a whole new light. Last year I taught a child on Ritalin. He would say, "I couldn't help it I skipped my medication this morning" when he displayed poor behavior. It would upset me because I believed he could act accordingly. I now know that his imbalance did not allow him to control himself without taking his medication. In the future I would like to be more understanding when confronted with this type of situation. He would draw comic book characters to keep himself busy. I collected them until the end of the year. Maybe I could let him draw whenever he completes a task on time/early. If every neuron is in itself a computer then every human is a network of complicated systems that cannot be duplicated.

Name:  Brian & Joan
Username:  malinb1@yahoo.com
Subject:  Neurons/behavior
Date:  2002-07-10 13:36:00
Message Id:  2204
Comments:
Originally, I didn't know that behavior could be generated outside the brain. How neurons generate their membrane action-potentials, resting potentials, receptor potential, and synaptic potentials seems (now that I understand it) so elegant. The idea that we are what we eat - in the sense that to retain ability to generate membrane/action potentials you have to consume food (ions) was interesting. Why is it that some neurons respond to specific external stimuli - some to light, some to heat, some to chemicals, some to touch? How do they "learn" their job? Is it genetic? What causes neurons to differentiate from other cells, and for different types of neurons to differentiate from one another? It can't just be random, there appears to be too much sophistication. How can neurons be repaired? Is it true that neurons don't reproduce themselves as other cells can?

Name:  Lois Mackey / Cynthia Brown
Username:  loismackey@yahoo.com/ cybrown@phila.k12pa.us
Subject:  New concepts:Brain & behavior behavior
Date:  2002-07-10 13:38:06
Message Id:  2205
Comments:
Cinny - I was very interested in learning about the importence of potassium and sodium permiability in relationship to neurons and their signals: action, resting, receptor and synoptic potential.
Lois - I am now able to see how the aspect of neurons organization in the inhibitory reaction of the battery signals reverses the reaction from neuron to neuron that may produce behavior out of the norm.

Name:  Sharon and Tunde
Username:  shlee@phila.pa.us and tunatol@ahoo.com
Subject:  External/Internal Stimulus.
Date:  2002-07-10 13:39:47
Message Id:  2206
Comments:
It has always been a big puzzle to me why some students do things or act in a way that's completely out of context with reference to what's going on in their environment (the classroom) In the past I had thought that the kid wasn't comfortable with the orderly conduct of fellow students (which is an externally generated stimulus). But now I want to consider the fact that it can also be an internally generated stimuli.

Name:  Bob/Ray
Username:  Anonymous
Subject:  Being headless
Date:  2002-07-10 13:40:04
Message Id:  2207
Comments:
You can have a life without a head. Read the story of Mike the headless chicken,

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