http://forums.thinkarete.com/users/65/posts en-us 60 <p>The PubMed abstract below indicates how the <span class="caps">RAS</span> may work. Our sensory organs (eyes, ears, etc.) take in information. The <span class="caps">RAS</span> then pulls information from our higher brain and compares it to incoming information. If there is a match we become aware of the information.</p> <p>Food for thought for the group &#8211; in view of this mechanism being a good citizen might be detrimental to our best functioning. For example, if we worked to help the poor we would fill our brain with information about systemic oppression of the downtrodden. With this information in our brain wouldn&#8217;t we become more prone to see the potential for failure in situations we encounter rather than the potential for success?</p> <p>Support for this idea comes from <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24502967/">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24502967/</a> which points out that conservatives are happier than liberal-leaners. By not caring about the down trodden people the conservatives do not develop the brain mechanisms to be unhappy that liberals do.</p> <p>Prog Neurobiol. 2001 Aug;64(6):555-73.<br />N-methyl-D-aspartate channel and consciousness: from signal coincidence detection to quantum computing.<br />Freitas da Rocha A, Pereira A Jr, Bezerra Coutinho FA.<br /><span class="caps">NEAC</span>-UNICID, <span class="caps">LIM 01</span>-HC-FMUSP and <span class="caps">RANI</span>, Research on Artificial and Natural Intelligence, Rua Maria Inez 26, 13201-813 Jundiai-SP, Brazil. <a href="mailto:eina@kyotec.com.br">eina@kyotec.com.br</a><br />Research on Blindsight, Neglect/Extinction and Phantom limb syndromes, as well as electrical measurements of mammalian brain activity, have suggested the dependence of vivid perception on both incoming sensory information at primary sensory cortex and reentrant information from associative cortex. Coherence between incoming and reentrant signals seems to be a necessary condition for (conscious) perception. General reticular activating system and local electrical synchronization are some of the tools used by the brain to establish coarse coherence at the sensory cortex, upon which biochemical processes are coordinated. Besides electrical synchrony and chemical modulation at the synapse, a central mechanism supporting such a coherence is the N-methyl-D-aspartate channel, working as a &#8216;coincidence detector&#8217; for an incoming signal causing the depolarization necessary to remove Mg(2+), and reentrant information releasing the glutamate that finally prompts Ca(2+) entry. We propose that a signal transduction pathway activated by Ca(2+) entry into cortical neurons is in charge of triggering a quantum computational process that accelerates inter-neuronal communication, thus solving systemic conflict and supporting the unity of consciousness.<br /><span class="caps">PMID</span>: 11311462</p> Fri, 09 May 2008 10:01:56 -0000 forums.thinkarete.com:503:3:654 eudemon http://forums.thinkarete.com/forums/503/topics/3