From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Fri Apr 21 2000 - 08:12:01 MDT
Paul Hughes <paul@planetp.cc> writes:
> Anders Sandberg wrote:
>
> > Yes, neurons are much more complex than simple transistors. But it is
> > not obvious that all this complexity makes them *much* more complex -
> >
> > The real complexity lies in the manifold interactions between neurons,
> > individual neurons have a fairly limited repertoire of behavior but
> > when you connect a few of them into a network, especially modulated by
> > different chemicals, then they can do nearly anything.
>
> Yes. So the question becomes, to what degree are the differing states produced
> by psychoactive chemicals influenced by intraneuronal changes vs. neural
> network firing patterns?
I think it is mostly network changes, but the way these changes are
brought about consists of psychoactives binding to receptors mainly on
the synapses. It only takes a little bit of change in modulation to
change the behavior of the network.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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