Atoms and Cells

[Digmaster]

Potassium Cation Concentrations in your brain cells is what gives you memory I believe. The brain cells transfer the cations around extremely fast, creating electric potentials in your brain which store and process information.

ah. I'm guessing the burning occurs from the static electricity via repetition.

I am loving this topic.

[Ad Bot]

[Muffinmix]

ah. I'm guessing the burning occurs from the static electricity via repetition.

I am loving this topic.

I think so. Dunno, never studied the neural parts in biology 1001

[Digmaster]

I think so. Dunno, never studied the neural parts in biology 1001

I'm a freshman, everything I know is from guesswork and articals. I am totally taking Biology AP, and for that matter Physics AP (<3 teacher, who is also the supervisor of the robotics club)

[Anti-Cop]

A 70 kg body would have approximately 7*1027 atoms. That is, 7 followed by 27 zeros:

7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

That's seven octillion, by the way.  not 70 trillion.



The burning is just that the pathways are the proverbial 'paths of least resistance.'  I assume in short-term memory areas of the brain it uses a chemical makeup that 'cleans' itself faster, like how some liquids reform faster (water) when disturbed and others hold it longer (like glass).

At least that is what I remember, maybe I am wrong.

[Digmaster]

That's seven octillion, by the way.  not 70 trillion.



The burning is just that the pathways are the proverbial 'paths of least resistance.'  I assume in short-term memory areas of the brain it uses a chemical makeup that 'cleans' itself faster, like how some liquids reform faster (water) when disturbed and others hold it longer (like glass).

At least that is what I remember, maybe I am wrong.

Al, the 70 trillion must have come by the amount of cells in the body. My mistake.

I believe muffiin answered this.

[Anti-Cop]

I don't really understand what muffin said though.  :(

[Digmaster]

I don't really understand what muffin said though.  :(

Me neither. I believe that memory are caused by electrical impulses that create formations of Potassium Cation Concentrations, which in turn store energy, releasing it when you wish to remember something. This is very interesting.

[Anti-Cop]

Seems illogical.  Must find an article.

[Digmaster]

Don't forget to post it. I'd love to read that.

[Digmaster]

Found it: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2007-03-12-memory-first_N.htm

I believe that's it.
never mind, that explains part of it, but the second part of the article seems to have been lost.

[General Nick]

You guys are silly, everything is made out of magical mini roundheads!

[Anti-Cop]

All the articles I am finding are talking about the idea that continued action on the same neural pathways strengthens them.  Muffin might have just been telling us what exactly is used to make them stronger, but I think he worded it strangely.

[Ronin]

go to bread

[Muffinmix]

From wikipedia, I was half right. Forgot about the other chemicals (excitators and inhibitors and the like)

I was talking about action potentials, but there's more to it then just that

Computation

    Main article: Computational neuroscience

A computer, in the broadest sense, is a device for storing and processing information. In an ordinary digital computer, information is represented by magnetic elements that have two possible states, often denoted 0 and 1. In a brain, information is represented both dynamically, by trains of action potentials in neurons, and statically, by the strengths of synaptic connections between neurons.[85] In a digital computer, information is processed by a small set of "registers" that operate at speeds of billions of cycles per second. In a brain, information is processed by billions of neurons all operating simultaneously, but only at speeds around 100 cycles per second. Thus brains and digital computers are similar in that both are devices for processing information, but the ways that they do it are very different. Computational neuroscience encompasses two approaches: first, the use of computers to study the brain; second, the study of how brains perform computation.[85] On one hand, it is possible to write a computer program to simulate the operation of a group of neurons by making use of systems of equations that describe their electrochemical activity: such simulations are known as biologically realistic neural networks. On the other hand, it is possible to study algorithms for neural computation by simulating, or mathematically brown townyzing, the operations of simplified "units" that have some of the properties of neurons but abstract out much of their biological complexity.

Most programs for digital computers rely on long sequences of operations executed in a specific order, and therefore could not be "ported" into a brain without becoming extremely slow. Computer scientists, however, have found that some types of problems lend themselves naturally to algorithms that can efficiently be executed by brainlike networks of processing elements. One very important problem that falls into this group is object recognition. On a digital computer, the seemingly simple task of recognizing a face in a photo turns out to be tremendously difficult, and even the best current programs don't do it very well. The human brain, however, reliably solves this problem in a fraction of a second. The process feels almost effortless, but this is only because our brains are heavily optimized for it. Other tasks that are computationally a great deal simpler, such as adding pairs of hundred-digit numbers, feel more difficult because the human brain is not adapted to execute them efficiently.

The computational functions of brain are studied both by neuroscientists and computer scientists. There have been several attempts to build electronic computers that operate on brainlike principles, including a supercomputer called the Connection Machine, but to date none of them has achieved notable success. Brains have several advantages that are difficult to duplicate in an electronic device, including (1) the microscopic size of the processing elements, (2) the three-dimensional arrangement of connections, and (3) the fact that each neuron generates its own power (metabolically).

[Digmaster]

You guys are silly, everything is made out of magical mini roundheads!

Please.

All the articles I am finding are talking about the idea that continued action on the same neural pathways strengthens them.  Muffin might have just been telling us what exactly is used to make them stronger, but I think he worded it strangely.

neural pathways sounds more like a learned behavior. I'll go ask my dad, he suffered through med school. he's a bit confusing at times though.

Nope, he has no idea. he said they didn't know when he was in med school. I should call my friend;s dad. He's a brain surgeon :D

go to bread

what?