BRAIN CANDY A new database offers a deep look at living human nerve cells, revealing elaborate branching structures and myriad
shapes, such as in this neuron called a pyramidal cell (cell image, left and 3-D computer reconstruction, right).
Posted on 11/13/2017 9:22:58 PM PST by ETL
New database could shed light on how people’s brains tick
The human brain is teeming with diversity. By plucking out delicate, live tissue during neurosurgery and then studying the resident cells, researchers have revealed a partial cast of neural characters that give rise to our thoughts, dreams and memories.
So far, researchers with the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle have described the intricate shapes and electrical properties of about 100 nerve cells, or neurons, taken from the brains of 36 patients as they underwent surgery for conditions such as brain tumors or epilepsy.
To reach the right spot, surgeons had to remove a small hunk of brain tissue, which is usually discarded as medical waste. In this case, the brain tissue was promptly packed up and sent — alive — to the researchers.
Once there, the human tissue was kept on life support for several days as researchers analyzed the cells’ shape and function.
Some neurons underwent detailed microscopy, which revealed intricate branching structures and a wide array of shapes. The cells also underwent tiny zaps of electricity, which allowed researchers to see how the neurons might have communicated with other nerve cells in the brain.
The Allen Institute released the first publicly available database of these neurons on October 25.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
Thanks for the post. BTTT.
“The human brain is teeming with diversity.”
An unfortunate catch phrase in the wrong place. “Diversity” now applies to science? Wow, what a revalation.
Good point.
bmp
Sentence restructured so's not to trigger the snowflakes.
Thanks for posting.
The pyramidal cells are prevalent in level three of the brain tissue, the hippocampus, and amygdala. Their action potential firing rate determines the frequency of consciousness, i.e Delta, Theta, Beta, Alpha, Gamma...... They are multipolar neurons which create the matrix of brain wave function.
It appears that the pruning of the dendrites on these cells is associated with short term memory and schizophrenia. (It appears that long term pot smoking decreases function)
Pyramidal cells are governed by chandelier and basket cells. These cells influence the firing rates and frequency of the pyramidal cells.
I’ve been researching the mystical aspects of consciousness as they relate to the gamma firing rates of these cells. Many years ago when I was in the psychology research lab hooked to an EEG I decided to meditate while watching the monitor of my brain waves. As I reached meditative consciousness, the brain wave monitor appeared to flat line. Upon closer examination, they were not flat, but contained many small saw tooth fluctuations that appeared flat except by very close examination. That was my first experience with gamma frequency of consciousness while hooked to a monitor.
What I have determined is that during prayerful meditation the pyramidal cells firing rate increases to gamma frequency and it allows me to tap into a higher part of my own consciousness. The real question is “What controls the physical process?”
The basket and chandelier cells firing rate is influenced in an inhibitory fashion by the neurotransmitter GABA while the excitatory influence is glutamate and modulated by acetylcholine.
I have found that the brain stores memories at the intersection of the two consciousness fields of the hippocampus and amygdala. These two fields create a consciousness hologram, the frequency of which is determined by the frequency of consciousness at the time the original event creating the memory was stored.
They hippocampus field creates the framework for the hologram while the amygdala creates the emotional component and content in the framework. This allows the same memory to be retrieved by either logical or emotional consciousness.
My reason for studying this is that ever since my death experience, I feel the consciousness fields and stored holographic memories in these fields as physical objects.
It allows me to remove PTSD trauma in a few minutes after a person has held the trauma for many years.
This also explains what causes many learning disabilities in children and many other personality attributes.
I’ve found that this system is also the source for cancer, MS, and most auto immune disorders.
It explains the neuroscience of the mystics and how they develop their abilities.
Just my humble opinion on the anatomy & physiology of the human soul. It’s easier to demonstrate than to explain.
I must laugh at all the research with transmagnetic cranial stimulation which tries to influence these brain wave fields by influencing them with magnetic fields in a helmet placed upon the fields. They keep finding that the change is temporary...Duh!
It’s easier to do it with your own consciousness and if done correctly, the end result is permanent. The main problem is that science does not recognize that the diameter of this consciousness field is at a minimum 30 feet in diameter.
Thank you for posting your replies. Very interesting indeed.
Thanks to ETL for posting this excellent article.
As a result I’ve just spent 3.5 hrs researching Martinotti cells. I’ve often wondered why, in some people I can’t lift their consciousness beyond a certain level. It hits a ceiling and stops. For me, it actually feels like they have a hat on their head that keeps consciousness functioning at the lower levels. This is a safety mechanism to stop consciousness from reaching high frequencies while still holding on to dense low frequency memories such as fear, anger, guilt. It’s kind of like the tilt cut out switch on the spin cycle of a washer. If you put in a wet blanket the washer starts wobbling and does not reach full spin frequency.
These Martinotti cells are in the distal layer of the brain and connect to the apex dendrite of the pyramidal cells limiting their frequency range. This also explains the feeling as though a rubber swim cap is being pulled down over my head as I tune to the higher frequencies of consciousness.
It also explains why I get a headache if I allow myself to get angry. It’s not blood pressure going up, but a pinching feeling in my brain.
Seeking understanding of the human body and the related consciousness interaction is far better than any crossword puzzle existing. What is fascinating is that intelligence is a function of the level of consciousness functioning at any moment. When I first reached the higher levels many years ago, it was as though a thousand volumes of encyclopedias were downloaded into me like epiphanies. The higher you go the easier it gets. Staying up there in this reality is very difficult. We become all ONE at the higher levels.
Per a journal article:
Scientists at Karolinska Institutet and the Brain Mind Institute in Switzerland have now discovered a mechanism that might explain how the most common type of neuron in the cerebral cortex - the pyramid cell - is prevented from becoming over-activated. Their results show that a rarer cell type that links collections of pyramid cells - called a Martinotti cell - acts as a kind of safety device. When a Martinotti cell receives signals above a certain frequency, it responds by sending back inhibitory signals that moderate surrounding pyramid cells.
You’re welcome.
Glad you found it interesting and thought provoking.
You are clearly far more knowledgeable and understanding of this topic than I may ever be, but, whatever is going on at these most fundamental levels takes place within the truly bizarre realm of quantum physics/mechanics, at least in terms of initial molecular activity. ie, how does a thought or any fundamental mind process get 'sparked' into existence in the first place?
Here's a link to the Google search results for "consciousness quantum mechanics". There are some mind blowing articles and theories here as to the possible connections.
Jennifer Ouellette
Nov 7, 2016
The mere mention of “quantum consciousness” makes most physicists cringe, as the phrase seems to evoke the vague, insipid musings of a New Age guru. But if a new hypothesis proves to be correct, quantum effects might indeed play some role in human cognition.
Matthew Fisher, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, raised eyebrows late last year when he published a paper in Annals of Physics proposing that the nuclear spins of phosphorus atoms could serve as rudimentary “qubits” in the brain—which would essentially enable the brain to function like a quantum computer.
As recently as 10 years ago, Fisher’s hypothesis would have been dismissed by many as nonsense. Physicists have been burned by this sort of thing before, most notably in 1989, when Roger Penrose proposed that mysterious protein structures called “microtubules” played a role in human consciousness by exploiting quantum effects. Few researchers believe such a hypothesis plausible. Patricia Churchland, a neurophilosopher at the University of California, San Diego, memorably opined that one might as well invoke “pixie dust in the synapses” to explain human cognition.
Fisher’s hypothesis faces the same daunting obstacle that has plagued microtubules: a phenomenon called quantum decoherence. To build an operating quantum computer, you need to connect qubits—quantum bits of information—in a process called entanglement. But entangled qubits exist in a fragile state. They must be carefully shielded from any noise in the surrounding environment. Just one photon bumping into your qubit would be enough to make the entire system “decohere,” destroying the entanglement and wiping out the quantum properties of the system.
It’s challenging enough to do quantum processing in a carefully controlled laboratory environment, never mind the warm, wet, complicated mess that is human biology, where maintaining coherence for sufficiently long periods of time is well nigh impossible.
Over the past decade, however, growing evidence suggests that certain biological systems might employ quantum mechanics. In photosynthesis, for example, quantum effects help plants turn sunlight into fuel. Scientists have also proposed that migratory birds have a “quantum compass” enabling them to exploit Earth’s magnetic fields for navigation, or that the human sense of smell could be rooted in quantum mechanics.
Fisher’s notion of quantum processing in the brain broadly fits into this emerging field of quantum biology. Call it quantum neuroscience. He has developed a complicated hypothesis, incorporating nuclear and quantum physics, organic chemistry, neuroscience and biology.
While his ideas have met with plenty of justifiable skepticism, some researchers are starting to pay attention. “Those who read his paper (as I hope many will) are bound to conclude: This old guy’s not so crazy,” wrote John Preskill, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology, after Fisher gave a talk there. “He may be on to something. At least he’s raising some very interesting questions.”
Senthil Todadri, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Fisher’s longtime friend and colleague, is skeptical, but he thinks that Fisher has rephrased the central question—is quantum processing happening in the brain?—in such a way that it lays out a road map to test the hypothesis rigorously.
“The general assumption has been that of course there is no quantum information processing that’s possible in the brain,” Todadri said. “He makes the case that there’s precisely one loophole. So the next step is to see if that loophole can be closed.” Indeed, Fisher has begun to bring together a team to do laboratory tests to answer this question once and for all.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/11/quantum-brain/506768/
Nobody understands what consciousness is or how it works.
Nobody understands quantum mechanics either.
Could that be more than coincidence?
By Philip Ball, 16 February 2017
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170215-the-strange-link-between-the-human-mind-and-quantum-physics
You had a death experience?
Wow.
And thanks for the informative post.
Looks like an antennae (maybe it is)
Quantum Physics does explain consciousness. It is a lot simpler than most make it.
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