brain cells and networking
Here's an article to check out:
"Brain Cells, Doing Their Job With Some Neighborly Help" By BENEDICT CAREY December 25, 2007, New York Times
From the article:
“Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland stimulated not a single cell but a single dendritic spine, one of the hairlike growths that sprout from a cell’s branching arms.
Brain cells communicate with their neighbors by sending a chemical burst from the tips of these spines, across a space called the synapse to the tip of a spine on the next cell. If the chemical bath is strong enough, the receiving spine bulges forward — strengthening the connection between the spines. This is thought to be the fundamental process underlying learning.
But the researchers, Christopher D. Harvey and Karel Svoboda, found something unusual when they stimulated a single spine. Not only did the spine bulge, but it also somehow made its neighbors more sensitive to chemical signals — standing ready, in effect, to digest any spillover of information. Imagine every neighbor on the block calling up to offer a corner of his basement for storage, just in case.
The combined effect of these helpers multiplies the capacity of any single brain cell, the authors concluded. Neuroscientists had theorized that this effect, called clustered plasticity, might help account for the tremendous capacity of the brain, but they had not seen it in action.”
Ok, I know I'm a bit offbeat, but doesn't that remind you of the way social networking goes? I'm seeing all sorts of parallels...
Anyone else?
(And somehow I think this could be a great source of comedy, too, or could be a dance, a musical piece, a poem.) So many ideas to bat around,
"Brain Cells, Doing Their Job With Some Neighborly Help" By BENEDICT CAREY December 25, 2007, New York Times
From the article:
“Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland stimulated not a single cell but a single dendritic spine, one of the hairlike growths that sprout from a cell’s branching arms.
Brain cells communicate with their neighbors by sending a chemical burst from the tips of these spines, across a space called the synapse to the tip of a spine on the next cell. If the chemical bath is strong enough, the receiving spine bulges forward — strengthening the connection between the spines. This is thought to be the fundamental process underlying learning.
But the researchers, Christopher D. Harvey and Karel Svoboda, found something unusual when they stimulated a single spine. Not only did the spine bulge, but it also somehow made its neighbors more sensitive to chemical signals — standing ready, in effect, to digest any spillover of information. Imagine every neighbor on the block calling up to offer a corner of his basement for storage, just in case.
The combined effect of these helpers multiplies the capacity of any single brain cell, the authors concluded. Neuroscientists had theorized that this effect, called clustered plasticity, might help account for the tremendous capacity of the brain, but they had not seen it in action.”
Ok, I know I'm a bit offbeat, but doesn't that remind you of the way social networking goes? I'm seeing all sorts of parallels...
Anyone else?
(And somehow I think this could be a great source of comedy, too, or could be a dance, a musical piece, a poem.) So many ideas to bat around,
Tags: New+York+Times, brain+cells, brain+functioning, networking
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on
-
So, this is an interesting territory! I'm not a brain scientist (not even close), but I have also wondered about the parallels with how the brain processes information and this new world we live in. I like the model you've quoted because of the interplay and interdependence involved.
We each are faced with more sensory input each day that we could possibly manage without the brain using certain strategies for selecting out which information is worth paying attention to. Seems like we are now also facing more "information" each day than we can possibly manage, and the idea that social networks help us to recognize what's worth looking at and helps to organize it is very cool. Surely that happens as well in non-technological social networks, but it does seem likely that we will begin to depend on technological social networks in ways that are new and fascinating to study.
Certainly when you, Connie, are intellectually stimulated, many of us sense that and stand ready to digest the spill-over!
-
Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on
-
The discoveries about brain-workings are so fascinating--
and the interdependence that is now made available through technology is creating entirely new worlds, and, I would expect, even new kinds of minds.
Hey, there's an absolute state-of-the-art conference coming up in San Francisco, Learning and the Brain (February 7-9), and it is just a few days after the Classroom 2.0 conference (February 1-2). Can you imagine going to both with some days to chill in between? What a lot of learning that would be.
Report
Win at School
Commercial Policy
If you are representing a commercial entity, please see the specific guidelines on your participation.
Badge
Follow
Awards:
© 2024 Created by Steve Hargadon.
Powered by
