Posted on 02/18/2019 2:24:50 PM PST by RoosterRedux
Scientists think they've identified a previously unknown form of neural communication that self-propagates across brain tissue, and can leap wirelessly from neurons in one section of brain tissue to another even if they've been surgically severed.
The discovery offers some radical new insights about the way neurons might be talking to one another, via a mysterious process unrelated to conventionally understood mechanisms, such as synaptic transmission, axonal transport, and gap junction connections.
"We don't know yet the 'So what?' part of this discovery entirely," says neural and biomedical engineer Dominique Durand from Case Western Reserve University.
"But we do know that this seems to be an entirely new form of communication in the brain, so we are very excited about this."
Before this, scientists already knew there was more to neural communication than the above-mentioned connections that have been studied in detail, such as synaptic transmission.
For example, researchers have been aware for decades that the brain exhibits slow waves of neural oscillations whose purpose we don't understand, but which appear in the cortex and hippocampus when we sleep, and so are hypothesised to play a part in memory consolidation.
"The functional relevance of this input‐ and output‐decoupled slow network rhythm remains a mystery," explains neuroscientist Clayton Dickinson from the University of Alberta, who wasn't involved in the new research but has discussed it in a perspective article.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencealert.com ...
Disk defragmentation while you sleep?
How does a pack of wolves communicate when they have no audible language and can plan to perform a task (like a hunt) in unison,which each member having an assigned task?
Also, my wife’s dog (mine too, I guess), knows when we are going to take him for a ride, and we don’t do that often, and never on any kind of schedule. He just sits and waits and looks at us as if to say, “I’m ready. Where are we going?”
Thanks RoosterRedux. Spooky action at a distance...
Pretty cool.
Great. Our brains have WiFi as OEM components. This means mind control rays can be done for real now :O
Looks like Edgar Cayce...................
Unless they have been surgically severed from the Spinal Cord, as well, they are still connected...................
I told my young son once that I could see into his mind and tell what the was thinking.
I remember thinking, “if I keep making noise I have to be a preacher, I’m not sure I want to be a preacher, I think I will be quiet.”
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