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Don't be a silly quant! | 68 comments (68 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Don't be a silly quant! (none / 1)
Brilliant diary, Sven.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 05:23:25 AM EST
Re: Don't be a silly quant! (4.00 / 3)
Thank you Drew - (hope I'm not missing some latent snark ;-))

I try to find illuminating connections between things. However it all keeps coming back to how the brain works.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 07:40:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Don't be a silly quant! (4.00 / 2)
I would agree that there is no sanrk....

except that small thing about inherent learning.... I know it is difficult to differentiate between big structures  which are strongly protein related (genes if you will) and then the connectivity which is basically celular communciation (no genes involved)..

but if you do separate both (and I agree at first order they can be separated as far as we know)..then you have to separate it completely... neuronal connections- both stablishing hte conenctions and sending signals through it- are neurons talking to each other... so inherent learning will be basically externally generated input where biochemichals act as carriers of external information... in that approxiamtion hormones and GABA and AMPA and NMDA and the chemotaxis biochemicals are there just to trasnmit enviromental signals so that neurons can talk to each other and decide how to connect or how strongly or in which clusters or..., not to generate the general brain structure, not to specify the connectivity.

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

by kcurie on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 08:25:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Don't be a silly quant! (4.00 / 2)
Yes, it is of course the connectivity, but I am thinking more of the data structure, which is commonly a specific set of inputs at certain frequencies that excite the neuron and cause it to fire a single shot down and out through the possibly few thousand connections to other neighbouring neurons (well I say, neighbouring, but some axonic connections can travel 4 cms in between different layers (for instance) of the cortex, and all these interconnections form a 'structure' that has, overall, multiple terminations.

It is this basic data structure, chattering away, in a simple stimulus/response manner that can then be modified by the release of biochemicals. The biochemicals not only affect the functioning of the neuron firing structure temporarily, but can also alter it permanently.

But the trigger for the biochemical modification often comes from the data structure itself (sees naked person, gets erection). There is thus a feedback relationship between the two systems. So I have to disagree.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 09:45:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Don't be a silly quant! (none / 0)
yes we strongly disagree.

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

by kcurie on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 10:51:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Don't be a silly quant! (none / 0)
Sven, you know very well I'm not sharp enough to come up with a snark that subtle. ;)

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 07:13:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Don't be a silly quant! (4.00 / 2)
I try to find illuminating connections between things. However it all keeps coming back to how the brain works.

that's because it's really hard to have higher cognitive functions with no brain.  (Interestingly, there have been babies born with only one hemisphere.  They normally die round about 2 years old.)  But it is possible to draw lines, and thank heavens, otherwise nobody would get anything done.  It's when those arbitrary lines, draw for convenience, become fixed borders problems arise.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 07:57:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Don't be a silly quant! | 68 comments (68 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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