One brain cell has enough power to allow ‘feel’ sensation!
Brain cells
I just love this following article which tells us that there could be enough computing ability in just one brain cell to allow human and animals to feel! There is one question that springs to mind, though … if we have so many billion neurons each with the capability of storing vast amounts of information … why am I increasingly unable to retain the simplest of facts? Think I need to upgrade my brain model!
The brain has 100 billion neurons but scientists had thought they needed to join forces in larger networks to produce thoughts and sensations. The complexity of the human brain and how it stores countless thoughts, sensations and memories are still not fully understood.
However, a research team from the Humboldt University in Germany and the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, stimulated single neurons in rats and found this was enough to trigger a behavioral response when their whiskers were touched.
A second research project from the US suggests the computational ability of each brain cell could be even more complex, with different synapses - the many junctions between neurons and other nerve cells - able to act independently from those found elsewhere on the same cell.
This could mean that, within a single neuron, different synapses could be storing or processing completely different bits of information.
Elaine Warburton
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POSTED IN: Genealogy and DNA, General Genetics and Health, Genetic Engineering, Genetic Future, Genetic Ingenuity, Genetics of Disease, Personalized Medicine
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