Free will again; even more complexity (Humans)

by David Turell , Friday, May 18, 2012, 21:43 (4570 days ago) @ dhw


> On this subject, there was an article in the Guardian the other day on the connectome search, which either David or Matt drew our attention to a while back. Jeff Lichtman and his Harvard team have set out to map the wiring of the 85 billion neurons, each of which "forms 10,000 connections, through synapses with other nerve cells. Altogether Lichtman estimates that there are between 100 tn and 1000 tn connections between neurons." The brain is made of "thousands of specific types of brain cell that look and behave differently." The ultimate object is to "lay bare the biological side of our personalities, memories, skills and susceptibilities. Somewhere in our brains is who we are."
> 
> We've seen these staggering figures before, but they're worth repeating if only to emphasize the "intelligence" ... I'm gaining confidence in this concept! ... of the cells that have put themselves together, and the difficulty of accepting that even the most rudimentary (cellular) intelligence could have arisen spontaneously in the first place from non-living material.-Glial cells have functions adding to the complexity of brain function: five types or more and may even convert to neurons!.-http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/brainwaves/2012/05/18/know-your-neurons-meet-the-glia/?WT_mc_id=SA_DD_20120518