As I've mentioned before, I enjoy trying to understand neuroscience and cognition-related topics, although I'm not really very well equipped, intellectually.
I recently was led to a very dense bit of reading on the topic of just how the brain's structural components lead to its computational abilities, and the author was advocating the apparently radical idea that one aspect of brain-structure that deserves greater study is that of the role of neuronal mitochondria. Of course I don't get it all, but I was fascinated.
I was particularly struck by two interrelated conceptual bits:
- the syncytic aspect of neuron structure, a concept that had never registered with me before
- the mitochondria-as-ants-in-a-colony metaphor: "the commute is the computation." (this seems to rely on (a) because the only if the neurons are joined syncytically can the mitochondria "migrate" around in the manner suggested)
I had one thought (I hesitate to call it an epiphanic moment), which I'm not sure better reflects understanding or lack of understanding: Is it possible that the electrical aspect of the brain's activity reflects not the computations taking place but rather the "clock", on the computer metaphor? That is to say, the electrical pulses are the clock, while the chemical activity taking place in mitochondria and at synapses are the actual computational work.
[daily log: walking, 7km]
