Transmission and Detection of Brain Activity
- From: Povestea Ilenei Cosanzene Chatitoarea si a lui Teofil netanderthalul <is_dat_right_Im_russian@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 26 May 2007 03:01:33 -0700
In contrast to thoughts, the brain activity underlying them consists
of (electrochemical) energy. Could this energy be transmitted from us
or be detected within us? If so, would it have the informational
content of the thoughts arising from it? This activity, in brief, is
the sending and receiving of electrochemical impulses among the
brain's densely packed microscopic neurons, which number in the tens
of billions in the highly enfolded human cortex (Crick 1995). The
impulses ("nerve action potentials") sent by a neuron can be picked up
by a microelectrode within 100 micrometers of it in the cortex. These
impulses have amplitudes of several millivolts (Brecht, et al. 2004).
Electrodes on the surface of the brain are, however, too distant to
detect them, but can record synchronized fluctuations of electrical
potentials in masses of cortical neuronal dendrites (branches
receiving incoming impulses). These post-synaptic potentials vary in
amplitude from about 0.5 to 1.5 millivolts, but when recorded on the
scalp their amplitudes are only about 10 to 50 microvolts. The ionic
(largely sodium and potassium) movements responsible for these voltage
fluctuations can not be recorded outside the scalp, for their
detection requires a medium affected by ionic movements. But these
electrical potentials, like all moving electric charges, generate
magnetic fields, which pass through the skull. They are, however,
extremely weak (about 50310-15 Tesla), some nine orders of magnitude
less than Earth's magnetic field and as much as six orders below
ambient magnetic noise (Volegov, et al. 2004). Thus, they can be
recorded only by special sensors on the scalp in shielded rooms
(Volegov, et al. 2004).
No one would suggest that these electromagnetic energies represent
more than a smidgen of the neural activity underlying thoughts, which
presumably includes repetitive firing of action potentials in neural
circuitry containing millions of cortical and sub-cortical neurons
(Harth 1993). Even if this immeasurable activity could be captured,
seemingly insurmountable difficulties would prevent its translation
into thoughts. To begin with, the translation would need to be
simultaneous with the flow of thoughts as well as in the language of
the thinker, for a full thought is its verbal expression. In view of
what is known of brain development and organization (Harth 1993), the
neural patterns underlying any thought, even a formulary prayer, would
be unique for every individual. Thus, generic translations from neural
patterns to verbal thoughts in any language would be impossible. A
supernatural being would need to instantly surmount these difficulties-
for multitudes of concurrent supplicants-in order to grasp the
informational content of a mental prayer. Moreover, such a being
would, logically, need to be with each supplicant while he or she is
rotating with Earth at 1,038 miles per hour (if at the equator),
orbiting around the Sun at 18.5 miles per second, rotating around the
center of the Milky Way at about 150 miles per second, and moving
through space with our galaxy at some thousands of miles per second.
Like all mental states, prayers are neither matter nor energy. Thus,
they are not transmissible to or readable by another being by any
means within the laws of nature.
Whether they can be known to a supernatural being hinges on the
effects of the prayers' solicitations as judged by proper scientific
studies. To date, such studies of intercessory prayer have not shown
it to improve health-care outcomes. In contrast to thoughts
themselves, the brain activity from which thoughts arise does consist
of energy-electrochemical energy within neural circuitry. Reading this
teeming energy in millions of circuit neurons and translating it into
the thought or prayer arising from it seems theoretically impossible
for even a supernatural being.
http://www.csicop.org/si/2007-02/prayer.html
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