3 ms·

People should review how much this study is coherent of not with this one https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.23.057927v1.full https://www.biorxiv.o

People should review how much this study is coherent of not with this one https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.23.057927v1.full https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.23.057927v1....

photochemsyn 4y ago
Really, this whole field seems like woo. It seems safe to conclude that neurons are not taking in sensory data, converting that data to numbers, then running little discrete algorithms to decide whether the external stimuli can be safely ignored or not, using other numbers stored in their internal registers to modify that decision. The von Neuman cycle of fetch-decode-execute is not a useful model for coordinated neuronal activity, and logical bit operations have little relevance to biological neuronal activity. If people want to take a look at more reliable science on this area, this is not a bad place to start. In particular look at the 141 citations. Central command neurons of the sympathetic nervous system: basis of the fight-or-flight response (Science 1995) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7570024/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7570024/ This is important and interesting science, and has relevance to understanding and treating things like anxiety disorders (probably related to hypersensitivity to external stimuli), but there's no evidence that any 'computational model' has much relevance. These systems really appear to be analog in nature, not at all digital. Also, the lead statement in that paper, i.e. Darwinian evolution tends to produce energy-efficient outcomes, may sound good but in real cases it seems to vary a lot. While a flight-or-fight response is likely under constant positive selection (and hence energy-efficient), think about animal mating behavior. Are the endless mating rituals, breeding displays, etc. at all 'energy efficient'? Large amounts of brain energy are devoted to such activities in all species. Certainly there are evolutionary arguments for this, but energy efficiency is not the main issue. Perhaps, one could claim that each individual neuron is something like a CPU, in that it has state, something like an internal memory, but it's a rather vague relationship. Maybe a network of biological neurons is something like a network of connected CPUs, but it seems doubtful such CPUs rely on Arithmetic and Logic Units or bitwise operations.

photochemsyn 4y ago

Really, this whole field seems like woo. It seems safe to conclude that neurons are not taking in sensory data, converting that data to numbers, then running little discrete algorithms to decide whether the external stimuli can be safely ignored or not, using other numbers stored in their internal registers to modify that decision. The von Neuman cycle of fetch-decode-execute is not a useful model for coordinated neuronal activity, and logical bit operations have little relevance to biological neuronal activity. If people want to take a look at more reliable science on this area, this is not a bad place to start. In particular look at the 141 citations. Central command neurons of the sympathetic nervous system: basis of the fight-or-flight response (Science 1995) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7570024/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7570024/ This is important and interesting science, and has relevance to understanding and treating things like anxiety disorders (probably related to hypersensitivity to external stimuli), but there's no evidence that any 'computational model' has much relevance. These systems really appear to be analog in nature, not at all digital. Also, the lead statement in that paper, i.e. Darwinian evolution tends to produce energy-efficient outcomes, may sound good but in real cases it seems to vary a lot. While a flight-or-fight response is likely under constant positive selection (and hence energy-efficient), think about animal mating behavior. Are the endless mating rituals, breeding displays, etc. at all 'energy efficient'? Large amounts of brain energy are devoted to such activities in all species. Certainly there are evolutionary arguments for this, but energy efficiency is not the main issue. Perhaps, one could claim that each individual neuron is something like a CPU, in that it has state, something like an internal memory, but it's a rather vague relationship. Maybe a network of biological neurons is something like a network of connected CPUs, but it seems doubtful such CPUs rely on Arithmetic and Logic Units or bitwise operations.