The brain from a synergistic point of vie

We can say that the “history” of the brain began when among living organisms there were those that could move towards greater favorability — either to light, or to heat, or to increase the concentration of certain substances, etc. This ability turned out to be so beneficial that special cells appeared with increased sensitivity to significant survival factors. And then simple reflex arcs (it got hot — he pulled back his paw or crawled away) began to compete for control over a single body. It took and created a kind of knot — an arbitrator between competing requests for movement. It is from this arbiter node that the brain originates.

For humans, initially (from some week of the embryo) there is a set of neurons. Among these neurons, there are those that directly respond to the physical and chemical effects of the external and internal environment of the body, to changes in the environment. Reacting means getting excited. They are excited, which means they release specific substances into the interneuronal space. These substances are necessary for the rest of the neurons to live in the truest sense of the word. If he didn’t get it, he died. And they can get them only by reaching out (in a neural crush) to an excited neighboring neuron. And when it reaches out, the neuron becomes another element of the recognizing neural network, tuned precisely to the effect that led to the excitation of the donor neuron (supplier of the substance needed by the neuron).

The processes of neurons grow according to the concentration gradient of substances released by an excited neuron. The neurons of the higher levels are connected in this way to the active neurons of the lower levels. In this case, the upstream neuron is connected to several downstream neurons and can be excited in the presence of simultaneous different effects (triggering different receptors). That is, the excitation of a higher neuron captures the presence of a complex of effects.

This is how the vertical structure of the neural network is formed. As a result of a person’s accumulation of life experience, all the complexes of effects encountered in the brain have their own neuron, which fixes the presence of this complex of effects in real time.

As a result, all events from the organism’s life experience are recorded in the interneuronal connections and in the simple logic of firing/firing neurons (depending on the physical events on the perceiving processes and on the current state of the perceiving neuron).

And then these fixation neurons (by the same chemical mechanism, by the gradient of the substance released by the excited neuron) are connected by horizontal connections. Accordingly, the impact complexes are connected by associative links. The excitation of one fixation neuron of a complex of effects leads to the excitation of several more fixation neurons, which are connected to it by horizontal connections.

A change in the state of excitation/inhibition of a neuron (as a result of an external effect on it or as a result of some internal processes) leads to the appearance of a wave (front) of switching of connected neurons diverging in the array of neurons. Similarity is a field of cellular automata (the game “Life”). Such waves are constantly rolling through the array of neurons, interfering, fading or amplifying, etc.

The neural network itself is formed and changes throughout human life, responding to new sets of influences with new connections between neurons.

This “rolling” is not felt directly by a person. But among the neurons there are so-called motor neurons associated with triggering the firing of muscles or with changing the mode of glands. When a wave of arousal/inhibition rolls over such a neuron, the execution of the corresponding behavioral stereotype or (and) the restructuring of the internal organs regime is triggered.

Among the behavioral stereotypes of a person are the stereotypes of speech message generation. When a wave of excitation/inhibition rolls onto a neuron that triggers the formation of a speech message, a grammatical “frame” is sequentially worked out (the wave of excitation/inhibition sequentially passes through a number of neurons), in which the operands active at that moment are substituted. And a person discovers his own thought, which arose from nowhere in the form of a speech message, which throws an intelligent person into amazement. The operands are the words included in the concepts, that is, in the “image — word” pairs. An excited neuron that captures an image transmits excitement to “its” word.

The very ability to speak has functionally evolved from the usual sound warning of partners about their actions for gregarious animals to reduce the threat of an aggressive reaction from partners. The form of this warning became more complicated as the behavior became more complex. The suitability of speech for deceiving partners turned out to be very important.

The formed speech message (external or left unvoiced) is attached (as well as the activation of muscles by muscle feeling) to the current situation. Accordingly, the situation is changing, and a new wave of excitement/inhibition is emerging. The result may be the following speech message. Etc. And a person observes his own stream of thoughts.

A person does not have a special arithmetic-logical device in the brain. There is only active memory, but a huge amount. All enumerations and precedents encountered (experienced) are stored in this memory. Roughly speaking, there are no calculations, but there are tables of all possible source data and transformation results. There are no logical expressions, but there is a positive experience of acting under different conditions.

Along with other experiences, a collection of all other people’s and their own speech messages is stored in memory. This collection forms another (formalized and partial) picture of the world. Practically — in the form of quotations. It is used during dialogue, when “thinking it over”. “Reflection” provides an assessment of the reliability of messages, as a result of which the verbal picture of the world becomes logically correct. Contradictions are discovered and eliminated in it. Initially, it was used to detect deception on the part of partners.

The wave of excitation/inhibition along the neurons on which this (verbal) memory is based is much slower than in the main (older) part of the brain. As a result, motor neurons are first affected by a wave of excitation/inhibition that has passed through the main part of the neural network (the “fast” response) and only with a delay by a wave that has passed the “correct” part. And the actions initiated as a “quick” response do not always coincide with the actions chosen in the “right” way.

The effect of “inner cinema” is also related to the morphology and physiology of the brain, which has been baffling researchers for many generations. I have found a plausible explanation for this effect. The fact is that during the formation (as described above) of interneuronal connections, the intermediate neuron “sprouts” both towards the receptor and towards the higher-level (through the network) neuron, which records the presence of a complex of effects. After all, they (the one below and the one above) are simultaneously excited and release guiding substances into the interneuronal space. A feedback loop is formed.

It turns out that it is possible to excite lower-level neurons by feedback if the memory is accompanied by the excitation of upper-level neurons or consists in the excitation of upper-level neurons. Such an excitation of the lower-level neurons is indistinguishable from their excitation, which occurs when perceiving the current situation. As a result, the corresponding analyzers work normally, but with “silent” receptors. This is perceived as an internal movie.

Generally speaking, sensory analyzers produce a significantly transformed “picture” in real time. For example, the eyes continuously make fast multidirectional movements, and the person sees a stable environment.

Memories and dreams are initially schematic, but acquire a sensual realism (“picture”, sounds, smells) “on the fly.” Something or someone is remembered when a wave of arousal / inhibition rolled (“sideways”) onto a neuron, which should be excited at the presentation of this someone or something, but not “sideways”, but through connections with receptors. And then the neuron was excited with “silent” receptors, and through descending connections it excited neurons, which, with real perception, are excited by receptors. Now, for the rest of the higher-level neurons, a situation similar to the real perception of this something or someone is reproduced.

The uniformity of the “picture” of the current situation and the memorized objects ensures the naturalness of the metaphor of “eye translation” or “gaze transference” when referring to memorized objects.

That is, internal cinema is a technical feature of the brain, an artifact that accompanies the work of the brain, which is not directly noticeable. Along with other external manifestations — muscle contractions, speech messages (including internal speech), internal cinema allows us (our brain) to learn something about our own work.

The complex of influences corresponds to the complex of sensations (in the psyche). And a complex of sensations, taken together with many associations with other complexes, is an image, it is the notorious “qualia” of philosophy. For example, we feel not just the appearance of a stream of photons of a certain wavelength, but a color (with all individual associations).

In more detail, we can imagine an algorithm for establishing and triggering connections in a model that initially consists of two layers of neurons and a certain supply of free neurons as follows.

The first layer is closer to the receptors in the network. Each neuron of the second layer has conductive connections with some neurons of the first layer. Some of these connections are exciting, some are inhibitory. This ensures the excitation of a specific neuron of the second layer when a certain combination of excited neurons of the first layer is excited. That is, the excitation of a specific neuron of the second layer captures the presence of a certain (already experienced) complex of effects on the device (complex sensations of the body).