That vast network of neurons and synapses that we refer to as a "brain" is maddeningly complex, but some new research about its functioning has been released on PLoS Computation Biology. Turns out that a handful of neurons act as "hubs" controlling brain activity:
It has recently been discovered that single neuron stimulation can impact network dynamics in immature and adult neuronal circuits. Here we report a novel mechanism which can explain in neuronal circuits, at an early stage of development, the peculiar role played by a few specific neurons in promoting/arresting the population activity.
A longer article from San Diego Jewish World here.
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Hub Neurons Control Different Brain Circuits
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(Score: 2, Insightful) by hellcat on Saturday October 04 2014, @01:33AM
I've been watching brain and AI research for too long to get too excited here.
Not every neuron may be connected to every other neuron, but our brains are very close to being one huge interconnected electrical / chemical / and who knows what else network.
The fact that they have found an interesting effect of stimulating one neuron impacting so many others shouldn't be a surprise - especially in development.
So to say it "explains" anything is quite a stretch. The fact that it's interesting should be without a doubt.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 04 2014, @04:33AM
"it turns out" is a key weasel phrase. Shits "don't turn out" in science.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday October 04 2014, @05:56AM
I always fall back to Werner Herzog, in spite of "Grizzly Man", or even that Cave of Something film. But in "Casper Hauer", at the end, we find out that Caspar had an "abnormal brain". Well, there it is. If you are abnormal, you must have an abnormal brain! Brilliant! But then there is the great scene in Mel Brooks "Young Frankenstein", where Igor is questioned about who's brain the young doctor had inserted into a seven-foot body, (I was supposed to be Hans Delbruck, who was very smart, but Igor dropped his brain on the floor, and once you have dropped a brain on the floor, they are not good for much of anything except compost:end digression) and the answer is Abby someone, Abby Normal! Ah, yes, as with the young Caspar (you do realize that we are dealing with the 19th Century here, and modern Neuromanics have not gotten much further?), if you have an Abby Normal Brain, you will go into neurophysiology. Just saying. My brain is not abnormal. Look, I can prove it! Here, pull my finger!
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday October 04 2014, @07:29AM
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday October 04 2014, @08:19AM
"It!" It was supposed to be "it"! Oh my #Deity. But in point of fact, Aristarchus has a much better brain than Delbruck. but since he lived 2500 years earlier, it was not longer viable for a transplant. So what part of "It's alive!" don't your understand? The re-animation of dead tissue is not for wamby-pambys! You need to be able to put up with a few typos and genetic snafus. And, the Artic, also.
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Saturday October 04 2014, @11:45AM
Exactly! Also, TFS hints that the brain is "only" a vast netwrk of neurons, which in itself is "maddeningly" complex; but it's far more complex than that being also actively involved in chemical organic processes in the body. Also, the nervous system, tightly coupled with the "central" part of it, is toroughly distributed throughout the whole body. Also, the brain is organic, "organic" meaning something along the lines of "considered with its dynamic interconnections".
It's a good thing that people are studying the inner workings of the body, but it will be a heck of a long time before we "turn out" to have a grasp of it.
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(Score: 3) by umafuckitt on Saturday October 04 2014, @02:56PM
What the summary doesn't make clear is that this a modelling study. It's not experimental study and it's impossible to know what the work actually means in practice.