Neurons and synapses are what we are

Today I finished reading Robert Sapolsky's book, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, by making my way through a fascinating appendix that, in 24 pages, gives an overview of how the brain works.

It was a mind-blowing description of how, in broad strokes, the mind arises from goings-on in the brain. I'm not going to attempt to repeat what Sapolsky had to say, aside from sharing one of the illustrations in the appendix along with a brief quotation.

What neurons do is talk to each other, cause each other to get excited. At one end of a neuron are its metaphorical ears, specialized processes that receive information from another neuron. At the other end are the processes that are the mouth, that communicate with the next neuron in line.

The ears, the inputs are called dendrites. The output begins with a single long cable called an axon, which then ramifies into axonal endings -- these axon terminals are the mouths... The axon terminals connect to the spines on the branches of the next neuron in line.

Thus, a neuron's dendritic ears are informed that the neuron behind it is excited. The flow of information then sweeps from the dendrites to the cell body to the axon to the axon terminals, and is then passed on to the next neuron.

The illustration shows that there isn't a direct connection between the dendrite (ear) and the axon (mouth). That gap is a synapse. It is bridged by neurotransmitters, chemical messengers. I found a charming Neuroscience for Kids page that looks like it was made in the early days of the Internet. It has a quote at the bottom:

"You are your synapses. They are who you are."
--- Joseph LeDoux, 2002 (in Synaptic Self)

So true. That's the message in Sapolsky's appendix that comes through loud and clear, as it does in the rest of his book.

Most of us have the sensation that we are something ethereal, soul-like. Our thoughts, emotions, desires, hopes, fears, perceptions, and so much else feel like they're being fashioned from immaterial consciousness. 

But the neuroscientific truth is that our 100 billion or so neurons, each of which has thousands of connections to other neurons, producing what's been called the most complex entity in the universe, the human brain, is made of meat, as is the rest of our body.

I already knew this. However, reading the readable appendix brought it home to me in a stronger fashion than I'd ever experienced before. This doesn't take away from the marvelous capabilities of the human brain.

It simply places us firmly in the natural world inhabited by every other type of living creature. As Sapolsky says in his book, a flatworm with just a few hundred neurons learns in the same way as we do with our hundred billion or so neurons.

I don't find this at all disturbing. I find it exhilarating. We are part of the physical universe, not something separate from it. That oneness is an inspiring scientific fact.

Comments

[Ron E.]

The main objections to no free will usually revolve around religious and moral reasons. What people fail to recognise is that society’s existing rules, laws and cultural behaviours are de-signed to maintain, as far as possible, law-abiding societies. The only real issue is how and what punishment to mete out to offenders.

Quite often, just helping to improve a persons’ life situation can effect a change. At the other end of the criminal scale where a person is habitually prone to unlawful or extreme anti-social behaviour, then the prevailing laws and thinking of the existing culture would still apply.

Basically, with regard to who/what has free will, we would have to postulate some sort of independent entity, a self or soul that can act or will unimpeded by biological constraints. Such an entity cannot be found, only assumed or believed.

Habitually, terms such as mind and self have assumed a pseudo-identity for themselves; The reality is that both are simply names for the countless on-going mental processes arising from the brain’s networking of neurons and synapsis.

I too am inspired to know I’m part of and not different (in the sense of being separate) from other life forms on this planet. And satisfied to know that ultimately biological nature is running the show and not some discarnate entity called ‘me’ – or groups of such entities.

To end, I have to repeat that our lives are full of choices, but choices that are determined and dependent upon the multitude of past (and continually on-going) experiences that enable us to navigate our environments to aid survival.

[Immortality]

“Because I could not stop for Death, He Kindly stopped for me…”
-Emily Dickinson

[Death]

This is what I’m talking about
https://youtu.be/nPoVzH20ZeA?feature=shared
⬆️ that

[Spence Tepper]

"Most of us have the sensation that we are something ethereal, soul-like. Our thoughts, emotions, desires, hopes, fears, perceptions, and so much else feel like they're being fashioned from immaterial consciousness."

Every idea is etherial.

Dissect all the brains in the world and you will not find a single Toyota.

Yet that is where next year's model springs from.

Don't judge a book by its cover.

Nor the paper it's made of. A book is far more than that. Just like each of us. A fantastic mystery within a mystery.

[Spence Tepper]

Mainstream neuroscience has already rejected the view that consciousness can be reduced to chemistry alone..

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/understanding-consciousness-goes-beyond-exploring-brain-chemistry/

And here...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02120-8?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=commission_junction&utm_campaign=CONR_PF018_ECOM_GL_PHSS_ALWYS_DEEPLINK&utm_content=textlink&utm_term=PID100052172&CJEVENT=e2ae297880d111ee828d6ca20a1eba23

Short course, reductionism, materialism nor determinism can be applied with any scientific credibility to human consciousness.

Duh.

[Babaneuron]

Yes, we are "more" than just neurons firing, provided that the neurons are firing.

Take away the neurons (or the cascading infrastructure of the brain) and the "you" disappears just as the characters in our dreams vanish when we wake up.

The "I" is the result of a cerebral symphony. Take away the neural orchestration and the conductor "I" vanishes.

Or, put in more medical terms, damage the brain and we have a host of different "I's"---from schizophrenia to Alzheimers to dementia to gurus claiming they are "perfect" and giving themselves self-chosen "Baba" titles.