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The Thalamus - The Kernel in Your Mind
corbettw writes "This article on Yahoo Science News describes a new finding that explains how the thalamus is used by your brain to essentially boot your brain, and provide for central processing and control of all impulses going to and from the cortex. The article describes its function as an operating system, but from the description it actually seems closer to the functions of a kernel." From the article: "The finding, published last week in the journal Neuroscience, changes the way scientists understand nitric oxide's role in the brain, and it also has them rethinking the function of the thalamus, where it is released. The thalamus was thought to be a fairly primitive structure, sort of a gate that could either open and allow sensory information to stream into the cortex, the higher functioning part of the brain, or cut off the flow entirely. Godwin says the new research shows it's more accurate to think of the thalamus not as a gate but as a club bouncer, who doesn't simply allow a huge rush of people to go in or no one at all, but picks and chooses whom to let in and out. "
it's more accurate to think of the thalamus not as a gate but as a club bouncer, who doesn't simply allow a huge rush of people to go in or no one at all, but picks and chooses whom to let in and out. "
Thalamus: Whoa buddy, you can't go in.
Neuron: But, I'm with her!
Thalamus: Her? Yeah right!
Neuron: Cortica! Cortica! Come back! We can be together!
[meanwhile in the real world]
John: Hey Bobby, catch... whoa, heads up!
Bobby: Owwww!
KERNAL PANIC!!!
"the thalamus is used by your brain to essentially boot your brain"
Which now raises hope for those of us who want dual-boot flexibility.
Where were you when the voynix came?
FTP:"Your Brain Works Like the Internet"
A collection of pipes moving pr0n around?
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
...is a brain that will boot in the first place.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
But then they drifted off topic and started arguing about Nazis and Hitler and the discussion had to be ended.
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
From: Andy T.
:-)
To: The Almighty
I still maintain the point that designing a monolithic kernel in -3000 BC is a fundamental error.
Be thankful you are not my student. You would not get a high grade for such a design
but i'm paging out to my liver!
That which does not kill her only prolongs my agony.
Anyway, this is an interesting article. This research has a lot of promise in coming years and decades as better understanding brain chemistry advances pharmaceuticals and medical treatments. From TFA: "This study shows a unique role for nitric oxide. It may help us to someday understand what goes wrong in diseases that affect cognitive processing, such as attention deficit disorder or schizophrenia, and it adds to our fundamental understanding of how we perceive the world around us."
People have been comparing brains to computers almost as long as they have been comparing computers to brains. The Computational Theory of Mind looks at the mind (the brain's software as some have described it) in pretty a logical way, not too far away from computational reasoning. These comparisons are useful for understanding larger concepts but they generally fall apart when you get to the nuts and bolts of it. For example, the brain processes many shades of grey instead of a computer's binary perception. Neural networks and, to a lessor extent, quantum computing seek to emulate some of the processes of the brain.
On an aside, if you are interested in learning more about machine intelegence, I highly recomend reading Ray Kurzweil's books.
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
I personally think that the thalamus is like a coathook. You can hang whatever metaphor you feel like on it.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
From the summary:
The article describes its function as an operating system, but from the description it actually seems closer to the functions of a kernel.
Does this mean we should call the brain the Brain/Thalamus? It's unfair to give the entire package precedence over the kernel, as one is useless without the other.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
Homer's brain: Use reverse psychology.
Homer: Oh, that sounds too complicated.
Homer's brain: Okay, don't use reverse psychology.
Homer: Okay, I will!
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
I really wish submitters would include a link to the research paper, so we could actually judge the research for ourselves instead of relying on some journalist's interpretation. Here's the abstract for this paper, from Neuroscience:
Diurnal gene expression patterns of T-type calcium channels and their modulation by ethanol
The transient (T-type) calcium channel participates in the generation of normal brain rhythms as well as abnormal rhythms associated with a range of neurological disorders. There are three different isoforms of T-type channels and all are particularly enriched in the thalamus, which is involved in generating many of these rhythms. We report a novel means of T-type channel regulation in the thalamus that involves diurnal regulation of gene expression. Using real time polymerase chain reaction we detected a diurnal pattern of gene expression for all T-type channel transcripts. The peak of gene expression for the CaV3.1 transcript occurred close to the transition from active to inactive (sleep) states, while expression for both CaV3.2 and CaV3.3 peaked near the transition of inactive to active phase. We assessed the effect of chronic consumption of ethanol on these gene expression patterns by examining thalamic tissues of ethanol-consuming cohorts that were housed with the controls, but which received ethanol in the form of a liquid diet. Ethanol consumption resulted in a significant shift of peak gene expression of approximately 5 h for CaV3.2 toward the normally active phase of the mice, as well as increasing the overall gene expression levels by approximately 1.7-fold. Peak gene expression was significantly increased for both CaV3.2 and CaV3.3. Measurements of CaV3.3 protein expression reflected increases in gene expression due to ethanol. Our results illustrate a novel regulatory mechanism for T-type calcium channels that is consistent with their important role in generating thalamocortical sleep rhythms, and suggests that alterations in the pattern of gene expression of these channels could contribute to the disruption of normal sleep by ethanol.
Curiously, I get the impression that the emphasis of the research is somewhat different from what was emphasized in the popular-press article.
I don't know if I can trust any kernel to be compared to the brain, after all Windows gets the Blue Scream of Death and the Linux gets Panic Attacks, DOS has to be rebooted often to modify memory management, Unix gets segmentation falls and bus errors. This is terrible news, I think I am just going to walk around in circles until I stop thinking about this... Damn! It's a deadlock forced by a race condition! I just want to go to sleep.
You can't handle the truth.
As a stopgap, large genetic studies will be more fruitful. What we need is for gene sequencing to come down to the $1000/person range--and it's getting there. Then we take detailed medical histories and sequences from a hundred each of normals, bipolars, epileptics, and migraineurs. Comparing their genes will tell us which ion channels, transporters, receptors, and so forth are "hot spots". Once we know that, it's straightforward to find drugs that target just those proteins. Right now we're stuck with "dirty" drugs that madly stomp on all sorts of stuff at the same time, which means bizarre and evil side effects. (The antipsychotics and antiepileptics are notoriously dirty. The tricyclic antidepressants, which I take for chronic migraine, are only a little better.)
Indeed. Right now the best diagnoses come from a conversation and a basic neurological exam. fMRI scans might be helpful, but the cost is very high, and it's hard to catch an intermittent event that happens the day before a migraine attack or manic episode.Incidentally, I seem to remember that lithium acts as a sodium or potassium analog all over the body. It competes for the same transporters and ion channels, but acts just a little different. I think it also builds up in cells and changes their osmotic conditions (concentration of water versus everything else). The upshot is that it pushes many things a little out of equilibrium, putting them at new operating points where, for unclear reasons, they are less likely to oscillate.