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Giant neuron found wrapped around mouse brain


Claire.

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A giant neuron found wrapped around entire mouse brain.

Like ivy plants that send runners out searching for something to cling to, the brain’s neurons send out shoots that connect with other neurons throughout the organ. A new digital reconstruction method shows three neurons that branch extensively throughout the brain, including one that wraps around its entire outer layer. The finding may help to explain how the brain creates consciousness.

Christof Koch, president of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington, explained his group’s new technique at a 15 February meeting of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies initiative in Bethesda, Maryland. He showed how the team traced three neurons from a small, thin sheet of cells called the claustrum — an area that Koch believes acts as the seat of consciousness in mice and humans.

Read more: Nature.com

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  • The title was changed to Giant neuron found wrapped around mouse brain
42 minutes ago, Claire. said:

A giant neuron found wrapped around entire mouse brain.

Like ivy plants that send runners out searching for something to cling to, the brain’s neurons send out shoots that connect with other neurons throughout the organ. A new digital reconstruction method shows three neurons that branch extensively throughout the brain, including one that wraps around its entire outer layer. The finding may help to explain how the brain creates consciousness.

Christof Koch, president of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington, explained his group’s new technique at a 15 February meeting of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies initiative in Bethesda, Maryland. He showed how the team traced three neurons from a small, thin sheet of cells called the claustrum — an area that Koch believes acts as the seat of consciousness in mice and humans.

Read more: Nature.com

Soooo is he saying that mice have a consciousness?! 

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I'm of the view that consciousness is an integrated function of all areas of the brain collectively yet not specific to any special area of the brain.

I also think all animals have a form or level of consciousness. I consider consciousness an essential evolved capacity of the brain, especially of mammals.

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8 minutes ago, StarMountainKid said:

I'm of the view that consciousness is an integrated function of all areas of the brain collectively yet not specific to any special area of the brain.

I also think all animals have a form or level of consciousness. I consider consciousness an essential evolved capacity of the brain, especially of mammals.

So the brain is machine that generates consciousness? What if the brain was more like a radio antenna that received consciousness from a giant pool that all conscious beings are tapped in to?

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25 minutes ago, Dark_Grey said:

So the brain is machine that generates consciousness? What if the brain was more like a radio antenna that received consciousness from a giant pool that all conscious beings are tapped in to?

Then the brain in mammals had an evolutionary goal to be receptive to this universal consciousness?

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31 minutes ago, StarMountainKid said:

Then the brain in mammals had an evolutionary goal to be receptive to this universal consciousness?

Perhaps? Consciousness is a very good tool for survival so why would evolution not head in that direction? Of course, that raises bigger questions like where did all that consciousness originate? Until we have the technology to measure such things, it's anyone's guess.

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