How do neurons fire and where do they go when we think?
In: Biology
Neurons firing is a very complicated process.
Think of neurons like small tubes. Neurons are generally just sitting still and waiting to be «activated», or at «rest», at a negative charge. When the neuron gets a signal to wake up, it opens up a gate that allows for sodiums ions to flood into it, which brings up it’s voltage. When the neuron hits a certain voltage, it opens up tons of gates, and let’s a lot of sodium ions in, causing a huge spike in voltage. This causes an electrical impulse to travel down the connective bridge to another neuron that it’s connected to. Then it sends out lots of potassium to lower it’s voltage back to a resting state and waits for the next round. Neurons basically sends messages down a huge line of other neurons.
How it relates to us thinking is like each neuron carries just a small part of the thought.
Neuron 1: Hungry
Neuron 2: Lunch
Neuron 3: Eggs
And so on until you think and feel like you’re hungry, it’s time for lunch, and you really want some eggs and bacon. This is incredibly simplified, but there are a lot of how this works that we don’t know yet. How neurons work and relate to thoughts, emotions, and consciousness is still a mystery.
When we think, neurons “fire” by sending electrical signals down their length. This electrical signal, called an action potential, travels from one end of the neuron to the other. At the end of the neuron, chemicals called neurotransmitters are released to pass the message to the next neuron. These messages move through complex networks of neurons in different parts of the brain, depending on the type of thought, whether it’s a memory, an idea, or solving a problem. The firing of neurons is what allows our brain to process information and form thoughts.
No single neuron is responsible for a complex thought, it’s many working together.
Every neuron is connected to lots of other neurons in a complex Web of interconnections. Looking at a single neuron, if signals on the incoming connections reach certain levels the neuron sends out signals on its outgoing connections to other neurons. From this cascade of signals being sent out or not being sent out emerges complex thought – how, we don’t really fully understand, although machine learning neural networks follow a similar principle and we do understand how they work moderately well.
As we learn, the connections can strengthen/decay. A strong connection triggers downstream neurons easily and a weak connection requires a really high output to trigger downstream neurons.
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