It’s so difficult to imagine.
Can anyone help me?
In: Chemistry
Not everything consists of atoms. Thoughts (and other things like them, like concepts of love or evil or fairness) are generally held to be quantum-field interactions that emerge from the electrochemical processes in our brains. There is not an “atom” of beauty, for instance. But it is possible for our brains to perceive things and feel that they are beautiful.
This is a very fundamental question in the field of psychology and neuroscience that is still a bit hazy but i do have a simplification. Keep in mind though this is a massive oversimplification, but i’ll still do my best to put my degree to good use.
So the most basic form of communication of the brain is the firing of a neuron to another. This happens when a neuron receives a message from another cell, which is usually in the form of a chemical called a neurotransmitter (nt for short).
These nts cause the neuron to open and close channels that change the flow and concentrations of ions in the cell and its surroundings. These changes travel down the neuron cell until it reaches the end of the cell. The change in charge at the end of the cell signals the release of other nts and the cycle starts again with a new neuron.
Not all neurons communicate in a single direction, some do 2, some even more. So there are many paths a single communication can follow. These different paths are essentially different codes in your brain and can do various things. As an example, consider the concept of 2 separate and distinct memories: both might involve the exact same neurons, but the different paths of communication these neurons might take are what distinguishes the two memories.
Picture your brain as a map of every road in your country, with millions of little dots representing delivery trucks driving along these roads.
When your brain does anything, it sends tiny electrical signal so different areas of your brain. Think of this process like one of those trucks traveling from one city to another. Each separate action your brain takes has a pattern that is almost the same every time.
So when your brain thinks of someone you love, maybe the same 10 trucks will zoom across the same roads every time. But there will also be 5 additional trucks going down different roads for each different person you think of. But the ‘love’ pattern will be similar every time.
There’s usually one specific nerve cell or group of several that corresponds to a given memory, discreet thought, or sensation.
Believe it or not, in 2005 researches discovered there’s a single cell in many if not most people’s brains that activates, when a person is shown pictures of Jennifer Aniston, for example. This is because she’s such a widely known public figure. They termed this, jokingly, the “Jennifer Aniston Neuron.”
This is also the case whenever you see any place you recognize, a person, or an object. For example, the face of George Washington in a dollar bill. That feeling of recognition or familiarity of something is usually linked to a single, specific nerve cell in some location in your brain activating.
Nerve cells activate and transmit signals around by exchanging charged *sodium* and *potassium* ions. This results in a small but detectable electrical current.
Nerve cells also communicate with each other by a number of different chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. The most common is the amino acid called glutamic acid. (This is also the compound that makes meats and other foods taste savory. This is because there are taste receptor cells on your tongue that respond glutamic acid.)
When one nerve cell in your brain releases glutamic acid, it bonds with receptor proteins on the surface of other cells directly in connection with it. These proteins usually act like floodgates and allow ions like potassium or calcium in and out of the cell. This creates a tiny electric current that triggers that nerve cell in turn to pass along the electrical signal to other parts of the brain. The cell does this by triggering the Cascade of sodium/potassium exchange along the rest of the cell.
These same glutamic acid receptors are also found on taste buds on your tongue. Of course there are all kinds of receptor proteins that can respond to many kinds of chemical or physical stimuli. Such as hot/cold, physical pressure, injury or inflammation, it light in the case if your eyes. There’s an important group that are only found in cells in your nasal passages, and are triggered to various chemicals in the air you inhale. I.e. smell. There are probably around 3,000 different types in the human nose. In dogs this may be as high as 7,000 different types.
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