When everything consist of atoms, what does an human “thought” consist of?

Question

It’s so difficult to imagine.
Can anyone help me?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

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.