Neuroscience bit: Getting closer to understanding the mind?

We're still trying to figure it out, but

maybe we're finally closing in on 

some serious understanding

Explanation in non-science language

A fascinating article in Sci Tech Daily discusses a proposed mechanism to explain how the brain-mind works. They call their proposed mechanism cytoelectric coupling. Translated into American, what they mean by that is that neurons in close proximity to each other in the brain, or in neural pathways, (and spinal cord and maybe some other brain cells too?), are linked by small electric fields. The coupling of cells gives rise to coordinated weak electrical field pulses in the brain. The weak field pulses apparently have little to do with neurons talking to each other via chemicals released into synapses, which is a different form of communication between neurons. What is happening is that structures in and near neurons change as nearby weak electrical fields pass through. The electrical fields manifest as waves of electricity that constantly pulse through at least parts of the brain where neurons are linked in neural pathways.

The big deal here is that although neuroscientists have been aware of weak electrical fields potentially affecting cells close to each other, there has never been proof that the fields cause specific changes in nearby neurons and those changes are a manifestation of the working of the conscious or sentient human mind. 

Before this paper, it was unknown if the weak electrical fields existed simply because small pulses of electricity travel through neurons to synapses where most or all the interneuron communicating was believed to happen. The bulk of what constitutes the working of the mind was believed to be in the chemicals traversing synapses between linked neurons. Until now, there was no basis to believe there was a cause and effect relationship between intracellular structure changes and the weak electric field pulses. 

Thus there are two different forms of communication between neurons, one at synapses and the other between precisely positioned neurons and their weak electrical fields. Presumably, both together are responsible for how the human mind thinks and perceives inputs from sensory organs and neurons.

Science language explanation

STD writes:

“Cytoelectric Coupling”: A Groundbreaking 

Hypothesis on How Our Brains Function

Brain waves act as carriers of information. A recently proposed “Cytoelectric Coupling” hypothesis suggests that these wavering electric fields contribute to the optimization of the brain network’s efficiency and robustness. They do this by influencing the physical configuration of the brain’s molecular framework. [translation: changing the structures in and around neurons]

In order to carry out its multifaceted functions, which include thought, the brain operates on various levels. Information like objectives or visuals is depicted through synchronized electrical activity among neuronal networks. Simultaneously, a combination of proteins and other biochemicals within and surrounding each neuron physically execute the mechanics required for participation in these networks.

“The information the brain is processing has a role in fine-tuning the network down to the molecular level,” said Earl K. Miller, Picower Professor in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, who co-authored the paper in Progress in Neurobiology with Associate Professor Dimitris Pinotsis of MIT and City —University of London, and Professor Gene Fridman of Johns Hopkins.[1]

“The brain adapts to a changing world,” Pinotsis said. “Its proteins and molecules change too. They can have electric charges and need to catch up with neurons that process, store, and transmit information using electric signals. Interacting with the neurons’ electric fields seems necessary.”

A major focus of Miller’s lab is studying how higher-level cognitive functions such as working memory can rapidly, flexibly, and yet reliably emerge from the activity of millions of individual neurons. Neurons are capable of dynamically forming circuits by creating and removing connections, called synapses, as well as strengthening or weakening those junctions. But, that merely forms a “roadmap” around which information could flow, Miller said.

The specific neural circuits that collectively represent one thought or another, Miller has found, are coordinated by rhythmic activity, more colloquially known as “brain waves” of different frequencies.

Fast “gamma” rhythms help transmit images from our vision (e.g. a muffin), while slower “beta” waves might carry our deeper thoughts about that image, (e.g. “too many calories”). Properly timed, bursts of these waves can carry predictions, enable writing in, holding onto, and reading out information in working memory, Miller’s lab has shown.

If the brain carries information in electric fields and those electric fields are capable of configuring neurons and other elements in the brain that form a network, then the brain is likely to use this capability. The brain can use fields to ensure the network does what it is supposed to do, the authors suggest.

“Cytoelectric Coupling connects information at the meso‐ and macroscopic level down to the microscopic level of proteins that are the molecular basis of memory,” the authors wrote in the paper.

The article lays out the logic inspiring Cytoelectic Coupling. “We’re offering a hypothesis that anybody can test,” Miller said.

Q: Is this very cool brain-mind stuff or what?

Footnote: 

1. The abstract of the paper:

We propose and present converging evidence for the Cytoelectric Coupling Hypothesis: Electric fields generated by neurons are causal down to the level of the cytoskeleton. This could be achieved via electrodiffusion and mechanotransduction and exchanges between electrical, potential and chemical energy. Ephaptic coupling organizes neural activity, forming neural ensembles at the macroscale level. This information propagates to the neuron level, affecting spiking, and down to molecular level to stabilize the cytoskeleton, “tuning” it to process information more efficiently.

Translation into non-science: 

Electric fields generated by neurons are causal down to the level of the cytoskeleton = electric fields cause specific changes in structures in neurons and that is part of what constitutes thinking and the human mind

Ephaptic coupling = the spreading of impulses along and across adjacent axons such that action potential propagating along one axon fires up an adjacent axon, i.e., a lot of stuff goes on outside of synapses; the electrical fields, if strong enough and/or positioned precisely, are able to influence the electrical excitability of neighboring neurons near-instantaneously (near speed of light)

Neural ensembles = neural pathways; a population of nervous system cells (or cultured neurons) involved in a particular neural computation

Ephaptic coupling between neurons  

in an olfactory bulb (smell sensor)

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Larry Motuz for bringing the STD paper to my attention.