The Thalamus - The Kernel in Your Mind 217
corbettw writes "This article on Yahoo Science News describes a new finding that explains how the thalamus is used by your brain to essentially boot your brain, and provide for central processing and control of all impulses going to and from the cortex. The article describes its function as an operating system, but from the description it actually seems closer to the functions of a kernel." From the article: "The finding, published last week in the journal Neuroscience, changes the way scientists understand nitric oxide's role in the brain, and it also has them rethinking the function of the thalamus, where it is released. The thalamus was thought to be a fairly primitive structure, sort of a gate that could either open and allow sensory information to stream into the cortex, the higher functioning part of the brain, or cut off the flow entirely. Godwin says the new research shows it's more accurate to think of the thalamus not as a gate but as a club bouncer, who doesn't simply allow a huge rush of people to go in or no one at all, but picks and chooses whom to let in and out. "
I can think it now. (Score:5, Funny)
Thalamus: Whoa buddy, you can't go in.
Neuron: But, I'm with her!
Thalamus: Her? Yeah right!
Neuron: Cortica! Cortica! Come back! We can be together!
[meanwhile in the real world]
John: Hey Bobby, catch... whoa, heads up!
Bobby: Owwww!
Drugs... (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
>
> KERNAL PANIC!!!
Knew I shouldn't have read the Nam-Shub of Enki out loud. Bloody buffer ovrflows. At least I got this nifty Sumerian-to-English plug-in from L. Bob Rife.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
coke/crack/meth: KERNEL PANIC!!!!!!OMG!!!!Eleventy!!!!11!!
alcohol: Kernel is really fucking pissed off and wants to fight!!!
nicotine: Kernel laid
THC: Kernel mellow
LSD: Kernel trails, whoa purple sounds awesome and crunchy.....
The "yeah, but does it run Linux" department (Score:4, Funny)
Which now raises hope for those of us who want dual-boot flexibility.
The better question is, what do we call it? (Score:5, Funny)
The article describes its function as an operating system, but from the description it actually seems closer to the functions of a kernel.
Does this mean we should call the brain the Brain/Thalamus? It's unfair to give the entire package precedence over the kernel, as one is useless without the other.
Re:The better question is, what do we call it? (Score:5, Interesting)
I used to study neuroscience. The thalamus is a HUGE bank of relay switches in the brain- all these trunk cables go into it from all over. Basically anything you're paying attention to involves some circuit going through the thalamus, and the way the thalamus works is what limits your ability to focus on multiple things at once. Once something becomes rote- like QWERTY typing or good guitar playing- the thalamus is no longer involved.
I have epilepsy- really bad seizures- and my brain gets really messed up on restarts because it regains function piece by piece. Occasionally I'll be totally conscious (forming some long term memories again), and watching stuff come back online- I can hear, then I can see, then I can recognize things I see, etc. There are intermediate states where I can see but not recognize things. The seizures start in the right temporal lobe, so the right hemisphere is completely screwed up, but if my left brain works I can compensate with higher functions. Usually I'm looking for water fountains because my head is really hot and sweaty after a seizure. I'll find a water fountain and think, is this a water fountain? Well it has a stream of stuff that looks drinkable... it has a thing coming out the side that you can turn... it MUST be a water fountain! I almost pissed on my wife's chair once after somehow figuring it was a toilet. But without thalamic activity I'd never be able to patch right brain functions and send sensory information to the forebrain from the left side. If I'm able to pay attention to something at all, then there is some thalamic function. Recognizing it is a different task.
The ability to form long term memories comes later and is a more distributed gradual process as areas of the cortex recover. I was in this cubicle working once... doing simple stuff like cleaning up someone's crappy code... then I started doing more mentally intense work, and I turned around after an hour or two and noticed my cubicle was a mess. Everyone said, "you had a seizure a few hours ago, don't you remember?"
Recently my brain has been passing through a metastable fugue state after really nasty seizures where I have partial function, but it's not me yet- it's like someone else. I answer yes/no questions completely differently, I don't recognize my wife, I fight with people if they get in my way, and I don't know where I'm going but I'm going somewhere, sometimes out the door. Usually no new memories are being formed; I have to go by what people tell me afterward. Apparently I'm getting better at fooling people in the fugue state because my speech in the fugue is starting to almost sound normal even though I have only partial brain function. One of these days I'm going to regain consciousness in jail.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
So, what you're saying is that the brain isn't like a truck, but it's actually a bunch of tubes? You can't just pull your brain up and load it and drive it away, 'cause it's tubes.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeesh (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Dead easy but not terribly useful. Watching the blinking lights on all the network cards tells you precious little about why the LAN just melted down. To be able to analyze problems, we need detailed information about how individual neurons work, how they interact with the glial cells and blood vessels, and the structure of the larger networks of neurons. Unfortunately the in
Re: (Score:2)
oh i found a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Thank you for sharing this.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Book camp (Score:2, Funny)
Dilbert: "Why has Wally been barking, chewing the managers, and peeing on the flowcharts all day?"
Dogbert: "He rebooted his brain with Cujo using that new 'Book Camp' software."
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The "yeah, but does it run Linux" department (Score:5, Funny)
So are you saying you're bi-curious?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Already exists ... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Blonde moments are, of course as a result of dodgy drivers.
So long as the CDC don't manage to install a back orifice, we shouldnt worry too much.
Like the Internet? (Score:5, Funny)
A collection of pipes moving pr0n around?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It's tubes man, tubes.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought it was a series of tubes??? (Score:2)
What some people need... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Godwin? (Score:5, Funny)
But then they drifted off topic and started arguing about Nazis and Hitler and the discussion had to be ended.
From: Andy T. (Score:5, Funny)
To: The Almighty
I still maintain the point that designing a monolithic kernel in -3000 BC is a fundamental error.
Be thankful you are not my student. You would not get a high grade for such a design
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:From: Andy T. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
To all you guys pointing out the very obvious mistake of -3000 years BC, I ask that you take into account the wrap-around.
All makes sense now, doesn't it? Eh?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
HUMAN BEING: 8.4 GB of RAM. (Not entirely addressable by current operating system.)
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't it more like a microkernel? (Score:2)
Netcraft confirms it! (Score:2, Funny)
Oblig. (Score:2)
The answer is obviously yes, but only the even version numbers.
My brain kernel's just fine... (Score:4, Funny)
Brain vs. computer comparisons only go so far (Score:4, Informative)
Anyway, this is an interesting article. This research has a lot of promise in coming years and decades as better understanding brain chemistry advances pharmaceuticals and medical treatments. From TFA: "This study shows a unique role for nitric oxide. It may help us to someday understand what goes wrong in diseases that affect cognitive processing, such as attention deficit disorder or schizophrenia, and it adds to our fundamental understanding of how we perceive the world around us."
People have been comparing brains to computers almost as long as they have been comparing computers to brains. The Computational Theory of Mind looks at the mind (the brain's software as some have described it) in pretty a logical way, not too far away from computational reasoning. These comparisons are useful for understanding larger concepts but they generally fall apart when you get to the nuts and bolts of it. For example, the brain processes many shades of grey instead of a computer's binary perception. Neural networks and, to a lessor extent, quantum computing seek to emulate some of the processes of the brain.
On an aside, if you are interested in learning more about machine intelegence, I highly recomend reading Ray Kurzweil's books.
Re: (Score:2)
Aren't quantum computer binary too ? A group of qu-bit is capable of representing more values that the same number of bits but they are expressed in binary too.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
*Tangent*
Some day we may make DNA to build cells for computational biomasses. Such cells DNA would not need to be nearly as complex as real living creatures. Even single celled creatures need much more DNA based information than any artificial cells. Artificial computational biomass cells would only need enough information for replicating on command, following operation instructions an
Re: (Score:2)
The fact that a computer is binary or analogic (or digital with more than 2 states) is completely irrelevant to understand its behaviour. Knowing that it is a Von Neuman computer or a neural network is also almost irrelevant to understand its behaviour.
Now, the difference from a network of a few hundred simple neurons and one of several bilion of very complex ones is quite relevant.
You can't compare our brain with our computers, but you gave the wrong reasons.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And people have been using inappropriate analogies between the brain and the dominant technology of the day for even longer than that.
Freud compared the brain to a steam engine, the visible motion of consciousness driven by the hidden fires of the unconscious. Later comparisons were made to telephone exchanges and electrical supply networks. I don't know if anyone ever compared the brain to the p
Obligatory Homer Simpson Quote.... (Score:3, Funny)
Homer's Brain: It's a deal!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Obligatory Homer Simpson Quote.... (Score:4, Funny)
Homer: Oh, that sounds too complicated.
Homer's brain: Okay, don't use reverse psychology.
Homer: Okay, I will!
orwell (Score:2, Offtopic)
So that's what Orwell meant when he wrote: "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face -- forever."
Re: (Score:2)
Stamping, actually, old man. Orwell was English.
embracing the overblown analogy for a moment... (Score:3, Insightful)
Ok, enough of that.
nitric oxide (Score:2, Interesting)
One interesting thing about this is that nitric oxide is produced in the sinuses. Does "proper" nasal breathing result in altering the concentration of this molecule in the blood and therefore have an effect on consciousness?
Re: (Score:2)
Metaphor City (Score:4, Insightful)
I personally think that the thalamus is like a coathook. You can hang whatever metaphor you feel like on it.
Re: (Score:2)
Help! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
~X~
I'm pretty sure (Score:2)
Norton Ghost (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
After forgetting the plot and characters you'll get the same experience as reading/watching/playing for the first time.
Research abstract (Score:5, Informative)
Diurnal gene expression patterns of T-type calcium channels and their modulation by ethanol [sciencedirect.com]
The transient (T-type) calcium channel participates in the generation of normal brain rhythms as well as abnormal rhythms associated with a range of neurological disorders. There are three different isoforms of T-type channels and all are particularly enriched in the thalamus, which is involved in generating many of these rhythms. We report a novel means of T-type channel regulation in the thalamus that involves diurnal regulation of gene expression. Using real time polymerase chain reaction we detected a diurnal pattern of gene expression for all T-type channel transcripts. The peak of gene expression for the CaV3.1 transcript occurred close to the transition from active to inactive (sleep) states, while expression for both CaV3.2 and CaV3.3 peaked near the transition of inactive to active phase. We assessed the effect of chronic consumption of ethanol on these gene expression patterns by examining thalamic tissues of ethanol-consuming cohorts that were housed with the controls, but which received ethanol in the form of a liquid diet. Ethanol consumption resulted in a significant shift of peak gene expression of approximately 5 h for CaV3.2 toward the normally active phase of the mice, as well as increasing the overall gene expression levels by approximately 1.7-fold. Peak gene expression was significantly increased for both CaV3.2 and CaV3.3. Measurements of CaV3.3 protein expression reflected increases in gene expression due to ethanol. Our results illustrate a novel regulatory mechanism for T-type calcium channels that is consistent with their important role in generating thalamocortical sleep rhythms, and suggests that alterations in the pattern of gene expression of these channels could contribute to the disruption of normal sleep by ethanol.
Curiously, I get the impression that the emphasis of the research is somewhat different from what was emphasized in the popular-press article.
Re:Research abstract (Score:5, Interesting)
From the abstract, it appears that the thalamus does act as a kind of "pacemaker" (or "motivator" as in R2D2).
The really important finding of the study is that this may be the path that alcohol uses to disrupt sleep.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm the sort who boots and loads the OS in a matter of seconds, so I'm completely awake by the time my feet hit the floor. I'm also a "morning person" and am at my best when I get up with the sun. Occurs to me to wonder if this is really a single trait, generated by a thalamus with a higher CPU speed.
Re: (Score:2)
Your sleep cycles are regulated by two main features: environment (most importantly exposure to bright light when you get up), and circadian rhythms, which are a natural ~25hr rhythm generated in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of your hypothalmus (SCN), which is receives light signals and uses them to entrain your rhythms to a 24 hour day. The centers for controlling your sleep function mostly reside in the brainstem, although other areas such as parts of the thalmus and the pineal gland pla
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Research abstract (Score:5, Informative)
The paper you link is a different one. This is the actual paper:
Alexander GM, Kurukulasuriya NC, Mu J, Godwin DW. Cortical feedback to the thalamus is selectively enhanced by nitric oxide. Neuroscience. 2006 Jul 28 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=p ubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=168 76956&query_hl=12&itool=pubmed_docsum [nih.gov]
Indeed the area they study is somewhat mysterious: The thalamus provides separate communication channels for essentially all sensory information from the sensory organs (e.g. eyes) to the cerebral cortex. However, unlike most brain areas it appears that there is no transformation going on in the thalamus. So if there is no computation, it must be a relay! As much as much most neuroscientist find the idea of pure "relay" unsatisfactory we simply have no evidence for anything beyond it. Hence all the speculation. Unfortunately, the present paper sheds no light onto the thalamus mystery. The authos cut a slice out of a brain and study in isolation. Clearly you won't get much functional information about what's actually going on in this way. Then the authors dump a drug onto the slice to show that it differentially turns up the gain of one input and turns down the gain of another one. Nice, but we don't know if this is actually going on in the brain or how this chemical would get there. If --as the journalists claim-- this finding were to transform our ideas about the thalamus then it probably wouldn't be published in a third tier journal like 'Neuroscience'.
So much for science journalisms.
-phystor-
Mod parent up! (Score:2)
Here's the abstract from what you linked:
The brain somehow merges visual information with the behavioral context in which it is being processed, a task that is often attributed to the cerebral cortex. We have identified a new role of the gaseous neurotransmitter, nitric oxide (NO), in the earl
Re: (Score:2)
Obi Wan: "You don't need to see his identification."
Storm Trooper: "I don't need to see his identification."
Obi Wan: "These aren't the droids you're looking for."
Storm Trooper: "These aren't the droids we're looking for."
Linus is it you? (Score:2, Funny)
so... God and Linus invented the same thing?
#@$&!!@# I always thought Linus is God =)
nitric oxide's (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You are absolutely correct, I must have been on drugs when I wrote the prior comment.
Researcher (Score:2, Funny)
Godwin also says that the thalamus is like Nazi Germany; it declares some people are full citizens and others are untermensch.
Let's not forget the order (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess we're on the right way to seeing higher intelligence emerge from machines in the next few decades.
Bouncer? (Score:2)
Why a bouncer. I thought we used car analogies around here...
it's more accurate to think of the thalamus not as a bouncer, but a traffic cop, who doesn't simply allow a huge rush of cars to go in or no one at all, but picks and chooses whom to let in and out.
There, now I un
login? (Score:2, Funny)
Scary even to think about this (Score:5, Funny)
Sure thing (Score:2)
roman_mir:~# shutdown -h +2 'I just want to go to sleep'
Re: (Score:2)
Damn! (Score:2)
Dammit, you people must have known I set that as my wakeup track! (No, seriously, I did...)
Relic Reference (Score:2, Funny)
A mind is a terrible thing to waste... Especially if you're really hungry
So in other words.. (Score:2)
TONY SOPRANO'S SHRINK LADY: Colonel who?
PENN: The System Command Processor, it's the brain.
TSSL: Cancer, brain, brain, cancer!
A bouncer or a demon? (Score:2)
While less well known than club bouncers, I would think that the thalamus would be better likened to Maxwell's Demon [wikipedia.org].
This would explain why all your body heat escape from your head!
thalamus = kernel (Score:2)
This gives a whole new meaning to "microkernel". And what with microkernel now equivalent to "peakbrain", it looks like neuroscience sides with Linus against RMS and Tannenbaum. :)
I run GNU/thalamus.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Sounds like the Thalamus is more like IPtables, rather than a kernel.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Which is why I think Ps. Cubensis and Ps. Mexicana mushrooms are so much fun.
Re: (Score:2)
Brain A:> (Score:2)
Brain A is not a system brain.
Abort, Retry, Sleep?
Re: (Score:2)