Abstract
If non-material mental events, such as the intention to carry out an action, are to have an effective action on neural events in the brain, it has to be at the most subtle and plastic level of these events. In the first stage of our enquiry an introduction to conventional synaptic theory leads on to an account of the manner of operation of the ultimate synaptic units. These units are the synaptic boutons that, when excited by an all-or-nothing nerve impulse, deliver the total contents of a single synaptic vesicle, not regularly, but probabilistically. This quantal emission of the synaptic transmitter molecules (about 5000-10000) is the elementary unit of the transmission process from one neuron to another. In the second stage this refined physiological analysis leads on to an account of the ultrastructure of the synapse, which gives clues as to the manner of its unitary probabilistic operation. The essential feature is that the effective structure of each bouton is a paracrystalline presynaptic vesicular grid with about 50 vesicles, which acts probabilistically in vesicular (quantal) release. In the third stage it is considered how a non-material mental event, such as an intention to move, could influence the subtle probabilistic operations of synaptic boutons. On the biological side, attention is focused on the paracrystalline presynaptic vesicular grids as the targets for non-material mental events. On the physical side, attention is focused on the probabilistic fields of quantum mechanics which carry neither mass nor energy, but which nevertheless can exert effective action at microsites. The new light on the mind—brain problem came from the hypothesis that the non-material mental events, the ‘ World 2 ’ of Popper, relate to the neural events of the brain (the ‘World 1' of matter and energy) by actions in conformity with quantum theory. This hypothesis that mental events act on probabilistic synaptic events in a manner analogous to the probability fields of quantum mechanics seems to open up an immense field of scientific investigation both in quantum physics and in neuroscience.
Reference41 articles.
1. Akert K. Peper K. & Sandri C. 1975 Structural organization of motor end plate and central synapses. \n.Cholinergicmechanisms (ed. P. G. Waser) pp. 43-57. New York: Raven Press.
2. Akert K. Pfenninger K . Sandri C. & Moor H. 1972 Freeze etching and cytochemistry of vesicles and membrane complexes in synapses o f the central nervous system. In Structure and function of synapses (ed. G. P. Papas & D. F. Purpura) pp. 67-86. New York: Raven Press.
3. Supplementary motor area in the monkey: activity of neurons during performance of a learned motor task
4. Supplementary motor area and premotor area of the monkey cerebral cortex: functional organization and activities o f single neurons during performance of a learned movement;Brinkman C.;Adv. Neurol,1983
5. Brown A. G. 1981 Organization in the spinal cord: The anatomy and physiology of identified neurones. Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer-Verlag. (238 pages.)
Cited by
139 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献，注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献，订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献