The Brind

After digging around I came up with this article from respected science journalist John McCrone... http://www.sci-con.org/articles/20040601.html The whole brain replaced every month... that's kinda scary in some ways!

The brain has only a limited ability to make new neurons. And yes this does explain why brain injuries are permanent (note - sometimes other areas of the brain can take over the function of damaged areas especially if the brain damage occurs when you are young) Yes you do have the same cells in your brain from birth to death and at the same time no you don't... Confused? The cells themselves are being constantly repaired and renewed so the same cell that you had when you were born is not made from the same atoms and molecules... Imagine a wall.... Now one by one replace the bricks in the wall.... Once you have finished you can ask yourself.... Is this the same wall that I started with? The answer is both yes and no depending on how you look at it... People are like that wall and so are cells... in fact many so called "things" are like that wall if you think about it...

It is possible to record the activity of single neurons using a technique somewhat appropriately called "single cell recording". The data can be viewed using an oscilloscope but we wouldn't try to measure the response from your finger because it is an invasive technique that can damage neurons. Instead single cell recording is a technique used only on animals. Basically you stick an electrode into the body near but not within the neuron and it measures the action potential (the nerve impulse). Unfortunately sticking electrodes into brains is a rather cumbersome procedure that destroys cell in the process. Don't try this at home kids! Anyway where are the neuroscientists.... I'm winging it here a bit... someone correct me if I'm wrong...

You answered your own question "all it's intricacies". The human mind, which of course can be studied scientifically because it is a physical thing called a brain, is much more complex that rocket science and heart surgery!

Nerve impulses travel at speeds of up to 120 meters per second. I'm not entirely certain that bit-rate is an appropriate term for the type of information processing that the nervous system is involved in. Remember the "brain is a computer analogy" is just that, an analogy. In reality the brain is not a computer of the sort that you seem to be familar with. For a start it is massively parallel. There is no Pentium bottleneck. Hence, there is no need for signals to be different because they do not terminate in the same place. information flows through the nervous system like water flows down a river bed. It ends up in the place that it needs to because either that is the path that it has always traveled or that is the easiest path for it to flow.