DrmDoc

Yes! My understanding precisely!

Quite true! As my perspective on the interplay between the thalamus and its reciprocal connections with surrounding brain structures evolve, my perspective on the role of the thalamus in the autistic brain continues to evolve. Although their are multiple facets to the neural interplay between the thalamus and surrounding brain structures, there's more than sufficient evidence that all behaviors we engage are executed by thalamic function. There's also sufficient evidence, in my opinion, that our thalamus engages these behaviors according to the feedback rather than commands it receives from superior or surrounding brain structures. The distinction between feedback rather than commands suggest that our thalamus executes behaviors based on neural advice rather than direction of other brain sturctures which places the thalamus in a far superior role than I previously perceived. For example, consider the explosive aggression of some CTE sufferers. Structures like the thalamus and amygdala are somewhat shielded by the cortex from intercranial trauma. It's likely that thalamic function in the CTE brain responds more readily to amygdala feedback than the prefrontal cortex due to a compromised link between the cortex and thalamus caused by head trauma. The behaviors a thalamus expresses with a CTE brain are likely compromised by weak signals from the cortex with comparatively strong and healthy amygdala signaling. If there's anything to draw from my comments here relative to dreams and dreaming is that they are everything I have previously discussed but, first and foremost, they are a feedback response to afferent resonance from the thalamus amid sleep. Relative to autism, clarity will require a bit more time and investigation.

It was my focusing on the buffering function of the thalamus through our discussion. An autistic respondent in a previous discussion in another forum of this website described their condition as like having a gatekeeper who allows entry to everyone. My epiphany, through this discussion, was that this individual's form of autism likely involves a malfunction of their thalamus' ability to buffer incoming neural impulses (external stimuli) while at the same time maintaining an ability to target the focus of their thalamus on specific and well-defined areas of feedback (behavioral commands) from superior regions of brain beyond the thalamus--it's letting all the noise in but only responding to that noise that activates a specific channel of feedback or behavioral responses. I believe I now have a better visual perception and understanding of the input/output function of the thalamus in the autistic brain. Even more, I'm beginning to consider what impact malfunction of the thalamus may have in the structual variances we find in some autistic brains--indeed, a delightful and illuminating discussion.

Much of my thoughts on this subject can be found in this discussion thread: Consciousness in Brain Function Give it a read and share your thoughts.

Much of what I understand about the dreaming brain is rooted in my perspective of its likely path of evolution. That path suggests to me that the function of recent brain developments were built upon and are likely dependent on the function of earlier developments. Mid-century experiments with diencephalic animals, as I recall, appear to confirm that no cortical activity occurs without a neural connection from the thalamus. If we agree that dreaming and dream content are efferent products of cortical activity in sleep, then that activity likely doesn't occur without an afferent neural connection from the thalamus. Therefore, the question this poses is what precisely does that afferent neural connection from the thalamus contributes to the production of dreaming? When we are awake and aware, thalamic function appears to buffer most of the neural noise it receives from the stimuli traversing its neural structure to superior brain regions from external sources. As the gateway for neural commands exiting the brain, the thalamus also executes our physical responses to the external stimuli it experiences based the feedback it receives from superior brain regions. That neural noise the thalamus experience at the outset of dreaming emerges from itself as a residual affect of its wakeful buffering rather than direct external stimuli. Although it may buffer the affects of external stimuli during the conscious state of brain function, the thalamus amid sleep is incapable of buffering the noise emanating from its own neural body as a result of its conscious experience—it’s the bell that keeps ringing after it has been struck. Countering that incessant neural ringing amid sleep requires equivalent neural feedback from superior brain regions sufficient to nullify that effect. Rather than create dream content, thalamic reverbs in sleep inspire that content. Dreaming is a feedback process where upper regions nullify thalamic reverbs in sleep with materially meaningful neural impulses (dream content) matching the neural frequency or impact of those reverbs. From my perspective, the thalamus is our instinctive, primal brain. It doesn't engage thought, it reacts and execute our outward behavioral expressions. Structures beyond the thalamus, as I perceive, informs the behaviors it executes. In my view, structures like the amygdala and prefrontal cortex mediate the reactions the thalamus executes. For example, the amygdala tells the thalamus to react with agression, while the prefrontal cortex informs the thalamus on the consequences of that agression. But what has become more profound for me is a clearer understanding of the autistic brain--particularly through our discussion.

Quite right, dreams act to counteract the affects of a noisy (active) thalamus in sleep. The exception in sleep is that this neural noise arising from the thalamus isn't necessarily occuring in the presence of the external stimuli (life experience) causing that noise. Our cortical response areas in sleep are able to detect this indirect, abstract affect life experience has on thalamic function. In sleep, our thalamus appears to reverberate from the indirect affects of life experience and our cortical responses to that reverberance serve to nullify those affects. The form of that nullification is to mirror and, thereby, cancel the energy destabilizating neural impact of that reverberance. This explain why our dream content interprets something that is indirect and abstract. I welcome your continue interest.

I think you're quite close to my thoughts on this. Both types do rely on the same neurobiology, but there's a difference I perceive in the process. To begin, as you know, the interpretive aspects of brain function is an efferent process (top-down), which infers processes that do not engage without afferent stimuli (bottom-up). The top-down processes of brain function emerge from the upper regions of the brain beyond the thalamus, while the bottom-up processes emerge through and from the thalamus. The difference between the responses of the awake and dreaming brain resides in whether the brain's top-down processes are a response to the stimuli that emerge solely from thalamus or the stimuli that traverse the thalamus from its external neural connections. Other than olfactory, as you know, all sensory input must traverse the thalamus before entering the upper regions of our central nervous system. When we are awake and aware, the responses of our upper brain regions are focused on stimuli traversing the thalamus as that stimuli may have a real physical/material impact on our wellbeing and sense of self. Accordingly, stimili traversing those neural pathways through the thalamus' external neural connections are perceived and interpreted according to their literal impact. Conversely, stimuli that emerge solely from the thalamus without a continuous neural link to that stimuli's external physical/material sources initiate a different efferent response from upper brain region. This type of stimuli is what I have termed in other discussions as the "resonant" neural affect of our life experiences. It's like that ringing in our ears that we continue to hear long after the band has stopped playing. Our thalamus continuously resonate from the affects or impact of our life experiences. As that resonance enters the upper reponse centers of our brain amid the sleep state, it is as ill defined as that ringing in our ear without a sound source. Yet, as this resonance has a homeostasis destablizing affect, our brain responses in sleep (dreaming) emerge as a counterbalance to that persistent neural noise. As a counterbalance, our sleeping brain has to generate a equivalent neural frequency (dreams) sufficient to cancel the impact of that persistent neural affect emerging from the thalamus amid the sleep state. Dreaming is an equivalency process our brain engages amid sleep to match and, thereby, quell the neural resonance persisting in the thalamus from the affects life experience. When we are awake and aware, this equivalency process involves matching and engaging an appropriate response to external stimuli, which primarily involves physical, material and literal responses. When we're dreaming, that process involves matching and engaging responses to soothe the thalamus rather than address some direct physical/material stimili. In a sense, dreaming addresses something the brain perceives as indirect or abstract--the operants of mind and emotion. I welcome your continued interest and insightful perspective.

Pardon this delayed reply but there are few whose perspective I enjoy reading and pondering as much as I do yours. Indeed, there's a distinction between the brain responses that dreaming suggest and the responses of the awake and aware brain. The conscious brain interprets the nature of its experiences by the physical/material impact of those experiences; e.g., cold is cold, light is light, and dark is dark, etc. Conversely, the dreaming brain--through comparative imagery and experiences--interprets the residual mental/emotional impact of its experiences; e.g., cold, light, and dark describe mental/emotional effects. As some may already know, our brain responses while conscious are a counterbalances to the imbalance caused by experiences that directly emerge from and impact the sensory array of our body physical. Amid the dreaming state, our brain responses are a counterbalance to the persistent neural effects of those experiences. Perhaps the most apt analogy is that life experience causes a type of neural-tinnitus within the brain and dreaming is our brain's effort to quell that malody by, in someway, quantifying its nature. My perspective is that our sense of self emerges from the thalamus and how it is impacted by its neural connections and exchanges. In that perspective, our physical/material sense of self emerges from our thalamus' afferent neural connections, while our mental/emotional sense of self emerge from its efferent neural connections. In my model of brain function, dreaming comprises our thalamus' efferent neural connections and exchanges. I am very well and in good spirit this holiday season. Thanks so much for asking and I wish you the same.

Hello All, It has been a while since I last added content to this discussion, so I thought I would add a bit more based on my evolving perspective of the dreaming brain. Remember these initials, E.I.A.I, as they will assist your better understanding of dreams, their content, and the dreaming brain. Somewhere in my most recent ciscussion of brain funtion, I said the primary imperative of that function is homeostasis, which describes our brain's efforts to maintain its metabolic balance against the destablizing affects of our sensory experiences. Dreaming is one of those efforts our brain engages in sleep to stabilize its metabolic balance. Dreaming is how our sleeping brain response to the resonant destabilizing affects of our life experiences. Our dreams are Efferent Interpretations of the Afferent Impact an experience has had on our mental sense of self. In perhaps a break with how most mind scientists understand dream content, our dreams interpret effects rather than the causes of those effects. It's analogous to interpreting a pain rather than the cause of that pain. Rather than emerging from our direct experiences in sleep, dreams emerge from the resonant mental/emotional impact of those life experiences that persist amid the sleep state. If you have interest, I welcome yout thoughts.

I see…it isn’t omitted citations you want, but rather a discussion of my analogy. For those who have actually perused rather than glanced over my numerous comments on the subject of mind, consciousness, and brain function, they may recall that I routinely refer to the confluence of brain function as a “concert”. I’ve adhered to music adjacent analogies and themes here and in many of my prior discourse on this topic because I believe they most clearly convey my thoughts, in a relatable way, on the harmony of brain function that must occur to produce attributes of mind and consciousness. I understand your perception but from the outset of this discussion thread, I wrote: Allow me to correct your perception of implied metaphysics, which was not an implication I intented. Significant portions of my discussion thus far have encompassed the affect of sensory experience. Using your analogy, the player of that clarinet would be that experience. Succinctly, our brain’s neural experience or perception of afferent stimuli via its sensory connection to that stimuli shapes and influences its responses. I’m certain of little disagreement among science circles that thought is indeed a response of brain function. My perspective is that thought (music) emerges from brain function (clarinet) as an effect of its sensory connection to sensory experience (player). Your imagination notwithstanding, I wrote in prior comments that the entirety of brain function is devoted to h-o-m-e-o-s-t-a-s-i-s. (Hope I got the spelling right this time🤞) The comment you referenced is a synopsis of my prior comments in this discussion thread on the relevance of homeostasis as the basis for all brain activity and responses. Again, from the outset of this discussion thread, I said I would attempt to make my thoughts and "keep this discussion accessible to all knowledge levels." You might agree that those interested in this topic may not all be neuroscientists, which is why I’ve inserted definitions among my various posts on my use of terms as my discussion progressed. Indeed, some neuroscientists may object to my “nomenclature” but my comments were not entirely meant for their consumption. I want to encourage the interest and contribution of non-neuroscientists in the discussion of this topic as I believe it will only enhance my personal insight and enrich my understanding as it has done so often in past discussions. I appreciate your critique and welcome your continued interest.

Thank you for the corrections of my misspelling and, so I may provide, for which aspect, statement, or portion of my comments thus far are you requesting supporting citations? If I may add, my comments were meant to provide a mental image of the processes of brain function in a way that would be understood by those disinterested in the minutia. If the minutia is your interest, then let's explore the ingredients of my salad which you appear to find unpalatable.

Hello All, In my last post I asked, rhetorically, " what is thought and what happens in the brain to produce thought?" I believe the answer I gave wasn't as clear as it could have been. Considering the whole of my comments thus far, thought is a resonant neural effect that emerges from upper brain regions--beyond the thalamus--in response to the affect of sensory experiences. If we think of the brain as a musical instrument, thought would be the sound that instrument produces. When we follow that example to one logical conclusion, thought isn't spontaneous--the musical instrument that is brain structure must be played to produce the resonance of consciousness we call thought. We are not born truly thoughtful beings, which means that we do not emerge from the womb with a fully developed structural instrument capable of producing the dolce or torrid music that is thought. Thought isn't so much about structural brain development as it is about fine tuning that instrument to produce the harmonious responses essential to the aesthetics of our survival. Relative to brain structure and function, fine tuning is about building those resonance neural pathways that can produce frequencies essential to hemostasis—essential to sustaining our brain’s metabolic balance against the destabilizing affect of all sensory experience. I welcome your thoughts.

Good morning All, Before I proceed further, I thought I'd provide a bit of clarity on my use of certain terms relative to brain function: Neural resonance/reverberance - I use this term to describe my perception of a continuously repetitive chain of afferent and efferent neuron firings. Reflexive behaviors - the physical expressions and behaviors our thalamic neural activations appear to execute in direct response to afferent stimuli. Reflective behaviors-the physical expressions and behaviors our thalamic neural activations appear to execute in direct response to efferent stimuli. In my previous posts, I shared my perception of the behaviors our thalamus activations appear to execute in response to the metabolically impactful nature of sensory experiences. Our experiences alter the metabolic balance of our brain function via the resonant affect those experiences have on our thalamus. That affect doesn't dissipate without counter measures or resonance from the thalamus and from surrounding brain structures via their reciprocal neural connections to the thalamus. The counter resonance our thalamus activity engages manifest first as reflexive behaviors, which are then followed by or in conjunction with reflective behaviors. When the resonant effects our experiences cause persist beyond our thalamus' reflexive responses to quell those experiences, the neural reverberance they cause afferently radiates into surrounding brain structure from the thalamus. Those brain structures, whose functions are affected by the frequency of that neural reverberance, begin to match or reflect that frequency in neural feedback to the thalamus. That reflective resonance has a cancelling or deadening affect on the neural resonance emanating from the thalamus. When the reflective neural resonances from other brain structures reaches the thalamus, their impact alters the resonance responses of the thalamus to that which diminishes, suppresses, or disperses the impact of our sensory experience on its functions. Those reflective behaviors our thalamus executes in response to reflective resonance from other brain regions are those that most readily suggest the thought processes indicative of organisms that appear to possess a mind. I felt compelled to discuss my thoughts on this topic here for basically the very reason suggested by the things I’ve discussed, which is the nature of consciousness relative to brain function. This topic is important to me and should be for you because it offers a compelling view of what may be happening in the brain by the behaviors we observe. We generally know the function of various brain structures and aspects of our central nervous system. We know that those functions and aspects work in concert to manifest our behaviors, identity, and consciousness. What some of us don’t know or clearly understand is the operational aspect, which is specifically how that concert of brain function is conducted. Metaphorically, we know the various music, strings, horns, and percussions of brain structure and function, but what isn’t clear to all of us is specifically how all of that is orchestrated to produce the extraordinary expressions and behaviors of human consciousness. Consider, if you will, we know the various stages of brain development and we know how experience and learning alter brain structure, but what is thought and what happens in the brain to produce thought? For example, consider the autistic brain. In an exchange with an autistic individual at this science discussion website, I was informed of the overwhelming nature of their sensory experience. The experience was described to me as having a gatekeeper who lets everybody in. Yet, that person wrote with such eloquence and focus that I wondered how that was possible? Now with a clearer perspective of the orchestration or functional exchanges between the various structures of the autistic brain, I have visual picture and a clearer understanding of how their eloquence was possible and where the variance between my brain structure/function and theirs may resided. I welcome your thought.

Hello All, In my initial post, I described our brain as an organic machine whose primary functional imperative is to maintain its metabolic balance (homeostasis) against the destabilizing affect of stimuli. The whole of our brain function--its responses and activity--is to nullify or suppress the destabilizing neural affect of our sensory experiences. The core of brain structure and, therefore, the core of brain function is the thalamus, which isn't necessarily because of its literal position within our overall brain structure. Our thalamus earns its functional prominence, as some of you may already know, from it being the primary structure that all neural pathways initially transit before entering and exiting the upper regions of our central nervous system and brain structure. As the first stop for all neural input and output, thalamic function is the first line of our brain's neural defense and action against the resonant (destabilizing) neural affect of sensory stimuli. Those observable behaviors suggestive of consciousness that we engage are the physical expression of our Thalamus neural defense and action against the destabilizing affect our sensory experiences cause. Our thalamus engages two distinct types of behavioral responses to our experiences, reflexive and reflective. The initial response of our thalamus to stimuli is invariably reflexive behavior. Reflexive behaviors primarily involve our instinctive reactions, which are shown by our physical responses to sudden sounds and tactile stimuli, such as a loud bang or a touch on the shoulder from behind. When the resonant effects of our sensory experiences persist beyond the reflexive responses of the thalamus, it then engages reflective behaviors. Reflective behaviors are those the thalamus engages in response to the neural feedback it receives from other brain regions impacted by the resonant neural effects our sensory experiences cause. If interest persist, I will explore and attempt to explain these thoughts a bit further in a subsequent post. I welcome your thoughts.

The answer to all of your questions is that they are all responses to the experiences of the individuals you've referenced. Relative to brain function, the neural activity that generates creativity, thought, and art emerge as a reflection of the resonant neural impact our experiences have on the metabolic balance of brain function. As I explained, all of ouf experiences have a resonant neural impact on our brains metabolic balance, which is our brain's imperative to maintain. In that effort, our brain generates opposing neural activity matching the frequency of that destabilizing neural resonance. I will cover this more specifically in a subsequent postings on reflexive and reflective behaviors relative to brain function. I appreciate your continued interest.