thalamo-cortico-thalamic circuits

[pioneer]

The thalamus is the most wired part of the brain, with input/output going nearly everywhere in the brain.The thalamus has also been shown to be critical to consciousness. Damage to the thalamus can render a person brain dead. Another observation are thalamo-cortico-thalamic circuits which wire/loop the thalamus to the cerebral matter. What I would like to do is pose the theory that these loops allow the integrated perspective of the thalamus (all the brain) to relay data to the cerebral mind which shows up as inspiration; enhanced consciousness.

 

If you look at the conscious and unconscious minds, the unconscious mind contains more data. For example, with hypnosis, one can recall data that might have slipped from the conscious mind, but is still stored in the unconscious. The thalamus by being wired everywhere, is not as limited to only our conscious data. Based on all the data, the thalamo-cortico-thalamic circuits will output to the cerebral. Being the center of consciousness, it can make one temporarily more conscious by simply tweaking consciousness. The interpretation of the inspiration, via ego consciousness, however, will be limited to what one is consciously aware of. This makes interpretation of thalamo-cortico-thalamic inspiration temporal dependent, since one's place in space and time will set the conscious grid for possible interpretation.

 

Let me give a possible example; building the pyramids. This was quite the engineering feat and appears to be beyond the conscious technical level of the day. However, there is nothing they did during the building process which was not within the realm of what was available. This became parts of the subliminal data. The more integrated position of the thalamus would induce the thalamo-cortico-thalamic inspiration, that would be interpreted as coming from the gods. It is like having all the ingredients to make a new meal, but a meal without conscious precedent. The thalamus, but being an integrating factor, loops the new possibility to the cerebral. The inspiration, via enhanced thalamic awareness, helps the conscious mind create the new.

Edited October 2, 2010 by pioneer

[pioneer]

One common modern example of these thalamo-cortico-thalamic circuits, in action, is what we call falling in love. This is a collective human experience, which is beyond the conscious mind to create for itself. We can't choose to fall in love out of the blue. These collective dynamics is not cultural or history dependent, since it is thalamic in nature. To get the circuit loops going, we need a trigger for the thalamus. The effect is a heightened awareness, especially of the other person onto which the trigger is based and then projected onto. The output to the cerebral is collective in nature, but each person will interpret the internal output in the context of their own experience. It is a very creative state of mind with much music and art created.

 

The cerebral memory appears to be arranged in layers. As an analogy, consider a piece of paper with blue and red dots. If we were to use red colored glasses to look at the paper, what we would see are only the blue dots. If we switch to the blue glasses, we will see the red dots. The falling in love will shade how we perceive memory and reality; rose colored glasses. These dynamics appear to be connected to the induced limbic potentials (limbic chemical combinations and concentrations), with love having it own unique blend. We will interpret the thalamus loops, not only within the context of our temporal memory but also within the memory layer provided by the thalamus.

 

The thalamus circuit output appears to be spatial or 3-D in nature. Its central place in the brain makes it spatially integrated within the entire brain. The rose colored glasses, by helping to focus on a layer of our memory, helps to turn the 3-D output, into something easier for the ego. Love is not exactly rational, nor is it linear, so it is less than 2-D (cause and effect) but more than 1-D. For the sake of argument the output to the ego could be 1.5-D.

[DrmDoc]

The thalamus is the most wired part of the brain, with input/output going nearly everywhere in the brain.The thalamus has also been shown to be critical to consciousness. Damage to the thalamus can render a person brain dead. Another observation are thalamo-cortico-thalamic circuits which wire/loop the thalamus to the cerebral matter. What I would like to do is pose the theory that these loops allow the integrated perspective of the thalamus (all the brain) to relay data to the cerebral mind which shows up as inspiration; enhanced consciousness.

 

If you look at the conscious and unconscious minds, the unconscious mind contains more data. For example, with hypnosis, one can recall data that might have slipped from the conscious mind, but is still stored in the unconscious. The thalamus by being wired everywhere, is not as limited to only our conscious data. Based on all the data, the thalamo-cortico-thalamic circuits will output to the cerebral. Being the center of consciousness, it can make one temporarily more conscious by simply tweaking consciousness. The interpretation of the inspiration, via ego consciousness, however, will be limited to what one is consciously aware of. This makes interpretation of thalamo-cortico-thalamic inspiration temporal dependent, since one's place in space and time will set the conscious grid for possible interpretation.

 

Let me give a possible example; building the pyramids. This was quite the engineering feat and appears to be beyond the conscious technical level of the day. However, there is nothing they did during the building process which was not within the realm of what was available. This became parts of the subliminal data. The more integrated position of the thalamus would induce the thalamo-cortico-thalamic inspiration, that would be interpreted as coming from the gods. It is like having all the ingredients to make a new meal, but a meal without conscious precedent. The thalamus, but being an integrating factor, loops the new possibility to the cerebral. The inspiration, via enhanced thalamic awareness, helps the conscious mind create the new.

 

In a book I wrote about the evolution of the dreaming brain, I said that mind is the environment of cognitive activity within brain structure that arise from brain function. My study of brain evolution suggested to me that mind could be quantified by a capacity to integrate sensory information, from divergent sensory sources, through a process that produces behaviors independent of instinct; i.e., a mind enables proactive behaviors above and beyond those considered reactive. My investigation suggests that thalamic function, after the emergence of sight, gave ancestral animals the rudiments of thought and the burgeoning ability to overrule their instincts. From my perspective, a brain, human or otherwise, with thalamic structure is suggestive of the capacity to produce a mind and, by extension, a consciousness. Although I believe the presence of thalamic structure suggests the capacity to produce consciousness, the quality of that consciousness is suggested by other contributory factors in brain function. All this to say that, from my perspective, the thalamus is the center of mind and consciousness.

 

When the thalamus first evolved, my study suggests that its primary function was to integrate divergent sensory input (sight, sound, taste, and touch), which generated focused responses to sensory stimuli and the development of brain structures (basal ganglia) that enhanced this process. The effects of this process and brain developments were behavioral responses increasingly more coordinated and appropriate to stimuli. The adaptation of such focused behaviors gave these early animals a capacity to distinguish necessary from unnecessary responses, which allowed them to mediate their energy expenditure more efficiently. Such mediation allowed for the development of those brain structures that promoted habituation (limbic system). Through the routine, familiarly, and security habituation promoted, my study suggest that these early animals began to expand the range of their sensory environment and corresponding behaviors. Facilitating this expansion required the sophistication of memory, which led to the evolution of cortical structure.

 

In decorticate studies, neural isolation of the cortex from subcortical structure resulted in sustained cortical deactivation throughout the survival period of test animals (Jouvet, M. and Jouvet, D. "A Study of the Neurophysiological Mechanisms of Dreaming." Electroenceph Clin Neurophysiol. [1963]: Supplement 24.). This is consistent with the functional hierarchy of brain evolution; i.e., recent brain developments enhance the function of prior developments and are dependent on those prior structures for functionality. The contemporary thalamus is the primary structure in the brain where decisions are neurologically made about which sensory information, excluding olfactory, should reach the cerebral cortex. In this way, thalamic function decides the focus of cortical evaluation. There are more neural relays from the cortex to the thalamus than vice versa. This is consistent with how cortical attenuation of consolidated sensory input from the thalamus enhances thalamic function. As a scaffold, around which mind and consciousness are constructed, the thalamus does not engage thought or abstraction but rather inspire the process and consolidate the resulting directives.

 

As for the unconscious mind, its circuitry--as suggested by brain activations and deactivations amid dreaming--is distinct from that of the conscious mind. A hypnotized brain, in my view, is merely a more focused conscious mind rather than an accessed unconscious mind. Amid dreaming, the sleeping brain experiences a partial cessation of contact with its tactile (including auditory) sensory environment. Amid this cessation, the active dreaming brain is unencumbered by the mental demands and responsibilities physical reality and the sensory data it generates. To place dreaming within the context of sleep, is deceiving. The dreaming brain is as electrically active as a waking brain; therefore, dreaming could be consider an altered state of consciousness amid the sleep process. However, there are significant differences between the consciousness of the waking and dreaming brain as suggested by specific differences in areas of activation and deactivation in the brain between the two states of brain function. However, returning to the OP, the thalamus is the primitive within us that uses a thinking cap (cortex) to attenuate its responses to stimuli. I believe that attenuation accounts for the number of relays from the cortex to the thalamus.

[pioneer]

The structure of an organization, like a company, sort of mimics this brain structure. At the top of the company, we have the thalamic CEO. He does not work directly with all the employees in his corporate building (cerebral), but commands a smaller number of subordinates, such as his division heads, who loop things forward. All the employees, in a good company, are not only following his global policies, but are also coming up with ways to improve the company. All the best detailed (cerebral) information works it way back to the CEO, where his policies are influenced. He may then feed back down; global memo for the organizational change.

 

Like the CEO, thalamus commands are very dense, and need to be decompressed, so they can become distributed properly to the entire organization. He may say we need to cut costs by 10%. That is easier said then done, but it sets the company goal. That dense yet pregnant command, has to filter down and decompress at each level, until all the employee each look for ways to cut costs and feedback up the chain of command, with all types of ideas converging at the CEO.

 

At night, the CEO is the last one to leave, and bounce these ideas off his staff, who then brain storm and extrapolate. The next day, when everyone returns to work (consciousness) there is now a more specific direction to focus his resources.

Edited October 8, 2010 by pioneer

[DrmDoc]

The structure of an organization, like a company, sort of mimics this brain structure. At the top of the company, we have the thalamic CEO. He does not work directly with all the employees in his corporate building (cerebral), but commands a smaller number of subordinates, such as his division heads, who loop things forward. All the employees, in a good company, are not only following his global policies, but are also coming up with ways to improve the company. All the best detailed (cerebral) information works it way back to the CEO, where his policies are influenced. He may then feed back down; global memo for the organizational change.

 

Like the CEO, thalamus commands are very dense, and need to be decompressed, so they can become distributed properly to the entire organization. He may say we need to cut costs by 10%. That is easier said then done, but it sets the company goal. That dense yet pregnant command, has to filter down and decompress at each level, until all the employee each look for ways to cut costs and feedback up the chain of command, with all types of ideas converging at the CEO.

 

You and I are really not that far apart on our assessment of thalamic function. However:

 

At night, the CEO is the last one to leave, and bounce these ideas off his staff, who then brain storm and extrapolate. The next day, when everyone returns to work (consciousness) there is now a more specific direction to focus his resources.

 

 

If this references thalamic processes amid the active state of dreaming, our individual assessments differ. Although dreaming is an interpretive process, sleep and dream research suggest that it is not quite the restorative and consolidating process many have come to believe. The evidence in dream study suggests that atonia rather than dreaming provides our brain with what it requires to reach optimum conscious acuity. There is convincing evidence that we owe our conscious acuity to the periodic release of muscle tonicity that occurs at the onset of dreaming rather than the mental activity that occurs amid this state. Dreaming is a response to the activations in the brainstem arising from vestigial neural processes associated with the conservation and redistribution of our energy stores amid prolonged periods of inactivity and rest. When the brainstem becomes active amid sleep, our cortex does what it was evolved to do and that is to interpret subcortical neural impulses and directives. Although believed to originate from periodic impulses from the pons, the hypothalamus is most likely the source of the impulses and directives that inspire our dream content. When you consider the primary role of the hypothalamus in its mediation of our sleep, feeding, sexuality, and other survival processes, its contributions to dream content is quite convincing.

[pioneer]

In the analogy, I had the thalamus as the CEO. A CEO has a staff of upper level managers. The hypothalamus may well be the central hardware aspect of the upper level management. From the point of view of observing dreams from the inside (self observation and dream analysis), the CEO's staff also appears to be composed of brain firmware. Jung called this aspect of the upper level management of consciousness, the archetypes of the collective unconscious, since the self observed effects are common to all humans. These are empty at birth but evolve with data collection. This firmware generates the effect which reaches consciousness. It seems possible the hypothalamus might be setting a potential for firmware to animate.

 

The language of dreams is not the same as a conscious language like English. Dreams use a language called symbols. Symbolism is a dense compact language and is not as linear as spoken language. For example, the symbol liberty can be discussed for hours, since this symbol is dense with meaning. The statue of liberty is linear and can be easily pinned down with linear language, as that tall thing over there.

 

The natural animal uses their sensory systems for thalamus feedback. In dreams, the sensory systems are sort of cut off. In human activities like thinking, one consciously detaches from aspects of their sensory systems, shifting consciousness to the imagination. That is why we can't text and drive; our sensory system detach from hard reality so the thalamus looses important sensory data needed for survival. Consciousness feedbacks more at the level of the imagination.

 

This process of thinking heads consciousness in the direction of the dream state, away from the purely animal sensory attachment. This is where consciousness can begin to access the more compact data states, based on an extrapolation back to the CEO and staff. Rather than simply reacting, like an animal, the movement in the direction of higher data density, through imagination or mind's eye, creates an awareness of denser extended relationships. Then we will act upon that, rather than just reaction like an animal.

 

In the case of dreams, not knowing the language makes it appear like mumbo jumbo. It is sort of like the assembly line worker going to a staff meeting and observing the data and analysis the division heads are discussing. The assembly line worker may not be trained to understand the significance of all those lines and charts. With education in symbolism he can sit in on meetings and get something out of it, thereby placing their conscious cerebral feedback, at a data density that is closer to the thalamus. It is sort of like a promotion where one is bumped into management, allowing a more direct data management link to the CEO. The mid-management ego might report to an archetype, with the archetype having the ear of the CEO.

Edited October 10, 2010 by pioneer

[DrmDoc]

The language of dreams is not the same as a conscious language like English. Dreams use a language called symbols. Symbolism is a dense compact language and is not as linear as spoken language. For example, the symbol liberty can be discussed for hours, since this symbol is dense with meaning. The statue of liberty is linear and can be easily pinned down with linear language, as that tall thing over there.

 

Although the experience of dreaming occurs amid sleep and is popularly understood as the working of the unconscious mind, the imagery and scenarios that interpret dream content are products of the conscious mind. At the onset of atonia--the suspension of gross muscular elasticity and motor responses that occur during the dreaming state of brain function--our brain experiences a partial cessation of full sensory contact with physical/material reality. Our brainstem activations amid the dream state do not generate gross muscular responses because they do not contain the sensory data that informs the dreaming brain that its experiences require a response in physical/material reality. Essentially, dreaming is a mental experience and is interpreted by our brain responses as such, which is why we should consider their imagery and scenarios as interpretations rather than symbols.

 

My study of dreams and dreaming convincingly suggests that our memories of having dreamed form during the arousal process as physical sensory afferents reenters brain structure and arouses those cognitive processes associated with memory. What is not well known by many is that the experiences we recall as dreams are how our linear/literal waking brain interpret the non-linear, purely mental experience of dreaming.

 

More succinctly, dreams are interpretations of mental experience. They are how our waking state brain synthesizes what it believes it experienced amid the sleep process. What our brain experiences during sleep is something best understood by prefacing the content of our dreams with the word mental. For example, being seated in a restaurant while eating a delicious apple pie could be best understood as being mentally seated in a mental structure while mentally consuming some mental food. Our dream recollections are the applications of our conscious linear/literal sensibilities to an experience that does not conform to the laws and logic of physical/material reality.

 

 

The natural animal uses their sensory systems for thalamus feedback. In dreams, the sensory systems are sort of cut off. In human activities like thinking, one consciously detaches from aspects of their sensory systems, shifting consciousness to the imagination. That is why we can't text and drive; our sensory system detach from hard reality so the thalamus looses important sensory data needed for survival. Consciousness feedbacks more at the level of the imagination.

 

Although our brain's contact with tactile and aural sensory reality diminishes amid dreaming, the experience is every bit an interpretive process as our experiences are in physical reality. Rather than imagination, which is a consciously focused and directed experience, dreaming is the synthesis and response to incoming subcortical data--albeit intracranial neural data--minus the data associated with tactile/aural sensory systems.

 

 

This process of thinking heads consciousness in the direction of the dream state, away from the purely animal sensory attachment. This is where consciousness can begin to access the more compact data states, based on an extrapolation back to the CEO and staff. Rather than simply reacting, like an animal, the movement in the direction of higher data density, through imagination or mind's eye, creates an awareness of denser extended relationships. Then we will act upon that, rather than just reaction like an animal.

 

My study of dreaming suggests that dream content interprets the neural effects from our waking experiences that have remained resonant in brain structure from the onset of sleep. At the onset of sleep, our brain is like one of those old monitors with images that slowly fade as the screen cools when the power is switched-off. Like those old monitors, the data associated with our waking mental experiences is partially restored when switched-on, meaning when the brain arouses amid the sleep process. The mental experiences comprising our dream content are those mental perceptions that remain unabated through the initial phases of sleep (powering-down period) prior to dreaming.

 

In the case of dreams, not knowing the language makes it appear like mumbo jumbo. It is sort of like the assembly line worker going to a staff meeting and observing the data and analysis the division heads are discussing. The assembly line worker may not be trained to understand the significance of all those lines and charts. With education in symbolism he can sit in on meetings and get something out of it, thereby placing their conscious cerebral feedback, at a data density that is closer to the thalamus. It is sort of like a promotion where one is bumped into management, allowing a more direct data management link to the CEO. The mid-management ego might report to an archetype, with the archetype having the ear of the CEO.

 

Indeed, dreams are not the nonsensical mid-sleep meanderings of an unfettered mind, they are as cogent and meaningful as our conscious experiences might be. What makes our dreams appear otherwise is the linear/literal mindset essential to our navigation of conscious reality. Our unconscious mind, amid dreaming, is not subject to the laws and logic of conscious reality, which the consideration of physical/material experience and consequence governs. The partial cessation of physical/material sensory data to the dreaming brain diminishes activation in specific areas of the brain essential our conscious experience. Without the considerations and constraints of conscious experience, our unconscious mind is able to expand its cognitive limits extraordinarily far beyond the boundaries of our conscious thought and perception.