Connectome

If two neurons are repeatedly activated simultaneously, then the connections between them are strengthened in both directions.

In a nutshell, neuroscience has been saddled with a dilemma: The ideas of phrenology can be empirically tested but are simplistic. Connectionism is far more sophisticated, but its ideas cannot be evaluated experimentally.

If two neurons are repeatedly activated sequentially, the connection from the first to the second is strengthened.

a feeling of difficulty often accompanies the experience of memory, while perception usually feels effortless.

You are the activity of your neurons.

Ordering in time also seems important for some associations. As a child you recited the letters of the alphabet repeatedly until you knew them by heart. You learned the association from each letter to the next,

all four R’s—reweighting, reconnection, rewiring, and regeneration—are

Today maps are practical items for me, not magical objects. As my childhood memories grow faint, I wonder whether my fascination with maps helped me cope with a fear of the world’s vastness. Back then, I never ventured beyond the streets of my neighborhood without my parents; the city beyond seemed frightening. Placing the entire world on a sphere

One self changes rapidly from moment to moment, becoming angry and then cheering up, thinking about the meaning of life and then the household chores, watching the leaves fall outside and then the football game on television. This self is the one intertwined with consciousness. Its protean nature derives from the rapidly changing patterns of neural

Because there is no synapse, the neurons can’t “hear” each other or “know” they are spiking simultaneously. By similar arguments, the “on-demand” theory of creation doesn’t seem plausible for synaptic chains either. So let’s consider another possibility: Perhaps synapse creation is a random process.