Most of the articles cited by the author don't deal with neurons that are directly involved in memory. The articles described the activity of neurons in primary sensory areas: the neurons in cortex that receive direct input from the periphery, or at least are the closest to neurons in the periphery in terms of number of connections between them. One exception is the article she cites about the hippocampus, but this area is required only for forming memories--once the memories have formed, they live somewhere else, but probably not in the primary sensory areas. Okay, maybe memories are a distributed network that includes neurons in primary sensory areas...but it would be weird to also have the main sensory area also be the place where memories live.
Re:Why Your Brain Seems Mostly Dormant
by webnrrd2k on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @07:07PM
(#10223689)
This is just speculation, but I'd think it would be important for the brain to have a way to manage it's memories... you wouldn't want memories just randomly appearing, all the time There has to be some way to orchestrate memories, and I wouldn't be surprised if the more active neurons are involved in that orchestration. In other words, couldn't those exceedingly active neurons be contributing to suppressing memories?
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Re:Why Your Brain Seems Mostly Dormant
by nickledave on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @08:02PM
(#10223889)
It would be interesting if active neurons were suppressing memories but I don't know of any evidence in support of that idea.
Re:Why Your Brain Seems Mostly Dormant
by noselfrighteous on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @08:42PM
(#10224021)
It might make a lot of sense actually. It could serve to speed up instinctive responses to stimuli which have been encountered before, i.e. whipping your finger away from a hot surface.
Re:Why Your Brain Seems Mostly Dormant
by unepipe on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @12:02AM
(#10224601)
I think I understand what you're getting at, but the example you gave is not a learned act, it's a reflex action. It bypasses your brain entirely, you generally recognize the pain after you reflexively withdraw your hand.