Behavior of Neurons

An Analogy with Humans

Jay E. Gould

A simple way to understand neurons is to think of them as people.

Just as humans do not exist in isolation, neither do neurons.

The decisions and behavior of people are influenced by the interaction of their genetic inheritance, their past experiences, and the current environment, which includes the activities of others.

Similarly, the decisions/outputs of neurons are influenced by the interaction of their genetic constitution, past experiences, and the current environment, which includes the activities of other neurons.

Some of the inputs that people receive stir them to action, while others counsel inaction.

Similarly, some of the inputs that neurons receive stimulate them to produce nerve impulses, while others suppress these action potentials.

The various excitatory and inhibitory inputs that both people and neurons receive are of varying intensity/frequency, and are also given different weights/importance; and their outputs--decisions/behaviors--are dependent upon the integration of all inputs.

In this manner the behavior of people and neurons alike is guided so that it is adaptive with respect to their environment, which includes others around them.

Moreover, this is a continuous and dynamic interactive process, in that the decisions and actions of individual people and neurons then influence the behavior of others, possibly the very ones that provided input to them in the first place, and those people or neurons might then provide still further input to them--and so it goes on and on.

{ File=MAC: WP3.5: BioPsych/CogNeuroScience: Neurons as Humans; 12-29-99}