a thinking brain

[David Longley]

In article <7LbGc.11552$JR4.8856 at attbi_s54>, patty 
<pattyNO at SPAMicyberspace.net> writes
>David Longley wrote:
>
>> <http://crab-lab.zool.ohiou.edu/hooper/cpg.pdf>
>
>In reaction to reading:
>
>"A central goal of neuroscience is to understand
> how nervous systems produce movement. The simplest
> movements are reflexes (knee jerk, pupil dilation),
> which are involuntary, stereotyped and graded
> responses to sensory input, and have no threshold
> except that the stimulus must be great enough to
> activate the relevant sensory input pathway. Fixed
> action patterns (sneezing, orgasm) are involuntary
> and stereotyped, but typically have a stimulus
> threshold that must be reached before they are
> triggered, and are less graded and more complex
> than reflexes. Rhythmic motor patterns (walking,
> scratching, breathing) are stereotyped and complex,
> but are subject to continuous voluntary control.
> Directed movements (reaching) are voluntary and
> complex, but are generally neither stereotyped
> nor repetitive."
>
>Patty offers the following:
>
>I couldn't help thinking that Hooper must have been studying men and 
>not women when he put orgasm in the same class as sneezing.  The female 
>orgasm would best be described as a fixed action pattern nested in a 
>rhythmic pattern nested in a directed pattern.  Well at least thats the 
>way a good one appears to me.
>
>With apologies for her introspection.
>
>
>patty


On (it) being brought under stimulus control (I've given my 
Rescorla-Wagner analysis of it before).

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6300989011/divscrib-20>
-- 
David Longley