Mike Fragassi writes:
>Define "thinks".
I offer the following conjecture attributed to Walle Nauta:
"What is thought except a movement that is not connected to a
motor neuron."
How is a movement to be disconnected from a motor neuron? I offer
an hypothesis:
When the reticular nucleus of the thalamus is activated, the
brain is disconnected from sensory input at the lateral
geniculate, the medial geniculate, and the ventral
posterolateral nuclei. Motor output is similarly halted at the
ventral lateral-ventral anterior nuclei.
The mammal thinks.
When the reticular nucleus is no long activated, motor output
flows through the V.L.-V.A. complex and on to the premotor and
motor areas and then to the muscles.
The mammal is said to have decided.
No homunculus activates the reticular nucleus. It is activated
by past bad experience.
Ray
