On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 19:44:26 -0400, Wolf Kirchmeir
<wwolfkir at sympatico.ca> wrote:
>ray scanlon wrote:
>>> David Longley writes:
>>>>>>>Don't you think sleight-of-hand and metaphysics deserves derision?
>>>>>> Well, then let's drop all the sleight-of-hand and metaphysical
>> prejudices and talk about the brain.
>>>> Since the neural net (interneurons) appeared in Cnidaria, what has
>> changed? For one thing, the DNA has evolved to a point where it is
>> able to construct a whole series of motor program generators, groups
>> of neurons that when triggered produce a motor act. These generators
>> can be modified by experience but they are not learned. We are born
>> with them.
>>>> The location in the nervous system of some of these motor program
>> generators can be more or less specified.
>[...]
>>Are you claiming that we are born able to walk?
>>The development of the motor cortex is actually a good deal more
>complicated than you appear to believe. Even in animals that can walk a
>few minutes after birth. So I would prefer to say that we are born ready
>to learn certain things. If that learning is impeded, we may never learn
>to do the things we are "born with."
Walking awaits myelinization of the pertinent nerves; this causes the
delay.
