From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!tdatirv!sarima Wed Dec 18 16:02:07 EST 1991
Article 2183 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!tdatirv!sarima
>From: sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: How does one model anesthesia in AI?
Message-ID: <322@tdatirv.UUCP>
Date: 16 Dec 91 20:10:44 GMT
References: <59809@netnews.upenn.edu> <12665@pitt.UUCP> <60022@netnews.upenn.edu> <12686@pitt.UUCP> <60318@netnews.upenn.edu>
Reply-To: sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Organization: Teradata Corp., Irvine
Lines: 23

In article <60318@netnews.upenn.edu> weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener) writes:
|My unstated point is that there's certainly something strange going on
|with anesthesia.  Just saying "the neurons are affected" doesn't tell
|us very much.  Other higher brain functions are possible under anesthesia,
|like memory and learning.

O.K. here's my tentative model.

Neurons in real brains use many different neurotransmitters, often
with different properties.  Also, there is recent evidence that neuroglia
are involved in learning.

Most neural blockers only block *one* neurotransmitter, or perhaps a family
of related ones.  Perhaps the neural transmitters that transmit the 'learn'
signal are not effected by the currently used general anesthetics.  Or they
do not effect the modulation effects of the glia.


In short, the 'odd' features of anesthetics are due to the particular physical
mechanism used in living brains, and is not relevant to cognition per se.
-- 
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uunet!tdatirv!sarima				(Stanley Friesen)


