scholarly journals COULD PLANTS BE SENTIENT?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paco Calvo ◽  
Vaidurya Sahi ◽  
Anthony Trewavas
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Brain Stem ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Physiological Functions ◽  
Plastic Behaviour ◽  
Whole Plant ◽  
A Priority ◽  
The Brain

AbstractFeelings in humans are mental states representing groups of physiological functions that usually have defined behavioural objectives or purpose. Feelings are thought to be coordinated in the brain stem of animals and are evolutionarily ancient. One function of the brain is to prioritise between competing mental states, and thus groups of physiological functions and in turn behaviour. Anger, fear or pain call for immediate action whereas hunger, or thirst, signify longer term needs and a requirement for search. Plants use groups of coordinated physiological activities to deal with defined environmental situations but currently have no known mental state to prioritise any order of response. Plants do have a nervous system based on phloem which is highly cross linked. Its potential for forming a mental state is unknown but it could be used to distinguish between different and even contradictory signals and thus determine a priority of response. The vascular nervous system stretches throughout the whole plant providing the potential for assessment in all parts and commensurate with its self-organising, phenotypically plastic behaviour.

Dr. Feig Replies

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-145
Author(s):  
Stephen A. Feig
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Radiation Therapy ◽  
Brain Stem ◽  
Metastatic Disease ◽  
Clinical Course ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Additional Radiation ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Bony Erosion

Thank you for the opportunity to reply to the letter of Drs. McWilliams and Maurer. We were truly perplexed by the presentation of the meningeal metastases in the reported patient. Lacking convincing evidence of central nervous system metastatic disease or bony erosion of the skull, we were loath to apply chemotherapy, which might have aggravated his clinical course and would have been of doubtful efficacy in any event. Additional radiation therapy was felt to be inadvisable because, in the opinion of our radiotherapists, the patient had been treated originally with a dose that closely approached the tolerance of the brain stem.

NEUROLOGIC DISEASES IN INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 949-957
Author(s):  
William A. Hawke ◽  
John S. Prichard
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Brain Stem ◽  
Developmental Patterns ◽  
Basic Emotions ◽  
Neurologic Diseases ◽  
Neurologic Disorders ◽  
Infancy And Childhood ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
The Brain

THE SEMINAR was conducted in four 3-hour sessions and aimed to cover the more important features of pediatric neurology. DEVELOPMENT Dr. Hawke reviewed the normal development of the central nervous system in the infant and child which is so important in the assessment of neurologic disorders in this age group. It was noted that the nervous system was particularly immature and changing rapidly in the first 2 years of life. Development was related to myelination and it was emphasized that this was not a steady process but a pattern of sequences of rapid and slow growth. Motor and sensory development appeared to develop from above and to proceed downward, so that eye-control develops before hand- and legcontrol. Development was related to three functioning levels of the central nervous system—the brain stem, the archipallium, and the neopallium. It was observed that the newborn baby functioned at the brain stem level, and to illustrate this an example was given of the hydranencephalic baby which behaves perfectly normally for the first few weeks of life. The anchipallium, which includes part of the temporal lobe, the cingulate gyrus and basal ganglia, supervenes on the brain stem and may be considered responsible for the basic emotions and some primitive motor and sensory control. The neopallium, which includes most of the cerebral hemisphere, becomes dominant in primates. Its function is intellectual rather than emotional and is responsible for skills, discrimination and fine movements. The clinical application of these developmental patterns are innumerable but illustrations were given of changes in physical signs in static brain lesions.

Symptoms, Related Brain Regions, and Diagnosis

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Eric Ahlskog
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Brain Stem ◽  
Muscle Activation ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Electrical Signal ◽  
Brain And Spinal Cord ◽  
The Brain

As a prelude to the treatment chapters that follow, we need to define and describe the types of problems and symptoms encountered in DLB and PDD. The clinical picture can be quite varied: problems encountered by one person may be quite different from those encountered by another person, and symptoms that are problematic in one individual may be minimal in another. In these disorders, the Lewy neurodegenerative process potentially affects certain nervous system regions but spares others. Affected areas include thinking and memory circuits, as well as movement (motor) function and the autonomic nervous system, which regulates primary functions such as bladder, bowel, and blood pressure control. Many other brain regions, by contrast, are spared or minimally involved, such as vision and sensation. The brain and spinal cord constitute the central nervous system. The interface between the brain and spinal cord is by way of the brain stem, as shown in Figure 4.1. Thought, memory, and reasoning are primarily organized in the thick layers of cortex overlying lower brain levels. Volitional movements, such as writing, throwing, or kicking, also emanate from the cortex and integrate with circuits just below, including those in the basal ganglia, shown in Figure 4.2. The basal ganglia includes the striatum, globus pallidus, subthalamic nucleus, and substantia nigra, as illustrated in Figure 4.2. Movement information is integrated and modulated in these basal ganglia nuclei and then transmitted down the brain stem to the spinal cord. At spinal cord levels the correct sequence of muscle activation that has been programmed is accomplished. Activated nerves from appropriate regions of the spinal cord relay the signals to the proper muscles. Sensory information from the periphery (limbs) travels in the opposite direction. How are these signals transmitted? Brain cells called neurons have long, wire-like extensions that interface with other neurons, effectively making up circuits that are slightly similar to computer circuits; this is illustrated in Figure 4.3. At the end of these wire-like extensions are tiny enlargements (terminals) that contain specific biological chemicals called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are released when the electrical signal travels down that neuron to the end of that wire-like process.

Mind, identity theory of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Identity Theory ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Ontological Categories ◽  
Great Merit ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

We know that the brain is intimately connected with mental activity. Indeed, doctors now define death in terms of the cessation of the relevant brain activity. The identity theory of mind holds that the intimate connection is identity: the mind is the brain, or, more precisely, mental states are states of the brain. The theory goes directly against a long tradition according to which mental and material belong to quite distinct ontological categories – the mental being essentially conscious, the material essentially unconscious. This tradition has been bedevilled by the problem of how essentially immaterial states could be caused by the material world, as would happen when we see a tree, and how they could cause material states, as would happen when we decide to make an omelette. A great merit of the identity theory is that it avoids this problem: interaction between mental and material becomes simply interaction between one subset of material states, namely certain states of a sophisticated central nervous system, and other material states. The theory also brings the mind within the scope of modern science. More and more phenomena are turning out to be explicable in the physical terms of modern science: phenomena once explained in terms of spells, possession by devils, Thor’s thunderbolts, and so on, are now explained in more mundane, physical terms. If the identity theory is right, the same goes for the mind. Neuroscience will in time reveal the secrets of the mind in the same general way that the theory of electricity reveals the secrets of lightning. This possibility has received enormous support from advances in computing. We now have at least the glimmerings of an idea of how a purely material or physical system could do some of the things minds can do. Nevertheless, there are many questions to be asked of the identity theory. How could states that seem so different turn out to be one and the same? Would neurophysiologists actually see my thoughts and feelings if they looked at my brain? When we report on our mental states what are we reporting on – our brains?

scholarly journals Music Composition from the Brain Signal: Representing the Mental State by Music

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Wu ◽  
Chaoyi Li ◽  
Yu Yin ◽  
Changzheng Zhou ◽  
Dezhong Yao
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Music Composition ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Arousal Level ◽  
Sleep Stages ◽  
Biofeedback Therapy ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Potential Tool

This paper proposes a method to translate human EEG into music, so as to represent mental state by music. The arousal levels of the brain mental state and music emotion are implicitly used as the bridge between the mind world and the music. The arousal level of the brain is based on the EEG features extracted mainly by wavelet analysis, and the music arousal level is related to the musical parameters such as pitch, tempo, rhythm, and tonality. While composing, some music principles (harmonics and structure) were taken into consideration. With EEGs during various sleep stages as an example, the music generated from them had different patterns of pitch, rhythm, and tonality. 35 volunteers listened to the music pieces, and significant difference in music arousal levels was found. It implied that different mental states may be identified by the corresponding music, and so the music from EEG may be a potential tool for EEG monitoring, biofeedback therapy, and so forth.

Treatment of Recurrent Brain Stem Gliomas and Other Central Nervous System Tumors with 5-Fluorouracil, CCNU, Hydroxyurea, and 6-Mercaptopurine

Neurosurgery ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 691-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis A. Rodriguez ◽  
Michael Prados ◽  
Dorcas Fulton ◽  
Michael S. B. Edwards ◽  
Pamela Silver ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Brain Stem ◽  
Central Nervous System Tumors ◽  
Brain Stem Glioma ◽  
Spinal Cord Tumors ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Brain Stem Gliomas ◽  
Time To Tumor Progression

Abstract Twenty-one patients with recurrent malignant central nervous system gliomas were treated with a combination of 5-fluorouracil, CCNU, hydroxyurea, and 6-mercaptopurine. Thirteen patients had brain stem gliomas, 3 patients had spinal cord gliomas, 3 patients had thalamic gliomas, and 2 patients had cerebellar astrocytomas. All patients had received radiation therapy, and 4 brain stem patients had also been treated with chemotherapy. Sixteen patients (76%) responded to treatment with either stabilization of disease or improvement. Nine of the 13 patients with brain stem gliomas (71%) had response or stabilization of disease. The median time to tumor progression (TTP) for the brain stem patients who responded or had stabilization of disease was 25 weeks. The median survival from recurrence for the brain stem glioma patients was 27 weeks. Patients with cerebellar, thalamic, and spinal cord tumors did very well, with an 87% response or stabilization of disease and a median TTP of 122 weeks.

Armstrong's Materialism

1977 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 569-592
Author(s):  
George S. Pappas
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Identity Theory ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Central State ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
David Armstrong

Central-state materialism ( = CSM) is a very strong, but also very exciting theory of mind according to which each mental state is identical with a state of the central nervous system. CSM thus goes considerably beyond early versions of the identity theory of mind, since those early accounts (e.g., those of Place and Smart) held only that sensations are to be identified with neural events. CSM, by contrast, is a thesis about all mental states; every mental state is held to be a state of the central nervous system. In fact, as we will see shortly, CSM is an even more sweeping thesis than this formulation of it suggests, since it is not concerned simply with mental states.One prominent defender of CSM, David Armstrong, has maintained that CSM can be established by means of a two-step argument.

Imbalance of central nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species in the regulation of sympathetic activity and neural mechanisms of hypertension

2011 ◽  
Vol 300 (4) ◽  
pp. R818-R826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshitaka Hirooka ◽  
Takuya Kishi ◽  
Koji Sakai ◽  
Akira Takeshita ◽  
Kenji Sunagawa
Keyword(s):  
Nitric Oxide ◽  
Reactive Oxygen Species ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Sympathetic Nervous System ◽  
Brain Stem ◽  
Intracellular Signaling ◽  
Reactive Oxygen ◽  
Oxygen Species ◽  
Sympathetic Nervous ◽  
The Brain

Nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) play important roles in blood pressure regulation via the modulation of the autonomic nervous system, particularly in the central nervous system (CNS). In general, accumulating evidence suggests that NO inhibits, but ROS activates, the sympathetic nervous system. NO and ROS, however, interact with each other. Our consecutive studies and those of others strongly indicate that an imbalance between NO bioavailability and ROS generation in the CNS, including the brain stem, activates the sympathetic nervous system, and this mechanism is involved in the pathogenesis of neurogenic aspects of hypertension. In this review, we focus on the role of NO and ROS in the regulation of the sympathetic nervous system within the brain stem and subsequent cardiovascular control. Multiple mechanisms are proposed, including modulation of neurotransmitter release, inhibition of receptors, and alterations of intracellular signaling pathways. Together, the evidence indicates that an imbalance of NO and ROS in the CNS plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of hypertension.

scholarly journals Visna-Maedi-Like Disease Associated with an Ovine Retrovirus Infection in a Corriedale Sheep

1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 544-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. D. Sheffield ◽  
O. Narayan ◽  
J. D. Strandberg ◽  
R. J. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Brain Stem ◽  
Virus Replication ◽  
Lymphoid Hyperplasia ◽  
Cervical Cord ◽  
Pathologic Examination ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Retrovirus Infection ◽  
The Brain

A visna-maedi-like disease was found in a Corriedale sheep from which a retrovirus sharing the group antigen of visna-progressive pneumonia virus was isolated from lung, brain, and spleen. Clinically, the sheep had acute neurologic signs and dyspnea. Pathologic examination showed lesions similar to both visna and maedi. In the lung, there was a patchy interstitial pneumonia with marked lymphoid hyperplasia. Changes in the central nervous system were necrotizing nonsuppurative encephalitis of the brain stem, poliomyelitis of the cervical cord, and ependymitis and subependymal gliosis of the ventricles. Histologically, the central nervous system lesions seemed to have arisen sequentially, perhaps in response to bursts of virus replication as the agent underwent possible antigenic mutation. The severe lesions in both the central nervous system and lungs suggested a virus strain with dual tropism.

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