Cortical enhancement

In my case the decisive period of experimentation that built into my brain the urge to clarify the unknown neurochemical mechanism of the acquisition of a drive fell between 1951 and 1953. After 50 years of continuous analysis of this problem, it has become my firm belief that the mammalian brain reached its highest level of organization with the evolution of specific cortical enhancer regulation enabling it to acquire drives. I also propose that this development culminated in the appearance of the Homo sapiens, the only mammalian species whose fife is primarily based on the acquisition of unnatural drives. It seems to me that just as the discovery of the force of mutual attraction among all bodies led to a sound interpretation of the world around us, the discovery of the force of mutual attraction between cortical neurons will lead to a sound interpretation of a brain function which is inseparable from conscious perception. 

Cortical Enhancer Regulation Assumptions About Its Physiological Significance... 

It depends of course on living conditions which small proportion of disposable neurons will definitely ascend in the hierarchy and thus assume the role of Group 3 neurons during the lifetime of the individual. We know that whatever human activity is measured we observe extreme individual differences in performance due to substantial individual differences in the cortical enhancer regulation (see Sect. 4.1). But, in the course of the short human lifetime, even a talent on the order of magnitude of a Johann Sebastian Bach can utilize only a humble proportion of the neurons available for fixing chains of ICRs in the field of music. This is true of all kinds of human activities, since the human brain possesses a network of over 100 billion interrelated nerve cells and a 1010 bit capacity. 

The Concept that Learning Is a Cortical Enhancer Regulation Dependent Function... 

It is a common experience that - independent of method and species used for studying learning-based behavioral modification - the observer rims into substantial individual differences in performance, for reasons unknown. Conceiving learning as a cortical enhancer regulation dependent function, as discussed in Sect. 3.4.2, and recognizing that the enhancer substance exerts its effect in terms of a peculiar bell-shaped dose/response curve (see Fig. 3.11) offers a reasonable interpretation for this remarkable phenomenon. 

As shown in Fig. 3.11, the most effective dose of (-)-BPAP, 0.0005 mg/kg, increased the release of norepinephrine from 4.7 0.10 nM/g (control) to 15.4 0.55 nM/g (P < 0.001), but a 100-times higher dose of (-)-BPAP (0.05 mg/kg) did not change it (4.3 0.25 nM/g) (Knoll et al., 2002b). Since an optimum concentration of the enhancer substance was needed for the optimum performance, I postulate that the substantial individual differences found in behavioral performances are due to the peculiar dose-dependency of the endogenous mesencephalic and cortical enhancer substances. 

It is clear that at any given time only one of the innate or acquired drives can prevail. Nevertheless, if, for example, we put a well-trained glass-cylinderseeking rat in a new environment, we can certainly predict that the rat will sooner or later, by trial and error, find the glass cylinder and jump on top of it. Because of the physiological nature of the cortical enhancer regulation, the exact chain of events (i.e., all the behavioral patterns that will appear until the rat finds the glass cylinder) is, however, unpredictable. The unpredictability of behavior is most pronounced in humans as they possess the most sophisticated brain. 

Without even trying to touch upon the peculiar world of psychoanalysis, there is one aspect in Freud s life-work, maybe the most important one from a physiological point of view, that seems to me to be unquestionably in accordance with the cortical enhancer regulation approach. 

The concrete biochemistry of cortical enhancer regulation, the puzzle of the amalgamation of order and chaos in the human brain is still unsolved. As usual, attractive descriptions remedy such deficiencies. Freud s work was the hitherto most influential description of the coexistence of rational and irrational, conscious and unconscious, in the human brain. It is no accident that his fascinating writings, enjoyable readings closer to fiction than science, have always deeply influenced many artists. Freud also provided a delightful interpretation of dreams at the boundary between art and science. It was probably the pseudo-scientific nature of his brilliant books that precluded him from receiving the well-deserved Nobel Prize for literature. 

Conventional human thinking today is in harmony with The Self and Its Brain conception as described so elegantly and delightfully as interaction between Worlds 1,2, and 3 (Popper and Eccles, 1977). In the light of the operation of mesencephalic and cortical enhancer regulation, the opposite conception, with The Brain and Its Self approach, deserves serious consideration. 

As the background noise in the brain is never interrupted and can even become more accentuated during sleep than in the vigilant resting state, the dreamworld, the classic example of a man-created universe, has always given inspiration to art. Its ultimate explanation awaits the resolution of scientific problems the chemistry of cortical enhancer regulation and the natural law that determines the operation of the brain and its self and is responsible for the immense variability of human activities. 

A transient encephalopathy has been reported after the use of an iodinated contrast medium in a neurointerventional procedure with development of psychomotor agitation, disorientation, and progressive left faciobrachial hemiparesis 30 minutes after successful treatment of a right carotid-ophthalmic fusiform aneurysm [6 ]. A CT scan showed marked cortical enhancement and edema in the right cerebral hemisphere, thought to be due to contrast extravasation after disruption of the blood-brain barrier. Treatment with dexa-methasone and maimitol produced complete recovery. 

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