Abstract
The idea that neural signaling is the basis of mental processes has a long history. We graphically summarize salient developments in the neurobiology of signaling, as a Timeline. In particular, we review the “tripartite mechanism” of neural memory, which centers on the interactions between a neuron with its surrounding extracellular matrix (nECM) doped with metals and neurotransmitters (NTs). Essentially, the neuron employs the nECM as its “memory material”, wherein it uses dopants to encode cognitive units of information (termed “cuinfo”). The NTs, which elicit bodily reactions (feelings), also encode past feelings as emotions, which “color” mental states in real-time and in memory. In the interest of developing experimental tests of the tripartite mechanism, impedance glass electrodes were covalently coated with an exemplar NT (oxytocin) or a sulfated tetra-saccharide analog of the nECM, were constructed and tested. The two types of coated, neuro-mimetic electrodes, termed “neulectrodes”, were capable of detecting metals, such as Hg+2, Pb+2, Cd+2, Cu+2, and Zn+2 with very high selectivity and sensitivity. The “neulectrodes” demonstrated that the chemodynamic interactions of metal cations with NTs or nECM-saccharide analogues can translate into electrodynamic signals. They experimentally validate the concept of the tripartite mechanism that underlies the chemo-electric encoding of neural memory.
Highlights
Neurons are chemo- and electro-dynamically linked cells that express a talent of mentation and somehow encode cognitive information as the basis for neural memory
We have proposed a tripartite mechanism for neural memory based on the formation of metal-centered complexes that attract neurotransmitters (NTs) (Marx & Gilon, 2012-2019)
Following the idea of McCulloch & Pitts (Figure 1) that described a single neutron in mathematical terms, we propose that the impedence electrode is a model for a chemo-electric neural receptor
Summary
Neurons are chemo- and electro-dynamically linked cells that express a talent of mentation and somehow encode cognitive information as the basis for neural memory. Some researchers developed nano- or microdevices to enable simultaneous, long-term, multi-site, intracellular electrical recordings from single or many neurons (Spira & Hai, 2013). While they explored the electrophysiologic aspects of synaptic signaling using sensing electrodes, they did not address the issue of the mental states achieved by neurons. Subsequent to the observations of Cajal of synaptic contacts between neurons (Cajal, 1911), a singular contribution to the electrical mode of was the McCulloch–Pitts mathematical model of a lone neuron (McCulloch & Pitts, 1943) This approach was subsequently amplified by the concepts of electrical signaling expressed as “synaptic plasticity” and “long term potentiation”. Signaling by itself does not resolve the core enigma of how neurons can remember existential events
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