Signals in the brain (some data)

Dirk Wessels d at
Thu Apr 30 08:40:01 EST 1998

Regarding to your reaction on my previous posting,
I see that I only get answers if I refer to neuroscience
material (and use neurolanguage as well ? help! ).

The signals in the brain are often synchronised in "brain-waves"
to enable certain functions of the cells (LTP).
This synchronisation may also relate to the emotional function
of the brain (which is hardly researched at all!).

The actual moleculair motor behind the brain-waves
may be calcium, which seems to go around in spirals.
(Not listed scientific sources also note ring-patterns in the brain).

The process that guides spirals and rings, may be using (or
related to) local magnetic fields or very small electromagnetic
signals (of certain frequencies).

The actual initiator of this magnetic field may be related
to "altered states". (I personally have some experiences
with some of them, so you can ask me questions about it).

Bringing all data together may be a start to understanding
the "mysteries" that we are dealing with.

More accurate data may be helpfull as well as data
that is related to magnetic/electric signals that fit in a
more electromagnetic model of the brain.

(Electromagnetism is my "Major").


***** The meaning of dreams *****
Mysteries of the mind, scientific american
Discusses the role of REM-sleep and theta rithm (5 Hz in this paper).
"Calcium is thought to act as a second messenger, indicating
a cascade of intracellular events that culminates in long-lasting
synaptic changes -or LTP."
"If electric pulses were applied to the cells at the peak of
the Theta wave, LTP was induced"
"As a rat explores, for example, brain stem neurons activate
theta rithm"

***** The problem of conscious ******
Mysteries of the mind, scientific american
Discusses vision and recognition.
"recently two groups in Germany reported that
there does appear to be correlated firing between neurons
in the visual cortex of a cat, often in a rythmic manner,
with a frequency 35- to 74 Htz range."

******A wake up call from the amygdala.******
(reaction on a Joseph LeDoux's book: "Parallel memories:
Putting emotions back into the brain".)

"We actually have the emotional reaction many milliseconds
before we know exactly what it is we're reacting to."
Daniel Goleman at

**********Tuning in the Brain's Signal********
see also:

        The brain may learn about the world in much the same
        way an FM radio translates radio waves into music.
        According to a report in the current Proceedings of the
        National Academy of Sciences, rats' whiskers--which feel
        objects--trigger nerve signals that the brain decodes using
        a feedback loop similar to circuits found in a dime
        store radio

******The brain and the influence of glial cells. *****
(from nando times)
Two University of Minnesota scientists have made a significant advance
in brain research by
discovering that the brain's glial cells, which were viewed only as
passive support structures
for neurons, play a far more vital role in brain function
because they communicate directly with one another.

About seven years ago other researchers working with glial cells
cultured in a petri dish discovered
that when stimulated, a glial cell gives off a wave of calcium.  <.....>

The calcium wave doesn't flow over other glial cells like water over
rocks, but travels through
them, one after another, via incredibly tiny connectors
called gap junctions. The calcium builds up in one cell, triggering the
release of a
messenger molecule that flows through the gap junction to cause the
buildup of calcium in the next cell. The wave doesn't travel very far,
and Newman and Zahs aren't sure why it stops.

**********Brain Racket and Epilepsy********

Background noise can do more than distract. In certain situations--like
the firing of neurons--
noise can enhance a signal. Now researchers have shown
for the first time that the coordinated activity of some brain cells may
depend on a
critical level of such noise. A video premiered today at the annual
meeting of the American Physical Society in Kansas City, Missouri, shows

cultured rat brain cells apparently acting in concert, producing spiral
waves of
chemical activity. The findings could, perhaps, have implications for
human epilepsy.

Biologist Ann Cornell-Bell of Viatech Imaging in Ivoryton, Connecticut,
put on
display star-shaped cells, called astrocytes, from the rat hippocampus,
brain region associated with long-term memory. Astrocytes play a
role in the brain, mopping up excess neurotransmitters, and Cornell-Bell

followed them as they performed this task. The video relies on a cascade
chemical reactions: When a neurotransmitter called kainate binds to the
surface of an astrocyte, a molecular floodgate opens and sodium ions
rush in.
To compensate, the "excited" cell pumps in calcium ions. Cornell-Bell
monitored the astrocytes with a dye that glows in the presence of

Kainate added to the cultured astrocytes lit them up; the glow quickly
spread to
neighboring cells and the wave spiraled like a pinwheel. The amount of
kainate controls how many astrocytes spontaneously light up and thus
the background noise. Too much or too little yielded short-lived waves
that propagated to only a few cells. But moderate amounts triggered
large, stable,
and long-lasting waves. "Noise in neural systems can play a useful
role" by enhancing transmission, says team member Frank Moss, a
physicist at the
University of Missouri in St. Louis.

The findings may one day have implications for the treatment of
During seizures, neurons fire too rapidly, flooding the brain with
neurotransmitters. When Cornell-Bell's team added kainate to astrocytes
grown from human tissue removed during surgery for epilepsy, the cells
in chaotic patterns. The researchers speculate that increased firing
seizures creates too much noise for the coordinated action of
perhaps decreases their efficiency in sopping up neurotransmitters.
are intrigued by the spiral waves but dubious about their relevance to
epilepsy. At least, says Steven Schiff, a neuroscientist at Children's
National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., "they're fun to look at."

******Debunking the Digital Brain*******

                    <...> Koch notes that the
                    conventional idea that the timing of individual
spikes is
                    unimportant turns out to be quite wrong. Researchers
                    generally supposed that the representation of
                    in the brain depends essentially on the overall rate
of firing
                    of the neurons. But experiments over the past few
                    have shown conclusively that some cells in monkeys'
                    brains can adjust the intervals between spikes in
                    increments as little as one hundredth of as second.
                    Moreover, the temporal patterns of spike activity
                    different neurons is sometimes controlled with an
                    finer accuracy of about one thousandth of a second.
                    Contrary to the common wisdom, "the brain appears to

                    care a great deal about timing," Koch says.

                    These results raise a new question: what is the
purpose of
                    all of that very precise neural timing? Koch points
                    breaking research that may offer a clue. Spikes,
                    initiated in a neuron, do not propagate only in the
                    "forward" direction--that is, toward the synapses
                    relay outgoing messages. Rather, experiments on
                    brain tissue indicate that spikes also move
backwards, up
                    the neuron's input branches.

                    The effect that these back-propagated spikes have on
                    active components of the brain--if indeed the
                    occurs in intact animals-- is far from clear. But a
                    published in the January 10, 1997 issue of Science
                    Henry Markram of the Weizmann Institute for Science
                    his collaborators suggests that back-propagated
                    can dramatically influence the way a neuron
processes an
                    impulse. The precise order in which one spike
arrives at a
                    synapse and another one back-propagates to the
                    receiving neuron greatly influences the subsequent
                    of a synapse, Markram's group showed. If the
                    back-propagated spike arrives first, the synapse is
                    weakened; conversely, if the back-propagated spike
                    arrives second, the synapse is intensified.

********* SQUID measurements on muscles ******
(internet source, data seems similar to my own experiences)

A few years ago, researchers in Vienna did a comprehensive mapping
of the functional organisation of the motor cortex, and found
characteristic, yet
distinctly reproducible micromagnetic fields that preceded voluntary
activity by 30-50 milliseconds. In o ther words, they measured the
intent before the
action was executed -- precisely. I got a copy of all their data and did

preliminary calculations and found, just as the eminent Dr. Robert E.
Becker had
predicted, information traveled close to the speed of light while the
was registered. The motor cortex process and muscular movement occurred
the usual ionic-transport slow speed. Therefore, it has been
and unequivocally proven that intent is a luminal process that bypasses
the ordi
nary neural networks of the brain. New mechanisms are needed to explain
what precedes the evoked action potentials. No one has proposed any
mechanisms to explain intent signaling in the neuroscience community -
no one yet.

******** SQUID measurements on the brain *****
(internet source, data seems similar to my own experiences)

This shows a real-time plot of the nested magnetic fields around my own
This piece of research was a little favour from a British colleague that

likes to work nights. They call it the "Dracula Shift" (laughter). The
white lines
of the overall conto ur, the green the Hypothalamus plus Thalamus field,

the red the Hippocampus plus Amygdala cycloid-shaped field
and the dumb-bell shaped blue is the Epyphisis (Pineal) and Hypophysis
(Pituitary) combined fields. I wrote this algorithm myse lf with the
help of Professor
Penrose -- another unofficial favour -- to map the magnetic fields
using both the SQUID sensor helmets and a special helmet designed by Dr.
having Delta-T and Delta-Wye transforms, having specially designed
magnetic coils a nd sensors. This way we could pick up Pico and
fields (billionth of a Gauss). The combined information is displayed
here in
three-dimensional coloured graphics. Notice the external white-lined
shape is
like an egg. Inside, almost at the centre, is the toroidal shape of the
Hippocampus-Amygdala combined fields, the red contours. The central
tube-like "sausage with trumpet-like open ends" looks like what? Anyone?

(Chorus: "An Einstein-Rosen Bridge!") Right!

******Neurological Magnetic Fields and Altered States *****
(internet source, data seems similar to those from official sources)

Dr. A: Please explain how the cerebral magnetic fields of the mid-brain
change as a function of ASC's, altered states?

Mrs.Dr.L: Ah, so. Very good. What my associates and I did is to go into
various trance states induced by the techniques that we all know here
Deep Zen/Taoist meditation, absolute stillness, (B) Tai-Chi moving
and (C) Tantra Toga Cobra Bre athing - pulsed powerful breath, Yoga
Asana (lotus posture). I was the subject tested.

In (A), all metabolic processes cum homeostasis are slowed down
The brain emitted EEG peaks in the Alpha-Theta range (11,9,7, and 5
cps, at the lowest). Great Masters can descend all the way into Delta,
0.1- 4cps.
The amplitudes varied bet ween 60 and 275 microvolts, root mean
square averages. The magnetic fields were actually at a maximum,
when eyes were closed, ranging from about 9.5 to 48.5 Picogauss (10-8
gauss). The diagrams you saw in the cine film were made with measuremen
of this part (A).

In (B), the metabolic processes are increased, but homeostasis is
Brainwaves are almost totally Alpha, but some Beta spikes were observed.

Again, a Great Tai-Chi Master would be totally in Alpha, maybe even some

Theta. The magnetic fields were somewhat elongated in the Y-axis,
the length of the space-time tube. This meant that space-time functions
altered when doing Tai-Chi correctly. It is said in Chinese lore that
Masters can arrest, even reverse their aging process, and cause local
of space-time, hence their ability to literally propel opponents "flying

through the air", 12 feet into the air, like the legendary master in the
Changu province. Somehow, magnetism and Chi are related, and are
controlled by the brain via intent and breath.

******Kirilian photography *****
While ignored by western science and commercially challenged,
this is still very much related to the above data, and added for
those who are interested in the magnetic/electric relationship with the

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