The main emphasis so far has been on neo-cortical activity. We here sumarize aspects of limbic system that link-in with the neo-cortex.
In an environment strongly bias to audition, the internal building of a hierarchy causes the development and connection of frames of data as we move from the gross 'setting the context' to the finished product - the message. These steps can also occur when building an image.
As we move through time, each frame will aquire an emotional marker (Damasio & Damasio 1993) often set by a combination of tone as well as any changing visual context (e.g. colour). In the template discussed at this site these markers are at a general level to start with, with the distinction of objects/relationships being expressed as 'feelings' in the form of blending, bonding, bounding, and/or binding.
As we build the message hierarchy, what has already been comunicated is part of the context of the current frame and thus the emotive tone of the current frame as well as an overall emotive state. Thus an original distinction of an object (blending) can be transformed into consideration of parts (bound) or static/dynamic relationships (bond or bind).
The crossing of sensory systems is strongly manifest in emotions where a negative tonal signal can cause one to 'see red'. The main 'organ' of emotive control seems to be the amygdala, part of the limbic system. The amygdala has extensive connections to the visual cortex as well as the auditory cortex. The amygdala also has powerful control of the hypothalamus, a major hormone control system (Doty 1989).
Furthermore, the amygdala's association with the temporal lobes, the apparent highest levels of visualization memory, manifesting neurons firing to face stimuli (Doty 1989), amd linking to emotional 'tags' by the amygdala. Whatsmore, for emotion to be expressed in a raw state requires little context whereas finer expression requires finer contextual background within one time frame and we see in the hemispheres of the neocortext the distinction of single context vs multi context processing. Thus single-context emotion is 'raw', total, fundamentalist and so child-like compared to the refined expressions possible in multi-context expressions and these are linked to harmonics rather than the single context of the tonic.
Considering the apparent presence of emotive hierarchies, it must be pointed out that ANY whole (object) that is built as a hierarchy manifests the concept of harmonics, where the current level is compared to the whole. This is where the subtle nature of emotion is manifest, especially that of refined emotion which, in both tone and vision, is connected with frequency/wavelength, manifest in tone as a harmonic and in vision as colour (visual harmonic).
There is the suggestion that the banding rule, seen in the visual cortex, frontal lobes, and other areas of the neo-cortex, applies to the known emotive bias of the amygdala, with the prime dichotomy being flight/fight. This would explain the ability to elicit opposing emotional states (e.g. anger/fear) through stimulation of adjacent areas in the amygdala (Gainotti 1989). At the more abstract level of the neocortex, I suggest that each frame is given a bias (flight/neutral/fight) which, because of the harmonic characterstics, adds an emotional contextual 'nuance' to the whole. For example, on a gross context of fight, there may develop more abstract levels with flight markers. This may elicit an overall 'fight stance' but with undertones (harmonics) preparing for flight.
In humans, these nuances are given names that enable the distinguishing of one from the other in written form, thus setting the tone communicated by a written word. In this sense communciation is through resonance where we each have a 'pool' of emotion and the words/symbols act like stones creating 'waves' of meaning. This gives general emotion an objective element in that the blend, bond, bound, bind 'feelings' discussed in the template are common to all of the species. Cultural and personal biases will then add diversity in the form of different interpretations as to what we sense as objects and what we sense as relationships.
In a visual context a rich emotive state can be expressed easily since the full hierarchy is present. In an auditory context there may be limitations due to each time frame manifesting a gross context (not the 'full' whole). For example 'unknown' sounds elicit right-hemisphere instigated analysis as one searchs contexts to determine 'what is that?'. Known sounds, immediately identifiable, elicit left-hemisphere instigated analysis and these are also found in visual processing suggesting that these distinctions are part of the brain rather than particular sensory-biased differences but there are subtle sensory-based biases.
Under extreme conditions this may suggest that emotive states in a single-context environment may be expressed in a somewhat gross manner, whereas rich emotive states can only be achieved through poetry, music, or orratory, although prosody in language (rhythm) seems to be picked-up by the auditory cortex of the context sensitive hemisphere, usually the right.
However, 'known' objects can elicit an 'immediate' meaning and here the single-context of this is beneficial in that all else is 'pushed aside' to make room for 'the one'.
The emergence of meaning over time implies a complexity-biased development process where feedback adds to the current context to 'refine' meaning within which the next word/symbol is placed and so we move from the general meaning to a particular meaning. In this process so the 'full' meaning can be seen to 'emerge' from the ever-increasingly refined context. This process also works in reverse where a set of particulars lead to a general (e.g. process of induction).
These differing emotional experiences are dependant on the biases within the individual as well as the culture, and there is the suggestion that the language that one speaks can influence the biases one develops.(e.g. see Sibatani (1980) and Maruyama (1980) on Tsunoda's work (1979). And for a critique of Tsunoda, see Miller (1982))
When building hierachies, there is a requirement that each frame created is linked to the relavent previous frame and/or any other possibly related frames. Analysis suggests that these relational operations are controlled primarily by the hippocampus, part of the limbic system. Other limbic componants being the septum and entorhinal cortex.
The hippocampus is highly active during any form of spatial mapping (e.g. maze running) which suggests a strong relational bias but in the form of 'joining the dots'. This implies that the possible development of the hippocampus is sourced via audition, since I suggest that it is from audition that temporal relations derive and this includes 'jumps' where we move from one point to the next, excluding the 'middle'.. At this level we are dealing more with the abstraction of audition in the form of object linkage and so 'jumps' as we use a waypoint approach to mapping. In this we find that if the hippocampus is damaged the ability to link-in new memories is lost, although the ability to recall old memories remains.
This 'jump' processing seems to have been 'refined' and extended into the left-hemisphere of the neocortex (see quotes etc in the essay Particles and Waves; Wholes and Aspects. ) and abstracting this into 'general' map-amking, suggests that the source of concepts like whole numbers and quantum leaps is in our neurological structuring of data.
As with the amygdala, there are links from the hippocampus to the thalamus/hypothalamus network, allowing for the activation of hormonal signals as well as switching through to other neocortical areas. Only with the removal of BOTH hippocampus and amygdala does total aphasia become apparent.
Here we introduce the concept that short and long term memories are different levels of a hierarchy. What anchors a hierarchy, what links contextual frames, whether relational or object oriented, is emotion, and this includes the emotional state of neutrality.
I suggest that long-term memory requires the activation of hormonal signalling in tune with metabolic function. This allows for the setting down of state-specific memories which allow for the association of part-images and single words with strong emotive responses sometimes out of context. These associations require linkage of some sort, building a hierarchy. Of note is the fact that a hierarchy can exist with only one contextual frame; the base 'engram', which may be developed over time or not.
I suggest that the neurotransmitter system is infact a fine development of the endocrine system and that long-term memory is associated with chemical synaptic development, whereas short-term memory is the activation of predominately electronic synaptic connections, the latter allowing for high-speed but short term storage whereas the former allows for slow-speed but long-term storage. (Electrical synapses were dicovered by Furshpan and Potter et al (with Katz) in the late 1950s and 1960s).
Thus memory works like the dichotomy-tree, gross dichotomously derived representations that, if given enough time, can become more refined and permanent. (The often most remembered moments are the most emotional).
In this context it is noteworthy that in the processing of learning we seem to move from stimulus/response to stimulus/considered response where the latter utilises feedback processes to modify raw sensory data, done in the form of linking 'new' experiences with recalled ones. This is then refined to a point where we just 'react' and so return to the stimulus/response format but now at a refined level; we stop thinking and just 'do it'.
The above has been a derivation of possible brain function resulting from observations made of the rich use of dichotomy in making maps of reality. The fundamental dichotomy seems to be the development from gross (general) to refined (particualr) states and the feeding-back of these states as raw materials for further development. This is analogous to the principles of evolution, and thus the gross/refined dichotomy functions within evolution's adapt/adopt dichotomy.
In the brain, for example, this is manifest by McLean's triune brain model and could be defined thus:
The brain reflects the adoption/adaption to the environement by the internalizing of that environment's characteristics. In it's grossest form, this is the internalization of the SpaceTime Continuum. This internalization is manifest, for example, by looking at the behavioural biases using MacLean's triune concept:
Note the mechanistic bias in reptiles compared to the bio-chemical bias in mammals compared to the electromagnetic bias in humans. ALL examples of refinement, and refinement can be symbolized by a pyramid, or, in its more refined form, a cone. Using this model, the whole information communications system is founded on refinement. Thus neurotransmitters are a refinement of the endocrine system. The early communication (and pre-existing) system has been adopted at a finer level. This form of development continues into the levels of the neo-cortex where the top neurons of the pyramid/cone do not just 'develop' but actually 'climbs' into place, and this implies contextual development.
Further refinements are the strong lateralization of the neo-cortex together with the posterior to anterior refinement of information processing. (sensory (posterior) merging into abstract (anterior)).
The degrees of lateralization found in humans stems from genetics. The fact that this degree can vary over individuals as well as cultures implies that at the bottom-end, at the analysis of the fertilized egg, there is the suggestion that a form of gene mixing has occured - known as hybridization. Thus, neurological development of an information processing 'block' has the characteristics of both black and white - shades of grey.
By imagining a sphere marked with longitude/latitude lines, and concidering these lines as enclosing alternating areas of black/white, then as this system develops (by creating more shells as it expands) the parts_to_whole ratio remains constant and the areas of the outer shells seem to be larger than those of the inner shells. Combining this with the ability to process information developing from a gross state (low levels) to a refined state (high levels), biases in information will start to appear at the top of the system. This is reflected in the cortical layers of the brain.
(There is one layer in the RAS, three layers in the limbic system, four layers in the cingulate cortex, and six layers in the neo-cortex).
In this context, my term of hybridization is not the same as abstraction in that it is not abstraction but aids in the development of. Diagrammatically, a slice through the neo-cortex gives a layered system:
- Fine (abstract) information but
--- with a noticable bias (L/R).
-----
-------
---------
----------- Gross information processing
but high degree of fine banding
(e.g. LRLRLRLRLRLR)
This developmental process would naturally lead to the gross lateralizations we observe. Environmental pressures will then favour further refinement. This is suggested by the high degree of neurons in the brain of children that go through a culling period as good connections become favoured, and the 'mixing' of the senses (synethesia - common in kids) is slowly differentiated by education (formal and informal pressures. Environmental communciations methods seem to play a major part in determining degrees of lateralization).
For an example of gross 'banding' in the deeper sections of the brain, consider the observation that stimulus of a part of the amygdala elicits a fight response and yet stimulus of an adjacent area a flight response and stimulus of an adjacent to that area, another fight response.
Furthermore, the apparent 'banding' of the aminergic/cholinergic pathways is noted. These pathways distribute neurotransmitters (amine based and choline based) to different, and grossly adjacent, areas of the brain.
This banding is like that in the visual cortex and possibly stems from that as a mixing of part of the genes that deal with that banding (L-eye,R-eye) with overall structural form.
Finally, lateral linkage of cones at each level of the cortical layers enables for 'wave'affects through levels and thus associational linkage across wide areas. The cones can be stored as columns and there is a link with the minimal development path (energy_to_whole) mainfest by the fibonnocci sequence (see part I) as far a contextual 'marking' is concerned. A good example of this form of storage is found in the overall structure of the primary auditory cortex. This is topological mapping, a common feature in the human brain.
Refinement of these structures and their behaviour leads us into the top-down model that, with *it's* refinements leads us into the more abstract nature of the brain - thought.
The template, derived from the concept of dichotomy, seems to suggest that it reflects some neurological biases in communications, and it's overall linking with the L/R characteristics suggest that it is in fact a refinement of a more primitive concept, the definiation of a whole and the relationships of parts_to_whole and thus the overall dichotomy of whole/aspects.
This generic dichotomy, apparently common to non-human brains, has been refined in humans to a degree where neurologically we deal with wholes, parts, static aspects, and dynamic aspects within contexts that are biased to contraction/parrallel or expansion/serial. And psychologically, we create metaphors to deal with specific classes of 'wholeness'. The ability to form analogies across disciplines comes from the template which serves as the base for all metaphoric descriptions of wholes and their aspects.
The degree of developmental relationship is brought out by the context ratio, where we see the simplest contextual developmental relationship being reflected by the fibbonocci sequence, and the most complex and energy intensive by the binary sequence.
And so a path (albight, rough) from top to bottom and back again.