ADMITTEDLY when it comes to the topic of the mind, I know that I do not know. I do not know its genesis or nature. Just its effects, and only on other persons when it causes muscles to move. All behavior and every act from us are mediated by moving muscles.
Presently, I am inclined to believe that the mind is as fundamental to the Universe as the fundamental constants of nature. (That makes me a kind of dualist, rather than a monist.)
(Note. The philosophy of the mind has been a discussion that has spanned centuries.)
However, whatever it is, I believe that the mind is rooted in the physical world in our brains; and more specifically in the neuronal cell bodies, both in the neopallium (a more descriptive synonym for the mammalian cortex) and the deep gray matter of the telencephalon (or the cerebral hemisphere).
Furthermore, for the mind to function it needs for us to be conscious in the Neurological sense of having an appropriately high enough sensorium. An unconscious person is a mindless one. That probably means that the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS), which is said to be the anatomical basis for consciousness (as inferred by the fact that damage to the ARAS by strokes or accidents causes a decrease in sensorium), plays an indispensable role.
The ARAS is made up of the neuronal cell bodies adjacent to the ventricular system in the upper pons, mesencephalon (midbrain), and diencephalon (thalamus), and these must be activated as well, for the mind to do any minding at all.
In addition, since our mind’s decisions are obviously influenced by our subjective emotions, then the purported anatomical seat for emotions, the limbic system of the brain, must be involved as well. This system is mostly made up of several nuclei of neuronal cell bodies deep in the cerebral hemispheres.
The neurons of the cerebral hemisphere are constantly firing, creating electrochemical patterns all over the cerebral cortex and deep gray matter. It is hypothesized that these patterns may form the basis for memories. Perhaps even the mind, as mentioned above?
One can imagine these electrochemical patterns occurring in a default setting. The mind then chooses to enact a specific volitional movement, say flex the thumb.
I would hypothesize this: At the moment of decision for this option, there would be change in the default pattern of the electrochemical action potentials occurring in the cerebral cortex. And that this change would converge upon the precentral gyrus (motor cortex), on to the specific area that controls the contralateral thumb muscles. This particular area would be located on the lateral part of the motor cortex.
Thus, I can conceive of an experiment that monitors the electrochemical activities of the cerebral cortex as a whole, and with emphasis on the particular part of the motor cortex of interest (in this case a part of the precentral gyrus located laterally.) (To be continued)/PN
