How the brain wakes up
I’m always interested in the ways people use computer metaphors to describe their brains. Maybe it’s just because my job centers on IT, but it seems like I hear a lot of people wishing their brains could have a faster processor or a RAM upgrade. My favorite was when someone pointed out that being able to shut our processors off when it’s time to sleep would be a blessing. This press release talks about the other end of the day: what happens when the brain picks up the threads of consciousness in the morning when we wake up, or as the headline says, how it boots up. Some recent research shows that nitric oxide plays a role in the process by enhancing the communication that goes on between the thalamus and the cortex. The thalamus is something of a filter that receives sensory input and passes it along for further processing (or not, depending on the input). The cortex receives a bit of the incoming information (the proverbial sip from a firehose) and builds up a picture of what’s going on, which it then passes back to the thalamus. The thalamus then passes along whatever information is needed to fill in or make sense of the picture. In an animal study, nitric oxide (which is released in the brain when we are awake and aware) strengthened the signal coming back from the cortex to the thalamus. So maybe nitric oxide that’s released into the brain as we wake up helps the brain come to grips with the sensory data coming in from the outside world before it starts in on the more complex task of navigating through the day. Thanks to Mark for pointing out this story.
