“Birds of a feather,” they say, “flock together.” The “they” in this bit of common wisdom, is anyone who has ever observed groups. Not only birds, but also people like to associate with “their own kind.” Thus, fraternities, sororities, country clubs, neighborhoods, and networks of movers and shakers. The reasons for the flocking probably include having a sense of security, making the social environment predictable, and seeing mirror images in the faces that surround. This type of gregariousness can be both beneficial and disadvantageous. Beneficial when networking provides greater opportunities, for example, and disadvantageous when bias prevents networking outside the flock. What would happen—indeed, what does happen—when outside “birds” move into the flock’s neighborhood?
We seem not to have learned from our own brains that there is a compromise form of flocking. When Margarita Khariton, Xian Kong, Jian Quin, and Bo Wang observed the brain development in Schmidtea mediterrnea, a flatworm, they discovered that each neuron had about 12 similar neighboring neurons with interspersed different neurons.* As science writer Tom Abate explains, “no single neuron sits flush against its twin, while still allowing different types of complementary neurons to be close enough to work together to complete tasks.”**
Jammed into our heads are 8.6 X 10^10 neurons *** with about 1.5 X 10^14 synapses (give or take one or two). Jamming. That’s the word that the researchers use to describe cells grown in proximity. If the same pattern of development occurs in us as in that flatworm examined by Khariton and company, then our neurons, too, have neighbors that are not just more of the same. There is room in the brain neighborhood for differences; yet, the neighborhood can still function as identifiable units. Maybe the brain has something to teach, that differences do not inhibit function. And although we do not know—and may never know—whether or not different neuron neighbors enhance function in an identifiable brain region, we can’t rule out that they might somehow do so. Possibly, those intermixed neurons provide some as yet unknown support.
Unfortunately, we live in a time when differences draw us into the most inhibiting neighborhoods of intellectual isolation.****
*Khariton, M., Kong, X., Qin, J. et al. Chromatic neuronal jamming in a primitive brain Nat. Phys. (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0809-9 and
**Abate, Tom. 12 Mar 2020. Scientists discover the mathematical rules underpinning brain growth. Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-scientists-mathematical-underpinning-brain-growth.html
*** According to neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel. https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-sz-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=sz&p=how+many+neurons+in+the+human+brain#id=1&vid=daf28861944db27648f41389946adcd5&action=click
****And so, to my astonishment and maybe to yours, also, I recently saw a few “celebrities” wishing death by coronavirus on those with whom they disagree politically, and that means possibly on those whose work is part of a supply network on which they, regardless of their arrogance, depend.
We seem not to have learned from our own brains that there is a compromise form of flocking. When Margarita Khariton, Xian Kong, Jian Quin, and Bo Wang observed the brain development in Schmidtea mediterrnea, a flatworm, they discovered that each neuron had about 12 similar neighboring neurons with interspersed different neurons.* As science writer Tom Abate explains, “no single neuron sits flush against its twin, while still allowing different types of complementary neurons to be close enough to work together to complete tasks.”**
Jammed into our heads are 8.6 X 10^10 neurons *** with about 1.5 X 10^14 synapses (give or take one or two). Jamming. That’s the word that the researchers use to describe cells grown in proximity. If the same pattern of development occurs in us as in that flatworm examined by Khariton and company, then our neurons, too, have neighbors that are not just more of the same. There is room in the brain neighborhood for differences; yet, the neighborhood can still function as identifiable units. Maybe the brain has something to teach, that differences do not inhibit function. And although we do not know—and may never know—whether or not different neuron neighbors enhance function in an identifiable brain region, we can’t rule out that they might somehow do so. Possibly, those intermixed neurons provide some as yet unknown support.
Unfortunately, we live in a time when differences draw us into the most inhibiting neighborhoods of intellectual isolation.****
*Khariton, M., Kong, X., Qin, J. et al. Chromatic neuronal jamming in a primitive brain Nat. Phys. (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0809-9 and
**Abate, Tom. 12 Mar 2020. Scientists discover the mathematical rules underpinning brain growth. Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-scientists-mathematical-underpinning-brain-growth.html
*** According to neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel. https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-sz-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=sz&p=how+many+neurons+in+the+human+brain#id=1&vid=daf28861944db27648f41389946adcd5&action=click
****And so, to my astonishment and maybe to yours, also, I recently saw a few “celebrities” wishing death by coronavirus on those with whom they disagree politically, and that means possibly on those whose work is part of a supply network on which they, regardless of their arrogance, depend.
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