Hacker News Reader

Comment by TeMPOraL | Hacker News Reader

Is there any suggestion that regions of brain communicate wirelessly (or "chemicallessly")?

I always thought brain waves are only artifacts of the flow of electrons within the brain - a moving charge creates an EM field. In the same way one could talk about "CPU waves" - EM emissions generated by electricity flowing through the processor.

View on HN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_field_potential

One of the most important ways the brain communicates is actually not just ionically through chemo-ionic channels but through summed wave activity. This is especially important in sleep and also during long term potentiation of circuits.

I don't see anything in this article implying that the brain actually reads the "summed wave activity" somehow; as far as I understand, everything here is just a description of how we measure and interpret EM fields generated by charges flying around in the brain. Is there any study that shows that some parts of the brain treat EM waves generated elsewhere as input?

Buzsaki argues, in this book, that brain waves are the method that the brain uses to coordinate activity in different regions of the brain. (High-frequency waves coordinate the activity of small areas, low-frequency waves coordinate the activity of large areas.)

http://www.amazon.com/Rhythms-Brain-Gyorgy-Buzsaki/dp/019982...

If you're curious about brain waves, I highly recommend this book. It is fascinating.

Off the top of my head, the closest thing I could think of that would be "wireless" is the endocrine system, specifically the pineal gland. It secretes melatonin that affects other systems, but is not directly wired to them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com