2010-02-17 13:11![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
melluransa
melluransaWhen you do hallucinogenic drugs, you see these kind of images. Why?
The presence of a drug throws the neural network off its equilibrium, kicking into action a snowballing interaction between excitatory and inhibitory neurons, which then stabilises in a stripy or hexagonal pattern of neural activity in the visual parts of the brain. In the visual field we then "see" this pattern in the shape of the geometric structures.
Man, it blows my mind that the drugs and neurons interacting actually cause neurons in the visual regions to fire geometrically! Geometrically! Just the phrase "geometric pattern of neural activity" is insane to me.
Full article here. Thanks Neatorama.
The presence of a drug throws the neural network off its equilibrium, kicking into action a snowballing interaction between excitatory and inhibitory neurons, which then stabilises in a stripy or hexagonal pattern of neural activity in the visual parts of the brain. In the visual field we then "see" this pattern in the shape of the geometric structures.
Man, it blows my mind that the drugs and neurons interacting actually cause neurons in the visual regions to fire geometrically! Geometrically! Just the phrase "geometric pattern of neural activity" is insane to me.
Full article here. Thanks Neatorama.
