Biophysical Explanation Of Human Physiology Essay

How are humans, or any sentient life for that matter, anything more than complex arrangements of meat, neurons, and bone? The biophysical explanation of human physiology explains, quite in depth, the entire genetic makeup and biochemical arrangements from the simplicity of a ball and socket joint to the complexity of the brain. Surely the vast amount of research regarding human physiology could spearhead further research into the complexities of perception and thought, correct? There is no way to accurately describe the complex notions of perception and thought strictly through a biophysical approach because it does not explain the more abstract interactions within the brain responsible for higher level functions. While neural firing is the …show more content…
These neurons transduce, or convert, the light energy from the photon into electrical impulses that neurons are able to utilize. The impulse travels through the stimulus-receiving apparatuses(dendrites for non-specialized neurons) and into the cell body in which the signal is summarized. Neural summation is, in theory, the addition of electrical signal which will be used to determine whether or not the neuron will carry on the signal or not. This usually occurs within the cell body, however, in specific instances, impulses traveling through separate dendritic trees can intersect and cause summation before the signal arrives at the cell body. We consider neural summation a form of computation in the sense that the impulses are metaphorically added together, however, the summation does not have a semantic output and this distinction differentiates it from the classical notion of computation (Spitzer, 1999). The output of summation is merely an electrical signal with no symbolic significance, whereas classical computation of adding two plus two is