Haha, timewasting... so much...

today has so far seen no d&m on my part... i think this is what happens after exams... the brain refuses to think, even on stuff that it usually likes to dwell on... - the meaning of life and so on...

still though, i am caught up in a bit of a bind about one question i'm sure puts me at odds with the vast majority of ppl... where is memory stored?!? - well, is it in the brain?!? is it formed of structural and neurohormonal arrangements, able to be contained within the many billions (trillions?!?) of synapses between neurons in the cerebral cortex?!? or is it extradimensional?!? - well, my opinion is the latter... for various reasons, i suppose, i really don't fully understand... but as far as i am aware, there's no research that suggests a location for memory storage within the brain... and memories are so rich and full, so drawn together by associations, and are composed and experienced so vividly, that it's really hard to imagine that it could be reduced to a collection of synapses...

when i think, perhaps it's stored in synapses, then i think of a scenario, we experience a really enjoyable or really disheartening moment, and it sticks really firmly in our memory... what happens?!? does it cycle around our short term memory pathways initially, eventually projecting to long term associated regions of the hippocampus and sustained temporarily by long term potentiation (NMDA?!?), and then somehow causing more permanent constructs in a more diffuse/far-reaching network "somewhere" in the cortex?!? - it's hard to see how such constructs, our physically stored memories, so to speak, can be so rich and full, projecting to other areas that are capable of spontaneously interacting with and arousing the sensory cortices in a way that almost convinces us of their immediacy and reality...

i think it's this complexity that makes me believe in extradimensional memory storage, though i have no experience in research in this area, so it'd hardly seem worth it listening to what i say ;p

anyhow, the model of memory/consciousness that i like to think about consists of an extradimensional mind interacting with the physical world via the interface of the body (and in particular, the brain)... kinda like the soul has a mind and a body... and we (our identity) are our souls... - somewhere, amongst the "mind" is the memory, and the consciousness, and its activities/musings etc are made manifest by whatever means controlling the brain (fluctuations in transmembrane potential in certain groups of cells?!? who knows?!?) - thus we act, speak, laugh, appear thoughtful, sleep etc... - similarly, whenever our short term memory circuits are acting, they are simply reflections of a deeper process in the mind itself, where experience is stored as memory in a metaphysical form...

oh well... i don't know... - my musings... ;p maybe this can be my d&m for the day... will look forward to seeing ppl'z opinions, criticisms, research data, even wackier models... ;p for now, au revoir!!!

God bless,
dave