My interest in the tufts of pyramidal apical dendrites is long standing, and I have addressed aspects of their function in earlier blogs. As I reviewed Friedrich Beck’s article referenced in my July 2nd blog I noted his comments about these tufts. The neocortex consists of six lamina. “The pyramidal apical dendrites finish in a tuft-like branching in lamina I.” He stated that he was in agreement with Fleischhauer and coworkers who published articles in 1984 and 1987 that posited that “the apical bundles of dendrites . . . are the basic anatomical units of the neocortex. . . . It has been proposed that these bundles are the cortical units for reception [Italics added], which would give them a preeminent role.” Specifically, can the function of the tufts be expanded to possibly include reception of cognitive wave forms?
The tufts lie at the surface of cortical modules in lamina I and are known to have numerous neural interconnections with the dendritic tufts of adjacent and distant modules. Within modules are specific baseline wave frequencies, amplitudes and shapes that serve as “detectors” of nerve impulses as proposed by Eccles and noted in previous blog posts. I ask if wave forms generated by the cognitive mind pass across cortical modules and become linked with synchronous modular wave forms via the neural spines of apical dendritic tufts? Such a process would enable neural codes within specified wave forms to be transmitted through coherent synaptic networks to stimulate activities. In asking this question I am accepting the immateriality of the cognitive mind and its capacity to generate wave forms that interact with the material synaptic networks of the brain, a dualist interaction.