Eccles hypothesized that the brain’s neuronal network structure enters into a liaison with the immaterial mind and serves the function of a “detector.” Active pyramidal neurons of cerebral cortical modules of the neuronal network interact with the unique function of human cognition. The modules act as “detectors” selectively scanning for consciously willed influences with which they are in synchrony in terms of wave frequency, amplitude and shape. An intention expresses itself through the generation of a pattern of encoded neuronal impulses initiated within pyramidal modules with meaning and with which the mind is in liaison. The pattern generated is as a neural code that provides for operative effectiveness by its transmission through semantically integrated, coherent synaptic networks of the brain. (See Part Two of the blog “Waves in Our Brains” above for further explanation.)

Eccles hypothesized that the immaterial Self can effectively control the brain through intentions and attentions. Neural responses are induced by mental action by increasing the quantum probability of exocytosis, or the release, of the contents of synaptic vesicles from presynaptic vesicular grids (PVG). The vesicular contents are neurotransmitters that are released into and across very narrow synaptic clefts, a process that has been observed by electron microscopy. Their release is from the opened pores of vesicles that are docked on the PVG and occurs in a semantically integrated fashion within neural networks associated with specified intentional thoughts and actions. Their release stimulates adjacent postsynaptic densities of neurons to induce action potentials that are transmitted as encoded spike trains that the immaterial mind interprets through a process of lifelong learning archived in memory. These induced spike train impulses are transmitted downstream along the axonal efferent pathways of synaptic networks in coherent, synchronized fashion in terms of wave frequencies, amplitudes and shapes. In Part Two of my blog entitled “Waves in Our Brains” this activity is discussed in detail. It is a complex process, but neuroscientists are gaining increasing understanding of it.

In the 1860’s Paul Broca and Karl Wernicke identified two regions of the human brain that function in language and bear their names. There are indistinguishable histologic structures and electrochemical activities in these parts of the brain. The localization of sensory circuits to these discrete parts offers no insights into how neuronal electrophysiology translates into such subjective experiences as watching sunsets or listening to a Bach cantata.

An understanding of the process of communion between the Holy Spirit and the spirit and soul of Man drawing upon neuroscience will explain the emotional desolation experienced by the God-Man, Jesus Christ, when he was forsaken by the Father while dying on the cross. Jesus recognized that his eternal Father had withdrawn his Spirit from his own human spirit because of the sin burden he carried for all of mankind. The desolation he experienced on the cross in that moment threatens people in our time who disavow the reality of communion between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit and soul and choose to live to Self and its sin nature. It is an eternal outcome. The information shared in Chapter Five of The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story, will contribute substance to Christian precepts and can avert such an outcome in the repentant soul of Man.

Now I turn attention to the how of neural synaptic transmission, drawing upon the neural synaptic model which was the focus for Sir John C. Eccles’ microsite hypothesis. How can interaction between a nonmaterial spirit and mind and the material brain be explained? Just what is the energy that induces synaptic transmission, and how is it related to information? To what degree can a nonmaterial energy be identified in mind-brain interaction, and where does it exert its effect? (I address these questions in detail in Chapter Four, Nerve Endings of the Soul: Interaction between the Mind of God and the Mind of Man through Neural Synaptic Networks.)

At this point I will share some concepts about quantum fields and atomic particles. In my second book, The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story, Chapter Five, I cite von Baeyer who stated that the universe is filled with quantum fields and that there is a field for every elementary particle. He further stated that quantum fields are joined at each point in space-time by intimate bonds that allow them to exchange energy.” He gives the example of an electron being “a ripple in the electron field. A proton, located elsewhere and carrying a different amount of energy as a wave frequency [also with amplitude and shape], is a separate ripple in the proton field.” Each interacts with the other like water waves [with both facilitation and inhibition depending upon their phase relationship]. It is now compelling that mental intention is causally effective in transmitting information with meaning and purpose. The causality appears to be associated with the nonclassical energy of wave functions given direction through neural synaptic networks. To come to an understanding of neural transmission it is important to examine neural networks at the quantum level. More to come.

In the above blog posts I have addressed wave functions. In Parts One and Two of “Waves in Our Brains” very current information has been included about waves. The question to be asked is how wave functions may trigger synaptic transmission by the quantum tunneling of quasiparticles, including electrons, along specific pathways in the brain to transmit specified information. Ultimately how might the immaterial mind be involved in the generation and propagation of wave functions and quasiparticles in the tunneling process? Answers to these questions are complex and incompletely understood, but progress is being made in current neuroscience. The more that is being learned by scientific investigation the more we realize how awesome is our Creator God, and how much more there is to know!

When reference is made to John 1: 1-3 (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.”) we see that the Mind of God is the ultimate Source of all information. He is the Sender of information actualized in all five levels in the creations by the Son, Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Gitt identified the one prerequisite of information, that it must be in coded form, the neural patterns described by Penfield. For human beings it is a linguistic code, and the essential aspect of all information is its mental content. The recipient evaluates the message after decoding it, and the code must be known both to the sender and the receiver if the information is to be understood. Matter cannot generate codes. A thinking being exercising free will, cognition and creativity is required. Gitt concluded that there is no known natural law by which matter can give rise to novel information. Neither can any physical process nor material phenomenon do this. Only a mind, including the Mind of God, can generate information, but in our space-time it may require material media for actualization, transmission or storage. Neurons of the human brain serve as the medium for both the transmission and storage of information.

In my books I share that Werner Gitt defined information as “a fundamental entity on equal footing with matter and energy,” though often disregarded in academic discourse. He has identified five components of information that include structure (syntax), meaning (semantics), and purpose. A fourth is the transmission of information from a sender with the expectation of a response, or intended action, in the recipient who must have the capacity to interpret the information received. Finally, the fifth component refers to the intentional selection of information to be transmitted from an essentially infinite resource so that information selected is with a small probability. The selective process consists of a statistical or probabilistic component that gives it specification.