Are thoughts self contained, or do they emit indications of their production?

[rjsbass]

let me preface: i know nothing about neuroscience.

it seems that at a fundamental level, everything is either detectable, or you can theorize about ways to detect it. shouldn't particles (neurons or whatever) in the brain emit waves, or any kind of signal, that indicate their interactions when thoughts are produced? then maybe you can use spectroscopy techniques of known thoughts and their emission patterns to read thoughts?

 

[Ryan_m_b]

What you encountering here is the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness" ) but we don't yet have the technology to have the resolution to monitor each action potential in the brain at once.

I don't think spectroscopy could work considering that the brain is in the way of the light emissions (which may not correlate to neural network activity) and we would need to track bioelectrical signals/biochemistry. I'm not sure if they could provide the resolution or not but imaging techniques such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoencephalography" may one day provide the tools we need.

 

[rjsbass]

What you encountering here is the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness" ) but we don't yet have the technology to have the resolution to monitor each action potential in the brain at once.

I don't think spectroscopy could work considering that the brain is in the way of the light emissions (which may not correlate to neural network activity) and we would need to track bioelectrical signals/biochemistry. I'm not sure if they could provide the resolution or not but imaging techniques such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoencephalography" may one day provide the tools we need.

this is an extremely adequate reply. i have a ton of stuff to read up on now. thank you!

 

[Ryan_m_b]

this is an extremely adequate reply. i have a ton of stuff to read up on now. thank you!

No problem