In her academic reading for chapter 5, "The Function and Meaning of Dreaming," Hartmann tells us that according to the author of the activation-synthesis theory, neuro-transmitters in the brain "randomly stimulate memories," which are then synthesised into coherent narratives, which are are our dreams (2007, p. 153).
But what does it mean to describe the initiating events as random? Are the neuro-transmitters in our brains acting at random during sleep? Do they activate random memories?
Further, part of our procedure for choosing the topic of your essays on Orwell's Animal Farm included a randomizing element - the number draw from a plastic bag. Was this in fact random? Is it incorrect to use the word random to describe such a procedure?
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My Yes/No question is:
Do neuro-transmitters activate random events in our brains during sleep?
Was the number drawing in our procedure for choosing a character to be an essay topic from Animal Farm random?
My answers are:
Yes/No. Support
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Reference
I don't think the process randomly pick up our memory as a result of neurotransmitters in the brain. I do think our mind attachment will show up in our dream from our worries or wishes. Because we usually have the similar dreams at the certain period of time, most of them reflects the same situations or events which related to our experience and memory. I may believe in Buddhism or Freud's theory too much, so I need more evidence from the study which based on that theory to persuade me to believe them.
ReplyDeleteYes, they do. As the "random events" mentioned by Hartmann are based on the chaotic memories in one's life, it would not completely be randomized from anywhere. However, the dreams are still chaotic memories that we have. The chaotic memories may just come in different forms that we don't recognize. About the word "random", I think Hartmann defines it as drawing a memory out of a bag of chaotic memories.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was. Drawing number for choosing a character is absolutely random. As no one knows what number he or she is going to get, it would be depending on luck that the person has.
Yes, I think neurotransmitters possibly activate random events in our brains during sleep and also number drawing for choosing a character is a random procedure. Neurotransmitters, as I know, it delivers information from one neuron to another and to the targeted organ, especially brain or bone-marrow. I think it can activate random events as in our brain there a numberless neurotransmitter and sometimes information may be transmitted in non-chronological order which leads to random events in our brain during sleep. In addition, the number drawing for Animal Farm thingy is based on pure luck and I could say it is pretty random process. I am extremely unlucky as my targeted character, Old Major, was STOLEN by just a queue before mine:(((((. All I could say is that this method is fair for others but is EXTREMELY UNFAIR for me. I hope number-drawing in the next assignment, I would get to choose the first one. :)))
ReplyDeleteIt was your bad luck that your character was stolen by just a queue before yours. I think we'll not have any more number drawing for the next assignment as Peter might be afraid of your revenge. haha
DeleteSorry - I would happily have taken any left over character. It was only because someone was absent that I chose a number so that there wasn't a gap.
DeleteSo it's actually your classmate's fault! But maybe her absence was the result of a random event over which she had no control and for which it would be unfair to blame her.
And I chose Major because I thought he was the one least likely to be chosen. I was wrong.
DeleteI think the answer to both questions is no. Neither the activation of memories in the brain during sleep nor the drawing of number from a Tops supermarket bag are random. But I think it's reasonable for Hartmann, or the expert she cites, to describe the events as random, and I think we are using the word random in a way that most people would correctly understand when we say that the drawing of numbers from a hat is random.
ReplyDeleteSo what does the adjective random mean? Random means "happening without any cause"; that is, exactly the same situation beforehand could be followed by a different outcome. The important word here is exactly. In practice, it is impossible to create an exact duplication of the conditions, which is why very similar events can have very different outcomes, but if physics is right, the events of our drawing a number from a bag and the electrical activity in the brain are not random at all: they are all fully determined by the (largely unknown) laws of physics, but cannot hope to compute the detailed calculations necessary to predict the outcomes. At least not this week. The common meaning of random< is "not able to be predicted," or "almost identical situations having very different results." Hartmann is right to use the word random.
Yes, neuro-transmitters activate ramdom our memories in our brains during sleep. Moreover, the procedure for choosing the topic of your essays on Orwell's Animal Farm is also call rendom.
ReplyDeleteThe word random for me means somethings happen which didn't plan before.
I think that when most people dream. They can't predict about their dream before it happen which is the same as the procedure for choosing the topic in Animal Farm which people can't prior predict the results before draw the number from plastic bag.
I don't really know and not sure if neuro-transmitters activate random events in our brains during sleep, but i can take a guess that it activates randomly, because we can not control or plan our dreams.But at the same time i realize that we see the things we most think about. The number of choosing the character from Animal Farm wasn't random. We choose by ourselves. But the order of numbers gave us the less choice.
ReplyDeleteFor the first question, I think yes because in general the mechanism in our brain is associated with neuro-transmitters which help activate several kind of functional processes in the brain during both sleeping and even awaking.
ReplyDeleteFor the other question, I think not really because our brain control the movement of our hands to pick up it independently; however, our random mind leads me to choose it without thinking before. Therefore, it was kind of random by our brain, physical movement and even the movement of many small pieces of paper in the plastic bag. Moreover, the results of picking up by the previous others also cause a lot of random change in what we then might pick up.
Yes. In the neuro-transmitters case, the word of random works in disorder while the drawing case, it works spontaneously.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think neuro-transmitters activate random events in our brains during sleep because you can't control your dream. Everyone prefer a good dream to nightmare but sometimes we have nightmare because neuro-transmitters randomly choosing events in our brains.
ReplyDeleteYes, because we pick a folded paper which we can't know what is inside at first. But the difference is that there are plenty of events in our brains. So sometimes it might pick the same event for many times. But not the same as drawing character from animal farm.
For the activation-synthesis theory, neurotransmitters in the brain "randomly stimulate memories" it might be pseudo-random. If the neurotransmitters don't randomly stimulate memories, it will memorize the pattern. Additionally, Its synaptic has the threshold to activate the potential to perform functionalities. I think it random.
ReplyDeleteI like Earlgrey's idea that what we label random is often not really random but pseudo-random. I think she has in mind the same distinction that I wanted to make in my comment.
DeleteThat's why I said that neither event was random, but that we do ordinarily use the word random. I don't think that's a problem as long as keep clear what we mean and don't switch meanings half-way through developing an idea that in which one of the two very different definitions of random plays a role.