The human brain has about 1 quintillion (1,000 trillion) synapses and each synapse functions like a microprocessor (“What Is a Neuron?” faculty-washington.edu). That is about how many stars are in 10,000 Milky Way galaxies (each one containing 100 billion stars)! New research shows that the synapses don’t operate like a computer transistor, with a simple on or off function. Rather, they communicate by at least 26 levels of electrical signal strength so that they are vastly more complex than previously thought. The following is excerpted from “Your Brain Has More Memory” by Brian Thomas, Ph.D., Institute of Christian Research, icr.org, Feb. 4, 2016: “Synapses occur at junctions between nerve cells, like two people holding hands. EACH CELL CAN HAVE A THOUSAND ‘HANDS’ CONTACTING AS MANY NEIGHBORS TO FORM A DIZZYING 3-D ARRAY WITH BILLIONS OF CONNECTIONS AND PATHWAYS. Each junction transfers information between cells by passing along tiny chemicals called neurotransmitters. They store and transmit information not with the simplistic 0s and 1s of computer code, but with degrees of synapse strength. In other words, THEY DON’T TRANSFER INFORMATION WITH A SINGLE INPUT SPIKE, BUT RECOGNIZE 26 DISTINGUISHABLY DIFFERENT LEVELS OF SYNAPTIC STRENGTH (“Nanoconnectomic upper bound,” eLife, 2015). Terry Sejnowski, co-senior author of the eLife study, told the Salk Institute, ‘We discovered the key to unlocking the design principle for how hippocampal neurons function with low energy but high computation power. OUR NEW MEASUREMENTS OF THE BRAIN’S MEMORY CAPACITY INCREASE CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATES BY A FACTOR OF 10 TO AT LEAST A PETABYTE, IN THE SAME BALLPARK AS THE WORLD WIDE WEB (“Memory Capacity of Brian,” Salk News, Jan. 20, 2016). What’s a petabyte? 8,000,000,000,000,000 bits of information. The mind-boggling levels of organization and necessary regulatory protocols in synapses refute all notions that brains evolved from single cells through merely natural processes. The strategies, algorithms, and design principles brains employ could only have come from an otherworldly Architect whose genius mankind can only dream of copying.”
(Friday Church News Notes, May 8, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)