POST MODERN TIMES – THE NEOCORTEX AND THE ASTROCYTES

 THE NEOCORTEX AND THE ASTROCYTES

 

We have seen earlier that there are three successive ages in civilization, from its origin to the present day:  primitive times, ancient times, and modern times.

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Primitive Times: 

In Primitive Times Society is a community, and nothing bothers the man who vegetates in the pastoral and nomadic life with which all civilizations begin and which is conducive to solitary contemplations and whimsical fantasies. Like his life, his thought is like a cloud that changes shape and path depending on the wind that blows it. Behold the first man, behold the first poet. He is young and lyrical; his prayer condenses his religion, and the ode is all his poetry.

Primitive times - Reptilian brain

Man's brain in these primitive times is a reactive, action brain in charge of controlling muscles and balance. Regulates vegetative or unconscious functions such as heartbeat, digestion, or breathing. Its operation is instinctive or automatic, so it is the most basic. It is responsible for the physiological changes the body needs for survival.

Ancient Times

When ancient civilizations abandoned hunting and gathering and began organizing themselves, agriculture was how such organizations developed. Thus, from the division of labor, which allowed citizens to dedicate themselves to different productive tasks in their day-to-day lives, to the very supply of civilizations, which allowed their subsistence, all of this, as well as much more, is linked to the emergence of agriculture. It is in this period where primitive times and ancient times overlap with each other. The man of primitive times is the cattle herder who depends on rain and green pastures for the well-being of his cattle. On the other hand, the man of ancient times is from agriculture, where he obtains the product for his subsistence.

The Biblical story of Cain and Abel illustrates these two societies, the pastoral society and the agricultural society offering to Jehovah God.

The Biblical story of Cain and Abel illustrates these two societies, the pastoral society and the agricultural society offering to Jehovah God.

And it came to pass as time passed that Cain offered Jehovah the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his sheep, the fattest of them. And the LORD looked with favor upon Abel and his offering; but he did not look kindly on Cain and his offering. (Genesis 4:1-5)

It was that Cain brought the incorrect offering of the gods of the earth, almost always of the feminine gender, while Abel brought the correct offering of the firstborn of his sheep.

Modern Times

 Modernity emerged in the fifteenth century after emblematic changes were brought about worldwide, such as the Conquest of America by the Europeans, the development of the printing press, the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution. An anthropocentric system of thought was imposed in Europe. This conception trusts in the power of human reason to access world knowledge through intellectual activity and experience.

The cerebral cortex and the Limbic System

The cerebral cortex works by receiving and processing information and sending signals to the rest of the body to control movement and other functions. It also plays a crucial role in higher cognitive functions such as language, thought, decision-making, and emotion. The cerebral cortex can perform these functions through the complex interactions between its many nerve cells. The limbic system is a collection of structures involved in processing emotion and memory, including the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the hypothalamus.

With this mechanism is that humans know, reason, think ... and, most distinctive, have, in addition to the five natural bodily senses, "the 6^th sense of spiritual perception," with which he can choose between good and evil, choose between what suits him or not (ethics) behaving with the impulses and the unconscious of the reptilian brain and the ancient brain experiences and memories.  

Man behaves with the instincts and the drives of his brain's limbic system. Elon Musk's fossil energy theory says that extracting fossil energy material from the depth of the earth and thrusting it into the atmosphere destabilizes the Creator's "Fine Tune Universe." This action is analogous to extracting energy from the lowest parts of the physiology in yoga exercises and bringing it up to the higher parts of the cerebral cortex, to the limbic system, which involves the processing of emotion and memory from the hippocampus that regulates vegetative or unconscious functions such as heartbeat, digestion or breathing. Its operation is instinctive or automatic, so it is the most basic. It is responsible for the physiological changes the body needs for survival.

Post Modern Times

Science and technology have been applied toward fostering continuing growth and prosperity during the twenty-first century. The actual impacts of this era on humankind have yet to be fully realized. Still, its influence on what is known as the "postmodern society" is essential as humanity continues to evolve with its technologies and their applications in the twenty-first century. 

The Neocortex (The New Cortex)

The neocortex, also called the neopallium or the six-layered cortex, is a set of layers of the mammalian cerebral cortex involved in higher-order brain functions such as sensory perception, cognition, generation of motor commands, spatial reasoning, and language. In the human brain, the neocortex is the most significant part of the cerebral cortex (the outer layer of the cerebrum). The neocortex is the most significant part of the cerebral cortex, with the allocortex making up the rest. The neocortex comprises six layers, becoming the 7^th sense of Executive Perceptions.

The Seventh Sense of Executive Perception

Executive functions are a set of capacities capable of controlling and regulating other cognitive functions and behavior. Specifically, it is about the ability to selectively process information and its maintenance, at least about the most important ones, during the performance of a task.

Executive functions are related to the following scenarios:

In planning problem-solving strategies. By tracking their behavior. Inhibition of inappropriate behavioral responses to the context that is, self-control. In the ability to quickly switch from one task to another (gear shifting or cognitive flexibility). In the maintenance of information and its manipulation to perform a task (working memory). In the continuous updating of information. In the knowledge of the temporal sequence of events. In the capacity of abstraction and categorization of stimuli and events. In the will to initiate actions (volition). In carrying out actions that depart from habitual and stereotyped behaviors (strategic behavior). In maintaining attention over time. Executive functions allow us to mentally manipulate ideas, quickly adapt to constantly changing circumstances, reason, stay focused, and face new challenges. In addition, they allow us to make decisions and exercise control over what we do. All these neocortex tasks are done by the Astrocytes.

Astrocytes                           

Astrocytes (from Ancient Greek ἄστρον, ástron, "star" + κύτος, kútos, "cavity," "cell"), also known collectively as astroglia, are characteristic star-shaped glial cells in the brain and spinal cord. They perform many functions, including biochemical control of endothelial cells that form the blood–brain barrier, provision of nutrients to the nervous tissue, maintenance of extracellular ion balance, regulation of cerebral blood flow, and a role in the repair and scarring process of the brain and spinal cord following infection and traumatic injuries. The proportion of astrocytes in the brain is not well defined; depending on the counting technique used, studies have found that the astrocyte proportion varies by region and ranges from 20% to around 40% of all glia. Another study reports that astrocytes are the most numerous cell type in the brain. Astrocytes are the primary source of cholesterol in the central nervous system. Apolipoprotein E transports cholesterol from astrocytes to neurons and other glial cells, regulating cell signaling in the brain.

Astrocytes are a subtype of glial cells that comprise most cells in the human central nervous system (CNS). They perform metabolic, structural, homeostatic, and neuroprotective tasks such as clearing excess neurotransmitters, stabilizing and regulating the blood-brain barrier, and promoting synapse formation. Astrocytes can produce a robust antioxidant response to protect themselves and neurons by releasing glutathione precursors to neurons. Their role in scar formation allows astrocytes to regulate and contain the immune responses in a manner that controls neuroinflammation.

Primarily, glial cells provide support and protection to the neurons (nerve cells), maintain homeostasis, clean up debris, and form myelin. They work to care for the neurons and the environment they are in. 

The man of postmodern times does not have to act by the unconscious impulses of a reptilian's primitive time brain. Neither by the ancestral brain nor the modern times' limbic brain, full of fear, anxiety, and guilt. But by the neocortex and the astrocyte's neurophysiological structure of postmodern times' man. ,

It is with the neocortex (the new cortex) that a "new man" approaches the proscenium of postmodern times history, a new man with a new neurophysiological structure ruled by the "Seventh Sense of Executive Perception," the new cortex.