Such axon-less "neurons" (amacrine cells) are to be found in many regions of the brain they have certainly been found in the neuron networks of vision and smell. In such a local network the passage of the electric signal is done from dendrite to dendrite as a slow current that also implies the "glia" (the substance, the cells, filling in the space between the neurons); a true matrix of dendrites is thus formed. According to Francis O. Schmidt59, these new aspects regarding the functioning of the brain could prove to be of extreme importance in understanding the thought processes and upper functions of the brain. It seems that such matrices can also accommodate multiplication and division operations60 that cannot be performed by the usual neuron networks. The "classical " neuron networks are themselves extremely complex, each neuron having a tri-dimensional space structure with thousands of dendrites, with a connectivity that can give to each neuron a specific role61; means are there for this connectivity to be varied, depending on the global functioning of the brain. The neuron activity depends to a certain extend on the space-time distribution of the influences acting upon it through dendrites62, thus giving the neuron also a local integrative role in relation with these influences. (However we do not yet understand it as psychic integrator since we cannot yet explain the way awareness is generated.) To the complexity of neuron network and of dendrite matrices one has to add the complexity of synapses that make the links between neurons. The synapses connects the axon of one neuron to the dendrite of the other. The signal can only go one way. A neuron can have up to 10,000 such synapses. If one considers that there are 1010 neurons in the central nervous system, then one can count up to1014such synapses63. The signals are transmitted through the synapses via some chemical messengers. The electric impulse arriving along the axon triggers at the synapses the release of some chemical neuro-transmitters that diffuse in the interspace between the pre- and post-synapsis membranes. The axon does not have a particularly important role in the variable behavior of the neuron network: it only transmits the electric impulse. The synapses offers "element of variety which must be the key to the nervous system", says Steven Rose64; at the synapses level one observes the most fragile and delicate transmission of nervous signals. "The synapse is a type of valve or gate. If the post-synaptic cell fired invariantly whenever an action potential arrived down the axon from the propagating cell, there would be no point in having a synapse. ... At the synapses between cells lies the choice point which converts the nervous system from a certain, predictable and dull one into an uncertain, probabilistic and hence interesting system. Consciousness, learning and intelligence are all synapse-dependent"65 . The chemical averaging that the synapses performs also rises complicated problems. They come to add to the general complexity of the nervous system; but we can reduce only figuratively the properties of the nervous automaton (and even more of the consciousness) to those of the synapses. The complexity of the synapses phenomena stems from the way the electric current releases the neuro-transmitting chemical substances that are synthesized and stored in the vesicles; from the nature of the mediating chemical substances (subject to body chemistry or to some foreign substances introduced inside the body); from the way the pre- and post-synapsis membranes function. The works of John Eccles66 and Bernhard Katz67 explained partly the functioning mechanism of the synapses. The electric impulse arriving through the axon releases quanta of the chemical mediator; this passes the pre-synapses membrane, and then diffuses in 0.3 - 1.0 milliseconds in the interspace (where they are vulnerable to chemical attacks) to arrive at the post-synapsis membrane. Here it is captured by the receiving molecular formation inside the membrane. Then either an excitation (i.e. a depolarization of the membrane) or an inhibition takes place; the neuro-transmitter is later destroyed by some enzymes that turn it into inactive chemical substances. If the synapses were to function in a strictly deterministic way, then every electric impulse arriving from the axon would always release the same number of chemical quanta. In reality chemical quanta are sometimes released without an electric impulse, whereas when the impulse is present the number of released quanta is not always the same. Thus besides the electric impulse determination there are fluctuation that confer to the synapses, and hence to the neuronic subsystem, a probabilistic character, like that of a stochastic automaton. The operation of the synapses is connected to all the problems of cell and membrane biology68; of DNA and RNA, of cell energy processes (AMP and ADP); of sodium and potassium concentration around the cell; of some neoro-transmitters having chemical structures similar to those of hormonal substances, thus making connection with the endocrine system69. The synapses mechanism has indeed an outstanding complexity, being susceptible to the action of various agents, although we do not yet known how it interfaces informationally with the cell andthe membrane.

It is possible that the role of the membrane is more important in dendrites and in the body of the neuron. If we consider the variations in the electric potential of the liquid existing between the cells (a phenomenon related with the ECS waves) and if we presume that some electric informational phenomena also appear in this liquid, then surely these will interact with the cell membrane. They can produce changes in the membrane. Such changes take places at the level of the molecules constituting the membrane; one does not yet know for sure, but it is believed that these molecules take part in the informational activity of the brain.
We have so far tried to show the extremely complex underlayer of the nervous system. Such complexity may appear discouraging, since biologists estimate a period of 50 to 100 years of research for breaking brain mysteries (first of all the working of memory and of consciousness).

Regarding the neuronic organization of the brain, it is now thought to be made up of a number of layers of neuron networks70. These layers are multiply connected among themselves. For example, the sensorial structures contain layers at the level of local excitation (for a preliminary, local analysis), then a subcortical layer, and finally several cortical layers. There is a point to point relationship between such levels, and hence patterns are transmitted from a layer to an another. The brain works withpatterns of information71. In general there is a point-to-point relationship between points on the body sensorial surface and the somatic sensorial cortex (similarly between retina and the visual cortex). The light image on the retina is to be found on the cortex (a contorted, but nevertheless ordered image). But how does the brain further process this image? The processing is done in a distributed manner72, as compatible with the received pattern of information, but without the central control of any single organ. If the pattern received on the visual cortex is to be used for a certain action, say a movement, there is no executive neuron that can dictate the way the whole system should behave. But rather, the dynamics of the effectors, assisted by the neuronic interaction, extracts the output path through a neuron population, each of them only having the local information regarding the way the system is going to behave73. But one should notice that the distance to us reaching an integrative and psychological explanation is still the same. Michael Arbib developed further his model of distributed brain operation using the holographic model of memory in a specifically nervous form74. According to this model the processing developed in "layers" until the system got excited through the effectors controlling the motor action. As an intermediate, essential stage of processing, Arbib sees the brain using a "model" stored in memory and then continuously corrected; both long term and short term memories are used. According to Arbib, the long term memory is resident in a neuron network placed between the sensorial and the motor layers of the brain. Resulting from the interaction between the sensorial layer and the "memory" layer there are a number of patterns representing possible actions; they are kept in the short period memory. The next layer takes the decision regarding a possible course of action; the decision then passes to the motor layer and next to the effectors. Such a model represents a computer working in parallel with the whole pattern of information; such model can explain the behavior of the human machine but not the integrative character of the brain from the psychological point of view, although it offers the possibility for integrating the sensorial image. How is it possible for a pattern of excited cortex points (the reflection of a retina image) to become the continuous view observed by our mind ? Where is this process taking place ?

Biology and Psychology in Relation with Awareness 62