rbg@cbosgd.UUCP (Richard Goldschmidt) (07/12/84)
The brain is not like your ordinary computer hardware which is synchronously controlled by clock pulses. Neurons fire asynchronously and can change their rates drastically in one area and not at all in another. One of the factors which controls which areas are more active is attention. The brain's operating system allows multi-tasking: you can drive to work while listening to music and thinking about what you will do when you get there. Emergency situations (priority interrupts) focus your attention very narrowly. What is more interesting is the SUBJECTIVE sense of time dilation. As with other issues of consciousness, I think this is related to the way the brain monitors the functioning of some brain areas (mostly cortical and some limbic areas). When an area increases its activity dramatically, its representation in consciousness also grows. Rich Goldschmidt cbosgd!rbg