Abstract

Over the past 12 years, there have been many important and rapid advances in the neuroscience of the glial mass. However, from these laboratory studies, it is very difficult to formulate a theory of brain dynamics because none of the studies are able to observe normal humans engaged in normal human activities without any restriction or interference from the researcher. Further, there are the very difficult governmental and institutional protocols that must be in place for the protection of the subject before any funding is granted. While all of this is reasonable and proper, these restrictions virtually prohibit the use of human subjects in the study of the glial mass. What is needed is an unconventional approach outside the normal institutional boundaries in order to make rapid advances in the formulation of a general theory of the brain. Because of the difficulties of advancing brain research from a gestalt, or holistic approach, it has been impossible to provide a set of axioms based on glial research in the form of a set of principles of the dynamics of the brain. A new venue was needed. The construction of our "research" venue for the empirical studies was simple: Set up a tennis academy and start to work. It was essential that the Academy function like any other tennis academy in relationship to the students. To do otherwise would have amounted to interference. The students in the EASI Academy range from 6 years old to over 50 years of age and range in skill from professional tour players to amateur players and include one special needs student. Our research involved training students to be skilled tennis players and making careful observations about how they learned in the process. There was only one difference between the EASI Academy and other tennis academies: The training protocols at the EASI Academy were all based on hard science. This fact required that we discard everything presently in use in the tennis training world and start over constructing all new methods of training and adopting traditional methods when they were consistent with scientific training methods. Based on these empirical "studies" and the vast body of neuroscience and psychology we have formulated eight principles or axioms of glial dynamics. Of particular significance to this research has been the work of Professor Walter Freemen at Berkeley and Professor Ellen Langer at Harvard.

Introduction

Many important neuroscience and psychology studies have been conducted, and are proceeding in laboratories all over the world to advance our knowledge of the dynamics of the brain. The chief dynamics that we seek to explain are learning, cognition and memory. These three dynamics are only visible when observing normal humans going about their activities in everyday life. Passive observation, such as people-watching on a park bench, is so complex that one hardly knows how to organize such information. As a result, such passive observations are nearly useless to the scientist who seeks to provide organization to a body of knowledge based on principles, axioms or laws that provides the possibility of prediction. For science to proceed one usually must formulate very simple protocols, procedures and experiments that tightly control all dynamical parameters of the phenomena being studied. This assures two important criteria are achieved: (1) Maximum certainty is achieved in the results of the experiment; (2) the entire experiment is reproducible by independent researchers without the aid of the originator of the experiment. These two criteria are among the most important parts of the bedrock of science.

Adhering to the bedrock criteria of science while observing humans is a formidable challenge. Somehow the venues of observation must be brought under control. For this we looked to sports. The demands of science must necessarily restrict the specific sport chosen. Through an extensive analysis, we arrived at the venue of tennis. After selecting tennis as the best venue, we then had to assure that whatever we did, we did not interfere with the normal course of training. This required that we become tennis instructors. The next challenge was to decide on what metrics would be used to track progress and define success. This led us to embrace the arena of tournament competition as the principle metric of progress or accuracy,

The chief compromise we have had to make to learn from normal humans engaged in their everyday pursuits is that it is impossible to argue for funding from established institutions. In short, the program of study we have outlined is so far out-of-the-box this it must be self funded. The reasons for this state of affairs is both reasonable and proper: Research, to be funded through conventional institutions must be measurable, understandable and unambiguous and must fit any other bureaucratic criteria of the institution. Through the rules, the institution guards its funding from opportunists, charlatans, and poor researchers with little prospect of success. This means that maverick research must find its own way as best it can. There can be no quarrel with this view.

However, to obtain a holistic theory of brain dynamics one must directly investigate the dynamics of the brain of normal persons engaged in a common complex enterprise without disturbing and interfering with the very activity one seeks to examine. This is something of an "exclusion principle" of neuroscience. If one places a probe in a normal human brain, one has compromised the very subject one seeks to study. Equally bad is the fact that one cannot observe a normal human subject engaged in normal complex purposeful activities when the human is lying in a device of any type. In short, the classical laboratory is completely unsuited for optimal neuroscience investigation. Hence, we deemed it worth the risk, if broad leaps are to be made in a short time period, to loosen some of the constraints of the conventional laboratory and take a calculated risk that a more informal investigation might actually yield new results if properly guided by established research. This point of view is the origin of the ten principles/ axioms of brain dynamics presented below.

What should a set of dynamical principles do? First the set should contain the most important information about the learning process in the shortest possible set of statements. The principles should account for what is known about human learning behavior in everyday life; it must be possible for the principles be used to conjecture new behavior or lines of investigation, thus narrowing the search of researchers in their quest to ask the "right" questions. Further, it should be possible to use the principles in combination to build up more complex conclusions just as is done in physics and mathematics..

Tennis was chosen as a venue for this research because of its complexity, observability and measurability

The choice of tennis training as the venue for empirical studies to test hypotheses about the human learning process was as follows: 1) Tennis challenges nearly every part of the body and mind. It challenges both athletic skills, emotions, decision making skills, intellectual skills. Tennis makes demands on the frontal lobe, limbic system, visual processing, parietal lobe, cerebellum, basil ganglia and the entire neuromuscular infrastructure of the human body. 2) Tennis is an eye-to-eye combative sport so all aspects of combative competition come into play; 3) Tennis is an individual sport so the subject is isolated and must perform on their own every second of match play and practice. 4) Tennis can be studied in a small area of 150 by 50 feet. In this area, video and direct observation are easily carried out; 5) Tennis requires extraordinary training at the professional level requiring anaerobic fitness, precision movement, strength in every part of the body from feet to neck to eyes. footwork, speed, endurance, spatial judgment, eye-hand coordination, ability to synchronize movements between body, ball and racquet, concentration, discipline, both calm execution and intense aggression.

The Principles of the Gliocentric Theory of the Brain

Principle of Complex Adaptive Systems: The glial mass act like a swarm rather than a monolithic structure which enables the glia to make complex adaptations to the ever changing circumstances of life.

Principle of Mesoscopic Assemblies: Mesoscopic structures (structures that perform a single very simple dynamic but do not necessarily perform an end use function) are the basic constructs of the glia through the modulation and attenuation of neural communication..

Principle of Purpose and Meaning: The stimulation of the formation of MA's is driven by purpose, relevance and meaning. Thus the glia's interaction with the limbic system is the origination of all intentional actions and reactions above the reflex level governed by the reflex arc in the spinal cord.

Principle of(Learning and Adaptation: Learning is the act of the glia in forming new mesoscopic assemblies. Adaptation is the process of using existing assemblies in new configurations to perform a new task.

Principle of Equilibrium and "Self Organization": For a new assembly to be formed and incorporated into action or thought, it must be consistent with the stable assemblies to which it is associated. This stability is managed by the glia and is the analog of an equilibrium principle in physics. A metaphor for glial equilibrium is "self organization".

Principle of Efficiency: The glial mass within the brain operates on the principle of efficiency in the management of neurons in that it constantly seeks to make use of neurons in diverse ways and to use only the fewest neurons to perform a task. Hence, within the brain there is a constant competition for neuronal pathways to be used by the glial mass to form mesoscopic assemblies.

Principle of Successive Approximations: MA's are formed through a series of successive approximations that is reflected in the processes of experimentation and exploration driven by the glia. The process of successive approximations utilize preafference and corollary discharge to manage convergence to a refined action sequence.

Principle of Chaotic Dynamics: Chaotic dynamics are a fundamental dynamical mechanisms of the glial mass in forming new knowledge and is reflected in (1) the natural activity of experimentation and exploration driven by the "pseudo random" feature of chaos; (2) the ability to form a rapid first approximation to an action driven by exponentially sensitive dependence on initial conditions and parameters; (3) the ability to achieve an action goal through diverse pathways driven by the uniform morphology of chaotic dynamics.