On Wed, 13 Aug 1997 Anders Sandberg <nv91-asa@nada.kth.se> Wrote:
>Actually, myelinization does increase the speed of transmission in
>the brain
True, myelinization does help, but not much. Without myelinization a signal
might move at 5 or 10 meters per second, in axons that have a thick myelin
sheath around them nerve impulses reach about 100 meters per second.
Light moves at 300,000,000 meters per second. I'm not impressed.
>otherwise it would have made more evolutionary sense to have no
>myelin in the white matter and shrink the brain a lot
Evolution almost never picks the best move, it doesn't need to, it just needs
to be better than the competition.
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
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