The YIN MIND

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 Conditioned Responses (Pavlov)

are
Correlational Assignments

Mast Cells
Mast cells are part of the immune system.
Mast cells combat multicellular parasites (e.g. nematode worms).
Mast cells can cause allergies,
when they attack substances such as pollen or food.

Chemical Mediators and Antigen Triggers
Mast cells contain chemical mediators.
These chemical mediators are released in response to certain signals.
The binding of a foreign protein or other antigen to antibodies
on the surface of the mast cell is a triggering event.
These antibodies on the surface of the mast cell
are called immunoglobulin E or IgE.

When the immune system, mistakenly makes IgE bind to the protein in food
or on a pollen grain, as an antigen, allergies result.

Neural Stimulation as a Trigger
There are other ways of stimulating IgE on mast cells.
Direct stimulation by nerves is one such way.
This can involve simple sensory input.
The sensory input can be a conditioned response.
The last time this sensory input occurred, the subsequent event in time
or the sequential event in spatial proximity correlated
with an experience we want to avoid.
We correlate the sensory signal with the subsequent event.
We generate a conditioned response.

Necessary Suppression
Because we can have experiences which are traumatic,
where we don’t know what to think or what to feel about what we experience,
we want to hold or suppress the memory of the experience
until we can understand it.

Psychophysiology
In order to successfully suppress it, we cannot hold in our mind
what we don’t want to hold in our mind.
On that account, we sheath the memory of the experience
with associated and correlated triggers – triggers of detour or avoidance.
Where the association or correlation would normally trigger memory,
we label it as a correlational assignment and ask it to trigger avoidance
or repression of the memory.
The nervous system accepts this directive and partly implements the directive
through the immune system.

As an example, we are involved in an automobile accident.
The consequences yield disabilities, perhaps life long.
In order to not have a fear and compulsive response to similar situations
(whatever we define as similar e.g. sitting in the same seat in a car, being a passenger in a car,
being in a car, riding with a driver of the same gender as when the accident occurred,
being on the same street, etc.)
we sheath the memory with associations which prompt us
to avoid encountering the memory trigger of the event itself.

We don’t understand the justice, the fairness, the rightness

or wrongness of the experience.

Perhaps something was spilled or damaged that gave off an odour.
We remember the metal can with the orange label contained the substance.
We remember the sound of the metal container being upset and opened.
The sight of the metal can with an orange label or the sound
of the metal container being upset can trigger the assignment.

It may be possible to say that nature allows for the provisional elegance.
(see document, Provisional Elegance)

Science 6 Jan. p. 84, The McMaster Report
New Scientist 28 January 1989, Mast cells respond to Pavlovian conditioning.

copyright 2011, 2014, ECOhealth / Eve Revere