Endogenous opioid abstinence syndrome.

Starting from the observation that an increase of stress analgesia is followed by a hyperalgesia period, with a series of symptoms characteristic of the exogenous opioid abstinence syndrome (EXOAS), the authors supposed also the possibility of the existence of an endogenous abstinence syndrome (ENOAS). In order to demonstrate the existence of this syndrome, they investigated at first the possibility of the appearance of an acute tolerance to opioids. Then they followed-up the course of behaviour during and after informational stress in untreated animals, in animals treated with naloxone, which--being an antagonist of opioids--can induce EXOAS in toxicomaniacs, and in animals treated with clonidine and propranolol, that are used in the treatment of EXOAS. Experimental researches have demonstrated the possibility of ENOAS occurrence, its aggravation by naloxone and its improvement with clonidine and propranolol.

Informational stress: discussion paper.

Stress can be caused by a multitude of factors requiring the capacity for adaption by the organism. As well as physical, chemical and biological factors, information may also become a stressor in certain circumstances. Stress may be induced just as well by too little as by too much information, and by the quality of the information.

Implications of endogenous opioids in the informational aggression syndrome.

Starting from the observation that the informational aggression syndrome (IAS) in animals resembles the opioid abstinence syndrome, the authors studied the implications of endogenous opioids in experimentally induced IAS. They induced an IAS in rats, by means of specific sound signals and examined the animals' behaviour by a test used in the study of the opioid abstinence syndrome, as well as their reaction to noxious stimuli by means of thermal stimulation. The results show the implications of endogenous opioids in the IAS. During the first stage, a larger amount of endogenous opioids is secreted; specific symptoms of the opioid abstinence syndrome develop during the second stage. These symptoms can be prevented with clonidine, that has been used in the treatment of the exogenous opioid abstinence syndrome.

Neurocybernetic basis of semantic processes.

Although semantics cannot be reduced to neurophysiology, it must have however a certain neurophysiologic basis and this paper deals with, that neurophysiologic basis which, in fact, has a neurocybernetic basis. The paper first approaches the relations between information and signification and their part within the nervous system's work. Then, it analyses semantic function discoverying neurocybernetic mechanisms which can be proper not only to the conventional signs but also to the objects and phenomena which in turn can play the sign's part. Finally, semantic levels of the nervous system, beginning with the most elementary level of unity, as letters are, and up to the level of the highest ideas and concepts the brain is working with, are described.

Hemispheric asymmetry of informational processing.

Showing that all the biophysical and biochemical modifications which take place within the nervous system contribute in one way or another, to the development of informational and decisional processes, the author describes the specifics of those processes. One of them is represented by the relative symmetry of those processes, because informational and decisional processes taking place in the right hemisphere are not absolutely identical with those which take place in the left hemisphere. Therefore, we can talk about a true hemispherical asymmetry. That asymmetry concerns all the steps of informational and decisional processes beginning with the reception and transmission of signals, to the discovering of information, which are brought by the respective signals and as for as processing of discovered information, in view of the most adequate decision election. Finally, the asymmetry of informational and decisional processes, which are based on differences between the logical superstructure of the two cerebral hemispheres, is analysed.

Neurocybernetic control mechanisms of informational homeostasis.

This paper discusses the fact, that to be able to keep its stability in a very variable environment, alongside substantial and energetical exchanges, the human organism must maintain also a permanent informational exchange with the environment it lives in. But the communication functions of the organism are of a very limited volume and cannot transmit all the information offered by the environment. Therefore, the organism is obliged to perform a rigorous selection of information received. A first selection is performed by means of excitability threshold and of the refractory period. A more adequate selection is performed by means of inhibition, habituation, attention, tiredness, and sleep. But those mechanisms control only the signals, reception, because organism receive only some signals from the exterior. Those signals are information carriers. But, in order to be able to discover the information it carries, the nervous system must submit the received signals to some very complicated processings, as the superisation process is. Because the discovered information does not depend only on received signals, but also on the way they were processed; information discovered by the nervous system is not similar to that emitted by the source. Therefore, informational homeostasis is not similar to signal homeostasis. Along beside signals selecting means, for informational homeostasis preservation, there are also certain affective factors and especially the process of discovering and processing of discovered information. These mechanisms can assure neuropsychical equilibrium under overstressing and substressing informational condition. And their disturbance can lead to certain psychical diseases.

Informational analysis of consciousness.

Informational analysis of neurophysiological processes leads to the conclusion that the unconscious and subconscious comprise especially algorithmic processes, which take place according to precise rules, and awareness and consciousness comprise especially heuristic processes, for which the nervous system does not provide precise rules. The part played by awareness and consciousness is to find the processing rules of information which cannot be algorithmically processed. This paper describes the way that awareness and consciousness manage to discover the processing rules of information and the manner of their contribution to the adaptation of the unconscious and of the subconscious to the very variable conditions of the environment.

Algorithmic and heuristic processing of information by the nervous system.

Starting from the fact that the nervous system must discover the information it needs, the author describes the way it decodes the received message. The logical circuits of the nervous system, submitting the received signals to a process by means of which information brought is discovered step by step, participates in decoding the message. The received signals, as information, can be algorithmically or heuristically processed. Algorithmic processing is done according to precise rules, which must be fulfilled step by step. By algorithmic processing, one develops somatic and vegetative reflexes as blood pressure, heart frequency or water metabolism control. When it does not dispose of precise rules of information processing or when algorithmic processing needs a very long time, the nervous system must use heuristic processing. This is the feature that differentiates the human brain from the electronic computer that can work only according to some extremely precise rules. The human brain can work according to less precise rules because it can resort to trial and error operations, and because it works according to a form of logic. Working with superior order signals which represent the class of all inferior type signals from which they begin, the human brain need not perform all the operations that it would have to perform by superior type of signals. Therefore the brain tries to submit the received signals to intensive as possible superization. All informational processing, and especially heuristical processing, is accompanied by a certain affective color and the brain cannot operate without it. Emotions, passions and sentiments usually complete the lack of precision of the heuristical programmes. Finally, the author shows that informational and especially heuristical processes study can contribute to a better understanding of the transition from neurological to psychological activity.

Transition of nervous activity from signals to information processing.

The author starts from the fact that although the signals are the information bearers, they cannot be identified with the information they are carrying. Therefore, in order to achieve control as adequate as possible of human behaviour, the nervous system has to discover the information brought by different signals. The activity of information discovery is realized by means of superisation process, that is by means of transition from many lower order signals to a superior order signal. By means of the superisation process a gradual recognition of the respective signals emitting sources is realised. This recognition is made with the help of certain logical circuits representing the models of different sources written in the structure of the neuronal network. In this manner the nervous system passes step by step from control by means of signals to control by means of information by which the superior structures thereby exert much more subtle control, and supervise the inferior structures working by signals. But, because this control cannot remove all the errors of the inferior structures, different psychical and psychosomatic illnesses can occur.

How the nervous system determines the quantity of information delivered by signals.

Starting from the finding that the brain responds to received signals according to the quantity of information (Restian, 1978), the author tried to answer the question: How does the brain discover the quantity of information brought by these signals? In order to reply to this question, the author appealed to two sources that emitted similar signals containing different information. It was found that although the signals brought different information at the beginning they functioned similarly. Only after a period of time did the signals come to function differently, according to the quantity of information delivered by them. This fact demonstrates that the brain operates neither on signals nor on source-emitted information. The brain operates on information discovered by it in the respective signals, and the discovery of the information the received signals is done according an internal model constructed by the brain concerning the respective source. It can be affirmed by the fact that together with the improvement of the model, the results of the received signals are modified.