A Scientific Aside

For anyone interested in science, and more specifically brains, this is an idea I thought of during a bio lecture on neuron activity the day after the conference:

So, the basic structure of a neuron is that there are dendrites branching off a nucleus and a long axon extending out of that nucleus and then a synaptic space over which neurotransmitters diffuse, essentially connecting one neuron to the next.

When we have a thought, or idea, or reaction to stimulus, an action potential sprints down the axon and causes the neurotransmitter-carried communication across the synapse. Right after the action potential comes the undershoot, which essentially inhibits another action potential from occurring too soon after the first. But by the same token of ion concentration gradients by which it functions, the undershoot also inhibits the action potential from running backwards to its source. Action potentials may run in one direction, and that is forwards.

Now Prof. Kemp mentioned that in physics, a key concept is that time can also only move in one forward direction. If time is just a construct of our minds (and who is to say it isn't? There are no outside sources of intelligence that can disprove that theory, especially because all machines that could empirically test for opposing evidence would have to be designed by humans, who inherently carry the belief that time is forwards-ly linear, which would affect the design of the instrument), then the undershoot that follows the action potential is the mechanism by which time is prevented from running backwards. And deja vu, when we have the eerie feeling that we have experienced something before, would be a malfunctioning interaction. 

Of course, this is just a theory I hold. There is no research into the subject that I know of (how would anyone even study that concept?), but guys...what if that means the key to time travel is inside our own heads? What if we could figure out how to inhibit that undershoot and control the action potential so that all stimuli run back to the source? What would time even look like?

Sorry. I completely dorked out and I don't even know if any of that is coherent because I got super excited while writing it. But, like, wow. Brains are just the coolest things ever.

-Becca