3.3 Chemical oscillators in different contexts.
The very same substances that have been involved in the timing of embryonic development, will later in life fulfil roles that appear to be entirely different. We have seen that cyclic AMP has a career as a director of [1] aggregation, [2] movement and [3] differentiation, depending on the phase of the developmental cycle, and the context in which AMP is the messenger substance between communicating cells. In the adult vertebrate organism the same AMP plays a role in brain metabolism and behaviour development.
The developmental fields created by metabolic activities in the embryo, can be compared with the fields that shape behaviour and cognition in the developing and learning brain. Such fields control the growth and function of neural structures which define a context and a meaning for perceptual and behavioural events (Goodwin 1976).
The analogy between developmental fields in the embryo (in the time-window of epigenesis) and those in developing cognition (in the time-window of attentional integration during learning) will be taken up again in Chapter 7. When looking at the competing cell-groups in an embryo, that derive from three different types of germ-tissue we will be impressed. We will discover that the outcome of the competition has far reaching consequences for a person's later behavioural style, his way of life and even the value system by which he assesses his environment.
The variation between human individuals is due to hereditary factors interacting with influences from the environment during epigenesis. Think of the limb-formation with its ever smaller compartments. Similar to the phalanges of the fingers and toes that acquire their finishing touches by vascular and nerve-supply, other final developments occur everywhere in the organism. Usually the highest resonating overtones are still in harmony with the driving fundamental oscillation. Local influences however can bring about unwanted variations, such as syndactylism (joined fingers or toes) cleft palate or congenital heart defect. Similarly unwanted variations in the finishing stage occur in neuroanatomical structures and neuropsychological functions. The relation between growth, maturation and learning will be discussed in Chapter 8. By studying that map, such developmental disorders as dyslexia, cluttering and stuttering can be better understood.
3.4 The energetic aspect of information: absent in R.Sheldrake's concept.