Mecanismos glutamatérgicos de Aprendizagem Perceptual: um ensaio em Neuroepistemology

Resumo

Introducing the project of an area of study called Neuroepistemology, I argue that perceptual learning - the presentation of an attended stimulus eliciting the register of a corresponding informational pattern in the brain - is supported by glutamatergic synaptic and post-synaptic structures receiving afferent signals from thalamic projections. Glutamate membrane receptors (AMPA, NMDA and metabotropic) control signaling pathways, targeting a molecular computing device in dendritic spines that registers the relevant afferent patterns. From the study of these biological structures and functions, I criticize the neuroepistemological version of Transcendental Idealism proposed by Behrendt (2003), and suggest - following the classical Empiricist hypothesis - that the building-blocks of our mental universe are impressed in the brain following the presentation of attended stimuli.