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Originally Posted by heinous  fine, i can stay on topic.
here's my question, ms is caused by breakdown of myelin, because nerve signals are passed electronically, with each exposed surface of a nerve, the signal loses a little strengh, so over long distances a signal can lose a lot of strength. with myelin sheathes coating the nerves the surfaces are covered to prevent loss.
ms deteriorates those sheathes, but those sheathes are not the only way to uphold signal integrity. squids have one of the most advanced nervous system for invertebrates and they achieve it by having thicker nerves to offset the loss of signal. i forgot the specifics from my physiology class but i remember squids actually have no myelin sheath whatsoever, at all, zip, nada.
so has anyone tried thickening human nerves? because that would sound like the logical alternative to preserving myelin sheathes. |
It's not necessarily the loss of signal strength - it's the fact that signals can "jump" from one nerve to another, in essence short-circuiting.
Imagine a stereo system that has speaker wires with no insulation - as long as you can keep the wires separate, you'll be ok, but if they touch, the signal gets transferred to the wrong wire and you'll end up with poor or no sound.