Can Brain Science Remodel ALS Pathology?
There is a new [February 19, 2026 – 21:29 CST] report on Marca, What is ALS, the disease that killed Eric Dane?, stating, that, “Eric Dane, best known for his role as Dr. Mark “McSteamy” Sloan on Grey’s Anatomy, has died at age 53 after a battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), his family confirmed Thursday.”
“ALS is a progressive neurological disease that attacks the nerve cells responsible for controlling voluntary muscle movement.”
“In people living with the condition, motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord gradually degenerate and die, cutting off critical communication lines between the nervous system and muscles.”
“Over time, this leads to increasing muscle weakness, twitching, and atrophy, and eventually robs individuals of their ability to walk, speak, swallow, and breathe.”
“There is currently no cure or treatment that stops the disease’s progression. In most cases, ALS symptoms begin subtly. Early signs can include muscle weakness in an arm or leg, difficulty speaking clearly, or problems with swallowing.”
“As motor neurons fail, the brain can no longer send messages that allow muscles to function, a deterioration that moves inexorably from one region of the body to another.”
“Most people with ALS die from respiratory failure as the muscles that support breathing weaken.”
Sensory and Motor Neurons
If sensory neurons are spared in ALS, but motor neurons are affected, what are the information configuration differences [that could be modeled] between both, to prospect a better understanding of ALS?
The Queensland Brain Institute wrote, “Sensory neurons are the nerve cells that are activated by sensory input from the environment – for example, when you touch a hot surface with your fingertips, the sensory neurons will be the ones firing and sending off signals to the rest of the nervous system about the information they have received. Most sensory neurons are pseudounipolar, which means they only have one axon, which is split into two branches.”
“Motor neurons of the spinal cord are part of the central nervous system (CNS) and connect to muscles, glands, and organs throughout the body. These neurons transmit impulses from the spinal cord to skeletal and smooth muscles (such as those in your stomach), and so directly control all of our muscle movements.”
“Motor neurons have the most common type of ‘body plan’ for a nerve cell – they are multipolar, each with one axon and several dendrites.”
Electrical and Chemical Signals
So, sensory neurons transmit information to the CNS, while motor neurons transmit away from the CNS. While there are differences in their anatomies, the physiological focus here is on the basis of their information configurations.
They both use electrical and chemical signals for communication. So, what is the specificity of these signals when they [say] operate respective neurons?
Specificity is almost like a question about the differences between a memory and an emotion. For example, knowing a pen or paper is different from the experience of sadness, delight, or anger. Simply, there is not much to seeing a pen or paper and recognizing it, just as a memory. But there is a lot to the experience of anger or delight in the intervals it lasts.
This would mean, at least conceptually, that the configurations for both as information, by signals, are different. So, could the same apply to information by sensory neurons and those of motor neurons?
[There are interneurons that connect both.]
Conceptual Brain Science Research for ALS
A direction for research for ALS is to model the configuration, assembly, or formation of information that sensory and motor neurons send.
For example, do configurations make adjustments with interneurons as intermediaries? Is the information the exact [or same] configurations? If sensory neurons are not affected in ALS, what is it about the information that goes out from motor neurons that may add to the problems they develop?
In Conceptual Biomarkers and Theoretical Biological Factors for Psychiatric and Intelligence Nosology, the exploration is to develop a new nosology by components of information in the brain, the electrical and chemical signals. So that, instead of defining conditions by labels, they are defined by mechanisms of both.
The same can be used to build architectural design for motor neurons, linking differences in anatomy to information configuration to develop new research questions on pathology and possibly prevention or say management.
If the psychiatric and Intelligence nosology is ready before the end of August 2026, there is a chance to look for new questions towards amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
This article was written for WHN by David Stephen, who currently does research in conceptual brain science with a focus on the electrical and chemical signals for how they mechanize the human mind, with implications for mental health, disorders, neurotechnology, consciousness, learning, artificial intelligence, and nurture. He was a visiting scholar in medical entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL. He did computer vision research at Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona.
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