Despite some disagreements that are not relevant to the issue, my
discussion with r. norman (and others) has shown that, in essence,
we agree that

1. INFORMATION IS TRANSMITTED FROM THE NEURAL CIRCUIT
TO THE PINEAL CELLS (r.n. writes: "there is a sense of
"information transfer"
in all cell signaling, including the binding of a hormone or 
neurotransmitter to its receptor and the subsequent downstream
pathway.")

2. Being generated by processing of the external stimulus, that
INFORMATION IS EPIGENETIC (r.n. writes: "The nervous system
computes something like "tell the pineal to go" or "don't tell 
the pineal to go".)

3. This EPIGENETIC INFORMATION CONTROLS THE EXPRESSION
OF MELATONIN GENES in pineal cells (r.n.: "The nervous system
computes something like "tell the pineal to go" or "don't
tell the pineal
to go".)

My question in the original post was:("Since the activation of these 
genes is not a random process,  it requires information. Where does
that information come from?") and we could agree that this epigenetic
information comes from the neural circuit.

Here is my second question: Is this epigenetic control of gene expression
an isolated case (hence insignificant), or is it a general epigenetic
mechanism of gene expression in animals?
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 * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 2/21/04 6:39:30 AM