Abstract
The central nervous system can be considered, on a functional level, as a very sophisticated computational device, transforming an enormous amount of incoming sensory information into commands to the motor system to act upon the world. The required computations take into account past experiences, i.e., memory, and expectations of how the external world behaves. One of the ultimate goals of neuroscience is to understand the computations performed by this system. Of equal importance is the issue of identifying the basic units of information processing. Are single nerve cells the elementary computational units or does information processing occur at subcellular levels?
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Further reading
Adams PR (1982) Voltage-dependent conductances of vertebrate neurons. Trends Neurosci. 5: 116–119.
Jack JJ, Noble D, Tsien RW (1975): Electric Current Flow in Excitable Cells. Oxford: Clarendon Press
Koch C, Poggio T (1986): Biophysics of computational systems: Neurons, synapses and membranes. In: New Insights into Synaptic Function. Edelman GM, Gall WE, Cowan WM, eds. John Wiley and Sons
Schmitt FO, Worden FG, eds. (1979): The Neurosciences: Fourth Study Program. Cambridge: MIT Press
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Koch, C., Poggio, T. (1988). Information Processing in Nerve Cells. In: States of Brain and Mind. Readings from the Encyclopedia of Neuroscience . Birkhäuser, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6771-8_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6771-8_18
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-6773-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-6771-8
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