Brain Science with Ginger Campbell, MD: Neuroscience for Everyone BS 186 Mark Humphries author of "The Spike: An Epic Journey Through the Brain in 2.1 Seconds"
Jul 23, 2021
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Action Potential Basics
- Action potentials or spikes are all-or-nothing electrical signals of uniform shape.
- They provide a binary code that neurons use to communicate and convert back into chemical signals.
Discovery of Dark Neurons
- Most neurons in the brain rarely fire and were undetectable by older methods, leading to the concept of dark neurons.
- These neurons may collectively carry significant brain activity even if individually quiet.
Population Coding in Neuroscience
- Decoding brain signals from large neuron populations reveals information not apparent in individual neurons.
- Population coding shifts focus from single neurons to collective neural activity for understanding brain computations.