Biophysics of Computation: Information Processing in Single Neurons

From Book News, Inc.
The brain takes incoming sensory data, encodes them into various biophysical variables such as the membrane potential or neuronal firing rates, subsequently performs a large number of ill-specified operations to extract relevant features, and sometimes stores the computations for later access to control the motor output of the animal. Koch (computation and neural systems, California Institute of Technology) examines in detail the biophysical mechanisms by which it does so. Suitable as a graduate or undergraduate textbook or a reference in the neurosciences, engineering, and physics.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


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Neural network research often builds on the fiction that neurons are simple linear threshold units, completely neglecting the highly dynamic and complex nature of synapses, dendrites, and voltage-dependent ionic currents. Biophysics of Computation: Information Processing in Single Neurons challenges this notion, using richly detailed experimental and theoretical findings from cellular biophysics to explain the repertoire of computational functions available to single neurons. The author shows how individual nerve cells can multiply, integrate, or delay synaptic inputs and how information can be encoded in the voltage across the membrane, in the intracellular calcium concentration, or in the timing of individual spikes. Biophysics of Computation: Information Processing in Single Neurons serves as an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in cellular biophysics, computational neuroscience, and neural networks, and will appeal to students and professionals in neuroscience, electrical and computer engineering, and physics.


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