Biophysics of Computation : Information Processing in Single Neurons (Computational Neuroscience Series)
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
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.
Key topics covered include the linear cable equation; cable theory as applied to passive dendritic trees and dendritic spines; chemical and electrical synapses and how to treat them from a computational point of view; nonlinear interactions of synaptic input in passive and active dendritic
trees; the Hodgkin-Huxley model of action potential generation and propagation; phase space analysis; linking stochastic ionic channels to membrane-dependent currents; calcium- and potassium-currents and their role in information processing; the role of diffusion, buffering and binding of calcium,
and other messenger systems in information processing and storage; short- and long-term models of synaptic plasticity; simplified models of single cells; stochastic aspects of neuronal firing; the nature of the neuronal code; and unconventional models of sub-cellular computation.
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.
About the Author
Christof Koch obtained his Ph.D. in Tübingen, Germany in 1982 in (bio)-physics. After a four year sojourn at MIT, he joined the California Institute of Technology, where he is the "Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology". His laboratory focuses on experimental and computational research pertaining to the biophysics and neurophysiology of neurons. With Dr. Francis Crick at the Salk Institute, he has been working on discovering the neuronal correlates of consciousness in the primate brain.
Biophysics of Computation: Information Processing in Single Neurons (Computational Neuroscience Series),Christof Koch,Oxford University Press, USA,0195104919,Action potentials (Electrophys,Anthropology - Physical,Computational neuroscience,Engineering - Electrical & Electronic,Life Sciences - Biology - General,Life Sciences - Biophysics,Neural conduction,Neural networks (Neurobiology),Neurobiology,Neurons,Neuroscience,Physics,Science,Science/Mathematics,Biophysics,Life Sciences | Physiology | Biophysics,Medical / Neuroscience,Neural networks,Neurosciences
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