Elemental abstractions for neuronal systems

• Substitute continuous adaptation for absolute precision

  • Visual system has a 10-decade dynamic range
  • 30 bits??? No — just 7-bits, adjusted to the ambient light level

• Asynchronous, parallel processing

• Local learning

• Impulse signaling
  • Fast edges fight noise
  • Active wire preserves edges

• Much we don’t know

M. Steriade, Neuromodulatory systems of thalmus

and neocortex, Neuroscience Seminars 7–5, 1995.

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