next up previous contents index
Next: 1.1 Elements of Neuronal Up: Contents Previous: Contents


1. Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to introduce several elementary notions of neuroscience, in particular the concepts of action potentials, postsynaptic potentials, firing thresholds, and refractoriness. Based on these notions a first phenomenological model of neuronal dynamics is built that will be used as a starting point for a discussion of neuronal coding. Due to the limitations of space we cannot - and do not want to - give a comprehensive introduction into such a complex field as neurobiology. The presentation of the biological background in this chapter is therefore highly selective and simplistic. For an in-depth discussion of neurobiology we refer the reader to the literature mentioned at the end of this chapter. Nevertheless, we try to provide the reader with a minimum of information necessary to appreciate the biological background of the theoretical work presented in this book.



Subsections

Gerstner and Kistler
Spiking Neuron Models. Single Neurons, Populations, Plasticity
Cambridge University Press, 2002

© Cambridge University Press
This book is in copyright. No reproduction of any part of it may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.