[extropy-chat] New Technique Scans Electrical 'Brainscape'

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

Using hairlike microelectrodes and computer analysis, neurobiologists
at Duke University Medical Center have demonstrated that they can see
the detailed instant-to-instant electrical "brainscape" of neural
activity across a living brain.
According to Nicolelis, the new results "support a global theory of
brain function that holds that all these processes are extremely
dynamic. And now with this analytic technique we can measure these
dynamics. It gives us a new language of how to describe continuous
brain function.
"One of the Holy Grails of neurobiology has been the neural 'code' by
which the brain processes information. Now we can say that there is no
such thing as a single neural code, because the code is continuously
changing according to the internal state of the brain, and according
to the strategy the animal selects to search the environment."
Also, said Nicolelis, such analyses will influence neurobiology to
advance beyond the current theory that the single neuron is the basic
computational unit of the brain. "A single neuron is too noisy to act
as a reliable unit of neuronal function," he said. "But an ensemble of
neurons resolves that noise and makes neuronal output stable."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041208093616.htm