question: job of a neuron

[Justus Verhagen]

My 5C

The question asks for the function of a specialized cell _in
isolation_.
This seems pointless to me, other than to reply with WHAT it does/can
do (transfer function, etc )&how so.

But to give something of an answer to a similar question...:

The CNS acts as an integrated system, with typically distributed
representation of information.
HEnce, from a neurocomputationla point of view: one neuron in a big
brain does quite little and can be easily missed (reduncancy, graceful
degradation).

But don't tell an alcoholic aplysia that!

Do read a nice primer! It's tremendously a interesting and rewarding
field to me, and I hope for you all as well.


Justus

On Sat, 01 Sep 2001 22:47:08 GMT, remove_this!helbrecht at gmx.net
("Wolfram") wrote:

>Hello everyone,
>
>in the field of neuroscience i am layman. I have no clinical
>background nor nothing else. Just a person (a bit) interested in
>the field.
>
>Everywhere on the web i can read pages about _how_ neurons work,
>_how_ they interact with others, _how_ the whole brain works (some
>pages assert this).
>
>Has yet someone figured out _what_ a neuron does, i.e. what its
>task is?
>
>-- 
>
>best regards, 
>Wolfram
>