Neurons: Faster than thought and able to multiply

Scientists discover new properties of nerve cells through computing - and contemplation Freiburg, 10. Using computer simulations of brain-like networks, researchers from Germany and Japan have discovered why nerve cells transmit information through small electrical pulses. Not only allows this the brain to process information much faster than previously thought: single neurons are already able to multiply, opening the door to more complex forms of computing. When nerve cells communicate with each other, they do so through electrical pulses, the 'action potentials'. For decades, the accepted idea was that they simply sum up the tiny potentials generated by the incoming pulses and emit an action potential themselves when a threshold is reached. For the first time, Moritz Helias and Markus Diesmann from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (Japan) and Moritz Deger and Stefan Rotter from the Bernstein Center Freiburg (Germany) now explain what exactly happens right before a nerve cell emits a pulse (PLoS Computational Biology, www.ploscompbiol.org/doi/pcbi. The scientists made their discovery through simulations on high performance computers, but found the perfect image for their research subject in the tranquility of Japanese gardens: the 'shishi odoshi', a reed of bamboo, open on one end, which tilts when a certain amount of rainwater has accumulated inside.