How the Brain Makes Decisions
Thomas Boraud
Published:
2020
Online ISBN:
9780191863202
Print ISBN:
9780198824367
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How the Brain Makes Decisions
Thomas Boraud
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Thomas Boraud
Pages
25–C3.F3
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Published:
October 2020
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Boraud, Thomas, 'Introduction to Information Transfer in the Nervous System', How the Brain Makes Decisions (
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Abstract
This chapter discusses the modalities of information transfer in the nervous system. The nervous system is organised around specialised cells called neurons, which work as integration units that transform all received information into new information. The neurons generate unitary electric pulses of invariant form and duration called action potentials or spikes. Neurons have an intrinsic firing frequency that is their frequency of producing spikes when they are not influenced. The chapter then considers the two major families of neurotransmitters. In general, a neuron releases only one type of neurotransmitter belonging to one of these two families. The first family is that of excitatory neurotransmitters; the neurons that release them are naturally called excitatory neurons. When they bind with postsynaptic receptors, they have a facilitating effect on the production of action potentials. Meanwhile, inhibitory neurons release neurotransmitters whose binding with postsynaptic receptors decreases the discharge frequency of the postsynaptic neuron. The chapter also describes a special family of neurotransmitters: the neuro-modulators.
Keywords: neuron, axon, synapse, neurotransmitter, receptor, spike, firing rate
Subject
Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
How the Brain Makes Decisions. Thomas Boraud, Oxford University Press (2020).© Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198824367.001.0001.
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