Abstract
Three pounds of nerve tissue underneath the skull are capable of perceiving, thinking and acting with a finesse that cannot be matched by any computer.
The brain achieves this feat of cognition, in part, by carefully timing the signals that flash across the trillions of connections that link billions of brain cells.
Seeing a flower pot causes groups of neurons to fire in a brief time interval to activate a part of the brain that registers that particular object at just that one moment.
Understanding how this timing system works will both lead to better understanding of our behavior and enable the building of new computing and electronic equipment that, like the brain, functions more efficiently than conventional digital machines.
Sejnowski, T