The jury is very much out Phillip. Eliezer goes too far in saying it's a myth perpetuated by computer scientists. They use the simplest representations they know to exist in their models for purposes of parsimony. It's hard to fault them for being rigorous in this respect.
But neurons are surely far more complex than this. The majority of computation may well occur within the nonlinear bursting dynamics of dendrites. Just as an example, a new type of neuron has recently been discovered that can hold a steady state of firing in isolation, apply current, rate increases and remains stable at a new threshold. It's dynamically settable, which blows away all standard Integrate & Fire models. We're just scratching the surface of an enormous iceberg. If you're trying to build some useful index of brain power based on number of neurons (or even synapses), give up and wait 30 years at least. -Brad ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
