The story of a neural impulse and what it reveals about how our brains work We see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out. In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate with one another, sending blips of voltage through our sensory and motor regions. Neuroscientists call these blips “spikes.” Spikes enable us to do everything: talk, eat, run, see, plan, and decide. In The Spike, Mark Humphries takes readers on the epic journey of a spike through a single, brief reaction. In vivid language, Humphries tells the story of what happens in our brain, what we know about spikes, and what we still have left to understand about them. Drawing on decades of research in neuroscience, Humphries explores how spikes are born, how they are transmitted, and how they lead us to action. He dives into previously unanswered mysteries: Why are most neurons silent? What causes neurons to fire spikes spontaneously, without input from other neurons or the outside world? Why do most spikes fail to reach any destination? Humphries presents a new vision of the brain, one where fundamental computations are carried out by spontaneous spikes that predict what will happen in the world, helping us to perceive, decide, and react quickly enough for our survival. Traversing neuroscience’s expansive terrain, The Spike follows a single electrical response to illuminate how our extraordinary brains work.

Frank Schmitt has for two thirds of a century been searching for -- and in many cases finding -- explanations of major biomedical importance. His is a very human story -- of a youth in high school doing experiments in a make-shift chemical laboratory in the attic of the family home; of a young university student who organized a students' science society and whose undergraduate research on cell structure was published in major professional journals; of a medical school student who wrote a thesis that attracted the attention of cardiologists for many years; of a devoted husband who, with his young wife, spent two postdoctoral years in Berkeley, London and Berlin and later made two trips around the world with her as he set up a worldwide network of neuroscientists. As a young scientist at Washington University, Schmitt investigated polarization optical and x-ray diffraction methods to discover the molecular structure of living tissues -- this, long before molecular biology was established as a scientific discipline. Schmitt was called to head biology at MIT in 1941. There he added electron microscopy to his ultrastructural repertoire and used much of it in wartime research. As an Institute Professor (MIT's highest rank), he became a leader in the founding and characterization of the fields of biophysic and neuroscience. Schmitt was also deeply committed to music, along with his wife, and had an interest in theology. Photos.

"Examines the role of the humanities, particularly rhetoric, in neuroscience, showing how the brain is enmeshed in the body, in culture, and in discourse. Uses examples of studies on sex and gender, political orientation, and affect to argue for a rhetoric-based approach to neuroscience"--

This text originates from the second of two conferences discussing the concept of consciousness. In 15 sections, this book demonstrates the broad range of fields now focusing on consciousness.