Vidybida A.K. Binding neuron. In: Mehdi Khosrow-Pour (ed). Encyclopedia of information science and technology, Third Edition, IGI Global, Hershey PA, 2014, pp. 1123--1134
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INTRODUCTION
Although a neuron requires energy,
its main function
is to receive signals and to send them out
that is, to handle information.
- F. Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis, 1994
The brain ability to perform meaningful signal pro-
cessing tasks related to perception, pattern recogni-
tion, reasoning is normally attributed to large-scale
neuronal networks. The main signals involved in the
instantaneous neural processing are neural impulses,
and the units, which process impulses in a network,
are individual neurons. We now put a question: In the
context of higher brain functions, like perception, what
is a meaningful task a neuron performs with the signals
it receives? Another question: Does the inhibition exist
for taming neuronal activity only, or it can be endowed
with a more intelligent signal processing role? In
this article, we propose an abstract concept of signal
processing in a generic neuron, which is relevant to
the features/events binding well known for large-scale
neural circuits. Within this concept, action of inhibition
obtains its natural signal processing meaning.