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Our understanding of neural codes rests on Shannon's foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2019

Charles R. Gallistel Open the ORCID record for Charles R. Gallistel [Opens in a new window]
Charles R. Gallistel*
Affiliation:
Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ08854. galliste@ruccs.rutgers.eduhttps://ruccs.rutgers.edu/gallistel-research-interests
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Abstract

Shannon's theory lays the foundation for understanding the flow of information from world into brain: There must be a set of possible messages. Brain structure determines what they are. Many messages convey quantitative facts (distances, directions, durations, etc.). It is impossible to consider how neural tissue processes these numbers without first considering how it encodes them.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 42 , 2019 , e226
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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