Beyond Spikes: Neural Codes and the Chemical Vocabulary of Cognition
Romann M. Weber

TL;DR
This paper challenges the spike doctrine by proposing that neurochemicals, rather than neural spikes, are the fundamental units of information encoding in the brain, offering a new perspective on neural communication.
Contribution
It introduces a neurochemical-based framework for understanding brain information encoding, contrasting with the traditional spike-centric view.
Findings
Neurochemicals may serve as elementary information units.
Predictions align with some current research results.
Addresses open questions in neural coding theories.
Abstract
In this paper, I examine what I refer to as the spike doctrine, which is the generally held belief in neuroscience that information in the brain is encoded by sequences of neural action potentials. I present the argument that specific neurochemicals, and not spikes, are the elementary units of information in the brain. I outline several predictions that arise from this interpretation, relate them to results in the current research literature, and show how they address some open questions.
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Taxonomy
TopicsLanguage and cultural evolution · Fractal and DNA sequence analysis · Cognitive Science and Education Research
