# Axonal Computations

## TL;DR

This review explores how the diverse biophysical properties of axons enable complex electrical signaling and computational functions, significantly impacting neural communication and processing.

## Contribution

It provides a comprehensive synthesis of axonal biophysics and highlights their role in expanding neural computational capabilities.

## Key findings

- Axons utilize active and passive properties for complex signaling.
- Biophysical mechanisms enable diverse axonal computations.
- Axons influence neural communication delays and reliability.

## Abstract

Axons functionally link the somato-dendritic compartment to synaptic terminals. Structurally and functionally diverse, they accomplish a central role in determining the delays and reliability with which neuronal ensembles communicate. By combining their active and passive biophysical properties, they ensure a plethora of physiological computations. In this review, we revisit the biophysics of generation and propagation of electrical signals in the axon, their complex interplay, and their rich dynamics. We further place the computational abilities of axons in the context of intracellular and intercellular coupling. We discuss how, by means of sophisticated biophysical mechanisms, axons expand the repertoire of axonal computation, and thereby, of neural computation.