Neurophysiology charges ahead

Abstract

: At first glance, animal nervous systems seem to defy understanding. Even a "simple" animal such as a fly has over 100,000 neurons that can fire in billions of possible combinations, driving precise, nuanced responses to complex environmental stimuli. Nonetheless, evolution has given brains a few features that make them tantalizingly easy to study-at least in theory. By Alan Dove, Copyright (C) 2015 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science