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Sport 25: Spring 2000
Let's Look at Neurons
Let's Look at Neurons
Let's look at neurons,
how they might encode information:
cats are shown pictures,
the view from a camera panning across a forest;
birds
flashes
of red on the wing.
The team extrapolates patterns
via mathematical equations:
each cell reacts pi to the negative ten
(watch the flapping at the edge of the angle)
abscissa, scalar, modulus, sum.
Eavesdropping on the brains of cats,
they hope to reconstitute pictures:
chart 500 neurons in the lateral geniculate;
push coloured pins in the wall as they fire.
Our ultimate goal
is to comprehend the world:
how we know this is grandmother,
the other Marilyn Monroe.