Brain Architecture

"If you look at the anatomy, the structure, the function, there's nothing in the universe that's more beautiful, that's more complex, than the human brain."

- Keith Black, Discover Magazine,

April, 2004(http://discovermagazine.com/2004/apr/keith-black)

Brain Architecture

Corey A. SpitzerBarcamp Omaha 2009

Disclaimer:

I am a computer science grad student with a strong interest in neuroscience; NOT a doctor,

biologist, etc.

Two Primary Types of Brain Cells

Neurons Glia

© 2007, Paul De Koninck. http://www.greenspine.ca/en/framed.html

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gfapastr5.jpg

The Neuron

Dendrites

Axon

Axon Terminals

Nucleus

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neuron-figure-notext.svg

Neural Networks

Otto Loewi and the Frog Hearts

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neuron-figure-notext.svg

Otto Loewi and the Frog Hearts

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Heart_left_lateral_coronaries_diagram.svg

The Synapse

axon terminal

axon

vesicles full of neurotransmitter

ions

receptors and ion channels

dendritespine

The Synapse

axon terminal

axon

vesicles full of neurotransmitter

ions

receptors and ion channels

dendritespine

The Synapse

axon terminal

axon

vesicles full of neurotransmitter

ions

receptors and ion channels

dendritespine

The Synapse

axon terminal

axon

vesicles full of neurotransmitter

ions

receptors and ion channels

dendritespine

The Synapse

axon terminal

axon

vesicles full of neurotransmitter

ions

receptors and ion channels

dendritespine

Kinds of Signals

Neural Circuits

Plasticity and Hebbian Learning

Putting it all Together

References and Sources

References and Sources

The End

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MRI_head_side.jpg