Micro - rewiring as a substrate for learning Synaptic vesicle endocytosis – fast and slow modes Stochastic noise influences on brain function

Neuroscientists have become increasingly aware of the complexities and subtleties of sensory processing. This applies particularly to the complex elaborations of nerve signals that occur in the sensory circuits, sometimes at the very initial stages of sensory pathways. Sensory processing is now known to be very different from a simple neural copy of the physical signal present in the external world, and this accounts for the intricacy of neural organization that puzzled great investigators of neuroanatomy such as Santiago Ramó n Y Cajal a century ago. It will surprise present-day sensory neuroscientists, applying their many modern methods, that the conceptual basis of the contemporary approach to sensory function had been recognized four centuries ago by Galileo Galilei. Introduction In 1609, Galileo initiated telescopic observations that were of crucial importance in heralding the modern scientific revolution. The new conception of the universe, as advocated by Copernicus, placed the sun in the central place rather than the earth. To derive support for this new conception, Galileo introduced a similar revolutionary shift in the conception of sensory processing and of vision in particular.