Neural coding

Neural coding is the study in in neuroscience of how sensory and other information is represented in the brain by neurons.

As of 2006, the central hypothesis of neuroscience is that brain function is a product of the electrical and chemical activity of neurons (formalized as the neuron doctrine). Supporting cells called glia have also been hypothesized to play a direct role in brain function.

Sensory stimuli, such as light, sound, taste, smell and touch are known to cause sensory neurons to change their activity, resulting in a change in the pattern of electrical activity they produce. It is hypothesized that information about the stimulus is encoded in this pattern of electrical activity. Sensory information is hypothesized to be transmitted into and around the brain, electrically. It is known that muscles are activated by electrical pulses and that motoneurons serve to convert electrical pulses generated by the brain into muscle movements that allow animals to interact with the environment, often in response to sensory stimuli they receive from it. The study of neural coding is the effort to understand how neurons encode and manipulate information to effect behavior.