Location Neurons Do Advanced Math
Laura L. Helmuth · Science · 2001
A mouse's minutes are numbered if it rustles through a field within hearing distance of a barn owl. The owl knows where to aim its talons even in the dark, thanks in part to a precise map of auditory space engraved in its brain's inferior colliculus, located in the brainstem. Now researchers have discovered that space-specific neurons in this map can perform more sophisticated computations than are commonly credited to neurons: Most neurons simply add incoming signals to come up with an answer, but neurons in the owl's auditory map multiply.