9511764 Laurent Although brains and computers are thought to be quite similar, the mechanisms which they use to encode and store information are fundamentally different. This is partly because computers were developed by engineers using tools of formal logic to solve rather limited sets of problems, while brains were developed over millions of years with selective pressure of evolution as the only engineer. Indeed, brains evolved to increase the chances of survival of their "owners", and thus primarily to facilitate the detection of prey, predators and mates. Consequently, they succeeded in solving the very complex problems of pattern recognition, problems which present computers are notoriously poor at handling. How do we recognize something as complex as a face or an odor, how do we store their infinite number of possible appearances, how does our brain represent them with neuronal activity patterns? To understand this, we must understand coding in the nervous system; we need to determine the rules that underlie stimulus representation in the brain. Conventional views of coding by the brain hold that information resides in the average number of impulses produced per unit time (rate coding); the role of relative timing of impulses produced by groups of neurons has not been carefully evaluated. The work of this young scientist focuses on circuits that process smells. Experiments are designed to determine whether the relative timing of neuronal impulses (temporal coding) is a potential carrier for information.
