In the past few decades we have made much progress in understanding how the brain works. Scientists have elucidated the neurobiological mechanisms by which individual neurons integrate EPSPs and IPSPs, initiate and conduct action potentials, and pass them to other neurons in a process called synaptic transmission. They have even discovered a neurobiological basis for learning.
Unfortunately, although such progress has been made, very little is known about the ways in which neurons interact with one another; how networks of neurons perform computations. It is by way of these networks that the brain is able to perform complex tasks such as movement, speech, and thought. In order to understand how the brain does these complex functions, knowing about individual neurons is not enough; we must begin to examine the connectivity between neurons: how neurons having different properties are linked so that they can produce complex bodily movements and thoughts. As you will see in the following demonstration, making cross-correlograms is a simple but powerful method that allows us to make certain assumptions about how different neurons may be connected.
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