Information processing in biology
In the age of technology you will probably hear the term information processing mostly in connection with computers and other devices. But biology knows that nowhere else such complex information processing processes take place as in the human body. But what exactly does the term mean in a biological sense and how does the body process information?
What information processing means in a biological sense
- First of all, it can be stated that the concept of information processing including information theories was transferred to biology in order to understand nerve and cell processes. The concept of information and the theories corresponding to it have been adapted to transfer them to biological concepts in semantics and pragmatics. So what you understand as information processing is only partially applicable to the biological term.
- If one speaks of information processing in the biological sense, then this can be in relation to various Areas of biology happen, whereby most often neural information processing is meant is. For example, it is through neuronal information processing that pharmaceuticals influence neurophysiological processes. In short: it is about the nerve cells that process impulses from action potentials.
- A stimulus impulse triggers action potential in a nerve cell, meaning that the cell is electrically excited and it moves away from its resting potential. The processes that take their course in a cell with the incoming impulse are now those of neural information processing.
This is how electronic impulses are processed in human biology
- Perhaps you are now interested in how the cell actually processes action potentials. You first have to know that each neuron is connected to a large number of other nerve cells and thus has signal potential.
- In this case, potential can be sub-categorized. Inhibitory postsynaptic potential means a calming of the nerve cell by a certain impulse. Excitatory postsynaptic potential, on the other hand, means that an impulse has an exciting effect on the cell receiving the signal.
- Because the body's nerve cells are connected by synapses, a potential is eventually passed on. Either the synapse inhibits or it excites the connected neuron. Several synapses can act on one and the same neuron at the same time, and they can repeatedly transmit the same potential to the same nerve cell.
- Finally, you should know that a neuron does not necessarily pass an incoming potential on. Only when a certain level of excitement is exceeded by incoming potential is the potential passed on. This is where the terms spatial and temporal summation come into play, because if a synapse also has an excitation value of only 2 transmitted by the neuron and whose level of excitation must be 6 for transmission, it can still be used for information transmission come.
- This happens either when the synapse sends the same potential three times in a row or when several synapses transmit the same potential to the nerve cell at the same time.
Synapse - function simply explained
For biology class or university, you need to know what the function of a ...
Now you have at least a superficial picture of what information processing is in the biology regards. As long as you don't want to become a doctor, that should be enough.
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