Overview of 'The Spike': an epic journey through failure, darkness, meaning, and spontaneity

from Princeton University Press (March 9, 2021)

THE SPIKE is a marvelously unique popular neuroscience book by Professor Mark Humphries, Chair of Computational Neuroscience at the University of Nottingham and Proprietor of The Spike blog on Medium. Humphries' novel approach to brain exposition is built around — well — the spike, the electrical signal neurons use to communicate. In this magical rendition, the 2.1 second journey through the brain takes 174 pages (plus Acknowledgments and Endnotes).

I haven't read the entire book, so this is not a proper book review. But here's an overview of what I might expect. The Introduction is filled with inventive prose like, “We will wander through the splendor of the richly stocked prefrontal cortex and stand in terror before the wall of noise emanating from the basal ganglia.” (p. 10).

Did You Know That Your Life Can Be Reduced To Spikes?

Then there's the splendor and terror of a life reduced to spikes (p. 3):

“All told, your lifespan is about thirty-four billion billion cortical spikes.”

Spike Drama

But will I grow weary of overly dramatic interpretations of spikes? “Our spike's arrival rips open bags of molecules stored at the end of the axon, forcing their contents to be dumped into the gap, and diffuse to the other side.” (p. 29-30).

Waiting for me on the other side of burst vesicles are intriguing chapters on Failure (dead end spikes) and Dark Neurons, the numerous weirdos who remain silent while their neighbors are “screaming at the top of [their] lungs.” (p. 83). I anticipate this story like a good mystery novel with wry throwaway observations (p. 82):

“Neuroimaging—functional MRI—shows us Technicolor images of the cortex, its regions lit up in a swirling riot of poorly chosen colors that make the Pantone people cry into their tasteful coffee mugs.”

Pantone colors of 2021 are gray and yellow

 

Wherever it ends up – with a mind-blowing new vision of the brain based on spontaneous spikes, or with just another opinion on predictive coding theory – I predict THE SPIKE will be an epic and entertaining journey.