Is it possible to record neurons firing?

[Aerozord]

So brain mapping is done by measuring blood flow and EM spikes since we dont have the fidelity to record actual neurons firing. This got me wondering, is that the only barrier?

I was trying to think about how it would work if we did. Human brain processes information faster than anything we can make. Would that be an issue or would a recording just be more like snap shots and thus processing power of the technology isn't a barrier?

[Flarecobra]

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/24787

Yes, we can.

[Osterbaum]

They've also been doing it with squid giant axons for like ages. The thing is that instead of directly measuring the neurons firing, they measure the changes in ion currents and voltage.'

e: but basically, squid giant axons and the patch clamp method (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_clamp) we've known for quite a while how neurons fire

[Aerozord]

Not how they fire, but what that firing means. I mean being able to record, in real time, human thought.

[Osterbaum]

Well the mechanism of neurons firing is pretty well known. What is more interesting in modern research is what happens at the synapses between neurons or neuron and target cell (like a muscle cell). All of this stuff is insanly complicated though, and (at least biological) research rearly even tries to correlate their results with specific thought patterns. It's more "this type of mechanism often operates in memory" and less "GABA receptors of CNS neurons are responsible for memory formation". Basically it's all pretty unsure at this point.

[Sithdarth]

We can already decode sounds from brain waves. Well to a certain extent.

Human brain processes information faster than anything we can make.

This is an entirely unsupportable statement. At best we can say the brain processes information differently than anything we currently make. (It being basically analog.) In fact since we understand so little about how brain activity results in processing information we can't even really quantify just how fast the brain can process information in any reliable way. Even if we had a decent understanding of the basics of how neural activity results in information processing (a machine language level description) that still doesn't mean we can understand the algorithms the brain uses to accomplish what is accomplishes. At this point we can't even really tell if the brain is super powerful, if it has really really efficient algorithms for data processing, or a little of both.

Aside from that recording information is a lot different than understanding and processing information. You can record more information by making the detector bigger or adding more to record different portions at the same time. You can technically do that with creating more computing power but it is generally both more expensive and more technically challenging.

In short, recording can generally be done at speeds that are much faster than the ability to process the recorded data in any meaningful way. Also, any quantification of the processing speed of a brain is highly suspect.

[Aerozord]

Just as a fun fact I was reading an article about some new discoveries on how the brain processes information. Instead of a binary neuron firing it fires off several which take different paths and information is determined by the time difference of when these signals arrive.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

This thread stopping heaps of my neurons from firing. Possibly permanently

[Revising Ocelot]

This thread stopping heaps of my neurons from firing. Possibly permanently

That'd be the alcohol.

[Osterbaum]

Myth! Alcohol is in fact not all that likely to kill neurons in your brain.

[Kim]

neurons aint even real dogg

[Revising Ocelot]

Myth! Alcohol is in fact not all that likely to kill neurons in your brain.

This is Smarty we're talking about here. You know better than that.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Alcohol killing brain cells doesn't make up any sense. It was a "fact" made up by the Salvation army in their ever going war the skellington army.

[Revising Ocelot]

Well you didn't mention killing them in your first post. But I had a moment of foolishness and thought you were merely passing on the drink to the neurons. Be more charitable.

[Magus]

Stupid scientists, always up in my ganglia.