Conclusions

In biology one likes to search for general principles; indeed one is almost compelled in that direction. This applies to Neuroscience as to any other biological discipline. There is, however, an ongoing dialectic, if one can put it that way. On the one hand, it can be striking how neurons in extremely different contexts display firing patterns that look oddly similar (Fig. 15.1; see also Chap. 12). But on the other hand, look further – especially among invertebrates – and bizarre findings pop up, not similar at all to what we are used to. In the example of Fig. 15.2, there are action potentials mediated by Ca2+ influx, not Na+, and lasting ~1 s rather than ~1 ms. How is one to cope with this?