What We Are Reading Today: The Spike

What We Are Reading Today: The Spike
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Updated 22 February 2023
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What We Are Reading Today: The Spike

What We Are Reading Today: The Spike

Author: Mark Humphries 

We see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out.

In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate with one another, sending blips of voltage through our sensory and motor regions. Neuroscientists call these blips “spikes.”

Spikes enable us to do everything: talk, eat, run, see, plan, and decide.

In “The Spike,” Mark Humphries takes readers on the epic journey of a spike through a single, brief reaction. In vivid language, Humphries tells the story of what happens in our brain, what we know about spikes, and what we still have left to understand about them.