The Multi-biophysical nature of Computation in brain neural networks

William Winlow; Andrew Simon Johnson

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arXiv · 2508.03115

The Multi-biophysical nature of Computation in brain neural networks

William Winlow·Andrew Simon Johnson

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Abstract

Comprehending the nature of action potentials is fundamental to our understanding of the functioning of nervous systems in general. The ionic mechanisms underlying action potentials in the squid giant axon were first described by Hodgkin and Huxley in 1952 and their findings have formed our orthodox view of how the physiological action potential functions. However, substan-tial evidence has now accumulated to show that the action potential is accompanied by a syn-chronized coupled soliton pressure pulse in the cell membrane, the action potential pulse (AP-Pulse) which we have recently shown to have an essential function in computation. Here we ex-plore the interactions between the soliton and the ionic mechanisms known to be associated with the action potential. Computational models of the action potential usually describe it as a binary event, but we have shown that it must be a quantum ternary event known as the computa-tional action potential (CAP), whose temporal fixed point is the threshold of the soliton, rather than the rather plastic action potential peak used in other models to facilitate meaningful compu-tation. We have demonstrated this type of frequency computation for the retina, in detail, and also provided an extensive analysis for computation for other brain neural networks. The CAP ac-companies the APPulse and the Physiological action potential. Therefore, we conclude that nerve impulses appear to be an ensemble of three inseparable, interdependent, concurrent states: the physiological action potential, the APPulse and the CAP. However, while the physio-logical action potential is important in terms of neural connectivity, it is irrelevant to computational processes as this is always facilitated by the soliton part of the APPulse.

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William Winlow, Andrew Simon Johnson. 2025-08-06. The Multi-biophysical nature of Computation in brain neural networks. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.03115

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