In two days of talks at HHMI headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland, HHMI investigators Eric R. Kandel and Thomas M. Jessell, both of Columbia University, described how the nervous system turns an idea into action—from the complex processing of signals inside the brain to the direct marching orders the spinal cord gives to muscles.
To satisfy the curious crowd, the scientists also addressed some “big picture” questions, such as: How does memory work? How did the human brain get its remarkable computational power? And how do normal brain functions gone awry lead to mental illness and disease?