ABSTRACT
Each of the various types of cells that make up the body is specialized to perform one of the general life functions in a particularly efficient manner. Neurons, the cells of greatest interest in this text, have been specialized under the influence of evolutionary forces so that the stimulation of one portion of a cell may result in action at some distant locus. Thus, the generalized excitability of the prototypical cell has evolved into a capacity for specialized information transmission and integration between and among networks of neurons. We may therefore consider the primitive excitability of a single generalized cell as the antecedent of all psychological and behavioral responses.
