Activation Function

In the 1950s, the two British physiologists and biophysicists Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley conducted a study of the giant axons in the neurons of the squid. The squid is convenient for neuroscience research because its axons are visible to the naked eye. The researchers measured the voltage across neurons, and were able to measure the voltages needed to excite a neuron and induce it to transmit a signal to its neighbors. The critical voltage is called the action potential. Later, together with their Australian colleague John Eccles, the team was awarded the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology for their work.