Information processing in living organisms
The basic unit of these processes happening
at a very high speed in the organisms is not the bit but the
spike.
The spike is an explosive rise of the voltage in the cell that
is responsible for fast information processing, the neuron.
Sequences of spikes – spike trains, form the
communication of neurons with each other, important information
is encoded in the rhythm of these spike trains.
The biological model presents itself for the information scientists as a fascinating
new world. He now has the possibility to make time, or better,
time differences, as a dimension that has been lying fallow
in our computers, accessible and to directly calculate with
space/time patterns.
Source:
Spike Trains – Im Rhythmus neuronalen Zellen, Wolfgang Maass 
