[Verse 1]
Eighty cells in every hundred push the circuit on,
Glutamate pyramidal shapes, stellate cells at dawn,
They're the gas pedal, shouting "fire!" down every lane,
Twenty quiet GABA guards keep the shouting sane,
Four flavors of the brake pedal, each one picks its spot,
Soma, axon, dendrite tips — inhibition hits the plot.
[Chorus]
PV grabs the body, chandelier clamps the start,
Somatostatin's out on branches, pruning every part,
VIP just whispers "hush" to the whisperers nearby,
Disinhibit pyramids, watch the glutamate fly,
Eighty-twenty, push and brake, that's the cortex game,
Excite and inhibit dancing, never quite the same.
[Verse 2]
Basket cells wrap round the soma, tight as braided rope,
Parvalbumin powered, fast as caffeine minus hope,
Hundreds of spikes each second, barely slowing down the pace,
Locking neurons to the gamma rhythm's tight embrace,
Chandelier cells perch like candlesticks of old,
Right where axons start their spike — that's the gate they hold.
[Chorus]
PV grabs the body, chandelier clamps the start,
Somatostatin's out on branches, pruning every part,
VIP just whispers "hush" to the whisperers nearby,
Disinhibit pyramids, watch the glutamate fly,
Eighty-twenty, push and brake, that's the cortex game,
Excite and inhibit dancing, never quite the same.
[Verse 3]
Martinotti's somatostatin reaches far and wide,
Grabbing distant dendrites, dimming signals at the tide,
VIP's a diplomat, inhibiting the inhibitor crew,
Silence the silencer, and pyramids break through,
That's disinhibition — brakes released, the engine roars,
Logic gates of living tissue, opening the doors.
[Bridge]
Regular spiking slows its rhythm, adapting as it goes,
Fast-spiking never tires, the tempo never slows,
Intrinsic bursting fires in clusters, three or four at once,
Pacemaker dopamine ticks steady like a patient metronome,
Every rhythm tells a role, every pattern holds a clue,
Timing is the language that the neurons speak to you.
[Chorus]
PV grabs the body, chandelier clamps the start,
Somatostatin's out on branches, pruning every part,
VIP just whispers "hush" to the whisperers nearby,
Disinhibit pyramids, watch the glutamate fly,
Eighty-twenty, push and brake, that's the cortex game,
Excite and inhibit dancing, never quite the same.
[Outro]
Eighty push, twenty hold, the cortex finds its song,
Basket, chandelier, Martinotti, VIP along,
Push and brake, push and brake, the circuit's clever art,
Excite, inhibit, balance — that's the brain's own quiet heart.