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Nature Neuroscience 12, 1209–1211 (1 October 2009) | doi:10.1038/nn1009-1209

A night vision neuron gets a day job

Nicholas Oesch & Jeffrey Diamond

To reduce the daunting complexity of the nervous system, we often presume that each neuron or circuit is dedicated to one particular function. Given the diversity of neurons and the fact than most have yet to be assigned to a specific task, this simplifying tactic seems reasonable; with so many neurons still out of work, there's no need to give two jobs to one cell type.