You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
In this essay we propose a view of the cerebral cortex from an unusual angle, determined by our search for the most general statements on the relation between cortical structure and function. Our results may be at variance with the ideas of those physiologists who have specialized subsystems of the cortex in mind, but are not in contrast with them, as we hope to show. Our view is akin to one presented by Moshe Abeles in his monograph Local Cortical Circuits ( 1982). It is related to the theory developed by Gunther Palm, for many years our partner, in Neural Assemblies (1982). It owes much to the ideas which inspire the work of George Gerstein (beginning with the classic: Gerstein 1962) and e...
By means of quantitative analysis of the tissue components in the cortex of the mouse, this book presents an overall picture of the cortical network which is then related to various theories on cortical function. Centering around the idea of a diffuse network in a fairly homogeneous population of excitatory neurons, that of the pyramidal cells, it shows that the whole organisation in the cortical skeleton of pryramidal cells corresponds well with the idea of an associative memory and with the theory of cell assemblies. Provides the reader with information on quantitative neuroanatomy and also on the methods used, in particular those that vary from the norm.
In the new edition of Neural Assemblies, the author places his original ideas and motivations within the framework of modern and cognitive neuroscience and gives a short and focused overview of the development of computational neuroscience and artificial neural networks over the last 40 years. In this book the author develops a theory of how the human brain might function. Starting with a motivational introduction to the brain as an organ of information processing, he presents a computational perspective on the basic concepts and ideas of neuroscience research on the underlying principles of brain function. In addition, the reader is introduced to the most important methods from computer sci...
The story of a neural impulse and what it reveals about how our brains work We see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out. In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate with one another, sending blips of voltage through our sensory and motor regions. Neuroscientists call these blips “spikes.” Spikes enable us to do everything: talk, eat, run, see, plan, and decide. In The Spike, Mark Humphries takes readers on the epic journey of a spike through a single, brief reaction. In vivid language, Humphries tells the story of what happens in our brain, what we know about spikes, and what we still have left to u...
This volume is based on the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Slow Potential Changes in the Human Brain that was held at II Ciocco, Tuscany, Italy over the period 13-16th May, 1990. The Workshop Director was Dr. W. C. McCallum of the Burden Neurological Institute, Bristol, England. The meeting was superbly organised and proved to be both stimulating and productive. On behalf of everyone who attended the meeting, I would like to II Ciocco for express my appreciation to NATO for the provision of funding and to providing such a marvellous conference venue. I must apologise to everyone who has contributed to this volume for the length of time it has taken to produce a finished ...
Advances in Physiological Sciences, Volume 30: Neural Communication and Control is a collection of papers presented at the 1980 satellite symposium of the 28th International Congress of Physiological Science, held in Visegrá Hungary. This volume is composed of 26 chapters and begins with a description of nervous elements and systems on the phylogenetic scale. The succeeding chapters review studies on the excitable membrane, the properties of a single neuron, of small and large neuronal ensembles and of systems of increasing complexity, considering physiological and anatomical aspects, as well as experimenting and modeling. Other chapters explore the whole-brain function based on a conscious experience. The remaining chapters examine the understanding the neural basis of cognitive experience through experiment on evaluative cognitive agency in "split-brain" patients. This book is of value to physiologists, neurologists, and researchers.
There is a tradition of theoretical brain science which started in the forties (Wiener, McCulloch, Turing, Craik, Hebb). This was continued by a small number of people without interruption up to the present. It has definitely provided main guiding lines for brain science, the devel opment of which has been spectacular in the last decades. However, within the bulk of experimental neuroscience, the theoreticians some times had a difficult stand, since it was felt that the times were not ripe yet and the methods not yet available for a development of a true theoretical speciality in this field. Thus theory remained in the hands of a fairly small club which recruited its members from theoretical...
I would like first to thank Charles Woody and his organizing committee for arranging the symposium on the "Cellular Mechanisms of Conditioning and Behavioral Plasticity," which was also a satellite meeting of the International Union of Physiological Sciences 30th International Congress. The proceedings of this symposium are represented by the chapters that follow. During the 1970s, Dr. Woody and co-workers were able to carry out a remarkable series of microelectrode studies, both intracellular and extracellular, of cortical nerve cells during conditioning of the eye-blink response to sound in the intact waking cat. He demonstrated enduring changes in excitability and membrane resistance in pericruciate cortical cells during associative conditioning of the eye blink, changes that are facilitated by ACh and cGMP and reinforced by stimulation of the hypothalamus (the latter con firming the original studies of Voronin). These findings have been of considerable im portance in our attempt to understand the conditioning process at the cellular level.
The study of areas in the cerebral cortex has a long history, bringing empirical data into close relation with fundamental conceptual issues about the cortex. The subject is currently being revitalized with the advent of new experimental methods and this book brings a modern perspective to the study of these areas. Cortical Areas: Unity and Diversi
This second edition presents the enormous progress made in recent years in the many subfields related to the two great questions : how does the brain work? and, How can we build intelligent machines? This second edition greatly increases the coverage of models of fundamental neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, and neural network approaches to language. (Midwest).