Temporal Coding in the Brain


Book Description

Temporal coding in the brain documents a revolution now occurring in the neurosciences. How does parallel processing of information bind together the complex nature of the outer and our inner worlds? Do intrinsic oscillations and transient cooperative states of neurons represent the physiological basis of cognitive and motor functions of the brain? Some answers to these challenging issues are provided in this book by leading world experts of brain function. A common denominator of the works presented in this volume is the nature and mechanisms of neuronal cooperation in the temporal domain. The topics range from simple organisms to the human brain. The volume is intended for investigators and graduate students in neurophysiology, cognitive neuroscience, neural computation and neurology.




The Neurobiology of Olfaction


Book Description

Comprehensive Overview of Advances in OlfactionThe common belief is that human smell perception is much reduced compared with other mammals, so that whatever abilities are uncovered and investigated in animal research would have little significance for humans. However, new evidence from a variety of sources indicates this traditional view is likely




Neuronal Dynamics


Book Description

This solid introduction uses the principles of physics and the tools of mathematics to approach fundamental questions of neuroscience.




Principles of Neural Coding


Book Description

Understanding how populations of neurons encode information is the challenge faced by researchers in the field of neural coding. Focusing on the many mysteries and marvels of the mind has prompted a prominent team of experts in the field to put their heads together and fire up a book on the subject. Simply titled Principles of Neural Coding, this book covers the complexities of this discipline. It centers on some of the major developments in this area and presents a complete assessment of how neurons in the brain encode information. The book collaborators contribute various chapters that describe results in different systems (visual, auditory, somatosensory perception, etc.) and different species (monkeys, rats, humans, etc). Concentrating on the recording and analysis of the firing of single and multiple neurons, and the analysis and recording of other integrative measures of network activity and network states—such as local field potentials or current source densities—is the basis of the introductory chapters. Provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach Describes topics of interest to a wide range of researchers The book then moves forward with the description of the principles of neural coding for different functions and in different species and concludes with theoretical and modeling works describing how information processing functions are implemented. The text not only contains the most important experimental findings, but gives an overview of the main methodological aspects for studying neural coding. In addition, the book describes alternative approaches based on simulations with neural networks and in silico modeling in this highly interdisciplinary topic. It can serve as an important reference to students and professionals.







Time and the Brain


Book Description

Since the days of Galileo, time has been a fundamental variable in scientific attempts to understand the natural world. Once the first recordings of electrical activity in the brain had been made, it became clear that electrical signals from the brain consist of very complex temporal patterns. This can now be demonstrated by recordings at the single unit level and by electroencephalography (EEG). Time and the Brain explores modern approaches to these temporal aspects of electrical brain activity. The temporal structure as revealed from trains of impulses from single nerve cells and from EEG recordings are discussed in depth together with an exploration of correlations with behaviour and psychology. The single cell and EEG approaches often tend to be segregated as the research occurs in laboratories in different parts of the world. By bringing together modern information acquired using both methods it is hoped that they can become better integrated as complimentary windows on the information processing achieved by the brain.




The Neocortex


Book Description

Experts review the latest research on the neocortex and consider potential directions for future research. Over the past decade, technological advances have dramatically increased information on the structural and functional organization of the brain, especially the cerebral cortex. This explosion of data has radically expanded our ability to characterize neural circuits and intervene at increasingly higher resolutions, but it is unclear how this has informed our understanding of underlying mechanisms and processes. In search of a conceptual framework to guide future research, leading researchers address in this volume the evolution and ontogenetic development of cortical structures, the cortical connectome, and functional properties of neuronal circuits and populations. They explore what constitutes “uniquely human” mental capacities and whether neural solutions and computations can be shared across species or repurposed for potentially uniquely human capacities. Contributors Danielle S. Bassett, Randy M. Bruno, Elizabeth A. Buffalo, Michael E. Coulter, Hermann Cuntz, Stanislas Dehaene, James J. DiCarlo, Pascal Fries, Karl J. Friston, Asif A. Ghazanfar, Anne-Lise Giraud, Joshua I. Gold, Scott T. Grafton, Jennifer M. Groh, Elizabeth A. Grove, Saskia Haegens, Kenneth D. Harris, Kristen M. Harris, Nicholas G. Hatsopoulos, Tarik F. Haydar, Takao K. Hensch, Wieland B. Huttner, Matthias Kaschube, Gilles Laurent, David A. Leopold, Johannes Leugering, Belen Lorente-Galdos, Jason N. MacLean, David A. McCormick, Lucia Melloni, Anish Mitra, Zoltán Molnár, Sydney K. Muchnik, Pascal Nieters, Marcel Oberlaender, Bijan Pesaran, Christopher I. Petkov, Gordon Pipa, David Poeppel, Marcus E. Raichle, Pasko Rakic, John H. Reynolds, Ryan V. Raut, John L. Rubenstein, Andrew B. Schwartz, Terrence J. Sejnowski, Nenad Sestan, Debra L. Silver, Wolf Singer, Peter L. Strick, Michael P. Stryker, Mriganka Sur, Mary Elizabeth Sutherland, Maria Antonietta Tosches, William A. Tyler, Martin Vinck, Christopher A. Walsh, Perry Zurn




Analysis of Parallel Spike Trains


Book Description

Solid and transparent data analysis is the most important basis for reliable interpretation of experiments. The technique of parallel spike train recordings using multi-electrode arrangements has been available for many decades now, but only recently gained wide popularity among electro physiologists. Many traditional analysis methods are based on firing rates obtained by trial-averaging, and some of the assumptions for such procedures to work can be ignored without serious consequences. The situation is different for correlation analysis, the result of which may be considerably distorted if certain critical assumptions are violated. The focus of this book is on concepts and methods of correlation analysis (synchrony, patterns, rate covariance), combined with a solid introduction into approaches for single spike trains, which represent the basis of correlations analysis. The book also emphasizes pitfalls and potential wrong interpretations of data due to violations of critical assumptions.




How Do Brains Work?


Book Description

"I'll bet it will tum out that brains use both mechanisms, in different centers. " Much of my waking life and that of many of my friends is spent racking our brains over how brains work. This book claims that good science is often a form of betting on the outcome of research-the stakes being time and reputation and someone's money. Some scientists, to be sure, claim they avoid leaning this way or that, in the name of keeping an open mind. I recommend making expectations explicit in order to design controls against unconscious influence, formulate alternative outcomes more clearly-and to add zest. Both the immediately upcoming experiment and the expected result of many long years of work by many people after one is gone are proper subjects for betting or the most informed and serious guessing. The working title for this collection of new and old papers was for some time "Betting on how brains work" and then "Betting on brains. " It goes without saying that the book will not answer the title question but will speak to it, in particular making a series of propositions that I think are more likely to be confirmed by future research than the alternatives we can presently recognize. It follows that a significant message, implied in many chapters of the book is this.




Spikes


Book Description

Intended for neurobiologists with an interest in mathematical analysis of neural data as well as the growing number of physicists and mathematicians interested in information processing by "real" nervous systems, Spikes provides a self-contained review of relevant concepts in information theory and statistical decision theory.