Brain Function and Oscillations


Book Description

Neuroscience is ripe for a paradigm change as Freeman and Mountcastle describe. Brain Oscillations provide an important key to this change. In this book the functional importance of the brain's multiple oscillations is treated with an integrative scope. According to the author, neurophysiology and cognition demand integrative approaches similar to those of Galilei and Newton in physics and of Darwin in biology. Not only the human brain but also lower brains and ganglia of invertebrates are treated with electrophysical methods. Experiments on sensory registration, perception, movement, and cognitive processes related to attention, learning, and memory are described. A synopsis on brain functions leads to a new neuron assemblies doctrine, extending the concept of Sherrington, and new trends in this field. The book will appeal to scientists and graduate students.




Memory and Brain Dynamics


Book Description

Memory itself is inseparable from all other brain functions and involves distributed dynamic neural processes. A wealth of publications in neuroscience literature report that the concerted action of distributed multiple oscillatory processes (EEG oscillations) play a major role in brain functioning. The analysis of function-related brain oscillatio




Neuronal Oscillations of Wakefulness and Sleep


Book Description

The purpose of this work is to review recent findings highlighting the mechanisms and functions of the neuronal oscillations that structure brain activity across the sleep-wake cycle. An increasing number of studies conducted in humans and animals, and using a variety of techniques ranging from intracellular recording to functional neuroimaging, has provided important insight into the mechanisms and functional properties of these brain rhythms. Studies of these rhythms are fundamental not only for basic neuroscience, but also for clinical neuroscience. At the basic science level, neuronal oscillations shape the interactions between different areas of the brain and profoundly impact neural responses to the environment, thereby mediating the processing of information in the brain. At the clinical level, brain oscillations are affected in numerous neurological conditions and might provide useful biomarkers that inform about patients’ evolution and vulnerability. During sleep, these brain rhythms could provide functional support to internal states that govern the basic maintenance of local circuit and systemic interactions. During wake, the rhythmicity of cortical and subcortical circuits have been linked with sensory processing, cognitive operations, and preparation for action. This book will attempt to link together these sleep and wake functional roles at the level of neuroimaging and electroencephalographic measures, local field potentials, and even at the cellular level. ​




Brain Dynamics


Book Description

This volume is based on contributions to the second Brain Dynamics Conference, held in Berlin on August 10-14, 1987, as a satellite conference of the Budapest Congress of the International Brain Research Organization. Like the volume resulting from the first conference, Dynamics of Sensory and Cognitive Processing by the Brain, the present work covers new approaches to brain function, with emphasis on electromagnetic fields, EEG, event-related potentials, connectivistic views, and neural networks. Close attention is also paid to research in the emerging field of deterministic chaos and strange attractors. The diversity of this collection of papers reflects a multipronged advance in a hitherto relatively neglected domain, i. e., the study of signs of dynamic processes in organized neural tissue in order both to explain them and to exploit them for clues to system function. The need is greater than ever for new windows. This volume reflects a historical moment, the moment when a relatively neglected field of basic research into available signs of dynamic processes ongoing in organized neural tissue is expanding almost explosively to complement other approaches. From the topics treated, this book should appeal, as did its predecessor, to neuroscientists, neurologists, scientists studying complex systems, artificial intelligence, and neural networks, psychobiologists, and all basic and clinical investigators concerned with new techniques of monitoring and analyzing the brain's electromagnetic activity.




Brain Oscillations, Synchrony and Plasticity


Book Description

Brain Oscillations, Synchrony and Plasticity: Basic Principles and Application to Auditory-Related Disorders discusses the role of brain oscillations, especially with respect to the auditory system and how those oscillations are measured, change over the lifespan, and falter leading to a variety of psychiatric and neurological disorders. The book begins with a description of these cortical rhythm oscillations and how they function in both the normal and pathological brain. It explains how these oscillations are important to auditory, executive and attention brain networks and how they relate to the development, production and deterioration of speech and language. In addition, treatment of malfunctioning cortical rhythms are reviewed using neuromodulation, such as transcranial magnetic, direct current, random noise, and alternating current stimulation, as well as focused ultrasound. The book concludes by describing the potential role of oscillations in dyslexia, autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. - Introduces readers to brain imaging methods such as structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging, EEG and magnetoencephalography, in the study of brain oscillations, synchrony and networks of the normal and pathological brain - Highlights the role of brain oscillations in perception and cognition, in particular with respect to the auditory system, speech and language - Describes lifespan changes, from preterm to senescence, of brain oscillations, brain networks and how they relate to the development and deterioration of speech and language - Explains the effects of hearing loss on neural network change in the auditory and non-auditory networks such as the default mode-, the salience-, the executive- and attention networks - Illustrates the breakdown of network connections in auditory-related disorders such as tinnitus and in psychiatric disorders with a strong auditory, speech and language component




Magnetoencephalography


Book Description

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is an invaluable functional brain imaging technique that provides direct, real-time monitoring of neuronal activity necessary for gaining insight into dynamic cortical networks. Our intentions with this book are to cover the richness and transdisciplinary nature of the MEG field, make it more accessible to newcomers and experienced researchers and to stimulate growth in the MEG area. The book presents a comprehensive overview of MEG basics and the latest developments in methodological, empirical and clinical research, directed toward master and doctoral students, as well as researchers. There are three levels of contributions: 1) tutorials on instrumentation, measurements, modeling, and experimental design; 2) topical reviews providing extensive coverage of relevant research topics; and 3) short contributions on open, challenging issues, future developments and novel applications. The topics range from neuromagnetic measurements, signal processing and source localization techniques to dynamic functional networks underlying perception and cognition in both health and disease. Topical reviews cover, among others: development on SQUID-based and novel sensors, multi-modal integration (low field MRI and MEG; EEG and fMRI), Bayesian approaches to multi-modal integration, direct neuronal imaging, novel noise reduction methods, source-space functional analysis, decoding of brain states, dynamic brain connectivity, sensory-motor integration, MEG studies on perception and cognition, thalamocortical oscillations, fetal and neonatal MEG, pediatric MEG studies, cognitive development, clinical applications of MEG in epilepsy, pre-surgical mapping, stroke, schizophrenia, stuttering, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, autism, aging and neurodegeneration, MEG applications in cognitive neuropharmacology and an overview of the major open-source analysis tools.




Fast Oscillations in Cortical Circuits


Book Description

In Fast Oscillations in Cortical Circuits, the authors use a combination of electrophysiological and computer modeling techniques to analyze how large networks of neurons can produce both epileptic seizures and functionally relevant synchronized oscillations.




Rhythms of the Brain


Book Description

Studies of mechanisms in the brain that allow complicated things to happen in a coordinated fashion have produced some of the most spectacular discoveries in neuroscience. This book provides eloquent support for the idea that spontaneous neuron activity, far from being mere noise, is actually the source of our cognitive abilities. It takes a fresh look at the coevolution of structure and function in the mammalian brain, illustrating how self-emerged oscillatory timing is the brain's fundamental organizer of neuronal information. The small-world-like connectivity of the cerebral cortex allows for global computation on multiple spatial and temporal scales. The perpetual interactions among the multiple network oscillators keep cortical systems in a highly sensitive "metastable" state and provide energy-efficient synchronizing mechanisms via weak links. In a sequence of "cycles," György Buzsáki guides the reader from the physics of oscillations through neuronal assembly organization to complex cognitive processing and memory storage. His clear, fluid writing-accessible to any reader with some scientific knowledge-is supplemented by extensive footnotes and references that make it just as gratifying and instructive a read for the specialist. The coherent view of a single author who has been at the forefront of research in this exciting field, this volume is essential reading for anyone interested in our rapidly evolving understanding of the brain.




Brain-Body-Mind in the Nebulous Cartesian System: A Holistic Approach by Oscillations


Book Description

Brain-Body-Mind in the Nebulous Cartesian System: A Holistic Approach by Oscillations is a research monograph, with didactical features, on the mechanisms of the mind, encompassing a wide spectrum of results and analyses. The book should appeal to scientists and graduate students in the fields of neuroscience, neurology, psychiatry, physiology, psychology, physics and philosophy. Its goals are the development of an empirical-analytical construct, denoted as “Reasonings to Approach the Mind”, and the comprehension of 20 principles for understanding the mind. This book amalgamates results from work on the brain, vegetative system, brains in the evolution of species, the maturing brain, dynamic memory, emotional processes, and cognitive impairment in neuro-psychiatric disorders (Alzheimer, Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorders). The findings are comparatively evaluated within the framework of brain oscillations and neurotransmitters. Further, a holistic approach links the brain to the cardiovascular system and overall myogenic coordination of the vegetative system. The results emphasize that EEG oscillations, ultraslow oscillations, and neurotransmitters are quasi-invariant building blocks in brain-body-mind function and also during the evolution of species: The temporal domain is where the importance of research on neural oscillators is indispensable. The core, holistic concept that emerges is that the brain, spinal cord, overall myogenic system, brain-body-oscillations, and neurotransmitters form a functional syncytium. Accordingly, the concept of “Syncytium Brain-Body-Mind” replaces the concept of “Mind”. P>




Chaos in Brain Function


Book Description

The analysis of deterministic chaos is currently an active field in many branches of research. Mathematically all nonlinear dynamical systems with more than two degrees of freedom can generate chaos, becoming unpredictable over a longer time scale. The brain is a nonlinear system par excellence. Accordingly, the concepts of chaotic dynamics have found, in the last five years, an important application in research on compound electrical activity of the brain. The present volume seeks to cover most of the relevant studies in the newly emerging field of chaotic attractors in the brain. This volume is essentially a selection and reorganization of contri butions from the first two volumes in the Springer Series in Brain Dynamics, which were based on conferences held in 1985 and 1987 in Berlin. It also includes (a) a survey of progress in the recording of evoked oscillations of the brain both at the cellular and EEG levels and (b) an agenda for research on chaotic dynamics. Although the first publications pointing out evidence of chaotic behavior of the EEG did not appear until the beginning of 1985, the presence of the pioneering scientists in this field gave the participants at the first conference (volume 1) a strong impulse toward this field. For me, as conference organizer, having been for a long time active in nonlinear EEG research, the integration of this topic was self-evident; however, the enthusiasm of the conference participants was greater than expected.