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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.
by W. J. Freeman These two volumes on "Brain Oscillations" appear
at a most opportune time. As the "Decade of the Brain" draws to its
close, brain science is coming to terms with its ultimate problem:
understanding the mechanisms by which the immense number of neurons
in the human brain interact to produce the higher cognitive
functions. The ideas, concepts, methods, interpretations and
examples, which are presented here in voluminous detail by a
world-class authority in electrophysiology, summarize the
intellectual equipment that will be required to construct
satisfactory solutions to the problem. Neuroscience is ripe for
change. The last revolution of ideas took place in the middle of
the century now ending, when the field took a sharp turn into a
novel direction. During the preceding five decades the prevailing
view, carried forward from the 19th century, was that neurons are
the carriers of nerve energy, either in chemical or electrical
forms (Freeman, 1995). That point of view was enormously productive
in terms of coming to understand the chemical basis for synaptic
transmission, the electrochemistry of the ac tion potential, the
ionic mechanisms of membrane currents and gates, the functional
neuroanatomy that underlies the hierarchy of reflexes, and the
neural fields and'their resonances that support Gestalt phenomena.
No bet ter testimony can be given of the power of the applications
of this approach than to point out that it provides the scientific
basis for contemporary neu rology, neuropsychiatry, and brain
imaging."
In neurophysiology, the emphasis has been on single-unit studies
for a quarter century, since the sensory work by Lettwin and
coworkers and by Hubel and Wiesel, the cen tral work by
Mountcastle, the motor work by the late Evarts, and so on. In
recent years, however, field potentials - and a more global
approach general ly - have been receiving renewed and increasing
attention. This is a result of new findings made possible by
technical and conceptual advances and by the confirma tion and
augmentation of earlier findings that were widely ignored for being
contro versial or inexplicable. To survey the state of this active
field, a conference was held in West Berlin in August 1985 that
attempted to cover all of the new approaches to the study of brain
function. The approaches and emphases were very varied: basic and
applied, electric and magnetic, EEG and EP/ERP, connectionistic and
field, global and local fields, surface and multielectrode, low
frequencies and high frequencies, linear and non linear. The
conference comprised sessions of invited lectures, a panel session
of seven speakers on "How brains may work," and a concluding survey
of relevant methodologies. The conference showed that the
combination of concepts, methods, and results could open up new
important vistas in brain research. Included here are the
proceedings of the conference, updated and revised by the authors.
Several attendees who did not present papers at the conference
later ac cepted my invitation to write chapters for the book.
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.
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.
Contents: Part 1. Foundations 1. Introduction and Core Philosophy Part 2. Experiments and Their Interpretation 2. Dynamic Memory and Evolving Memory is Shaped by Reciprocal Activation of Attention, Perception, Learning and Remembering 3. Perception and Memory - Related Oscillations in the Whole Brain 4. A Dynamic Casualty Controlling Brain's Resposiveness andMemory: Pretimulus EEG Activity 5. Multiple Oscillations in the Brain are Correlated with Integrative Functions and Memory 6. Are Integrative Brain Functions Shaped by Superbinding and Selectively Distributed Oscillations? 7. Grandmother Experiments in Perception and Memory. Recognition of Gestalts? Part 3. Memory Function 8. An EEG-related Model of 'Memory States and Hierarchies' 9. New Trends in Memory Dynamics 10. Memory and Whole-Brain-Work
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