Edited by
A. Aertsen, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Description
Modern theories of brain function are increasingly concerned with dynamics. The task of organizing perception and behaviour in a meaningful
interaction with the external world prompts the brain to recruit its various resources in a properly coordinated manner. Vis-a-vis the
complexity and multitude of the dynamics involved, a careful orchestration of the various processing components, distributed over space
and time, is essential. Hence, it should come as no surprise that a number of recent developments in both experimental and theoretical
brain science have emphasized the aspect of spatio-temporal coordination.
This collection of papers intends to capture these various
developments in the brain sciences. It brings together new insights and concepts from various branches of experimental and theoretical
neuroscience, partly in the form of review chapters, partly in short, focussed contributions, or critical essays. Further it sets out
to explore “the problems of the processing of the temporal dimension of sensory input and of the generation of space-time patterns
in the motor output, as well as the intervening storage and transformation of temporal patterns in nerve nets”.
The publication
is divided into four major sections: the first considers spatio-temporal aspects of brain function in the context of processing of sensory
input and perception and the third, spatio-temporal aspects of brain function at the output end: planning and control of movement. The
second section is dedicated to the intervening level of neuronal activity in the working brain and the various dynamics observed at different
levels of resolution in space and time. The fourth part combines contributions that transcend this scheme.
It is hoped the book achieves
its goal which is “to raise an interest in theoretical models that actively seek confrontation with experimental data from the functioning
brain, and by a didactic effort aimed at experimentalists to present their data in a format that makes them more amenable to theory”.
