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This book presents an engaging account of a provocative new theory which explores how our brain generates conscious experience and where this occurs. It suggests that conscious experience happens not at the whole brain level but at the level of individual nerve cells. The notion that the brain as a whole is sentient is an illusion created by the exquisite organization of the individually conscious neurons. Despite appearances to the contrary, conscious behavior that seems to be the product of a single macroscopic mind is actually the integrated output of a chorus of microscopic minds, each associated with an individual neuron. The result is a theory that revolutionizes our conception of who and what we are.
Single Neuron Computation by Thomas M. McKenna,Joel L. Davis,Steven F. Zornetzer Pdf
This book contains twenty-two original contributions that provide a comprehensive overview of computational approaches to understanding a single neuron structure. The focus on cellular-level processes is twofold. From a computational neuroscience perspective, a thorough understanding of the information processing performed by single neurons leads to an understanding of circuit- and systems-level activity. From the standpoint of artificial neural networks (ANNs), a single real neuron is as complex an operational unit as an entire ANN, and formalizing the complex computations performed by real neurons is essential to the design of enhanced processor elements for use in the next generation of ANNs. The book covers computation in dendrites and spines, computational aspects of ion channels, synapses, patterned discharge and multistate neurons, and stochastic models of neuron dynamics. It is the most up-to-date presentation of biophysical and computational methods.
Neuroscience has largely abandoned its localizationist and mechanistic framework of the 20th century. The plastic, embodied, and network character of our nervous system is widely acknowledged and systems theory approaches to consciousness dominate the field. However, the underlying neuron theory has not changed. The neuron doctrine, conceptualizing the single neuron as atomistic, one-directional source of neural function, still provides the template for our understanding of these basic elements of our nervous system and the material foundation of consciousness. Yet, the single neuron does not exist as an isolated unit. It is embedded within multiple cellular, structural, and functional contexts, and highly depends on them for its development, neural activity, and survival. The book discusses the constraints of the neuron doctrine and its pragmatic reductionism in the light of the growing knowledge about the brain’s connectivity, plasticity, and systemic and embodied nature. To overcome these constraints, the author argues for a new neuron theory, depicting the neuron as bidirectional hub which is at the same time source and product of neural function. This bidirectionality is further characterized by spatial and time dimensions, placing the neuron within a multi-level pathway model of psychobiological development from the perspective of Developmental Embodiment Research. Furthermore, the author discusses the potential of neuroepigenetic markers to characterize the neuron and its range of plasticity within this developmental perspective.With its focus on neuroepigenetics, the book addresses a knowledge gap in the current study of the neural foundations of psychological functions. The multi-level and bidirectional perspective is already realized in approaches coming from developmental systems theory, which model neural function at the connectome level, and it also fits with approaches investigating feedback loops underlying neural activity at the single cell level. At both these levels, the spatial and the time dimensions are well characterized, either as changing connectivity patterns across different age groups, or as synaptic feedback loops underlying neural activation patterns. However, for the intermediate level of small neural populations, which is currently the main target for studies investigating the neural basis of specific psychological functions, this characterization turned out to be more challenging. Multi-cell recordings have provided a first glimpse into the complex interaction patterns of these small neural networks, but they are limited to the recording period and do not provide information about the long-term developmental and activation history. Here, neuroepigenetic markers could be of use. Due to their relative stability and, at the same time, environmental sensitivity, neuroepigenetic markers represent an additional layer of information in which, to a certain degree, the cell’s metabolic and activation history is aggregated over time. This information is available at the single neuron level but could also be modeled as aggregated information for small neural populations and the supporting cellular context. Looking through this “epigenetic lens” adds to our understanding of the neuron as bidirectional hub by emphasizing the molecular correlates of functional stabilization and their contextual prerequisites. These prerequisites reach from the immediate cellular context to the social-cultural contexts which shape the culturally specific modes of acquisition of psychological functions throughout the lifespan. Accounting for this multilayered contextuality of the neuron and its function affords to repositions the relationship between neuroscience and psychology in their joint effort to unravel the material basis of consciousness. This provides new challenges but also new perspectives for theoretical psychology. The book presents these current developments and debates to researchers, graduate students, and interested professionals and practitioners working in neuroscience, epigenetics, psychiatry, psychology and psychotherapy. It also provides a basic introduction into neuroepigenetics, its mechanisms, and first findings for graduate students as well as interested professionals and practitioners working in psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy.
In this fascinating book, William R. Uttal raises the possibility that, however much we learn about the anatomy and physiology of the brain and psychology, we may never be able to cross the final bridge explaining how the mind is produced by the brain. Three main classes of mind-brain theory are considered and rejected: field theories, because they are based on a superficial analogy; single cell theories, because they emerge from a massive uncontrolled experimental program; and neural net theories, because they are constrained by combinatorial complexity. To support his argument, Uttal explores the empirical and conceptual foundations of these theoretical approaches and identifies flaws in their fundamental logic. The author concludes that the problems preventing solution of the mind-brain problem are intractable, yet well within the confines of natural science.
National Academy of Sciences,Institute of Medicine,Sandra Ackerman
Author : National Academy of Sciences,Institute of Medicine,Sandra Ackerman Publisher : National Academies Press Page : 195 pages File Size : 55,6 Mb Release : 1992-01-01 Category : Medical ISBN : 9780309045292
Discovering the Brain by National Academy of Sciences,Institute of Medicine,Sandra Ackerman Pdf
The brain ... There is no other part of the human anatomy that is so intriguing. How does it develop and function and why does it sometimes, tragically, degenerate? The answers are complex. In Discovering the Brain, science writer Sandra Ackerman cuts through the complexity to bring this vital topic to the public. The 1990s were declared the "Decade of the Brain" by former President Bush, and the neuroscience community responded with a host of new investigations and conferences. Discovering the Brain is based on the Institute of Medicine conference, Decade of the Brain: Frontiers in Neuroscience and Brain Research. Discovering the Brain is a "field guide" to the brainâ€"an easy-to-read discussion of the brain's physical structure and where functions such as language and music appreciation lie. Ackerman examines: How electrical and chemical signals are conveyed in the brain. The mechanisms by which we see, hear, think, and pay attentionâ€"and how a "gut feeling" actually originates in the brain. Learning and memory retention, including parallels to computer memory and what they might tell us about our own mental capacity. Development of the brain throughout the life span, with a look at the aging brain. Ackerman provides an enlightening chapter on the connection between the brain's physical condition and various mental disorders and notes what progress can realistically be made toward the prevention and treatment of stroke and other ailments. Finally, she explores the potential for major advances during the "Decade of the Brain," with a look at medical imaging techniquesâ€"what various technologies can and cannot tell usâ€"and how the public and private sectors can contribute to continued advances in neuroscience. This highly readable volume will provide the public and policymakersâ€"and many scientists as wellâ€"with a helpful guide to understanding the many discoveries that are sure to be announced throughout the "Decade of the Brain."
National Research Council,Institute of Medicine,Board on Children, Youth, and Families,Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development
Author : National Research Council,Institute of Medicine,Board on Children, Youth, and Families,Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development Publisher : National Academies Press Page : 610 pages File Size : 53,9 Mb Release : 2000-11-13 Category : Social Science ISBN : 9780309069885
From Neurons to Neighborhoods by National Research Council,Institute of Medicine,Board on Children, Youth, and Families,Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development Pdf
How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.
This book, a companion to William R. Uttal’s earlier work on macrotheories theories of mind-brain relationships, reviews another set of theories—those based on microneuronal measurements. Microneural theories maintain the integrity of individual neurons either in isolation or as participants in the great neuronal networks that make up the physical brain. Despite an almost universal acceptance by cognitive neuroscientists that the intangible mind must, in some way, be encoded by network states, Uttal shows that the problem of how the transformation occurs is not yet supported by empirical research findings at the micro as well as at the macro levels of analysis. Theories of the neuronal network survive more as metaphors than as robust explanations. This book also places special emphasis on the technological developments that stimulate these metaphors. A major conclusion drawn in this book is that it is not at all certain that the mind-brain problem is solvable in the sense that many other grand scientific problems are.
Spiking Neuron Models by Wulfram Gerstner,Werner M. Kistler Pdf
Neurons in the brain communicate by short electrical pulses, the so-called action potentials or spikes. How can we understand the process of spike generation? How can we understand information transmission by neurons? What happens if thousands of neurons are coupled together in a seemingly random network? How does the network connectivity determine the activity patterns? And, vice versa, how does the spike activity influence the connectivity pattern? These questions are addressed in this 2002 introduction to spiking neurons aimed at those taking courses in computational neuroscience, theoretical biology, biophysics, or neural networks. The approach will suit students of physics, mathematics, or computer science; it will also be useful for biologists who are interested in mathematical modelling. The text is enhanced by many worked examples and illustrations. There are no mathematical prerequisites beyond what the audience would meet as undergraduates: more advanced techniques are introduced in an elementary, concrete fashion when needed.
A bestselling author, neuroscientist, and computer engineer unveils a theory of intelligence that will revolutionize our understanding of the brain and the future of AI. For all of neuroscience's advances, we've made little progress on its biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses maplike structures to build a model of the world—not just one model, but hundreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer important questions about how we perceive the world, why we have a sense of self, and the origin of high-level thought. A Thousand Brains heralds a revolution in the understanding of intelligence. It is a big-think book, in every sense of the word. One of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2021 One of Bill Gates' Five Favorite Books of 2021
Wherever you find a neuron, there - as a species - we are. It is time we say a Neural Namaste to our neural selves. It is time we - the neurons - dare to unconditionally anthropomorphize ourselves. We - the so-called "humans" - would get a better sense of who we are if we started thinking of ourselves as a "we" not an "I," as a neural plurality rather than a neural monad. (Not, as a "royal we," but as a "neural we"). The book is about playing with the definition of being human, about expanding our radius of identification across species, and about our place on the tree of life. The book was previously published under the title of "A Meeting of Neural Avatars," which is now included as a chapter in the book, along with the discussion of such topics as Steven Sevush's single-neuron theory of consciousness, multiple personalities (or Robert Ornstein's "multimind"), metazoan paradox of agency, possibility of single neuron cryonics, mirror neurons, "the fetish of cephalization," split-brain research, etc.About the author: Pavel Somov, PhD is a licensed psychologist in private practice, and the author of 7 self-help books on mindfulness-based self-help; he speaks domestically and internationally on the topics of mindfulness; Somov is on the Advisory Board of the Mindfulness Project (London, UK); he has also published in peer-reviewed journals. "'A Meeting of the Neural Avatars' is, neurally speaking, a mind-blowing trip. It just may redefine the distinction between me and you and we. A fascinating take on human connection and what it means to our mutual evolution." - Donald Altman, mindfulness teacher and author, The Joy Compass and One-Minute MindfulnessA few sample lines from the "Neural Avatars:""Anatomically speaking, you are a plurality (of neurons) that experiences itself as a oneness (of consciousness).""The two (brains) become one (brain). A duality is collapsed. Oneness is achieved - literally, not metaphorically.""A Neural Tribe pow-wow - beyond language, beyond difference, beyond the illusion of separateness.""We have evolutionarily learned to walk the ten-thousand-words-long road of language. I have no doubt that sooner or later we can learn how to take the neural short-cut.""Oneness is a Pandora's box of understanding.""Like Brahmin priests of the old days we ride on top of the cellular elephants of our own bodies. The lowly cells, we - the Neurons - have risen from the soil of the Earth and are comfortably ensconced in the loft-spaces of our skulls, looking down on each other, passing each other on the dusty road without a hello. So, let us notice each other in a Namaste of neural recognition."
A thought-provoking argument that consciousness—more widespread than previously assumed—is the feeling of being alive, not a type of computation or a clever hack In The Feeling of Life Itself, Christof Koch offers a straightforward definition of consciousness as any subjective experience, from the most mundane to the most exalted—the feeling of being alive. Psychologists study which cognitive operations underpin a given conscious perception. Neuroscientists track the neural correlates of consciousness in the brain, the organ of the mind. But why the brain and not, say, the liver? How can the brain—three pounds of highly excitable matter, a piece of furniture in the universe, subject to the same laws of physics as any other piece—give rise to subjective experience? Koch argues that what is needed to answer these questions is a quantitative theory that starts with experience and proceeds to the brain. In The Feeling of Life Itself, Koch outlines such a theory, based on integrated information. Koch describes how the theory explains many facts about the neurology of consciousness and how it has been used to build a clinically useful consciousness meter. The theory predicts that many, and perhaps all, animals experience the sights and sounds of life; consciousness is much more widespread than conventionally assumed. Contrary to received wisdom, however, Koch argues that programmable computers will not have consciousness. Even a perfect software model of the brain is not conscious. Its simulation is fake consciousness. Consciousness is not a special type of computation—it is not a clever hack. Consciousness is about being.
Neural network research often builds on the fiction that neurons are simple linear threshold units, completely neglecting the highly dynamic and complex nature of synapses, dendrites, and voltage-dependent ionic currents. Biophysics of Computation: Information Processing in Single Neurons challenges this notion, using richly detailed experimental and theoretical findings from cellular biophysics to explain the repertoire of computational functions available to single neurons. The author shows how individual nerve cells can multiply, integrate, or delay synaptic inputs and how information can be encoded in the voltage across the membrane, in the intracellular calcium concentration, or in the timing of individual spikes.Key topics covered include the linear cable equation; cable theory as applied to passive dendritic trees and dendritic spines; chemical and electrical synapses and how to treat them from a computational point of view; nonlinear interactions of synaptic input in passive and active dendritic trees; the Hodgkin-Huxley model of action potential generation and propagation; phase space analysis; linking stochastic ionic channels to membrane-dependent currents; calcium and potassium currents and their role in information processing; the role of diffusion, buffering and binding of calcium, and other messenger systems in information processing and storage; short- and long-term models of synaptic plasticity; simplified models of single cells; stochastic aspects of neuronal firing; the nature of the neuronal code; and unconventional models of sub-cellular computation.Biophysics of Computation: Information Processing in Single Neurons serves as an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in cellular biophysics, computational neuroscience, and neural networks, and will appeal to students and professionals in neuroscience, electrical and computer engineering, and physics.
The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks by Michael A. Arbib Pdf
Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 1996. In hundreds of articles by experts from around the world, and in overviews and "road maps" prepared by the editor, The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks charts the immense progress made in recent years in many specific areas related to great questions: How does the brain work? How can we build intelligent machines? While many books discuss limited aspects of one subfield or another of brain theory and neural networks, the Handbook covers the entire sweep of topics—from detailed models of single neurons, analyses of a wide variety of biological neural networks, and connectionist studies of psychology and language, to mathematical analyses of a variety of abstract neural networks, and technological applications of adaptive, artificial neural networks. Expository material makes the book accessible to readers with varied backgrounds while still offering a clear view of the recent, specialized research on specific topics.
A highly original theory of how the mind-brain works, based on the author's study of single neuronal cells. In I of the Vortex, Rodolfo Llinas, a founding father of modern brain science, presents an original view of the evolution and nature of mind. According to Llinas, the "mindness state" evolved to allow predictive interactions between mobile creatures and their environment. He illustrates the early evolution of mind through a primitive animal called the "sea squirt." The mobile larval form has a brainlike ganglion that receives sensory information about the surrounding environment. As an adult, the sea squirt attaches itself to a stationary object and then digests most of its own brain. This suggests that the nervous system evolved to allow active movement in animals. To move through the environment safely, a creature must anticipate the outcome of each movement on the basis of incoming sensory data. Thus the capacity to predict is most likely the ultimate brain function. One could even say that Self is the centralization of prediction. At the heart of Llinas's theory is the concept of oscillation. Many neurons possess electrical activity, manifested as oscillating variations in the minute voltages across the cell membrane. On the crests of these oscillations occur larger electrical events that are the basis for neuron-to-neuron communication. Like cicadas chirping in unison, a group of neurons oscillating in phase can resonate with a distant group of neurons. This simultaneity of neuronal activity is the neurobiological root of cognition. Although the internal state that we call the mind is guided by the senses, it is also generated by the oscillations within the brain. Thus, in a certain sense, one could say that reality is not all "out there," but is a kind of virtual reality.