Micro Meso And Macro Dynamics Of The Brain

This book brings together leading investigators who represent various aspects of brain dynamics with the goal of presenting state-of-the-art current progress and address future developments. The individual chapters cover several fascinating facets of contemporary neuroscience from elementary computation of neurons, mesoscopic network oscillations, internally generated assembly sequences in the service of cognition, large-scale neuronal interactions within and across systems, the impact of sleep on cognition, memory, motor-sensory integration, spatial navigation, large-scale computation and consciousness. Each of these topics require appropriate levels of analyses with sufficiently high temporal and spatial resolution of neuronal activity in both local and global networks, supplemented by models and theories to explain how different levels of brain dynamics interact with each other and how the failure of such interactions results in neurologic and mental disease. While such complex questions cannot be answered exhaustively by a dozen or so chapters, this volume offers a nice synthesis of current thinking and work-in-progress on micro-, meso- and macro- dynamics of the brain.

This book has brought together leading investigators who work in the new arena of brain connectomics. This includes ‘macro-connectome’ efforts to comprehensively chart long-distance pathways and functional networks; ‘micro-connectome’ efforts to identify every neuron, axon, dendrite, synapse, and glial process within restricted brain regions; and ‘meso-connectome’ efforts to systematically map both local and long-distance connections using anatomical tracers. This book highlights cutting-edge methods that can accelerate progress in elucidating static ‘hard-wired’ circuits of the brain as well as dynamic interactions that are vital for brain function. The power of connectomic approaches in characterizing abnormal circuits in the many brain disorders that afflict humankind is considered. Experts in computational neuroscience and network theory provide perspectives needed for synthesizing across different scales in space and time. Altogether, this book provides an integrated view of the challenges and opportunities in deciphering brain circuits in health and disease.

In the domain of science concerned with systems structure and behavior, the issue of the relationship between the micro and the macro level is of key importance. This book concentrates on the interplay between these levels and has a special focus on the level “in between” — the meso level. An investigation of those links is made through a number of cases from different domains of science, including physics, chemistry, ecology, social science, economics and technology. What is evident is that there are facets regarding meso-level issues that are similar between cases, but also that the domains differ in various ways. This is particularly exemplified by the differences in perspectives from which the natural and social sciences deal with scaling issues. The various examples provided in this book mirror its overriding theme: systems complexity. Contents:The “Vertical” System Structure and Meso-Level Characteristics:Mesoscopic Levels in Science — Some Comments (H Haken)The Necessity for Mesoscopic Organization to Connect Neural Function to Brain Function (W J Freeman)A Revolution in the Middle Kingdom (R E Ulanowicz)Inner and Outer Dynamics:Time Rescaling and Generalized Entropy in Relation to the Internal Measurement Concept (I Rojdestvenski & M G Cottam)Resource Dynamics, Social Interactions, and the Tragedy of the Commons (A Mashanova & R Law)Stability of Social Interaction (S D Flåm)Resilience and Shocks:Systems, Shocks and Time Bombs (N Winder)Resilience in Utility Technologies (R Seaton)Risk and Crisis Management in Complex Systems (K Bertels & J-M Jacques)and other articles Readership: Graduate students, researchers, practitioners, professionals and general readers in any discipline. Keywords:Systems Analysis;Non-linear;Dynamics;Complexity;Networks;Scaling;Meso Scale;Resilience;Environment;Brain;Mathematical ModelsKey Features:A unique focus on the mesoscopic level of complex systemsNew views on the interplay between the spatial and temporal scalesExamples from many fields of science, connected by their systems analysis approach

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license. This collected volume represents the final outcome of the COST Action IS1104 “The EU in the new complex geography of economic systems: models, tools and policy evaluation”. Visualizing the EU as a complex and multi-layered network, the book is organized in three parts, each of them dealing with a different level of analysis: At the macro-level, Part I considers the interactions within large economic systems (regions or countries) involving trade, workers migration, and other factor movements. At the meso-level, Part II discusses interactions within specific but wide-ranging markets, with a focus on financial markets and banking systems. Lastly, at the micro-level, Part III explores the decision-making of single firms, especially in the context of location decisions.

In the domain of science concerned with systems structure and behavior, the issue of the relationship between the micro and the macro level is of key importance. This book concentrates on the interplay between these levels and has a special focus on the level OC in betweenOCO OCo the meso level. An investigation of those links is made through a number of cases from different domains of science, including physics, chemistry, ecology, social science, economics and technology. What is evident is that there are facets regarding meso-level issues that are similar between cases, but also that the domains differ in various ways. This is particularly exemplified by the differences in perspectives from which the natural and social sciences deal with scaling issues. The various examples provided in this book mirror its overriding theme: systems complexity."

This book brings together scientists from all over the world who have defined and developed the field of Coordination Dynamics. Grounded in the concepts of self-organization and the tools of nonlinear dynamics, appropriately extended to handle informational aspects of living things, Coordination Dynamics aims to understand the coordinated functioning of a variety of different systems at multiple levels of description. The book addresses the themes of Coordination Dynamics and Dynamic Patterns in the context of the following topics: Coordination of Brain and Behavior, Perception-Action Coupling, Control, Posture, Learning, Intention, Attention, and Cognition.

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.

Fundamentals of Brain Network Analysis is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to methods for unraveling the extraordinary complexity of neuronal connectivity. From the perspective of graph theory and network science, this book introduces, motivates and explains techniques for modeling brain networks as graphs of nodes connected by edges, and covers a diverse array of measures for quantifying their topological and spatial organization. It builds intuition for key concepts and methods by illustrating how they can be practically applied in diverse areas of neuroscience, ranging from the analysis of synaptic networks in the nematode worm to the characterization of large-scale human brain networks constructed with magnetic resonance imaging. This text is ideally suited to neuroscientists wanting to develop expertise in the rapidly developing field of neural connectomics, and to physical and computational scientists wanting to understand how these quantitative methods can be used to understand brain organization. Extensively illustrated throughout by graphical representations of key mathematical concepts and their practical applications to analyses of nervous systems Comprehensively covers graph theoretical analyses of structural and functional brain networks, from microscopic to macroscopic scales, using examples based on a wide variety of experimental methods in neuroscience Designed to inform and empower scientists at all levels of experience, and from any specialist background, wanting to use modern methods of network science to understand the organization of the brain