The Noisy Brain - Stochastic Dynamics As a Principle of Brain Function

The activity of neurons in the brain is noisy in that the neuronal firing times are random for a given mean rate. The Noisy Brain shows that this is fundamental to understanding many aspects of brain function, including probabilistic decision-making, perception, memory recall, short-term memory, attention, and even creativity. There are many applications too of this understanding, to for example memory and attentional disorders, aging, schizophrenia, and
obsessive-compulsive disorder.

About the author

Gustavo Deco (born in 1961 in Argentina) is Research Professor from the Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats at the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) where he is leading the Computational Neuroscience group at the Department of Technology and he is also director of the doctoral program in Computer Science and Digital Communication. His research interest includes computational neuroscience, neuropsycholgy, psycholinguistics, biological networks, statistical formulation of neural networks, and chaos theory.

Edmund T. Rolls is a neuroscientist at The Oxford Centre for Computational Neuroscience, Oxford, and was Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow and Tutor of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He performs research linking computational neuroscience approaches to neurophysiological, human functional neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies in order to provide a fundamental basis for understanding human brain function and its disorders.

Summary

The activity of neurons in the brain is 'noisy' in that their firing times are random when they are firing at a given rate. This book explores randomness in the operation of brain cells, showing how it can be advantageous in decision-making, in memory, and in many brain functions.

Product details

• Authors: Gustavo Deco, Gustavo (Pompeu Fabra University Deco, Deco Gustavo, Edmund T. Rolls, Edmund T. (Oxford Centre for Computational Neuroscience Rolls, Edmund T./ Deco Rolls, Rolls Edmund T.
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.05.2010
• EAN: 9780199587865
• ISBN: 978-0-19-958786-5
• No. of pages: 304
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Psychology > Theoretical psychology; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > Non-clinical medicine; SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Neuroscience, Experimental Psychology, PSYCHOLOGY / Neuropsychology, PSYCHOLOGY / Experimental Psychology, PSYCHOLOGY / Physiological Psychology, Physiological & neuro-psychology, biopsychology, Neurosciences, Physiological and neuro-psychology, biopsychology, Stochastics