The Experts below are selected from a list of 297 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Diego Guidolin - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Volume transmission and wiring transmission from cellular to molecular networks: history and perspectives.
Acta Physiologica, 2006Co-Authors: Alessio Zanardi, Alicia Rivera, Susanna Genedani, Kjell Fuxe, Diego GuidolinAbstract:The present paper deals with a fundamental issue in neuroscience: the inter-Neuronal communication. The paper gives a brief account of our previous and more recent theoretical contributions to the subject and also reports new recent data that support some aspects of our proposal on two major modes of communication in the central nervous system: the wiring and the volume transmission. There exist two competing theories on inter-Neuronal communication: the Neuron Doctrine and the theory of the diffuse nerve network, supported by Cajal and Golgi, respectively (see their respective Nobel Lectures). The present paper gives a brief account of a view on inter-Neuronal communication in the brain, the volume and wiring transmission concept that to a great extent reconcile these two theories. Thus, the theory of volume and wiring transmission are summarized and its recent developments that allow to extend these two modes of communication from the cellular network to the molecular network level is also briefly illustrated. The explanatory value of this broadened view is further enhanced by our recent proposal on the existence of a Global Molecular Network enmeshing the entire central nervous system. It may be interesting to note that also the Global Molecular Network theory is reminiscent of the old reticular theory of Apathy. Finally, the so-called 'tide hypothesis' for diffusion of signals in the brain is briefly discussed and its possible extension to the molecular level is for the first time introduced. Early indirect evidence supporting volume transmission in the brain was the discovery of transmitter-receptor mismatches. Thus, as an experimental part of the present paper a new approach to evaluate transmitter-receptor mismatches is given and evidence for interrelationships between temperature micro-gradients and mismatches is provided.
Walter J Freeman - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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cognitive phase transitions in the cerebral cortex enhancing the Neuron Doctrine by modeling neural fields
2015Co-Authors: Robert Kozma, Walter J FreemanAbstract:This intriguing book was born out of the many discussions the authors had in the past 10 years about the role of scale-free structure and dynamics in producing intelligent behavior in brains. The microscopic dynamics of neural networks is well described by the prevailing paradigm based in a narrow interpretation of the Neuron Doctrine. This book broadens the Doctrine by incorporating the dynamics of neural fields, as first revealed by modeling with differential equations (K-sets). The book broadens that approach by application of random graph theory (neuropercolation). The book concludes with diverse commentaries that exemplify the wide range of mathematical/conceptual approaches to neural fields. This book is intended for researchers, postdocs, and graduate students, who see the limitations of network theory and seek a beachhead from which to embark on mesoscopic and macroscopic neurodynamics.
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2007 special issue indirect biological measures of consciousness from field studies of brains as dynamical systems
Neural Networks, 2007Co-Authors: Walter J FreemanAbstract:Consciousness fully supervenes when the 1.5 kgm mass of protoplasm in the head directs the body into material and social environments and engages in reciprocity. While consciousness is not susceptible to direct measurement, a limited form exercised in animals and pre-lingual children can be measured indirectly with biological assays of arousal, intention and attention. In this essay consciousness is viewed as operating simultaneously in a field at all levels ranging from subatomic to social. The relations and transpositions between levels require sophisticated mathematical treatments that are largely still to be devised. In anticipation of those developments the available experimental data are reviewed concerning the state variables in several levels that collectively constitute the substrate of biological consciousness. The basic metaphors are described that represent the neural machinery of transposition in consciousness. The processes are sketched by which spatiotemporal neural activity patterns emerge as fields that may represent the contents of consciousness. The results of dynamical analysis are discussed in terms serving to distinguish between the neural point processes dictated by the Neuron Doctrine vs. continuously variable neural fields generated by neural masses in cortex.
Stuart R. Hameroff - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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The Neuron Doctrine is an insult to Neurons
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1999Co-Authors: Stuart R. HameroffAbstract:As presently implemented, the Neuron Doctrine (ND) portrays the brain's Neurons and chemical synapses as fundamental components in a computer-like switching circuit, supporting a view of brain = mind = computer. However, close examination reveals individual Neurons to be far more complex than simple switches, with enormous capacity for intracellular information processing (e.g., in the internal cytoskeleton). Other poorly appreciated factors (gap junctions, apparent randomness, dendritic-dendritic processing, possible quantum computation, the living state) also suggest that the ND grossly oversimplifies Neuronal functions. In the quest to understand consciousness, the presently implemented ND may throw out the baby with the bath water.
Joe Y F Lau - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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a more substantive Neuron Doctrine
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1999Co-Authors: Joe Y F LauAbstract:First, it is not clear from Gold & Stoljar's definition of biological neuroscience whether it includes computational and representational concepts. If so, then their evaluation of Kandel's theory is problematic. If not, then a more direct refutation of the radical Neuron Doctrine is available. Second, objections to the psychological sciences might derive not just from the conflation of the radical and the trivial Neuron Doctrines. There might also be the implicit belief that, for many mental phenomena, adequate theories must invoke neurophysiological concepts and cannot be purely psychological.
Steven G Daniel - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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how trivial is the trivial Neuron Doctrine
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1999Co-Authors: Steven G DanielAbstract:I argue that Gold & Stoljar's “trivial Neuron Doctrine” is not in fact trivial. Many familiar positions in the philosophy of mind run afoul of it, and it is unclear that even those whom Gold & Stoljar identify as adherents of the trivial Neuron Doctrine can be comfortably described as such.