Neural Organization

[Michael Arbib]

The volume "Neural Organization: Structure, Function, and Dynamics" by
Michael A. Arbib, Peter Erdi, and Janos Szentagothai is now available from
the MIT Press.
See the MIT Press website for additional information:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/book-home.tcl?isbn=026201159X

The volume can be viewed at the MIT Press booth at the Society for
Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans. MIT Press offers a 20% discount for
orders placed using forms available at the meeting.



-----The following is additional information about the volume-----

"Neural Organization: Structure, Function, and Dynamics"
Michael A. Arbib, Peter Erdi, and Janos Szentagothai
ISBN 0-262-01159-X
328 pp. (8.5 x 11 double column), 163 illus. $60.00 (cloth)


In Neural Organization, Arbib, Erdi, and Szentagothai integrate structural,
functional, and dynamical approaches to the interaction of brain models and
neurobiologcal experiments. Both structure-based "bottom-up" and function-
based "top-down" models offer coherent concepts by which to evaluate the
experimental data. The goal of this book is to point out the advantages of
a multidisciplinary, multistrategied approach to the brain.

Part I of Neural Organization provides a detailed introduction to each of
the three areas of structure, function, and dynamics. Structure refers to
the anatomical aspects of the brain and the relations between different
brain regions. Function refers to skills and behaviors, which are explained
by means of functional schemas and biologically based neural networks.
Dynamics refers to the use of a mathematical framework to analyze the
temporal change of neural activities and synaptic connectivities that
underlie brain development and plasticity--in terms of both detailed
single-cell models and large-scale network models.

In part II, the authors show how their systematic approach can be used to
analyze specific parts of the nervous system--the olfactory system,
hippocampus, thalamus, cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia--as
well as to integrate data from the study of brain regions, functional
models, and the dynamics of neural networks. In conclusion, they offer a
plan for the use of their methods in the development of cognitive
neuroscience.




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Michael A. Arbib
USC Brain Project
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520, USA
arbib at pollux.usc.edu
(213) 740-9220; Fax: (213) 740-5687
http://www-hbp.usc.edu/HBP/