Connectionists: Special issue of Network on "Analysis and modeling of multicellular dynamics"

[Christian Leibold]

Dear colleagues:

I am pleased to announce a call for papers for a special issue of 
Network: Computation in Neural Systems on

"Analysis and modeling of multicellular dynamics"

The tremendous technological advance of neuronal recording methods over 
recent years has generated extensive data sets about the activities of 
many neurons in parallel. These data describe collective neuronal 
processing to a level of detail that only several years ago would have 
been considered impossible by many researchers. It is now possible to do 
multielectrode recordings of extracellular spiking from over a hundred 
neurons in parallel; further, two-photon microscopy allows parallel 
intracellular calcium imaging of even hundreds of neurons. The leading 
labs presently strive to bring these techniques into behaving animal 
research and to further increase the number of recorded single cells - 
and even cellular compartments.

These developments pose an enormous challenge to theoretical 
neuroscientists. On the one hand more efficient data analysis methods 
are required to harvest the full potential of these recordings. On the 
other hand these data allow a new way of envisioning and validating 
computational models of neural systems. The networks in the brain now 
evolve from an abstract computational entity to experimentally tractable 
dynamical systems. The possible implications of this are significant, 
potentially slowly closing the gap between microcircuits and large scale 
signals as EEG or MRI.

This special issue will cover topics on analysis techniques of
multi-cellular recordings, models of neuronal networks that may aid in
such analysis techniques, the cellular basis of field potentials,
mechanisms underlying oscillations and synchrony, and
phenomenological models of spike correlations.

Submission instructions can be found at:
   http://informahealthcare.com/net
   contributions to the special issue should be marked in the submission 
letter accordingly	

Important Dates
   Submissions due:             30. November 2011
   Revised Submissions due:     31. January  2012
   Planned date of publication:     June     2012