Corticonics: Neural Circuits of the Cerebral Cortex

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Feb 22, 1991 - Medical - 280 pages
Understanding how the brain works is probably the greatest scientific and intellectual challenge of our generation. The cerebral cortex is the instrument by which we carry the most complex mental functions. Fortunately, there exists an immense body of knowledge concerning both cortical structure and the properties of single neurons in the cortex. With the advent of the supercomputer, there has been increased interest in neural network modeling. What is needed is a new approach to an understanding of the mammalian cerebral cortex that will provide a link between the physiological description and the computer model. This book meets that need by combining anatomy, physiology, and modeling to achieve a quantitative description of cortical function. The material is presented didactically, starting with descriptive anatomy and comprehensively examining all aspects of modeling. The book gradually leads the reader from the macroscopic cortical anatomy and standard electrophysiological properties of single neurons to neural network models and synfire chains. The most modern trends in neural network modeling are explored.
 

Contents

Anatomy of the cerebral cortex
1
12 Types of neurons
6
13 Microscopic organization
18
14 Embryogenesis of the cerebral cortex
40
15 Quantitative considerations
49
16 References
59
The probability for synaptic contact between neurons in the cortex
65
21 Uniform distribution
66
46 References
147
Models of neural networks
150
52 The point neuron
152
53 Small random networks
153
54 Large random networks
160
55 Recurrent cooperative networks
173
56 Perceptrons
193
57 References
203

22 Nonuniform distribution
79
23 Examples
82
24 Generalization
87
25 References
90
Processing of spikes by neural networks
92
32 Transmission of a single spike through a synapse
96
33 Using the ASG
101
34 Transmission of a spike train
110
35 Examples
113
36 References
117
Relations between membrane potential and the synaptic response curve
118
42 Randomly firing neurons
120
43 The autocorrelation function for spike trains
133
44 Synaptic effects on periodically firing neurons
136
45 Synaptic effects on randomly firing neurons
139
Transmission through chains of neurons
208
62 Existence of divergingconverging connections
212
63 Transmission through divergingconverging chains
221
64 Appendix
225
65 References
226
Synchronous transmission
227
72 Synfire chains
232
73 Stability of transmission in synfire chains
235
74 Accuracy of timing
241
75 Conversion from synchronous activity to asynchronous activity and vice versa
249
76 Detectability of synfire activity in the cortex
254
77 References
258
Answers and hints
260
Index
277
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