Abstract

For any complex system, consisting of several organizational levels, the problem of causation is profound. Usually, science considers upward causation as funda-mental, paying less or no attention to any downward causation. This is also true for the nervous system, where cortical neurodynamics, or even higher mental functions of the brain are normally considered causally dependent on the nerve cell activity, or even the activity at the ion channel level. This study presents both upward and downward causation in cortical neural systems, using computational methods with focus on cortical fluctuations. We have developed models of paleo- and neocortical structures, in order to study their mesoscopic neurodynamics, as a link between the microscopic neuronal and macroscopic mental events and pro-cesses. We demonstrate how both noise and chaos may play a role for the func-tions of cortical structures. While microscopic random noise may trigger meso- or macroscopic states, the nonlinear dynamics at these levels may also affect the ac-tivity at the microscopic level.

Published in

Studies in systems, decision and control
2016, Volume: 39, number: 39, pages: 177-186
Book title: Cognitive Phase Transitions in the Cerebral Cortex - Enhancing the Neuron Doctrine by Modeling Neural Fields
ISBN: 978-3-319-24404-4
Publisher: Springer

SLU Authors

• Liljenström, Hans

  • Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
Philosophy
Neurosciences
Biophysics
Other Computer and Information Science
Structural Biology


Publication Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24406-8_16

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/65224