Workshop Publications

Editors: Nathan Schultheiss, Robert Butera and Astrid Prinz 

Book series:Springer Series in Computational Neuroscience, Tentative volume 9

Neuronal phase response curves (PRCs) summarize the relationship between the timing of inputs within a neuron’s spike cycle and output spike timing, as so are efficient encapsulations of the input-output processing 

of individual neurons to singular perturbations. The form of a neuron’s PRC reflects its mechanism of spike initiation or excitability as well as other influences of membrane conductances on synaptic integration, and PRCs 

are powerful devices for the prediction and interpretation of the patterned behavior of neuronal networks including synchronization phenomena in connected networks or populations of neurons receiving shared input. 

Thus, the application of phase response analysis to neural systems targets the interface of neural computation at the cellular and network levels.

 

Phase response analysis has been one of the most fruitful means of elucidating the interrelationships between cellular and network mechanisms of brain function. This volume surveys the diversity of applications of phase response analysis by many of the prominent theoreticians and experimentalists in the computational neurosciences. Readers will find a thorough introduction to the foundational concepts underlying phase response analysis, advanced techniques for accurate estimation of neuronal PRCs, and impactful illustrations of both the cellular underpinnings of the phase response properties of neurons and the power of phase response analysis to explain network behavior. Throughout the book, the authors use phase response analysis to elucidate a number of neural systems that are current foci of exciting research in the computational neurosciences and are at the forefront of our advancing grasp of the complex mechanisms of brain function. Phase response analysis has been one of the most fruitful means of elucidating the interrelationships between cellular and network mechanisms of brain function. This volume surveys the diversity of applications of phase response analysis by many of the prominent theoreticians and experimentalists in the computational neurosciences. Readers will find a thorough introduction to the foundational concepts underlying phase response analysis, advanced techniques for accurate estimation of neuronal PRCs, and impactful illustrations of both the cellular underpinnings of the phase response properties of neurons and the power of phase response analysis to explain network behavior. Throughout the book, the authors use phase response analysis to elucidate a number of neural systems that are current foci of exciting research in the computational neurosciences and are at the forefront of our advancing grasp of the complex mechanisms of brain function.


Editor: Axel Hutt 

Book series: Springer Series in Computational Neuroscience, Vol. 15

Sleep and anesthesia seem so similar that the task of analyzing the neurological similarities and differences between the two is an obvious research postulate. Both involve the loss of consciousness, or the loss of awareness of external stimuli. Yet when we investigate further, key differences start to manifest themselves—anesthesia is drug-induced while sleep requires no external cause being only the most salient. Other fascinating questions crowd in too: do we dream while under anesthesia, and do we feel pain while sleeping? Examining neuralactivity associated with sleep and anesthesia can be effected at various levels, from the microscopic, single-neuron level right up to that of whole neural populations. This book aims to reveal the underlying neural mechanisms of sleep and anesthesia by employing a range of experimental techniques and applying theoretical models of neural activity that predict the mechanisms related to both states. Of course, these models offer deeper insights if their assumptions and resulting data can be correlated to experimental findings, and it is these correlations that the book focuses on. As the outcome of workshops on anesthesia and sleep at the 2007 and 2009 Computational Neuroscience Conferences in Toronto and Berlin, the chapters lay out key theoretical issues as well as hot contemporary research topics. It also details experimental techniques on various spatial scales, such as fMRIand EEG-experiments on the macroscopic, and single-neuron and LFP measurements on the microscopic scale. The book has been motivated by the workshops "Modeling of anaesthesia and sleep by neuronal networks" at the CNS 2007 in Toronto and "Anaesthesia and Sleep: Recent experimental and theoretical aspects" at the CNS 2009 in Berlin. 


Editors: Jose Luis Perez Velazquez , Richard Wenneberg

Book series: Springer Series in Computational Neuroscience, Vol. 2

Increasing interest in the study of coordinated activity of brain cell ensembles reflects the current conceptualization of brain information processing and cognition. It is thought that cognitive processes involve not only serial stages of sensory signal processing, but also massive parallel information processing circuitries, and therefore it is the coordinated activity of neuronal networks of brains that give rise to cognition and consciousness in general. While the concepts and techniques to measure synchronization are relatively well characterized and developed in the mathematics and physics community, the measurement of coordinated activity derived from brain signals is not a trivial task, and is currently a subject of debate. Coordinated Activity in the Brain: Measurements and Relevance to Brain Function and Behavior addresses conceptual and methodological limitations, as well as advantages, in the assessment of cellular coordinated activity from neurophysiological recordings. The book offers a broad overview of the field for investigators working in a variety of disciplines (neuroscience, biophysics, mathematics, physics, neurology, neurosurgery, psychology, biomedical engineering, computer science/computational biology), and introduces future trends for understanding brain activity and its relation to cognition and pathologies. This work will be valuable to professional investigators and clinicians, graduate and post-graduate students in related fields of neuroscience and biophysics, and to anyone interested in signal analysis techniques for studying brain function. The book has been motivated by the workshop "Synchronization of brain signals: what is real, what is not" at the CNS 2007 in Toronto.