Principles of Brain Dynamics: Global State Interactions

Experimental and theoretical approaches to global brain dynamics that draw on the latest research in the field.

The consideration of time or dynamics is fundamental for all aspects of mental activity—perception, cognition, and emotion—because the main feature of brain activity is the continuous change of the underlying brain states even in a constant environment. The application of nonlinear dynamics to the study of brain activity began to flourish in the 1990s when combined with empirical observations from modern morphological and physiological observations. This book offers perspectives on brain dynamics that draw on the latest advances in research in the field. It includes contributions from both theoreticians and experimentalists, offering an eclectic treatment of fundamental issues.

Topics addressed range from experimental and computational approaches to transient brain dynamics to the free-energy principle as a global brain theory. The book concludes with a short but rigorous guide to modern nonlinear dynamics and their application to neural dynamics.

Mikhail I. Rabinovich is Research Scientist at the BioCircuits Institute at the University of California, San Diego.

Karl J. Friston is Scientific Director of the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging and Professor at Queen Square Institute of Neurology at University College London.

Pablo Varona is Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.