Overview of brain dynamics

Alwyn C. Scott

Department of Informatics and Mathematical Modelling,
Building 321, Technical University of Denmark,
2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

Abstract: As an introduction to "Nonlinear Dynamics of the Brain," a cognitive hierarchy of the human brain will be described, reaching from the lowest level of chemical dynamics through neurons and assemblies of neurons to the influences of human culture. Emphasis will be placed on the intricacy of individual neurons, which may permit information processing in dendritic and axonal trees, and on metaphors for assembly dynamics. Downward causality in this hierarchical structure will be discussed and related to theories of neural determinism.