An examination of how widely distributed and specialized activities of the brain are flexibly and effectively coordinated. A fundamental shift is occurring in neuroscience and related disciplines. In the past, researchers focused on functional specialization of the brain, discovering complex processing strategies based on convergence and divergence in slowly adapting anatomical architectures. Yet for the brain to cope with ever-changing and unpredictable circumstances, it needs strategies with richer interactive short-term dynamics. Recent research has revealed ways in which the brain effectively coordinates widely distributed and specialized activities to meet the needs of the moment. This book explores these findings, examining the functions, mechanisms, and manifestations of distributed dynamical coordination in the brain and mind across different species and levels of organization. The book identifies three basic functions of dynamic coordination: contextual disambiguation, dynamic grouping, and dynamic routing. It considers the role of dynamic coordination in temporally structured activity and explores these issues at different levels, from synaptic and local circuit mechanisms to macroscopic system dynamics, emphasizing their importance for cognition, behavior, and psychopathology. Contributors Evan Balaban, Gyoergy Buzsaki, Nicola S. Clayton, Maurizio Corbetta, Robert Desimone, Kamran Diba, Shimon Edelman, Andreas K. Engel, Yves Fregnac, Pascal Fries, Karl Friston, Ann Graybiel, Sten Grillner, Uri Grodzinski, John-Dylan Haynes, Laurent Itti, Erich D. Jarvis, Jon H. Kaas, J.A. Scott Kelso, Peter Koenig, Nancy J. Kopell, Ilona Kovacs, Andreas Kreiter, Anders Lansner, Gilles Laurent, Joerg Lucke, Mikael Lundqvist, Angus MacDonald, Kevan Martin, Mayank Mehta, Lucia Melloni, Earl K. Miller, Bita Moghaddam, Hannah Monyer, Edvard I. Moser, May-Britt Moser, Danko Nikolic, William A. Phillips, Gordon Pipa, Constantin Rothkopf, Terrence J. Sejnowski, Steven M. Silverstein, Wolf Singer, Catherine Tallon-Baudry, Roger D. Traub, Jochen Triesch, Peter Uhlhaas, Christoph von der Malsburg, Thomas Weisswange, Miles Whittington, Matthew Wilson

Author Biography

Christoph von der Malsburg is Professor and Senior Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS). William A. Phillips is Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Stirling and Adjunct Fellow of the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies. Wolf Singer is Emeritus Director of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research and Founding Director of the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies and the Ernst Strungmann Institute for Neuroscience in cooperation with the Max Planck Society, where he is also Senior Research Fellow. He is the coauthor of Beyond the Self: Conversations between Buddhism and Neuroscience (MIT Press). William A. Phillips is Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Stirling and Adjunct Fellow of the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies. Christoph von der Malsburg is Professor and Senior Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS). Wolf Singer is Emeritus Director of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research and Founding Director of the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies and the Ernst Strungmann Institute for Neuroscience in cooperation with the Max Planck Society, where he is also Senior Research Fellow. He is the coauthor of Beyond the Self: Conversations between Buddhism and Neuroscience (MIT Press). Shimon Edelman is Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. He is the author of Computing the Mind, The Happiness of Pursuit, and other books. Sten Grillner is Director of the Nobel Institute for Neurophysiology at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. Bita Moghaddam is leading researcher in the field of neuropsychopharmacology. She is Chair of the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience and Ruth Matarazzo Professor at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. Terrence J. Sejnowski holds the Francis Crick Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, San Diego. He was a member of the advisory committee for the Obama administration's BRAIN initiative and is President of the Neural Information Processing (NIPS) Foundation. He is the author of The Deep Learning Revolution (MIT Press) and other books. Steven M. Silverstein is Director of the Division of Schizophrenia Research at University Behavioral HealthCare, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Services, Rutgers University. Andreas K. Engel is Professor of Physiology and Head of the Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. Karl J. Friston is Wellcome Principal Fellow and Scientific Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging and a Professor at University College London. J. A. Scott Kelso holds the Glenwood and Martha Creech Chair in Science at Florida Atlantic University and is Founder and Director of the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences. Peter J. Uhlhaas is Professor for Early Detection and Intervention of Mental Disorders at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Charite - Universita tsmedizin Berlin..