Cortical Circuits: Synaptic Organization Of The Cerebral Cortex Structure, Function, And Theory
by WHITE /
2012 / English / PDF
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This elegant book presents current evidence on the organization of
the mammalian cerebral cortex. The focus on synapses and their
function provides the basis for understanding how this critical
part of the brain could work. Dr. White and his colleague Dr.
Keller have collated an impressive mass of material. This makes the
crucial information accessible and coherent. Dr. White pioneered an
area of investigation that to most others, and occasionally to
himself, seemed a bottomless pit of painstaking at tention to
detail for the identification and enumeration of cortical syn
apses. I do not recall that he or anyone else suspected, when he
began to publish his now classic papers, that the work would be
central to an accelerating convergence of information and ideas
from neurobiology and computer science, especially artificial
intelligence (AI) (Rumelhart and McClelland, 1986). The brain is
the principal organ responsible for the adaptive capacities of
animals. What has impressed students of biology, of medicine, and,
to an extent, of philosophy is the correlation between the
prominence of the cerebral cortex and the adaptive "complexity" of
a particular spe cies. Most agree that the cortex is what sets
Homo sapiens apart from other species quantitatively and
qualitatively (Rakic, 1988). This is summarized in the first
chapter.
This elegant book presents current evidence on the organization of
the mammalian cerebral cortex. The focus on synapses and their
function provides the basis for understanding how this critical
part of the brain could work. Dr. White and his colleague Dr.
Keller have collated an impressive mass of material. This makes the
crucial information accessible and coherent. Dr. White pioneered an
area of investigation that to most others, and occasionally to
himself, seemed a bottomless pit of painstaking at tention to
detail for the identification and enumeration of cortical syn
apses. I do not recall that he or anyone else suspected, when he
began to publish his now classic papers, that the work would be
central to an accelerating convergence of information and ideas
from neurobiology and computer science, especially artificial
intelligence (AI) (Rumelhart and McClelland, 1986). The brain is
the principal organ responsible for the adaptive capacities of
animals. What has impressed students of biology, of medicine, and,
to an extent, of philosophy is the correlation between the
prominence of the cerebral cortex and the adaptive "complexity" of
a particular spe cies. Most agree that the cortex is what sets
Homo sapiens apart from other species quantitatively and
qualitatively (Rakic, 1988). This is summarized in the first
chapter.