23 Problems in Systems Neuroscience

Nature With such an attractive list of topics, this book is sure to find a wide audience at every level of interest, from lay readers to students and academics.

Part I How have brains evolved?; 1. Shall we ever understand the fly's brain?; 2. Can we understand the action of brain in natural environments?; 3. Hemisphere dominance of brain function-which functions are lateralized and why?; Part II How is the cerebral cortex organized?; 4. What is the function of the thalamus?; 5. What is a neuronal map, how does it arise, and what is it good for?; 6. What is fed back?; Part III How do neurons interact?; 7. How Can the Brain be so Fast?; 8. What is the Neural Code?; 9. Are single cortical neurons independent or are they obedient members of a huge orchestra?; 10. What is the other 85% of V1 doing?; Part IV What can brains compute?; 11. Which computation runs in visual cortical columns?; 12. Are neurons adapted for specific computations? Examples from temporal coding in the auditory system; 13. How is time represented in the brain?; 14. How general are neural codes in sensory systems?; 15. How does the hearing system perform auditory scene analysis?; 16. How does our visual system achieve shift and size invariance?; 17. What is reflected in sensory neocortical activity: External stimuli or what the cortex does with them?; 18. Do perception and action result from different brain circuits? The three visual systems hypothesis; 19. What are the projective fields of cortical neurons?; 20. How are the features of objects integrated into perceptual wholes that are selected by attention?; 21. Where are the switches on this thing?; 22. Synesthesia: What does it tell us about the emergence of qualia, metaphor, abstract thought and language?; 23. What are the neural correlates of consciousness?