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About This Document: The history of psychology and neuroscience is filled with a tension between theories emphasising localization of brain functions versus holistic processing. A third way has been emerging - viewing brain and mind in terms of dynamic, interacting networks. In his recent book Networks of the Brain, Olaf Sporns provides a much-welcomed synthesis of the network perspective. This perspective is not entirely new. First, as indicated by the well-selected quotes from eminent historical figures - Golgi, Cajal, Broca, James, and Hebb included - that Sporns employs to introduce each chapter, network ideas have been considered for some time. Second, the core tools used to analyse networks, primarily graph theory (which dates back to 1 8th century mathematician Leonhard Euler), are well-established. Graph theory has revealed common principles that define "small-world networks" - in which clusters of sparse connections allow short paths between any two nodes - in applications as diverse as social circles, epidemiology and transportation routes. What is new - and exciting - is the application of network analytic approaches to neuroscience: over the past decade, graph theory has been applied to the wiring diagrams or "connectomes" within brains. Specific neuroscience applications span a range of scales: thousands of connections between hundreds of neurons in the simple roundworm, Caenorhabditis elegans; hundreds of connections between dozens of functional areas of the human brain; and potentially even the trillions of connections between billions of neurons in the human brain.Chapters 8-11 proceed similarly to the previous four, but this time focused on functional and effective networks in the brain. In Chapter 8, Sporns provides an engaging overview of spontaneous network activity and self-organizing brain dynamics. While neuroscientists and psychologists have emphasised relationships between sensory stimulation and neural and behavioural responses, an emerging literature is reveal

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Categories: DocStore > Periodicals > Social Sciences
Tags: Canadian Psychology, Nov 2011, Networks of the Brain, Daley, Mark, Culham, Jody C, Book Review-Favorable, Book reviews, Nonfiction, Neurosciences, Psychology, Sporns, Olaf

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