When: October 15, 2009   6:45 pm -  7:45 pm

Much of what we understand about the brain has been discovered either on the cellular and molecular (microscopic) scale or the anatomical and functional (macroscopic) scale. In the development of the theoretical framework for integration of these two scales into a coherent model of human behavior, a fundamental disconnect arises. As it turns out, the brain is too complex for the common simplifying assumptions that underlie these models. From this confusion emerges a burgeoning field predicated on the study of neural populations - the intervening or mesoscopic scale - as self-organizing chaotic dynamical systems. The study of neurodynamics allows us to make sense of the transitions from the stimulus-driven activity of individual neurons to the complex human behavioral response...ordo ab chao.

Traditional light snacks will begin at 6:30 in Math Hall.

Contact: Prof. Donna Molinek