Unlocking the Brain - Northoff, Georg (Oxford University Press, USA, 2013)
Cover; Unlocking the Brain; Copyright; Contents; List of Figures; Preface; Introduction; PART I: ENCODING EXTRINSIC STIMULI; 1. Sparse Coding and Natural Statistics; 2. Sparse Coding and Neural Inhibition; 3. Sparse Coding on a Regional Level; PART II: ENCODING INTRINSIC ACTIVITY; 4. Spatial Structure of Intrinsic Activity; 5. Temporal Structure of Intrinsic Activity; 6. Sparse Coding of Intrinsic Activity; PART III: ENCODING PREDICTIONS; 7. Predictive Coding and Difference-Based Coding; 8. Predictive Coding and Social and Vegetative Statistics
9. Predictive Coding and the Brain's Neuronal StatisticsPART IV: ENCODING EXTRINSIC ACTIVITY; 10. Stimulus-Stimulus Interaction and Neural Coding; 11. Rest-Stimulus Interaction and Difference-Based Coding; 12. Rest-Stimulus Interaction and GABA-ergic Neural Inhibition; Epilogue: A Quick Guide to a Future "Theory of Brain Activity"; Appendices; Appendix 1: Neuroempirical Remark: Resting-State Activity versus Stimulus-Induced Activity-Continuity Hypothesis; Appendix 2: Neurotheoretical Remark: Localizationism versus Holism; Appendix 3: Neuroepistemological Remark: Brain versus Observer
ReferencesIndex
Neuroscience has made considerable progress in figuring out how the brain works. We know much about the molecular-genetic and biochemical underpinnings of sensory and motor functions, and recent neuroimaging work has opened the door to investigating the neural underpinnings of higher-order cognitive functions, such as memory, attention, and even free will. In these types of investigations, researchers apply specific stimuli to induce neural activity in the brain and look for the function in question. However, there may be more to the brain and its neuronal states than the changes in activity w