Experimentation and Modeling: An Introductory Discussion

Abstract

On the occasion of the lectures given at this interdisciplinary workshop, various topics of common interest were discussed by neurophysiologists, neuroanatomists, neuroethologists, systems theorists, physicists, and computational neuroscientists. The dialogs presented in this chapter are from tape recordings of three general discussion sessions. After introductory remarks the following issues were treated: (1) Promotion of the interaction between model and experiment; the advantage of modeling for neuroscience; the question of the adequate model; responsible vs. romantic modeling; problems with “detailism,” “reductionism,” and “reality”; the heuristic value of modeling; application of brain models to artificial intelligence and engineering. (2) The structure/function problem; synaptic, connectional, inferential, and intermediate levels of approach; the question of isomorphism between dendritic geometries and neuronal response properties; the notion of parametric vs. topographic representational maps; implicit, explicit, and cooperative processing; internal patterns of selforganization. (3) Modulation of sensorimotor functions; evaluation of distributed brain activities by monitoring energy metabolism; parallel distributed processing; coding problems; controversial experimental approaches and modeling; methodological and interpretational problems.