Abstract
It is readily deducible from two basic characteristics of single nerve cells that functionally significant neural activity in the cerebral cortex must be cooperative in nature. In the first place, the activity impinging upon a neuron must exceed a threshold value in order to produce a response in that cell. It has been estimated that a cortical neuron must receive impulses from at least ten other cells to reach threshold (Eccles, 1964). Secondly, the postsynaptic potential generated within a cell due to impinging activity has a finite decay time, with typical decay constants being on the order of 10 msec. (Eccles, 1964). Thus a cell will reach threshold only if it receives a sufficient number of impulses from other cells within a circumscribed time interval. As the interconnections among neurons have a rather precise spatial organization, it follows that only large scale neural activity which is both spatially and temporally coherent can lead to the activation of a sufficient number of other neurons to permit further processing. Conversely, the activity of a like number of neurons in either a spatially or temporally random fashion will fail to generate further activity. Such random activity will thus be treated by the nervous system as noise and will be effectively filtered out.
To Dr. Peter A. Leermakers in Memoriam.
This research was supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Otho S. A. Sprague Memorial Institute.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Allison, A. C. (1953): The morphology of the olfactory system in vertebrates. Biol. Rev. (Cambridge) 28, 195.
Beurle, R. L. (1956): Properties of a mass of cells capable of regenerating pulses. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B, 240, 55.
Brindley, G. S. (1970): Physiology of the Retina and Visual Pathway. London
Campbell, F. W. and Green, D. G. (1956): Optical and Retinal Factors Affecting Visual Resolution, J. Physiol. 181, 576.
Chow, K. L. and Leiman, A. L. (1970): The structural and functional organization of the neocortex. Neurosciences Research Program Bulletin 8, 153.
Colonnier, M. L. (1965): The structural design of the neocortex. In: Brain and tonscious Experience (Eccles, J. C., ed). Berlin—Heidelberg—New York, 1–23.
Daniel, P. M. and Whitteridge, D. (1961): The representation of the visual field on the cerebral cortex in monkeys. J. Physiol. 159, 203.
Eccles, J. C. (1964): The Physiology of Synapses. New York—London.
Eccles, J. C. (1965): Inhibition in thalamic and cortical neurones and its role in phasing neuronal discharges. Epilepsia 6, 89.
Fender, D. and Julesz, B. (1967): Extension of Panum’s fusional area in binocularly stabilized vision. J. Opt. Soc. Am. 57, 819.
Fuster, J. M. and Alexander, G. E. (1971): Neuron activity related to short term memory. Science 173, 652.
Hodgkin, A. L. and Huxley, A. F. (1952): A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve. J. Physiol. 117, 500.
Hubel, D. H. and Wiesel, T. N. (1963): Shape and arrangement of columns in cat’s striate cortex. J. Physiol. 165, 559.
Hubel, D. H. and Wiesel, T. N. (1965): Receptive fields and functional architecture in two nonstriate visual areas (18 and 19) of the cat. J. Neurophysiol. 28, 229.
Julesz, B. (1971): Foundations of Cyclopean Perception. Chicago.
Mayzner, M. S., Tresselt, M. E., and Cohen, A. (1966): Preliminary findings on some effects of very fast sequential input rates on perception. Psychonomic Science 6, 513.
Mountcastle, V. B. (1957): Modality and topographic properties of single neurons of cat’s somatic sensory cortex. J. Neurophysiol. 20, 408.
Poggio, G. F. and Viernstein, L. J. (1964): Time series analysis of impulse sequences of thalamic somatic sensory neurons. J. Neurophysiol. 27, 517.
Purpura, D. P.(1970): Operations and processes in thalamic and synaptically related neural subsystems. In: The Neurosciences: Second Study Program (Schmitt, F. O., ed.). New York. Ratcliff, F. (1965): Mach Bands. London
Sholl, D. A. (1956): The Organization of the Cerebral Cortex. London.
Szentagothai, J. (1967): The anatomy of complex integrative units in the nervous system. In: Recent Developments of Neurobiology in Hungary (Lissak, K., ed.). 1, 9.
Wilson, H. R. and Cowan, J. D. (1972a): Excitatory and inhibitory interactions in localized populations of model neurons. Biophysics J. 12, 1.
Wilson, H. R. and Cowan, J. D. (1972b): A mathematical theory of the functional dynamics of cortical and thalamic nervous tissue. Submitted to: Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1973 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wilson, H.R. (1973). Cooperative Phenomena in a Homogeneous Cortical Tissue Model. In: Haken, H. (eds) Synergetics. Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-01511-6_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-01511-6_17
Publisher Name: Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, Wiesbaden
Print ISBN: 978-3-519-03011-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-663-01511-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive