The Brain
The brain is composed of 100 billion neurons (and a trillion more support cells) interacting with electrical and chemical signals. There is a huge variety of types of neurons operating in different areas of the brain, communicating with different non-neuronal cells, and interacting in a variety of ways, with different focuses on the various sorts of chemical and electrical signals. From this emense complexity arises the brain's capcity to take in information, form judgements and predictions, and learn.
I use dynamical systems theory, specifically a framework of chaos and synchronization, to study the way neurons interact and learn.
Resources
My Publications
- Waddell J and Zochowski M. “Intraburst versus interburst locking in networks of driven nonidentical oscillators.” Physical Review E 76: 2007
- Waddell J, Dzakpasu R, Booth V, Riley B, Jonathan R, Poe G, and Zochowski M. “Causal entropy - a measure for determining changes in the temporal organization of neural systems.” Journal of Neuroscience Methods 162, 320-332: 2007.
- Feldt S, Waddell J, Hetrick VL, Berke JD, and Zochowski M. “Functional clustering algorithm for the analysis of neural relationships.” Submitted to Physical Review Letters. 2008.
Other Sources
- Rhythms of the Brain. Gyorgy Buzsaki. The title says it all, and it's by a leader in the field. Get it fast: this topic becomes dated quickly.
- Principles of Neural Science. Eric Kandel, James Schwartz, Thomas Jessell. A superb introduction into a highly complex field. A good grounding in biology is required to get the most out of it, but a stubern physicist (for example) can learn much nonetheless. Level: Advanced undergraduate - reference for specialist.
- The Hippocampus Book. Per Anderson, Richard Morris, David Amaral, Tim Bliss, John O'Keefe. A ginormous text describing virtually everything known about one of the most studied areas of the brain. Level: Reference for specialist.