BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

BRAIN CIRCUITS 1)5)

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C. KOCH and G. LAURENT write: "Brain circuits are not Boolean networks, where connectivity is everything. They are not made of static, linear neurons, isotropic nets, or constant connection weights…. A more realistic accounting of the dynamic nature of neuronal ensembles and their nonrandom, inhomogeneous connectivity topologies has been incorporated by TONONI and his colleagues into a formal definition of "neuronal complexity" using concepts drawn from information theory. These concepts express the degree of interactions between elements of a neuronal population… Complexity will be high if a large number of subassemblies of varied sizes can be formed within the population" (1999, p.97).

Further on they add: "The standard von NEUMANN computer architecture enforces a strict separation between memory and computation. Software and hardware, which can be easily separated in a computer, are completely interwoven in brains… Furthermore, brains wire themselves up during development as well as during adult life, by modifying, updating, replacing connections, and even in some circuits by generating new neurons. While brains do indeed perform something akin to information processing, they differ profoundly from any existing computer in the scale of their intrinsic structural and dynamic complexity" (Ibid, p.98)

As stated by the authors, much work will still be needed to reach a better understanding of brain circuits.

→ Synaptic weights

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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