Neurons, Networks, and Motor Behavior: (Computational Neuroscience Series)

Recent advances in motor behaviour research rely on detailed knowledge of the characteristics of the neurons and networks that generate motor behaviour. At the cellular level, neurons, networks, and motor behaviour describes the computational characteristics of individual neurons and how these characteristics are modified by neuromodulators. At the network and behavioural levels, this volume discusses how network structure is dynamically modulated to produce adaptive behaviour. Comparisons of model systems throughout the animal kingdom provide insights into general principles of motor control. Contributors describe how networks generate such motor behaviours as walking, swimming, flying, scratching, reaching, breathing, feeding, and chewing. An emerging principle of organization is that nervous systems are remarkably efficient in constructing neural networks that control multiple tasks and dynamically adapt to change.

Table of Contents:
Selection and initiation of motor patterns; generation and formation of motor patterns - cellular and systems properties; generation and formation of motor patterns - computational approaches; modulation and reconfiguration; short-term modulation of pattern generating circuits; sensory modification of motor output to control whole body orientation.

About the Author :
Sten Grillner is Director of the Nobel Institute for Neurophysiology at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. Terrence J. Sejnowski holds the Francis Crick Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, San Diego. He was a member of the advisory committee for the Obama administration's BRAIN initiative and is President of the Neural Information Processing (NIPS) Foundation. He is the author of The Deep Learning Revolution (MIT Press) and other books. Tomaso A. Poggio is Eugene McDermott Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, where he is also Director of the Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines and Codirector of the Center for Biological and Computational Learning. He is coeditor of Perceptual Learning (MIT Press).

Review :
"Unlike conference proceedings that consist solely of technical reports,this book would be more accurately described as a seminar on motor controloffered by luminaries in the field. Every chapter has obviously beenwritten with the nonspecialist in mind, usually providing background andexplanations of technical terms that make the subject more accessible tostudents and to those in other fields who wish to understand current issuesin motor control... All in all, this book should serve as a useful primerof contemporary research on motor systems for some years to come." Fred Delcomyn , The Quarterly Review of Biology "This is not just another 'meeting' book, but rather an artfully crafted,tightly edited state of the art description of the molecules, cells,systems and underlying network operations of the motor systems from leechesto insects to tetrapods to primates. If you've not followed the enormousprogress that this community has achieved, there's no better place tostart." Floyd E. Bloom, M.D. , Chairman, Department of Neuropharmacology, TheScripps Research Institute