COOPERATIVE BEHAVIOR IN NEURAL SYSTEMS: Ninth Granada Lectures

Ninth Granada Lectures

Joaquín Marro, University of Granada, Institute "Carlos I" for Theoretical and Computational Physics, Granada, Spain ; Pedro L. Garrido, University of Granada, Institute "Carlos I" for Theoretical and Computational Physics, Granada, Spain ; Joaquín J. Torres, University of Granada, Institute "Carlos I", Granada, Spain

Conference Location and Date: Granada, Spain, 11-15 September 2006

Subseries: Mathematical and Statistical Physics

Published March 2007; ISBN 978-0-7354-0390-1, One Volume, Print; 278 pages; 6 3/8 X 9 1/4 inches; Hardcover; $110.00

Readership: Teachers, students, and researchers in physics, biophysics and quantitative neurobiology, statistical physics, theroetical and computational neuroscience.

This volume originated at the 9th Granada Seminar, which was held at the "Facultad de Ciencias" of the University of Granada, Spain, September 11-15, 2006, and contains the main lectures as well as a selection of contributed papers in that conference. This is the ninth of a series of Granada Lectures; previous volumes were published by World Scientific (Singapore 1993), by Springer-Verlag (Berlin 1995 and 1997)-Lecture Notes in Physics Volumes 448 and 493-, by Elsevier (Amsterdam 1999) - Computer Physics Communications Volumes 121 and 122-, and by AIP - Conference Proceedings Series, Volumes 574, 662, and 779. The web pages at http://ergodic.ugr.es/cp/ describe these books and the successive editions of the Seminar since 1990. These pages also contain updated information on the next edition planned for September 2008. The Granada Seminar is defined as a small topical conference whose pedagogical effort is especially aimed at young researchers. In fact, one interesting aspect of this meeting is the opportunity given to the young scientists to present their results and to discuss their problems with leading specialists. There was in this edition 39 lectures, in addition to poster contributions by students which amount to the 37% of participants. These came from Europe (40 from Spain and 18 from the rest of EU and Associated States), America (10) and other countries (3), and most of them received some sort of support from the organization. Also remarkable is that this edition of the Granada Seminar was coordinated with the Spanish meeting of statistical and non-linear physicists, which produced attendance of near three hundred scientists and students during the last half of the combined meeting. The 9th Granada Seminar covered the computational and mathematical modeling of cooperative behavior in neural systems. This was selected to celebrate in the University of Granada the first centenary of the Nobel Prize award to Santiago Ramon y Cajal. The contributed papers confirmed that Cajal's seminal contributions to the understanding of the brain are still at the research forefront. It was also shown that neurosciences is the most promising field, where many intriguing questions are presently being studied and some crucial answers and paths will soon be revealed. In particular, new techniques have been developed that are producing lots of interesting data concerning cooperative phenomena in the central nervous system, and statistical physicists are paying due attention to these data. The 9th Granada Seminar, was organized by the Institute "Carlos I" for Theoretical and Computational Physics of the University of Granada, sponsored by the European Physical Society, and financed by the Spanish Minister for Science and Technology, project FIS2005-24364E, by the University of Granada, by the regional administration "Junta de Andalucia," and by the Dutch Foundation of Neural Networks. We also wish to express gratitude to all those who have collaborated in making the 2006 edition of the Seminar a success. In particular, we mention the remarkably high quality and friendly cooperation of invited speakers and other participants, whose personal effort enabled us to accomplish the goals of the Seminar, the Steering Committee's help in designing format and contents, and further collaboration from colleagues and students. Finally, let us notice that an effort has been made by authors and editors to offer pedagogical notes here. In particular, each topic is comprehensively described and, eventually, some practical exercises are proposed. We try to mold the "Granada Lectures" into a series of books that help introduce the beginner to novel advances in statistical physics and to the creative use of computers in scientific research, as well as to serve as a work of reference for teachers, students, and researchers.

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