Stony Brook Mind/Brain Lecture Series
13th Annual Lecture

View the lecture via streaming video at
http://www.clicklive.com/Swartz/Sense-From-Chaos.asx

Guest Lecturer:
Dr. Larry F. Abbott
Co-director, Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University

Sense from Chaos: Controlling the Dynamic Networks of the Brain
Can a state of chaos actually be a good thing for the human mind? Activity recorded from neurons in the brain often looks random or chaotic. How do we make sense of the world and produce precisely controlled responses when so much of the activity in our brains is chaotic? Professor Larry Abbott will show how brain circuits can switch between chaotic and well-controlled patterns of activity, illustrating these points with computer demonstrations of network models. He will also discuss how chaos may be essential for a healthy brain and demonstrate what goes wrong when activity is insufficiently chaotic.