Theory of Cortical Plasticity

Four researchers from the Brown University Institute for Brain and Neural Systems present the Bieninstock, Cooper, and Munro (BCM) theory of synaptic plasticity, explaining how brains work. After an introduction, they consider single cell theory, objective function formulations, cortical network theory, second-order learning rules, receptive field selectivity in a natural image environment, ocular dominance in normal and deprived cortex, networks of interacting BCM neurons, and experimental evidence. A software package on the accompanying disk allows the simulations connecting the theory and experiments to be performed and varied. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)