Neuronal functional diversity and collective behaviors:a scientific case

摘要

A major issue in today's neuroscience is howthe brain complex and highly flexible organization emergesfrom its individual components. Robustness of neuronalproperties with weak linkages between regulatory pro-cesses are suggested to account for the adaptive, tunable,multistable dynamics, the coding schemes and the com-plexity of neuronal functional (sub)systems. Interneuronsand neurotransmitter diversity, resonance phenomena dueto properties of the cell or network, time/frequency-dependent activation of dedicated neuronal assemblies,code- and frequency-specific oscillations interact in deter-mining the brain functional setup and operations. Despitethe scientific relevance, comprehensive theories are not yetavailable, but the scenario—however incomplete andincompletely characterized—is promising and warrantsfurther investigation.