No label defined (Q4360293)

In the second edition of this book, as in the first, most of the material is devoted to the introduction and application of a voltage-controlled oscillator neuronal model (VCON), proposed by the author. Mathematical methods which are convenient for this purpose are reviewed, but they do not, as might be inferred from the title, form the core of the book. A considerable amount of new material has been added, with the result that the level of the mathematical treatment has advanced from that of the undergraduate to that of the graduate engineering student. An earlier review of the first edition from 1986, see Zbl 0587.92010, describes the contents of the book and remains valid for the second edition with the exception that the order of the second and third chapters has been reversed. New material in this second edition includes the following: (1) Influence of noise on signals. (2) More emphasis on chemical synapses. (3) Ionic channel models. (4) Relation between the VCON model and a model of the saddle-node bifurcation. (5) Connections between the VCON model and models from quantum mechanics. (6) Simulations of neural circuits using VCON methodologies describing functions such as attention, shivering and flight in moths, memory, dynamics of cortical columns, and development of ocular dominance in newborns. The terminology in the second edition is closer to common usage in the engineering literature.