Alwyn C. Scott

Mathematics

Currently, Alwyn Scott is engaged in efforts to understand the information processing of impulse trains by the axonal and dendritic trees of biological neurons. Going back to the early 1970s, these studies take advantage of the blocking of impulses at dendritic branchings, leading to "OR" behavior if both of the (distal) daughters can fire the parent, or to "AND" behavior when both of the daughters must present synchronized impulses in order to fire the parent. Since these two functions characterize the basic logic elements of a digital computer, their realization in biological neurons would vastly increase the information processing ability of a typical neuron. On the axonal side of the neuron, nonlinear effects may translate temporal codes on the trunk of the axonal tree to spatial codes at the distal twigs. To be credible, such studies must combine analytical perspectives with laboratory measurements and numerical simulations. This investigation is related to analytical and numerical studies of neural processes in (ephaptically) coupled myelinated nerve fibers, with the broad aim of understanding the spectrum of behaviors available to real neurons.

REFERENCES

Alwyn Scott, NEUROPHYSICS, John Wiley, New York, 1977.

Alwyn Scott, STAIRWAY TO THE MIND, Springer--Verlag (Copernicus), New York, 1995.

Alwyn Scott, NONLINEAR SCIENCE: Emergence and Dynamics of Coherent Structures, Oxford University Press, Oxford (to appear on January of 1999).