Summary
This chapter summarizes some recent work that addresses the problem of integrating the activity and plasticity of functionally segregated areas in the brain. It is proposed that such integration is achieved in large part through the process of reentry, the recurrent parallel exchange of signals among neuronal groups. It is then argued that value systems, i.e. diffuse projection systems that release neuromodulatory substances in response to salient events, allow global saliency signals to interact with local temporal correlations in determining plastic changes. Finally, by introducing the notion of neural complexity, a theoretical perspective is presented that offers an “in principle” resolution of the apparent counterposition of functional segregation and integration.
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© 1996 Birkhäuser Verlag Basel/Switzerland
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Tononi, G. (1996). Functional segregation and integration in the nervous system: Theory and models. In: Franzén, O., Johansson, R., Terenius, L. (eds) Somesthesis and the Neurobiology of the Somatosensory Cortex. Advances in Life Sciences. Birkhäuser Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-9016-8_34
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-9016-8_34
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