Microcosms of the Brain: What sensorimotor systems reveal about the mind

How can we understand a system as intricate as the human brain? Microcosms of the Brain presents a bold new approach to understanding this incredibly complex organ. It argues that the key to understanding brain function lies in the sensorimotor systems - those that gather sensory data such as light and sound, and use them to control action - steering the eyes, head, or limbs. The book shows how these subsystems can provide a microcosm of the brain - small enough to be analysed, but substantial enough to reveal general principles of brain function. By studying these simple subsystems and simulating their behaviour computationally, we can get some answers to the bigger questions about brain function. In ten chapters Tweed explores ten concepts that may help form a basis for the computerized neuroscience of the future: optimization, computation, complexity, learning, dynamics, interfaces, loops, degrees of freedom, information, and inference. He explains these concepts in simple, non-mathematical language, and shows how they can bring some order to our view of the human brain. Written to be accessible to students and researchers in the cognitive sciences, this is a book that could dramatically change the way that we explore the human mind.