Walter J. Freeman III

The scalp and cortex lie like pages of an open book on which the cortex enciphers vast quantities of information and knowledge. They are recorded and analyzed as temporal and spatial patterns in the electroencephalogram and electrocorticogram. This book describes basic tools and concepts needed to measure and decipher the patterns extracted from the EEG and ECoG. This book emphasizes the need for single trial analysis using new methods and paradigms, as well as large, high-density spatial arrays of electrodes for pattern sampling. The deciphered patterns reveal neural mechanisms by which brains process sensory information into percepts and concepts. It describes the brain as a thermodynamic system that uses chemical energy to construct knowledge. The results are intended for use in the search for the neural correlates of intention, attention, perception and learning; in the design of human brain-computer interfaces enabling mental control of machines; and in exploring and explaining the physicochemical foundation of biological intelligence.

"In How Brains Make Up Their Minds, Walter J. Freeman charts the brain's mind, progressing from single nerve cells to cooperative nerve cell assemblies to the emergence of complex brain patterns. By drawing on new developments in brain imaging and theories of chaos and nonlinear dynamics, he shows how brains create intentions and meanings." "In doing so he finds new ways to answer age-old philosophical questions about self-determination and individual responsibility. He finds Descartes mistaken in his dictum "I think, therefore I am"--His brain had already accomplished the fact and was merely keeping his ego informed."--Jacket.

This volume provides an overview of important work carried out by Professor Walter Freeman of the University of Berkeley, California, USA. Collecting together his published works over the last 35 years, it charts his groundbreaking research into perception and other cognitive operations in animals and humans and looks at how this can be applied to computer hardware to provide the foundations for novel - and greatly improved - machine intelligence. It provides a step-by-step description of the concepts and data needed by electrical engineers, computer scientists and cognitivists to understand and emulate pattern recognition in biological systems at a level of competence which has not yet been matched by any form of Artificial Intelligence. It offers a unique blend of theory and experiment and, historically, it also demonstrates the impact of computers on the design, execution, and interpretation of experiments in neurophysiology over the past five decades.

"It was obvious to the ancient Greeks, and the Egyptians before them, that all our plans, desires, and beliefs come from our brains. Descartes conceived the brain as the site of action of the soul, where it worked the valves regulating the flow of brain fluids like a pilot guiding a ship. Brain scientists today have dismissed the pilot, thereby creating "the mystery of consciousness." How can mere neurons, which are only little bags of chemicals, work together in brains and bodies to create the grandeur of human life, culture, and experience? How in a materialist world can we reinstate the pilot, the self in each of us, that endows us with the powers of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?"". "Four centuries of scientific investigation have culminated now in refinement of the tools needed to answer these questions. First among these tools are new ways to observe the flickering patterns of electrical activity that support the flow of our thoughts and feelings. Second among them are new mathematical theories for describing chaos and the creation of patterns where before only noise seemed to exist. Starting from a broad foundation in history, philosophy and neuroscience, Walter J. Freeman takes us in steps from single neurons to an explanation of our capacities for self-determination. The process is not easy to grasp, but comprehension is the best way to face down genetic and environmental determinism, apply our new biological knowledge in defense of our freedom, and accept responsibility for what we do with it."--BOOK JACKET.