Making complexity simpler: multivariability and metastability in the brain

Int J Neurosci. 2004 Jul;114(7):843-62. doi: 10.1080/00207450490450046.

Abstract

This article provides a retrospective, current, and prospective overview on developments in brain research and neuroscience. Both theoretical and empirical studies are considered, with emphasis in the concept of multivariability and metastability in the brain. In this new view on the human brain, the potential multivariability of the neuronal networks appears to be far from continuous in time, but confined by the dynamics of short-term local and global metastable brain states. The article closes by suggesting some of the implications of this view in future multidisciplinary brain research.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Brain Mapping*
  • Cognition / physiology*
  • Evoked Potentials
  • Humans
  • Models, Neurological
  • Nerve Net / cytology
  • Nerve Net / physiology*
  • Neurons / physiology
  • Nonlinear Dynamics
  • Psychological Theory
  • Synaptic Transmission / physiology*