The Brain: Fuzzy Arithmetic to Quantum Computing / Edition 1

by Armando Freitas Rocha, Eduardo Massad, Alfredo Pereira

Overview

We could start writing this book by saying, with several other authors, that the brain is the most powerful and complex information processing device known, whether naturally developed or created artificially. Although we fully agree with this statement, in doing so we would be misleading the reader, in the sense that the present book basically aims to formalize the knowledge concerning brain physiology accumulated over the past few decades. Instead of merely describing the complexity of the cerebral str- ture or presenting a collection of commentaries and reviews of interesting experimental results, we take into account novel achievements in quantum information and quantum computation, and avail ourselves of recently - veloped mathematical tools. Neuroscience was bom in the 19'~ century with the works of Paul Brocca. However, this fledgling field experienced a boom only in recent times, following the development of powerful non-invasive techniques for probing the neural circuitry supporting the complex cognitive functions of the human brain. Although sophisticated mathematical models and phy- cal theories are the basic tools behind the conceptual foundations and a- lytical implementation of these modem techniques, to the best of our knowledge no effort was made to formalize the actual knowledge about brain function into a coherent theoretical framework incorporating the - cent developments in mathematical and physical science. Addressing this lack was our first motivation in writing this book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783642060052
Publisher:	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publication date:	12/15/2010
Series:	Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing , #165
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of hardcover 1st ed. 2005
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.36(d)

Table of Contents

Quantification and Calculation in Nature.- The Cells of the Brain.- Brain: A Distributed Intelligent Processing System.- Neural Computational Mechanisms Supporting Cognitive Processes.- The Brain and Quantum Computation.- Memetics and Cognitive Mathematics.- Modeling of Arithmetic Reasoning.- Brain Maps of Arithmetic Processes in Children and Adults.- Arithmetic Learning Capability in Congenitally Injured Brains.- Learning Arithmetic: Why So Difficult?.

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews:

"This textbook on brain neurology considers, besides fuzzy grammars, fuzzy languages and classical information processing, also quantum information and computation as well to be essential to explain the brain as an intelligent processing system. … is highly interesting and readable." (K.-E. Hellwig, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1135 (13), 2008)

From the Publisher