Biomaterial Database

Keeping in mind the mind: mental functions, networks and neurosurgery. 1996

H J Steiger, and J Ilmberger

Department of Neurosurgery, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Klinikum Grosshadern, Munich, Federal Republic of Germany.

The object of the neurosurgeons daily endeavour, the human brain, is less well understood in its overall organization than any other organ. This puts the neurosurgeon in a very difficult position. However, a substantial body of knowledge has been accumulated during recent years, and scientists from a variety of different disciplines have worked out theoretical frameworks to accomodate the available data. Here we present some of the evolving concepts on the organization of the substrate of the mind. Review of the literature shows that application of mathematical neural network models to the nervous system is very successful in explaining function. An implicit aspect of neural network models is that information storage is not localized in certain neurons but that the information is stored as the global pattern of activity in the network. Because networks of the brain involve often millions of neurons, exact identification and comparison with the theoretical models is not possible today.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008037	Linguistics	The science of language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and historical linguistics. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed)	Linguistic
D008568	Memory	Complex mental function having four distinct phases: (1) memorizing or learning, (2) retention, (3) recall, and (4) recognition. Clinically, it is usually subdivided into immediate, recent, and remote memory.
D008606	Mental Processes	Conceptual functions or thinking in all its forms.	Information Processing, Human,Human Information Processing
D009493	Neurosurgery	A surgical specialty concerned with the treatment of diseases and disorders of the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral and sympathetic nervous system.	Neurosurgeries
D001921	Brain	The part of CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM that is contained within the skull (CRANIUM). Arising from the NEURAL TUBE, the embryonic brain is comprised of three major parts including PROSENCEPHALON (the forebrain); MESENCEPHALON (the midbrain); and RHOMBENCEPHALON (the hindbrain). The developed brain consists of CEREBRUM; CEREBELLUM; and other structures in the BRAIN STEM.	Encephalon
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D016571	Neural Networks, Computer	A computer architecture, implementable in either hardware or software, modeled after biological neural networks. Like the biological system in which the processing capability is a result of the interconnection strengths between arrays of nonlinear processing nodes, computerized neural networks, often called perceptrons or multilayer connectionist models, consist of neuron-like units. A homogeneous group of units makes up a layer. These networks are good at pattern recognition. They are adaptive, performing tasks by example, and thus are better for decision-making than are linear learning machines or cluster analysis. They do not require explicit programming.	Computational Neural Networks,Connectionist Models,Models, Neural Network,Neural Network Models,Neural Networks (Computer),Perceptrons,Computational Neural Network,Computer Neural Network,Computer Neural Networks,Connectionist Model,Model, Connectionist,Model, Neural Network,Models, Connectionist,Network Model, Neural,Network Models, Neural,Network, Computational Neural,Network, Computer Neural,Network, Neural (Computer),Networks, Computational Neural,Networks, Computer Neural,Networks, Neural (Computer),Neural Network (Computer),Neural Network Model,Neural Network, Computational,Neural Network, Computer,Neural Networks, Computational,Perceptron