Robustness and fault tolerance make brains harder to study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Brains increase the survival value of organisms by being robust and fault tolerant. That is, brain circuits continue to operate as the organism needs, even when the circuit properties are significantly perturbed. Kispersky and colleagues, in a recent paper in <...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Stevens Charles F, Srinivasan Shyam
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2011-06-01
Series:BMC Biology
Online Access:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/9/46
Description
Summary:<p>Abstract</p> <p>Brains increase the survival value of organisms by being robust and fault tolerant. That is, brain circuits continue to operate as the organism needs, even when the circuit properties are significantly perturbed. Kispersky and colleagues, in a recent paper in <it>Neural Systems & Circuits</it>, have found that Granger Causality analysis, an important method used to infer circuit connections from the behavior of neurons within the circuit, is defeated by the mechanisms that give rise to this robustness and fault tolerance.</p> <p><b>See research article: </b><url>http://www.neuralsystemsandcircuits.com/content/1/1/9/abstract</url></p>
ISSN:1741-7007