Three-Toed Sloth

Continuing the Flow of Brainy Material

Two more publications are now available (but were done some time ago).

One is a fairly straightforward paper, which you can get from arxiv.org.

Matthew J. Berryman, Scott W. Coussens, Cosma Shalizi, Yvonne Pamula, David Parsons, Kurt Lushington, David Saint, Andrew Allison, A. James Martin, Declan Kennedy and Derek Abbott, "Nonlinear Aspects of EEG Signals from Sleep Patients", pp. 40--48 in Fluctuations and Noise in Biological, Biophysical, and Biomedical Systems III (Bellingham, Washington: SPIE, 2005); q-bio.NC/0506015

Abstract: Electroencephalograph (EEG) analysis enables the neuronal behavior of a section of the brain to be examined. If the behavior is nonlinear then nonlinear tools can be used to glean information on brain behavior, and aid in the diagnosis of sleep abnormalities such as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). In this paper the sleep EEGs of a set of normal and mild OSAS children are evaluated for nonlinear behaviour. We consider how the behaviour of the brain changes with sleep stage and between normal and OSAS children.

This paper grows out of work Matthew did in Ann Arbor, when he visited last summer. (Our summer, not his.)

The other is a little more convoluted.

Cosma Rohilla Shalizi, "Functionalism, emergence, and collective coordinates: A statistical physics perspective on 'What to say to a skeptical metaphysician'", Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27 (2004): 635--636

This is part of the peer commentary on Don Ross and David Spurrett's target paper, "What to Say to a Skeptical Metaphysician: A Defense Manual for Cognitive and Behavioral Scientists" (pp. 603--627, same issue). The commentary (pp. 627--637) is followed by Ross and Spurrett's intelligent reply to comments (pp. 637--647). My contribution isn't particularly readable outside of that context, which of course the journal doesn't make publicly available.

Now, back to work.

Minds, Brains, and Neurons; Complexity; Physics; Philosophy; Self-Centered