Principles of Brain Functioning

Abstract

Synergetics, a rather new interdisciplinary field of research, studies how the cooperation of the individual parts of a system can bring about spatial or temporal structures in a self-organized fashion. My paper deals with applications of some basic concepts of synergetics to physics. After a short outline of the general approach specific examples of pattern formation in fluids (convection instability) and in semiconductors (filamentation) are given. Hierarchies of temporal patterns leading from oscillations to chaos are briefly discussed. It is suggested that instability hierarchies are used to desig multifunction elements. © 1984 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.