After presenting evidence that the electrical activity recorded from the brain surface can reflect metastable state transitions of neuronal configurations at the mesoscopic level, I will suggest that their patterns may correspond to the distinctive spatio-temporal activity in the Dynamic Core (DC) and the Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW), respectively, in the models of the Edelman group on the one hand, and of Dehaene-Changeux, on the other. In both cases, the recursively reentrant activity flow in intracortical and cortical-subcortical neuron loops plays an essential and distinct role. Reasons will be given for viewing the temporal characteristics of this activity flow as signature of Self-Organized Criticality (SOC), notably in reference to the dynamics of neuronal avalanches. This point of view enables the use of statistical Physics approaches for exploring phase transitions, scaling and universality properties of DC and GNW, with relevance to the macroscopic electrical activity in EEG and EMG.

Junior-high school aged learning disabled and nondisabled students rated their willingness to conform to peer pressure to engage in antisocial and prosocial actions. In addition, students indicated how many friends they had, how supportive they perceived their peers and parents to be, and how often they participated in antisocial actions with friends. The results indicated that while learning disabled and nondisabled children did not differ in their estimates of likely conformity to engaging in prosocial behaviors, the learning disabled subjects rated themselves more likely to engage in antisocial actions with friends. While learning disabled children estimated having somewhat fewer friends than nondisabled students, the groups did not differ in their perceptions of peer and parent supportiveness. Results are discussed in terms of factors which may affect learning disabled adolescents' social behaviors.

Abstract:Under the assumption that nervous systems form a distinct category among the objects in Nature, applying metaphors of psychological and behavioral science disciplines is flawed and invites confusion. Moreover, such practices obscure and detract from the primary task of Neurophysiology: to investigate the intrinsic properties of nervous systems, uncontaminated with concepts borrowed from other disciplines. A comprehensive fundamental theory of nervous systems is expected to have the character of high dimensional nonlinear systems in which state space transitions, set in motion by external influences, self-organize to dynamic state space configuration with consequences for behavior.

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