Physics and mathematics of the nervous system : proceedings of a Summer School organized by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, and the Institute for Information Sciences, University of Tübingen, held at Trieste, August 21-31, 1973

I Physics and Mathematics in the Biological Context.- Catastrophe Geometry in Physics and Biology.- Some Limitations Affecting Physics and Mathematics as Applied to Biology and Especially to the Nervous System.- II Molecule and Brain.- An Integral Physico-chemical Model for Bioexcitability.- Molecular Information Processing in the Central Nervous System.- 1. Selection Circuits in the Brain.- 2. Molecular Data Structures M. CONRAD.- Discrete and Continuous Processes in Computers and Brains.- III Cellular and Sensory Biophysics.- Postsynaptic Cell Characteristics Determining Membrane Potential Changes.- Limitations to Single-photon Sensitivity in Vision.- Visual Sensitivity.- Detection of Form and Pattern by Retinal Neurones.- Auditory Processing in the Nervous System.- IV Network Physiology.- Neural Networks and the Brain.- Cerebellar Morphology and Physiology: Introductory Remarks.- Can Neurons Develop Responses to Objects?.- On the Representation of Objects and Their Relations in the Brain.- Report on the Discussion Group on "Living Neural Nets".- V Artificial Intelligence and Natural Behavior.- Complexity of Automata, Brains, and Behavior.- Model Neuron Based on the Josephson Effect.- Adequate Locomotion Strategies for an Abstract Organism in an Abstract Environment - A Relational Approach to Brain Function.- The Artificial Intelligence/Psychology Approach to the Study of the Brain and Nervous System.- VI Molecular and Modifiable Automata.- Cellular Automata.- On Turing Machines with Modifications.- Chemical Automata in Homogeneous and Reaction-Diffusion Kinetics.- Molecular Automata.- Structural and Dynamical Redundancy.- Modifiable Automata with Tolerance: A Model of Learning.- VII The Approach From Information Theory.- Redundancy and Perception.- Sensory Coding and Economy of Nerve Impulses.- An Algorithmic Approach to Information Theory.- Information Theory and Learning in Biology: Summary of the Workgroup Sessions.- VIII Dynamical and Chemical Systems.- Mathematical Models and Bifurcation Theory in Biology.- Biochemical Kinetics.- Geometrical Aspects of the Pseudo Steady State Hypothesis in Enzyme Reactions.- A Synthetic Approach to Exotic Kinetics (With Examples).- Concluding Remarks.