CHAPTER 

 X 



HOW CAN MODELS FROM INFORMATION 

 THEORY BE USED IN NEUROPHYSIOLOGY?* 



Mary A. B. Brazier 



w. 



HY is it that information theory has had such an attraction for 

 neurophysiologists? From the earliest dissemination among scien- 

 tists of Shannon's information theory (9), developed in the context 

 of communications technology, and of Wiener's communication 

 theory (14) which expanded its frontiers, neurophysiologists have 

 been prominent among those who wished to explore the potenti- 

 alities for their field. 



There were many reasons for this, but I would suggest that there 

 were three major ones, namely: 



1) de-emphasis on energy-coupling within systems and emphasis 

 on informational coupling; 



2) the formulation of models for dealing with signals-in-noise; 

 and 



3) the exploration of piobabilistic models rather than determin- 

 istic ones. 



These are, of course, all interrelated. I would like to discuss the 

 first two items briefly, together with some other facets of information 

 theory that impinge on neurophysiology, and then give more 

 detailed attention to the subject of probabilistic models of nervous 

 system activity. 



*The work reported here was supported by USPHS Grant NB-03160 and Contract 

 Nonr 233(69) from the Office of Naval Research. 



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