Generalized CNS arousal: An elementary force within the vertebrate nervous system.

TitleGeneralized CNS arousal: An elementary force within the vertebrate nervous system.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsCalderon DP, Kilinc M, Maritan A, Banavar JR, Pfaff D
JournalNeurosci Biobehav Rev
Volume68
Pagination167-76
Date Published2016 Sep
ISSN1873-7528
Abstract

Why do animals and humans do anything at all? Arousal is the most powerful and essential function of the brain, a continuous function that accounts for the ability of animals and humans to respond to stimuli in the environment by producing muscular responses. Following decades of psychological, neurophysiological and molecular investigations, generalized CNS arousal can now be analyzed using approaches usually applied to physical systems. The concept of "criticality" is a state that illustrates an advantage for arousal systems poised near a phase transition. This property provides speed and sensitivity and facilitates the transition of the system into different brain states, especially as the brain crosses a phase transition from less aroused to more aroused states. In summary, concepts derived from applied mathematics of physical systems will now find their application in this area of neuroscience, the neurobiology of CNS arousal.

DOI10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.05.014
Alternate JournalNeurosci Biobehav Rev
PubMed ID27216213
PubMed Central IDPMC5003634
Grant ListR01 NS094655 / NS / NINDS NIH HHS / United States