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Rhythms of the Brain

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A good popular science book will provide laypeople with an exciting perspective on the state of the art in a particular field. But this comes at a price: typically such books are written from just a single theoretical perspective, glazing over or altogether ignoring details that might be considered controversial within the academic community. To understand these deeper issues, an interested layperson would have to trudge through academic textbooks, or for the most cutting-edge topics, delve into the often impenetrable peer-reviewed literature.

And then there are the absolute best popular science books. György Buzsáki's "Rhythms of the Brain" is of this latter variety. Not only does it provide a wide-ranging and readable introduction to neural oscillators, but every crucial argument is carefully footnoted with deeper explanations, some qualifications, and suggestions for additional reading.

"Rhythms of the Brain" begins with the premise that "structure defines function," and then outlines how the architectural principles of neural networks can give rise to neural oscillations. In the process, he meticulously covers topics like the complex, small-world, scale-free connectivity of cortex without resorting to complicated equations - the concepts are carefully grounded in real-world analogies and lay terms.

Buzsáki introduces several other topics that are usually found only in mathematically sophisticated academic works on the brain: for example, how "neural noise" can actually enhance processing through stochastic resonance and the 1/f or "pink noise" signature of EEG, mechanisms of "phase precession" and "phase reset" within nested oscillations, and the difference between relaxation and harmonic oscillators.

It is perhaps not surprising that Buzsáki is the author of such a book - holding both an MD and a Neuroscience PhD, Buzsáki's has published over 185 peer-reviewed publications, 10 book chapters, and 2 edited volumes spanning the last 35 years. His lab at Rutgers consists of a veritable army of researchers, including 8 post-docs and 4 grad students.

After reading "Rhythms of the Brain," it's easy to understand why there's so much demand for working in this laboratory. There's potentially an entirely new field of neuroscience lurking in here: Buzsáki discusses distinct oscillations with frequencies spanning 4 orders of magnitude, from the ultra-slow ("slow 4": .02 Hz) to the ultra-fast ("high gamma": 600 Hz) and everything in between.

Although this book is probably not suitable for entry-level laypeople (a good popular science introduction to the brain and its rhythms is "I of the Vortex"), it is virtually guaranteed to please everyone with some previous neuroscience experience, literary or empirical. Beware also that "Rhythms of the Brain" is quite dense (with the copious footnotes constituting almost an entire second volume!) and is therefore more likely to be enjoyed with caffeine than as a relaxing bedside book.

Some may criticize "Rhythms of the Brain" for failing to offer a comprehensive "big picture" summary of how each of these oscillations contribute to cognition (although hints are there, to be sure). For me, this is actually a strength of the book; half-informed conjecture and hasty extrapolation ruins far too many popular "science" books on the brain, and they become prematurely outdated. Besides, such speculation is far more fun to do as a reader - and for this Buzsáki has provided fertile ground.

György Buzsáki's new book is superb.

One of the problems for people trying to understand some of the spectacular advances in science and medicine is that much of it has become not just complex, but highly specialized, with each discipline developing its own vocabulary. Many books are written for the cognoscenti and many others by professional writers trying to explain science in lay language. There are relatively few scientists working at the cutting edges of their fields who want - or in some cases are able - to communicate their findings to a broad audience.

This book is by an internationally recognized expert, a Professor at Rutgers who is amongst the 250 most cited neuroscientists in the world. He is passionate about his topic, literate, patient and humble. In this book he takes a complex topic - the dynamic function of the brain - and unlocks not just the secrets that he and others have uncovered, but you have the chance to look over his shoulder and understand why he has reached certain conclusions, while exposing some of the human side of the scientific enterprise. It is not all objectivity and cooperation, there is also the politics, bickering and suppression and omission of data that does not fit a pet model or theory.

As the title suggests, György Buzsáki's particular field of interest is brain oscillations: it has an extraordinary capacity for generating waves that organize its activity. We have known for centuries that there are cycles that control the rhythms of our hearts, lungs, metabolism and endocrine systems. But in recent years we have begun to suspect that the brain's constantly active rhythms, including its cycles of electrical activity, are essential to its "deepest and most general functions." That in itself is fascinating, but this is a very personal book.

He begins by saying, "The short punch line of this book is that brains are foretelling devices and their predictive powers emerge from the various rhythms they perpetually generate." A little later he explains the what, when, where, how and who of his first awakening to the importance of this realization. He says that it came, "in April, 1970, during a physiology lecture given by Endre Grastyán in the beautiful town of Pécs, on the sunny slopes of the Mecsek mountains in Hungry."

As you will see, this is no ordinary account of brain function.

It is divided into thirteen "Cycles:"
Cycle 1. Introduction.
Cycle 2. Structure defines function.
Cycle 3. Diversity of cortical functions is provided by inhibition.
Cycle 4. Windows on the brain.
Cycle 5. A system of rhythms: from simple to complex dynamics.
Cycle 6. Synchronization by oscillation.
Cycle 7. The brain's default state: self-organized oscillations in rest and sleep.
Cycle 8. Perturbation of the default patterns by experience.
Cycle 9. The gamma buzz: gluing by oscillations in the waking brain.
Cycle 10. Perceptions and actions are brain state-dependent.
Cycle 11. Oscillations in the "other cortex:" navigation in real and memory space.
Cycle 12. Coupling of systems by oscillations.
Cycle 13. The tough problem.
References.

The book is well written and scholarly. But this is not the scholarship of the show off: he is a natural scholar who is interested in knowledge for its own sake and for the ways in which it can illuminate his points. He wants to be understood beyond the narrow confines of the academy. He also understands the value of cross-pollination: how findings and insights garnered in one part of science, medicine, engineering and even art, can inform his work in the brain.

The book is full of fascinating insights. He discusses the way in which the brain is a complex adaptive, self-organizing system, while the neuron-rich cerebellum is so highly efficient and so localized that it can probably not give rise to conscious experience.

Most of us will have some points of disagreement. He is, perhaps, too certain that anatomy is destiny: that we are the cycles and oscillations created by our brains. Not all of the evidence is quite so cut and dried. But it is also certain from Buzsáki's writing that he would relish the chance to debate his points.

This is a fascinating book that may in places be a little demanding for the non-scientist. But it is also a very human story that lets the readers inside the head and the laboratory of a world-class scientist and storyteller.

Highly recommended.

"Rhythms of the Brain"
by Professor György Buzsáki,
(member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

There are many windows to the brain, many approaches to probe its secrets. However, a very few of them allow an in depth understanding of the most complex computational mechanisms which underlie our cognitive abilities. The approach chosen by Professor György Buzsáki in his latest book "Rhythms of the Brain" is to investigate the role of timing in governing neuronal activity. The choice is exceptionally fruitful, and sheds much new light on the emergent properties and collective behaviour of neuronal ensembles. The book is presently the most authoritative introduction to this very complex field of brain research.
In brief, the book tells that "brains are foretelling devices, and their predictive powers emerge from the various rhythms they perpetually generate". This briefing sets out the two main lines of thought recurring in "cycles" instead of chapters in the book. For the one it tells that instead of simply reacting to various kinds of input, the output of our brain is able to control its input. For the other, to do this, the brain is continuously engaged in generating various kinds of rhythmic activities, which can chunk the time and group neuronal activity into meaningful collective behaviours.
The book is outstanding in several respects. Buzsáki managed to find the fragile balance in styles and detail to be digestible to the lay person and to remain exciting to the super-specialist. Thanks to the nowadays all too rare single authorship, the line of thoughts are unbroken, and the chapters are linked together by a logic arching over the entire book. Buzsáki is leading us through various disciplines with impressive accuracy. Due to the nature of the topic, beside the numerous branches of electrophysiology (from single cell intracellular activity to MEG), the tightly linked neuroanatomy, physics, mathematics and even psychology and philosophy are lined up to bring us closer to understanding the generation of rhythmic events and their functional roles in the brain. The book is a must on the shelf of not only neuroscientist, but also of all those interested in the basic laws of our brain. The thoughts the book generates will certainly oscillate and reverberate in our mind conducted by the "rhythms of the brain".

Nearly every brain oscillation is discussed, and importantly, the descriptions are very detailed, ad aided by numerous footnotes and useful references. I recommend this book to anyone interested in brain waves, their interactions, functions and their possible origins.

Also a word of warning: despite, or perhaps because of the completeness of the text, the book may not be very reader-friendly in some places: Full understanding of new theories or topics may require additional reading of the references, chiefly in chapter 11 and 12. Also, everyone I know who read this book took a pretty long time reading it through. In a way, it is not so much an explanation as it is a reference book.
If you have not read other books dealing with this subject, I recommend reading 'A Universe Of Consciousness' by Edelman and Tononi, first.

This makes an excellent complement to Christof Koch's The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach. Koch's book is oriented to structure and hierarchical wiring, while Buzsaki's book is devoted to what goes through those wires- the large-scale firing and oscillations whose meaning is still mostly unclear, but whose persistence and complexity have captivated researchers for well over a hundred years. Which is more successful at illuminating consciousness? Buzsaki, by a mile! I found Koch's book somewhat disappointing, since after a huge build up of pretty well-known visual system anatomy and processing, his treatment of consciousness amounts to a brief bit of hand-waving. Buzsaki, on the other hand, while he does not make grand claims to even deal with consciousness, illuminates more of the temporal integration that is going on in the brain, and which will be absolutely central to plumbing this question. He also leaves the reader with extremely penetrating observations about consciousness- as a whole-brain phenomenon (or at least a whole-cortex), that it must be continuously graded with the size of brains, and that it is deeply connected with timing- with an approximate simultaneity of experience and integrated signal processing.

All that said, it is important to note that while Buzsaki is capable of excellent writing, such as in the introductory cycles (chapters), he routinely loses sight of the reader when presenting his own work and fields he is close to (in the middle and later cycles). The reader has to plow through mountains of unintroduced anatomy, private thoughts that seem never to have met an editor, and woefully under-enlarged and under-annotated illustrations. One wants to give him the benefit of the doubt that he is not covering up a lack of understanding, but the text can be trying at times, at least for the non-specialist. I would encourage work on a second edition where typos and illustrations are fixed, where all anatomy mentioned in the text is illustrated and described, and where substantial parts of the later cycles are re-written- expanded where there is substance, or cut where speculations and caveats outstrip the material.

The Buzsaki book on brain rhythms is a marvellous tour of neuroscience from the cellular through the behavioural to the wisely hypothetical. The concepts are presented in loops and cycles, with deep foot-notes, analogous to the brain mechanisms Buzsaki so clearly and entertainingly describes. Again, modelling brain processes themselves, Buzsaki has interacted with colleagues from many disciplines outside biology to emerge with succinct accounts of neural mechanisms.

Particularly enjoyable in this content-packed book, is that Buzsaki incorporates historical gems to acknowledge the origins of many of the fundamental ideas.

In the course of a few months, this book has become my most thumbed and dog-eared neuroscience reference.

"Rhythms of the Brain" by Gyorgy Buzsaki is a brilliant introduction to neuronal oscillations and fundamentals of brain functions. An enjoyable and useful read for both lay reader and accustomed professional.

As a practicing neuroscientist I read brain books for general audiences with a skeptical and generally very critical eye. Buszaki's, "Rhythms of the Brain" is a masterpiece. It is truly the book that I have always wanted to write. Buszaki is a gifted writer, whose style is poetic but meticulous. In its construction, "Rhythms of the Brain" evokes the classic, "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" by Hofstadter in using itself as a metaphor for the concepts it considers. Unlike many senior neuroscientists who write such theses, Buszaki does not fall into the trap of trying to explain the brain by drawing expansive conclusions from his personal research on molecules, synapses, etc... nor does he fall into the trap of explaining the mystery of the brain by appealing to the unsolved mysteries of physics (e.g., quantum indeterminacy). Buszaki instead considers how his personal studies to contribute to a broader approach that explores chaos theory, classical electrophysiology and a host of other data to address the deepest and most challenging problems of human cognition, including the perception of time and the accuirate computation of information by a stochastic machine.

You can be assured that this is an equally challenging read for laymen, mathematicians, physicists and neuroscientists. The exposition is relatively complete: he tells you the facts that you need, but he asks you to synthesize across many fields. The payoff: This should be required reading for people who want to investigate how the brain creates the mind. Starting here will put you well ahead of your colleagues.

This book was a hard read. Thanks to reading a variety of other books on neuroscience, I was able to understand what the author was explaining, but I wouldn't recommend this book to someone who hasn't read any books on neuroscience. The author discusses oscillation theory and although he does his best to make the concept approachable, it still ends up being fairly esoteric in content because of the technical information he provides. It is a good book, and one I'd recommend. Just make sure you've grounded yourself in other books on neuroscience.

I'm a neurobio student in college. I bought this book for the purpose of advancing my knowledge about the function of the brain. This is probably a really good book for laymen's reading. It does not require any prior knowledge about neuroscience to be able to read it. The problems the book presents are very interesting, but the solutions it provides are very breif and vague. I hope it could have gone more into details. I think I might appreciate this book more after filling the gap between my basic knowledge of neuroscience and the general theories in this book.