Topic Editors

1. Institute of Ageing and Chronic Diseases, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
2. Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
Dr. Andrew Johnson
Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

The Computational Brain

Abstract submission deadline
31 May 2026
Manuscript submission deadline
31 July 2026
Viewed by
331

Topic Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recently it has become clear that the brain acts as a computational system but does not rely on binary codes, as seen with Turing-based computational systems. In this collection of papers, we will review the mechanisms by which information enters the nervous system, is stored and, later, retrieved. This does not rely simply on physiological action potentials because the action potential is made up of three components: the physiological action potential as described by Hodgkin and Hixley, the action potential pulse, and the computational action potential as described by Winlow and Johnson. Here, we will explore these mechanisms in more detail, including information storage in reverberatory loops in the neocortex. We invite submissions from a wide range of disciplines and encourage authors to share insights that can drive the computational brain.

Prof. Dr. William Winlow
Dr. Andrew Johnson
Topic Editors

Keywords

  • neuroscience
  • neurocomputation
  • computational action potential
  • action potential pulse
  • reverberatory loops

Participating Journals

Journal Name Impact Factor CiteScore Launched Year First Decision (median) APC
Brain Sciences
brainsci
2.8 5.6 2011 16.2 Days CHF 2200 Submit
NeuroSci
neurosci
2.0 - 2020 27.1 Days CHF 1200 Submit
Applied Sciences
applsci
2.5 5.5 2011 19.8 Days CHF 2400 Submit
Mathematics
mathematics
2.2 4.6 2013 18.4 Days CHF 2600 Submit
Computation
computation
1.9 4.1 2013 16.7 Days CHF 1800 Submit

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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13 pages, 1245 KiB  
Article
An Experimental Study on the Formation of Spatial Cognitive Maps in Humans
by Otmar Bock
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(13), 7234; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15137234 - 27 Jun 2025
Viewed by 111
Abstract
This study investigated how cognitive maps of the environment are formed. During learning trials, participants encoded the spatial locations of objects in a virtual maze either through simulated movement within the maze (first-person perspective) or by inspecting a schematic map (survey perspective). During [...] Read more.
This study investigated how cognitive maps of the environment are formed. During learning trials, participants encoded the spatial locations of objects in a virtual maze either through simulated movement within the maze (first-person perspective) or by inspecting a schematic map (survey perspective). During interleaved test trials, they indicated where the object were on a schematic map (survey perspective). Response accuracy, averaged across objects and participants, increased gradually across test trials. At the level of individual participants and objects, however, accuracy improved abruptly. Furthermore, response accuracy was unaffected by the number of encoded objects used. Notably, the speed of map formation and the absence of a set-size effect were comparable across the two encoding perspectives, despite the fact that first-person encoding required transformation into a survey perspective for testing. Unlike the speed, the accuracy was lower in the first-person perspective compared to the survey encoding perspective. These findings suggest that cognitive maps can be holistic rather than item-dependent representations that emerge in a locally abrupt fashion, regardless of the encoding perspective. In contrast to the emergence speed, map accuracy can be lower when the encoding perspective differs from the test perspective. Full article
(This article belongs to the Topic The Computational Brain)
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