Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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PV: Plenarvorträge

Ceremonial Session with PV XIII

PV XIII: Plenary Talk

Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 17:35–18:20, H 0105

From laser light to brain dynamics — •Hermann Haken — University Stuttgart

The year 2015 has been declared to be "year of the light". One of the most spectacular forms of light is surely laser light with its numerous, often astounding applications. I will show what makes laser light so different from light from thermal sources. Laser light is an excellent example of selforganization of systems far from thermal equilibrium, of a nonequilibrium phase transition and of the emergence of new properties at the macroscopic scale. An appropriate treatment of selforganization requires new concepts such as circular causality and the slaving principle forming a bridge between the "microscopic" and the "macroscopic". After a brief outline of Synergetics, a field of research treating these phenomena systematically, I will present examples from brain dynamics at the macro-level (ambigous figures and hysteresis in perception) and at the micro/macro-level (pattern recognition, hybrid images, neuronal spike synchronization). An outlook at information adaptation (Shannon/semantic Information) will be given.