This book contains invited contributions by top experts in the field of physiological rhythms. It is the first attempt to demonstrate the pronounced similarities between the various types of physiological rhythms and to identify their interrelations. This integrative and interdisciplinary approach will be of interest to physiologists, physicists, physicians, and biologists.

Inhalt
I Physiological Rhythmicity and Synergetics.- Physiology of Rhythms and Control Systems: An Integrative Approach.- Synergetics Can It Help Physiology?.- II Cardiovascular Rhythms.- Autorhythmicity in Blood Vessels: Its Biophysical and Biochemical Bases.- Role of the Rostroventrolateral Medulla in the Generation of Rhythmicities of the Sympathetic Activity.- Noninvasive Methods for Studying Rhythmic Nervous Control of Human Circulation.- The High Pressure System of the Mammalian Circulation as a Dynamic Self-Organizing System.- Spectral Analysis of Circulatory Rhythms and Baroreflex Sensitivity in Man.- Spectral Analysis of Cardiovascular Variables as a Tool to Quantify Neural Cardiovascular Control in the Laboratory and Real Life Conditions.- Cardiorespiratory Variability: Fractals, White Noise, Nonlinear Oscillators, and Linear Modeling. What's to Be Learned?.- Spectral Analysis as an Assessment of the Neural Control of the Heart: A Methodological Comparison.- Power Laws, Transients, Attractors, and Entropy: Possible Implications for Cardiovascular Dynamics.- III Respiratory Rhythms.- The Respiratory System Features of Modulation and Coordination.- Phase Resetting of Respiratory Rhythm Experiments in Animals and Models.- Rhythmogenesis of Deterministic Breathing Patterns.- IV Motor Coordination.- Synergetic Dynamics of Biological Coordination with Special Reference to Phase Attraction and Intermittency.- Synchronization of Rhythm in Motor Actions.- V Basis of Circadian Rhythmicities.- Interactions Between Human Circadian and (About 90 min) Sleep Rhythms: Problems in the Simulation and the Analysis.- VI Rhythms in Electrical Activity of the Brain.- The Information Content of the Human EEG.- Synergetics of Evoked Alpha and Theta Rhythms in the Brain:Topographic and Modality-Dependent Aspects.- EEG Rhythms Event-Related Desynchronization and Synchronization.- VII Rhythms in Perception.- Psychological Modification and Synergetic Modelling of Perceptual Oscillations.- VIII Aspects of Systems Theory.- Spatio-Temporal EEG Patterns.- Information Processing by Systems with Chemical Communication.- Criteria for the Relative Degree of Order in Self-Organization Processes.- Index of Contributors.