Statistical mechanics

The branch of physics, closely related to classical thermodynamics, that studies the statistical and thermal properties of physical systems (e.g., gas) in terms of how statistical laws governing the component particles at the microlevel can govern the behaviour of the system at the macro level. James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879 with his kinetic theory of gases …

Statistical learning

The ability of humans, particularly children, to rapidly appreciate correlations and patterns in the information they perceive visually.  A salient non-visual example is the ability of infants as young as 8-months-of age to detect the statistical properties of syllable co-occurrence to segment novel words.  Seemingly, they do not just detect how frequently syllable pairs occur, …

Stationarity

Stabilityin the parameters of a system across time.  In most Gaussian or GLM-basedmodels, this means that the means and correlations are static over time. Stationarity is often phrased in terms of the parameters of a model. For example, a time-series whose mean changes linearly over time could beconsidered stationary in slope, but non-stationary in mean.  See Parameter …

Startles

An abrupt, generalised and stereotyped movements, typically occurring spontaneously during quite sleep (fatal state 1F) and transitions between sleep states, and always starting in the limbs and often spreading to the trunk and neck. Fetuses begin to express this movement pattern at 8.5-10 weeks of gestation (see figure below).  Fetal startles with a first age of …

Stage

In Piagetian theory, a period of time in which a child‚was thinking or action assumes a stable or homogeneous form.  See Décalage, Formal operations, Motor Performance Study (Michigan State University), Piaget’s stage theory

Stability

The property of a state, pattern, or behaviour to resist perturbations.  Perturbations arise all the time in nervous systems, both from the outside due to time-varying and complex environments as well as from within due to extensive neural connectivity and concurrent and competing processes.  Stability is therefore the prerequisite for a behavior to be functional …

SQUID

Superconducting quantuminterference devices are magnetic sensors utilizingthe Josephson effect (or tunnelling) formagnetic field recordings.  For non-invasive magnetoencephalographic applications, low temperatureSQUIDs, cooled with liquid helium, are arrayed across the skull at about a distance of 15mm from the scalp, providing MEG with an advantage compared to EEG (see figure below).  The devices allow therecording of faint magnetic fields in individual neural …