Biophysics, Physiology, and some Psychology 

The study of excitability, from Galvani and Helmholtz, through Adrian, Hodgkin and Huxley, Neher and Sakmann, all the way to McKinnon’s elucidation of a channel protein structure, should no-doubt make us physiologists very proud of our discipline. But there is still a long way to go. Present concepts and technologies make it possible to implement the biophysical understanding of excitability in the more general context of mechanisms underlying the emergence and maintenance of functional cellular organization. Accordingly, the body of our theoretical and experimental studies reflects the idea of membrane excitability as a toy model for self-organization of cellular function. These studies address parameterisation of high-dimensional models of excitability, adaptation over extended ranges of time scales, critical self-organization, multiplicity of system states and its impacts on scaling of rates, modeling state-dependent processes, response entrainment, resilience of function to parametric variations, dynamics of axonal conduction, and more.

It is generally believed that behaviors are not mapped to single spikes generated by any one neuron, but rather to groups of spikes. These functional spiking neural activity groups may originate from a single neuron or from populations of neurons firing in synchronic or diachronic manners. The structure of the vast majority of behaviorally relevant neural activity groups is not predetermined by genetics, nor dictated by some sort of an ‘all-knowing teacher’, homunculus. Rather, neural activity groups are formed and modulated throughout life in a dynamic, activity-dependent manner, conforming to evolution and environmental constraints. The formation of neural activity groups is learning; their conservation is memory. 

Of the various alternatives, large random cortical networks developing ex vivo are probably the most appropriate experimental model systems for studying the universals governing formation, adaptation, and conservation of neural activity groups. These networks demonstrate extensive functional connectivity and sensitivity of that connectivity to activity. Moreover, the networks are relatively free of predefined constraints and intervening variables. Alternative experimental models (acute in-vivo, or acute in-vitro) allow one to explore ‘what-is-there’, but not ‘how-it-got-to-be-there’. The latter question is tightly related to development.

The body of our network studies implements advanced electronic (multi-electrode array) to interface with large scale developing cortical neural networks. These studies address learning under closed loop settings, adaptation over extended ranges of time scales, stimulus representation, embodiment, dynamics over structure, neuromodulation, impacts of modularity, and more. 

Out of a developing sense of unease with the nature of the present dialogue between brain science and psychology, I sought understanding, not so much of this or that recent biological finding, but of the roots that feed the stance of neurophysiology toward depth psychology.  While meandering in the chasm between physiology and psychology, contemplating the recent history of possible-impossible relations, the text evolved into an essay, a monograph titled Science, Psychoanalysis, and the Brain: Space for Dialogue (Cambridge University Press [read online], download; תרגום לעברית; Italian translation). The essay is an invitation, issued by a practicing physiologist, intended for dynamically oriented theory-sensitive psychologists and physiologists. It is an invitation to a space where reflections on neurophysiology are expressed and guided by depth psychology in mind; a space where neurophysiology resumes its traditional, humbled attitude toward matters of the psyche, and where the intellectual autonomy of depth psychology is acknowledged. The underlying assumption is that in the basic sense, as opposed to the applied science sense, the meaning of neurophysiological and neuroanatomical observables resides in their interpretation in light of psychological theories. A dialogue based on such terms, where psychology provides a theoretical framework that contributes to physiology, is beneficial to both parties: Neurophysiology gains something that is currently wanted – constraints and guidelines in phrasing meaningful questions. Psychology might gain further motivation to crystalize its multifaceted concepts. At all events, both camps might enrich the spectrum of metaphors available to them within their own disciplinary realms. 

• Dialogue Across Chasm: Are Psychology and Neurophysiology Incompatible? Shimon Marom, Neuron, 2020 (for a related iSfN2021 lecture see here) 

• Lost Knowledge  Eve Marder & Shimon Marom, Curr. Biol. 2022

• Article for the young minds: How Are Nerve Cells And Artificial Intelligence Similar? Paper for kids in עברית and English, Frontiers for Young Minds, 2022

• [Hebrew] פיתוי נצחי אודיסאה 2010

• [Hebrew] מקום לדיאלוג, שיחות 2016

• [Hebrew] ברכת דרך לבוגרי רפואה, 2017

• [Hebrew] חינוך ללמדנות, 2017

• [Hebrew] ברכת דרך לסגל אקדמי, 2021

• [Hebrew] על השתיקה, יולי 2023

• [YouTube Lecture]  2024 סרטון הרצאה על רצון חופשי, מאי

• Essay on freedom to choose, 2025

• Metrics or Meaning? Academia’s Drift Toward Tlön, 2025
  [translation of a Hebrew text originally posted in Academia_IL]

• Long recording sessions from ex-vivo networks of cortical neurons using a multi-electrode-array

• Long (hours) time series of single neuron responses to 20-25Hz stimulation (Gal et al, 2010)

• Biological Implementation (cortical neurons in-vitro) of Braitenberg Vehicle (Marom et al, 2010)

• Mathematica® dynamic lecture notes (CDF, computational document format) on memebrane excitability

• Mathematica® Notebook for reconstucting a 2D S-K pahse diagram of membrane excitability (Ori et al, 2018) 

• Recorded lecture on “Neurophysiology and depth-psycology: a possible impossible dialogue”, 29th ISFN Annual Meeting

Biophysics & membrane excitability

The physics and chemistry of ions in solution, diffusion, osmosis, Nernst-Planck electro-diffusion equation and the Nernst potential, and the Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz equation. The Hodgkin-Huxley model of excitability, the dynamics of macroscopic and microscopic membrane ionic conductances, and methods for their measurements and analyses. Classes of mathematical models that capture the phenomenon of action potential generation at various timescales, emphasising models derived from theory of nonlinear oscillators.

Download  Lecture notes on cellular excitability: a Mathematica® notebook, a computational document format (CDF) enabling interaction with course subjects (animations, manipulations, etc.). 

Psychology & Physiology: a space for dialogue
פסיכולוגיה ופיזיולוגיה: מקום לדיאלוג

Analysis of fundamental constraints inherent to modern brain research aimed to understand human behavior in health and disease. Key issues in brain research (evolution, anatomy, development, adaptation and learning) will be examined using concepts from functionalist, pragmatist and relational psychoanalytic schools. The course is structured around the book Science, Psychoanalysis, and the Brain: Space for Dialogue.

Week 1: Introduction

Week 2: More Is Different, Less Is Not Simpler

Week 3: Reverse Engineering and Reduction

Week 4: Consequences

Week 5: Structured Languages, Validation by Congruence

Week 6: Relational Objects in Psychology

Week 7: Brain Development and the Problem of Localization

Week 8: The Conceptual Nervouse System

Week 9: Neuron Doctrine, Association, Symmetry

Week 10: Symmetry Breaking, Structural-Programatic vs. Functional-Dynamic

Week 11: Objects, Truth, Pathology, and Relational Physiology

Week 12: Applied Relational Physiology: Cells, Networks, Human Subjects (perception and freedom)

Week 13: Sempiterna Temptatio 

ניתוח אילוצים מובנים בתרבות העכשווית של מחקרים המכוונים להבנה יסודית של התנהגות אנושית, בבריאות וחולי. נשתמש במושגים אשר מקורם בהגות פונקציונלית, פרגמטיסטית, ופסיכואנליטית־התייחסותית, כדי לנתח שאלות ליבה בחקר המוח וההתנהגות: אבולוציה, אנטומיה, התפתחות, אדפטציה ולמידה. הקורס מבוסס על פרקי הספר פסיכואנליזה ונוירו־לפיזיולוגיה: מקום לדיאלוג.

 מבוא

יותר זה אחר

צמצום ומורכבות
הנדסה מהופכת, רדוקציה
השלכות, לטוב ולרע
שפות מוּבְנוֹת, תיקוף ומעגלי אימות
אובייקטים התייחסותיים בפסיכולוגיה
התפתחות המוח, שאלת המיקומיות
מערכת עצבים מושגית
דוקטרינת העצב, אסוציאציה, סימטריה
שבירת סימטריה, מבנית־תכניתית, פונקציונלית־דינמית
אובייקטים, אמת, פתולוגיה ופיזיולוגיה התייחסותית
    (פסיכו־פיסיקה וחופש) דוגמאות ליישום פיזיולוגיה התייחסותית: תא, רשת, אדם
סיכום: פיתוי נצחי

דרישות הקורס:

– קריאה מקדימה לקראת כל אחד מהמפגשים

–  הגשת חיבור (עד חמישה עמודים):: ניתוח ביקורתי של פרקטיקה דיסציפלינרית כלשהי (רוח, חברה, טבע) לאור המושגים שנדונו בקורס, או ניסוח עמדה על אחד מנושאי הקורס, או ניסוח של משאלה לחקור בתחום כלשהו, המוטיבציה לעשות זאת וכיוון מחקר מוצע, או (תלמידי מחקר) ניתוח ביקורתי של נושא המחקר לאור המושגים שנדונו בקורס.

Further reading:

More Is Different — One More Time  (Anderson, 2001)
The chess master and the computer (Kasparov, 2010)
On the Precarious Path of Reverse Neuro-engineering (Marom et al, 2009)
Dialogue Across Chasm (Marom, 2020)
Biology and the Future of Psychoanalysis (Kandel, 1999)
The Case Against Neuropsychoanalysis  (Blass & Carmeli, 2007)
Exactitude in Science  (Jorge L. Borges, 1946) [עברית, ר. ליטוין]
Funes the Memories  (Jorge L. Borges, 1942) [עברית, י. ברונובסקי]
Lecture II. — What Pragmatism Means (William James, 1907) 

Mourning and Melancholia  (Sigmund Freud, 1917)
The Social Brain: ... Evolutionary Perspective (Dunbar, 2003)
Early Physiological Psychology (Ch. IV in J.C. Flügel, 1934)
The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology (Dewey, 1896)
Cortical Plasticity (Buonomano & Merzenich, 1998)
Pragmatism's Conception of Truth (James, 1907)
Meno (Plato, ca. 400BC)
Development of Visual Guided Behaviour (Held & Hein, 1963)

Shimon Marom ( شمعون ماروم /  שמעון מרום ) is a Professor of Physiology, and the Pearl Seiden Academic Chair of Sciences at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology. Completed basic training (MD, PhD) at the Technion, and a postdoctoral training (Fulbright & Fishbach fellowship) at Brandeis University (Mass., USA). Returned to the Technion (Alon Fellow) in 1993, and serves as a Faculty there to date. Focuses on theoretical and experimental analyses of the self-organization of bio-electrical phenomena in proteins, cells, and networks embedded in responsive and adaptive environments, implementing closed-loop experimental designs and natural input statistics. Over the years, headed the Physiology & Biophysics department, the Technion Program for Excellence, was the dean of medicine (2017–2019) and the Technion Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs (2019–2022). CEO (2023– present) of the Samuel Neaman institute. 

ORCID