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On Arousal And The Internal Regulation Of Brain Function: Theory And Evidence Across Modalities And Species, Ryan Raut

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The brain is an organ. It is subject to the same physiological regulatory processes that engage the rest of the body’s organs, sculpted over hundreds of millions of years to sustain life so effectively. The central message of this thesis is that the holistic functioning of the brain, rather than operating at some level above or independent from these systemic regulatory processes, is deeply related to them. In short, as our limited attention spans might suggest: brain function is internally regulated. I propose that this internal regulation is a primary function of intrinsic brain activity. Chapter 2 provides a theoretical …