or even reflection. Some of these functions confer a clear survival advantage to the organism (prey or mate recognition, escape reactions, etc. ). Others can be considered as an essential part of cognitive processes that contribute, to varying degrees, to the development of individuality and self-consciousness. How can we hope to understand the complexity inherent in this range of functionalities? One of the distinguishing features of the last two decades has been the availability of computational power that has impacted many areas of science. In neurophysiology, computation is used for experiment control, data analysis and for the construction of models that simulate particular systems. Analysis of the behavior of neuronal networks has transcended the limits of neuroscience and is now a discipline in itself, with potential applications both in the neural sciences and in computing sciences.