David Liley School of Biophysical Sciences and Electrical Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology Brain dynamics and the electroencephalogram Wednesday 2nd, June 14:05-14:55pm, Carslaw Building Room 359. Despite the discovery of the human alpha rhythm over 70 years ago physiologically plausible theories for its dynamical genesis have met with only limited success. However recently we have developed a general theory of cortical electrorhythmogenesis that is able to explain the origin of the ubiquitous alpha rhythm and how it is modified by a range of pharmaceutical agents including tranquillisers and general anaesthetics. In addition numerical solutions of the theory's nonlinear partial differential equations reveal a rich repertoire of dynamics. Of particular interest is the existence of robust chaos exhibiting fat fractal parametric support and multistability in the presence of a single singular point. This talk will outline the essential basis of this theory as well as discussing the physiological relevance of its resulting dynamics.