Reentry: a key mechanism for integration of brain function

What is Reentry?

Reentry in nervous systems is the ongoing bidirectional exchange of signals along reciprocal axonal fibers linking two or more brain areas.

.

Reentrant neural processes involve the simultaneous exchange of signals in a coordinated manner among multiple dispersed neuronal populations.

.

A second definitional point is largely a matter of taste. While from its inception as a cortical process (Edelman, 1978) reentry was used as the descriptor, other authors have since used different words, such as “recurrent” (Lamme and Roelfsema, 2000), “recursive” (Pollen, 2003) or “top-down” and “bottom-up” (Van Essen, 2005) to refer to the same process.