[Biomedical-cybernetics] Call for Review Articles -- Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences

[Guastello, Stephen]

Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences is looking for a few  
good review articles on applications of nonlinear dynamics to  
psychology and the life and social sciences. Successful articles  
should include summaries of problems, research strategies and results,  
and original insights regarding possible directions for nonlinear  
science. They should also be attentive to the roles of attractors,  
bifurcations, chaos, self-organization, and related nonlinear  
formalisms as defined in the journal's purview (www.societyforchaostheory.org/ndpls) 
  Review manuscripts should be prepared in the APA/NDPLS style;  
instructions for authors appear on the journal web site.

Topic choices should be primarily substantive rather than  
methodological. Critiques of methodologies, if warranted, are  
important facets of review articles, however. When composing the  
review, authors should be mindful of reviews or special issues  
published already in NDPLS (and possibly other journals), relevant  
book chapters, and various special issues of NDPLS (see list on the  
journal's web site).

Reviews of any application area of nonlinear dynamics within the  
journal's purview are welcome, although we have a couple suggestions.  
It is possible that some of the following suggestions could withstand  
more than one review that focus on different aspects of the phenomena.

1. The optimum variability principle: It is now well known that  
healthy heart rate variability is chaotic and not rigidly oscillating.  
The principle of healthy variability has extended to other biomedical  
and psychological phenomena. What is the status of the research in any  
of the application areas?

2. "Emergence" has become a popular concept both inside and outside of  
the sphere of nonlinear dynamical systems (NDS) research. How many  
different processes for emergence have been proposed (e.g. phase  
shifts, power laws, boundary dynamics)? How does one conduct empirical  
research with any of them to support a conclusion regarding what has  
emerged and how? Has anyone successfully separated bottom-up and top- 
down portions of the process empirically? What are the statuses of  
these research areas?

3. Related to suggestion #2 above, some researchers have suggested  
that multi-level modeling, which is based on a distinctively linear  
form of analysis, is necessary to assess instances of emergence or the  
impact of the impact of emergent events on group or collective  
behaviors. Has this strategy, recommendation, or approach produced any  
results of interest to nonlinear science? If so, what formal dynamics  
were expressed or implied by the source research? How could nonlinear  
experimental designs and analyses move the state of the science forward?

4. Network theory has blossomed in the last decade, although its roots  
can be traced to mathematical social psychology from the early 1950s.  
There are some important nonlinear constructs involved in some of the  
work, although a good deal of what has been written seems to have  
taken on a life of its own. The potential review question is what  
nonlinear principles are in evidence, and how has the combination of  
network and NDS constructs enlightened out understanding of (pick one)  
neuroscience, market behavior, political behavior, or economics?

If you are interested in writing a review, please send an e-mail to  
the Editor in Chief with an abstract of what you plan to write, and an  
estimated time of arrival for the first reviewable draft. Based on the  
responses we receive, we can gauge whether it would be more  
advantageous to the authors, readers, and journal planning to publish  
the reviews individually or aggregate material into one or more  
special issues.

As always, NDPLS invites all the empirical, methodological, and  
theoretical studies that fall within our purview year round. We look  
forward to hearing from you at your soonest opportunity.

Best regards,
Stephen J. Guastello, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, Marquette University
P. O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881 USA
Editor-in-Chief, Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences
stephen.guastello at marquette.edu

  
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