David A. Engstrøm, Ph.D.

DAVID A. ENGSTRØM – Ph.D. Neuropharmacology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, department of pharmacology (1991); BSci. Pharmacology, University of California, Santa Barbara (1985).

2006-Present: Engstrøm lives and gives musical performances in Scandinavia. He is currently recording The Dialogue Of Clockmasters Show Rock Opera and working with Kelso on a sequel companion book to TCN called The Squiggle Sense. He also blogmaster of four blogs including The Squiggle Sense.

The Complementary Nature

2001-2006: Engstrøm, along with co-author J. A. Scott Kelso, wrote The Complementary Nature (MIT Press, 2006) to summarize their research plan. This book contends that ubiquitous contraries of human experience are dynamic and complementary. It presents a comprehensive, empirically-based scientific theory of how the polarized world and the world in between can be reconciled. They nominate the tilde, or squiggle (~), as the symbolic punctuation for reconciled complementary pairs. The book reconciles the philosophy of complementary pairs with the science of coordination dynamics. As mentioned above, experiments and theory show that the human brain is capable of displaying two apparently contradictory, mutually exclusive behaviors–integration and segregation–at the same time. Coordination dynamics – a mathematically expressed theory that reconciles the scientific language of states with the novel dynamical language of tendencies – attests to the complementary nature inherent in human brains and behavior. It may explain, Kelso and Engstrøm argue, why we (and nature) appear to partition things, events, and ideas into pairs. This account is not just metaphorical; the reconciliations they describe are grounded in the principles and mathematical language of the theory of coordination dynamics. The Complementary Nature provides a clear-cut methodology for this evolving theory of brain and behavior that can also be applied to areas and developments outside the neurosciences, hence aiding reconciliations within and between disparate fields.

1996-2001: Engstrøm returned to Europe and his ‘other life’ as travelling musician. In 2001, he began co-writing “The Complementary Nature” (TCN) with Kelso, which was published by MIT Press in 2006. This book grounds the philosophy of complementary pairs in the science of coordination dynamics, and introduces the squiggle (~) as a useful symbol~dynamic of complementary pairs, reminiscent of both discrete waves and yin~yang.

1995-1996: Returned to work for Kelso CCSBS, this time with aim in developing conceptual links between coordination dynamics and complementary pairs.

1993-1995: Engstrøm travelled extensively in Europe, working as a musician. On the way, he attempted to consolidate his lifetime of education and art into a useful, meaningful world view.

1991-1993: worked as a post-doctoral fellow for J. A. Scott Kelso at the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences (CCSBS) at the Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, on behavioral transitions between reactive and anticipatory modes of human motor behavior.

Publications

Engstrøm, D. A., The Dialogue Of Clockmasters Storyboard, (2009), Blurb Press.

Engstrøm, D.A. and Kelso, J.A.S., The Coordination Dynamics of The Complementary Nature, Gestalt Theory 30 (2008) 121-134.

Kelso, J.A.S and Engstrøm, D.A. The Complementary Nature, (2006) MIT Press.

Engstrøm, D.A., Holroyd, T. and Kelso, J.A.S. Reaction-anticipation transitions in human motor behavior, Human Movement Science 15 (1996) 809-832.

Engstrøm, D.A and Kelso, J.A.S., Dynamic transitions between reactive and anticipatory perception-action behavior, Workshop for nonlinear dynamics and brain, Florida Atlantic University (1992)

Engstrøm, D.A., Bickford-Wimer, P., de la Garza, R. and Rose, G.M., Age related-increases in responsiveness of rat hippocampal pyramidal neurons to locally applied nicotine correlate with diminished learning ability, Neurobio Aging (1992).

Rose, G.M. and Engstrøm, D.A., Differential effect of aging on hippocampal pyramidal cell responsiveness to muscimol & nicotine, The treatment of dementias: a new generation of progress, J.W. Simpkins, F.T. Crew and E.M. Meyer (Eds.),(1992) Plenum press, New York.

Rose, G.M. and Engstrøm, D.A., Hippocampal nicotinic-cholinergic supersensitivity in aged learning-impaired rats, IBRO Congress of Neurosci Abstr.(1991).

Engstrøm, D.A., Cholinergic modulation of hippocampal function, UPI (1991).

Engstrøm, D.A. and Rose, G.M., The effect of locally applied drugs on hippocampal primed burst potentiation, Neurosci Abstr 17 (1991) 387.

Engstrøm, D.A. and Rose, G.M., Nicotine differentially affects the spontaneous firing of hippocampal pyramidal cells and interneurons, Neurosci Abstr 16 (1990) 207.

Engstrøm, D.A., Bennett, M.C., Stevens, K.E., Wilson, R.L., Diamond, D.M., Fleshner, M.and Rose, G.M., Modulation of hippocampal primed burst potentiation by anesthesia, Brain Res (1990) 521.

Diamond, D.M., Bennett, M.C., Engstrøm, Fleshner, M. and Rose, G.M., Adrenalectomy reduces the threshold for primed burst potentiation, Brain Res 492 (1989) 356-360.

Engstrøm, D.A. and Rose, G.M., Infuence of cholinergic neurotransmission on hippocampal synaptic plasticity, Neurosci Abstr 15 (1988) 85.

Engstrøm, D.A., Allan, A. and Harris, R.A. The effects of avermectin B1a on muscimol-stimulated 35Cl- flux, Neurosci Abstr 12 (1986) 669.