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2008-08-05 11:06:48
by Paul in Combining Cognits
Computer Science
In a 2004 Neuron paper, Howard Eichenbaum describes the function of the hippocampus in terms of three cognitive processes:
"The hippocampus is envisioned as critically involved in the rapid encoding of events as associations among stimulus elements and context, in the encoding of episodes as sequences of events, and in linking episodes by common features into relational networks that support flexible inferential memory expression."There is mounting evidence for the first of these cognitive functions that the hippocampus performs which is associative representation: the encoding of...
... Fol...more
- Eichenbaum H. (2004) Hippocampus: cognitive processes and neural representations that underlie declarative memory. Neuron, 44(-), 109-120.
2008-08-05 11:06:37
by Paul in Combining Cognits
Computer Science
Autonomy is a concept often used, but not always clearly defined. Indeed, there are a number of definitions which are used, often dependant on the context in which it is used. For example, "autonomy" may be used to refer to a mobile robot in the sense that it can move around on its own (whetever the control system used), but the same term may also be applied to a biological agent capable of defining its own goals and surviving in the real world. In the debate of autonomy, and as indicated from these examples, the concepts of embodiment and emotion are also important in being able to explain......more
- Ziemke T. (2008) On the role of emotion in biological and robotic auonomy. BioSystems, 91(2), 401-408.
2008-08-05 11:06:36
by Paul in Combining Cognits
Computer Science
In yesterdays post, I reviewed a paper which discussed the role of emotion in autonomy. The concept of autonomy itself was found to be quite fuzzy, with definitions being dependant on the field of research in which the term is used. In an attempt to elucidate the concept, the editorial of the special issue of BioSystems on autonomy (of which the previously reviewed paper was a part) explores some of the issues involved.
Starting from the broad definition of autonomy as being self-determination (or the ability to act independantly of outside influence), it can be seen that this description...
...more
2008-08-05 11:06:27
by Paul in Combining Cognits
Computer Science
Grandmother cells were proposed as single neurons which encoded for a single concept - in this case one's Grandmother. The concept was used as a straw-man to criticise sensory hierarchy-based brain organisation theories, but the ideas underlying it are becoming increasingly accepted (not the single neuron per concept I hasten to add). In a paper by Charles Gross (2002 - full ref below), a history of the term is given, with origins and influences.
These cells were originally proposed at the opposite end of the spectrum to ensemble or population coding - where it is the pattern of activity...
...more
- Gross C. (2002) Genealogy of the \"Grandmother Cell\". The Neuroscientist, 8(5), 512-518.
2008-05-30 15:08:37
by the Jester in Disruptive Library Technology Jester
Computer Science
May 30, 2008Peter Murrayproduct
Review of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google Find it in your library
0.3
Towards the end of the last chapter of his book, Nicholas Carr relates an anecdote about the visit of a guest speaker to the Google headquarters (emphasis added):
George Dyson, a historian of technology…, Freeman Dyson, ...more
- Carr N. G. (2008) . The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google,
2008-05-20 15:06:49
by Derek James in Thinking as a Profession
Computer Science
One of the first things I'm going to do with my network model is to test it on the XOR logical function, a simple, standard benchmark for neural networks. But I'm using a spiking network model for the first time, and I was wondering about psychologically-plausible ways to represent the input, so I started to look around.
That's when I came across "The implications of null patterns and output unit activation functions on simulation studies of learning: A case study of patterning" by Vanessa Yaremchuk, Leanne R. Willson, Marcia L. Spetch and Michael R.W. Dawson.
First, let me ...more
- DAWSON M. (2005) The implications of null patterns and output unit activation functions on simulation studies of learning: A case study of patterning. Learning and Motivation, 36(1), 88-103. DOI: 10.1016/j.lmot.2004.10.001
2008-03-03 11:04:03
by Derek James in Thinking as a Profession
Computer Science
Springer just launched a new journal called Evolutionary Intelligence. The first issue is freely available on-line, and it contains a nice review article on neuroevolution, which is the term for approaches to building and/or training artificial neural networks, which are networks of computing elements (usually simulated on a computer) that are inspired by biological neurons. The paper is called Neuroevolution: from architectures to learning by Dario Floreano, Peter Dürr, and Claudio Mattiussi.
This is my area of research (I'm currently using evolutionary algorithms and artificial n...more
- Mattiussi C. (2008) Neuroevolution: from architectures to learning. Evolutionary Intelligence, 1(1), 47-62. DOI: 10.1007/s12065-007-0002-4
2008-02-28 14:14:04
by Derek James in Thinking as a Profession
Computer Science
When different people are looking at common objects such as hammers and houses, and thinking about the properties of those objects, how similar is their brain activation?
That's the subject of Shinkareva et al.'s study Using fMRI Brain Activation to Identify Cognitive States Associated with Perception of Tools and Dwellings (the full text is freely available on-line if you want to read it for yourself).
First of all, fMRI stands for "functional magnetic resonance imaging". What they're basically measuring is the flow of blood to different areas of the brain. Brain areas using...more
- Carpenter S. R. (2007) Aquatic eutrophication promotes pathogenic infection in amphibians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(40), 15781-15786. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0707763104
- Sporns O. (2008) Using fMRI Brain Activation to Identify Cognitive States Associated with Perception of Tools and Dwellings. PLoS ONE, 3(1), e1394. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001394
2008-02-23 15:02:47
by Derek James in Thinking as a Profession
Computer Science
Last year Jill Pruetz and Paco Bertonali published data from observations from March 2005 to July 2006 that chimpanzees in a community in Senegal fashioned wooden tools to use for hunting.
Their target? The lesser bushbaby (Galago senegalensis):
Bushbabies are nocturnal prosimians that curl up and sleep in the hollows of trees during the day. When roused from sleep, they're extremely quick, and scurry or jump from tree to tree to elude predators.
The chimpanzees are thought to use the wooden tools to jab into tree hollows to stun or wound the bushbaby prey....more
- BERTOLANI P. (2007) Savanna Chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, Hunt with Tools. Current Biology, 17(5), 412-417. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2006.12.042
2008-02-05 21:02:46
by Paul in Combining Cognits
Computer Science
Autonomy is a concept often used, but not always clearly defined. Indeed, there are a number of definitions which are used, often dependant on the context in which it is used. For example, "autonomy" may be used to refer to a mobile robot in the sense that it can move around on its own (whetever the control system used), but the same term may also be applied to a biological agent capable of defining its own goals and surviving in the real world. In the debate of autonomy, and as indicated from these examples, the concepts of embodiment and emotion are also important in being able to explain......more
- Ziemke T. (2008) On the role of emotion in biological and robotic auonomy. BioSystems, 91(2), 401-408.