The Neurobiology Of Neural Networks

This timely overview and synthesis of recent work in both artificial neural networks and neurobiology seeks to examine neurobiological data from a network perspective and to encourage neuroscientists to participate in constructing the next generation of neural networks. Individual chapters were commissioned from selected authors to bridge the gap between present neural network models and the needs of neurophysiologists who are trying to use these models as part of their research on how the brain works.Daniel Gardner is Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Cornell University Medical College.Contents: Introduction: Toward Neural Neural Networks, Daniel Gardner. Two Principles of Brain Organization: A Challenge for Artificial Neural Networks, Charles F. Stevens. Static Determinants of Synaptic Strength, Daniel Gardner. Learning Rules From Neurobiology, Douglas A. Baxter and John H. Byrne. Realistic Network Models of Distributed Processing in the Leech, Shawn R. Lockery and Terrence J. Sejnowski. Neural and Peripheral Dynamics as Determinants of Patterned Motor Behavior, Hillel J. Chiel and Randall D. Beer. Dynamic Neural Network Models of Sensorimotor Behavior, Eberhard E. Fetz.

This timely overview and synthesis of recent work in both artificial neural networks and neurobiology seeks to examine neurobiological data from a network perspective and to encourage neuroscientists to participate in constructing the next generation of neural networks. Individual chapters were commissioned from selected authors to bridge the gap between present neural network models and the needs of neurophysiologists who are trying to use these models as part of their research on how the brain works.Daniel Gardner is Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Cornell University Medical College.Contents: Introduction: Toward Neural Neural Networks, Daniel Gardner. Two Principles of Brain Organization: A Challenge for Artificial Neural Networks, Charles F. Stevens. Static Determinants of Synaptic Strength, Daniel Gardner. Learning Rules From Neurobiology, Douglas A. Baxter and John H. Byrne. Realistic Network Models of Distributed Processing in the Leech, Shawn R. Lockery and Terrence J. Sejnowski. Neural and Peripheral Dynamics as Determinants of Patterned Motor Behavior, Hillel J. Chiel and Randall D. Beer. Dynamic Neural Network Models of Sensorimotor Behavior, Eberhard E. Fetz.

This timely overview and synthesis of recent work in both artificial neural networks and neurobiology seeks to examine neurobiological data from a network perspective and to encourage neuroscientists to participate in constructing the next generation of neural networks.

This second edition presents the enormous progress made in recent years in the many subfields related to the two great questions : how does the brain work? and, How can we build intelligent machines? This second edition greatly increases the coverage of models of fundamental neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, and neural network approaches to language. (Midwest).

An Introduction to Neural Networks falls into a new ecological niche for texts. Based on notes that have been class-tested for more than a decade, it is aimed at cognitive science and neuroscience students who need to understand brain function in terms of computational modeling, and at engineers who want to go beyond formal algorithms to applications and computing strategies. It is the only current text to approach networks from a broad neuroscience and cognitive science perspective, with an emphasis on the biology and psychology behind the assumptions of the models, as well as on what the models might be used for. It describes the mathematical and computational tools needed and provides an account of the author's own ideas. Students learn how to teach arithmetic to a neural network and get a short course on linear associative memory and adaptive maps. They are introduced to the author's brain-state-in-a-box (BSB) model and are provided with some of the neurobiological background necessary for a firm grasp of the general subject. The field now known as neural networks has split in recent years into two major groups, mirrored in the texts that are currently available: the engineers who are primarily interested in practical applications of the new adaptive, parallel computing technology, and the cognitive scientists and neuroscientists who are interested in scientific applications. As the gap between these two groups widens, Anderson notes that the academics have tended to drift off into irrelevant, often excessively abstract research while the engineers have lost contact with the source of ideas in the field. Neuroscience, he points out, provides a rich and valuable source of ideas about data representation and setting up the data representation is the major part of neural network programming. Both cognitive science and neuroscience give insights into how this can be done effectively: cognitive science suggests what to compute and neuroscience suggests how to compute it.

This presentation of the foremost research and theory from disciplines that provide the foundations of neural network research--neurobiology, physics, computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, and psychology--shows how neural networks and neurocomputing represent radical departures from conventional approaches to digital computers, in terms of algorithms and architecture.

The aim of this book is to describe the types of computation that can be performed by biologically plausible neural networks, and to show how these may be implemented in different systems in the brain. Neural Networks and Brain Function is structured in three sections, each of which addresses a different need in the market. The first section introduces and describes the operation of several fundamental types of neural network. The second section describes real neural networks in severalbrain systems, and shows how it is becoming possible to construct theories about how some parts of the brain work; it also provides an indication of the different neuroscience and neurocomputation techniques that will need to be combined to ensure further rapid progress in understanding how parts of the brain work. The third section, a collection of appendices, introduces the more formal quantitative approaches to many of the networks described. This is a clearly written and thoughtfully structured introduction to a fascinating and complex field of neuroscience. It will be a key text for researchers, graduate students and advanced undergraduates in the field, particularly for those without a background in computer science.

"In this book, Peter Robin Hiesinger explores historical and contemporary attempts to understand the information needed to make biological and artificial neural networks. Developmental neurobiologists and computer scientists with an interest in artificial intelligence - driven by the promise and resources of biomedical research on the one hand, and by the promise and advances of computer technology on the other - are trying to understand the fundamental principles that guide the generation of an intelligent system. Yet, though researchers in these disciplines share a common interest, their perspectives and approaches are often quite different. The book makes the case that "the information problem" underlies both fields, driving the questions that are driving forward the frontiers, and aims to encourage cross-disciplinary communication and understanding, to help both fields make progress. The questions that challenge researchers in these fields include the following. How does genetic information unfold during the years-long process of human brain development, and can this be a short-cut to create human-level artificial intelligence? Is the biological brain just messy hardware that can be improved upon by running learning algorithms in computers? Can artificial intelligence bypass evolutionary programming of "grown" networks? These questions are tightly linked, and answering them requires an understanding of how information unfolds algorithmically to generate functional neural networks. Via a series of closely linked "discussions" (fictional dialogues between researchers in different disciplines) and pedagogical "seminars," the author explores the different challenges facing researchers working on neural networks, their different perspectives and approaches, as well as the common ground and understanding to be found amongst those sharing an interest in the development of biological brains and artificial intelligent systems"--