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06 Sep Varieties of Neural Circuits in the Cerebellum

Cerebellum Gross Structure

The Cerebellum In this post we explore the roles and varieties of neural circuits of the cerebellum in motor control and the maintenance of life-support systems. The layers of the cerebellum have different cell populations, and the types of cells have radically different forms. Three main points will be made today: the morphology of cells and layers […]

05 Sep Brain Form and Function

Brain Cross Section Showing the Temporal Lobe

Functional Morphology I’ve addressed questions related to modeling form, function and process in an earlier post. Today’s post drills down in some specific areas to point out some important connections between form and function that could contribute to engineering systems that more accurately model the human brain. Paul Churchland suggests that many AI initiatives have […]

30 Aug Eclecticism and Cognitive Modeling

Silos and Walls

Cognitive Science Hybrids in plants and automobiles are great. Perhaps in computers and apps as well. I have always thought of myself as deeply interested in the “cross-pollination of ideas.” This includes, when appropriate, snipping sequences and splicing to create genetically modified innovations.  The posts in the Understanding Context blog span the knowledge and theories […]

27 Aug Brain Correlation Processes

Central accumulator and peripheral contributors

Many computer systems focus on a single capability, one task or just one dimension of a complex process. Sentient brain activity is an example of a complex process with many dimensions. Optical character recognition, such as identifying a capital “Q” on a piece of paper, is an example of a problem with three dimensions: Length, […]

18 Aug Neuromorphic Computing

Inside a Neuron

To Mimic is Human When is imitation not flattering or sincere? I try to be sincere in my blogging, and I have tried not to unnecessarily emphasize the computing ability of the human brain, but the whole point of this blog is to imitate it using computers. A neuromorphic (resembling the brain and/or neurons) computing  model […]

06 Aug Finding yourself in the Hippocampus

Hippocampus

On October 6, 2014, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awarded The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or medicine to John O´Keefe and to May‐Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain. John O´Keefe is Director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre in Neural Circuits […]

05 Jul Motor Center Structure and Function

Cerebellum Layers

The past few posts in this section have focused on the Cerebrum where thought seems to be centered: we may compare this to a computer. The Cerebellum is where signals for the muscles’ motor control originate: we may compare this to a robot. My point in looking at this is to reinforce the heterogeneity perspective (i.e. […]

21 Jun The Coming Revolution

Revolution

Another Revolution in  Computing – Knowledge Processing Where cognition and computation converge…the brink of the coming revolution? As James Bailey puts it, “The reason today’s electronic computers seem benign is that the true electronic revolution has not happened yet.” Bailey compares our current phase of computerization to the stage of history “when muscle tasks were […]

15 Jun Natural Intelligence

Lateral Section of Brain

The Gross Anatomy of Smart The biology of understanding is not fully understood. But there are some things we can infer from what we know about how the brain works that may help us in modeling smarter systems. I love looking inside the brain for clues on what it does so I can help design […]

13 Jun The Mind and its Brain

Eye Perception

Mind-Brain Dualism While brains can be weighed, minds are weightless. Despite some differences of opinion about what all to put on the scale, we can get usable numbers about brain weight and changes in brain weight due to certain phenomena such as changes in age. Of course, the mind and brain may be one and the same – there […]