Tag Archives: information
04 Feb Body Language in Understanding
How much can you hear without a word being spoken? How often does something about a person’s face, posture or hand gestures completely contradict the “normal interpretation” of the words they speak, creating a sense of sarcasm or other indirect message? To what extent are the academy awards influenced by an actor’s ability to use […]
03 Feb Mapping a Thought
What is truly going on in a network of billions of cells with trillions of connections? Can we even begin to figure it out – is mapping a thought possible? When I was in the midst of my studies in which I initially wrote this, MRIs and CAT scans were the best of our ability […]
25 Jan The Chromophore as Digital Bit
I have opined in prior posts that the skeletal components that give structure to axons and dendrites, especially microtubules, may play a larger role in cognition than previously thought. The illustration of microtubule structure at right shows how the alpha and beta tubulin dimers string themselves together to make protofilaments, which further join one another […]
18 Jan Multi-Layered Perceptron
Multi-Layered Perceptron In prior posts we introduced the concept of the artificial neural network and the perceptron model as a simple implementation of a neural network. We showed the structure, including an input layer and an output layer. Let’s look at one of the typical approaches for processing input to derive the output. The net output of […]
17 Jan Perceptrons and Weighted Schemes
Perceptrons In the late 1600’s, John Locke expounded an associationist theory in which neurons or “bundles” of neurons came to represent certain ideas and associations between ideas. Rosenblatt‘s work seems a logical extension of associationist theory. Perceptrons can perform linear discrimination, thus enabling them to model the cognitive function of recognition (or, in computational terms, pattern classification). […]
10 Jan Shades of Meaning
I have been sharing my observations on the electrical behavior of the brain this month, with a brief glance at perspectives on perception. My work began, and may end with language. As my springboard into artificial intelligence, I’ve been trying for years to develop computer programs that can understand your intent and use that understanding […]
09 Jan What of Perception
Questions Cognitive Modelers Might Ask The biological and chemical processes associated with brain activity are the foundation on which our exploration of the cognitive mind is built. Yet the physiological underpinnings are not sufficient, in themselves, to lead us to the next cybernetic level. Too many questions are left unanswered. In this section of Understanding […]
02 Jan Synapse Formation
Many neurons have only a few synapses. Others, like giant pyramidal and Purkinje cells, may have tens or even hundreds of thousands of synapses. At the conclusion of the complex growth process, called synaptogenesis, in which growth cones at the tips of spines, axons, and dendrites propel or draw the fiber through the crowded gray and white matter […]
01 Jan Axon and Dendrite Growth
Link Formation in a Bio-Network It was once believed that the link structure of the nervous system was formed randomly during embryogenesis and remained static after maturation – sometime between early development and adolescence (except for regeneration after injury). Due to improved imaging resolutions and preparation techniques, we now know that axon termini, dendrites, and spines […]
30 Dec Aristotle and von Neumann
In the 1950’s, John von Neumann compared the computer to the brain. Scientific inquiry that laid the foundation for that comparison, however, had begun long before. The influence of the Greek philosopher Aristotle’s association theory (metaphysics), for example, is evident in neural net theory. In The Computer and the Brain, Dr. von Neumann describes how […]