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Sattin D, Magnani FG, Bartesaghi L, Caputo M, Fittipaldo AV, Cacciatore M, Picozzi M, Leonardi M. Theoretical Models of Consciousness: A Scoping Review. Brain Sci 2021; 11:535. [PMID: 33923218 PMCID: PMC8146510 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11050535] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2021] [Revised: 04/20/2021] [Accepted: 04/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The amount of knowledge on human consciousness has created a multitude of viewpoints and it is difficult to compare and synthesize all the recent scientific perspectives. Indeed, there are many definitions of consciousness and multiple approaches to study the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). Therefore, the main aim of this article is to collect data on the various theories of consciousness published between 2007-2017 and to synthesize them to provide a general overview of this topic. To describe each theory, we developed a thematic grid called the dimensional model, which qualitatively and quantitatively analyzes how each article, related to one specific theory, debates/analyzes a specific issue. Among the 1130 articles assessed, 85 full texts were included in the prefinal step. Finally, this scoping review analyzed 68 articles that described 29 theories of consciousness. We found heterogeneous perspectives in the theories analyzed. Those with the highest grade of variability are as follows: subjectivity, NCC, and the consciousness/cognitive function. Among sub-cortical structures, thalamus, basal ganglia, and the hippocampus were the most indicated, whereas the cingulate, prefrontal, and temporal areas were the most reported for cortical ones also including the thalamo-cortical system. Moreover, we found several definitions of consciousness and 21 new sub-classifications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davide Sattin
- Neurology, Public Health, Disability Unit—Scientific Department, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, 20133 Milan, Italy; (F.G.M.); (L.B.); (M.C.); (M.C.); (M.L.)
- Experimental Medicine and Medical Humanities-PhD Program, Biotechnology and Life Sciences Department and Center for Clinical Ethics, Insubria University, 21100 Varese, Italy
| | - Francesca Giulia Magnani
- Neurology, Public Health, Disability Unit—Scientific Department, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, 20133 Milan, Italy; (F.G.M.); (L.B.); (M.C.); (M.C.); (M.L.)
| | - Laura Bartesaghi
- Neurology, Public Health, Disability Unit—Scientific Department, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, 20133 Milan, Italy; (F.G.M.); (L.B.); (M.C.); (M.C.); (M.L.)
| | - Milena Caputo
- Neurology, Public Health, Disability Unit—Scientific Department, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, 20133 Milan, Italy; (F.G.M.); (L.B.); (M.C.); (M.C.); (M.L.)
| | | | - Martina Cacciatore
- Neurology, Public Health, Disability Unit—Scientific Department, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, 20133 Milan, Italy; (F.G.M.); (L.B.); (M.C.); (M.C.); (M.L.)
| | - Mario Picozzi
- Center for Clinical Ethics, Biotechnology and Life Sciences Department, Insubria University, 21100 Varese, Italy;
| | - Matilde Leonardi
- Neurology, Public Health, Disability Unit—Scientific Department, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, 20133 Milan, Italy; (F.G.M.); (L.B.); (M.C.); (M.C.); (M.L.)
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Wason TD. A model integrating multiple processes of synchronization and coherence for information instantiation within a cortical area. Biosystems 2021; 205:104403. [PMID: 33746019 DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2021.104403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Accepted: 03/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
What is the form of dynamic, e.g., sensory, information in the mammalian cortex? Information in the cortex is modeled as a coherence map of a mixed chimera state of synchronous, phasic, and disordered minicolumns. The theoretical model is built on neurophysiological evidence. Complex spatiotemporal information is instantiated through a system of interacting biological processes that generate a synchronized cortical area, a coherent aperture. Minicolumn elements are grouped in macrocolumns in an array analogous to a phased-array radar, modeled as an aperture, a "hole through which radiant energy flows." Coherence maps in a cortical area transform inputs from multiple sources into outputs to multiple targets, while reducing complexity and entropy. Coherent apertures can assume extremely large numbers of different information states as coherence maps, which can be communicated among apertures with corresponding very large bandwidths. The coherent aperture model incorporates considerable reported research, integrating five conceptually and mathematically independent processes: 1) a damped Kuramoto network model, 2) a pumped area field potential, 3) the gating of nearly coincident spikes, 4) the coherence of activity across cortical lamina, and 5) complex information formed through functions in macrocolumns. Biological processes and their interactions are described in equations and a functional circuit such that the mathematical pieces can be assembled the same way the neurophysiological ones are. The model can be conceptually convolved over the specifics of local cortical areas within and across species. A coherent aperture becomes a node in a graph of cortical areas with a corresponding distribution of information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas D Wason
- North Carolina State University, Department of Biological Sciences, Meitzen Laboratory, Campus Box 7617, 128 David Clark Labs, Raleigh, NC 27695-7617, USA.
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Parisi GI, Tani J, Weber C, Wermter S. Lifelong Learning of Spatiotemporal Representations With Dual-Memory Recurrent Self-Organization. Front Neurorobot 2018; 12:78. [PMID: 30546302 PMCID: PMC6279894 DOI: 10.3389/fnbot.2018.00078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2018] [Accepted: 11/06/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Artificial autonomous agents and robots interacting in complex environments are required to continually acquire and fine-tune knowledge over sustained periods of time. The ability to learn from continuous streams of information is referred to as lifelong learning and represents a long-standing challenge for neural network models due to catastrophic forgetting in which novel sensory experience interferes with existing representations and leads to abrupt decreases in the performance on previously acquired knowledge. Computational models of lifelong learning typically alleviate catastrophic forgetting in experimental scenarios with given datasets of static images and limited complexity, thereby differing significantly from the conditions artificial agents are exposed to. In more natural settings, sequential information may become progressively available over time and access to previous experience may be restricted. Therefore, specialized neural network mechanisms are required that adapt to novel sequential experience while preventing disruptive interference with existing representations. In this paper, we propose a dual-memory self-organizing architecture for lifelong learning scenarios. The architecture comprises two growing recurrent networks with the complementary tasks of learning object instances (episodic memory) and categories (semantic memory). Both growing networks can expand in response to novel sensory experience: the episodic memory learns fine-grained spatiotemporal representations of object instances in an unsupervised fashion while the semantic memory uses task-relevant signals to regulate structural plasticity levels and develop more compact representations from episodic experience. For the consolidation of knowledge in the absence of external sensory input, the episodic memory periodically replays trajectories of neural reactivations. We evaluate the proposed model on the CORe50 benchmark dataset for continuous object recognition, showing that we significantly outperform current methods of lifelong learning in three different incremental learning scenarios.
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Affiliation(s)
- German I. Parisi
- Knowledge Technology, Department of Informatics, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Jun Tani
- Cognitive Neurorobotics Research Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Okinawa, Japan
| | - Cornelius Weber
- Knowledge Technology, Department of Informatics, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Stefan Wermter
- Knowledge Technology, Department of Informatics, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
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Manzotti R, Chella A. Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Consciousness and the Intermediate Level Fallacy. Front Robot AI 2018; 5:39. [PMID: 33500925 PMCID: PMC7805708 DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2018.00039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2017] [Accepted: 03/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Recently, there has been considerable interest and effort to the possibility to design and implement conscious robots, i.e., the chance that robots may have subjective experiences. Typical approaches as the global workspace, information integration, enaction, cognitive mechanisms, embodiment, i.e., the Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Consciousness, henceforth, GOFAC, share the same conceptual framework. In this paper, we discuss GOFAC's basic tenets and their implication for AI and Robotics. In particular, we point out the intermediate level fallacy as the central issue affecting GOFAC. Finally, we outline a possible alternative conceptual framework toward robot consciousness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Riccardo Manzotti
- Department of Business, Law, Economics and Consumer Behavior, Università di Comunicazione e Lingue (IULM), Milan, Italy
| | - Antonio Chella
- RoboticsLab, Department of Industrial and Digital Innovation, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.,Cognitive Robotics and Social Sensing Laboratory, ICAR-CNR, Palermo, Italy
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Franklin DJ, Grossberg S. A neural model of normal and abnormal learning and memory consolidation: adaptively timed conditioning, hippocampus, amnesia, neurotrophins, and consciousness. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2017; 17:24-76. [PMID: 27905080 PMCID: PMC5272895 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-016-0463-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
How do the hippocampus and amygdala interact with thalamocortical systems to regulate cognitive and cognitive-emotional learning? Why do lesions of thalamus, amygdala, hippocampus, and cortex have differential effects depending on the phase of learning when they occur? In particular, why is the hippocampus typically needed for trace conditioning, but not delay conditioning, and what do the exceptions reveal? Why do amygdala lesions made before or immediately after training decelerate conditioning while those made later do not? Why do thalamic or sensory cortical lesions degrade trace conditioning more than delay conditioning? Why do hippocampal lesions during trace conditioning experiments degrade recent but not temporally remote learning? Why do orbitofrontal cortical lesions degrade temporally remote but not recent or post-lesion learning? How is temporally graded amnesia caused by ablation of prefrontal cortex after memory consolidation? How are attention and consciousness linked during conditioning? How do neurotrophins, notably brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), influence memory formation and consolidation? Is there a common output path for learned performance? A neural model proposes a unified answer to these questions that overcome problems of alternative memory models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel J Franklin
- Center for Adaptive Systems, Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, and Departments of Mathematics, Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, 677 Beacon Street, Room 213, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Stephen Grossberg
- Center for Adaptive Systems, Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, and Departments of Mathematics, Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, 677 Beacon Street, Room 213, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
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Grossberg S. Towards solving the hard problem of consciousness: The varieties of brain resonances and the conscious experiences that they support. Neural Netw 2016; 87:38-95. [PMID: 28088645 DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2016.11.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2016] [Revised: 10/21/2016] [Accepted: 11/20/2016] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
The hard problem of consciousness is the problem of explaining how we experience qualia or phenomenal experiences, such as seeing, hearing, and feeling, and knowing what they are. To solve this problem, a theory of consciousness needs to link brain to mind by modeling how emergent properties of several brain mechanisms interacting together embody detailed properties of individual conscious psychological experiences. This article summarizes evidence that Adaptive Resonance Theory, or ART, accomplishes this goal. ART is a cognitive and neural theory of how advanced brains autonomously learn to attend, recognize, and predict objects and events in a changing world. ART has predicted that "all conscious states are resonant states" as part of its specification of mechanistic links between processes of consciousness, learning, expectation, attention, resonance, and synchrony. It hereby provides functional and mechanistic explanations of data ranging from individual spikes and their synchronization to the dynamics of conscious perceptual, cognitive, and cognitive-emotional experiences. ART has reached sufficient maturity to begin classifying the brain resonances that support conscious experiences of seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing. Psychological and neurobiological data in both normal individuals and clinical patients are clarified by this classification. This analysis also explains why not all resonances become conscious, and why not all brain dynamics are resonant. The global organization of the brain into computationally complementary cortical processing streams (complementary computing), and the organization of the cerebral cortex into characteristic layers of cells (laminar computing), figure prominently in these explanations of conscious and unconscious processes. Alternative models of consciousness are also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Grossberg
- Center for Adaptive Systems, Boston University, 677 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Departments of Mathematics & Statistics, Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering Boston University, 677 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
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Grossberg S, Kazerounian S. Phoneme restoration and empirical coverage of Interactive Activation and Adaptive Resonance models of human speech processing. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2016; 140:1130. [PMID: 27586743 DOI: 10.1121/1.4946760] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Magnuson [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 137, 1481-1492 (2015)] makes claims for Interactive Activation (IA) models and against Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) models of speech perception. Magnuson also presents simulations that claim to show that the TRACE model can simulate phonemic restoration, which was an explanatory target of the cARTWORD ART model. The theoretical analysis and review herein show that these claims are incorrect. More generally, the TRACE and cARTWORD models illustrate two diametrically opposed types of neural models of speech and language. The TRACE model embodies core assumptions with no analog in known brain processes. The cARTWORD model defines a hierarchy of cortical processing regions whose networks embody cells in laminar cortical circuits as part of the paradigm of laminar computing. cARTWORD further develops ART speech and language models that were introduced in the 1970s. It builds upon Item-Order-Rank working memories, which activate learned list chunks that unitize sequences to represent phonemes, syllables, and words. Psychophysical and neurophysiological data support Item-Order-Rank mechanisms and contradict TRACE representations of time, temporal order, silence, and top-down processing that exhibit many anomalous properties, including hallucinations of non-occurring future phonemes. Computer simulations of the TRACE model are presented that demonstrate these failures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Grossberg
- Departments of Mathematics, Psychology, and Biomedical Engineering, Center for Adaptive Systems, Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
| | - Sohrob Kazerounian
- Nuance Communications, Inc., 1 Wayside Road, Burlington, Massachusetts 01803, USA
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Grossberg S, Palma J, Versace M. Resonant Cholinergic Dynamics in Cognitive and Motor Decision-Making: Attention, Category Learning, and Choice in Neocortex, Superior Colliculus, and Optic Tectum. Front Neurosci 2016; 9:501. [PMID: 26834535 PMCID: PMC4718999 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2015.00501] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2015] [Accepted: 12/18/2015] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Freely behaving organisms need to rapidly calibrate their perceptual, cognitive, and motor decisions based on continuously changing environmental conditions. These plastic changes include sharpening or broadening of cognitive and motor attention and learning to match the behavioral demands that are imposed by changing environmental statistics. This article proposes that a shared circuit design for such flexible decision-making is used in specific cognitive and motor circuits, and that both types of circuits use acetylcholine to modulate choice selectivity. Such task-sensitive control is proposed to control thalamocortical choice of the critical features that are cognitively attended and that are incorporated through learning into prototypes of visual recognition categories. A cholinergically-modulated process of vigilance control determines if a recognition category and its attended features are abstract (low vigilance) or concrete (high vigilance). Homologous neural mechanisms of cholinergic modulation are proposed to focus attention and learn a multimodal map within the deeper layers of superior colliculus. This map enables visual, auditory, and planned movement commands to compete for attention, leading to selection of a winning position that controls where the next saccadic eye movement will go. Such map learning may be viewed as a kind of attentive motor category learning. The article hereby explicates a link between attention, learning, and cholinergic modulation during decision making within both cognitive and motor systems. Homologs between the mammalian superior colliculus and the avian optic tectum lead to predictions about how multimodal map learning may occur in the mammalian and avian brain and how such learning may be modulated by acetycholine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Grossberg
- Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston UniversityBoston, MA, USA
- Center for Adaptive Systems, Boston UniversityBoston, MA, USA
- Departments of Mathematics, Psychology, and Biomedical Engineering, Boston UniversityBoston, MA, USA
- Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston UniversityBoston, MA, USA
| | - Jesse Palma
- Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston UniversityBoston, MA, USA
| | - Massimiliano Versace
- Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston UniversityBoston, MA, USA
- Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston UniversityBoston, MA, USA
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From brain synapses to systems for learning and memory: Object recognition, spatial navigation, timed conditioning, and movement control. Brain Res 2014; 1621:270-93. [PMID: 25446436 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2014.11.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2014] [Accepted: 11/06/2014] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
This article provides an overview of neural models of synaptic learning and memory whose expression in adaptive behavior depends critically on the circuits and systems in which the synapses are embedded. It reviews Adaptive Resonance Theory, or ART, models that use excitatory matching and match-based learning to achieve fast category learning and whose learned memories are dynamically stabilized by top-down expectations, attentional focusing, and memory search. ART clarifies mechanistic relationships between consciousness, learning, expectation, attention, resonance, and synchrony. ART models are embedded in ARTSCAN architectures that unify processes of invariant object category learning, recognition, spatial and object attention, predictive remapping, and eye movement search, and that clarify how conscious object vision and recognition may fail during perceptual crowding and parietal neglect. The generality of learned categories depends upon a vigilance process that is regulated by acetylcholine via the nucleus basalis. Vigilance can get stuck at too high or too low values, thereby causing learning problems in autism and medial temporal amnesia. Similar synaptic learning laws support qualitatively different behaviors: Invariant object category learning in the inferotemporal cortex; learning of grid cells and place cells in the entorhinal and hippocampal cortices during spatial navigation; and learning of time cells in the entorhinal-hippocampal system during adaptively timed conditioning, including trace conditioning. Spatial and temporal processes through the medial and lateral entorhinal-hippocampal system seem to be carried out with homologous circuit designs. Variations of a shared laminar neocortical circuit design have modeled 3D vision, speech perception, and cognitive working memory and learning. A complementary kind of inhibitory matching and mismatch learning controls movement. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Brain and Memory.
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Kazerounian S, Grossberg S. Real-time learning of predictive recognition categories that chunk sequences of items stored in working memory. Front Psychol 2014; 5:1053. [PMID: 25339918 PMCID: PMC4186345 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2014] [Accepted: 09/02/2014] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
How are sequences of events that are temporarily stored in a cognitive working memory unitized, or chunked, through learning? Such sequential learning is needed by the brain in order to enable language, spatial understanding, and motor skills to develop. In particular, how does the brain learn categories, or list chunks, that become selectively tuned to different temporal sequences of items in lists of variable length as they are stored in working memory, and how does this learning process occur in real time? The present article introduces a neural model that simulates learning of such list chunks. In this model, sequences of items are temporarily stored in an Item-and-Order, or competitive queuing, working memory before learning categorizes them using a categorization network, called a Masking Field, which is a self-similar, multiple-scale, recurrent on-center off-surround network that can weigh the evidence for variable-length sequences of items as they are stored in the working memory through time. A Masking Field hereby activates the learned list chunks that represent the most predictive item groupings at any time, while suppressing less predictive chunks. In a network with a given number of input items, all possible ordered sets of these item sequences, up to a fixed length, can be learned with unsupervised or supervised learning. The self-similar multiple-scale properties of Masking Fields interacting with an Item-and-Order working memory provide a natural explanation of George Miller's Magical Number Seven and Nelson Cowan's Magical Number Four. The article explains why linguistic, spatial, and action event sequences may all be stored by Item-and-Order working memories that obey similar design principles, and thus how the current results may apply across modalities. Item-and-Order properties may readily be extended to Item-Order-Rank working memories in which the same item can be stored in multiple list positions, or ranks, as in the list ABADBD. Comparisons with other models, including TRACE, MERGE, and TISK, are made.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Stephen Grossberg
- Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Department of Mathematics, Center for Adaptive Systems, Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston UniversityBoston, MA, USA
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Cacha LA, Poznanski RR. Genomic instantiation of consciousness in neurons through a biophoton field theory. J Integr Neurosci 2014; 13:253-92. [PMID: 25012712 DOI: 10.1142/s0219635214400081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
A theoretical framework is developed based on the premise that brains evolved into sufficiently complex adaptive systems capable of instantiating genomic consciousness through self-awareness and complex interactions that recognize qualitatively the controlling factors of biological processes. Furthermore, our hypothesis assumes that the collective interactions in neurons yield macroergic effects, which can produce sufficiently strong electric energy fields for electronic excitations to take place on the surface of endogenous structures via alpha-helical integral proteins as electro-solitons. Specifically the process of radiative relaxation of the electro-solitons allows for the transfer of energy via interactions with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules to induce conformational changes in DNA molecules producing an ultra weak non-thermal spontaneous emission of coherent biophotons through a quantum effect. The instantiation of coherent biophotons confined in spaces of DNA molecules guides the biophoton field to be instantaneously conducted along the axonal and neuronal arbors and in-between neurons and throughout the cerebral cortex (cortico-thalamic system) and subcortical areas (e.g., midbrain and hindbrain). Thus providing an informational character of the electric coherence of the brain - referred to as quantum coherence. The biophoton field is realized as a conscious field upon the re-absorption of biophotons by exciplex states of DNA molecules. Such quantum phenomenon brings about self-awareness and enables objectivity to have access to subjectivity in the unconscious. As such, subjective experiences can be recalled to consciousness as subjective conscious experiences or qualia through co-operative interactions between exciplex states of DNA molecules and biophotons leading to metabolic activity and energy transfer across proteins as a result of protein-ligand binding during protein-protein communication. The biophoton field as a conscious field is attributable to the resultant effect of specifying qualia from the metabolic energy field that is transported in macromolecular proteins throughout specific networks of neurons that are constantly transforming into more stable associable representations as molecular solitons. The metastability of subjective experiences based on resonant dynamics occurs when bottom-up patterns of neocortical excitatory activity are matched with top-down expectations as adaptive dynamic pressures. These dynamics of on-going activity patterns influenced by the environment and selected as the preferred subjective experience in terms of a functional field through functional interactions and biological laws are realized as subjectivity and actualized through functional integration as qualia. It is concluded that interactionism and not information processing is the key in understanding how consciousness bridges the explanatory gap between subjective experiences and their neural correlates in the transcendental brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lleuvelyn A Cacha
- Department of Psychology, Sunway University, 46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
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Chang HC, Grossberg S, Cao Y. Where's Waldo? How perceptual, cognitive, and emotional brain processes cooperate during learning to categorize and find desired objects in a cluttered scene. Front Integr Neurosci 2014; 8:43. [PMID: 24987339 PMCID: PMC4060746 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2014.00043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2013] [Accepted: 05/02/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The Where's Waldo problem concerns how individuals can rapidly learn to search a scene to detect, attend, recognize, and look at a valued target object in it. This article develops the ARTSCAN Search neural model to clarify how brain mechanisms across the What and Where cortical streams are coordinated to solve the Where's Waldo problem. The What stream learns positionally-invariant object representations, whereas the Where stream controls positionally-selective spatial and action representations. The model overcomes deficiencies of these computationally complementary properties through What and Where stream interactions. Where stream processes of spatial attention and predictive eye movement control modulate What stream processes whereby multiple view- and positionally-specific object categories are learned and associatively linked to view- and positionally-invariant object categories through bottom-up and attentive top-down interactions. Gain fields control the coordinate transformations that enable spatial attention and predictive eye movements to carry out this role. What stream cognitive-emotional learning processes enable the focusing of motivated attention upon the invariant object categories of desired objects. What stream cognitive names or motivational drives can prime a view- and positionally-invariant object category of a desired target object. A volitional signal can convert these primes into top-down activations that can, in turn, prime What stream view- and positionally-specific categories. When it also receives bottom-up activation from a target, such a positionally-specific category can cause an attentional shift in the Where stream to the positional representation of the target, and an eye movement can then be elicited to foveate it. These processes describe interactions among brain regions that include visual cortex, parietal cortex, inferotemporal cortex, prefrontal cortex (PFC), amygdala, basal ganglia (BG), and superior colliculus (SC).
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Affiliation(s)
- Hung-Cheng Chang
- Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Department of Mathematics, Center for Adaptive Systems, Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston University Boston, MA, USA
| | - Stephen Grossberg
- Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Department of Mathematics, Center for Adaptive Systems, Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston University Boston, MA, USA
| | - Yongqiang Cao
- Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Department of Mathematics, Center for Adaptive Systems, Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston University Boston, MA, USA
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YU YUANLONG, MANN GEORGEKI, GOSINE RAYMONDG. A SINGLE-OBJECT TRACKING METHOD FOR ROBOTS USING OBJECT-BASED VISUAL ATTENTION. INT J HUM ROBOT 2013. [DOI: 10.1142/s0219843612500302] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
It is a quite challenging problem for robots to track the target in complex environment due to appearance changes of the target and background, large variation of motion, partial and full occlusion, motion of the camera and so on. However, humans are capable to cope with these difficulties by using their cognitive capability, mainly including the visual attention and learning mechanisms. This paper therefore presents a single-object tracking method for robots based on the object-based attention mechanism. This tracking method consists of four modules: pre-attentive segmentation, top-down attentional selection, post-attentive processing and online learning of the target model. The pre-attentive segmentation module first divides the scene into uniform proto-objects. Then the top-down attention module selects one proto-object over the predicted region by using a discriminative feature of the target. The post-attentive processing module then validates the attended proto-object. If it is confirmed to be the target, it is used to obtain the complete target region. Otherwise, the recovery mechanism is automatically triggered to globally search for the target. Given the complete target region, the online learning algorithm autonomously updates the target model, which consists of appearance and saliency components. The saliency component is used to automatically select a discriminative feature for top-down attention, while the appearance component is used for bias estimation in the top-down attention module and validation in the post-attentive processing module. Experiments have shown that this proposed method outperforms other algorithms without using attention for tracking a single target in cluttered and dynamically changing environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- YUANLONG YU
- School of Automation, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, B3J 2X4, Canada
| | - GEORGE K. I. MANN
- Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, A1B 3X5, Canada
| | - RAYMOND G. GOSINE
- Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, A1B 3X5, Canada
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Adaptive Resonance Theory: How a brain learns to consciously attend, learn, and recognize a changing world. Neural Netw 2013; 37:1-47. [PMID: 23149242 DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2012.09.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 183] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2012] [Revised: 08/24/2012] [Accepted: 09/24/2012] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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15
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16
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Delay for the capacity-simplicity dilemma in associative memory attractor networks. Neural Netw 2012; 29-30:37-51. [PMID: 22387229 DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2012.01.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2010] [Revised: 01/09/2012] [Accepted: 01/27/2012] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
We consider the issue of how a simple network with delayed feedback can exhibit complex but desired dynamical behaviors for memory storage and retrieval. We discuss the simplicity-capacity dilemma arising from the requirement of both large capacity and easy implementation in additive networks. We then propose a novel approach based on signal processing delay and show that the interaction of delay, feedback and refractoriness in a simple inhibitory network of three neurons can generate mathematically trackable coexisting periodic patterns. Therefore, a simple and small network with delayed feedback can process a large amount of information, and time lag in our biological or artificial neural nets is useful for information processing. How the connection topology of a large network enhances the network's capacity for memory storage and retrieval remains to be an interesting task.
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Laminar differences in gamma and alpha coherence in the ventral stream. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2011; 108:11262-7. [PMID: 21690410 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1011284108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 415] [Impact Index Per Article: 31.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Attention to a stimulus enhances both neuronal responses and gamma frequency synchrony in visual area V4, both of which should increase the impact of attended information on downstream neurons. To determine whether gamma synchrony is common throughout the ventral stream, we recorded from neurons in the superficial and deep layers of V1, V2, and V4 in two rhesus monkeys. We found an unexpected striking difference in gamma synchrony in the superficial vs. deep layers. In all three areas, spike-field coherence in the gamma (40-60 Hz) frequency range was largely confined to the superficial layers, whereas the deep layers showed maximal coherence at low frequencies (6-16 Hz), which included the alpha range. In the superficial layers of V2 and V4, gamma synchrony was enhanced by attention, whereas in the deep layers, alpha synchrony was reduced by attention. Unlike these major differences in synchrony, attentional effects on firing rates and noise correlation did not differ substantially between the superficial and deep layers. The results suggest that synchrony plays very different roles in feedback and feedforward projections.
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Grossberg S, Markowitz J, Cao Y. On the road to invariant recognition: explaining tradeoff and morph properties of cells in inferotemporal cortex using multiple-scale task-sensitive attentive learning. Neural Netw 2011; 24:1036-49. [PMID: 21665428 DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2011.04.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2010] [Revised: 03/30/2011] [Accepted: 04/05/2011] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Visual object recognition is an essential accomplishment of advanced brains. Object recognition needs to be tolerant, or invariant, with respect to changes in object position, size, and view. In monkeys and humans, a key area for recognition is the anterior inferotemporal cortex (ITa). Recent neurophysiological data show that ITa cells with high object selectivity often have low position tolerance. We propose a neural model whose cells learn to simulate this tradeoff, as well as ITa responses to image morphs, while explaining how invariant recognition properties may arise in stages due to processes across multiple cortical areas. These processes include the cortical magnification factor, multiple receptive field sizes, and top-down attentive matching and learning properties that may be tuned by task requirements to attend to either concrete or abstract visual features with different levels of vigilance. The model predicts that data from the tradeoff and image morph tasks emerge from different levels of vigilance in the animals performing them. This result illustrates how different vigilance requirements of a task may change the course of category learning, notably the critical features that are attended and incorporated into learned category prototypes. The model outlines a path for developing an animal model of how defective vigilance control can lead to symptoms of various mental disorders, such as autism and amnesia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Grossberg
- Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science and Technology, Boston University, 677 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA
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Cao Y, Grossberg S, Markowitz J. How does the brain rapidly learn and reorganize view-invariant and position-invariant object representations in the inferotemporal cortex? Neural Netw 2011; 24:1050-61. [PMID: 21596523 DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2011.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2010] [Revised: 04/10/2011] [Accepted: 04/12/2011] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
All primates depend for their survival on being able to rapidly learn about and recognize objects. Objects may be visually detected at multiple positions, sizes, and viewpoints. How does the brain rapidly learn and recognize objects while scanning a scene with eye movements, without causing a combinatorial explosion in the number of cells that are needed? How does the brain avoid the problem of erroneously classifying parts of different objects together at the same or different positions in a visual scene? In monkeys and humans, a key area for such invariant object category learning and recognition is the inferotemporal cortex (IT). A neural model is proposed to explain how spatial and object attention coordinate the ability of IT to learn invariant category representations of objects that are seen at multiple positions, sizes, and viewpoints. The model clarifies how interactions within a hierarchy of processing stages in the visual brain accomplish this. These stages include the retina, lateral geniculate nucleus, and cortical areas V1, V2, V4, and IT in the brain's What cortical stream, as they interact with spatial attention processes within the parietal cortex of the Where cortical stream. The model builds upon the ARTSCAN model, which proposed how view-invariant object representations are generated. The positional ARTSCAN (pARTSCAN) model proposes how the following additional processes in the What cortical processing stream also enable position-invariant object representations to be learned: IT cells with persistent activity, and a combination of normalizing object category competition and a view-to-object learning law which together ensure that unambiguous views have a larger effect on object recognition than ambiguous views. The model explains how such invariant learning can be fooled when monkeys, or other primates, are presented with an object that is swapped with another object during eye movements to foveate the original object. The swapping procedure is predicted to prevent the reset of spatial attention, which would otherwise keep the representations of multiple objects from being combined by learning. Li and DiCarlo (2008) have presented neurophysiological data from monkeys showing how unsupervised natural experience in a target swapping experiment can rapidly alter object representations in IT. The model quantitatively simulates the swapping data by showing how the swapping procedure fools the spatial attention mechanism. More generally, the model provides a unifying framework, and testable predictions in both monkeys and humans, for understanding object learning data using neurophysiological methods in monkeys, and spatial attention, episodic learning, and memory retrieval data using functional imaging methods in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yongqiang Cao
- Center for Adaptive Systems, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology, Boston University, 677 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA
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Roepstorff A, Niewöhner J, Beck S. Enculturing brains through patterned practices. Neural Netw 2010; 23:1051-9. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2010.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 119] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2010] [Accepted: 08/02/2010] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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21
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Grossberg S, Vladusich T. How do children learn to follow gaze, share joint attention, imitate their teachers, and use tools during social interactions? Neural Netw 2010; 23:940-65. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2010.07.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2010] [Accepted: 07/29/2010] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
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22
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Höller Y, Kronbichler M, Bergmann J, Crone JS, Ladurner G, Golaszewski S. EEG frequency analysis of responses to the own-name stimulus. Clin Neurophysiol 2010; 122:99-106. [PMID: 20619725 DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2010.05.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2010] [Revised: 05/10/2010] [Accepted: 05/25/2010] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The neuronal response to hearing a subject's own (SON) compared with other names has been examined in healthy subjects as well as in patients with disorders of consciousness. So far, on electroencephalographic data, only event-related potentials (ERPs) were considered. In this study, we examined the frequency properties of SON. METHODS Data of 17 healthy subjects were processed for equiprobable stimuli of SON, other- and own-name backwards by calculating ERPs, evoked and induced activity for a period of 2000 ms from stimulus onset in the delta, theta, lower and upper alpha bands and averaging for four consequent temporal segments of 500 ms each. RESULTS For SON, the N1 component's amplitude was larger, while induced activity in the alpha band decreased in the second temporal segment (of 500-1000 ms). No differences between other- and own-name backwards were found. CONCLUSIONS The late reactivity may indicate responses to a stimulus after having recognised it. Alpha is known to play a role in attention and alertness. The results may reflect the fact that the SON stimulus enhances alertness. SIGNIFICANCE The findings correlate previous work about alertness and alpha activity with those about attention capturing of the SON stimulus. We suggest using frequency analysis in research on disorders of consciousness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yvonne Höller
- University of Salzburg, Department of Psychology, Salzburg, Austria.
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Seitz AR, Protopapas A, Tsushima Y, Vlahou EL, Gori S, Grossberg S, Watanabe T. Unattended exposure to components of speech sounds yields same benefits as explicit auditory training. Cognition 2010; 115:435-43. [PMID: 20346448 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2010.03.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2009] [Revised: 02/13/2010] [Accepted: 03/01/2010] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Learning a second language as an adult is particularly effortful when new phonetic representations must be formed. Therefore the processes that allow learning of speech sounds are of great theoretical and practical interest. Here we examined whether perception of single formant transitions, that is, sound components critical in speech perception, can be enhanced through an implicit task-irrelevant learning procedure that has been shown to produce visual perceptual learning. The single-formant sounds were paired at subthreshold levels with the attended targets in an auditory identification task. Results showed that task-irrelevant learning occurred for the unattended stimuli. Surprisingly, the magnitude of this learning effect was similar to that following explicit training on auditory formant transition detection using discriminable stimuli in an adaptive procedure, whereas explicit training on the subthreshold stimuli produced no learning. These results suggest that in adults learning of speech parts can occur at least partially through implicit mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron R Seitz
- Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science and Technology, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
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Running as fast as it can: How spiking dynamics form object groupings in the laminar circuits of visual cortex. J Comput Neurosci 2010; 28:323-46. [DOI: 10.1007/s10827-009-0211-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2009] [Revised: 12/15/2009] [Accepted: 12/30/2009] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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Taylor JG, Freeman W, Cleeremans A. Introduction to the special issue on 'Brain and Consciousness'. Neural Netw 2007; 20:929-31. [PMID: 17923390 DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2007.09.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- J G Taylor
- Department of Mathematics, King's College, Strand, London, UK.
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