Mind Within the Net : Models of Learning, Thinking and Acting

by Manfred Spitzer

• ISBN13: 9780262692366
• ISBN10: 0262692368
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-28
• Publisher: Bradford Books

Summary

Neurophysiology has told us a lot about how neurons work; neural network theory is about how neurons work togetherto process information. In this highly readable book, Manfred Spitzer provides a basic, nonmathematical introduction to neural networks and their clinical applications. Part I explains the fundamental theory of neural networks and how neural network models work. Part II covers the principles of network functioning and how computer simulations of neural networks have profound consequences for our understanding of how the brain works. Part III covers applications of network models (e.g., to knowledge representation, language, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease) that shed new light on normal and abnormal states of mind. Finally, Spitzer concludes with his thoughts on the ramifications of neural networks for the understanding of neuropsychology and human nature.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

History

Neural Networks In Intensive-Care Units

Enlightenment!

Brains Versus Computers

Speed

Reliability

Architecture

Recap

Basics

Neuronal Teamwork

Neurons as Information-Processing Units

A Simple Network for Pattern Recognition

Shared Labor by Parallel Processing

Language Acquisition by Children and Networks

Computer Simulations of Higher Cognitive Functions

DECtalk versus NETtalk

Beethoven, Karajan, Sony, and the Human Genome

Recap

Learning

Association and Hebbian Learning

Learning Synapses

Excursus: Glutamate and the 1992 Molecule of the Year

Supervised Learning

Age and the Learning Constant

Reality as the Basic Set and Experience as a Part Subset

The Accuracy Of A Prediction Increases With The Square Root Of The Number Of Observations

Why Children Play

Practice, Don't Preach

Computer Models And Biological Neurons

Shape From Shading

Recap

Vectors in the Head

Vectors

Codes

Symbols versus Vectors

Colors as Vectors

Codes as Optimization Strategies

Vector Populations and the Population Vector

Observing Neurons During Learning

Recap

Principles

Maps in the Cortex

Anatomy of the Cortex

Isocortex--The General Purpose Machine

Columns of Information Processing

Self-Organizing Feature Maps

Example: A Simulated Network for Letter Recognition

Similarity and Frequency

Receptive Fields

Cortical Topography

Biological Example: The Auditory Cortex of the Bat

Networks of Maps: Modularity

Recap

Hidden Layers The Exclusive-Or

Abstraction and Type Formation

Learning by the Feedback of Errors

Hidden Layers in the Brain

Cortico-Cortical Connections

Analysis and Synthesis

Ping-Pong Style Information Processing

Autism

Brains as Engines for the Estimation of Functions

Recap

Neuroplasticity

Artificial Ears

Hearing, Too, Depends on Context

Rewiring Maps

Animal Studies on Neuroplasticity

Importance of the Input

Selective Attention

The Higher the Level, the More Adaptive the Area

Phantoms and Amputated Networks

Subjective Experience

Cortical-Phantom Genesis

Peripheral Phantom Genesis

Simulating Phantoms by Amputating Networks

Noise

Noise and Neuroplasticity

Turning a Conundrum into a Parsimonious Theory

The Cortex Plays the First Violin

Therapeutic Application: Plastic Understanding of Spoken Language

Neuroplasticity and Thought

Recap

Feedback

Connectivity Across the Board: Hopfield Networks

Attractors

Auditory Hallucinations

Elman Networks

Working Memory

Development of the Frontal Lobes

Interaction of Brain Development and Learning

Pidgin and Creole Languages

Recap

Applications

Representing Knowledge

Static Rules versus Dynamic Processes

Piaget and Stages of Development

Memory

Living without the Hippocampus

Memory in the Network

Single Events versus Generality

Catastrophic Interference

Race Against Decay

The Hippocampus as the Trainer of the Cortex

A Neural Network Model of Alzheimer's Disease

Recap

Semantic Networks

Understanding and Speaking

Associations: What Comes to Mind, and Why

Rhymes, Fatigue, and Attention

Associative Networks

Self-Organizing Semantic Networks

Language Is Used

Semantic Maps in the Head

Missing Vegetables Only

Category-Specific Activation in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Measuring Associations within Networks

Recap

Postscript on Aschaffenburg and Jung or, Whether Rhyming Is Priming Depends upon Timing

The Disordered Mind

The Birth of Schizophrenia

Madness and Craziness

Dysfunctional Lexical Access

Indirect Associations

What Pauses during Speech Reveal about Thoughts

Remote Ideas

Dopamine, Neuromodulation, Signal, and Noise

Neuromodulation

Noise: Not a Bug, but a Feature

Formal Thought Disorder as the Result of Decreased Signal-to-Noise

Intermediate Result

Meaning Electrified: EEG and Semantics

Associative and Working Memory

Metaphors and Concretism

Delusions

Acute Delusions and Neuromodulation

Chronic Delusions and Neuroplasticity

Recap

Thoughts and Impressions

Back to the Basics: What Are Models?

Principles

Realistic and

Abstract Models

Models in Medicine

Computational Models of Emotions?

The Depression Spiral

Temperament, Character, and Personality

What Is Good for Children

Stability and Teddy Bear

Psychotherapy

User's Manual for Your Brain

Glossary

References

Index

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