This book presents a novel approach to neural nets and thus offers a genuine alternative to the hitherto known neuro-computers. The new edition includes a section on transformation properties of the equations of the synergetic computer and on the invariance properties of the order parameter equations. Further additions are a new section on stereopsis and recent developments in the use of pulse-coupled neural nets for pattern recognition.

This book presents a novel approach to neural nets and thus offers a genuine alternative to the hitherto known neuro-computers. The new edition includes a section on transformation properties of the equations of the synergetic computer and on the invariance properties of the order parameter equations. Further additions are a new section on stereopsis and recent developments in the use of pulse-coupled neural nets for pattern recognition.

It is increasingly being recognized that the experimental and theoretical study of the complex system brain requires the cooperation of many disciplines, in cluding biology, medicine, physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, and others. In this way brain research has become a truly interdis ciplinary endeavor. Indeed, the most important progress is quite often made when different disciplines cooperate. Thus it becomes necessary for scientists to look across the fence surrounding their disciplines. The present book is written precisely in this spirit. It addresses graduate students, professors and scientists in a variety of fields, such as biology, medicine and physics. Be yond its mathematical representation the book gives ample space to verbal and pictorial descriptions of the main and, as I believe, fundamental new insights, so that it will be of interest to a general readership, too. I use this opportunity to thank my former students, some of whom are my present co-workers, for their cooperation over many years. Among them I wish to mention in particular M. Bestehorn, L. Borland, H. Bunz, A. Daf fertshofer, T. Ditzinger, E. Fischer, A. Fuchs, R. Haas, R. Honlinger, V. Jirsa, M. Neufeld, M. Ossig, D. Reimann, M. Schanz, G. Schoner, P. Tass, C. Uhl. My particular thanks go to R. Friedrich and A. Wunderlin for their constant help in many respects. Stimulating discussions with a number of colleagues from a variety of fields are also highly appreciated.

"This book presents recent research efforts in Artificial Intelligence about building artificial systems capable of performing cognitive tasks. A fundamental issue addressed in this book is if these cognitive processes can have any meaningfulness to the artificial system being built"--Provided by publisher.

This book presents a novel approach to neural nets and thus offers a genuine alternative to the hitherto known neuro-computers. The new edition includes a section on transformation properties of the equations of the synergetic computer and on the invariance properties of the order parameter equations. Further additions are a new section on stereopsis and recent developments in the use of pulse-coupled neural nets for pattern recognition.

The shared platform of the articles collected in this volume is usedto advocate a dynamical systems approach to cognition. It is arguedthat recent developments in cognitive science towards an account ofembodiment, together with the general approach of complexity theoryand dynamics, have a major impact on behavioral and cognitivescience.

Synergetics may be considered as an interdisciplinary effort dealing with the gene ral problem of how science can cope with complex systems. The preceding symposia on synergetics were devoted to systems of physics, chemistry and partly also biolo gy and sociology. It was possible to develop adequate concepts to describe and even to calculate evolving macroscopic spatial, temporal, and functional structures which emerge through self-organization of the individual parts of the systems under con sideration. This book contains the invited papers presented at the Symposium on the Synerge tics of the brain, Schloss Elmau, Bavaria, May 2 to 7, 1983. The inclusion of this topic in the synergetics enterprise represents a big step towards a treatment of complex systems. Most probably the human brain is the most complex system we know of. As the organizers believe, this symposium provides the reader with a good cross section of experimental results and theoretical approaches to cope with the complex problems of structure and function of the brain. It was generally felt that such a joint meeting between experimentalists and theoreticians is of great importance for future development of this field. Modern experimental methods, e. g. multielectrode derivations allow or will allow us, in short, to collect huge amounts of data. Simi larly high-speed computers will flood us with an enormous number of outputs once the basic model equations have been chosen.

This monograph demonstrates the interplay between Shannon information and semantic information in cognition. It shows that Shannon’s information acts as driving force for the formation of semantic information; and vice versa, namely, that semantic information participates in the formation of Shannonian information. The authors show that in cognition, Shannonian and semantic information are interrelated as two aspects of a cognitive process termed as information adaptation. In the latter the mind/brain adapts to the environment by the deflating and/or inflating of the information conveyed by the environment. In the process of information adaptation, quantitative variations in Shannon’s information entail different meanings while different meanings affect the quantity of information. The book illustrates the above conceptually and mathematically by reference to three cognitive processes: pattern recognition, face learning and the recognition of a moving object.

This book represents a comprehensive introduction into both conceptual and rigorous brain and cognition modelling. It is devoted to understanding, prediction and control of the fundamental mechanisms of brain functioning. The reader will be provided with a scientific tool enabling him or her to perform a competitive research in brain and cognition modelling. This is a graduate–level monographic textbook.

This comprehensive Handbook summarizes existing work and presents new concepts and empirical results from leading scholars in the multidisciplinary field of behavioral and cognitive geography, the study of the human mind, and activity in and concerning space, place, and environment. It provides the broadest and most inclusive coverage of the field so far, including work relevant to human geography, cartography, and geographic information science.