PhD thesis available: Spiking associative memory and modeling visual areas

[Andreas Knoblauch]

Dear Connectionists,

My PhD thesis on 
"Synchronization and pattern separation in
spiking associative memories and visual cortical areas"
is now available on the WWW at

http://www.informatik.uni-ulm.de/ni/publ/AKnoblauch/Knoblauch2003B.pdf 
http://www.informatik.uni-ulm.de/ni/mitarbeiter/AKnoblauch.html

For those interested, I have appended the table of contents

Best regards,

Andreas Knoblauch.

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Keywords: associative memory, cell assemblies, spiking neural networks, spike 
time coding, spike synchronization, sparse distributed coding, feature 
binding, scene segmentation, visual cortex.

table of contents:
1 Overview
     1.1 Motivation and classification
     1.2 Organization

2 Introduction
     2.1 Neurobiology of the brain
     2.2 Distributed representations, neural assemblies, and binding
     2.3 Associative memory
     2.4 Simulation tools and models of neurons and synapses

3 Willshaw associative memory
     3.1 Classical analysis of the Willshaw model
     3.2 Matrix compression yields storage capacity 1
     3.3 Fault tolerance
     3.4 Retrieval efficiency for sequential implementations
     3.5 Retrieval efficiency for parallel implementations
     3.6 A critique of the classical binomial analysis
     3.7 Implications

4 Spiking associative memory
     4.1 Addressing with superpositions
     4.2 Pattern separation
     4.3 Spike counter model
     4.4 Analysis of the spike counter model
     4.5 Technical implementations of the spike counter model
     4.6 Biological implementations of the spike counter model
     4.7 Implications

5 Model of visual cortical areas
     5.1 Modeling
     5.2 Interaction between two cortical areas
     5.3 Relation to neurophysiological results
     5.4 Summary of the mechanisms in the model

6 Binding in the brain
     6.1 Is there a binding problem in the brain?
     6.2 Critique of the strong Temporal Correlation Hypothesis
     6.3 Sketch of a more global model of binding in cortical areas

7 Conclusions
     7.1 Contributions to the theory of Willshaw associative memory
     7.2 Contributions to the theory of cell assemblies

8 Zusammenfassung (in German)

Appendix

A Information theory
     A.1 Basic information theory
     A.2 Binary channels
     A.3 Optimal compression of sparse bit streams

B Analysis of associative memory
     B.1 Information-theoretical storage capacity
     B.2 Auto association and hetero association
     B.3 Retrieval and separation quality
     B.4 Further analysis of Willshaw associative memory

C Simulation tool Felix++
     C.1 Basic architecture of Felix++
     C.2 Simulation environment and components: Code examples
     C.3 Structure of a Felix++ simulation

D Symbol reference

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Andreas Knoblauch                               
Abt. Neuroinformatik
Universitt Ulm
James-Franck-Ring
D-89069 Ulm
Tel.  : ++49-731-502-4255
Fax   : ++49-731-502-4156
email : knoblauch at neuro.informatik.uni-ulm.de 
WWW   : http://www.informatik.uni-ulm.de/ni/mitarbeiter/AKnoblauch.html
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