<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div><br></div>Dear Connectionists,<div><br></div><div>I hope some of you will consider submitting to this special issue of Neural Networks (<a href="http://www.journals.elsevier.com/neural-networks/call-for-papers/special-issue-on-neurobiologically-inspired-robotics-enhance/">http://www.journals.elsevier.com/neural-networks/call-for-papers/special-issue-on-neurobiologically-inspired-robotics-enhance/</a>). The deadline is now February 15, 2015. No further extensions will be considered.<br><br>Neurobiologically inspired robotics goes by many names: brain-based devices, cognitive robots, neurorobots, and neuromorphic robots, to name a few. The field has grown into an exciting area of research and engineering.<br><br>The common goal is twofold: Firstly, developing a system that demonstrates some level of cognitive ability can lead to a better understanding of the neural machinery that realizes cognitive function. The often used phrase, “understanding through building”, implies that one can get a deep understanding of a system by constructing physical artifacts that can operate in the real-world. In building and studying neurobiologically inspired robots, scientists must address theories of neuroscience that couple brain, body, and behavior. Secondly, the deep theoretical understanding of cognition, neurobiology and behavior obtained by constructing physical systems, could lead to a system that demonstrates capabilities commonly found in the animal kingdom, but rarely found in artificial systems, most notably their adaptive and flexible autonomous behavior. There have already been some successes that meet these goals. For example, navigation models based on the hippocampus are now deploy!<br>ed on robots that autonomously explore their environment. Machine image processing systems based on visual cortex have been used in a number of unsupervised recognition and perception applications. Robots designed to address impairments due to disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorder, and attentional deficit disorders, are being used as therapeutic and diagnostic tools without the need for constant caretaker supervision.<br><br>Despite these successes, the field is still in its infancy and basic research is needed. In particular, we are interested in papers that describe: 1) How models of cognitive functions, such as attention, decision-making, learning and memory, perception, and social cognition can be constructed on physical robots. 2) How the neuromorphic devices, which are designed to run neural algorithms with low-power, can advance the construction of autonomous robotics. 3) How the theoretical and engineering lessons learned from constructing neurobiologically inspired robots can transfer to autonomous robots carrying out practical applications.<br><br>This Special Issue invites papers that address the three broad topics described above.<br><br>Topics of interest<br><br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>• Adaptive behavior<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>• Active sensing<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>• Artificial empathy<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>• Cortical computing<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>• Developmental robotics<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>• Embodied Cognition<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>• Neuromorphic Engineering<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>• On-line learning and memory systems<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>• Prediction and planning<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>• Socially assistive robotics<br><br>Guest Editors<br><br>Jeffrey Krichmar, University of California, Irvine<br>Minoru Asada, Osaka University<br>Jorg Conradt, Technische Universitat München<br><br>Important Dates<br>Submission due: 15 Feb 2015<br>Acceptance notification: 1 Aug 2015<br>Expected publication: 1 Nov 2015<br><br>Submission instructions<br><br>Each paper for submission should be formatted according to the style and length limit of Neural Networks. Please refer complete Author Guidelines at<a href="http://www.elsevier.com/journals/neural-networks/0893-6080/guide-for-authors">http://www.elsevier.com/journals/neural-networks/0893-6080/guide-for-authors</a>. Note that published papers and those currently under review by other journals or conferences are prohibited. A separate cover letter should be submitted that includes the paper title, the list of all authors and their affiliations, and information of the contact author. Each paper will be reviewed rigorously, and possibly in two rounds, i.e., minor/major revisions will undergo another round of review. Prospective authors are invited to submit their papers directly via the online submission system at<a href="http://ees.elsevier.com/neunet/">http://ees.elsevier.com/neunet/</a>. To ensure that all manuscripts are correctly included into the special issue described, it is important that all authors select “SI: Neurobiological Robotics” when they reach the "Article Type" step in the submission process.<br><div apple-content-edited="true">
<div><span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Jeff Krichmar</span><br style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Department of Cognitive Sciences</span><br style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">2328 Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway</span><br style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">University of California, Irvine</span><br style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Irvine, CA 92697-5100</span><br style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><a href="mailto:jkrichma@uci.edu">jkrichma@uci.edu</a></span><br style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><a href="http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jkrichma">http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jkrichma</a></span></div>
</div>
<br></div></body></html>