paper in neuroprose

[mclennan@cs.utk.edu]

               **DO NOT FORWARD TO OTHER GROUPS**

The following technical report has been placed in the Neuroprose
archives at Ohio State (filename: maclennan.fieldcompbrain.ps.Z).
Ftp instructions follow the abstract.  The uncompressed file is
large (1.36 MBytes).

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                 Field Computation in the Brain

                         Bruce MacLennan
                   Computer Science Department
                     University of Tennessee
                       Knoxville, TN 37996
                      maclennan at cs.utk.edu

                   Technical Report CS-92-174

                            ABSTRACT:

We begin with a brief consideration of the *topology of
knowledge*.  It has traditionally been assumed that true
knowledge must be represented by discrete symbol structures, but
recent research in psychology, philosophy and computer science
has shown the fundamental importance of *subsymbolic* information
processing, in which knowledge is represented in terms of very
large numbers -- or even continua -- of *microfeatures*.  We
believe that this sets the stage for a fundamentally new theory
of knowledge, and we sketch a theory of continuous information
representation and processing.  Next we consider *field computa-
tion*, a kind of continuous information processing that
emphasizes spatially continuous *fields* of information.  This is
a reasonable approximation for macroscopic areas of cortex and
provides a convenient mathematical framework for studying infor-
mation processing at this level. We apply it also to a linear-
systems model of dendritic information processing.  We consider
examples from the visual cortex, including Gabor and wavelet
representations, and outline field-based theories of sensorimotor
intentions and of model-based deduction.

Presented at the 1st Appalachian Conference on Behavioral Neuro-
dynamics: Processing in Biological Neural Networks, in conjunc-
tion with the Inaugural Ceremonies for the Center for Brain
Research and Informational Sciences, Radford University, Radford
VA, September 17-20, 1992.

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                        FTP INSTRUCTIONS

Either use the Getps script, or do the following:

     unix> ftp archive.cis.ohio-state.edu (or 128.146.8.52)
     Name: anonymous
     Password: <your e-mail address>
     ftp> cd pub/neuroprose
     ftp> binary
     ftp> get maclennan.fieldcompbrain.ps.Z
     ftp> quit
     unix> uncompress maclennan.fieldcompbrain.ps.Z
     unix> lpr -s maclennan.fieldcompbrain.ps
      (or however you print large postscript files)

If you need hardcopy, then send your request to:

                       library at cs.utk.edu

     Bruce MacLennan
     Department of Computer Science
     107 Ayres Hall
     The University of Tennessee
     Knoxville, TN 37996-1301

     (615)974-0994/5067
     FAX: (615)974-4404
     maclennan at cs.utk.edu