technical report on Neural Map Formation available

[Laurenz Wiskott]

The following technical report is now available by anonymous ftp from

http://www.cnl.salk.edu/~wiskott/Abstracts/WisSej97a.html
ftp://ftp.cnl.salk.edu/pub/wiskott/publications/WisSej97a-NeuralMapFormation-TRINC9701.ps.gz

Comments are welcome!  

Laurenz Wiskott.



	       Objective Functions for Neural Map Formation

		  Laurenz Wiskott and Terrence Sejnowski

Abstract: Computational models of neural map formation can be considered on
at least three different levels of abstraction: detailed models including
neural activity dynamics, weight dynamics which abstract from the the
neural activity dynamics by an adiabatic approximation, and objective
functions from which weight dynamics may be derived as gradient flows. In
this paper we present an example of how an objective function can be
derived from detailed non-linear neural dynamics. A systematic
investigation reveals how different weight dynamics introduced previously
can be derived from objective functions generated from a few prototypical
terms. This includes dynamic link matching as a special case of neural map
formation. We focus in particular on the role of coordinate transformations
to derive different weight dynamics from the same objective
function. Coordinate transformations are also important in deriving
normalization rules from constraints. Several examples illustrate how
objective functions can help in understanding, generating, and comparing
different models of neural map formation. The techniques used in this
analysis may also be useful in investigating other types of neural
dynamics.


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|  || SALK ||  | | Dr. Laurenz Wiskott, CNL, Salk Institute, San Diego |
|  |||____|||  | | wiskott at salk.edu, http://www.cnl.salk.edu/~wiskott/ |
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