Book announcement

[David Redish]

The following book might be of interest to the people on this list.

adr

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A. David Redish		adr at nsma.arizona.edu
Post-doc		http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dredish
Neural Systems, Memory and Aging, Univ of AZ, Tucson AZ
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			BEYOND THE COGNITIVE MAP:
		From Place Cells to Episodic Memory 

			A. David Redish 

		Now available from MIT Press.

[From the inside cover description]

There are currently two major theories about the role of the
hippocampus, a distinctive structure in the back of the temporal
lobe. One says that it stores a cognitive map, the other that it is a
key locus for the temporary storage of episodic memories. 
A. David Redish takes the approach that understanding the role of the
hippocampus in space will make it possible to address its role in less
easily quantifiable areas such as memory. Basing his investigation on
the study of rodent navigation--one of the primary domains for
understanding information processing in the brain--he places the
hippocampus in its anatomical context as part of a greater functional
system.

Redish draws on the extensive experimental and theoretical work of the
last 100 years to paint a coherent picture of rodent navigation. His
presentation encompasses multiple levels of analysis, from single-unit
recording results to behavioral tasks to computational modeling. From
this foundation, he proposes a novel understanding of the role of the
hippocampus in rodents that can shed light on the role of the
hippocampus in primates, explaining data from primate studies and
human neurology. The book will be of interest not only to
neuroscientists and psychologists, but also to researchers in computer
science, robotics, artificial intelligence, and artificial life.

[Table of contents]

1   The Hippocampus Debate 

2   Navigation Overview 

3   Local View 

4   Route Navigation: Taxon and Praxic Strategies 

5   Head Direction 

6   Path Integration 

7   Goal Memory 

8   Place Code 

9   Self-Localization 

10   Multiple Maps 

11   Route Replay 

12   Consolidation 

13   Questions of Hippocampal Function 

14   The Primate Hippocampus 

15   Coda 

A   Attractor Networks 

B   Selective Experimental Review 

C   Open Questions