Connectionists: NEW BOOK: Cognitive Science: Integrative Synchronization Mechanisms in Cognitive Neuroarchitectures of the Modern Connectionism

[Harald Maurer]

Dear Members,

I am pleased to announce the publication of the following book:  
Cognitive Science: Integrative Synchronization Mechanisms in Cognitive  
Neuroarchitectures of the Modern Connectionism, published by CRC Press.

Book Description:

The Mind and Brain are usually considered as one and the same  
nonlinear, complex dynamical system, in which information processing  
can be described with vector and tensor transformations and with  
attractors in multidimensional state spaces. Thus, an internal  
neurocognitive representation concept consists of a dynamical process  
which filters out statistical prototypes from the sensorial  
information in terms of coherent and adaptive n-dimensional vector  
fields. These prototypes serve as a basis for dynamic, probabilistic  
predictions or probabilistic hypotheses on prospective new data (see  
the recently introduced approach of "predictive coding" in  
neurophilosophy). Furthermore, the phenomenon of sensory and language  
cognition would thus be based on a multitude of self-regulatory  
complex dynamics of synchronous self-organization mechanisms, in other  
words, an emergent "flux equilibrium process" ("steady state") of the  
total collective and coherent neural activity resulting from the  
oscillatory actions of neuronal assemblies. In perception it is shown  
how sensory object informations, like the object color or the object  
form, can be dynamically related together or can be integrated to a  
neurally based representation of this perceptual object by means of a  
synchronization mechanism ("feature binding"). In language processing  
it is shown how semantic concepts and syntactic roles can be  
dynamically related together or can be integrated to neurally based  
systematic and compositional connectionist representations by means of  
a synchronization mechanism ("variable binding") solving the  
Fodor-Pylyshyn-Challenge. Since the systemtheoretical connectionism  
has succeeded in modeling the sensory objects in perception as well as  
systematic and compositional representations in language processing  
with this vector- and oscillation-based representation format, a new,  
convincing theory of neurocognition has been developed, which bridges  
the neuronal and the cognitive analysis level.

The book is available at  
https://www.routledge.com/Cognitive-Science-Integrative-Synchronization-Mechanisms-in-Cognitive-Neuroarchitectures/Maurer/p/book/9781138487086.

The table of contents can be viewed on my account at ResearchGate.

Best regards,

Dr. Harald Maurer

Institute of Computer Science
University of Tuebingen