Wake me up before you go go
Sara Abdulla
Why can some people get themselves up at a certain time without an alarm clock? Or why, on the one day of the month that you could get the lie-in you so desperately need, do you find yourself wide awake at 6.45 as if it were a working day? And why is it that being prematurely woken can leave you feeling jumpy, even if you've slept enough?
more
Computing with DNA
L. Adleman
Dr. Leonard M. Adleman, a computer scientist and mathematician at the University of Southern California, was trying to solve a problem that had been confounding mathematicians for some time. In devising his strategy for solving the problem, he decided to turn away from the computer, because it solves problems only in a sequential order. He turned instead to biology. Unlike computers, DNA is a self-replicating structure that operates in parallel to itself. This difference allowed Adleman to approach his problem in a fundamentally different way. And it worked.
more
The Mirror System, Imitation, and the Evolution of Language
Michael Arbib
In this article Michael Arbib, from the USC Brain Project, puts forth his hypothesis about the evolution of language through imitation. Arbib's 'Mirror System' hypothesis maintains that sign language was the precursor to spoken language in humans. The article offers the reader a compelling context for contemplating the role of anticipation in the development of communication.
more
The Economy as an Evolving Complex System II:
Introduction: Process and Emergence in the Economy
W. Brian Arthur, Steven Durlauf, David A. Lane
This volume, represents the proceedings of an August, 1996 workshop sponsored by the SFI Economics Program. The intention of this workshop was to take stock, to ask: What has a complexity perspective contributed to economics in the past decade? The authors of the essays in this volume do not share a single, coherent vision. Instead, there is a family resemblance, based upon an interrelated set of themes that together constitute the current meaning of the complexity perspective in economics.
more
Temporal Control of Movements in Sensorimotor Synchronization
Gisa Aschersleben
Under conditions in which the temporal structure of events (e.g., a sequence of tones) is predictable, performing movements in synchrony with this sequence of events (e.g., dancing) is an easy task. A rather simplified version of this task is studied in the sensorimotor synchronization paradigm.
Participants are instructed to synchronize their finger taps with an isochronous sequence of signals (e.g., clicks). Although this is an easy task, a systematic error is observed: Taps usually precede clicks by several tens of milliseconds. Different models have been proposed to account for this effect ("negative asynchrony" or "synchronization error"). One group of explanations is based on the idea that synchrony is established at the level of central representations (and not at the level of external events), and that the timing of an action is determined by the (anticipated) action effect. These assumptions are tested by manipulating the amount of sensory feedback available from the tap as well as its temporal characteristics. This article presents an overview of these representational models and the empirical evidence supporting them. It also discusses other accounts briefly in the light of further evidence.
more
Anticipatory Planning
Eric Astor
One of the most dificult problems in the design of autonomous agents is not only how to make them behave rationally from some point of view, but how to make them stay rational when the environment is subject to change. This paper refers to the important abilities of an autonomous planning agent.
more
The secret of beauty (Das Geheimnis der Schönheit)
Johanna Bayer
Who or what is beautiful? Both scientists and laymen have been interested in this question for ages. But only in the last 30 years did we experience systematical research of beauty. The researchers of what is “attractive” - most of them psychologists, anthropologists, and behaviourists - achieved some remarkable results up to now. All these different findings have one thing in common: facial attractiveness depends much more on the biology of a person than on fashion, culture, and zeitgeist.
more
Anticipation of moving stimuli by the retina
Michael J. Berry II, Iman H. Brivanlou, Thomas A. Jordan, Markus Meister
A flash of light evokes neural activity in the brain with a delay of 30±100 milliseconds, much of which is due to the slow process of visual transduction in photoreceptors. A moving object can cover a considerable distance in this time, and should therefore be seen noticeably behind its actual location. As this conflicts with everyday experience, it has been suggested that the visual cortex uses the delayed visual data from the eye to extrapolate the trajectory of a moving object, so that it is perceived at its actual location. Here we report that such anticipation of moving stimuli begins in the retina. A moving bar elicits a moving wave of spiking activity in the population of retinal ganglion cells. Rather than lagging behind the visual image, the population activity travels near the leading edge of the moving bar. This response is observed over a wide range of speeds and apparently compensates for the visual response latency. We show how this anticipation follows from known mechanisms of retinal processing.
more
The Robota dolls
Aude Billard
This is a site about two prototypes of highly interactive doll-type robots. They are humanoid in shape and functionality and are capable of simple interactions with humans. The robots mirror the movements of a human demonstrator and communicate with it.
more
The cerebellum is involved in predicting the sensory consequences of action
Sarah-J. Blakemore, Chris D. Frith, Daniel M. Wolpert
The authors used H2 15 O PET to examine neural responses to parametrically varied degrees of discrepancy between the predicted and actual sensory consequences of movement. Subjects used their right hand to move a robotic arm. The motion of this robotic arm determined the position of a second foam-tipped robotic arm, which made contact with the subject's left palm. Using this robotic interface, computer controlled delays were introduced between the movement of the right hand and the tactile stimulation on the left. Activity in the right lateral cerebellar cortex showed a positive correlation with delay. These results suggest the cerebellum is involved in signalling the sensory discrepancy between the predicted and actual sensory consequences of movements.
more
How do we predict the consequences of our actions? A functional imaging study
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Geraint Rees, Chris D. Frith
Humans are readily able to distinguish expected and unexpected sensory events. Wheter a single mechanism underlies this ability is unknown. The most common type of expected sensoy events are those generated as a consequence of self-generated actions. Using H2 O15 PET, we studied brain responses to such predictable sensory events (tones) and to similar unpredictable events and especially how the processing of predictable sensory events is modified by the context of a causative self-generated action. Increases in activity when the tones were unpredictable were seen in the inferior and bilateraly, the right parahippocampal gyrus and right parietal cortex. We observed an interaction between the predictability of stimuli and self-generated actions in several areas, including the medial cingulate cortex, left insula, dorsomedial thalamus, superior colliculus and right inferior temporal cortex. This modulation of activity associated with stimulus predictability in the context of self-generated actions impies that these areas may be involved in self-monitoring processes. Detection of expected stimuli and the detection of the sensory consequences of self-generated actions appear to be functionally distinct processes, and are carried out in different cortical areas. These observations support approaches to cognition that postulate the existence of a self-monitoring system.
more
From The Perception Of Action To The Understanding Of Intention
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Jean Decety
Humans have an inherent tendency to infer other people´s intentions from their actions. Here we review psychophysical and functional neuroimaging evidence that biological motion is processed as a special category, from which we automatically infer mental states such as intention. The mechanism underlying the attribution of intentions to actions might rely on simulating the observed action and mapping it onto representations of our own intentions. There is accumulating neurophysiological evidence to support a role for action simulation in the brain.
more
Predicting the Consequences of Our Own Actions: The Role of Sensorimotor Context Estimation
Sarah J. Blakemore, Susan J. Goodbody, Daniel M. Wolpert
During self-generated movement it is postulated that an efference copy of the descending motor command, in conjunction with an internal model of both the motor system and environment, enables us to predict the consequences of our own actions . Such a prediction is evident in the precise anticipatory modulation of grip force seen when one hand pushes on an object gripped in the other hand. Here we show that self-generation is not in itself sufficient for such a prediction. We used two robots to simulate virtual objects held in one hand and acted on by the other. Precise predictive grip force modulation of the restraining hand was highly dependent on the sensory feedback to the hand producing the load. The results show that predictive modulation requires not only that the movement is self-generated, but also that the efference copy and sensory feedback are consistent with a specific context; in this case, the
manipulation of a single object. We propose a novel computational mechanism whereby the CNS uses multiple internal models, each corresponding to a different sensorimotor context, to estimate the probability that the motor system is acting within each context.
more
The central nervous system stabilizes unstable dynamics by learning
optimal impedance
Etienne Burdet, Rieko Osu, David W. Franklin,Theodore E. Milner, Mitsuo Kawato
To manipulate objects or to use tools we must compensate for any forces arising from interaction with the physical environment. Recent studies indicate that this compensation is achieved by learning an internal model of the dynamics, that is, a neural representation of the relation between motor command and movement. In these studies interaction with the physical environment was stable, but many common tasks are intrinsically unstable. For example, keeping a screwdriver in the slot of a screw is unstable because excessive force parallel to the slot can cause the screwdriver to slip and because misdirected force can cause loss of contact between the screwdriver and the screw.
Stability may be dependent on the control of mechanical impedance in the human arm because mechanical impedance can generate forces which resist destabilizing motion. Here we examined arm movements in an unstable dynamic environment created by a robotic interface. Our results show that humans learn to stabilize unstable dynamics using the skilful and energy-efficient strategy of selective control of impedance geometry.
more
Anticipatory Learning Classifier Systems
Martin V. Butz
Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002
more
Anticipations Control Behavior
Martin V. Butz, Joachim Hoffmann
Animal Behavior in an
Anticipatory Learning Classifier System, in Adaptive Behavior, 2003
more
The anticipatory classifier system and genetic generalization
Martin V. Butz, David E. Goldberg, Wolfgang Stolzmann
in Natural Computing, vol. 1, 2002, 427-467.
more
Golden Section Stranding
George Cardas
Golden Mean forms the mathematical proportions nature uses to shape leaves and sea shells, insects and people, hurricanes and galaxies. This is a collection of photographs showing the Golden Section.
more
Tickling Expectations: Neural Processing in Anticipation of a Sensory Stimulus
Katrina Carlsson, Predrag Petrovic, Stefan Skare, Karl Magnus Petersson, Martin Ingvar
Predictions of the near future can optimize the accuracy and speed of sensory processing as well as of behavioral responses. Previous experience and contextual cues are essential elements in the generation of a subjective prediction. Using blocked fMRI paradigm, we investigated the pattern of neural activation in anticipation of a sensory stimulus and during the processing of the somatosensory stimulus itself. Tickling was chosen as the somatosensory stimulus rather than simple touch in order to increase the probability to get a high degree of anticipation. The location and nature of the stimulus were well defined to the subject. The state of anticipation was initiated by attributing an uncertainty regarding the time of stimulus onset. The network of activation and deactivation during anticipation of the expected stimulus was similar to that engaged during the actual sensory stimulation. The areas that were activated during both states included the contralateral primary sensory cortex, bilateral areas in the inferior parietal lobules, the putative area SII, the right anterior cingulate cortex and areas in the right prefrontal cortex. Similarity, common decreases were observed in areas of sensorimotor cortex located outside the area representing the target of stimulus, i.e., areas that process information which is irrelevant to the attended process. The overlapping pattern of change, during the somatosensory stimulation and the anticipation, furthers the idea that predictions are subserved by a neuronal network similar to that which subserves the processing of actual sensory input. Moreover, this study indicates that activation of primary somatosensory cortex can be obtained without intra-modal sensory input. These findings suggest that anticipation may invoke a tonic top-down regulation of neural activity.
more
Can we dissociate set signals from attentional modulations?
Mauritzio Corbetta
Using a novel approach to imaging, researchers have discovered that thinking about moving objects pre-activates areas of the brain's motion detection system before any moving objects appear. These areas would hold our expectations on-line as we prepare to cross a busy street, return a tennis serve or catch a falling child.
(This is an HTML-Version of a Powerpoint presentation.)
more
Voluntary orienting is dissociated from target detection in human posterior parietal cortex
Maurizio Corbetta, J. Michelle Kincade, John M. Ollinger, Marc P. McAvoy, Gordon L.
Shulman
Human ability to attend to visual stimuli based on their spatial locations requires the parietal cortex. One hypothesis maintains that parietal cortex controls the voluntary orienting of attention toward a location of interest. Another hypothesis emphasizes its role in reorienting attention toward visual targets appearing at unattended locations. Here, using event-related functional magnetic resonance (ER-fMRI), the authors show that distinct parietal regions mediated these different attentional processes. Cortical activation occurred primarily in the intraparietal sulcus when a location was attended before visual-target presentation, but in the right temporoparietal junction when the target was detected, particularly at an unattended location.
more
Guiding the swing in golf putting
C. M. Craig, D. Delay, M. A. Grealy, D.N. Lee
Actions that involve making contact with surfaces often demand perceptual regulation of the impact - for example, of feet with ground when walking or of bat with ball when hitting. Here we investigate how this control of impact is achieved in golf putting, where control of the clubhead motion at ball impact is paramount in ensuring that the ball will travel the required distance. Our results from ten professional golfers indicate that the clubhead motion is spatially scaled and perceptually regulated by coupling it onto an intrinsic guide generated in the nervous system.
more
Quantum Nonlocality and the Possibility of Superluminal Effects
John G. Cramer
EPR experiments demonstrate that standard quantum mechanics exhibits the property of nonlocality, the enforcement of correlations between separated parts of an entangled quantum systems across spacelike separations. Nonlocality will be clarified using the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the possibility of superluminal effects (e.g., faster-than-light communication) from nonlocality and non-linear quantum mechanics will be examined.
more
General Aspects of the Thermodynamical Formalism
Evaldo M. F. Curado
The author presents some recent developments concerning general aspects of the thermodynamical formalism. Through simple arguments, the exhibits some basic entropies that have most of the thermodynamic properties of the Shannon entropy. Their stabilities are also analysed, and several points concerning nonextensive thermodynamics are discussed.
more
The Quantum Brain: Theory or Myth?
Ruth Czarnecki
The study of neurobiology has long involved the actions and interactions among neurons and their synapses. Changes in concentrations of various ions carry impulses to and from the central nervous system and are responsible for all the information processed by the nervous system as a whole. This has been the prominent theory for many years, but, now, there is a new one to be reckoned with; the Quantum Brain Theory (QBT).
more
Learning by Linear Anticipation in Multi-Agent Systems
Paul Davidsson
A linearly anticipatory agent architecture for learning in multi-agent systems is presented. It integrates low-level reaction with high-level deliberation by embedding an ordinary reactive system based on situation-action rules, called the Reactor, in an anticipatory agent, forming a layered hybrid architecture.
more
A Framework For Autonomous Agents Based On The Concept of Anticipatory Systems
Paul Davidsson, Eric Astor, Bertil Ekdahl
This paper presents a new framework for autonomous agents that is based on the concept of anticipatory systems. It is a hybrid approach that synthesizes low-level reactive behavior and high-level symbolic reasoning. According to this framework, an agent, i.e. an anticipatory agent, consists of three main entities: a reactive system, a world model, and a meta-level component. The world model should, in addition to the description of the agent's environment, also include a description of the reactive part of the agent. The basic idea is that the meta-level component makes use of the world model to make predictions of future states. These predictions are then used by the meta-level to guide the agent's behaviour on a high level, whereas the low-level behaviour is controlled by the reactive component.
more
Hyperincursive McCulloch and Pitts Neurons for Designing a Computing Flip-Flop Memory
Daniel M. Dubois
This paper will firstly review a new theoretical basis for modelling neural Boolean networks by non-linear digital equations. With integer numbers, these digital equations are Heaviside Fixed Functions in the framework of the Threshold Logic. These can represent non-linear neurons which can be split very easily into a set of McCulloch and Pitts formal neurons with hidden neurons. It is demonstrated that any Boolean tables can be very easily represented by such neural networks where the weights are always either an activation weight +1or an inhibition weight -1, with integer threshold. A fundamental problem in neural systems is the design of memory. This paper will present new memory neural systems based on hyperincursive neurons, that is neurons with multiple output states for the same input, instead of synaptic weights. Finally, a differential equation of membrane neural potential is used as a model of a brain, the incursive, that is the implicit recursive, computation of which gives rise to non-locality effects.
Darwinian aesthetics, human beauty and interactions between strangers
Prof. Dr. I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Prof. Dr. K. Grammer
Current main research aspect is the automatic detection and description
of human beatuy with digital image analysis.
more
Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality be Considered Complete?
A. Einstein, B. Podolski, N. Rosen
In a complete theory, there is an element corresponding to each element of reality. A sufficient condition for the reality of a physical quantity is the possibility of predicting it with certainty, without disturbing the system. In quantum mechanics, in the case of two physical quantities described by non-commuting operators, the knowledge of one precludes the knowledge of he other. Then either (1) the description of reality given by the wave function in quantum mechanics is not complete or (2) these two quantities cannot have simultaneous reality. Consideration of the problem of making predictions concerning a system on the basis of measurements made on another system that had previously interacted with it leads to the result that if (1) is false then (2) is also false.
more
Towards Anticipatory Agents
Bertil Ekdahl, Paul Davidsson, Eric Astor
This paper presents a novel approach to the problem of designing autonomous agents that is based on the idea of anticipatory systems. An anticipatory system has a model of itself and of the relevant part of its environment and will use this model to predict the future. The predictions are then utilised to determine the agent´s behaviour, i.e. it lets future states affect its present states.
more
Synchronizing Movements with the Metronome: Nonlinear Error Correction and Unstable Periodic Orbits
Ralf Engbert, Ralf Th. Krampe, Jürgen Kurths, Reinhold Kliegl
The control of human hand movements is investigated in a simple synchronization task.
We propose and analyze a stochastic model based on nonlinear error correction; a mechanism which implies the existence of unstable periodic orbits. This prediction is tested in an experiment with human subjects. We find that our experimental data are in good agreement with numerical simulations of our theoretical model. These results suggest that feedback control of the human motor systems shows nonlinear behavior.
more
Dynamic predictions: oscillations and synchrony in top-down processing
Andreas K. Engel, Pascal Fries, Wolf Singer
Classical theories of sensory processing view the brain as a passive, stimulus-driven device. By contrast, more recent approaches emphasize the constructive nature of perception, viewing it as an active and highly selective process. Indeed, there is ample evidence that the processing of stimuli is controlled by top–down influences that strongly shape the intrinsic dynamics of thalamocortical networks and constantly create predictions about forthcoming sensory events. We discuss recent experiments indicating that such predictions might be embodied in the temporal structure of both stimulus-evoked and ongoing activity, and that synchronous oscillations are particularly important in this process. Coherence among subthreshold membrane potential fluctuations could be exploited to express selective functional relationships during states of expectancy or attention, and these dynamic patterns could allow the grouping and selection of distributed neuronal responses for further processing.
more
Survival of the Prettiest. The Science of Beauty.
Nancy Etcoff
In Brazil, Avon ladies outnumber army soldiers. U.S. consumers spend more on beauty supplies than education and social services combined. Harvard University psychologist Etcoff contends that these trends do not stem from media influences or unabashed narcissism but from our will to survive. In considering across cultures and history ideals of beauty that incorporate scarring, painting, and padding of the body, Etcoff formulates a thesis that binds physical attractiveness to our evolutionary roots and the survival of our genes. In Etcoff's view, such concepts of beauty are founded in natural selection. She sites research indicating that infants come equipped with the ability to discern good looks and presents a host of equally provocative ideas on the subject.
more
The Role of Internal Models in Motion Planning and Control: Evidence from Grip Force Adjustments during Movements of Hand-Held Loads
J. Randall Flanagan, Alan M. Wing
The authors investigated the issue of whether the central nervous system makes use of an internal model of the motor apparatus in planning and controlling arm movements. In particular, they tested the ability of subjects to predict different hand-held loads by examining grip force adjustments used to stabilize the load in the hand during arm movements.
more
Event-related FMRI reveals distinct neural correlates of reward anticipation versus feedback
Grace Fong, Brian Knutson, Charles Adams, Daniel Hommer
Reward processing includes both appetitive and consummatory stages. Comparative studies suggest that ventral striatal dopamine is more robustly released during reward anticipation than during reward consumption (1). In past FMRI studies, the authors observed reward-proportional ventral striatal activation during anticipation of monetary rewards (2). In this study, they examined whether reward feedback would also elicit ventral striatal activity or recruit other prefrontal brain areas implicated in reward processing such as the orbitofrontal cortex.
more
Bird migration: Magnetic cues trigger extensive refuelling
Thord Fransson, Sven Jakobsson, Patrick Johansson, Cecilia Kullberg, Johann Lind, Adrian Vallin
Long stretches of sea and desert often interrupt the migration routes of small songbirds, whose fat reserves must be restored before these can be crossed as they provide no opportunity for refuelling. To investigate whether magnetic cues might enable inexperienced migratory birds to recognize a region where they need to replenish their body fat, we caught and held thrush nightingales (Luscinia luscinia) in Sweden just before their first migration and exposed them to a magnetic field simulating that at a migratory stopover in northern Egypt, before the Sahara Desert.
We found that this magnetic field stimulated the birds to extend their fat-deposition period, indicating that magnetic cues may help small migratory birds to confront large ecological barriers.
more
Orbitofrontal Cortex and Representation of Incentive Value in Associative Learning
Michela Gallagher, Robert W. McMahan, Geoffrey Schoenbaum
Clinical evidence indicates that damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex disrupts goal-directed actions that are guided by motivational and emotional factors. As a consequence, patients with such damage characteristically engage in maladaptive behaviors. Other research has shown that neurons in the corresponding orbital region of prefrontal cortex in laboratory animals encode information regarding the incentive properties of goals or expected events. The present study investigates the effect of neurotoxic orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) lesions in the rat on responses that are normally influenced by associations between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and the incentive value of reinforcement.
more
The Inner Sense of Action: Agency and Motor Representations
Vittorio Gallese
Our capacity to deal with the “external world” is constituted by the possibility of modifying the world by means of our actions; by the possibility of representing the world as an objective reality; and by the possibility of experiencing phenomenally this same objective reality, from a situated, self-conscious perspective. It is tempting to address these different articulations of the sense of “being related to the world”, of our intentional relation to the world, by using different languages, different methods of investigations, perhaps even different ontologies.
In the present paper the author starts to explore the possibility of reconciling some of these different articulations of intentionality from a neurobiological perspective.
more
Mathematics of the Golden Section
Tom Gilmore
In this artcile, Tom Gilmore offers an accessible yet substantive explanation of da Vinci's "Golden Section." He introduces the concepts of the Golden Section, the importance of Phi, and the Fibonacci Series. The reader can gain a basic understanding of the numbers hidden in both the natural and man-made wonders of the world.
more
The Physical Genius: what do Wayne Gretzky, Yo-Yo Ma, and a brain surgeon have in common?
Malcolm Gladwell
There are thousands of people who have played in the National Hockey League over the years, but there has been only one Wayne Gretzky. Thousands of cellists play professionally all over the world, but very few will ever earn comparison with Yo-Yo Ma. People like Gretzky or Ma or Charlie Wilson all have an affinity for translating thought into action. They're what we might call physical geniuses. But what makes them so good at what they do?
more
The Art of Failure: Why some people choke and others panic
Malcolm Gladwell
Written with a non-technical audience in mind, this article explores the phenomenon of failure: how it is defined, who seccumbs to it, and why it happens. Focusing on the performance of sports figures, the article offers numerous contextual examples of failure and its after affects.
more
Evidence for Quantum Brain Fluctuations: Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Correlations in the Brain-Mind: the Transferred Potential
Amit Goswami
In 1935, three physicists, Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen criticized quantum mechanics claiming that if it were a complete model of reality, then nonlocal interactions between objects had to exist. Since that was deemed inconsistent with the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics had to be either wrong or at least incomplete. This critique is known as the Einstein-Podolosky-Rosen (EPR) paradox.
Bell prepared the theoretical groundwork for experimental tests of EPR nonlocality and Aspect et al. experimentally verified that a nonlocal correlation between objects indeed occurs once these objects have interacted.
There is now evidence that EPR correlation occurs between human brains.
more
Faces, Bodies and Darwinian Aesthetics. The Beauty of Boundaries and the Boundaries of Beauty
Karl Grammer, Randy Thornhill, Astrid Jütte, Anja Rikowski, Gudrun Ronzal and Bernhard Fink
These pages review the current research situation in beauty research as I see it, and make some suggestions for future research directions. The pages are purely experimental. So do not expect something completely perfect. The following presentation is based on a talk by Karl Grammer at the Mindship Foundation in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the summer of 1996. The beauties above are purely synthetical. They are automorphed from 10American females and 10 Japanese with a program developed by us which can create prototypes, analyze skin surfaces, symmetry and the complexity of almost any stimulus. Currently it is used for the analysis of human faces and figures.
more
Free recall and recognition in a network model of the hippocampus: simulating effects of scopolamine on human memory function
Michael Hasselmo, Bradley P. Wyble
Free recall and recognition are simulated in a network model of the hippocampal formation, incorporating simplified simulations of neurons, synaptic connections, and the effects of acetylcholine. Simulations focus on modeling the effects of the acetylcholine receptor blocker scopolamine on human memory. Systemic administration of scopolamine is modeled by blockade of the cellular effects of acetylcholine in the model, resulting in memory impairments replicating data from studies on human subjects. This blockade of cholinergic effects impairs the encoding of new input patterns (as measured by delayed free recall), but does not impair the delayed free recall of input patterns learned before the blockade. The impairment is selective to the free recall but not the recognition of items encoded under the influence of scopolamine. In the model, scopolamine blocks strengthening of recurrent connections in region CA3 to form attractor states for new items (encoding impaired) but allows recurrent excitation to drive the network into previously stored attractor states (retrieval spared). Neuron populations representing items (individual
words) have weaker recurrent connections than neuron populations representing experimental context. When scopolamine further weakens the strength of recurrent connections it selectively prevents the subsequent reactivation of item attractor states by context input (impaired free recall) without impairing the subsequent reactivation of context attractor states by item input (spared recognition). This asymmetry in the strength of attractor states also allows simulation of the list-strength effect for free recall but not recognition. Simulation of a paired associate learning paradigm predicts that scopolamine should greatly enhance proactive interference due to retrieval of previously encoded associations during storage of new associations.
more
Chaos on Centre court
Mark Haw
Humans are better at ball games than robots because they can solve complex equations instinctively.
more
The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to Evolutionary Computation
Jörg Heitkötter, David Beasley
If you are scientifically or mathematically-minded and looking to jump into the dizzying world of Evolutionary Algorithms, Classifier Systems, and Genetic Programming, this is your chance. Here you can learn about gray codes, fuzzy systems, and artificial neural networks. Find the links to anticipation. Go! Do it now!!
more
Vorhersage und Erkenntnis
Joachim Hoffmann
Die Funktion von Antizipationen in der menschlichen Verhaltenssteuerung und Wahrnehmung. (Anticipation and cognition: The function of anticipations in human behavioral control and perception). Goettingen, Germany: Hogrefe, 1993
Cognitive Modeling Demonstrates How People Use Anticipated Location Knowledge of Menu Items
Anthony J. Hornof, David E. Kieras
This research presents cognitive models of a person selecting an item from a familiar, ordered, pull-down menu. The models assert that people make an initial eye and hand movement to an anticipated target location without waiting for the menu to appear.
more
Human cerebellar activity reflecting an acquired internal model of a new tool
Hiroshi Imamizu, Satoru Miyauchi, Tomoe Tamada, Yuka Sasaki, Ryousuke Takino, Benno Pütz, Toshinori Yoshioka, Mitsuo Kawato
Theories of motor control postulate that the brain uses internal models of the body to control movements accurately. Internal models are neural representations of how, for instance, the arm would respond to a neural command, given its current position
and velocity. Previous studies have shown that the cerebellar cortex can acquire internal models through motor learning. Because the human cerebellum is involved in higher cognitive function as well as in motor control, we propose a coherent computational theory in which the phylogenetically newer part of the cerebellum similarly acquires internal models of objects in the external world. While human subjects learned to use a new tool (a computer mouse with a novel rotational transformation), cerebellar activity was measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging. As predicted by our theory, two types of activity were observed. One was spread over wide areas of the cerebellum and was precisely proportional to the error signal that guides the acquisition of internal models during learning. The other was confined to the area near the posterior superior fissure and remained even after learning, when the error levels had been equalized, thus probably reflecting an acquired internal model of the new tool.
more
What links humans to the cosmos?
Brian David Josephson
"What are the mysterious interconnections that we find both in the sub-atomic world of quantum physics, and in the world of human experience: phenomena such as telepathy, now well established in the laboratory? We seem to be linked to each other and to the world by mechanisms that science still hardly understands. This is immensely significant, and we can hardly begin to understand the many implications of these links."
more
Anticipation
Christian Julia
Mental act of consisting of predicting the intentions of the adversary. In karate it is called "Sakki", i.e. sensing the willingness of an attack directed against oneself.
more
Online Evolution for a Self-Adapting Robotic Navigation System Using Evolvable Hardware
Didier Keymeulen, Masaya Iwata, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Tetsuya, Higuchi
This article describes the navigation task for a real mobile robot and its implementation on evolvable hardware. The robot must track a colored ball, while avoiding obstacles in an environment that is unknown and dynamic.
more
Some Remarks on Humanoid Robot Development and Preliminary Work on Multimodal Human-Humanoid Interaction
A. Knoll , J. Zhang
In the first part of the paper, we reflect on some research issues related to humanoid robots and their applications. Scientific challenges are categorised and briefly reviewed. In the second part, we describe some work that may help to interface humanoids more closely to the human world: multimodal dialog structures between humans and humanoids. A real-world setup that has been used extensively over the last years is presented along with a sample dialogue. A brief outlook on further research concludes the paper.
more
Self representation, self perception, and behavior control of robots (Selbstrepräsentation, Selbstwahrnehmung und Verhaltenssteuerung von Robotern)
Alois Knoll, Thomas Christaller
Ten to fifteen years ago the term "robot" was connected either with real free-programmable handling-automats lacking any kind of intelligence, or with fictional humanoids, whose intelligence made human intelligence look like a transitional stage of evolution. The gap between the two worlds seemed irreconcilable, but now the representation of the situation is more sophisticated.
more
Nociceptive neurons in the macaque anterior cingulate activate during anticipation of pain
Tetsuo Koyama, Yusuke Zn Tanaka, Akichika Mikami
Since the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is known to be involved both in nociception and in anticipation that precedes the avoidance of aversive stimuli, the linking of these functions may be processed in the ACC. To test this hypothesis, we recorded single neuronal activities in the ACC of a macaque monkey while it was performing a pain-avoidance task and examined them with nociceptive cutaneous electric stimuli (ES). Thirty-six neurons responded in anticipation of the ES. Of these, 22 neurons were tested with the ES and 11 responded. These neurons could be those that are involved both in nociception and in pain anticipation that precedes the avoidance of noxious stimuli.
(Full text subject to charges)
more
Representational Models and Nonlinear Dynamics: Irreconcilable Approaches to Human Movement Timing and Coordination or Two Sides
of the Same Coin? Introduction to the Special Issue on Movement Timing and Coordination
Ralf Th. Krampe, Ralf Engbert, and Reinhold Kliegl
more
The Effects of Expertise and Age on Rhythm Production: Adaptations to Timing and Sequencing Constraints
Ralf T. Krampe, Ralf Engbert, and Reinhold Kliegl
We investigate age- and expertise-related individual differences in component processes of rhythmic timing. To this end we apply analysis of covariance structure and symbolic dynamics to time series obtained from performances of two bimanual rhythm tasks at different tempos. Results show similar effects for peripheral motor implementation and timekeeper execution in young and older amateur pianists. Older participants show specific problems with temporal sequencing processes (specification of different target intervals). Expert pianists show lower variability in both motor implementation and timekeeper execution and they accommodate to the sequencing demands of different tempos by selectively relying on integrated or parallel timing. We argue that the observed timing control characteristics reflect individuals’ adaptations to internal processing limitations and performance constraints.
more
Organism as a self-reading text: anticipation and semiosis
Kalevi Kull
Organism is a text to itself since it requires reading and re-presentation of its own structures for its existence, e.g., for growth and reparation. It also uses reading of its memory when functioning. This defines an organism as a self-reading text. Anticipation is a property which primarily appears in autocatalytic cycles. For textual autocatalytic systems, anticipation could be represented as a sign.
more
An Interview with W. Brian Arthur
Joel Kurtzman
This is the script of an interview with W. Brian Arthur published in "Strategy & Business."
more
It Knows What You’re Going To Do: Adding Anticipation to a Quakebot
John E. Laird
The complexity of AI characters in computer games is continually improving; however they still fall short of human players. In this paper we describe an AI bot for the game Quake II that tries to incorporate some of those missing capabilities. This bot is distinguished by its ability to build its own map as it explores a level, use a wide variety of tactics based on its internal map, and in some cases, anticipate its opponent's actions.
more
An Exploration into Computer Games and Computer Generated Forces
John E. Laird
The artificial intelligence (AI) components of computer games often appear to be very complex, possibly having abilities beyond the state of the art in computer generated forces. In this paper we study the similarities and differences between AIs for computer games and computer generated forces (CGFs). We contrast the goals of AIs and CGFs, their behavioral requirements, and the underlying resources available for developing and fielding them, with an eye to how they impact the complexity of their behaviors.
more
Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to 3D Computer Animation
John Lasseter
This paper describes the basic principles of traditional 2D hand drawn animation and their application to 3D computer animation. After describing how these principles evolved, the individual principles are detailed addressing their meanings in 2D hand drawn animation and their application to 3D computer animation. This should demonstrate the importance of these principles to quality 3D computer animation.
more
Intelligent Agents in Computer Games
Michael van Lent, John Laird, Josh Buckman, Joe Hartford, Steve Houchard, Kurt Steinkraus, Russ Tedrake
The Soar/Games project (van Lent and Laird 1999) at the University of Michigan Artificial Intelligence Lab has developed an interface between Soar and the commercial computer games Quake II and Descent 3.
Soar serves as an inference engine for the intelligent agent in the games.
more
End Point Visualization
Vic Lindal
Developed by Volleyball Coach Vic Lindal, End Point Visualization is believed to give a final push to move a game from mediocre to sensational. Every good athlete that has become a great athlete believes that success came, not because of physical attributes or skill but because of mental conditioning. This great program, designed for success regardless of sport, my be a key to success.
more
The Golden Section
Gavin Kenneth MacGregor
A rectangle who's proportions are based on The Golden Section is said to look most pleasing. This and it's other magical properties are said here.
more
That´s Not How My Brain Works (Interview with Jeff Hawkins)
Charles C. Mann
Jeff Hawkins, creator of the PalmPilot, has other, much larger ambitions. He wants to figure out how the brain does its thing. Charles C. Mann, a frequent contributor to Technology Review, started his interview with Hawkins by asking why he quit graduate school.
more
The Conductor´s Jacket: a Testbed for Research on Gestural and Affective Expression
Teresa Marrin, Rosalind W. Picard
The Conductor´s Jacket is a wearable physiological monitoring system that has been built into the clothing of an orchestral conductor; it was designed to provide a testbed for the study of emotional expression as it relates to musical performance. The sensors in the jacket were chosen because they have been shown to give strong indications of emotional state; they have been used before in different studies to capture physiological signals from the surface of the skin[7,8]. The Conductor´s Jacket has recently been used to gather data during several orchestral rehearsals with a professional conductor in Boston. This paper presents our initial results, which support certain hypotheses about the ways in which human beings modulate their own physiology in order to communicate affective information.
The data we collected supports four major features in the standard conducting technique: that the left hand should be used to add emphasis and extra expressive information, that page turns are done in such a way as to purposefully not attract attention or convey musical information, that the amount of force used in performing a beat gesture indicates the volume and articulation with which that note should be played, and that a conductor´s breathing reflects important information about phrase lengths and interpretation. We also found some surprising results, including several instances where the muscles went limp right before a major event, which suggests that the sudden absence of information has been encoded to signal a “heads-up” to the players in anticipation of an important future event.
more
The Real Function of the Immune System or Tolerance and the Four D's (danger, death, destruction and distress)
Polly Matzinger
The human immune system protects us from disease in many ways. But how does it work? How does it distinguish the biological elements that are safe from the those that are dangerous? This article puts forth a new theory about how the immune system identitfies what it needs to attack. What guides the immune system in the identification of foreign bodies before an attack occurs? The article is probably best suited for those with an intermediate knowledge of biology or above.
more
Did Mozart Use the Golden Section?
Mike May
John F. Putz, a mathematician at Alma College, became intrigued with the notion that Motzart may have composed his piano sonatas using an ancient tool called the "golden section." This ratio states that when a line is separated into two parts, the ratio between the smallest piece and the largest piece is equal to that between the larget piece and the whole. Many people claim that this is the "perfect" ratio. The article explores in basic mathematical terms whether Putz's theory was accurate.
more
Does the brain model Newton´s laws?
J. McIntyre, M. Zago, A. Berthoz, F. Lacquaniti
How does the nervous system synchronize movements to catch a falling ball? According to one theory, only sensory information is used to estimate time-to-contact (TTC) with an approaching object; alternatively, implicit knowledge about physics may come into play. Here we show that astronauts initiated catching movements earlier in 0 g than in 1 g, which demonstrates that the brain uses an internal model of gravity to supplement sensory information when estimating TTC.
more
Perceptual basis of bimanual coordination
Franz Mechsner, Dirk Kerzel, Günter Knoblich, Wolfgang Prinz
Periodic bimanual movements are often the focus of studies of the basic organizational principles of human actions. In such movements there is a typical spontaneous tendency towards mirror symmetry. Even involuntary slips from asymmetrical movement patterns into symmetry occur, but not vice versa. Traditionally, this phenomenon has been interpreted as a tendency towards co-activation of homologous muscles, probably originating in motoric neuronal structures. Here we provide evidence contrary to this widespread assumption.
more
Reputation helps solve the "tragedy of the commons"
Manfred Milinski, Dirk Semmann, Hans-Jürgen Krambeck
The problem of sustaining a public resource that everybody is free to overuse the "tragedy of the commons" emerges in many social dilemmas, such as our inability to sustain the global climate. Public goods experiments, which are used to study this type of problem, usually confirm that the collective benefit will not be produced. Because individuals and countries often participate in several social games simultaneously, the interaction of these games may provide a sophisticated way by which to maintain the public resource. Indirect reciprocity "give and you shall receive", is built on reputation and can sustain a high level of cooperation, as shown by game theorists. Here we show, through alternating rounds of public goods and indirect reciprocity games, that the need to maintain reputation for indirect reciprocity maintains contributions to the public good at an unexpectedly high level. But if rounds of indirect reciprocation are not expected, then contributions to the public good drop quickly to zero. Alternating the games leads to higher profits for all players. As reputation may be a currency that is valid in many social games, our approach could be used to test social dilemmas for their solubility.
more
The Swarm Simulation System: A Toolkit for Building Multi-Agent Simulations
Nelson Minar, Roger Burkhart , Chris Langton, Manor Askenazi
Swarm is a multi-agent software platform for the simulation of complex adaptive systems. In the Swarm system the basic unit of simulation is the swarm, a collection of agents executing a schedule of actions. Swarm supports hierarchical modeling approaches whereby agents can be composed of swarms of other agents in nested structures. Swarm provides object oriented libraries of reusable components for building models and analyzing, displaying, and controlling experiments on those models. Swarm is currently available as a beta version in full, free source code form. It requires the GNU C Compiler, Unix, and X Windows.
more
Read my mind
Alison Motluk
Imagine you had cells in your brain that could read other people's minds. Well, you do. And they could be the key to human language, empathy, even society, says Alison Motluk
more
Anticipation - A Challenge
Mihai Nadin
The meaning of von Foerster´s statement “The cause lies in the future” escapes the understanding of many scholars. For artists, however, the reversal of the time arrow in effect poses no problem. Since Descartes and Newton, artists allowed themselves to be seduced by the physical explanation of the world they espoused. However, if art pertains to the living artist, and the living comprises more than physics, then an aesthetic renaissance that includes digital technology will have to transcend the physical in order to articulate new questions, define new goals, and suggest new values. That is, the artist has to entrust himself to the anticipatory nature of true creativity.
more
Trust - A Question of Anticipation or Trust - Anticipation and Survival
Mihai Nadin
Some simple observations: It would not be unusual for a person living in our day and age to go to the bank and deposit one million dollars (or Deutsche marks or English pounds), entrusting this amount to an unknown cashier/teller. But it would be exceptional for the same person to execute the same transaction through the Internet. Many of us would eat some exotic meal in a restaurant (Do we eat Chinese tonight, or Thai?) but not touch a genetically engineered tomato. Some will follow a grandmother´s advice and swallow a rather disgusting concoction of herbs and roots but cringe at the thought of a recombined DNA sequence. The list of examples can go on, from e-commerce, to business-to-business transactions, to distance learning. All such examples have in common the human characteristic underlying all interactions, which is more or less expressed through the notion of trust.
more
Intelligence for Animation
Mihai Nadin
“Intelligent” animation is not a matter of imitating the successes of the Disney studios with the aid of digital technology. It is rather a particular form of computational knowledge, a medium for testing hypotheses and exploring new designs. The characteristics of intelligence pertinent to expressing and understanding movement, change over a period of time, and autonomous behavior in a world populated by other moving entities are far more important than technique. Thus intelligence for animation is represented by how we know about the world, how we express goals, how we can change the state of the world, and the kind of knowledge we need to plan strategies.
more
Tickling your fancy
Jessa Netting
There is a ticklish spot that most people don't know they have: their brains. The mere sight of wiggling fingers poised ready to strike sends some people into hysterics. It's as if those fingers tickle the brain even before they touch the body, and according to new research, in a sense, they do.
more
The Anticipation Feedback Loop Mode
Günter Neumann
In the area of natural language systems a similar method that also integrates understanding and generation like Levelt's model is known under the term of anticipation feedback loop (AFL) which has been motivated as a special case of exploitation of a user model [Wahlster and Kobsa1986]. The basic idea of the AFL model is the use of the system's natural language understanding part to anticipate the prefered user's interpretation of an utterance which the system plans to realize.
more
Interleaving Natural Language Parsing and Generation Through Uniform Processing
Günter Neumann
We present a new model of natural language processing in which natural language parsing and generation are strongly interleaved tasks. Interleaving of parsing and generation is important if we assume that natural language understanding and production are not only performed in isolation but also work together to obtain subsentential interactions in text revision or dialog systems The core of the model is a new uniform agenda driven tabular algorithm called UTA. Although uniformly defined, UTA is able to configure itself dynamically for either parsing or generation because it is fully driven by the structure of the actual input a string for parsing and a semantic expression for generation. Efficient interleaving of parsing and generation is obtained through item sharing between parsing and generation. This novel processing strategy facilitates the automatic exchange of items (i. e. partial results) computed in one direction to the other direction as well. The advantage of UTA in combination with the item sharing method is that we are able to extend the use of memorization techniques to the case of an interleaved approach. In order to demonstrate UTA s utility for developing high-level performance methods we present a new algorithm for incremental self-monitoring during natural language production.
more
Choice and Procrastination
Ted O'Donoghue, Matthew Rabin
Recent models of procrastination due to self-control problems assume that a procrastinator considers just one option and is unaware of her self-control problems. We develop a model where a person chooses from a menu of options and is partially aware of her self-control problems. This menu model replicates earlier results and generates new ones. A person might forego completing an attractive option because she plans to complete a more attractive but never-to-be-completed option. Hence, providing a non-procrastinator additional options can induce procrastination, and a person may procrastinate worse pursuing important goals than unimportant ones.
more
Anticipation
G. Scott Owen
Anticipation can be the anatomical preparation for the action, e.g., retracting a foot before kicking a ball. It can also be a device to attract the viewer's attention to the proper screen area and to prepare them for the action, e.g., raising the arms and staring at something before picking it up, or staring off-screen at something and then reacting to it before the action moves on-screen. An example of this is the opening scene of Luxo, jr.. The father is looking off-screen and then reacts to something. This sets up the viewers to look at that part of the screen so they are prepared when Luxo, jr. hops in from off-screen.
more
Neuronal Correlates of Fear in the Lateral Amygdala: Multiple Extracellular Recordings in Conscious Cats
Denis Paré, Dawn R. Collins
Much data implicates the amygdala in the expression and learning of fear. Yet, few studies have examined the neuronal correlates of fear in the amygdala. This study aimed to determine whether fear is correlated to particular activity patterns in the lateral amygdaloid (LA) nucleus. Cats, chronically implanted with multiple microelectrodes in the LA and a catheter in the femoral artery, learned that a series of tones interrupted by a period of silence (5 sec) preceded the administration of a footshock. During the silent period, their blood pressure increased, indicating that they anticipated the noxious stimulus. In parallel, the firing rate of LA neurons doubled, and the discharges of simultaneously recorded cells became more synchronized.
more
Consciousness and Non-Locality
F. David Peat
From its inception the notion of non-locality was implicit in quantum theory, but it was only with the publication of Bell's Theorem, and its subsequent experimental verification, that physicists had to face the fact that quantum theory can never be reduced to any local theory.
more
Anticipation - Mat strategy in wrestling
Ben Peterson
Mat strategy is an important part of the sport of wrestling. A successful wrestler will not only be concerned about what to do (techniques), but also how to do it (strategy). Anticipation is a strategy that will set apart the great wrestler from the average wrestler.
more
Tsallis Entropy and Jaynes´ Information Theory Formalism
A. Plastino, A. R. Plastino
The role of Tsallis' non-extensive Information Measure within an á la Jaynes Information-Theory-based formulation of Statistical Mechanics is discussed in rather detailed fashion.
more
Dissociating Pain from Its Anticipation in the Human Brain
Alexander Ploghaus, Irene Tracey, Joseph S.
The experience of pain is subjectively different from the fear and anxiety caused by threats of pain. Functional magnetic resonance imaging in healthy humans was applied to dissociate neural activation patterns associated with acute pain and its anticipation. Expectation of pain activated sites within the medial frontal lobe, insular cortex, and cerebellum distinct from, but close to, locations mediating pain experience itself. Anticipation of pain can in its own right cause mood changes and behavioral adaptations that exacerbate the suffering experienced by chronic pain patients. Selective manipulations of activity at these sites may offer therapeutic possibilities for treating chronic pain.
more
Resilience vs. Anticipation
Virginia I. Postrel
In the book "SEARCHING FOR SAFETY," political scientist Aaron Wildavsky laid out two alternatives for dealing with risk. The first, anticipation, involves static planning that aspires to perfect foresight. The second alternative, resilience, is a dynamic response that relies on having many margins of adjustment. This article uses weather and earthquakes as an example for illustrating the advantages and disadvantages to both of these risk-management strategies.
more
Anticipation
Neil F. Richmond
What is anticipation? In animation, it is one of the most important principles of good animation. It is the windup before the the pitch. The anticipation sets up the action. You can often take a long time to do an anticipation and the action can be only a few frames and yet the audience understand what happened because in the anticipation, you are telling the audience what to expect.The anticipation could be a glance at the audience or a big windup.In an action anticipation is, characteristically, an compression before an expansion. A rising up before going down. A gesture left action before a moving right.
more
The Role of Anticipation in Cognition
Alexander Riegler
According to the standard definition of anticipatory systems, anticipation is based on a predictive model of the system itself and its environment. The paper abandons this perspective of weak anticipation in favor of what has been called strong anticipation. It is proposed that anticipation is a consequence of canalization caused by the organization of the structural building-blocks of which the system in question consists. Strong anticipation can account for the anticipatory behavior in animals to which we would not impute the ability of creating internal models of themselves.
Economic Theory, Anticipatopry Systems and Artificial Adaptive Agents
Sérgio Luiz de Medeiros Rivero, Bernd Heinrich Storb, Raul Sidnei Wazlawick
In this paper we propose an artificial intelligence approach to simulation in economics based on a multiagent system. The multiagent approach is based on the seminal work of Holland & Miller [6], in which the authors propose that the economic system may be viewed as a complex dynamic adaptive system with a large number of different kinds of agents and that these agents can be simulated using classifier systems. In the model developed in this article the agents take its decisions based on the anticipation of the future state of the world. The concept of anticipation is developed from the work of Davidsson [4] [2]. These agents are heterogeneous, autonomous, adaptive and anticipatory. This model is compared with the one developed by Arthur et al. [1]. In this paper are developed similarity measures between situations, actions, and changes in the world. These measures are useful for a computationally simulated economic agent to compare previous situations, actions and results, and decide which action could lead to a situation with the best utility or satisfaction degree.
more
Role of the Cerebellum in Tuning Anticipatory and Reactive Grip Force Responses
Deborah J. Serrien, Prof. Dr. Mario Wiesendanger
The aim of our study was to determine if load perturbations that could destabilize grasp control are adequately controlled by cerebellar patients. We examined patients with unilateral cerebellar lesions who had largely recovered from their initial symptoms and compared grip force regulation for the affected and unaffected hand during a drawer-opening task.
more
Areas Involved in Encoding and Applying Directional Expectations to Moving Objects
Gordon L. Shulman, John M. Ollinger, Erbil Akbudak, Thomas E. Conturo, Abraham Z. Snyder, Steven E. Petersen, Maurizio Corbetta
Two experiments used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the cortical areas involved in establishing an expectation about the direction of motion of an oncoming object and applying that expectation to the analysis of the object. In Experiment 1, subjects saw a stationary cue that either indicated the direction of motion of a subsequent test stimulus (directional cue) or provided no directional information (neutral cue). Their task was to detect the presence of coherent motion in the test stimulus. The stationary directional cue produced larger modulations than the neutral cue, with respect to a passive viewing baseline, both in motion-sensitive areas such as left MT1 and the anterior intraparietal sulcus, as well as motion-insensitive areas such as the posterior intraparietal sulcus and the junction of the left medial precentral sulcus and superior frontal sulcus. Experiment 2 used an event-related fMRI technique to separate signals during the cue period, in which the expectation was encoded and maintained, from signals during the subsequent test period, in which the expectation was applied to the test object. Cue period activations from a stationary, directional cue included many of the same motion-sensitive and -insensitive areas from Experiment 1 that produced directionally specific modulations. Prefrontal activations were not observed during the cue period, even though the stationary cue information had to be translated into a format appropriate for influencing motion detection, and this format was maintained for the duration of the cue period (.5 sec).
more
Perceptual and Semantic Components of Memory for Objects and Faces: A PET Study
Jon S. Simons, Kim S. Graham, Adrian M. Owen, Karalyn Patterson, John R. Hodges
Previous studies have suggested differences in the neural substrates of recognition memory when the contributions of perceptual and semantic information are manipulated. In a within-subjects design PET study, we investigated the neural correlates of the following factors: material type (objects or faces), semantic knowledge (familiar or unfamiliar items), and perceptual similarity at study and test (identical or different pictures). There was consistent material-specific lateralization in frontal and temporal lobe regions when the retrieval of different types of nonverbal stimuli was compared, with objects activating bilateral areas and faces preferentially activating the right hemisphere. Retrieval of memories for nameable, familiar items was associated with increased activation in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, while memory for unfamiliar items involved occipital regions. Recognition memory for different pictures of the same item at study and test produced blood flow increase in left inferior temporal cortex. These results have implications for our understanding of the neural correlates of perceptual and semantic contributions to recognition memory.
more
The Arcosanti Project
Paolo Soleri
Suburban sprawl, spreading across the landscape, causes enormous waste, frustration and long-term costs by depleting land and resources. Dependancy on the automobile intensifies these problems, while increasing pollution, congestion, and social isolation. Arcosanti hopes to address these issues by building a three-dimensional, pedestrian-oriented city. Because this plan eliminates suburban sprawl, both the urban and natural environments should keep their integrity and thrive.
more
The Principles of Animation
Ralph A. De Stefano
Lasseter (1987) wrote, "Whether it is generated by hand or by computer, the first goal of the animator is to entertain. The animator must have two things: a clear concept of exactly what twill entertain the audience; and the tools and skills to put those ideas across clearly. Tools, in the sense of hardware and software, are simply not enough." The principles discussed in this paper are tools as well...just as important as the computers we work with.
This document is meant to be used as a primer for beginning animators, and a knowledgeable reference for experienced animators. This paper in no way replaces the years of sweat and toil that animation mastery requires.
more
Dynamics of a bouncing ball in human performance
Dagmar Sternad, Marcos Duarte, Hiromu Katsumata, Stefan Schaal
On the basis of a modified bouncing-ball model, we investigated whether human movements utilize principles of dynamic stability in their performance of a similar movement task. Stability analyses of the model provided predictions about conditions indicative of a dynamically stable period-one regime. In a series of experiments, human subjects bounced a ball rhythmically on a racket and displayed these conditions supporting that they attuned to and exploited the dynamic stability properties of the task.
more
Predator and prey views of spider camouflage
Marc Théry, Jérôme Casas
Crab-spiders (Thomisus onustus) positioned for hunting on flowers disguise
themselves by assuming the same colour as the flower, a strategy that is assumed to fool both bird predators and insect prey.
more
Describing a New Entropy
Constantino Tsallis
Conservation of energy is one of the most helpful and fundamental laws of physics, one used to explain everything from the fusion of hydrogen to the motion of planets orbiting the sun. Another concept is required to understand how the various forms of energy can change form - how the energy in a chunk of coal can move a train, for instance. This is the realm of entropy.
more
Entropic Nonextensivity: a possible Measure of Complexity
Constantino Tsallis
An updated review [1] of nonextensive statistical mechanics and thermodynamics is colloquially presented. Quite naturally the possibility emerges for using the value q - 1 (entropic nonextensivity) as a simple and efficient manner to provide, at least for some classes of systems, some characterization of the degree of what is currently referred to as complexity. A few historical digression are included as well.
more
Nonextensive Statistics: Theoretical, Experimental and Computational Evidences and Connections
Constantino Tsallis
The domain of validity of standard thermodynamics and Boltzmann-Gibbs statistical mechanics is discussed and then formally enlarged in order to hopefully cover a variety of anomalous systems. The generalization concerns nonextensive systems, where nonextensivity is understood in the thermodynamical sense. This generalization was first proposed in 1988 inspired by the probabilistic description of multifractal geometries, and has been intensively studied during this decade. In the present efort, after introducing some historical background, we briefly describe the formalism, and then exhibit the present status in what concerns theoretical, experimental and computational evidences and connections, as well as some perspectives for the future. In addition to these, here and there we point out various (possibly) relevant questions, whose answer would certainly clarify our current understanding of the foundations of statistical mechanics and its thermodynamical implications.
more
Grip Force Adjustments In Collisions
Yvonne Turrell
During object manipulation, grip force applied normally to the surfaces of the object must produce friction to overcome the external load forces that threaten grasp stability. The studies presented in this thesis examined the characteristics of anticipatory and reactive GF responses in the event of a collision between a hand-held object and a target object.
more
Anticipation: A Key for Collaboration in a Team of Agents
Manuela Veloso, Peter Stone, Michael Bowling
This paper investigates teams of complete autonomous agents that can collaborate towards achieving precise objectives in an adversarial dynamic environment. The authors have pursued this work in the context of robotic soccer both in simulation and with real physical robots.
more
Real-time anticipation of chaotic states of an electronic circuit
Henning Voss
The author reports on a experimental realization of a recently proposed method to anticipate future states of nonlinear time-delayed feedback systems. The electronic circuit allows for a real-time anticipation of even strongly irregular signals. It is found that synchronization of the driven circuit with chaotic future states of the driving circuit is insensitive to signal and system pertubations.
more
Anticipating Chaotic Synchronization
Henning Voss
Dissipative chaotic systems with a time-delayed feedback can drive near-identical systems in such a way that the driven systems anticipate the drivers by synchronizing with their (arbitrarily distant) future states. This counterintuitive behavior is globally stable, robust, and a pure result of the interplay between delayed feedback and dissipation. Thus it constitutes a rather universal phenomenon of nonlinear dynamics. For small anticipation times, anticipating synchronization also occurs in chaotic systems without a memory term in the driver.
more
A Theoretical Investigation into the Direct and Indirect Effects of State on the Risk of Predation
Nicky Welton, Alasdair I. Houston
As well as there being a direct physical effect of the state (for example fat reserves,or size) of an animal on the risk of being caught by a predator,state also has an effect on predation risk indirectly through changes in behaviour. We present a mathematical model which looks at these two components of the effect of state on predation risk. We focus on two different models, (i)where the animal must achieve a fixed state and its fitness depends on the time at which this state is reached and (ii) where the animal must survive until a fixed time and its fitness depends on its final state. We investigate conditions under which the indirect effect of increased state is to increase or decrease predation risk, and give some numerical illustrations. Under certain conditions in the fixed-state model, the indirect effect of state is to increase predation risk, whereas under certain conditions in the fixed-time model the indirect effect of state is to decrease predation risk. We discuss the implications of our results for empirical investigations into the effect of state on predation risk.
more
Oral flex
John Whitfield
Chameleons can reel in prey anywhere within two-and-a-half body lengths of their jaws. Their tongues can overcome even a bird's weight and reluctance to be eaten. How? Muscles that are unique among backboned animals, researchers now reveal.
more
Toward a Physiological Understanding of Human Dexterity
Mario Wiesendanger, Deborah J. Serrien
Dexterity, defined as the skillful manipulation of the hands, is now amenable to physiological investigation. Two topics are discussed here: grasping (i.e., hand-object coupling) and bimanual coordination. Dexterity depends on powerful, distributed neural networks and is particularly vulnerable to brain lesions. A knowledge of physiological mechanisms is needed to deal with these neurological problems
more
Voluntary Timing and Brain Function: An Information Processing Approach
Alan M. Wing
This article takes an information processing perspective to review current understanding of brain mechanisms of human voluntary timing. Theoretical accounts of timing of the production of isochronous tapping and rhythms and of bimanual responding repetitive responding are reviewed. The mapping of higher level temporal parameter setting and memory processes and of lower level motor implementation process onto cortical and subcortical brain structures is discussed in relation to evidence from selective lesions in a range of neurological motor disorders. Brain activation studies that have helped identify key brain structures involved in the control of timing are reviewed.
more
Anticipating Dynamic Loads in Handling Objects
Alan M. Wing, J. Randall Flanagan
In this paper, the authors review a set of studies showing that when people pick up and move an object, they continually adjust their grip force in order to stabilize the object in the hand. These grip force adjustments occur simultaneously with or slightly ahead of fluctuations in load forces and torques related to moving the object.
more
Anticipatory postural adjustments in stance and grip
Alan M. Wing, J. Randall Flanagan, J. Richardson
The reactive forces and torques associated with moving a hand-held object between two points are potentially destabilising, both for the object´s position in the hand and for body posture. Previous work has demonstrated that there are increases in grip force ahead of arm motion that contribute to object stability in the hand. Other studies have shown that early postural adjustments in the legs and trunk minimise the potential perturbing effects on body posture of rapid voluntary arm movement. This paper documents the concurrent evolution of grip force and postural adjustments in anticipation of dynamic and static loads.
more
Anticipation and Violin Strings
Simon Winter
The overall framework of this article concerns the social stabilization of linguistic meaning in the no-man´s land between pragmatics and semantics. It shows how some fundamental dimensions - power, initiative, anticipation, all related to expectations - contribute to this stabilization.
more
Dialogue Dynamics, Violin Strings, and the Pragmatics-Semantics Continuum
Simon Winter
This paper proposes a model of knowledge dynamics in dialogue, applied to expert-novice dialogues dealing with violin-string change. The model works by focusing on breakdowns in the dialogues, where lack of understanding is signaled, and yields a functional stratification of the utterances in the dialogues, and more-or-less distinct levels of instruction, coordination, and verbal labelling. These levels are then shown to correspond to different positions in the continuum between pragmatics and semantics. The analysis also shows a close interplay between information management and social phenomena such as politeness.
more
Feedforward and feedback contributions to precision grip
Alice G. Witney, Alan M. Wing, Jean-Louis Thonnard, Allan M. Smith
Much electrophysiological and anatomical evidence has accumulated to indicate that the motor cortex and corticospinal tract exert an especially direct control over the motoneurons of wrist and finger muscles. The capacity to perform independent finger movements and to accurately control forces exerted between the thumb and index finger provide strong evidence of the cortical control of the precision grip. As a result, precision grasping has become a standard model of the cortical control of voluntary movements in primates. In contrast, it is also widely accepted that cutaneous afferents from the glabrous skin of the fingers provide the cues that adapt grip forces to the weight and friction of manipulated objects. In this paper we review feedforward and feedback control of precision grip in dextrous manipulative action. The variety of studies we review show that, once established, an internal model or memory trace is subsequently used to anticipate an object´s physical features such as centre of mass, inertia and friction. The internal model is then able to predict the grip and load forces required to lift an object against gravity. Furthermore, an accurate memory representation predicts the changes in direction of object acceleration so that the grip force may compensate for changes in tangential force on the skin. We then turn from discussing the importance of anticipatory control in grasping, to a number of other studies that show that when cutaneous afferents are removed by anaesthetising the fingers, the internal model is no longer able to optimise the grip forces to the weight and friction of the grasped object and a variety of off-axis forces and torques emerge. In addition the ability to adequately grasp while making movements with and against gravity are seriously impaired. Taken together, these somewhat conflicting results suggest that the internal model requires either the continuous presence of cutaneous information or that the memory trace needs to be frequently updated in order to function optimally. Finally we consider a series of studies showing how the internal model for predictive grip force is updated to provide adaptive grip to "virtual objects" with novel properties.
more
Learning and Decay of Prediction in Object Manipulation
Alice G. Witney, Susan J. Goodbody, Daniel M. Wolpert
Anticipating the consequences of our own actions is a fundamental component of normal sensorimotor control and is seen, for example, during the manipulation of objects. When one hand pulls on an object held in the other hand, there is an anticipatory increase in grip force in the restraining hand that prevents the object from slipping. This anticipation is thought to rely on a forward internal model of the manipulated object and motor system, enabling the prediction of the consequences of our motor commands. Here the authors investigate the development of such a predictive response.
more
Internal models in the cerebellum
Daniel M. Wolpert, R. Chris Miall, Mitsuo Kawato
This review will focus on the possibility that the cerebellum contains an internal model
or models of the motor apparatus. Inverse internal models can provide the neural
command necessary to achieve some desired trajectory. First, we review the necessity
of such a model and the evidence, based on the ocular following response, that inverse
models are found within the cerebellar circuitry. Forward internal models predict the
consequences of actions and can be used to overcome time delays associated with
feedback control. Secondly, we review the evidence that the cerebellum generates
predictions using such a forward model. Finally, we review a computational model that
includes multiple paired forward and inverse models and show how such an
arrangement can be advantageous for motor learning and control.
more
Maintaining internal representations: the role of the human superior parietal lobe
Daniel M. Wolpert, Susan J. Goodbody, Masud Husain
In sensorimotor integration, sensory input and motor output signals are combined to provide an internal estimate of the state of both the world and one´s own body. Although a single perceptual and motor snapshot can provide information about the current state, computational models show that the state can be optimally estimated by a recursive process in which an internal estimate is maintained and updated by the current sensory and motor signals. These models predict that an internal state estimate is maintained or stored in the brain. Here we report a patient with a lesion of the superior parietal lobe who shows both sensory and motor deficits consistent with an inability to maintain such an internal representation between updates. Our findings suggest that the superior parietal lobe is critical for sensorimotor integration, by maintaining an internal representation of the body´s state.
more
Anticipation (in film)
An effectual device used to emphasize a particular thing that is about to happen. This is often accomplished with a pause in the actions of a character. An example from animation would include the momentary halt in "Wiley Coyote's" pursuit of the "Roadrunner" when one of his "captivating" devices has been foiled again. He waits, is depicted as looking at the audience with a knowing and pained expression on his face, and then the anvil falls upon his head.
more
Robo Cup
The Robot World Cup Initiative (RoboCup) is an attempt to foster AI and intelligent robotics research by providing a standard problem where wide range of technologies can be integrated and examined. For this purpose, RoboCup chose to use soccer game, and organize RoboCup: The Robot World Cup Soccer Games and Conferences. In order for a robot team to actually perform a soccer game, various technologies must be incorporated including: design principles of autonomous agents, multi-agent collaboration, strategy acquisition, real-time reasoning, robotics, and sensor-fusion. RoboCup is a task for a team of multiple fast-moving robots under a dynamic environment. RoboCup also offers a software platform for research on the software aspects of RoboCup.
more
Illustrated Glossary of Animation: Anticipation
About.com
Lifelike movement is a primary goal of animation. Early animators observed nature (including themselves) and experimented with techniques for making animated actions more closely resemble their natural counterparts. An important insight occurred. In many instances, a movement in one direction is preceded by a smaller preparatory movement in the opposite direction.
more
Eight Strategies for Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science
Buckminster Fuller Institute
In 1950, Buckminster Fuller set up an outline for a course in Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science. Taught at MIT in 1956 as part of the Creative Engineering Laboratory, this course by Fuller probably served as one of their more unusual offerings. The students who took the course, all engineers, industrial designers, materials scientists and chemists, represented research and development corporations across America. The following presents highlights from Fuller´s syllabus outlining eight components of the course, written before the Dymaxion Map reached its final, icosahedral phase and preceding the publication of Synergetics I and 2 by twenty-five years.
This is a theory which at its outset in 1927 promised to develop world-around effectiveness of an individual´s initiation despite the formidability of prevailing economic patterns. The name of the theory explains this strategy: an INDUSTRIALLY REALIZABLE, COMPREHENSIVE, ANTICIPATORY DESIGN SCIENCE,
more
Stem Cells: A Primer
National Institutes of Health
This primer presents background information on stem cells. It includes a explanation of what stem cells are; what pluripotent stem cells are; how pluripotent stem cells are derived; why pluripotent stem cells are important to science; why they hold such great promise for advances in health care; and what adult stem cells are.
more
Genetic Anticipation Topic Map (definiton)
WorldMedicus
Genetic Anticipation:
The apparent tendency of certain diseases to appear at earlier AGE OF ONSET and with increasing severity in successive generations. (Rieger et al., Glossary of Genetics: Classical and Molecular, 5th ed)
more