Michael A Arbib Knihy

This is an exciting time. The study of neural networks is enjoying a great renaissance, both in computational neuroscience - the development of information processing models of living brains - and in neural computing - the use of neurally inspired concepts in the construction of "intelligent" machines. Thus the title of this volume, Dynamic Interactions in Neural Models and Data can be given two interpretations. We present models and data on the dynamic interactions occurring in the brain, and we also exhibit the dynamic interactions between research in computational neuroscience and in neural computing, as scientists seek to find common principles that may guide us in the understanding of our own brains and in the design of artificial neural networks. In fact, the book title has yet a third interpretation. It is based on the U. S. -Japan Seminar on "Competition and Cooperation in Neural Nets" which we organized at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, May 18-22, 1987, and is thus the record of interaction of scientists on both sides of the Pacific in advancing the frontiers of this dynamic, re-born field. The book focuses on three major aspects of neural network learning, perception, and action. More specifically, the chapters are grouped under three "Development and Learning in Adaptive Networks," "Visual Function", and "Motor Control and the Cerebellum.

Ranking of people, schools, products, countries, and just about everything else is part of our daily lives. But we are in a paradoxical relationship with ranking: we believe that ranking is good because it is informative and objective; and we believe ranking is bad because it is biased and subjective, and occasionally, even manipulated. Ranking: The Unwritten Rules of the Social Game We All Play combines the application of scientific theories to everyday experience with entertaining personal stories.

"This book explores the relationships between language, music, and the brain by pursuing four key themes and the crosstalk among them: song and dance as a bridge between music and language; multiple levels of structure from brain to behavior to culture; the semantics of internal and external worlds and the role of emotion; and the evolution and development of language. The book offers specially commissioned expositions of current research accessible both to experts across disciplines and to non-experts. These chapters provide the background for reports by groups of specialists that chart current controversies and future directions of research on each theme

In Neural Organization, Arbib, Erdi, and Szentagothai integrate structural, functional, and dynamical approaches to the interaction of brain models and neurobiologcal experiments.