The exploitation of regularities in the environment by the brain
The exploitation of regularities in the environment by the brain
复制标题
DOI：
10.1017/s0140525x01000024
复制
发表时间：
2001-08-01
影响因子：
29.3
通讯作者：
Barlow, H
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Barlow, H
环境的统计规律对学习、记忆、智力、归纳推理都很重要，事实上，对任何认知科学领域都很重要，在这些领域，大脑通过利用信息处理来促进生存。许多对认知功能感兴趣的人已经认识到这一点，从赫尔姆霍兹、马赫和皮尔逊开始，一直到克雷克、托尔曼、阿特尼夫和布伦斯维克。在当今时代，我们中的许多人已经开始展示神经机制如何利用自然图像的常规统计特性。Shepard提出，当一个物体在两个位置连续观察时，其表观轨迹是内化运动几何规则的结果，尽管运动几何本质上不是统计的，但这显然是一个相关的想法。在这里，有人认为谢泼德的术语“内部化”是不够的，因为从过程中获得优势也是必要的。在观察运动物体时，对通常经历的激发的时空模式有选择性敏感的机制将有助于对此类运动的检测、插值和外推，并可能解释所经历的扭曲运动。虽然谢泼德用查尔斯规则的解释似乎值得怀疑，但他的理论和实验表明，局部扭曲运动是分析运动物体所必需的，并引发了人们对如何检测运动物体的思考。
Statistical regularities of the environment are important for learning, memory, intelligence, inductive inference, and in fact, for any area of cognitive science where an information-processing brain promotes survival by exploiting them. This has been recognised by many of those interested in cognitive function, starting with Helmholtz, Mach, and Pearson, and continuing through Craik, Tolman, Attneave, and Brunswik. In the current era, many of us have begun to show how neural mechanisms exploit the regular statistical properties of natural images. Shepard proposed that the apparent trajectory of an object when seen successively at two positions results from internalising the rules of kinematic geometry, and although kinematic geometry is not statistical in nature, this is clearly a related idea. Here it is argued that Shepard's term, "internalisation," is insufficient because it is also necessary to derive an advantage from the process. Having mechanisms selectively sensitive to the spatio-temporal patterns of excitation commonly experienced when viewing moving objects would facilitate the detection, interpolation, and extrapolation of such motions, and might explain the twisting motions that are experienced. Although Shepards explanation in terms of Chasles' rule seems doubtful, his theory and experiments illustrate that local twisting motions are needed for the analysis of moving objects and provoke thoughts about how they might be detected.