Probabilistic Models of the Brain by Rajesh Pn Rao

Probabilistic Models of the Brain by Rajesh Pn Rao

A survey of probabilistic approaches to modeling and understanding brain function.

Neurophysiological, neuroanatomical, and brain imaging studies have helped to shed light on how the brain transforms raw sensory information into a form that is useful for goal-directed behavior. A fundamental question that is seldom addressed by these studies, however, is why the brain uses the types of representations it does and what evolutionary advantage, if any, these representations confer. It is difficult to address such questions directly via animal experiments. A promising alternative is to use probabilistic principles such as maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference to derive models of brain function.

This book surveys some of the current probabilistic approaches to modeling and understanding brain function. Although most of the examples focus on vision, many of the models and techniques are applicable to other modalities as well. The book presents top-down computational models as well as bottom-up neurally motivated models of brain function. The topics covered include Bayesian and information-theoretic models of perception, probabilistic theories of neural coding and spike timing, computational models of lateral and cortico-cortical feedback connections, and the development of receptive field properties from natural signals.

Rao, Rajesh P. N.: - Rajesh P. N. Rao is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington, Seattle. He has been awarded an NSF CAREER award, an ONR Young Investigator Award, a Sloan Faculty Fellowship and a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. Rao has published more than 150 papers in conferences and leading scientific journals, including Science, Nature, and PNAS, and is the co-editor of Probabilistic Models of the Brain (with Bruno A. Olshausen and Michael S. Lewicki, 2002) and Bayesian Brain (with Kenji Doya, Shin Ishii and Alexandre Pouget, 2007). His research targets problems at the intersection of computational neuroscience, artificial intelligence and brain-computer interfacing.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780262526272
ISBN 10	0262526271
Title	Probabilistic Models of the Brain
Author	Rajesh Pn Rao
Series	Neural Information Processing Series
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	MIT Press Ltd
Year published	2002-03-29
Number of pages	334
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.