UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
		 COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM

			      presents


			A Spiking Neuron Model of
		    Cortical Broadcast and Competition


			  Prof. Murray Shanahan
			(Department of Computing,
			Imperial College London)

			31 January 2007 (Wednesday)

			  Lecture Theatre E350
		       Hatfield, College Lane Campus
			       3 - 4 pm

	       Coffee/tea and biscuits will be available.
			  [Catering Permitting]

		    Everyone is Welcome to Attend
			  [Space Permitting]



Abstract:

This talk presents a computer model of cortical broadcast and competition
based on spiking neurons and inspired by the hypothesis of a global
neuronal workspace underlying conscious information processing in the
human brain. In the model, the hypothesized workspace is realized by a
collection of recurrently inter-connected regions capable of sustaining
and disseminating a reverberating spatial pattern of activation. At the
same time, the workspace remains susceptible to new patterns arriving
from outlying cortical populations. Competition among these cortical
populations for influence on the workspace is effected by a combination
of mutual inhibition and top-down amplification.


About the Speaker: Murray Shanahan is Professor of Cognitive Robotics at
Imperial College London. Webpage: http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~mpsha/


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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~nehaniv/colloq