Since the appearance of Vol. 1 of Models of Neural Networks in 1991, the theory of neural nets has focused on two paradigms: information coding through coherent firing of the neurons and functional feedback. Information coding through coherent neuronal firing exploits time as a cardinal degree of freedom. This capacity of a neural network rests on the fact that the neuronal action potential is a short, say 1 ms, spike, localized in space and time. Spatial as well as temporal correlations of activity may represent different states of a network. In particular, temporal correlations of activity may express that neurons process the same "object" of, for example, a visual scene by spiking at the very same time. The traditional description of a neural network through a firing rate, the famous S-shaped curve, presupposes a wide time window of, say, at least 100 ms. It thus fails to exploit the capacity to "bind" sets of coherently firing neurons for the purpose of both scene segmentation and figure-ground segregation. Feedback is a dominant feature of the structural organization of the brain. Recurrent neural networks have been studied extensively in the physical literature, starting with the ground breaking work of John Hop� field (1982).

Synopsis

The theory of neural nets has two new paradigms: information coding through coherent firing of the neurons and structural feedback. As compared to traditional neural nets, spiking neurons provide an extra degree of freedom: time; this degree of freedom is realized by a coherent spiking of extensively many neurons in the network, a nonlinear phenomenon. The other paradigm, feedback, is a dominant feature of the structural organization of the brain. This volume provides an in-depth analysis of both paradigms starting with an extensive introduction to the ideas used in the subsequent chapters. In addition, one finds a detailed discussion of salient features such as coherent oscillations and their detection, associative binding and segregation, Hebbian learning, and sensory computations in the visual and olfactory cortex. The style and level of this book make it particularly useful for advanced students and researchers looking for an accessible survey of today's theory of neuronal networks.

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