Brain Computation as Hierarchical Abstraction

by Dana H. Ballard

An argument that the complexities of brain function can be understood hierarchically, in terms of different levels of abstraction, as silicon computing is.

The vast differences between the brain's neural circuitry and a computer's silicon circuitry might suggest that they have nothing in common. In fact, as Dana Ballard argues in this book, computational tools are essential for understanding brain function. Ballard shows that the hierarchical organization of the brain has many parallels with the hierarchical organization of computing; as in silicon computing, the complexities of brain computation can be dramatically simplified when its computation is factored into different levels of abstraction.

Drawing on several decades of progress in computational neuroscience, together with recent results in Bayesian and reinforcement learning methodologies, Ballard factors the brain's principal computational issues in terms of their natural place in an overall hierarchy. Each of these factors leads to a fresh perspective. A neural level focuses on the basic forebrain functions and shows how processing demands dictate the extensive use of timing-based circuitry and an overall organization of tabular memories. An embodiment level organization works in reverse, making extensive use of multiplexing and on-demand processing to achieve fast parallel computation. An awareness level focuses on the brain's representations of emotion, attention and consciousness, showing that they can operate with great economy in the context of the neural and embodiment substrates.

Genres: Neuroscience, Nonfiction, Science

440 pages, Hardcover

First published February 20, 2015

About the author

Dana H. Ballard is Professor in the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has appointments in Psychology, the Institute for Neuroscience, and the Center for Perceptual Systems. He is the author of An Introduction to Natural Computation (MIT Press).

Reviews

[Ogi Ogas · Rating 2 out of 5]

My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.

[Saul Walt · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a self-taught programmer this kind of programing logic or engineering approach to the brain made a lot of sense for me. The section on emotions and the last section on consciousness was especially nice. I apreciated that one David Foster Wallace reference. There are some hairy math bits in there, but this is a nice overview of what people are thinking in the space of brain science mixed with computing models.

[Noury Bakrim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is obviously not an academic review of such an important work, it takes too much time to be done. I can only recommend this relevant, cognitively and symbolically oriented piece of scholarly knowledge on Brain understood as a symbolic computation model with its structure and strategies.

[Илья Ясный · Rating 5 out of 5]

Попытка решить body-mind проблем с помощью вычислительного подхода. Особенно интересны последние главы об эмоциях и сознании, буду перечитывать. Но читается сложно, долго её мучал.