Can biological quantum networks solve NP-hard problems?

There is a widespread view that the human brain is so complex that it cannot be efficiently simulated by universal Turing machines. During the last decades the question has therefore been raised whether we need to consider quantum effects to explain the imagined cognitive power of a conscious mind. This paper presents a personal view of several fields of philosophy and computational neurobiology in an attempt to suggest a realistic picture of how the brain might work as a basis for perception, consciousness and cognition. The purpose is to be able to identify and evaluate instances where quantum effects might play a significant role in cognitive processes. Not surprisingly, the conclusion is that quantum-enhanced cognition and intelligence are very unlikely to be found in biological brains. Quantum effects may certainly influence the functionality of various components and signalling pathways at the molecular level in the brain network, like ion ports, synapses, sensors, and enzymes. This might evidently influence the functionality of some nodes and perhaps even the overall intelligence of the brain network, but hardly give it any dramatically enhanced functionality. So, the conclusion is that biological quantum networks can only approximately solve small instances of NP-hard problems. On the other hand, artificial intelligence and machine learning implemented in complex dynamical systems based on genuine quantum networks can certainly be expected to show enhanced performance and quantum advantage compared with classical networks. Nevertheless, even quantum networks can only be expected to efficiently solve NP-hard problems approximately. In the end it is a question of precision - Nature is approximate.Comment: 38 page

Signals to Spikes for Neuromorphic Regulated Reservoir Computing and EMG Hand Gesture Recognition

Surface electromyogram (sEMG) signals result from muscle movement and hence they are an ideal candidate for benchmarking event-driven sensing and computing. We propose a simple yet novel approach for optimizing the spike encoding algorithm's hyper-parameters inspired by the readout layer concept in reservoir computing. Using a simple machine learning algorithm after spike encoding, we report performance higher than the state-of-the-art spiking neural networks on two open-source datasets for hand gesture recognition. The spike encoded data is processed through a spiking reservoir with a biologically inspired topology and neuron model. When trained with the unsupervised activity regulation CRITICAL algorithm to operate at the edge of chaos, the reservoir yields better performance than state-of-the-art convolutional neural networks. The reservoir performance with regulated activity was found to be 89.72% for the Roshambo EMG dataset and 70.6% for the EMG subset of sensor fusion dataset. Therefore, the biologically-inspired computing paradigm, which is known for being power efficient, also proves to have a great potential when compared with conventional AI algorithms.Comment: Accepted to International Conference on Neuromorphic Systems (ICONS 2021

EEG-based Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs): A Survey of Recent Studies on Signal Sensing Technologies and Computational Intelligence Approaches and Their Applications.

Brain-Computer interfaces (BCIs) enhance the capability of human brain activities to interact with the environment. Recent advancements in technology and machine learning algorithms have increased interest in electroencephalographic (EEG)-based BCI applications. EEG-based intelligent BCI systems can facilitate continuous monitoring of fluctuations in human cognitive states under monotonous tasks, which is both beneficial for people in need of healthcare support and general researchers in different domain areas. In this review, we survey the recent literature on EEG signal sensing technologies and computational intelligence approaches in BCI applications, compensating for the gaps in the systematic summary of the past five years. Specifically, we first review the current status of BCI and signal sensing technologies for collecting reliable EEG signals. Then, we demonstrate state-of-the-art computational intelligence techniques, including fuzzy models and transfer learning in machine learning and deep learning algorithms, to detect, monitor, and maintain human cognitive states and task performance in prevalent applications. Finally, we present a couple of innovative BCI-inspired healthcare applications and discuss future research directions in EEG-based BCI research

Application of a Brain-Inspired Spiking Neural Network Architecture to Odor Data Classification

Existing methods in neuromorphic olfaction mainly focus on implementing the data transformation based on the neurobiological architecture of the olfactory pathway. While the transformation is pivotal for the sparse spike-based representation of odor data, classification techniques based on the bio-computations of the higher brain areas, which process the spiking data for identification of odor, remain largely unexplored. This paper argues that brain-inspired spiking neural networks constitute a promising approach for the next generation of machine intelligence for odor data processing. Inspired by principles of brain information processing, here we propose the first spiking neural network method and associated deep machine learning system for classification of odor data. The paper demonstrates that the proposed approach has several advantages when compared to the current state-of-the-art methods. Based on results obtained using a benchmark dataset, the model achieved a high classification accuracy for a large number of odors and has the capacity for incremental learning on new data. The paper explores different spike encoding algorithms and finds that the most suitable for the task is the step-wise encoding function. Further directions in the brain-inspired study of odor machine classification include investigation of more biologically plausible algorithms for mapping, learning, and interpretation of odor data along with the realization of these algorithms on some highly parallel and low power consuming neuromorphic hardware devices for real-world applications

AI of Brain and Cognitive Sciences: From the Perspective of First Principles

Nowadays, we have witnessed the great success of AI in various applications, including image classification, game playing, protein structure analysis, language translation, and content generation. Despite these powerful applications, there are still many tasks in our daily life that are rather simple to humans but pose great challenges to AI. These include image and language understanding, few-shot learning, abstract concepts, and low-energy cost computing. Thus, learning from the brain is still a promising way that can shed light on the development of next-generation AI. The brain is arguably the only known intelligent machine in the universe, which is the product of evolution for animals surviving in the natural environment. At the behavior level, psychology and cognitive sciences have demonstrated that human and animal brains can execute very intelligent high-level cognitive functions. At the structure level, cognitive and computational neurosciences have unveiled that the brain has extremely complicated but elegant network forms to support its functions. Over years, people are gathering knowledge about the structure and functions of the brain, and this process is accelerating recently along with the initiation of giant brain projects worldwide. Here, we argue that the general principles of brain functions are the most valuable things to inspire the development of AI. These general principles are the standard rules of the brain extracting, representing, manipulating, and retrieving information, and here we call them the first principles of the brain. This paper collects six such first principles. They are attractor network, criticality, random network, sparse coding, relational memory, and perceptual learning. On each topic, we review its biological background, fundamental property, potential application to AI, and future development.Comment: 59 pages, 5 figures, review articl

Odhad emocí a duševní koncentrace pomocí technik Deep Learningu

The purpose of this work is to evaluate the brain waves of humans with deep learn- ing methods and evolutionary computation techniques, and to verify the performance of applied techniques. In this thesis, we apply well–known metaheuristics and Artificial Neural Networks for classifying human mental activities using electroencephalographic signals. We developed a Brain–Computer Interface system that is able to process elec- troencephalographic signals and classify mental concentration versus relaxation. The system is able to automatically extract and learn representation of the given data. Based on scientific protocols we designed the Brain–Computer Interface experiments and we created an original and relevant data for the industrial and academic community. Our experimental data is available to the scientific community. In the experiments we used an electroencephalographic based device for collecting brain information form the subjects during specific activities. The collected data represents brain waves of subjects who was stimulated by writing tasks. Furthermore, we selected the best combination of the input features (brain waves information) using the following two metaheuristic techniques: Simulated Annealing and Geometric Particle Swarm Optimization. We applied a specific type of Artificial Neural Network, named Echo State Network, for solving the mapping between brain information and subject activities. The results indicate that it is possible to estimate the human con- centration using few electroencephalographic signals. In addition, the proposed system is developed with a fast and robust learning technique that can be easily adapted accord- ing to each subject. Moreover, this approach does not require powerful computational resources. As a consequence, the proposed system can be used in environments which are computationally limited and/or where the computational time is an important issue.Cílem práce je ohodnocení lidských mozkových vln s využitím metod hlubokého učení (deep learning) a evolučních výpočetních technik a pro ověření výkonu aplikovaných technik. V diplomové práci jsou využity dobře známé metaheuristiky a umělé neuronové sítě pro klasifikaci lidských mentálních aktivit za použití elektroencefalografických signálů. Bylo vyvinuto rozhraní mozek-počítač, které je schopno zpracovat elektroencefalografické signály a klasifikovat mentální soustředění v porovnání s relaxací. Systém je schopen automaticky extrahovat a naučit se reprezentaci daných dat. Na základě vědeckých protokolů byl navržen experiment pro rozhraní mozek-počítač a byla vytvořena původní a relevantní data pro průmyslovou a akademickou komunitu. Vygenerovaná pokusná data jsou přístupné pro vědeckou komunitu. V rámci experimentů bylo využito zařízení založené na encefalografii pro sběr mozkových signálů subjektu během specifických aktivit. Nasbíraná data reprezentují mozkové vlny subjektu, který byl stimulován psaním úloh. Dále byla vybrána nejlepší kombinace vstupních vlastností (informace o mozkové vlně) s využitím následujících dvou metaheuristických metod: simulovaného žíhání a geometrické optimalizace hejnem částic. Umělá neuronová síť, která se nazývá Echo State síť, byla aplikována pro řešení mapování mezi informacemi z mozku a aktivitami subjektu. Výsledky ukazují, že je možné odhadnout lidskou aktivitu pomocí několika encefalografických signálů. Kromě toho, navrhovaný systém je vyvinut s využitím rychlých a robustních učících technik, které mohou být jednoduše přizpůsobeny podle jednotlivých subjektů. Tento přístup navíc nevyžaduje výkonné výpočetní prostředky. V důsledku toho může být systém využit v prostředí, které jsou výpočetně omezeny a/nebo v případech, kdy výpočetní čas je důležitým hlediskem.460 - Katedra informatikyvýborn