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Spring School on Language, Music, and Cognition: Organizing Events in Time
The interdisciplinary spring school “Language, music, and cognition: Organizing events in time” was held from February 26 to March 2, 2018 at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Cologne. Language, speech, and music as events in time were explored from different perspectives including evolutionary biology, social cognition, developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience of speech, language, and communication, as well as computational and biological approaches to language and music. There were 10 lectures, 4 workshops, and 1 student poster session.
Overall, the spring school investigated language and music as neurocognitive systems and focused on a mechanistic approach exploring the neural substrates underlying musical, linguistic, social, and emotional processes and behaviors. In particular, researchers approached questions concerning cognitive processes, computational procedures, and neural mechanisms underlying the temporal organization of language and music, mainly from two perspectives: one was concerned with syntax or structural representations of language and music as neurocognitive systems (i.e., an intrapersonal perspective), while the other emphasized social interaction and emotions in their communicative function (i.e., an interpersonal perspective). The spring school not only acted as a platform for knowledge transfer and exchange but also generated a number of important research questions as challenges for future investigations
Demonstrating Advantages of Neuromorphic Computation: A Pilot Study
Neuromorphic devices represent an attempt to mimic aspects of the brain's
architecture and dynamics with the aim of replicating its hallmark functional
capabilities in terms of computational power, robust learning and energy
efficiency. We employ a single-chip prototype of the BrainScaleS 2 neuromorphic
system to implement a proof-of-concept demonstration of reward-modulated
spike-timing-dependent plasticity in a spiking network that learns to play the
Pong video game by smooth pursuit. This system combines an electronic
mixed-signal substrate for emulating neuron and synapse dynamics with an
embedded digital processor for on-chip learning, which in this work also serves
to simulate the virtual environment and learning agent. The analog emulation of
neuronal membrane dynamics enables a 1000-fold acceleration with respect to
biological real-time, with the entire chip operating on a power budget of 57mW.
Compared to an equivalent simulation using state-of-the-art software, the
on-chip emulation is at least one order of magnitude faster and three orders of
magnitude more energy-efficient. We demonstrate how on-chip learning can
mitigate the effects of fixed-pattern noise, which is unavoidable in analog
substrates, while making use of temporal variability for action exploration.
Learning compensates imperfections of the physical substrate, as manifested in
neuronal parameter variability, by adapting synaptic weights to match
respective excitability of individual neurons.Comment: Added measurements with noise in NEST simulation, add notice about
journal publication. Frontiers in Neuromorphic Engineering (2019
The Emergence of Canalization and Evolvability in an Open-Ended, Interactive Evolutionary System
Natural evolution has produced a tremendous diversity of functional
organisms. Many believe an essential component of this process was the
evolution of evolvability, whereby evolution speeds up its ability to innovate
by generating a more adaptive pool of offspring. One hypothesized mechanism for
evolvability is developmental canalization, wherein certain dimensions of
variation become more likely to be traversed and others are prevented from
being explored (e.g. offspring tend to have similarly sized legs, and mutations
affect the length of both legs, not each leg individually). While ubiquitous in
nature, canalization almost never evolves in computational simulations of
evolution. Not only does that deprive us of in silico models in which to study
the evolution of evolvability, but it also raises the question of which
conditions give rise to this form of evolvability. Answering this question
would shed light on why such evolvability emerged naturally and could
accelerate engineering efforts to harness evolution to solve important
engineering challenges. In this paper we reveal a unique system in which
canalization did emerge in computational evolution. We document that genomes
entrench certain dimensions of variation that were frequently explored during
their evolutionary history. The genetic representation of these organisms also
evolved to be highly modular and hierarchical, and we show that these
organizational properties correlate with increased fitness. Interestingly, the
type of computational evolutionary experiment that produced this evolvability
was very different from traditional digital evolution in that there was no
objective, suggesting that open-ended, divergent evolutionary processes may be
necessary for the evolution of evolvability.Comment: SI can be found at: http://www.evolvingai.org/files/SI_0.zi
A Generalized Selected Effects Theory of Function
I present and defend the generalized selected effects theory (GSE) of function. According to GSE, the function of a trait consists in the activity that contributed to its
bearer’s differential reproduction, or differential retention, within a population. Unlike
the traditional selected effects (SE) theory, it does not require that the functional trait
helped its bearer reproduce; differential retention is enough. Although the core theory has been presented previously, I go significantly beyond those presentations by providing a new argument for GSE and defending it from a recent objection. I also sketch its implications for teleosemantics and philosophy of medicine
Selective attention and inhibitory control of attention are correlated with music audiation
Executive functions (EFs) are cognitive functions needed for adaptive and targeted behavior. Music aptitude is the potential or capacity for musical achievement. A key element of music aptitude is audiation, defined as the process through which sound becomes music and meaning is attributed to that music. In this paper, we report on the association between audiation skills and executive skills. Not only is this important to consider the validity of the audiation tests, but also to better understand the concept of audiation and its link to cognitive skills. We conducted an empirical study, in which a sample of second grade school students from two elementary schools, one from Ghent, Belgium (N = 36) and the other from Santiago, Chile (N = 25), were administered both a musical aptitude and an attention and inhibitory control test. We hypothesized that a positive correlation exists between sustained attention, inhibitory control and music aptitude
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