730 research outputs found
Probabilistic Models of Motor Production
N. Bernstein defined the ability of the central neural system (CNS) to control many degrees of freedom of a physical body with all its redundancy and flexibility as the main problem in motor control. He pointed at that man-made mechanisms usually have one, sometimes two degrees of freedom (DOF); when the number of DOF increases further, it becomes prohibitively hard to control them. The brain, however, seems to perform such control effortlessly. He suggested the way the brain might deal with it: when a motor skill is being acquired, the brain artificially limits the degrees of freedoms, leaving only one or two. As the skill level increases, the brain gradually "frees" the previously fixed DOF, applying control when needed and in directions which have to be corrected, eventually arriving to the control scheme where all the DOF are "free". This approach of reducing the dimensionality of motor control remains relevant even today.
One the possibles solutions of the Bernstetin's problem is the hypothesis of motor primitives (MPs) - small building blocks that constitute complex movements and facilitite motor learnirng and task completion. Just like in the visual system, having a homogenious hierarchical architecture built of similar computational elements may be beneficial.
Studying such a complicated object as brain, it is important to define at which level of details one works and which questions one aims to answer. David Marr suggested three levels of analysis: 1. computational, analysing which problem the system solves; 2. algorithmic, questioning which representation the system uses and which computations it performs; 3. implementational, finding how such computations are performed by neurons in the brain. In this thesis we stay at the first two levels, seeking for the basic representation of motor output.
In this work we present a new model of motor primitives that comprises multiple interacting latent dynamical systems, and give it a full Bayesian treatment. Modelling within the Bayesian framework, in my opinion, must become the new standard in hypothesis testing in neuroscience. Only the Bayesian framework gives us guarantees when dealing with the inevitable plethora of hidden variables and uncertainty.
The special type of coupling of dynamical systems we proposed, based on the Product of Experts, has many natural interpretations in the Bayesian framework. If the dynamical systems run in parallel, it yields Bayesian cue integration. If they are organized hierarchically due to serial coupling, we get hierarchical priors over the dynamics. If one of the dynamical systems represents sensory state, we arrive to the sensory-motor primitives. The compact representation that follows from the variational treatment allows learning of a motor primitives library. Learned separately, combined motion can be represented as a matrix of coupling values.
We performed a set of experiments to compare different models of motor primitives. In a series of 2-alternative forced choice (2AFC) experiments participants were discriminating natural and synthesised movements, thus running a graphics Turing test. When available, Bayesian model score predicted the naturalness of the perceived movements. For simple movements, like walking, Bayesian model comparison and psychophysics tests indicate that one dynamical system is sufficient to describe the data. For more complex movements, like walking and waving, motion can be better represented as a set of coupled dynamical systems. We also experimentally confirmed that Bayesian treatment of model learning on motion data is superior to the simple point estimate of latent parameters. Experiments with non-periodic movements show that they do not benefit from more complex latent dynamics, despite having high kinematic complexity.
By having a fully Bayesian models, we could quantitatively disentangle the influence of motion dynamics and pose on the perception of naturalness. We confirmed that rich and correct dynamics is more important than the kinematic representation.
There are numerous further directions of research. In the models we devised, for multiple parts, even though the latent dynamics was factorized on a set of interacting systems, the kinematic parts were completely independent. Thus, interaction between the kinematic parts could be mediated only by the latent dynamics interactions. A more flexible model would allow a dense interaction on the kinematic level too.
Another important problem relates to the representation of time in Markov chains. Discrete time Markov chains form an approximation to continuous dynamics. As time step is assumed to be fixed, we face with the problem of time step selection. Time is also not a explicit parameter in Markov chains. This also prohibits explicit optimization of time as parameter and reasoning (inference) about it. For example, in optimal control boundary conditions are usually set at exact time points, which is not an ecological scenario, where time is usually a parameter of optimization. Making time an explicit parameter in dynamics may alleviate this
Perception of Human Movement Based on Modular Movement Primitives
People can identify and understand human movement from very
degraded visual information without effort.
A few dots representing the position of the joints
are enough to induce a vivid and stable percept of the underlying movement.
Due to this ability, the realistic animation of 3D characters requires
great skill. Studying the constituents of movement that looks natural would not
only help these artists, but also bring better understanding of the
underlying information processing in the brain.
Analogous to the hurdles in animation, the efforts of roboticists reflect the
complexity of motion production: controlling the many degrees of freedom
of a body requires time-consuming computations.
Modularity is one strategy to address this problem:
Complex movement can be decomposed into simple primitives.
A few primitives can conversely be used to compose a
large number of movements.
Many types of movement primitives (MPs) have been proposed
on different levels of information processing hierarchy in
the brain.
MPs have mostly been proposed for movement production.
Yet, modularity based on primitives might similarly enable robust movement
perception.
For my thesis, I have conducted perceptual experiments based on
the assumption of a shared representation of perception and action
based on MPs.
The three different types of MPs I have investigated are
temporal MPs (TMP), dynamical MPs (DMP), and coupled
Gaussian process dynamical models (cGPDM).
The MP-models have been trained on natural movements
to generate new movements. I then perceptually validated these
artificial movements in different psychophysical experiments.
In all experiments I used a two-alternative forced choice paradigm,
in which human observers were presented a movement based on
motion-capturing data, and one generated by an MP-model.
They were then asked to chose the movement which they perceived
as more natural.
In the first experiment I investigated walking movements, and
found that, in line with previous results, faithful representation
of movement dynamics is more important than good reconstruction
of pose.
In the second experiment I investigated the role of prediction
in perception using reaching movements.
Here, I found that perceived naturalness of the predictions is
similar to the perceived naturalness of movements itself obtained
in the first experiment.
I have found that MP models are able to produce movement that looks natural,
with the TMP achieving the highest perceptual scores as well
highest predictiveness of perceived naturalness among the three
model classes, suggesting their suitability for a shared representation
of perception and action
Probabilistic Models of Motor Production
N. Bernstein defined the ability of the central neural system (CNS) to control many degrees of freedom of a physical body with all its redundancy and flexibility as the main problem in motor control. He pointed at that man-made mechanisms usually have one, sometimes two degrees of freedom (DOF); when the number of DOF increases further, it becomes prohibitively hard to control them. The brain, however, seems to perform such control effortlessly. He suggested the way the brain might deal with it: when a motor skill is being acquired, the brain artificially limits the degrees of freedoms, leaving only one or two. As the skill level increases, the brain gradually "frees" the previously fixed DOF, applying control when needed and in directions which have to be corrected, eventually arriving to the control scheme where all the DOF are "free". This approach of reducing the dimensionality of motor control remains relevant even today.
One the possibles solutions of the Bernstetin's problem is the hypothesis of motor primitives (MPs) - small building blocks that constitute complex movements and facilitite motor learnirng and task completion. Just like in the visual system, having a homogenious hierarchical architecture built of similar computational elements may be beneficial.
Studying such a complicated object as brain, it is important to define at which level of details one works and which questions one aims to answer. David Marr suggested three levels of analysis: 1. computational, analysing which problem the system solves; 2. algorithmic, questioning which representation the system uses and which computations it performs; 3. implementational, finding how such computations are performed by neurons in the brain. In this thesis we stay at the first two levels, seeking for the basic representation of motor output.
In this work we present a new model of motor primitives that comprises multiple interacting latent dynamical systems, and give it a full Bayesian treatment. Modelling within the Bayesian framework, in my opinion, must become the new standard in hypothesis testing in neuroscience. Only the Bayesian framework gives us guarantees when dealing with the inevitable plethora of hidden variables and uncertainty.
The special type of coupling of dynamical systems we proposed, based on the Product of Experts, has many natural interpretations in the Bayesian framework. If the dynamical systems run in parallel, it yields Bayesian cue integration. If they are organized hierarchically due to serial coupling, we get hierarchical priors over the dynamics. If one of the dynamical systems represents sensory state, we arrive to the sensory-motor primitives. The compact representation that follows from the variational treatment allows learning of a motor primitives library. Learned separately, combined motion can be represented as a matrix of coupling values.
We performed a set of experiments to compare different models of motor primitives. In a series of 2-alternative forced choice (2AFC) experiments participants were discriminating natural and synthesised movements, thus running a graphics Turing test. When available, Bayesian model score predicted the naturalness of the perceived movements. For simple movements, like walking, Bayesian model comparison and psychophysics tests indicate that one dynamical system is sufficient to describe the data. For more complex movements, like walking and waving, motion can be better represented as a set of coupled dynamical systems. We also experimentally confirmed that Bayesian treatment of model learning on motion data is superior to the simple point estimate of latent parameters. Experiments with non-periodic movements show that they do not benefit from more complex latent dynamics, despite having high kinematic complexity.
By having a fully Bayesian models, we could quantitatively disentangle the influence of motion dynamics and pose on the perception of naturalness. We confirmed that rich and correct dynamics is more important than the kinematic representation.
There are numerous further directions of research. In the models we devised, for multiple parts, even though the latent dynamics was factorized on a set of interacting systems, the kinematic parts were completely independent. Thus, interaction between the kinematic parts could be mediated only by the latent dynamics interactions. A more flexible model would allow a dense interaction on the kinematic level too.
Another important problem relates to the representation of time in Markov chains. Discrete time Markov chains form an approximation to continuous dynamics. As time step is assumed to be fixed, we face with the problem of time step selection. Time is also not a explicit parameter in Markov chains. This also prohibits explicit optimization of time as parameter and reasoning (inference) about it. For example, in optimal control boundary conditions are usually set at exact time points, which is not an ecological scenario, where time is usually a parameter of optimization. Making time an explicit parameter in dynamics may alleviate this
QMCPACK: Advances in the development, efficiency, and application of auxiliary field and real-space variational and diffusion Quantum Monte Carlo
We review recent advances in the capabilities of the open source ab initio
Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) package QMCPACK and the workflow tool Nexus used for
greater efficiency and reproducibility. The auxiliary field QMC (AFQMC)
implementation has been greatly expanded to include k-point symmetries,
tensor-hypercontraction, and accelerated graphical processing unit (GPU)
support. These scaling and memory reductions greatly increase the number of
orbitals that can practically be included in AFQMC calculations, increasing
accuracy. Advances in real space methods include techniques for accurate
computation of band gaps and for systematically improving the nodal surface of
ground state wavefunctions. Results of these calculations can be used to
validate application of more approximate electronic structure methods including
GW and density functional based techniques. To provide an improved foundation
for these calculations we utilize a new set of correlation-consistent effective
core potentials (pseudopotentials) that are more accurate than previous sets;
these can also be applied in quantum-chemical and other many-body applications,
not only QMC. These advances increase the efficiency, accuracy, and range of
properties that can be studied in both molecules and materials with QMC and
QMCPACK
Data-driven modelling of biological multi-scale processes
Biological processes involve a variety of spatial and temporal scales. A
holistic understanding of many biological processes therefore requires
multi-scale models which capture the relevant properties on all these scales.
In this manuscript we review mathematical modelling approaches used to describe
the individual spatial scales and how they are integrated into holistic models.
We discuss the relation between spatial and temporal scales and the implication
of that on multi-scale modelling. Based upon this overview over
state-of-the-art modelling approaches, we formulate key challenges in
mathematical and computational modelling of biological multi-scale and
multi-physics processes. In particular, we considered the availability of
analysis tools for multi-scale models and model-based multi-scale data
integration. We provide a compact review of methods for model-based data
integration and model-based hypothesis testing. Furthermore, novel approaches
and recent trends are discussed, including computation time reduction using
reduced order and surrogate models, which contribute to the solution of
inference problems. We conclude the manuscript by providing a few ideas for the
development of tailored multi-scale inference methods.Comment: This manuscript will appear in the Journal of Coupled Systems and
Multiscale Dynamics (American Scientific Publishers
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