Novelty or surprise?

Novelty and surprise play significant roles in animal behavior and in attempts to understand the neural mechanisms underlying it. They also play important roles in technology, where detecting observations that are novel or surprising is central to many applications, such as medical diagnosis, text processing, surveillance, and security. Theories of motivation, particularly of intrinsic motivation, place novelty and surprise among the primary factors that arouse interest, motivate exploratory or avoidance behavior, and drive learning. In many of these studies, novelty and surprise are not distinguished from one another: the words are used more-or-less interchangeably. However, while undeniably closely related, novelty and surprise are very different. The purpose of this article is first to highlight the differences between novelty and surprise and to discuss how they are related by presenting an extensive review of mathematical and computational proposals related to them, and then to explore the implications of this for understanding behavioral and neuroscience data. We argue that opportunities for improved understanding of behavior and its neural basis are likely being missed by failing to distinguish between novelty and surpris

Understanding the Role of Dynamics in Brain Networks: Methods, Theory and Application

The brain is inherently a dynamical system whose networks interact at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Understanding the functional role of these dynamic interactions is a fundamental question in neuroscience. In this research, we approach this question through the development of new methods for characterizing brain dynamics from real data and new theories for linking dynamics to function. We perform our study at two scales: macro (at the level of brain regions) and micro (at the level of individual neurons). In the first part of this dissertation, we develop methods to identify the underlying dynamics at macro-scale that govern brain networks during states of health and disease in humans. First, we establish an optimization framework to actively probe connections in brain networks when the underlying network dynamics are changing over time. Then, we extend this framework to develop a data-driven approach for analyzing neurophysiological recordings without active stimulation, to describe the spatiotemporal structure of neural activity at different timescales. The overall goal is to detect how the dynamics of brain networks may change within and between particular cognitive states. We present the efficacy of this approach in characterizing spatiotemporal motifs of correlated neural activity during the transition from wakefulness to general anesthesia in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Moreover, we demonstrate how such an approach can be utilized to construct an automatic classifier for detecting different levels of coma in electroencephalogram (EEG) data. In the second part, we study how ongoing function can constraint dynamics at micro-scale in recurrent neural networks, with particular application to sensory systems. Specifically, we develop theoretical conditions in a linear recurrent network in the presence of both disturbance and noise for exact and stable recovery of dynamic sparse stimuli applied to the network. We show how network dynamics can affect the decoding performance in such systems. Moreover, we formulate the problem of efficient encoding of an afferent input and its history in a nonlinear recurrent network. We show that a linear neural network architecture with a thresholding activation function is emergent if we assume that neurons optimize their activity based on a particular cost function. Such an architecture can enable the production of lightweight, history-sensitive encoding schemes

Selective attention and speech processing in the cortex

In noisy and complex environments, human listeners must segregate the mixture of sound sources arriving at their ears and selectively attend a single source, thereby solving a computationally difficult problem called the cocktail party problem. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these computations are still largely a mystery. Oscillatory synchronization of neuronal activity between cortical areas is thought to provide a crucial role in facilitating information transmission between spatially separated populations of neurons, enabling the formation of functional networks. In this thesis, we seek to analyze and model the functional neuronal networks underlying attention to speech stimuli and find that the Frontal Eye Fields play a central 'hub' role in the auditory spatial attention network in a cocktail party experiment. We use magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure neural signals with high temporal precision, while sampling from the whole cortex. However, several methodological issues arise when undertaking functional connectivity analysis with MEG data. Specifically, volume conduction of electrical and magnetic fields in the brain complicates interpretation of results. We compare several approaches through simulations, and analyze the trade-offs among various measures of neural phase-locking in the presence of volume conduction. We use these insights to study functional networks in a cocktail party experiment. We then construct a linear dynamical system model of neural responses to ongoing speech. Using this model, we are able to correctly predict which of two speakers is being attended by a listener. We then apply this model to data from a task where people were attending to stories with synchronous and scrambled videos of the speakers' faces to explore how the presence of visual information modifies the underlying neuronal mechanisms of speech perception. This model allows us to probe neural processes as subjects listen to long stimuli, without the need for a trial-based experimental design. We model the neural activity with latent states, and model the neural noise spectrum and functional connectivity with multivariate autoregressive dynamics, along with impulse responses for external stimulus processing. We also develop a new regularized Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm to fit this model to electroencephalography (EEG) data

Investigation related to multispectral imaging systems

A summary of technical progress made during a five year research program directed toward the development of operational information systems based on multispectral sensing and the use of these systems in earth-resource survey applications is presented. Efforts were undertaken during this program to: (1) improve the basic understanding of the many facets of multispectral remote sensing, (2) develop methods for improving the accuracy of information generated by remote sensing systems, (3) improve the efficiency of data processing and information extraction techniques to enhance the cost-effectiveness of remote sensing systems, (4) investigate additional problems having potential remote sensing solutions, and (5) apply the existing and developing technology for specific users and document and transfer that technology to the remote sensing community

Contribution à la mise en oeuvre de récepteurs et de techniques d'estimation de canal pour les systèmes mobiles de DS-CDMA multi-porteuse

Ce mémoire traite du développement de récepteurs et de techniques déstimation de canal pour les systèmes mobiles sans fil de type DS-CDMA multi-porteuse. Deux problèmes principaux doivent être pris en compte dans ce cas. Premièrement, l'Interférence d'Accès Multiple (IAM) causée par d'autres utilisateurs. Deuxièmement, les propriétés des canaux de propagation dans les systèmes radio mobiles. Ainsi, dans la première partie du manuscrit, nous proposons deux structures adaptatives (dites détection séparée et détection jointe) pour la mise en oeuvre de récepteurs minimisant lérreur quadratique moyenne (MMSE), fondés sur un Algorithme de Projection Affine (APA). Ces récepteurs permettent de supprimer les IAM, notamment lorsque le canal d'évanouissement est invariant dans le temps. Cependant, comme ces récepteurs nécessitent les séquences d'apprentissage de chaque utilisateur actif, nous développons ensuite deux récepteurs adaptatifs dits aveugles, fondés sur un algorithme de type projection affine. Dans ce cas, seule la séquence d'étalement de l'utilisateur désiré est nécessaire. Quand les séquences d'étalement de tous les utilisateurs sont disponibles, un récepteur reposant sur le décorrélateur est aussi proposé et permet d'éliminer les IAM, sans qu'une période pour l'adaptation soit nécessaire. Dans la seconde partie, comme la mise en oeuvre de récepteurs exige léstimation du canal, nous proposons plusieurs algorithmes pour léstimation des canaux d'évanouissement de Rayleigh, variables dans le temps et produits dans les systèmes multi-porteuses. A cette fin, les canaux sont approximés par des processus autorégressifs (AR) d'ordre supérieur à deux. Le premier algorithme repose sur deux filtres de Kalman interactifs pour léstimation conjointe du canal et de ses paramètres AR. Puis, pour nous affranchir des hypothèses de gaussianité nécessaires à la mise en oeuvre d'un filtre optimal de Kalman, nous étudions la pertinence d'une structure fondée sur deux filtres H1 interactifs. Enfin, léstimation de canal peut ^etre vue telle un problème déstimation fondée sur un modèle à erreur- sur-les-variables (EIV). Les paramètres AR du canal et les variances de processus générateur et du bruit d'observation dans la représentation de léspace d'état du système sont dans ce cas estimés conjointement à partir du noyau des matrices d'autocorrélation appropriées.This dissertation deals with the development of receivers and channel estimation techniques for multi-carrier DS- CDMA mobile wireless systems. Two major problems should be taken into account in that case. Firstly, the Multiple Access Interference (MAI) caused by other users. Secondly, the multi-path fading of mobile wireless channels. In the first part of the dissertation, we propose two adaptive structures (called separate and joint detection) to design Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) receivers, based on the Affine Projection Algorithm (APA). These receivers are able to suppress the MAI, particularly when the fading channel is time-invariant. However, as they require a training sequence for every active user, we then propose two blind adaptive multiuser receiver structures based on a blind APA-like multiuser detector. In that case, only the knowledge of the spreading code of the desired user is required. When the spreading codes of all users are available, a decorrelating detector based receiver is proposed and is able to completely eliminate the MAI without any training. In the second part, as receiver design usually requires the estimation of the channel, we propose several training-based algorithms for the estimation of time-varying Rayleigh fading channels in multi-carrier systems. For this purpose, the fading channels are approximated by autoregressive (AR) processes whose order is higher than two. The first algorithm makes it possible to jointly estimate the channel and its AR parameters based on two-cross-coupled Kalman filters. Nevertheless, this filtering is based on restrictive Gaussian assumptions. To relax them, we investigate the relevance of a structure based on two-cross-coupled H1 filters. This method consists in minimizing the influence of the disturbances such as the additive noise on the estimation error. Finally, we propose to view the channel estimation as an Errors-In-Variables (EIV) issue. In that case, the channel AR parameters and the variances of both the driving process and the measurement noise in the state-space representation of the system are estimated from the null space of suitable correlation matrices

Dynamic Data Assimilation

Data assimilation is a process of fusing data with a model for the singular purpose of estimating unknown variables. It can be used, for example, to predict the evolution of the atmosphere at a given point and time. This book examines data assimilation methods including Kalman filtering, artificial intelligence, neural networks, machine learning, and cognitive computing

Data acquisition and path selection decision making for an autonomous roving vehicle

Problems related to the guidance of an autonomous rover for unmanned planetary exploration were investigated. Topics included in these studies were: simulation on an interactive graphics computer system of the Rapid Estimation Technique for detection of discrete obstacles; incorporation of a simultaneous Bayesian estimate of states and inputs in the Rapid Estimation Scheme; development of methods for estimating actual laser rangefinder errors and their application to date provided by Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and modification of a path selection system simulation computer code for evaluation of a hazard detection system based on laser rangefinder data

Identification of audio evoked response potentials in ambulatory EEG data

Electroencephalography (EEG) is commonly used for observing brain function over a period of time. It employs a set of invasive electrodes on the scalp to measure the electrical activity of the brain. EEG is mainly used by researchers and clinicians to study the brain’s responses to a specific stimulus - the event-related potentials (ERPs). Different types of undesirable signals, which are known as artefacts, contaminate the EEG signal. EEG and ERP signals are very small (in the order of microvolts); they are often obscured by artefacts with much larger amplitudes in the order of millivolts. This greatly increases the difficulty of interpreting EEG and ERP signals.Typically, ERPs are observed by averaging EEG measurements made with many repetitions of the stimulus. The average may require many tens of repetitions before the ERP signal can be observed with any confidence. This greatly limits the study and useof ERPs. This project explores more sophisticated methods of ERP estimation from measured EEGs. An Optimal Weighted Mean (OWM) method is developed that forms a weighted average to maximise the signal to noise ratio in the mean. This is developedfurther into a Bayesian Optimal Combining (BOC) method where the information in repetitions of ERP measures is combined to provide a sequence of ERP estimations with monotonically decreasing uncertainty. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) isperformed to identify the basis of signals that explains the greatest amount of ERP variation. Projecting measured EEG signals onto this basis greatly reduces the noise in measured ERPs. The PCA filtering can be followed by OWM or BOC. Finally, crosschannel information can be used. The ERP signal is measured on many electrodes simultaneously and an improved estimate can be formed by combining electrode measurements. A MAP estimate, phrased in terms of Kalman Filtering, is developed using all electrode measurements.The methods developed in this project have been evaluated using both synthetic and measured EEG data. A synthetic, multi-channel ERP simulator has been developed specifically for this project.Numerical experiments on synthetic ERP data showed that Bayesian Optimal Combining of trial data filtered using a combination of PCA projection and Kalman Filtering, yielded the best estimates of the underlying ERP signal. This method has been applied to subsets of real Ambulatory Electroencephalography (AEEG) data, recorded while participants performed a range of activities in different environments. From this analysis, the number of trials that need to be collected to observe the P300 amplitude and delay has been calculated for a range of scenarios