435 research outputs found
Laplacian paths in complex networks: Information core emerges from entropic transitions
Complex networks usually exhibit a rich architecture organized over multiple intertwined scales. Information
pathways are expected to pervade these scales reflecting structural insights that are not manifest from analyses
of the network topology. Moreover, small-world effects correlate with the different network hierarchies complicating
the identification of coexisting mesoscopic structures and functional cores.We present a communicability
analysis of effective information pathways throughout complex networks based on information diffusion to shed
further light on these issues. We employ a variety of brand-new theoretical techniques allowing for: (i) bring
the theoretical framework to quantify the probability of information diffusion among nodes, (ii) identify critical
scales and structures of complex networks regardless of their intrinsic properties, and (iii) demonstrate their
dynamical relevance in synchronization phenomena. By combining these ideas, we evidence how the information
flow on complex networks unravels different resolution scales. Using computational techniques, we focus on
entropic transitions, uncovering a generic mesoscale object, the information core, and controlling information
processing in complex networks. Altogether, this study sheds much light on allowing new theoretical techniques
paving the way to introduce future renormalization group approaches based on diffusion distances
Integrated information theory in complex neural systems
This thesis concerns Integrated Information Theory (IIT), a branch of information theory aimed at providing a fundamental theory of consciousness. At its core, lie two powerful intuitions:
• That a system that is somehow more than the sum of its parts has non-zero integrated information, Φ; and
• That a system with non-zero integrated information is conscious.
The audacity of IIT’s claims about consciousness has (understandably) sparked vigorous criticism, and experimental evidence for IIT as a theory of consciousness remains scarce and indirect. Nevertheless, I argue that IIT still has merits as a theory of informational complexity within complexity science, leaving aside all claims about consciousness. In my work I follow this broad line of reasoning: showcasing applications where IIT yields rich analyses of complex systems, while critically examining its merits and limitations as a theory of consciousness.
This thesis is divided in three parts. First, I describe three example applications of IIT to complex systems from the computational neuroscience literature (coupled oscillators, spiking neurons, and cellular automata), and develop novel Φ estimators to extend IIT’s range of applicability. Second, I show two important limitations of current IIT: that its axiomatic foundation is not specific enough to determine a unique measure of integrated information; and that available measures do not behave as predicted by the theory when applied to neurophysiological data.
Finally, I present new theoretical developments aimed at alleviating some of IIT’s flaws. These are based on the concepts of partial information decomposition and lead to a unification of both theories, Integrated Information Decomposition, or ΦID. The thesis concludes with two experimental studies on M/EEG data, showing that a much simpler informational theory of consciousness – the entropic brain hypothesis – can yield valuable insight without the mathematical challenges brought by IIT.Open Acces
Visibility graphs for fMRI data: Multiplex temporal graphs and their modulations across resting-state networks.
Visibility algorithms are a family of methods that map time series into graphs, such that the tools of graph theory and network science can be used for the characterization of time series. This approach has proved a convenient tool, and visibility graphs have found applications across several disciplines. Recently, an approach has been proposed to extend this framework to multivariate time series, allowing a novel way to describe collective dynamics. Here we test their application to fMRI time series, following two main motivations, namely that (a) this approach allows vs to simultaneously capture and process relevant aspects of both local and global dynamics in an easy and intuitive way, and (b) this provides a suggestive bridge between time series and network theory that nicely fits the consolidating field of network neuroscience. Our application to a large open dataset reveals differences in the similarities of temporal networks (and thus in correlated dynamics) across resting-state networks, and gives indications that some differences in brain activity connected to psychiatric disorders could be picked up by this approach
Visual style: Qualitative and context-dependent categorization
Style is an ordering principle by which to structure artifacts in a design domain. The application of a visual order entails some explicit grouping property that is both cognitively plausible and contextually dependent. Central to cognitive-contextual notions are the type of representation used in analysis and the flexibility to allow semantic interpretation. We present a model of visual style based on the concept of similarity as a qualitative context-dependent categorization. The two core components of the model are semantic feature extraction and self-organizing maps (SOMs). The model proposes a method of categorizing two-dimensional unannotated design diagrams using both low-level geometric and high-level semantic features that are automatically derived from the pictorial content of the design. The operation of the initial model, called Q-SOM, is then extended to include relevance feedback (Q-SOM:RF). The extended model can be seen as a series of sequential processing stages, in which qualitative encoding and feature extraction are followed by iterative recategorization. Categorization is achieved using an unsupervised SOM, and contextual dependencies are integrated via cluster relevance determined by the observer's feedback. The following stages are presented: initial per feature detection and extraction, selection of feature sets corresponding to different spatial ontologies, unsupervised categorization of design diagrams based on appropriate feature subsets, and integration of design context via relevance feedback. From our experiments we compare different outcomes from consecutive stages of the model. The results show that the model provides a cognitively plausible and context-dependent method for characterizing visual style in design. Copyright © 2006 Cambridge University Press
Automatic human behaviour anomaly detection in surveillance video
This thesis work focusses upon developing the capability to automatically evaluate
and detect anomalies in human behaviour from surveillance video. We work with
static monocular cameras in crowded urban surveillance scenarios, particularly air-
ports and commercial shopping areas. Typically a person is 100 to 200 pixels high
in a scene ranging from 10 - 20 meters width and depth, populated by 5 to 40 peo-
ple at any given time. Our procedure evaluates human behaviour unobtrusively to
determine outlying behavioural events,
agging abnormal events to the operator.
In order to achieve automatic human behaviour anomaly detection we address
the challenge of interpreting behaviour within the context of the social and physical
environment. We develop and evaluate a process for measuring social connectivity
between individuals in a scene using motion and visual attention features. To do this
we use mutual information and Euclidean distance to build a social similarity matrix
which encodes the social connection strength between any two individuals. We de-
velop a second contextual basis which acts by segmenting a surveillance environment
into behaviourally homogeneous subregions which represent high tra c slow regions
and queuing areas. We model the heterogeneous scene in homogeneous subgroups
using both contextual elements. We bring the social contextual information, the
scene context, the motion, and visual attention features together to demonstrate
a novel human behaviour anomaly detection process which nds outlier behaviour
from a short sequence of video. The method, Nearest Neighbour Ranked Outlier
Clusters (NN-RCO), is based upon modelling behaviour as a time independent se-
quence of behaviour events, can be trained in advance or set upon a single sequence.
We nd that in a crowded scene the application of Mutual Information-based social
context permits the ability to prevent self-justifying groups and propagate anomalies
in a social network, granting a greater anomaly detection capability. Scene context
uniformly improves the detection of anomalies in all the datasets we test upon.
We additionally demonstrate that our work is applicable to other data domains.
We demonstrate upon the Automatic Identi cation Signal data in the maritime
domain. Our work is capable of identifying abnormal shipping behaviour using joint
motion dependency as analogous for social connectivity, and similarly segmenting
the shipping environment into homogeneous regions
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