Sparse Codes for Speech Predict Spectrotemporal Receptive Fields in the Inferior Colliculus

We have developed a sparse mathematical representation of speech that minimizes the number of active model neurons needed to represent typical speech sounds. The model learns several well-known acoustic features of speech such as harmonic stacks, formants, onsets and terminations, but we also find more exotic structures in the spectrogram representation of sound such as localized checkerboard patterns and frequency-modulated excitatory subregions flanked by suppressive sidebands. Moreover, several of these novel features resemble neuronal receptive fields reported in the Inferior Colliculus (IC), as well as auditory thalamus and cortex, and our model neurons exhibit the same tradeoff in spectrotemporal resolution as has been observed in IC. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that receptive fields of neurons in the ascending mammalian auditory pathway beyond the auditory nerve can be predicted based on coding principles and the statistical properties of recorded sounds.Comment: For Supporting Information, see PLoS website: http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.100259

Session 3d: Wind Energy

Design, construction, and testing will occur in two stages involving blade shape and number followed by wind tracking and generator gearing. Three NGSS Engineering Standards (Global Issue, Problem Breakdown, and Optimization) are directly addressed. Scientific concepts include circuitry, power, mechanical advantage, and rotational motion

Mental Health Services In Schools: School Psychologists\u27 Current Practices And Perspectives

It is estimated that approximately 7 .5 to 9 million children and adolescents are in need of mental health services, but that only 20% of these youths actually receive the services they need (National Association of School Psychologists [NASP], 2002). Because of this, schools across the nation have begun to take preventative measures, specifically school-based mental health services. School psychologists are uniquely prepared to provide these services, but little attention has been paid to their needs and concerns regarding such services. Therefore, members of NASP were given a survey to assess current practices and perspectives regarding mental health services in schools. The effects of years of practice, degree status, and National Certified School Psychologist certification on availability and provision of services and ratings of training adequacy and comfort are explored, along with a number of other factors. Limitations of this study, ideas for future research, and implications of the results will also be discussed

Advanced Computing and Related Applications Leveraging Brain-inspired Spiking Neural Networks

In the rapid evolution of next-generation brain-inspired artificial intelligence and increasingly sophisticated electromagnetic environment, the most bionic characteristics and anti-interference performance of spiking neural networks show great potential in terms of computational speed, real-time information processing, and spatio-temporal information processing. Data processing. Spiking neural network is one of the cores of brain-like artificial intelligence, which realizes brain-like computing by simulating the structure and information transfer mode of biological neural networks. This paper summarizes the strengths, weaknesses and applicability of five neuronal models and analyzes the characteristics of five network topologies; then reviews the spiking neural network algorithms and summarizes the unsupervised learning algorithms based on synaptic plasticity rules and four types of supervised learning algorithms from the perspectives of unsupervised learning and supervised learning; finally focuses on the review of brain-like neuromorphic chips under research at home and abroad. This paper is intended to provide learning concepts and research orientations for the peers who are new to the research field of spiking neural networks through systematic summaries

Neuron numbers increase in the human amygdala from birth to adulthood, but not in autism.

Remarkably little is known about the postnatal cellular development of the human amygdala. It plays a central role in mediating emotional behavior and has an unusually protracted development well into adulthood, increasing in size by 40% from youth to adulthood. Variation from this typical neurodevelopmental trajectory could have profound implications on normal emotional development. We report the results of a stereological analysis of the number of neurons in amygdala nuclei of 52 human brains ranging from 2 to 48 years of age [24 neurotypical and 28 autism spectrum disorder (ASD)]. In neurotypical development, the number of mature neurons in the basal and accessory basal nuclei increases from childhood to adulthood, coinciding with a decrease of immature neurons within the paralaminar nucleus. Individuals with ASD, in contrast, show an initial excess of amygdala neurons during childhood, followed by a reduction in adulthood across nuclei. We propose that there is a long-term contribution of mature neurons from the paralaminar nucleus to other nuclei of the neurotypical human amygdala and that this growth trajectory may be altered in ASD, potentially underlying the volumetric changes detected in ASD and other neurodevelopmental or neuropsychiatric disorders