From: John J. Hopfield (hopfield@Princeton.EDU)
Date: Thu Sep 21 2000 - 18:34:35 MDT
> Carlos Brody and I would like the following sent to your e-mail list.
> Possible?
Thanks
John
>
>
> ANNOUNCING A NEURAL COMPUTATION COMPETITION
> -------------------------------------------
>
> by John Hopfield (hopfield@princeton.edu)
> and Carlos Brody (carlos@cns.nyu.edu)
>
> Web Site (with preprint): http://neuron.princeton.edu/~moment
>
> How do we identify spoken words? How do we recognize textures with our
> fingers? How do we integrate information over time to perceive
> structure-from-motion? All of the above are examples of the capacity
> of nervous systems to integrate information over time and recognize
> spatiotemporal patterns. How this is actually done in the brain
> remains, of course, a relative mystery.
>
> Here we wish to introduce a novel neural network, built on novel
> neurocomputational principles, which recognizes spatiotemporal
> patterns. We exemplify this with robust recognition of a monosyllabic
> utterance.
>
> Unusually, we have chosen to present this novel network in the form of
> a competition. We have treated the network as if it were a real
> biological organism, and we present only the results of the
> "experiments" that one would normally carry out with such a
> creature. (We have playfully dubbed the network "mus silicium, the
> sonoran desert sand mouse.") The experimental results presented are,
> we believe, sufficient to deduce the novel principles on which the
> network operates. For people wishing to carry out further experiments,
> we have constructed an interactive web site. Sound stimuli may be
> uploaded to this web site, and the resulting spike train responses of
> the mus silicium's neurons may be downloaded from the site.
>
> THE CHALLENGE, THEN, AND THE GOAL OF THE COMPETITION, IS TO DISCOVER,
> BASED ON THE "EXPERIMENTAL" RESULTS, HOW THE NETWORK OPERATES. In this
> the competition exactly mimics wet neurobiology. The rules of the
> competition are detailed further below and on the web site; on
> Dec. 14th, we will anounce the results of the competition and reveal
> the principles of the network's operation.
>
> However, although we have formalized the competition, and we provide
> specific rules and prizes, we do wish to emphasize that the greatest
> benefits of the exercise are to be found simply by *trying to DEDUCE,
> based on the extant "experimental" results, how the network
> operates*. The prizes and formal competition are there merely for
> extra fun, they contain no scientific information in themselves.
>
> The interactive web site/homepage for this network and associated
> competition, containing full information on the network, a preprint,
> and the competition rules, is:
>
> http://neuron.princeton.edu/~moment.
>
> To be considered, competition entries must be received by
> carlos@cns.nyu.edu or hopfield@princeton.edu PRIOR to Friday 1st
> December 2000.
>
> ----------
> MOTIVATION
> ----------
>
> We wish to note that there are two quite distinct aspects to what we
> are doing:
>
> (1) We are presenting novel computational principles which we believe
> will be of great interest to the computational neuroscience and
> connectionist community. Because of the method of presentation, we
> cannot demonstrate these principles to you directly. At this
> point, we can only give you our word that, in our own estimation,
> they are simple, powerful, biologically plausible, and novel.
>
> (2) In computational neuroscience modeling one typically
> "guesstimates", on the basis of experience, which aspects of the
> data are relevant and which are irrelevant. One then builds a
> model consistent with the chosen relevant aspects. This process
> is an example of what we will term "RATIONAL" reasoning. The
> rational view as applied to neuroscience allows data properties to
> be caused by unknown factors such as unobserved cell types, novel
> channels, etc. This approach should be distinguished from
> DEDUCTIVE reasoning, for which once basic properties are
> sufficiently known, new conclusions can be logically deduced from
> even apparently minor aspects of inconsistency or the
> unexpected. Deduction is enormously different from even the most
> rational "guesstimation." Given the quantity of diverse data now
> available in neuroscience, the question we are posing with our
> network and which we underscore through the competition is: to
> what extent is a deductive approach becoming useful in
> neurobiology?
>
> ----------------
> THE COMPETITIONS
> ----------------
>
> Further details of the competition rules can be found through the main
> site, http://neuron.princeton.edu/~moment.
>
> There are two "mus silicium" competitions. You can enter one
> or both, as you wish.
>
> The goal of CONTEST A is to write a 750 word essay, with or without
> equations, describing how you convincingly reasoned deductively from
> the experimental results presented in the preprint (augmented if
> desired with further experiments you may have carried out or seen on
> the web site) to understand the principles by which the "mus
> silicium" network operates. The cash prize for the best essay is
> $500, for the runner-up $200.
>
> The goal of CONTEST B is to generate an artificial neural network, of
> approximately the same size, complexity, and biological plausibility
> as "mus silicium", which recognizes the spoken word "one". The actual
> "mus silicium" network can be thought of as merely one possible entry
> meting the specifications of this contest. The cash prize for the best
> recognizer network is $500, for the runner-up $200. On the website, we
> detail what we mean by a network of "approximately same size,
> complexity", etc. as "mus silicium." For Contest B, we provide on the
> web site a front end that turns sound files into spatiotemporal
> patterns of timed events. Thus, Contest B is essentially about
> generating a network that recognizes spatiotemporal patterns (which
> underscores the generality of the problem being addressed), while
> using a limited number of simple, biologically plausible spiking
> neurons. (Needless to say, we think that, if entered, "mus silicium"
> would win Contest B-- but maybe we are wrong!)
>
> For both contests, entries must be submitted by email to either
> hopfield@princeton.edu or carlos@cns.nyu.edu before Dec. 1st, 2000.
> Multiple author submissions are welcome. A group of N authors can
> submit N entries.
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