This book provides a most complete overview of physiological and psychophysical properties of perceptual systems in man and animals. The information processing chains are described step-by-step from the stimuli of the respective environments, via the perceptual neuronal coding networks to conscious sensations and behaviour.Articles by W G K Backhaus, A G Clark, B Hiley, A Iznak, M Kavaliers, B Kramer, A Michelsen, C Neumeyer, G A Orban, T Radil, D G Stavenga, M Stengl, U Thurm, R L DeValois, R Wehner, J S Werner, W Wiltschko, and related short articles.

Experimental and theoretical neuroscientists use Bayesian approaches to analyze the brain mechanisms of perception, decision-making, and motor control.

This book constitutes, together with its compagnion LNCS 1606, the refereed proceedings of the International Work-Conference on Artificial & Neural Networks, IWANN'99, held in Alicante, Spain in June 1999. The 91 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed & selected for inclusion in the book. This volume is devoted to applications of biologically inspired artificial neural networks in various engineering disciplines. The papers are organized in parts on artificial neural nets simulation & implementation, image processing & engineering applications.

The aim of this book is to provide insight into the principles of operation of the cerebral cortex. These principles are key to understanding how we, as humans, function. There have been few previous attempts to set out some of the important principles of operation of the cortex, and this book is pioneering. The book goes beyond separate connectional neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, neuroimaging, neuropsychiatric, and computational neuroscience approaches, by combining evidence from all these areas to formulate hypotheses about how and what the cerebral cortex computes. As clear hypotheses are needed in this most important area of 21st century science, how our brains work, I have formulated a set of hypotheses about the principles of cortical operation to guide thinking and future research. The book focusses on the principles of operation of the cerebral cortex, because at this time it is possible to propose and describe many principles, and many are likely to stand the test of time, and provide a foundation for further developments, even if some need to be changed. In this context, I have not attempted to produce an overall theory of operation of the cerebral cortex, because at this stage of our understanding, such a theory would be incorrect or incomplete. However, many of the principles described will provide the foundations for more complete theories of the operation of the cerebral cortex. This book is intended to provide a foundation for future understanding, and it is hoped that future work will develop and add to these principles of operation of the cerebral cortex. The book includes Appendices on the operation of many of the neuronal networks described in the book, together with simulation software written in Matlab.

Optic flow provides all the information necessary to guide a walking human or a mobile robot to its target. Over the past 50 years, a body of research on optic flow spanning the disciplines of neurophysiology, psychophysics, experimental psychology, brain imaging and computational modelling has accumulated. Today, when we survey the field, we find independent lines of research have now converged and many arguments have been resolved; simultaneously the underpinning assumptions of flow theory are being questioned and alternative accounts of the visual guidance of locomotion proposed. At this critical juncture, this volume offers a timely review of what has been learnt and pointers to where the field is going.

Welcome to the proceedings of APCHI 2008, the 8th Asia-Pacific Conference on Computer–Human Interaction held in Seoul, Korea. Following the success of the preceding APCHI conferences, in Singapore (1996, 2000), Australia (1997), Japan (1998), China (2002), New Zealand (2004) and Taiwan (2006), the 8th APCHI brought together the researchers, developers, practitioners, and educators in the field of human–computer interaction. APCHI has been a major forum for scholars and practitioners in the Asia-Pacific region on the latest challenges and developments in HCI. Theoretical breakthroughs and practical systems and interfaces were presented at this 2008 conference, thanks to the support of KADO, the HCI ITRC of Sungkyu- wan University, and KIST. APCHI 2008 featured a comprehensive program including keynote speeches, regular paper presentations, poster, demos, and special panel sessions. To address the challenge of socially blending ubiquitous computing technologies and a wider sp- trum of people with a variety of skills, knowledge, and capabilities, APCHI 2008 set “Universal and Ubiquitous” as the conference theme. APCHI 2008 attracted a total of 151 paper submissions. Among such a large number of submissions, 45 full papers were accepted as submitted or with minor revisions. All papers were reviewed by at least two reviewers. For the remaining submissions, 41 were recommended to change according to the reviews and were submitted as extended abstracts and posters. One special session with six invited papers was organized to support the conference theme of “Universal and Ubiquitous.

Perception is the first step in the whole of the cognitive processes (attention, learning, memory, categorization, imagery, intuition, inference, comprehension, thought, judgement, expression) which culminate in the reasoning activity and to which emotions make a contribution. The production of perception representations is correlated with the perception events. Such perception representations occur by means of the contribution of two kinds of factors: sensory signals which reproduce the spatio-temporal characteristics of the receptor modifications, and interpretation of the intrinsic ambiguity of such signals by means of unconscious inferences. Various interactions intervene between bottom-up signals from peripheral receptors and top-down signals from higher centres.