Amit D J
Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Apr;85(7):2141-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.7.2141.
It is shown that the ideas that led to neural networks capable of recalling associatively and asynchronously temporal sequences of patterns can be extended to produce a neural network that automatically counts the cardinal number in a sequence of identical external stimuli. The network is explicitly constructed, analyzed, and simulated. Such a network may account for the cognitive effect of the automatic counting of chimes to tell the hour. A more general implication is that different electrophysiological responses to identical stimuli, at certain stages of cortical processing, do not necessarily imply synaptic modification, a la Hebb. Such differences may arise from the fact that consecutive identical inputs find the network in different stages of an active temporal sequence of cognitive states. These types of networks are then situated within a program for the study of cognition, which assigns the detection of meaning as the primary role of attractor neural networks rather than computation, in contrast to the parallel distributed processing attitude to the connectionist project. This interpretation is free of homunculus, as well as from the criticism raised against the cognitive model of symbol manipulation. Computation is then identified as the syntax of temporal sequences of quasi-attractors.
结果表明，那些导致神经网络能够关联且异步地回忆模式时间序列的想法，可以扩展到产生一个能够自动对一系列相同外部刺激的基数进行计数的神经网络。该网络被明确构建、分析和模拟。这样的网络可能解释了自动计算钟声次数来报时的认知效应。一个更普遍的含义是，在皮层处理的某些阶段，对相同刺激的不同电生理反应不一定意味着类似赫布理论的突触修饰。这种差异可能源于这样一个事实，即连续的相同输入会使网络处于认知状态的活跃时间序列的不同阶段。然后，这些类型的网络被置于一个认知研究程序中，该程序将意义的检测指定为吸引子神经网络的主要作用而非计算，这与联结主义项目的并行分布式处理态度形成对比。这种解释没有小人谬误，也没有针对符号操作认知模型提出的批评。计算随后被确定为准吸引子时间序列的句法。
