Related papers: Form, function, mind: what doesn't compute (and wh…
The chapter presents some new approaches to describing the collective behavior of complex systems of mathematical biology based on the evolution equations of observables such as open systems. This representation of kinetic evolution has…
The quintessential property of neuronal systems is their intensive patterns of selective synaptic connections. The current work describes a physics-based approach to neuronal shape modeling and synthesis and its consideration for the…
Among the multiple causes of high error rates in spreadsheets, lack of proper training and of deep understanding of the computational model upon which spreadsheet computations rest might not be the least issue. The paper addresses this…
Building machines that learn and think like humans is essential not only for cognitive science, but also for computational neuroscience, whose ultimate goal is to understand how cognition is implemented in biological brains. A new cognitive…
Learning and interpreting the structure of the environment is an innate feature of biological systems, and is integral to guiding flexible behaviours for evolutionary viability. The concept of a cognitive map has emerged as one of the…
This work examines the interconnections between logic, epistemology, and sciences within the Naturalist tradition. It presents a scheme that connects logic, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and cognition, emphasizing…
Spatial systems with heterogeneities are ubiquitous in nature, from precipitation, temperature and soil gradients controlling vegetation growth to morphogen gradients controlling gene expression in embryos. Such systems, generally described…
Coupled natural systems are generally modeled at multiple abstraction levels. Both structural scale and behavioral complexity of these models are determinants in the kinds of questions that can be posed and answered. As scale and complexity…
A general dynamical process model of psychiatric disorders is proposed that specifies the basic cognitive processes involved in the transition from beliefs about self, others and world that are normal and adaptive, to beliefs that are…
Metazoans are capable of gathering information from their environments and respond in predictable ways. These computational tasks are achieved by means of more or less complex networks of neurons. Task performance must be reliable over an…
Growth pattern dynamics lie at the heart of morphogenesis. Here, we investigate the growth of plant leaves. We compute the conformal transformation that maps the contour of a leaf at a given stage onto the contour of the same leaf at a…
Studying psychiatric illness has often been limited by difficulties in connecting symptoms and behavior to neurobiology. Computational psychiatry approaches promise to bridge this gap by providing formal accounts of the latent information…
An internal model of the own body can be assumed a fundamental and evolutionary-early representation as it is present throughout the animal kingdom. Such functional models are, on the one hand, required in motor control, for example solving…
Based on a non-equilibrium mechanism for spatial pattern formation we study how position information can be controlled by locally coupled discrete dynamical networks, similar to gene regulation networks of cells in a developing…
Computer modelling for evolutionary systems consists in: 1) to store in the memory the individual features of each member of a large population; and 2) to update the whole system repeatedly, as time goes by, according to some prescribed…
Living systems exhibit a range of fundamental characteristics: they are active, self-referential, self-modifying systems. This paper explores how these characteristics create challenges for conventional scientific approaches and why they…
In cellular reprogramming, almost all epigenetic memories of differentiated cells are erased by the overexpression of few genes, regaining pluripotency, potentiality for differentiation. Considering the interplay between oscillatory gene…
Modeling and simulation are recognized as important aspects of the scientific method for more than 70 years but its adoption in biology has been slow. Debates on its representativeness, usefulness, and whether the effort spent on such…
There is much to learn through synthesis of Developmental Biology, Cognitive Science and Computational Modeling. Our path forward involves a design for developmentally-inspired learning agents based on Braitenberg Vehicles. Continual…
Understanding neurocognitive computations will require not just localizing cognitive information distributed throughout the brain but also determining how that information got there. We review recent advances in linking empirical and…