Friday, March 19, 2004

12 noon

Redwood Neuroscience Institute

 

Title:   What neocortex computes.

 

Charles F. Stevens

Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory

Salk Institute

 

Abstract:

As we move about the world, the image of objects on our retina undergoes affine transformations. In order to simplify cortical computations, the symmetries of this transformation - translation, rotation, and magnification - must be preserved in the cortical operation. I will examine the consequences of the cortical representation of the affine symmetries and explain, through a review of how primary visual cortex encodes the visual world, the computational significance of these symmetries.