José Mira - Böcker

The computational paradigm considered here is a conceptual, theoretical and formal framework situated above machines and living creatures (two instant- tions), su?ciently solid, and still non-exclusive, that allows us: 1. tohelpneuroscientiststoformulateintentions,questions,experiments,me- ods and explanation mechanisms assuming that neural circuits are the p- chological support of calculus; 2. to help scientists and engineers from the ?elds of arti?cial intelligence (AI) and knowledge engineering (KE) to model, formalize and program the c- putable part of human knowledge; 3. to establish an interaction framework between natural system computation (NSC) and arti?cial system computation (ASC) in both directions, from ASC to NSC (in computational neuroscience), and from NSC to ASC (in bioinspired computation). With these global purposes, we organized IWINAC 2005, the 1st International Work Conference on the Interplay Between Natural and Arti?cial Computation, whichtookplaceinLasPalmasdeGranCanaria,CanaryIslands(Spain),during June 15-18, 2005, trying to contribute to both directions of the interplay: I: From Arti?cial to Natural Computation. What can computation, arti?cial intelligence (AI) and knowledge engineering (KE) contribute to the und- standing of the nervous system, cognitive processes and social behavior?This is the scope of computational neuroscience and cognition, which uses the computational paradigm to model and improve our understanding of natural science.

The computational paradigm considered here is a conceptual, theoretical and formal framework situated above machines and living creatures (two instant- tions), su?ciently solid, and still non-exclusive, that allows us: 1. tohelpneuroscientiststoformulateintentions,questions,experiments,me- ods and explanation mechanisms assuming that neural circuits are the p- chological support of calculus; 2. to help scientists and engineers from the ?elds of arti?cial intelligence (AI) and knowledge engineering (KE) to model, formalize and program the c- putable part of human knowledge; 3. to establish an interaction framework between natural system computation (NSC) and arti?cial system computation (ASC) in both directions, from ASC to NSC (in computational neuroscience), and from NSC to ASC (in bioinspired computation). With these global purposes, we organized IWINAC 2005, the 1st International Work Conference on the Interplay Between Natural and Arti?cial Computation, whichtookplaceinLasPalmasdeGranCanaria,CanaryIslands(Spain),during June 15-18, 2005, trying to contribute to both directions of the interplay: I: From Arti?cial to Natural Computation. What can computation, arti?cial intelligence (AI) and knowledge engineering (KE) contribute to the und- standing of the nervous system, cognitive processes and social behavior?This is the scope of computational neuroscience and cognition, which uses the computational paradigm to model and improve our understanding of natural science.

The global purpose of IWANN conferences has been to provide a broad and - terdisciplinary forum for the interplay between neuroscience and computation. Our dream has been, and still is: (1) ?nd ways to understand the physiol- ical, symbolic and cognitive nature of the nervous system (NS) with the help of computational and engineering tools; and (2) ?nd rich and insightful sources of inspiration in biology, to develop new materials, mechanisms and probl- solving methods (PSM) of value in engineering and computation. As all of us knowwell, this dreamstarted with the AncientGreeks, reappearedin the fo- dational stage of neurocybernetics and bionics, and is now broadly accepted in the scienti?c community under di?erent labels such as computational neu- science(CN) andarti?cialneuralnets (ANN), orgenetic algorithmsandhybrid neuro-fuzzy systems. We have also to recognize that there is a considerable lack of credibility associated with CN and ANN among some researchers, both from biology and from the engineering and computation area.Potential causes of this scepticism could be the lack of methodology, formal tools, and real-world applications, in the engineering area, and the lack also of formal tools for cognitive process modeling. There is also the possibility of the computational paradigm being inappropriate to explain cognition, because of the "representational" character ofanycomputationalmodel. Some"moresituated"approachesarelookingback to the "neurophysiological epistemology" of the 1960's (mind in a body) to searchdirectlyforthemechanismsthatcouldembodythecognitiveprocess,and this means some fresh air for our old dream of connectionism.

The global purpose of IWANN conferences has been to provide a broad and - terdisciplinary forum for the interplay between neuroscience and computation. Our dream has been, and still is: (1) ?nd ways to understand the physiol- ical, symbolic and cognitive nature of the nervous system (NS) with the help of computational and engineering tools; and (2) ?nd rich and insightful sources of inspiration in biology, to develop new materials, mechanisms and probl- solving methods (PSM) of value in engineering and computation. As all of us knowwell, this dreamstarted with the AncientGreeks, reappearedin the fo- dational stage of neurocybernetics and bionics, and is now broadly accepted in the scienti?c community under di?erent labels such as computational neu- science(CN) andarti?cialneuralnets (ANN), orgenetic algorithmsandhybrid neuro-fuzzy systems. We have also to recognize that there is a considerable lack of credibility associated with CN and ANN among some researchers, both from biology and from the engineering and computation area.Potential causes of this scepticism could be the lack of methodology, formal tools, and real-world applications, in the engineering area, and the lack also of formal tools for cognitive process modeling. There is also the possibility of the computational paradigm being inappropriate to explain cognition, because of the "representational" character ofanycomputationalmodel. Some"moresituated"approachesarelookingback to the "neurophysiological epistemology" of the 1960's (mind in a body) to searchdirectlyforthemechanismsthatcouldembodythecognitiveprocess,and this means some fresh air for our old dream of connectionism.

This book constitutes, together with its companion, LNCS 2085, the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Work-Conference on Artificial and Natural Neural Networks, IWANN 2001, held in Granada, Spain, in June 2001. The 200 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the proceedings. The papers are organized in sections on foundations of connectionism, biophysical models of neurons, structural and functional models of neurons, learning and other plasticity phenomena, complex systems dynamics, artificial intelligence and congnitive processes, methodology for nets design, nets simulation and implementation, bio-inspired systems and engineering, and other applications in a variety of fields.

This book constitutes, together with its companion LNCS 2084, the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Work-Conference on Artificial and Natural Neural Networks, IWANN 2001, held in Granada, Spain in June 2001. The 200 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the proceedings. The papers are organized in sections on foundations of connectionism, biophysical models of neurons, structural and functional models of neurons, learning and other plasticity phenomena, complex systems dynamics, artificial intelligence and cognitive processes, methodology for nets design, nets simulation and implementation, bio-inspired systems and engineering, and other applications in a variety of fields.

Neural computation arises from the capacity of nervoustissue to process information and accumulate knowledge in anintelligent manner. Conventional computational machines haveencountered enormous difficulties in duplicatingsuchfunctionalities. This has given rise to the development ofArtificial Neural Networks where computation is distributedover a great number of local processing elements with a highdegree of connectivityand in which external programming isreplaced with supervised and unsupervised learning. The papers presented in this volume are carefully reviewedversions of the talks delivered at the InternationalWorkshop on Artificial Neural Networks (IWANN '93) organizedby the Universities of Catalonia and the Spanish OpenUniversity at Madrid and held at Barcelona, Spain, in June1993. The 111 papers are organized in seven sections:biological perspectives, mathematical models, learning,self-organizing networks, neural software, hardwareimplementation, and applications (in five subsections:signal processing and pattern recognition, communications,artificial vision, control and robotics, and otherapplications).

This volume presents the proceedings of the International Workshop on Artificial Neural Networks, IWANN '95, held in Torremolinos near Malaga, Spain in June 1995.The book contains 143 revised papers selected from a wealth of submissions and five invited contributions; it covers all current aspects of neural computation and presents the state of the art of ANN research and applications. The papers are organized in sections on neuroscience, computational models of neurons and neural nets, organization principles, learning, cognitive science and AI, neurosimulators, implementation, neural networks for perception, and neural networks for communication and control.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, IWANN'97, held in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain, in June 1997.The volume presents 142 revised full papers selected from an overwhelming wealth of submissions. The volume is divided into sections on biological foundations of neural computation, formal tools and computational models of neurons and neural nets architectures, plasticity phenomena, complex systems dynamics, cognitive science and AI, neural nets simulation, emulation and implementation, methodology for data analysis, task selection and net design, neural networks for perception, and neural networks for communications, control and robotics.

This two-volume set constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Industrial and Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems, IEA/AIE-98, held in Benicassim, Castellon, Spain, in June 1998. The two volumes present a total of 187 revised full papers selected from 291 submissions. In accordance with the conference, the books are devoted to new methodologies, knowledge modeling and hybrid techniques. The papers explore applications from virtually all subareas of AI including knowledge-based systems, fuzzyness and uncertainty, formal reasoning, neural information processing, multiagent systems, perception, robotics, natural language processing, machine learning, supervision and control systems, etc..

This two-volume set constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Industrial and Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems, IEA/AIE-98, held in Benicassim, Castellon, Spain, in June 1998. The two volumes present a total of 187 revised full papers selected from 291 submissions. In accordance with the conference, the books are devoted to new methodologies, knowledge modeling and hybrid techniques. The papers explore applications from virtually all subareas of AI including knowledge-based systems, fuzzyness and uncertainty, formal reasoning, neural information processing, multiagent systems, perception, robotics, natural language processing, machine learning, supervision and control systems, etc..

This book constitutes, together with its compagnion LNCS 1606, the refereed proceedings of the International Work-Conference on Artificial and Neural Networks, IWANN'99, held in Alicante, Spain in June 1999.The 91 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and 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 and implementation, image processing, and engineering applications.

This book constitutes, together with its compagnion LNCS 1607, the refereed proceedings of the International Work-Conference on Artificial and Natural Neural Networks, IWANN'99, held in Alicante, Spain in June 1999.The 89 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. This volume is devoted to foundational issues of neural computation and tools for neural modeling. The papers are organized in parts on neural modeling: biophysical and structural models; plasticity phenomena: maturing, learning, and memory; and artificial intelligence and cognitive neuroscience.

The first of a two-volume set, this book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Work-Conference on the Interplay between Natural and Artificial Computation, IWINAC 2007, held in La Manga del Mar Menor, Spain in June 2007. It includes all the contributions mainly related with theoretical, conceptual and methodological aspects linking AI and knowledge engineering with neurophysiology, clinics and cognition.

The second of a two-volume set, this book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Work-Conference on the Interplay between Natural and Artificial Computation, IWINAC 2007, held in La Manga del Mar Menor, Spain in June 2007. It contains all the contributions connected with biologically inspired methods and techniques for solving AI and knowledge engineering problems in different application domains.

The two-volume set LNCS 5601 and LNCS 5602 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Work-Conference on the Interplay between Natural and Artificial Computation, IWINAC 2009, held in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in June 2009. The 108 revised papers presented are thematically divided into two volumes. The first volume includes papers relating the most recent collaborations with Professor Mira and contributions mainly related with theoretical, conceptual and methodological aspects linking AI and knowledge engineering with neurophysiology, clinics and cognition. The second volume contains all the contributions connected with biologically inspired methods and techniques for solving AI and knowledge engineering problems in different application domains.

The two-volume set LNCS 5601 and LNCS 5602 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Work-Conference on the Interplay between Natural and Artificial Computation, IWINAC 2009, held in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in June 2009. The 108 revised papers presented are thematically divided into two volumes. The first volume includes papers relating the most recent collaborations with Professor Mira and contributions mainly related with theoretical, conceptual and methodological aspects linking AI and knowledge engineering with neurophysiology, clinics and cognition. The second volume contains all the contributions connected with biologically inspired methods and techniques for solving AI and knowledge engineering problems in different application domains.