Sparse visual models for biologically inspired sensorimotor control

Given the importance of using resources efficiently in the competition for survival, it is reasonable to think that natural evolution has discovered efficient cortical coding strategies for representing natural visual information. Sparse representations have intrinsic advantages in terms of fault-tolerance and low-power consumption potential, and can therefore be attractive for robot sensorimotor control with powerful dispositions for decision-making. Inspired by the mammalian brain and its visual ventral pathway, we present in this paper a hierarchical sparse coding network architecture that extracts visual features for use in sensorimotor control. Testing with natural images demonstrates that this sparse coding facilitates processing and learning in subsequent layers. Previous studies have shown how the responses of complex cells could be sparsely represented by a higher-order neural layer. Here we extend sparse coding in each network layer, showing that detailed modeling of earlier stages in the visual pathway enhances the characteristics of the receptive fields developed in subsequent stages. The yield network is more dynamic with richer and more biologically plausible input and output representation

A biologically inspired computational model of the Block Copying Task

We present in this paper a biologically inspired model of the Basal Ganglia which deals with Block Copying as a sequence learning task. By breaking a relatively complex task into simpler operations with well-defined skills, an approach which is termed as a skill-based machine design is used in the device of computational models to complete such tasks. Basal Ganglia are critically involved in sensorimotor control. From the learning aspects, Actor-Critic architectures have been proposed to model the Basal Ganglia and Temporal difference has been proposed as a learning algorithm. The model is implemented and simulation results are presented to show the capability of our model to successfully complete the task

Ética feminista y la política global hegemónica

Artículo traducido de Vivienne Jaabri, "Feminist Ethics and Hegemontic. Original publicado en Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, Vol. 29, núm. 3, June-July 2004Con el propósito de contribuir al renacimiento del feminismo como proyecto político inconfundible, este artículo explora el potencial de las contribuciones feministas en los ámbitos de la ética y la política. Su objetivo es tratar de responder desde una perspectiva feminista que incorpore dimensiones éticas y políticas al contexto global actual, en el que el totalismo del orden neoliberal hegemónico y su matriz de guerra conducen simultáneamente al control total y a la fragmentación. La pretensión fundamental es la de reclamar lo político en el discurso feminista, identificar sus condiciones de posibilidad y considerar su situación en relación con el orden hegemónico, frente al que surgen dos opciones feministas. En primer lugar, existe la posibilidad de la complicidad, en forma del feminismo de la cooptación, que carece de una voz crítica del presente. Por otro lado, aparece la opción del feminismo comprometido del disenso y la contestación, que conjuga lo local y lo global basándose en redes transnacionalesIn order to contribute to the revival of feminism as a distinctive political project, this article explores the potential of feminist contributions in the fields of ethics and politics. Its purpose is trying to give an answer, from a feminist perspective, that incorporates ethical and political dimensions to the current global context, in which the hegemonic neoliberal order and its matrix of war, leads simultaneously to total control and fragmentation. The main aim is to demand the political dimension in the feminist speech, identifying its possibilities and considering their position in relation to the hegemonic order, against which they merge two feminists options. First, there is the possibility of complicity, in the form of feminism of the co-optation, which lacks a critical voice on the present. On the other hand, it arises the option of committed feminism, based on dissent and contestation, which combines the local and the global in the creation of transnational network