Mobile brain-based device for use in a real world environment

Abstract

A mobile brain-based device BBD includes a mobile base equipped with sensors and effectors (Neurally Organized Mobile Adaptive Device or NOMAD), which is guided by a simulated nervous system that is an analogue of cortical and sub-cortical areas of the brain required for visual processing, decision-making, reward, and motor responses. The brain-based device BBD learns to discriminate among multiple objects with shared visual features, and associated “target” objects with innately preferred auditory cues. The brain-based device BBD is moveable, in a rich real-world environment involving continual changes in the size and location of visual stimuli due to self-generated or autonomous, movement, and shows that reentrant connectivity and dynamic synchronization provide an effective mechanism for binding the features of visual objects so as to reorganize object features such as color, shape and motion while distinguishing distinct objects in the environment.

1 . A mobile brain-based device (BBD) for behaving in a real-world environment to integrate a visual scene, comprising:
 a) a mobile adaptive device having
 i) a visual input sensor for receiving visual information; and 
 ii) an effector for enabling movement of said mobile adaptive device; 
   b) a computer-based simulated nervous system modeling the regional and functional neuro-anatomy of the cortical regions of a human brain for visually recognizing and discriminating between different objects within the visual scene, said computer-based simulated nervous system including
 i) a first neural area forming a visual system and responsive to visual input from said visual input sensor for producing visual stimuli, said first neural area corresponding to the ventral cortical pathway of the brain for producing visual stimuli; 
 ii) a second neural area, analogous to an ascending neuromodulatory system, responsive to a real-world salient event experienced by the mobile brain-based device while being mobile in its real-world environment, for producing value stimuli; and 
 iii) a third neural area, corresponding to the superior colliculus area of the brain and responsive to said visual and value stimuli, for controlling said effector to orient said mobile adaptive device towards the visual input information to said mobile adaptive device; 
   c) wherein visual recognition and discriminating between different objects is achievable during real-world mobility of said mobile adaptive device through reentrant connectivity ofneuronal units within each of said first, second and third neural areas, through reentrant connectivity between said first, second and third neural areas, and through the interaction of local processes, which are activities within each of said first, second and third neural areas, and global processes which create functional neural circuits formed during the real-world operation and having synchronous activity between said first, second and third neural areas;   d) wherein connectivity between said first neural area and said second neural area are value-dependent synaptic plastic connections;   e) wherein connectivity from said first neural area to said third neural area are value-dependent synaptic plastic connections; and   f) wherein connectivity from said second neural area to said third neural area are excitatory synaptic plastic connections.   
     
     
         2 . A mobile brain-based device according to  claim 1 , wherein each said first, second and third neural areas has neuronal units, and wherein said neuronal units in each said area have relative neuronal activity whose timing is represented by a firing rate variable and the relative timing of which is represented by a phase variable, in which similar firing phases of neuronal units in said areas reflect synchronous activity. 
     
     
         3 . A mobile brain-based device according to  claim 1 , wherein said value stimuli modify the strength of the synaptic plastic connections between said first, second and third neural areas to provide for the adaptive behavior of the mobile brain-based device in a real-world environment. 
     
     
         4 . A mobile brain-based device according to  claim 1 , wherein said first neural area corresponds to said vertical cortical pathway having neural areas V 1 , V 2 , V 4  and IT being coupled in a pathway V 1 →V 2 →V 4 →IT. 
     
     
         5 . A mobile brain-based device according to  claim 1 , wherein each of said first, second and third neural areas includes neuronal units, in which said neuronal units have excitatory synaptic connections amongst themselves, and each of said excitatory synaptic connections are voltage-dependent. 
     
     
         6 . A mobile brain-based device according to  claim 5 , wherein said first, second and third neural areas have reentrant excitatory connections between said areas, and all said reentrant excitatory connections are voltage-dependent.