Abstract:
Brain research shows that sensation is primarily active – sensation via sensor motion. It also teaches us that a brain and its environment maintain continuous dynamic processes via brain-world closed loops. We address the question of perception using theory, analysis (of biological perception) and synthesis (of artificial perception). Our current understanding is that perception is an on-going, closed-loop, brain-world convergence process, during which components of the environment become components of brain dynamics. I will present an intuitive description of the theory of such closed-loop perception, and its accumulating supporting evidence.
Biography:
Ehud Ahissar is a professor of Brain Sciences at the Weizmann Institute since 1991, studying embodied perception of touch, vision and speech in rodents, humans and artificial devices. He earned a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University in 1978, worked at ELTA Group and Elbit Systems Ltd., and then went on to earn his PhD in Neurobiology in Moshe Abeles’ lab at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1991.