Cognitive Systems: Information Processing Meets Brain Science

The editors have assembled an outstanding group of mostly UK experts in the field of cognition and cognitive sciences. The basic approach has been integration of computer information processing with what is known about neuroscience and brain function. In the Preface, Lynn Nadel briefly describes the history of this field. Even though the roots go back into the 19th century, this real integration is really something quite new and is to a great extent based upon advances in the neurosciences occurring within the last 50 years. In an introduction, Taylor presents the arguments for integration of information technology and neuroscience. He correctly reminds us that a great enthusiasm for artificial intelligence research has dissipated because of the striking lack of progress made in that field. It was after this failure that the Foresight Cognitive Systems Project was conceived with the express purpose of trying to determine if there were any interactions between information technology and the neuroscience study of systems. The group involved in this project concluded that there were many possible interactions and this book is an outgrowth of that belief. To determine the extent of these possible interactions, the editors and authors have organized the book in a way that makes it possible to summarize some of what is known in a specific field and then to ask questions that the observations obviously pose. The book begins with a description of self-organization, that is, the process by which individuals organize communal behavior to produce order. Although a self-organization is obvious in groups, it is also applicable to individual brain organization and much of those relationships are discussed. The neuroscience descriptions are necessarily brief and relatively incomplete. However, the author’s purpose was not to make this book about neuroscience, but rather to pose broad organizational questions. The fundamental theories, which are the extremes in this field are that the entire nervous system is specified by the genome or that nothing is specified and the brain can develop entirely through the influences of external factors. It is quite obvious that neither is exclusively correct and recent data on plasticity are described, not very thoroughly. The sections on regeneration are too brief to be of any value and that detracts from the value of this portion of the book, but the overall questions asked are important and reasonable. The second chapter attempts to support the conclusion that information will aid neuroscience, although reviews of the computer science research that will lead to adaptive systems. This is probably as superficial as the section on the neuroscience, but I have less background in this field and so cannot make a comparable judgment. I found it extremely interesting and although it probably is not as useful for the computer scientist, it is an extremely valuable chapter for the biologist. I think that the same can be said about Chapter 1 for computer scientist and thus, the book begins by effectively meeting the first of its goals, which is to get the 2 disciplines talking with each other in a meaningful way. The second section discusses cognitive systems. Chapter 3 details what is currently known about neural representations and is a very nice summary of this difficult field. Chapter 4 describes sensory processing and has real implications for restoration of functions such as vision and hearing. Chapter 5 describes speech and language. Again, this is an extremely valuable section and these 3 areas have great clinical relevance and will be of interest to most conditions. Section 3 describes the function of cognitive systems. How animals make decisions and execute specific courses of action is key in understanding brain function and in modeling. This chapter covers these detailed issues extremely well. Chapter 6 concerns social cognition. This is a complex area, but one of enormous importance if we are to live together in peace and harmony. Chapter 7 describes motivation, planning, and interaction, and also important social issues. Section 4 is a description of memory and learning. These are also obviously very important and because much more is known about memory than many of the other aspects of this book, I found this section on the neurobiology of memory and learning particularly valuable. Until we can teach people to learn better than we do now, I think that many of our social problems will continue. Work in this field is particularly relevant to solving such key issues as poverty and crime. The integration of memory reasoning and learning is described effectively. The editors complete the book with description of technologies so that individuals can learn what is possible in both fields. I thought that one of the most interesting portions of the book was a small section on societal impact. That is the field often neglected by researchers in what they are doing and I found this chapter, although brief, particularly valuable. I believe that the editors have done exactly what they set out to do. They have brought information processing together with brain science and shown how one can use the other to advantage in studying complex systems in brain function. Any neurosurgeon interested in how the brain functions or in computer science will find this an interesting book. Much of it will be skimmed, but some of it is well worth reading by those who have no specific interest in these research details. Of particular value was the emphasis upon the societal impact of our lack of knowledge and our advances in all these important fields of brain function.