VISUAL PERCEPTION RESEARCH BY BOSTON UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR EARNS INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION
Cognitive and Neural Systems Researcher Grossberg Named for 2003 Helmholtz Award
(Boston, Mass.) — Stephen Grossberg, professor of cognitive and neural systems at Boston University, has been selected by the International Neural Network Society (INNS) to receive its 2003 Helmholtz Award for Distinguished Research on Visual Perception. The award will be presented July 23, 2003, at the Society’s annual meeting in Portland, Ore.
The 2003 Helmholtz Award recognizes Grossberg’s groundbreaking work that describes computational theories for how the brain sees. One of three awards presented annually by INNS to established researchers in the field of neural networks, the Helmholtz Award honors achievement in sensation/perception research. The award is named for Hermann von Helmholtz, a theorist in the field of visual perception whose many accomplishments included determining the speed at which nerve impulses travel.
Grossberg is a pioneer in the modern scientific movement to develop a model for how the mind and brain work. His research aims at understanding how a brain gives rise to a mind, a line of inquiry known as the mind/body problem. In addition to his role as research professor, Grossberg is director of the BU’s Center for Adaptive Systems and chairman of the University’s Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (CNS).
Researchers at CNS are global leaders in developing models that link brain to mind. Although there has been enormous experimental and theoretical progress in understanding brain and mind, the critical knowledge of how a brain gives rise to mental processes as we know them has remained elusive. Models developed by Grossberg and his colleagues have simulated how different types of behavior, including visual perception, emerge when many nerve cells interact in different types of circuits. Many of the predictions of mind/body linkages offered in these models have been supported by psychological and neurobiological experiments over the years.
By clarifying how our brains can adapt moment-by-moment to unexpected challenges, the models provide an explanation for why brains are structured as they are. The models also refine and expand the definition of artificial intelligence by providing insights into how to develop technologies capable of adapting to unexpected situations.
Formed in 1987, INNS is a professional organization for researchers interested in building a theoretical and computational understanding of the brain and in applying that understanding to the development of new or more effective forms of machine intelligence.
Research conducted at Boston University by Grossberg and his colleagues investigates the neural and computational principles, mechanisms, and architectures that underlie human and animal behavior and the application of neural network architectures to the solution of technological problems.
Boston University, with an enrollment of more than 29,000 in its 17 schools and colleges, is the fourth-largest independent university in the United States.
Ann Marie Menting can be reached at amenting@bu.edu