Ecological expected utility and the mythical neural code

Neural spikes are an evolutionarily ancient innovation that remains nature’s unique mechanism for rapid, long distance information transfer. It is now known that neural spikes sub serve a wide variety of functions and essentially all of the basic questions about the communication role of spikes have been answered. Current efforts focus on the neural communication of probabilities and utility values involved in decision making. Significant progress is being made, but many framing issues remain. One basic problem is that the metaphor of a neural code suggests a communication network rather than a recurrent computational system like the real brain. We propose studying the various manifestations of neural spike signaling as adaptations that optimize a utility function called ecological expected utility.

• Publication year

  2009

• Venue

  Cognitive Neurodynamics

• Publication date

  2009-09-04

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Philosophy, Computer Science, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1007/s11571-009-9090-4PMID 19731084PMCID 2820693
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Prospect Theory and the Brain

  2009cited by this paper
• Mechanisms for Stochastic Decision Making in the Primate Frontal Cortex

  2009cited by this paper
• Encoding of Marginal Utility across Time in the Human Brain

  2009cited by this paper
• On the biological plausibility of grandmother cells: implications for neural network theories in psychology and neuroscience.

  2009cited by this paper
• What is self-specific? Theoretical investigation and critical review of neuroimaging results.

  2009cited by this paper
• The Trouble with Choice: Studying Decision Variables in the Brain

  2009cited by this paper
• The minimum information principle and its application to neural code analysis

  2009cited by this paper
• Neuronal Representations of Value

  2009cited by this paper
• Throwing a glance at the neural code: Rapid information transmission in the visual system

  2009cited by this paper
• Choice: Towards a Standard Back-pocket Model

  2009cited by this paper
• Neuroeconomics: Formal models of decision making and cognitive neuroscience

  2008cited by this paper
• Spatio-temporal correlations and visual signaling in a complete neuronal population

  2008cited by this paper
• Perceptual accuracy and conflicting effects of certainty on risk-taking behaviour

  2008cited by this paper
• Adaptive coding of visual information in neural populations

  2008cited by this paper
• Neuroeconomics

  2008cited by this paper
• A (Somewhat) New Solution to the Variable Binding Problem

  2008cited by this paper
• Sparse but not 'grandmother-cell' coding in the medial temporal lobe.

  2008cited by this paper
• Probabilistic population codes for Bayesian decision making.

  2008cited by this paper
• Regulation of spike timing in visual cortical circuits

  2008cited by this paper
• Sparse Coding via Thresholding and Local Competition in Neural Circuits

  2008cited by this paper
• Human single-neuron responses at the threshold of conscious recognition

  2008cited by this paper
• Noise in the nervous system

  2008cited by this paper
• Spatio-temporal correlations and visual signalling in a complete neuronal population

  2008cited by this paper
• One-dimensional dynamics of attention and decision making in LIP.

  2008cited by this paper
• Bayesian Spiking Neurons I: Inference

  2008cited by this paper
• Sparse but not ‘ Grandmother-cell ’ coding in the medial temporal lobe

  2008cited by this paper
• A Hierarchy of Time-Scales and the Brain

  2008cited by this paper
• Anytime search in dynamic graphs

  2008cited by this paper
• On the Evolutionary Origin of Prospect Theory Preferences

  2008cited by this paper
• Integrated Bayesian models of learning and decision making for saccadic eye movements☆

  2008cited by this paper
• Learning the value of information in an uncertain world

  2007cited by this paper
• A feedforward architecture accounts for rapid categorization

  2007cited by this paper
• Solving the distal reward problem through linkage of STDP and dopamine signaling

  2007cited by this paper
• Temporal precision in the neural code and the timescales of natural vision

  2007cited by this paper
• Limits of Event-related Potential Differences in Tracking Object Processing Speed

  2007influential reference
• The neural basis of decision making.

  2007cited by this paper
• Evolution of excitability in lower metazoans

  2007cited by this paper
• Should I stay or should I go? How the human brain manages the trade-off between exploitation and exploration

  2007cited by this paper
• Evolution and development of neural circuits in invertebrates.

  2007cited by this paper
• Space and time in visual context

  2007cited by this paper
• To appear in : Neural Computation , 10 ( 2 ) , 403-430 Probabilistic Interpretation of Population Codes

  2007cited by this paper
• Reading the Neural Code: What do Spikes Mean for Behavior?

  2007cited by this paper
• Neural mechanisms for timing visual events are spatially selective in real-world coordinates

  2007cited by this paper
• Understanding Neural Coding through the Model-Based Analysis of Decision Making

  2007cited by this paper
• Ultra-rapid object detection with saccadic eye movements: visual processing speed revisited.

  2006cited by this paper
• Contextual guidance of eye movements and attention in real-world scenes: the role of global features in object search.

  2006cited by this paper
• Two Coincidence Detectors for Spike Timing-Dependent Plasticity in Somatosensory Cortex

  2006cited by this paper
• From Molecule to Metaphor - A Neural Theory of Language

  2006cited by this paper
• Neural correlates of attention and distractibility in the lateral intraparietal area.

  2006cited by this paper
• Bayesian inference with probabilistic population codes

  2006cited by this paper
• Optimal representation of sensory information by neural populations

  2006cited by this paper
• Neural population code for fine perceptual decisions in area MT

  2005cited by this paper
• Prospect theory on the brain? Toward a cognitive neuroscience of decision under risk.

  2005cited by this paper
• Uncertainty, neuromodulation, and attention.

  2005cited by this paper
• Neural coding: computational and biophysical perspectives

  2004cited by this paper
• Evidence for Multiple Stages in the Processing of Ambiguous Words in Syntactic Contexts

  2004cited by this paper
• A comparison of sequential sampling models for two-choice reaction time.

  2004cited by this paper
• The Bayesian brain: the role of uncertainty in neural coding and computation.

  2004cited by this paper
• Neuroeconomics: The Consilience of Brain and Decision

  2004cited by this paper
• * These authors contributed equally to this work. Corresponding author:

  2004cited by this paper
• Efficacy of Retinal Spikes in Driving Cortical Responses

  2003cited by this paper
• Maps of Bounded Rationality: Psychology for Behavioral Economics

  2003cited by this paper
• The cost of cortical computation.

  2003cited by this paper
• Inference and computation with population codes.

  2003cited by this paper
• SPIKING NEURON MODELS Single Neurons , Populations , Plasticity

  2002cited by this paper
• Immediate changes in tuning of inferior colliculus neurons following acute lesions of cat spiral ganglion.

  2002cited by this paper
• Genealogy of the “Grandmother Cell”

  2002cited by this paper
• Neural Representation of Probabilistic Information

  2001cited by this paper
• Neural computations that underlie decisions about sensory stimuli.

  2001cited by this paper
• A computational model of episodic memory formation in the hippocampal system

  2001cited by this paper
• Theoretical Neuroscience: Computational and Mathematical Modeling of Neural Systems

  2001cited by this paper
• An Energy Budget for Signaling in the Grey Matter of the Brain

  2001cited by this paper
• Between sound and perception: reviewing the search for a neural code.

  2001cited by this paper
• Redundancy reduction revisited

  2001cited by this paper
• Sparse coding and decorrelation in primary visual cortex during natural vision.

  2000cited by this paper
• Neural representation and the cortical code.

  2000cited by this paper
• Synchrony Unbound : Review A Critical Evaluation of the Temporal Binding Hypothesis

  1999cited by this paper
• Reading population codes: a neural implementation of ideal observers

  1999cited by this paper
• Synchrony unbound: a critical evaluation of the temporal binding hypothesis.

  1999cited by this paper
• Neural codes: firing rates and beyond.

  1997cited by this paper
• Deciphering a neural code for vision.

  1997cited by this paper
• Spikes: Exploring the Neural Code

  1996influential reference
• Emergence of simple-cell receptive field properties by learning a sparse code for natural images

  1996cited by this paper
• Temporal encoding in nervous systems: A rigorous definition

  1995cited by this paper
• Decoding neuronal firing and modelling neural networks

  1994cited by this paper
• Computational constraints on higher neural representations

  1993cited by this paper
• Processing of temporal information in the brain.

  1993cited by this paper
• A massively parallel architecture for a self-organizing neural pattern recognition machine

  1988cited by this paper
• Foraging Behavior

  1987cited by this paper
• Neuronal population coding of movement direction.

  1986cited by this paper
• Decision Theory and Artificial Intelligence II: The Hungry Monkey

  1977cited by this paper
• Non-Holographic Associative Memory

  1969cited by this paper
• Eye Movements and Vision

  1967cited by this paper
• On noise in the nervous system.

  1966cited by this paper
• Please Scroll down for Article Visual Cognition Modelling Search for People in 900 Scenes: a Combined Source Model of Eye Guidance

  year unknowncited by this paper

• Learning words in space and time: Contrasting models of the suspicious coincidence effect.

  2021cites this paper
• Phanerozoic evolution—Ediacaran biota

  2020cites this paper
• The Emergence of Structured, Living, and Conscious Matter in the Evolution of the Universe: A Theory of Structural Evolution and Interaction of Matter

  2018cites this paper
• Auditory Neural Pathway Simulation

  2017cites this paper
• Actionability and Simulation: No Representation without Communication

  2016influential citation
• Investor Attention on the Social Web

  2016cites this paper
• The Origin of Inference: Ediacaran Ecology and the Evolution of Bayesian Brains

  2015cites this paper
• A New Work Mechanism on Neuronal Activity

  2015cites this paper
• A task-general dynamic neural model of object similarity judgments

  2015cites this paper
• Can the activities of the large scale cortical network be expressed by neural energy? A brief review

  2015cites this paper
• Towards a Theory of Brain Structure and Function

  2014cites this paper
• Elementary Principles in Cognitive Systems Modeling

  2014cites this paper
• State of the Art: Mathematical Approaches in Brain Science

  2014cites this paper
• The Shift Towards Structure

  2014cites this paper
• From Cells to Memories: A Categorical Approach

  2014cites this paper
• The Categorical Imperative: Category Theory in Cognitive and Brain Science

  2014cites this paper
• A General Framework for Representation

  2014cites this paper
• A Theory of Hippocampus Structure and Function Based on Category Theory

  2014cites this paper
• Research Tools and Paradigms

  2014cites this paper
• On the limitations of standard statistical modeling in biological systems: a full Bayesian approach for biology.

  2013cites this paper
• The neural binding problem(s)

  2013cites this paper
• Rhythmogram-Based Analysis for Continuous Electrographic Data of the Human Brain

  2012cites this paper
• The Binding Problem(s) 8/25/2010 9:38 AM

  2010cites this paper
• Visual pattern recognition based on spatio-temporal patterns of retinal ganglion cells’ activities

  2010cites this paper
• Testing of information condensation in a model reverberating spiking neural network

  2010cites this paper
• Rhythmogram as a tool for continuous electrographic data analysis

  2010cites this paper
• Cognitive Science should be unified: comment on Griffiths et al. and McClelland et al.

  2010cites this paper
• Embodied language, best-fit analysis, and formal compositionality.

  2010influential citation
• A (Somewhat) New Solution to the Variable Binding Problem

  2008cites this paper
• Author Query Form Please Insert Your Reply or Correction at the Corresponding Line in the Proof Linear Algebra and Its Applications

  year unknowncites this paper