Cariani, P. A (2002) A population-interval model for pitch masking. International workshop on neural coding and perception of pitch, Delmenhorst, Germany, August, 2002. Download PDF (6 Mb)

Auditory nerve simulation (Matlab m-files, see the NSF-BITS Project page).

Recent Papers (with Mark Tramo)

Tramo MJ, Cariani PA, Delgutte B, Braida LD (2001) Neurobiological foundations for the theory of harmony in western tonal music. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 930:92-116. (Please email me for a reprint).

Tramo MJT, Cariani P, Delgutte B. Temporal coding of tonal harmony in the auditory nerve. Download PDF

Tramo MJT, Cariani P, Hackett TA. Spectral and temporal response properties of auditory cortex neurons in alert macaques. Download PDF

Neurosciences symposium on temporal coding

Dr. Ellen Covey and I have organized a symposium on temporal coding of sensory information which will take place at the upcoming Society for Neurosciences meeting in New Orleans.

Tuesday, November 7, 2000
Morial Convention Center, Conference Auditorium C, New Orleans

Ellen Covey             INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW
Peter Cariani            AUDITION
Patricia DiLorenzo    GUSTATION
John Kauer               OLFACTION
Michael Shadlen         VISION

486.2 TEMPORAL CODING OF PITCH AND TIMBRE IN THE AUDITORY SYSTEM. Peter Cariani [Abstract, html]
1:10 PM, Tuesday, November 7, 2000
Morial Convention Center, Conference Auditorium C, New Orleans

Peter Cariani

This is a less concise version of a minireview on temporal codes that will appear in the journal of the Acoustical Society of Japan, in press, early 2001.

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Abstract
 Physiological and psychophysical evidence for temporal coding of sensory qualities in different modalities is considered. A space of pulse codes is outlined that includes 1) channel-codes (across-neural activation patterns), 2) temporal patterns codes (spike patterns), and 3) spike latency codes (relative spike timings). Temporal codes are codes in which relative spike timings (rather than spike counts) are critical to informational function. Stimulus-dependent temporal patterning of neural responses can arise extrinsically or intrinsically: through stimulus-driven temporal correlations (phase-locking), response latencies, or characteristic timecourses of activation. Phase-locking is abundant in audition, mechanoception, electroception, proprioception, and vision. In phase-locked systems, temporal differences between sensory surfaces can subserve representations of location, motion, and spatial form that can be analyzed via temporal cross-correlation operations. To phase-locking limits, patterns of all-order interspike intervals that are produced reflect stimulus autocorrelation functions that can subserve representations of form. Stimulus-dependent intrinsic temporal response structure is found in all sensory systems. Characteristic temporal patterns that may encode stimulus qualities can be found in the chemical senses (gustation, olfaction), the cutaneous senses (nocioception), and some aspects of vision (color, form). In some modalities (audition, gustation, color vision, mechanoception, pain), particular temporal patterns of electrical stimulation elicit specific sensory qualities.

Peter Cariani

To appear in the Biosystems special issue on “Physics and evolution of symbols and codes ”,in press (2001)

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Abstract

The work of physicist and theoretical biologist Howard Pattee has focused on the roles that symbols and dynamics play in biological systems.Symbols,as discrete functional switching-states,are seen at the heart of all biological systems in form of genetic codes,and at the core of all neural systems in the form of informational mechanisms that switch behavior.They also appear in one form or another in all epistemic systems,from informational processes embedded in primitive organisms to individual human beings to public scientific models.Over its course,Pattee ’s work has explored 1)the physical basis of informational functions (dynamical vs.rule-based descriptions,switching mechanisms,memory,symbols),2)the functional organization of the observer (measurement,computation),3)the means by which information can be embedded in biological organisms for purposes of self-construction and representation (as codes,modeling relations,memory,symbols),and 4)the processes by which new structures and functions can emerge over time.We discuss how these concepts can be applied to a high-level understanding of the brain.Biological organisms constantly reproduce themselves as well as their relations with their environs.The brain similarly can be seen as a self-producing,self-regenerating neural signaling system and as an adaptive informational system that interacts with its surrounds in order to steer behavior.

Peter Cariani

To appear in the book, Tra segni in the book series Athanor. Semiotica, Filosofia, Arte, Letterature XI, 2, 200 (Meltemi:Rome), 2001.

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Abstract

We take translation as communication that spans different sign-systems to cross interpretational boundaries. From a communicative-functionalist perspective, successful translation of a message  replicates those functional states in the receiver that the translator-sender intends. The task of the translator is to reconstruct a message that was originally expressed in one sign system such that the rewritten message can be interpreted in a second sign-system to yield functionally-analogous effects. The problem of translation is developed from within basic cybernetic and semiotic frameworks, outlining different aspects of the semiotic, and how these afford translations that (at least partially) preserve form, meaning, and/or intent. We briefly discuss how semiotic linkages can be embodied in adaptive devices and brains, such that they can be built up over time through experience. From the adaptive, constructive capacities of individuals and their social interactions come shared interpersonal and intersystemic coordinations. Out of these cooperations and behavioral coordinations, mutual understandings can coevolve.  To the extent that meaning-systems of individuals in a community are largely congruent (similar observables, socially-calibrated meanings), social communication can take place within one interpretive framework  without translation. To the extent that individuals and groups construct their own meaning-systems that differ from those of others, effective communication necessarily involves translation. Translation can involve syntactics, semantics, and/or pragmatic aspects of sign systems. Syntactic translation involves rewriting of the form of the message, semantic translation the recasting of reference-meanings of a message into other categories, and pragmatic translation the reconstruction of one set of valuations into their analogues.