harnad@mind.UUCP (Stevan Harnad) (11/19/86)
Keywords: connectionism, neural modeling, vision, robotics, neuroethology
This is an experiment in using the Net to find eligible commentators
for articles in the Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), an
international, interdisciplinary journal of "open peer commentary,"
published by Cambridge University Press, with its editorial office in
Princeton NJ.
The journal publishes important and controversial interdisciplinary
articles in psychology, neuroscience, behavioral biology, cognitive science,
artificial intelligence, linguistics and philosophy. Articles are
rigorously refereed and, if accepted, are circulated to a large number
of potential commentators around the world in the various specialties
on which the article impinges. Their 1000-word commentaries are the
co-published with the target article as well as the author's response
to each. The commentaries consist of analyses, elaborations,
complementary and supplementary data and theory, criticisms and
cross-specialty syntheses.
Commentators are selected by the following means: (1) BBS maintains a
computerized file of over 3000 BBS Associates; the size of this group
is increased annually as authors, referees, commentators and nominees
of current Associates become eligible to become Associates. Many
commentators are selected from this list. (2) The BBS editorial office
does informal as well as formal computerized literature searches on
the topic of the target articles to find additional potential commentators
from across specialties and around the world who are not yet BBS Associates.
(3) The referees recommend potential commentators. (4) The author recommends
potential commentators.
We now propose to add the following source for selecting potential
commentators: The abstract of the target article will be posted in the
relevant newsgroups on the net. Eligible individuals who judge that they
would have a relevant commentary to contribute should contact me at the
e-mail address indicated at the bottom of this message, or should
write by normal mail to:
Stevan Harnad
Editor
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
20 Nassau Street, Room 240
Princeton NJ 08542
"Eligibility" usually means being an academically trained professional
contributor to one of the disciplines mentioned earlier, or to related
academic disciplines. The letter should indicate the candidate's
general qualifications as well as their basis for wishing to serve as
commentator for the particular target article in question. It is
preferable also to enclose a Curriculum Vitae. (This self-nomination
format may also be used by those who wish to become BBS Associates,
but they must also specify a current Associate who knows their work
andis prepared to nominate them; where no current Associate is known
by the candidate, the editorial office will send the Vita to
approporiate Associates to ask whether they would be prepared to
nominate the candidate.)
BBS has rapidly become a highly read read and very influential forum in the
biobehavioral and cognitive sciences. A recent recalculation of BBS's
"impact factor" (ratio of citations to number of articles) in the
American Psychologist [41(3) 1986] reports that already in its fifth
year of publication BBS's impact factor had risen to become the highest of
all psychology journals indexed as well as 3rd highest of all 1300 journals
indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index and 50th of all 3900 journals
indexed in the Science Citation index, which indexes all the scientific
disciplines.
The following is the abstract of the second forthcoming article on
which BBS invites self-nominations by potential commentators. (Please
note that the editorial office must exercise selectivity among the
nominations received so as to ensure a strong and balanced cross-specialty
spectrum of eligible commentators.)
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NEUROETHOLOGY OF RELEASING MECHANISMS: PREY-CATCHING IN TOADS
Joerg-Peter Ewert
Neuroethology Department, FB 19,
University of Kassel
D-3500 Kassel
Federal Republic of Germany
ABSTRACT:
"Sign stimuli" elicit specific patterns of behavior when an
organism's motivation is appropriate. In the toad, visually released
prey-catching involves orienting toward the prey, approaching,
fixating and snapping. For these action patterns to be selected and
released, the prey must be recognized and localized in space. Toads
discriminate prey from nonprey by certain spatiotemporal stimulus
features. The stimulus-response relations are mediated by innate
releasing mechanims (RMS) with recognition properties partly
modifiable by experience. Striato-pretecto-tectal connectivity
determines the RM's recognition and localization properties whereas
medialpallio-thlamo-tectal cicuitry makes the system sensitive to
changes in internal state and to prior history of exposure to stimuli.
RMs encode the diverse stimulus conditions involving the same prey
object through different combinations of "specialized" tectal neurons,
involving cells selectively tuned to prey features. The prey-selective
neurons express the outcome of information processing in functional
units consisting of interconnected cells. Excitatory and inhibitory
interactions among feature-sensitive tectal and pretectal neurons
specify the perceptual operations involved in distinguishing prey
from its background, selecting its features, and discriminating it
from predators. Other connections indicate stimulus location. The
results of these analyses are transmitted by specialized neurons
projecting from the tectum to bulbar/spinal motor systems, providing a
sensorimotor interface. Specific combinations of projective neurons --
mdiating feature- and space-related messages -- form "command
releasing systems" that activate corresponding motor pattern
generators from appropriate prey-catching action patterns.
-----
Potential commentators should send their names, addresses, a description of
their general qualifications and their basis for seeking to comment on
this target article in particular to the address indicated earlier or
to the following e-mail address:
Stevan Harnad
{allegra, bellcore, seismo, rutgers, packard} !princeton!mind!harnad
harnad%mind@princeton.csnet
(609)-921-7771