This is similar to the work of McDermott [31].

It is important to recognize that natural selection, when viewed as a. computational paradigm for search and learning, places severe restrictions on possible

It is well known that for many NPcomplete problems, such as K-Sat, etc., typical cases are easy to solve; so that computationally hard cases must be rare (assuming P NP). This paper shows that NPcomplete problems can be summarized by at least one "order parameter", and that the hard problems occur at a critical value of such a parameter.

In Lifschitz, V. (Ed.), Artificial Intelligence and Mathematical Theory of Computation: Papers in Honor of John McCarthy, pp. 359–380. Academic Press.

To cite or link to this reference: http://hdl.handle.net/10068/43975

We study networks of spiking neurons in which spikes are fired as a Poisson process. The state of a cell is determined by the instantaneous firingrate, and in the limit of high firing rates our model reduces to that studied by Hopfield. We find that the inclusion of spiking results in several new features, such as a noise-induced asymmetry between "on" and "off" states of the cells and probability currentswhich destroy the usual description of network dynamics interms of energy surfaces. Taking account of spikes also allows usto calibrate network parameters such as "synaptic weights" against experiments on real synapses. Realistic forms of the post synaptic response alters the network dynamics, which suggests a novel dynamical learning mechanism.

Spiking neurons which integrate to threshold and fire were used to study the transmission of frequency modulated (FM) signals through layered networks. Firing correlations between cells in the input layer were found to modulate the transmission of FM signals undercertain dynamical conditions. A tonic level of activity was maintained by providing each cell with a source of Poissondistributed synapticinput. When the average membrane depolarization produced by the synaptic input was sufficiently below threshold, the firing correlations between cells in the input layer could greatly amplify the signal present in subsequent layers. When the depolarization was sufficiently close to threshold, however, the firing synchrony between cells in the initial layers could no longer effect the propagation of FM signals. In this latter case, integrateand-fire neuronscould be effectively modeled by simpler analog elements governed by a linear input-output relation.

The mapping of the back-propagation and mean field theory learning algorithms onto a generic 2-D SIMD computer is described. This architecture proves to be very adequate for these applications since efficiencies close to the optimum can be attained. Expressions to find the learning rates are given and then particularized to the DAP array procesor.

We study networks of spiking neurons in which spikes are fired as a Poisson process. The state of a cell is determined by the instantaneous firing rate, and in the limit of high firing rates our model reduces to that studied by Hopfield. We find that the inclusion of spiking results in several new features, such as a noise-induced asymmetry between "on" and "off" states of the cells and probability currents which destroy the usual description of network dynamics in terms of energy surfaces. Taking account of spikes also allows us to calibrate network parameters such as "synaptic weights" against experiments on real synapses. Realistic forms of the post synaptic response alters the network dynamics, which suggests a novel dynamical learning mechanism.

Spiking neurons which integrate to threshold and fire were used to study the transmission of frequency modulated (FM) signals through layered networks. Firing correlations between cells in the input layer were found to modulate the transmission of FM signals under certain dynamical conditions. A tonic level of activity was maintained by providing each cell with a source of Poissondistributed synaptic input. When the average membrane depolarization produced by the synaptic input was sufficiently below threshold, the firing correlations between cells in the input layer could greatly amplify the signal present in subsequent layers. When the depolarization was sufficiently close to threshold, however, the firing synchrony between cells in the initial layers could no longer effect the propagation of FM signals. In this latter case, integrateand-fire neurons could be effectively modeled by simpler analog elements governed by a linear input-output relation.