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Fundamental constraints to sensory discrimination imposed by two kinds of neural noise
Author(s) -
Stewart John L.
Publication year - 1965
Publication title -
behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 0005-7940
DOI - 10.1002/bs.3830100305
Subject(s) - sensory system , discriminator , noise (video) , computer science , ideal (ethics) , neural system , artificial intelligence , speech recognition , cognitive science , neuroscience , psychology , telecommunications , philosophy , epistemology , detector , image (mathematics)
Noise in the channels worsens the performance of any system that discriminates among various patterns of information input. And there are multiple sorts of noise in the sensory pathways of animals. Is it possible that such a system can carry out sensory recognition as effectively as electronic devices? This article, written from the viewpoint of information engineering, concludes that, if the animal system incorporates certain constraints, it can be a nearly ideal sensory discriminator.