This should be a very interesting symposium (the time/place info
is forwarded below at the end of this mail). Two philosophers
of mind, John Symons and Dan Lloyd, and a computational
neuroscientist, Stephen Grossberg, will discuss how vision works.
Ennio Mingolla, a visual psychophysicist and modeler, will give
commentary.

Computational vision is full of controversies, so there could
be some lively debate. The title of the symposium, "From Marr
to Grossberg", hints at some of these debates. David Marr
carried out some influential early work on computational
vision, and proposed that the "algorithmic level" could be
studied independently from the "implementational level",
which addresses how neurons might be wired up to carry out
the algorithms. Stephen Grossberg developed a class of
models of vision in which the neural circuits themselves
are crucial for determining the computations performed,
rather than being mere implementation details. In particular,
the neural models investigate how boundary groupings such as
illusory contours could be formed, how these groupings
might interact with surface representations, and, more
recently, how these circuits might be implemented in the
layers of cerebral cortex.

Here are the webpages of the speakers, along with some sample papers:

http://www.utep.edu/philos/symons.htm

Symons, John
On Dennett.
Wadsworth Philosophers Series. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2000.

Symons J
Explanation, representation and the dynamical hypothesis
Minds and Machines 11 (4): 521-541 2001

http://www.trincoll.edu/~dlloyd/consciou.htm

Lloyd D
Consciousness, connectionism, and cognitive neuroscience: A meeting
of the minds
PHILOS PSYCHOL 9 (1): 61-79 MAR 1996

LLOYD D
CONSCIOUSNESS - A CONNECTIONIST MANIFESTO
MIND MACH 5 (2): 161-185 MAY 1995

http://cns-web.bu.edu/Profiles/Grossberg.html

Grossberg S.
How does the cerebral cortex work? Learning, attention, and
grouping by the laminar circuits of visual cortex.
Spat Vis. 1999;12(2):163-85. Review.

Grossberg S, Mingolla E, Ross WD.
Visual brain and visual perception: how does the cortex do
perceptual grouping?
Trends Neurosci. 1997 Mar;20(3):106-11. Review.

Grossberg S.
3-D vision and figure-ground separation by visual cortex.
Percept Psychophys. 1994 Jan;55(1):48-121. Review.

http://cns-web.bu.edu/~ennio/

Neumann, H. and Mingolla, E. (2001)
Computational neural models of spatial integration in
perceptual grouping.
In From Fragments to Objects: Grouping and Segmentation in Vision.
T.F.Shipley & P.J. Kellman, Editors. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 353-400.

Pack C, Mingolla E.
Global induced motion and visual stability in an optic flow illusion.
Vision Res. 1998 Oct;38(20):3083-93.

Raj
[ Full disclosure: I did my Ph.D. with Stephen Grossberg. ]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 11:30:07 -0500
From: Susanne Daley <sdaley@...>
To: sdaley@...
Subject: From Marr to Grossberg, Monday, March 25, 1-5 PM.

The Boston Colloquium for Philosophy of Science presents:

UNDERSTANDING HOW THE BRAIN SEES: FROM MARR TO GROSSBERG

Moderator: Alisa Bokulich, Boston University

John Symons, University of Texas, El Paso
Marr and Computational Functionalism

Dan Lloyd, Trinity College
Vision, As Seen From Within

Stephen Grossberg, Boston University
Models of How the Brain Sees

Commentator: Ennio Mingolla, Boston University

Monday, March 25, 2002
1-5 p.m.
Boston University
Terrace Lounge
George Sherman Union
775 Commonwealth Avenue

This lecture is free and open to the public. It is also accessible by
wheelchair. For more information, please call (617) 353-2604.

Sponsored by the Center for Philosophy and History of Science