Brain-Like Emergent Temporal Processing: Emergent Open States

Abstract

Informed by brain anatomical studies, we present the developmental network (DN) theory on brain-like temporal information processing. The states of the brain are at its effector end, emergent and open. A finite automaton (FA) is considered an external symbolic model of brain's temporal behaviors, but the FA uses handcrafted states and is without “internal” representations. The term “internal” means inside the network “skull.” Using action-based state equivalence and the emergent state representations, the time driven processing of DN performs state-based abstraction and state-based skill transfer. Each state of DN, as a set of actions, is openly observable by the external environment (including teachers). Thus, the external environment can teach the state at every frame time. Through incremental learning and autonomous practice, the DN lumps (abstracts) infinitely many temporal context sequences into a single equivalent state. Using this state equivalence, a skill learned under one sequence is automatically transferred to other infinitely many state-equivalent sequences in the future without the need for explicit learning. Two experiments are shown as examples: The experiments for video processing showed almost perfect recognition rates in disjoint tests. The experiment for text language, using corpora from the Wall Street Journal, treated semantics and syntax in a unified interactive way.