Multi-module network associating patterns and symbols with attention mechanism

The authors present a new network which consists of symbol layers and a pattern layer for acquiring concepts and inferring meanings of patterns and symbols. Nonlinear dynamics which can cause chaotic vibration in the internal state of the network is used for the recollection of various related patterns and symbols. The authors also propose a multi-module network with the multiple symbol-pattern networks for association and inference from vague patterns with multiple meanings. This paper presents an attention mechanism for this model. This new mechanism works to control the search area for related patterns and symbols. Simulation using face patterns consisting of eyebrow, eye and mouth patterns are done to show that the attention mechanism works well to recall related facial expressions successively.