Artificial Intelligence and Neurocognitive Technologies for Human Augmentation.
Wlodzislaw Duch
Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland
Artificial Intelligence has great impact on every aspect of technology, including neurotechnologies used for human augmentation. Progress in recent years in methods of measurement and analysis of neuroimaging and electrophysiological data opens new areas for transdisciplinary applications. Extracting “fingerprints” of active brain regions or subnetworks from EEG and ECoG data allows for more reliable brain-computer interfaces, neurorehabilitation, diagnostic methods in neuropsychiatry, therapeutic interventions using neuromodulation, optimization of brain processes through neurofeedback, direct brain stimulation and behavioral procedures, and linking brain activity with thoughts, intentions, emotions and other mental states. Neurocognitive technologies will change the very nature of people, their social interactions and their coupling with physical environment in an unprecedented way.
BIO:
Wlodzislaw Duch is the head of the Neurocognitive Laboratory in the Center of Modern Interdisciplinary Technologies, and for many years has been running the Department of Informatics, both at Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland. Currently his laboratory is hosting Polish node of the International Neuroinformatics Coordination Facility (INCF). In 2014-15 he has served as a deputy minister for science and higher education in Poland, and in 2011-14 as the Vice-President for Research and ICT Infrastructure at his University. Before that he has worked as the Nanyang Visiting Professor (2010-12) in the School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore where he also worked as a visiting professor in 2003-07. MSc (1977) in theoretical physics, Ph.D. in quantum chemistry (1980), postdoc at Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles (1980-82), D.Sc. in applied math (1987); worked at the University of Florida; Max-Planck-Institute, Munich, Germany, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Meiji and Rikkyo University in Japan, and several other institutions. He is/was on the editorial board of IEEE TNN, CPC, NIP-LR, Journal of Mind and Behavior, and 14 other journals; was co-founder & scientific editor of the “Polish Cognitive Science” journal; for two terms has served as the President of the European Neural Networks Society executive committee (2006-2008-2011), is an active member of IEEE CIS Technical committee; International Neural Network Society Board of Governors elected him to their most prestigious College of Fellows, and elected member of the Complex Systems Committee of the Polish Academy of Arts and Letters. Expert of the European Union science programs (FP4 to Horizon 2020), member of the high-level expert group of European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT). Has published over 350 peer-reviewed scientific papers and over 270 abstracts and popular articles on diverse subjects, has written or co-authored 5 books and co-edited 21 books. His DuchSoft company has made GhostMiner datamining software package for many years marketed by Fujitsu.
Wlodek Duch is well known for development of computational intelligence (CI) methods that facilitate understanding of data, general CI theory based on similarity evaluation and composition of transformations, meta-learning schemes that automatically discover the best model for a given data. He is working on development of neurocognitive informatics, focusing on algorithms inspired by cognitive functions, information flow in the brain, learning and neuroplasticity, understanding of attention, integrating genetic, molecular, neural and behavioral levels to understand attention deficit disorders in autism and other diseases, infant learning and toys that facilitate mental development, creativity, intuition, insight and mental imagery, geometrical theories that allow for visualization of mental events in relation to the underlying neurodynamics. He has also written several papers in the philosophy of mind, and was one of the founders of cognitive sciences in Poland.
Since 2014 he is heading a
unique highly transdisciplinary NeuroCognitive
Laboratory, with experts in hardware and software, signal
processing, physics, cognitive science, psychology, linguistics, philosophy and
medicine. His Lab works with infants, preschool children, students and older
people, using neuroimaging techniques, behavioral experiments and computational
modelling.
With a wide background in many branches of science and understanding of
different cultures he bridges many scientific communities. To find a lot of
information about his activity including his full
CV just type “Wlodek
Duch” in Google.