arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L. Frank.
We discuss the task of reconstructing the topological map of an environment based on the sequences of locations visited by a mobile agent -- this occurs in systems neuroscience, where one runs into the task of reconstructing the global topological map of the environment based on activation patterns of the place coding cells in hippocampus area of the brain. A similar task appears in the context of establishing wifi connectivity maps.
The proposed analysis of the currently available experimental results concerning the neural cell activity in the brain area known as hippocampus suggests a particular mechanism of spatial information and memory processing. Below it is argued that the spatial information available through the analysis of the hippocampal cell activity is predominantly of topological nature. It is pointed out that a direct topological analysis can produce a topological invariant based classification of the cell activity patterns and a complete topological description of animal's current environment. It also provides a full first order logical system for local topological reasoning about spatial structure and animal's navigational strategies.