Skip to main content

Posts

Topographic Maps in Neuroanatomy

A topographic map is the ordered projection of a sensory surface, like the retina or the skin, or an effector system, like the musculature, to one or more structures of the central nervous system. Topographic maps can be found in all sensory systems and in many motor systems.  “Topographically” mapped visual cortical areas,such as primary visual cortex map Cartesian X-­Y positions in visual space using an approximate log conformal mapping (From The Conscious Grid). Images of concentric circles of radii between  and  around the origin under the (conformal) map . Large circles are mapped into parallel lines with increasing real parts. (Courtesy: http://functions.wolfram.com/ElementaryFunctions/Log/visualizations/4/) The maps are not a strict isomorphic representation of XY space. Also, neurons in such maps do not stand for “pixels” of XY space. Kohonen Maps are relevant as a first step in understanding such topographic maps. More here on...

Kohonen Self Organizing Map

Kohonen Self Organization Map  To map a 2D triangle (set of vectors) to a 1-D vector: Input to the Kohonen Map: Simulation - Ordering and beginning of Convergence: Final output (below) - end of Convergence phase: From a project done in Complex Adaptive Systems course 'Neural Networks' at the Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2014.

On Complexity

Any entity in the world around us, such as an individual human being, owes its existence not only to the simple fundamental law of physics and the boundary condition on the early universe but also to the outcomes of an inconceivably long sequence of probabilistic events, each of which could have turned out differently. - Murray Gell Mann

Real-time updates and schedules - Public Transport System in Sweden

Was speaking to a personnel setting up a schedule display at the tram station opposite Chalmers Univ (Gothenburg, Sweden). There is actually a sensor on the tram/bus and one on the track and cables run throughout the tracks in order to display data in the stations. So exact timings about departure and arrival of different buses and trams gets tracked in real-time.  The displays have a modem inside and also send out data for the mobile apps and the website.

Tunes asking Questions

What is that song saying?  What is it trying to tell me?  May be I should ask that song...  But how do I?  Maybe I should write a song too..  And intersperse it in that song  Then my song will speak to that song.  And they shall converse.  Through new songs, we'd Speak to all those old songs...  And to their writers.  In dialects diverse and tunes Soulful, playful or inquisitive.

Nights' Sunshine

Leaves, shed at winter's end, Fell in droves on the windshield of my car that morning! They reminded me of those moments Since we met, When we were not together! One by one the leaves rained on; Yellow and dry, Like those moments When I wanted to be beside you! But couldn't... And now having left dusk behind After the day's office grind. Of some pang the memory of those leaves remind; I speed up, the engine lurches, As does my heart, wanting to be home Now - at warp speed; So it could be in your company. A sudden flash of that shady tree. Lush green leaves. Intact. And when I reach home In the dead of the night, I see sunshine, Forever mine! Valentine.

God is in the Music.

If not for music, I would be an atheist today! Such music subdues and disarms my militant, rebellious, argumentative, rational disbelieving mind completely! It is songs such as these that keep my eyes from drying up And my soul too! Music is the hotline to the divine. Naam Ali Ka Leke Tu Toh,  Naach Le Galli Galli Tu Le Naam Rab Ka Naam Sai Ka Ali Ali Ali Ali Isn't Sri Chaitanya also said to have had a similar experience:  'Dancing, laughing and weeping in rapturous ecstasies' Hats off to the passionate and heartfelt music and singing! Great energy in the voices too!! It comes from the deepest source And the listener is left thoroughly under the music’s spell, Sobbing uncontrollably in a torrent of spiritual emotions. As if every pore in the body is alive, the blood in the brain and the limbs surges, tingling! Is this? This IS true Bhakti Yoga – A Union with the divine! Patakha Guddi - Translation here .