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the level of activity of neural nuclei and other, anatomically distinguishable ar-
eas of the brain;
•
•
the level of the global dynamics of bioelectric phenomena in the brain which
correlates with states of mind.
It cannot be disputed that for a long time yet the simulated mind will not be
identical to the biological one,
inter alia
because of the technical difficulties in
this type of simulations. Currently, the accuracy limits in simulating models of in-
formation systems on computers are not completely clear. The majority of models
broadly used in neuroinformatics are very simplified, like the popular, widely used
neural networks. However, attempts to model neural systems realistically (e.g. de
Schutter's
Genesis
project) prove that computer techniques can also map neural
systems with a precision and fidelity which had until recently seemed completely
impossible.
The naturalistic solutions presented above lead to various empirical predictions
and in the future may form the foundations for developing a satisfactory theory of
the brain.
The development of cognitive subjects concerned not only social sciences like
philosophy or psychology: they developed no less successfully in the fields of in-
formatics and mathematics, where definitions of mathematical concepts, notation
and symbols played a significant role.
Artificial intelligence, which leads to designing computer systems capable of
executing individual cognitive actions, represents a special approach to the study
of cognition. Artificial intelligence started focusing on engineering sciences,
where intelligent systems were developed for practical use. Their designers strove
to enable these systems to imitate people's cognitive processes very effectively.
The success of systems built was assessed by reference to their practical utility
and the possibility of deploying them to conduct basic research on cognition. The
term 'computer modelling' appeared and was accepted as one of the basic research
methods used in cognitive psychology. In the light of the extremely interdiscipli-
nary research conducted, people started talking of a new field of research, not just
on cognition, but also on understanding and reasoning - the cognitive science.
In 1978, Alfred P. Sloan Fundation wrote a report in which he stated that cogni-
tive science was an attempt to combine subjects followed by six basic, traditional
scientific disciplines [24], [92]:
•
philosophy;
•
psychology;
•
linguistics;
•
informatics;
•
anthropology: philosophical, biological and sociological;
•
neural science.
All the above disciplines cooperate within cognitive science in line with the
scientific links between them, presented in Fig. 1.5.
