Exploring the slowness principle in the auditory domain [Elektronische Ressource] / Tiziano Zito. Gutachter: Laurenz Wiskott ; Felix Wichmann ; Richard Kempter

Exploring the slowness principle in the auditory domainDISSERTATIONzur Erlangung des akademischen GradesDoctor rerum naturalium(Dr. rer. nat.)im Fach Biophysikeingereicht an derMathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät IHumboldt-Universität zu BerlinvonHerr Dipl.-Phys. Tiziano ZitoPräsident der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin:Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik OlbertzDekan der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät I:Prof. Dr. Andreas HerrmannGutachter:1. Prof. Dr. Laurenz Wiskott2. Prof. Dr. Felix Wichmann3. Prof. Dr. Richard Kemptereingereicht am: 28.10.2010Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 28.11.2011Si sta comed’autunnosugli alberile foglieAbstractIn this thesis we develop models and algorithms based on the slowness principlein the auditory domain. Several experimental results as well as the successful re-sults in the visual domain indicate that, despite the different nature of the sensorysignals, the slowness principle may play an important role in the auditory domain aswell, if not in the cortex as a whole. Different modeling approaches have been used,which make use of several alternative representations of the auditory stimuli. Weshow the limitations of these approaches. In the domain of signal processing, theslowness principle and its straightforward implementation, the Slow Feature Anal-ysis algorithm, has been proven to be useful beyond biologically inspired modeling.