Simon M Stringer BSc PhD
Research Areas
Medical Sciences Division Themes
- Neuroscience
Neuroscience Sub-Themes
Neuroscience Keywords
- Alzheimer's Disease
- Amnesia
- Amygdala
- Associative Learning
- Attention
- Behaviour
- Brain
- Cognition
- Cognitive
- Computational Methods
- Computational Modelling
- Computational Models
- Connectivity
- Consciousness
- Cortex
- Decision-Making
- Depression
- Developmental Biology
- Dopamine
- Emotion
- Epilepsy
- Executive Function
- Face Perception
- Face Recognition
- Frontal Lobe
- Hebbian Learning
- Hippocampus
- Learning
- Learning and Memory
- Learning Disabilities
- Memory
- Modelling
- Motivation
- Motor Control
- Motor Learning
- Movement Disorders
- Neocortex
- Networks
- Neural Networks
- Neural Signalling
- Neuroethics
- Neuron
- Neurophysiology
- Neuropsychology
- Neuroscience
- Orbitofrontal Cortex
- Pain
- Perception
- Perirhinal Cortex
- Plasticity
- Pleasure
- Postural Control
- Prefrontal
- Prefrontal Cortex
- Recognition
- Reward
- Synapse
- Synaptic Plasticity
- Systems Biology
- Temporal Lobes
- Vision
- Visual Perception
- Visual System
- Working Memory
Techniques and Equipment
Group Members
- Ben Evans, DPhil student
- Daniel Walters, DPhil student
- James Tromans, DPhil student
- Erica Boshin, Researcher
| Web | Personal Website |
|---|---|
| Department | Department of Experimental Psychology |
| College | Corpus Christi College |
Dr Simon M Stringer
One of our major areas of interest is visual processing in the brain, including motion detection, face recognition in natural scenes, and the recognition of objects from novel views. Over successive stages, the primate visual system develops neurons that respond with view, size and position invariance to objects or faces. Our models explain how such neurons may develop their firing properties, and hence allow the visual system to recognise objects in natural environments.
Another area of interest is how the brain represents space. Certain types of neuron in the brain encode the orientation or position of an animal in its environment. Examples of such cells include head direction cells that respond when the animal's head is facing in a particular direction, and place cells that fire when the animal is in a particular location. Our computer simulations show how these cells may develop as an animal explores its environment.
We are also investigating motor function in the brain. Experimental work indicates that during motor tasks such as reaching, the motor areas of the brain work in tandem with other brain areas that represent spatial information such as the position of the hand. Inspired by these findings, we are developing models which combine motor and spatial networks that work together to carry out motor tasks.
We are using 3D virtual reality software to embed neural network models of the brain within simulated virtual environments. We have found that using this kind of realistic sensory input is critical to how, for example, models of the visual system develop their synaptic connections. Furthermore, the use of 3D virtual reality will allow us to explore how models of different brain areas can work together given realistic sensory input.
Biography
Dr Simon M Stringer has been a research mathematician at Oxford University for fifteen years, working in various areas of computer modelling, including control systems, computational aerodynamics, mathematical epidemiology, and theoretical neuroscience. For most of this time he has been carrying out research within the Department of Experimental Psychology. This research has involved the development of computer simulations of various aspects of brain function, including vision, spatial representation, motor behaviour and reinforcement learning. Dr Stringer is also Chief Executive of the Oxford Foundation for Theoretical Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence.
Selected Publications
- Rolls Edmund T, Tromans James M, and Stringer Simon M (2008) Spatial scene representations formed by self-organizing learning in a hippocampal extension of the ventral visual system. Eur J Neurosci, 28(10):2116-27.
- Stringer S M and Rolls E T (2008) Learning transform invariant object recognition in the visual system with multiple stimuli present during training. Neural Netw, 21(7):888-903.
- Rolls Edmund T and Stringer Simon M (2007) Invariant global motion recognition in the dorsal visual system: a unifying theory. Neural Comput, 19(1):139-69.
- Stringer S M, Rolls E T, and Taylor P (2007) Learning movement sequences with a delayed reward signal in a hierarchical model of motor function. Neural Netw, 20(2):172-81.
- Stringer S M, Rolls E T, and Tromans J M (2007) Invariant object recognition with trace learning and multiple stimuli present during training. Network, 18(2):161-87.
- Perry Gavin, Rolls Edmund T, and Stringer Simon M (2006) Spatial vs temporal continuity in view invariant visual object recognition learning. Vision Res, 46(23):3994-4006.
- Rolls Edmund T and Stringer Simon M (2006) Invariant visual object recognition: a model, with lighting invariance. J Physiol Paris, 100(1-3):43-62.
- Rolls Edmund T, Stringer Simon M, and Elliot Thomas (2006) Entorhinal cortex grid cells can map to hippocampal place cells by competitive learning. Network, 17(4):447-65.
- Stringer Simon M and Rolls Edmund T (2006) Self-organizing path integration using a linked continuous attractor and competitive network: path integration of head direction. Network, 17(4):419-45.
- Stringer S M, Perry G, Rolls E T, and Proske J H (2006) Learning invariant object recognition in the visual system with continuous transformations. Biol Cybern, 94(2):128-42.
