Biography:Gregor Schöner

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Short description: German computational neuroscientist

Gregor Schöner (b. 1958 in Sindelfingen[1]) is a Germany computational neuroscientist. He is professor for the theory of cognitive systems at the Ruhr University Bochum, as well as the director of the Institute for Neuroinformatics located there.[2]

Life and work

From 1983 to 1985 Gregor Schöner studied physics and mathematics at Saarland University.[1] In the year 1985, he received his PhD in theoretical physics at the University of Stuttgart under Herrmann Haken. For the next four years, he devoted himself to applications of the theory of stochastic dynamical systems to the coordination of biological motion under J. A. Scott Kelso at Florida Atlantic University.[3] From 1989 to 1994, he led a research group for the first time at the Institute of Neuroinformatics at Ruhr University in Bochum. In that time, he and his group extended the application of dynamical systems to models of perception, motion, and autonomous robotics. After a six-year stay at the Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives in Marseille, Gregor Schöner returned to the institute in 2001. He took over its leadership in 2003, succeeding Christoph von der Malsburg,[1] and remains in this position until today.[2] Since September 2022, he is additionally chairman of the Society for Cognitive Science in Germany.[4]

Gregor Schöner and his research group are known for the scientific development, applications, and software packages on Dynamic Field Theory (DFT). DFT provides a neurally plausible framework for the mathematical modeling of human cognition according to the theories of embodied cognition.[5] The theory builds upon the continuous attractor networks models of Hugh R. Wilson and Jack D. Cowan (the "Wilson-Cowan model")[6] and Shun'ichi Amari[7] (the "neural field model"), which describe the interaction between excitatory and inhibitory coupled populations of cortical neurons.[8] Schöner's research group publishes on visual search,[9] spatial and relational language,[10][11] and autonomous robotics.[12]

Publications

  • Gregor Schöner, John P. Spencer and the DFT Research Group (2015). A primer on dynamic field theory. Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-930056-3
  • Esther Thelen, Gregor Schöner, Christian Scheier, and Linda B. Smith (2001). "The dynamics of embodiment: A field theory of infant perseverative reaching". Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24(1), , 1–34. doi:10.1017/S0140525X01003910

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Vita Gregor Schöner" (in de). Ruhr Universität Bochum. 2017-09-19. https://dynamicfieldtheory.org/upload/file/1505813537_005822fff11bb41cb03a/vita.pdf. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Organizational Structure of the Institute" (in de). Ruhr-Universität Bochum. https://www.ini.rub.de/the_institute/organizational_structure/. 
  3. "ISR CED Lecture | Bio Schoener" (in en). Intelligent Servosystems Laboratory, Pamela L. White. https://isr.umd.edu/Labs/ISL/CDS_Lecs/Bios/schoener_bio.html. 
  4. "Vorstand" (in de). Gesellschaft für Kognitionswissenschaft e.V.. https://www.gk-ev.de/?page_id=55. 
  5. "Dynamic Thinking: A Primer on Dynamic Field Theory" (in en). Oxford University Press. https://academic.oup.com/book/10360?login=false. 
  6. Wilson, H. R.; Cowan, J. D. (1973). "A mathematical theory of the functional dynamics of cortical and thalamic nervous tissue" (in en). Kybernetik 13 (2): 55–80. doi:10.1007/BF00288786. ISSN 0023-5946. PMID 4767470. https://link.springer.com/10.1007/BF00288786. 
  7. Amari, Shun-ichi (1977). "Dynamics of pattern formation in lateral-inhibition type neural fields" (in en). Biological Cybernetics 27 (2): 77–87. doi:10.1007/BF00337259. ISSN 0340-1200. PMID 911931. http://link.springer.com/10.1007/BF00337259. 
  8. Schöner, Gregor; Spencer, John P. (2016). Dynamic thinking: a primer on dynamic field theory. Oxford series in developmental cognitive neuroscience. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Tapei Toronto: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-930056-3. 
  9. Grieben, Raul; Tekülve, Jan; Zibner, Stephan K. U.; Lins, Jonas; Schneegans, Sebastian; Schöner, Gregor (2020). "Scene memory and spatial inhibition in visual search: A neural dynamic process model and new experimental evidence" (in en). Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 82 (2): 775–798. doi:10.3758/s13414-019-01898-y. ISSN 1943-3921. PMID 32048181. 
  10. Richter, Matthis; Lins, Jonas; Schneegans, Sebastian; Sandamirskaya, Yulia; Schöner, Gregor (2014). "Autonomous Neural Dynamics to Test Hypotheses in a Model of Spatial Language". Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society 36 (36): 2847–2852. https://escholarship.org/content/qt5014s78t/qt5014s78t.pdf. 
  11. Sabinasz, Daniel; Schöner, Gregor (2023). "A Neural Dynamic Model Perceptually Grounds Nested Noun Phrases" (in en). Topics in Cognitive Science 15 (2): 274–289. doi:10.1111/tops.12630. ISSN 1756-8757. PMID 36303455. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tops.12630. 
  12. Schöner, G.; Dose, M.; Engels, C. (1995). "Dynamics of behavior: Theory and applications for autonomous robot architectures" (in en). Robotics and Autonomous Systems 16 (2–4): 213–245. doi:10.1016/0921-8890(95)00049-6. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0921889095000496. 

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