What deep learning can tell us about higher cognitive functions like mindreading?

03/28/2018

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by   Jaan Aru, et al.

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Can deep learning (DL) guide our understanding of computations happening in biological brain? We will first briefly consider how DL has contributed to the research on visual object recognition. In the main part we will assess whether DL could also help us to clarify the computations underlying higher cognitive functions such as Theory of Mind. In addition, we will compare the objectives and learning signals of brains and machines, leading us to conclude that simply scaling up the current DL algorithms will not lead to human level mindreading skills. We then provide some insights about how to fairly compare human and DL performance. In the end we find that DL can contribute to our understanding of biological computations by providing an example of an end-to-end algorithm that solves the same problems the biological agents face.