IUBio

waveletswaveletswaveletswaveletswaveletswavelets

Richard Norman rsnorman at mediaone.net
Wed Oct 3 21:22:36 EST 2001


On 3 Oct 2001 08:49:48 -0700, jonesmat at physiology.wisc.edu (Matt
Jones) wrote:

>rblue at lccc.edu ("Ronald C. Blue") wrote in message news:<003501c14aa8$03c6b5c0$ce02030a at rblue>...
<snip>

>Hi Ron,
>
>Thanks for posting all these links to papers on the use of wavelets in
>analyzing neural data.
>
>I haven't read all the papers, but looked at several of the abstracts.
>They all seem to me to be reasonable uses of wavelet transforms
>applied to various temporal and spatial data series.
>
<snip>

>Please note the context of the word "wavelet". It is -always- used in
>the context of -using wavelets to analyze brain function-.  This is
>appropriate because wavelets are a mathematical tool for dissecting
>complicated temporal and spatial data. The wavelets are something the
>-researcher- uses to study the brain. None of the papers (I believe
>from my brief scans of the abstracts) propose that the -brain- uses
>wavelets as part of a computational mechanism.
>
>A somewhat far-fetched, and I hope not too insulting, analogy might be
>for me to measure peoples head sizes with a ruler, and thus conclude
>that the brain performs its function because it contains a bunch of
>little rulers.
\>
>I do know scientists that try to model neural processing as a
>wavelet-based mechanism. But even these people are very cautious about
>claiming that the brain actually uses wavelet algorithms to do
>anything itself.
>
<snip>

Many thanks, Matt.  You have captured beautifulluy what I have been
thinking about wavelets and trying to put into words..

For readers not familiar with the wavelet business -- I snipped a
great deal of good stuff from Matt's post to abbreviate this message.
Please go back and read the whole thing.




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