Research
I am a Research Fellow in the Thinking Systems project, jointly in the Queensland Brain Institute and School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at The University of Queensland.
Currently I'm researching models of Spiking Neurons and Spiking Neural Networks. The knowledge we are now gaining of the fundamental importance to neural processing of both individual spike timings and network-wide oscillations is generally incompatible with further progress using non-spiking Artificial Neural Network models. Hence we must progress to using spiking neural networks in order to incorporate what we are now discovering about the processes of computation in nervous systems.
The image below shows a small simulated spiking network and its response to an injected input current.
Other Research Interests
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To model causes of nervous system dysfunction for both guidance of potential therapeutic measures and to further inform understanding of computational function. I have developed a model of absence seizure, a form of epilepsy, which shows how cortical networks can spontaneously enter and exit seizure with no external influence. This figure shows the seizure episode in the network.
- My PhD thesis presented a novel unsupervised hierarchical learning algorithm for cortex (both sensory and motor). In the future the Thinking Systems project may need to model parietal cortex to extract useful information from visual scenes.
Journal Publications
- Peter Stratton and Janet Wiles. "Self-sustained non-periodic activity in a network of
spiking neurons: the contribution of local and long-range connections and dynamic
synapses". To appear in NeuroImage special issue on Computational Modelling
(accepted 11 January, 2010).
- Peter Stratton, Gordon Wyeth and Janet Wiles. "Calibration of the head direction
network: a role for symmetric head angular velocity cells". To appear in Journal of
Computational Neuroscience (accepted 11 February, 2010).
Conference Articles and Book Chapters
- Peter Stratton, Michael Milford, Janet Wiles and Gordon Wyeth. "Automatic
Calibration of a Spiking Head-Direction Network for Representing Robot Orientation".
Proceedings of the Australasian Conference on Robotics and
Automation, Sydney, Australia, 2009.
- Peter Stratton and Janet Wiles. "A role for symmetric head-angular-velocity cells: Tuning the head-direction network". Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 2009 (COSYNE’09). (Abstract only)
- Peter Stratton and Janet Wiles. "Comparing
Kurtosis Score to Traditional Statistical Metrics for Characterizing the Structure
in Neural Ensemble Activity". In M. Marinaro et al., editors, Dynamic Brain -
from Neural Spikes to Behaviors, LNCS 5286, Springer Verlag, 2008, pp.115-122.
- Peter Stratton and Tom Downs. “Biologically-plausible Hebbian learning
and hierarchical feature extraction”. In T. Downs et al., editors,
Proceedings of the Ninth Australian Conference on Neural Networks,
University of Queensland, 1998, pp.250-254.
- Peter Stratton and Tom Downs. “The neural basis of expectation with preliminary applications”. In B. Verma and X. Yao, editors, Intl Conference on Computational Intelligence and Multimedia Applications, 1997, pp.135-139.
Other Presentations
- Peter Stratton. "Modelling Networks of Spiking Neurons
". Summer Course on Neural Modelling, University of Queensland, 2009.
- Peter Stratton and Janet Wiles. "Critical
Regions and Phase Changes in Simulations of Spiking Neurons". 8th
Asia-Pacific Complex Systems Conference, Gold Coast, Australia, July 2007.
- Peter Stratton and Janet Wiles. "Why
Spiking Neurons". Technical Report TS-2007001, University of Queensland,
2007.
- Peter Stratton. "A Situated Cortical Model
exhibiting Attention, Learning and Memory; Implications for Cognition".
PhD Thesis, University of Queensland, 2001.
Curriculum Vitae
Images
Contact
Peter Stratton
Thinking Systems Project
Queensland Brain Institute
The University of Queensland, 4072, AUSTRALIA
(E) stratton at itee.uq.edu.au
(W) www.itee.uq.edu.au/~stratton
Last updated May 2010