Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology
krichmar@nsi.edu
http://www.nsi.edu/users/krichmar

My main research focus is to study brain function by using robotic devices controlled by simulated nervous systems. These brain-based robots learn through experience about features in their environment, in much the same way as living creatures do. Higher brain functions depend on the cooperative activity of an entire nervous system, reflecting its morphology, its dynamics, and its interaction with the phenotype and the environment. Brain-based robots are designed to incorporate these attributes such that they can test theories of brain function. Because the various levels of organization of the simulated nervous system are amenable to simultaneous analysis, in ways not yet possible with real organisms, this approach provides unique opportunities to test ideas about how brains function in perceiving the world and acting upon it. These devices also provide the groundwork for the development of intelligent machines that follow neurobiological rather than computational principles in their construction.

Education:

• B.S., University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1983
• M.S., The George Washington University, 1991
• Ph.D., George Mason University, 1997

Selected Publications:

McKinstry, J. L., Edelman, G. M., and Krichmar, J. L. (2006). A cerebellar model for predictive motor control tested in a brain-based device. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 103, 3387-3392.

Krichmar, J. L., and Edelman, G. M. (2005). Brain-Based Devices for the Study of Nervous Systems and the Development of Intelligent Machines. Artificial Life Vol. 11, 63-78.

Krichmar, J. L., Nitz, D. A., Gally, J. A., and Edelman, G. M. (2005). Characterizing functional hippocampal pathways in a brain-based device as it solves a spatial memory task. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 102, 2111-2116.

Krichmar, J. L., Seth, A. K., Nitz, D. A., Fleischer, J. G., and Edelman, G. M. (2005). Spatial navigation and causal analysis in a brain-based device modeling cortical-hippocampal interactions. Neuroinformatics 3, 197-222.

Seth, A. K., McKinstry, J. L., Edelman, G. M., and Krichmar, J. L. (2004). Visual Binding Through Reentrant Connectivity and Dynamic Synchronization in a Brain-based Device. Cerebral Cortex 14, 1185-1199.

In the News:

“Robots that think like you”, Cover story, New Scientist, 5 November 2005

<< Go back to Scientific Staff