This volume is the first part of the two-volume proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN 2005), held on September 11–15, 2005 in Warsaw, Poland, with several accompanying workshops held on September 15, 2005 at the Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland.
The first volumes, Artificial Neural Networks: Biological Inspirations, is primarily concerned with issues related to models of biological functions, spiking neurons, understanding real brain processes, development of cognitive powers, and inspiration from such models for the development and application of artificial neural networks in information technologies, modeling perception and other biological processes. This volume covers dynamical models of single spiking neurons, their assemblies, population coding, models of neocortex, cerebellum and subcortical brain structures, brain–computer interfaces, and also the development of associative memories, natural language processing and other higher cognitive processes in human beings and other living organisms. Papers on self-organizing maps, evolutionary processes, and cooperative biological behavior, with some applications, are also included. Natural perception, computer vision, recognition and detection of faces and other natural patterns, and sound and speech signal analysis are the topics of many contributions in this volume. Some papers on bioinformatics, bioengineering and biomedical applications are also included in this volume.