Foreword

The main direction in which information technologies are developing is the obtaining and subsequent digital processing of images of the surrounding world and the synthesis of images. These problems are solved by iconics, an interdisciplinary branch of science and technologies. Iconics is one of the most important sections of optics, closely associated with mathematics, informatics, and computer engineering, as well as with physiological and ophthalmological optics, the physiology of vision, and ergonomics. Knowing the laws of the structure of images is the key to understanding human biological and social behavior, the appearance and development of modern society, its technologies, culture, and economy. Iconics is directed from technologies to the study of man.

The evolution of society, technologies, and economics has made it necessary to distinguish the new interdisciplinary scientific region of neuroiconics—as part of iconics, the science of images, their construction, perception, recognition, and the understanding of the semantic significance of images and the activity of the human brain that supports these processes. Neuroiconics is also important for understanding the role of images in human life and evolution. The informational–psychological action on man that accompanies the perception of visual stimuli embraces virtually all the problems of sensory physiology and cognitive psychology, psychophysiology, and information theory. Neuroiconics is directed from the results of the study of man to the creation of new technologies—so-called neurotechnologies, which provide the construction of artificial-intelligence systems in terms of iconics.
There have been three issues of the Journal of Optical Technology (Opticheskiı˘ Zhurnal) devoted to this crucial problem in the last 20 years—in 1999, 2011, and 2015. A feature of this issue is that it devotes great attention to the activity of natural (in the human brain) and artificial (man-made) neural networks.
Neuroiconics is important for the development of the physiology of vision, neurophysiology, the neurons of the brain, functional neuroanatomy with mapping of the brain, cognitive psychology, and physiological optics; it creates new approaches for the digital synthesis and processing of images, pattern recognition, and the modeling of purposeful human activity. The object of neuroiconics is consequently directed to the study of how the human brain works, based on an image on the retina. To ensure the viability and effective activity of a living organism, an image must be represented and recognized in the brain, and a decision made as a result. The knowledge of neurophysiological mechanisms, the construction of a visual map of the world, and the bases of human thought make it possible to understand the main principles of the brain’s operation on which human behavior is based, people’s interaction, the principles of control of human associations and technological processes, and subsequent ways to create systems of artificial intelligence. Neuroiconics, as a most important part of neurotechnologies, determines the prospects of the development of modern society.