Citation

Zylberberg A, Dehaene S, Roelfsema PR, Sigman M. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2011; 15(7): 293-300.

Affiliation

Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience, Physics Department, FCEyN UBA and IFIBA, Conicet; Pabellón 1, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina; Instituto de Ingeniería Biomédica, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1063 Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.tics.2011.05.007

PMID

21696998

Abstract

In recent years much has been learned about how a single computational processing step is implemented in the brain. By contrast, we still have surprisingly little knowledge of the neuronal mechanisms by which multiple such operations are sequentially assembled into mental algorithms. We outline a theory of how individual neural processing steps might be combined into serial programs. We propose a hybrid neuronal device: each step involves massively parallel computation that feeds a slow and serial production system. Production selection is mediated by a system of competing accumulator neurons that extends the role of these neurons beyond the selection of a motor action. Productions change the state of sensory and mnemonic neurons and iteration of such cycles provides a basis for mental programs.

Language: en