Why have multiple cortical areas?

H B Barlow

doi:10.1016/0042-6989(86)90072-6

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Why have multiple cortical areas?

H B Barlow

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Abstract

Image processing requires free access to information about all parts of an image, but a nerve cell in V1 can only interact directly with a tiny fraction of the other cells in V1. The problem this poses might be alleviated by forming secondary "neural images" in which information is re-arranged, and some possible rules of projection for forming such images are explored. It is also suggested that all parts of the cerebral cortex detect, and subsequently signal, suspicious coincidences in their inputs. Acquiring knowledge of the associative structure of sensory messages, in the form of the unexpected coincidences that occur, may represent the beginning of the formation of a working model, or cognitive map, of the environment.

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H B Barlow. 1986. Why have multiple cortical areas?. https://doi.org/10.1016/0042-6989(86)90072-6

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