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Brain neural activity patterns yielding numbers are operators, not representations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2009

Walter J. Freeman  and
Robert Kozma
Walter J. Freeman
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3206. [email protected]
Robert Kozma
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152-3240. [email protected]
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Abstract

We contrapose computational models using representations of numbers in parietal cortical activity patterns (abstract or not) with dynamic models, whereby prefrontal cortex (PFC) orchestrates neural operators. The neural operators under PFC control are activity patterns that mobilize synaptic matrices formed by learning into textured oscillations we observe through the electroencephalogram from the scalp (EEG) and the electrocorticogram from the cortical surface (ECoG). We postulate that specialized operators produce symbolic representations existing only outside of brains.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 3-4 , August 2009 , pp. 336 - 337
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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