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Internal context and top-down processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 1997

Peter König ,
Carl Chiang  and
Astrid von Stein
Peter König
Affiliation:
The Neurosciences Institute, San Diego, CA 92121 [email protected]@[email protected] www.nsi.edu/users/konig
Carl Chiang
Affiliation:
The Neurosciences Institute, San Diego, CA 92121 [email protected]@[email protected] www.nsi.edu/users/konig
Astrid von Stein
Affiliation:
The Neurosciences Institute, San Diego, CA 92121 [email protected]@[email protected] www.nsi.edu/users/konig
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Abstract

Recent experimental work suggests that the concept of contextual fields should be generalized to allow the modulation of local information extraction by both external and internal context. The external context relates to the coherent information of the stimulus; the internal context refers to the parts of this information which are relevant for behavior. This dual interaction, present at every level of the hierarchy, requires a fundamental unit of processing more complex than a single neuron appears today. We argue that the cortical column supplies the required mechanisms for a separate top-down and bottom-up processing and allows for interaction without destructive cross-talk. This flexibility might explain why the same basic architecture of a cortical column is used in the whole isocortex.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , December 1997 , pp. 691 - 692
Copyright
© 1997 Cambridge University Press

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