Towards Identifying the Systems-Level Primitives of Cortex by In-Circuit Testing

TL;DR

This paper explores the hypothesis that cognition relies on a few fundamental systems-level primitives in the cortex, and discusses how emerging technologies enable direct testing of these primitives.

Contribution

It proposes a framework for testing cortex's ability to perform systems-level primitives using new stimulation and recording technologies.

Findings

Analysis and simulations support the effectiveness of these primitives.

Emerging technologies make direct testing of cortical primitives feasible.

Potential to validate systems-level computational primitives in cortex.

Abstract

The hypothesis considered here is that cognition is based on a small set of systems-level computational primitives that are defined at a level higher than single neurons. It is pointed out that for one such set of primitives, whose quantitative effectiveness has been demonstrated by analysis and computer simulation, emerging technologies for stimulation and recording are making it possible to test directly whether cortex is capable of performing them.