A Theory on Formatting Sensory Input for Cognition

TL;DR

This paper proposes a mechanism for how the brain forms abstract representations, emphasizing the role of local connectivity in neural networks and its influence on information transfer between the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theoretical framework linking neural connectivity dynamics to the formation of abstract cognitive representations.

Findings

Local connectivity influences the creation of abstract representations.

The mechanism explains the interaction between prefrontal cortex and hippocampus.

Transcription of detail into abstractions depends on neural connectivity patterns.

Abstract

Over the last few decades, a lot of progress has been made in understanding different aspects of the brain's ability to form abstract representations, but a specific mechanism for how they are created and used remains to emerge. Here, we review recent findings on the subject and we propose a mechanism for the dynamics of forming abstract representations, where the formation of local connectivity in neural networks determines the of search terms between the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, as well as the amount of detail that is transcribed into abstract representations.