Could a Computer Architect Understand our Brain?

TL;DR

This paper proposes a speculative computational model of the mammalian brain's cortex, thalamus, and hippocampus, inspired by hardware design principles, aiming to explain various cognitive phenomena and fill gaps in neuroscience understanding.

Contribution

It introduces a novel functional and structural brain model based on computer architecture principles, linking hardware design to biological plausibility and cognitive explanations.

Findings

Provides a functional definition of cortical columns and minicolumns

Offers a model for corticothalamic and corticostriatal loops

Explains phenomena like ERP effects and attention mechanisms

Abstract

This paper presents a highly speculative model encompassing the cortex, thalamus, and hippocampus of the mammalian brain. While the majority of computational neuroscience models are founded upon empirical evidence, this model is predicated upon a hardware proposal for a machine learning accelerator. Such a device was designed to perform a specific task, such as speech recognition. The design process employed the principles and techniques typically used by computer architects in the design of devices such as processors. However, it also sought to maintain plausibility with biological systems in accordance with the current understanding of the mammalian brain. In the course of our research, we have identified a functional framework that may help to fill the gaps in current neuroscience, thereby facilitating the explanations for many elusive cognitive-level effects. This paper does not describe the device itself or the rationale behind the design decision, but instead, it presents a concise description of the derived model. In brief, the model provides a functional definition of the cortical column and its structural definition by the minicolumns. It also offers a descriptive model for the corticothalamic and corticostriatal loops, a functional proposal for the hippocampal complex, and a simplified view of the brainstem circuitry involved in auditory processing. The proposed model appears to provide an explanation for a number of cognitive phenomena, including some ERP effects, bottom-up and top-down attention, and the relationship between phenomena such as the cocktail party effect, anterograde and retrograde amnesia following hippocampal complex damage, and so forth.