Investigation of Dynamic Algorithms for Pattern Recognition Identified in Cerebral Cortex.

摘要

Patterns of 40 to 80 Hz oscillation have been observed by researchers of this laboratory in the large scale activity not only of olfactory cortex, but also visual neocortex, and shown to predict the olfactory and visual pattern recognition responses of a trained animal. Similar observations of 40 Hz oscillation in auditory and motor cortex, and in the retina and EMG have been reported. It thus appears that cortical computation in general may occur by dynamical interaction of resonant modes, as we have long thought to be the case in the olfactory system. The oscillation can serve a macroscopic clocking function and entrain or 'bind' the relevant microscopic activity of disparate cortical regions into a well defined phase coherent collective state of 'gestalt'. This can override irrelevant microscopic activity and produce coordinated motor output. We have further evidence that the oscillatory activity is roughly periodic, but actually appears to be chaotic (nonperiodic) when examined in detail.