Implications of Confabulation Theory
Confabulation theory has a variety of implications. A few examples are discussed here. Since all of cognition is categorical i.e., based upon the symbol sets of the thalamocortical modules , the total number of modules, and the number of symbols in each of those modules, provides a reasonable estimate for the descriptive power of a brain. A trout may have only a few tens of modules, each with a few hundred symbols. A raven might have hundreds of modules, each with many hundreds of symbols. A...
The Origins of Confabulation Theory
Any new scientific development has a key historical question attached to it How did the discovery come about In other words, upon whose shoulders did the final discoverer choose to stand Since almost every scientific discovery and certainly this one is the product of centuries of largely unheralded toil by tens of thousands of scientists, it may seem unfair to single out a few. But the actual process of doing science almost always involves selection of a fixed set of clues developed by specific...
UCSD Confabulation Neuroscience Course
ECE-270A B C Neurocomputing is a year-long three quarter sequence course covering Confabulation Neuroscience Modeling. ECE-270 participants build, evaluate, and present to the class, models of thalamocortical modules, knowledge links, behavioral triggering, skill learning, and reasoning capability acquisition. ECE-270A concentrates on learning Confabulation Theory and experimenting with Thalamocortical Module Models 1, 2, 3, and 4. ECE-270B concentrates on experimenting with Thalamocortical...
Cerebral Cortex and Thalamus The Seat of Cognition
There is strong neuroscience evidence of many kinds suggesting that the information-processing involved in all aspects of cognition seeing, hearing, planning, language, reasoning, control of movement and thought, etc. is carried out by the cerebral cortex and thalamus. There is also strong evidence that the cognitive knowledge used in this processing is stored in the cerebral cortex. Beyond vague statements of this sort, at present essentially nothing is known about how cognition which will...
Chapter 4 Cogent Confabulation
Mathematical foundations of confabulation theory are presented, including statement and proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Cognition and the theorem showing that cogent confabulation within a logical information environment yields Aristotelian logic. Computer experiments with a single confabulation are presented, with all details provided. Replication of these single confabulation experiments is the logical starting point for those wanting to gain hands-on experience with confabulation...
Neuronal Implementation of Confabulation
This section describes a current simple mathematical model Model 5 of how a module implements confabulation. Model 5 is simply awful, as are all existing models. This is an area of research that needs a lot of work. However, now that we know that cortical information-processing is based entirely upon attractor networks, it should be possible to garner the talent and resources to attack this problem more vigorously. The first mathematical model of an attractor network that explicitly converges...
Experimental Results Hxh
However, despite his acquittal by the Senate, Clinton still faces a continuing investigation by I ndependent Counsel Robert, who has said ho has hired additional prosecutors and is considering whether to indict Clinton after he leaves office. Clinton said that I wouldn't be surprised by anything that happens but I'm not interested in being pardoned. Starr is investigating the Clintons' Whitewater affair in Arkansas In one violent showdown in front of the Treasury Building a block from the White...
Cognitive Brain Hardware and Software
The four key functional elements of confabulation theory described in Sect. 1.3 constitute the information-processing hardware upon which confabulation theory contends thinking is implemented. But what about the software of thought the procedures, called thought processes, for using the hardware A central hypothesis of confabulation theory is that thinking is a phylogenetic outgrowth of movement. Animals began moving over a billion years ago. The mechanisms for flexible, adaptive control of...
UCSD Confabulation Neuroscience Laboratory 25
The detailed neuronal implementation of thalamocortical module functions is not known. Research focus How the neurons of human cerebral cortex thalamus implement the functional elements of confabulation theory symbols, knowledge links, confabulation, behavioral triggering . Methodology Collection of relevant high-quality neuroscience research findings. Unified graphical representation of collected findings. Iterative development, evaluation, and improvement of biologically realistic computer...
Knowledge Links Connect Pairs of Cooccurring Symbols
Although the concept of cognitive human knowledge - something which is acquired, stored, and then used - has been in widespread use for millennia, even today there is no understanding of the mechanisms involved other than the persistent suspicion that Hebbian synaptic modification might somehow be involved or of the nature of knowledge. Confabulation theory see Figs. 1.4 and 1.5 specifies precisely what cognitive knowledge is, how it is acquired, how it is stored, and how it is used in thinking...
Confabulation The InformationProcessing Operation of Thought
The vague notion that cognition employs some sort of information-processing has been around for millennia. Today, the understanding of the exact nature of this cognitive information-processing is roughly the same as it was in 350 B.C. - the time of Aristotle arguably the first neuroscientist . Confabulation theory states explicitly and exactly that cognition involves only one information-processing operation - confabulation see Fig. 1.6 a simple winners-take-all Fig. 1.6. Confabulation - the...
Confabulation Theory Key Element 4 The Conclusion Action Principle The Origin
One of the most obvious aspects of brain function and therefore one of the most consistently ignored is that animals typically launch many behaviors every second they are awake. Most of these are microbehaviors small corrective modifications to ongoing behaviors , but, typically, many times per hour major new behaviors are launched, predicated on newly emerged events. Beyond simple reflexes e.g., knee jerk and autonomic reactions e.g., digestion , no understanding of how and why behaviors...
Research On Confabulation In Powerpoint
This book introduces a body of recent discoveries regarding the mechanism of thought. These discoveries together constitute the first concrete, detailed, and comprehensible scientific theory of how thought works confabulation theory. Experiments with computer-simulated versions of the theory's proposed neuro-physiological components are presented. These demonstrate information-processing characteristics and capabilities that support the theory's scientific viability. This book is designed to...