The grandmother cell is a hypothetical neuron that represents a complex but specific concept or object. It activates when a person "sees, hears, or otherwise sensibly discriminates" a specific entity, such as his or her grandmother. The term was coined around 1969 by Jerry Lettvin. A similar concept was proposed two years earlier by Jerzy Konorski of a gnostic neuron.
Read more about Grandmother Cell: Sparseness Vs Distributed Respresentations, Pontifical Cells
Famous quotes containing the words grandmother and/or cell:
“And William had dudgeon for the sightless beadle
Who worshipped a God like a grandmother on ice-skates,
For William saw two angels on the point of a needle
As nobody since except W. B. Yeats.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom,”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)