Memory-prediction Framework - Neurophysiological Implementation

Neurophysiological Implementation

The hierarchies described above are theorized to occur primarily in mammalian neocortex. In particular, neocortex is assumed to consist of a large number of columns (as surmised also by Vernon Benjamin Mountcastle from anatomical and theoretical considerations). Each column is attuned to a particular feature at a given level in a hierarchy. It receives bottom-up inputs from lower levels, and top-down inputs from higher levels. (Other columns at the same level also feed into a given column, and serve mostly to inhibit the activiation exclusive representations.) When an input is recognized - that is, acceptable agreement is obtained between the bottom-up and top-down sources - a column generates outputs which in turn propagate to both lower and higher levels.