Towards Identifying the Systems-Level Primitives of Cortex by In-Circuit Testing

Abstract

The hypothesis considered here is that cognition is based on a small set of systems-level computational primitives that are defined at a level higher than single neurons. It is pointed out that for one such set of primitives, whose quantitative effectiveness has been demonstrated by analysis and computer simulation, emerging technologies for stimulation and recording are making it possible to test directly whether cortex is capable of performing them.