Cognitive science doctrine has, before the era of brain imaging,
disregarded the brain as a viable
substrate to describe cognitive architecture.
Based on analogies to hierarchies in computer software and hardware,
it was believed that the neural substrate was two low-level to
address cognition.
Neurophysiological reality has shown this view to be too strongly stated.
In addition to the body of evidence from brain imaging,
another kind of evidence that makes this point are the results from
single-cell recording studies and studies that record from many localized
cells.
Since single neurons are very low level,
the classical doctrine dictates that such results should be completely meaningless
at the cognitive level.
The presentation will review the traditional view on cognitive architecture.
We will
then review the highlights of the single- and multiple-cell recording studies
and point out their surprising relevance to the cognitive level.
After that, we shall address one particular class of
phenomena revealed by single-unit electrophysiology.
Individual cells in
the brain play a measureable role in representing individual concepts.
We will finish by describing our own ongoing research that models
the process of individual neurons acquiring this representational function.