The Correlative Brain

Abstract

In the previous chapters we have investigated those aspects of brain function that are likely to involve correlations between activity patterns of neurons or neuronal groups. In addition, a survey was given of experimental techniques to measure such correlations, and of brain theories based on correlations. In this final chapter, I will first of all present a short summary of the presumed role of correlation in the normal functioning of the brain, thereafter I will discuss two types of maps in the brain: the topographic maps and the functional maps. In this way I again take up the line of thought that lead us from the single-unit receptive field (Chap. 3) to the action of the assemblies (Chap. 13). Finally, I will try to delineate the meeting ground for bottom-up (neuroscience) and top-down (cognitive) approaches to brain function.