Pathway Representation of Cognitive Information

Abstract

In this chapter we develop a cognitive information model based on the representation of cognitive information by centered neural pathways. This model is a natural generalization of the model based on the representation of cognitive information by hierarchical chains of neurons (HCN) which is developed in chapter 2, see also chapter 5. We propose a cognitive model in which Mental States are described as probability distributions of information on the space of all centered neural pathways representing a special psychological function (processor). Each psychological function is based on its own hierarchical tree of centered neural pathways, a cognitive tree. Hence firings of individual neurons do not have any cognitive meaning in this model, see chapter 2. Only hierarchically organized pathways firings give contributions to a Mental State. The process of thinking is described by evolutionary equations in the space of probability distributions representing Mental States. As in all previous chapters, the ultrametric p-adic geometry (which differs essentially from the standard Euclidean geometry) on the I-space plays the crucial role in our considerations. We also discuss the role of body, sensations, and emotions (compare with A. Damasio [52]) in the process of neural pathway thinking.

One held that psychological functions such as language or memory could never be traced to a particular region of the brain. If one had to accept, reluctantly, that the brain did produce the mind, it did so as a whole and not as a collection of parts with special functions. The other camp held that, on the contrary, the brain did have specialized parts and those parts generate separate mind functions.

A.R. Damasio.