UC San Diego

This dissertation presents a comprehensive unified anatomical theory in conjunction with computational models that serve to provide a complete working explanatory framework for cognitive information processing in the mammalian brain. Our model provides sufficient detail such that we are able to hypothesize the function of individual populations of neurons as they correlate to psychological observation. We first introduce our working hypothesis, confabulation theory, on the fundamental cortical organization and information processing operations underlying cognition in the mammalian brain. We present a comprehensive neuroanatomical review, designed to uncover the blueprint of primate non-primary cortical neuroanatomy in conjunction with the thalamus and basal ganglia. More than a review, we synthesize hundreds of original neuroanatomical experiments into a single viewpoint of the basic functional circuits (i.e. blueprint) underlying all cognitive information processing. We propose that there are 8 basic pyramidal neural fields, and only 3 types of thalamocortical projections, all having a prototypical function. We explicitly hypothesize their function in relation to confabulation theory. We present a new mathematical model, termed a multi-associative memory, of the implementation of multi-modal associations in the cerebral cortex. The model serves as a basis for understanding the genomic implementation and utilization of associations in randomly wired brains of varying sizes. We present a biologically plausible thalamocortical attractor network capable of the necessary and sufficient conditions related to the controlled application of confabulations in cognitive information processing. Finally, we propose a unified explanatory model of cognitive information processing hypothesizing the neural mechanisms underlying cortically represented perceptions, cortically represented behaviors, working memory, hippocampal short term memory, cortically consolidated long term memory, procedural memory, attention, cognitive information processing, which we believe provides enough detail to begin designing testable neuroscience experiments. As part of our effort to understand the mammalian brain, we discovered several unknown properties of DNA, and present novel evidence regarding the symmetry and genomic diversity of exactly repeated DNA reverse complimentary (RECO) codes.