Engines of the Brain: The Computational “Instruction Set” of Perception and Cognition

Contents

Cognition is the action and interaction of multiple brain regions, and these are becoming understood computationally. Simulation and analysis has led to derivation of a set of elemental operations that emerge from individual and combined brain circuits, such that each circuit contributes a particular algorithm, and pairs and larger groups interact to compose further algorithms. We forward the hypothesis that these operations constitute the "instruction set" of the brain, i.e., that these are the most basic mental operations, from which all other behavioral and cognitive operations are constructed, constructing a unified formalism for description of operations ranging from perceptual to cognitive, including vision, language, learning and reasoning.