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Computational Algorithms Derived from Multiple Scales of Neocortical Processing

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Abstract

A statistical mechanics of neocortical interactions of columnar activity and the vector potential of minicolumnar electromagnetic activity provide a context to explore neocortical information processes and influences on cognitive processing at multiple scales, i.e., mesoscopic (columnar scales), macroscopic (mesoscopic influences at regional scales), and microscopic (mesoscopic influences of ions affecting interactions between and among neurons and astrocytes). Even within this confined context, a case has been made that it should not be expected that the proposed Holy Grail of neuroscience, i.e., to ultimately explain all brain processing in terms of a nonlinear science at molecular scales, is at all realistic. As with many Crusades for some truths, other truths can be trampled.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Alfredo Pereira Jr and Marcos Banaclocha for several discussions and for references to relevant literature on astrocyte processes. I thank Paul Nunez for several discussions on electrical and magnetic fields in neocortex.

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Ingber, L. Computational Algorithms Derived from Multiple Scales of Neocortical Processing. Cogn Comput 4, 38–50 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12559-011-9105-4

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