Making the First Links by Crawling Along a Contour String

In the end of Part I of this book (Chapter 9), it was shown how co-ignitions could describe shapes, but the question was left open as to the way the co-igniting groups might be assembled on the basis of the visual image. Then in Part II the contour string was described as a temporary avenue of activity arising whenever a contour appears on the retina. Its signals, in the form of complex and hypercomplex cell outputs, can tell other nearby cells when a contour is present in their receptive field. In Part III the nodes were added, to stand in for the points linked by co-ignitions, and it was shown how ever-newer cells could be recruited to them by methods utilizing the drifting of retinal images. In addition it was seen that nodes, once linked up with other nodes, could execute repeated co-ignitions, continually broadcasting their status and momentary relations.