Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Mental representations: A computational-neuroscience scheme

Usher, Marius and Niebur, Ernst (1999) Mental representations: A computational-neuroscience scheme. In: Riegler, Alexander and Peschl, Markus and VonStein, Astrid, eds. Understanding Representation in the Cognitive Sciences: Does Representation Need Reality? Kluwer Academic, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, pp. 135-142. ISBN 978-0-306-46286-3. E-ISBN 978-0-585-29605-0. (doi:10.1007/978-0-585-29605-0_15) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:16701)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-29605-0_15

Abstract

We discuss a series of problems facing referential theories of mental representations and we propose a scheme based on neurophysiological principles that avoids previous limitations. According to this scheme, mental representations are brain traces linked to stimuli in the environment, via a causal but probabilistic process of categorical perception, and fluctuations in activity reflect fluctuations in the confidence-level of perceptual and cognitive hypotheses. The scheme provides an explanation for cases of misrepresentation and is consistent with the abundance of recurrent connections in the cortex, which play an important role in mediating a process of interpretation and of binding of relational properties via temporal synchronisation.

Item Type: Book section
DOI/Identification number: 10.1007/978-0-585-29605-0_15
Additional information: Proceedings Paper
Uncontrolled keywords: Mental Representation; Local Field Potential; Brain State; Categorical Perception; Neural Representation
Subjects: R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
Q Science > QA Mathematics (inc Computing science) > QA 76 Software, computer programming,
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User: F.D. Zabet
Date Deposited: 19 Mar 2009 19:12 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:54 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/16701 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Usher, Marius.

Creator's ORCID:
CReDIT Contributor Roles:
  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.