Cortical areas and combinations of information

i conclude this series of excerpts from the cepelewicz article with a discussion of steven wise’s perspective on how cortical areas process combinations of information.

“to the retired neurobiologist steven wise . . . the findings imply that instead of categorizing cortical areas in terms of their specialized visual, auditory, somatosensory or executive functions, researchers should study the different combinations of information they represent. . . . wise argues that this brain organization scheme explains why there’s so much unexpected functional overlap in the traditional maps of mental activity. when each region represents a particular combination of information, ’it does that for memory, and for perception, and for attention, and for the control of action,’ wise said.”

in my books and in a number of blog posts i have shared that information is encoded in its structure to transmit meaning, purpose and action. neural codes are instantiated within spike trains of action potentials that transmit specified information. I have offered that the immaterial cognitive mind interprets coherent neural codes (in combinations?), and wise suggests that the sources of the codes can be multiple. it is the mind that integrates the codes to bring about various actions.

i have presented data in more recent blogs showing how the mind has been documented to generate wave forms that represent words, images and the like. the “so what” of my offerings is that the mind of god, his indwelling holy spirit, can transmit specified information to our brains in our time as can the human mind. the mind of god created the mind of man in his image to be in a personal bidirectional communion with him. as neuroscientists reject the commitment to materialism we are learning more about how this communion works through dualist interaction.

Stan Lennard