【論】Hawkins,1986,An investigation of adaptive beha～

Jeff Hawkins
An Investigation of Adaptive Behavior Towards a Theory of Neocortical Function.
July, 1986
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・脳の新皮質の働きについて。前出書『考える脳 考えるコンピューター』の著者による、論文というよりは読み物的文章。「脳研究を大局的視点から捉える」、「脳の動作原理は単純である」、「記憶による予測の枠組み」等の基本的考え方は20年前からほとんど変わっていないことがわかる。前出書よりはやや専門的な内容であることと、英語であることから、本を読んであったおかげでどうにか大まかな内容がつかめるレベル。

・「There are a great number of people who are interested in how the brain works, but relatively few who study the brain on a regular basis.」
・「Our environment contains many consistencies and patterns. These are essential to the usefulness of any behavior.」
・「What makes the human brain so special is the complexity of the patterns it can recognize.」
・「My primary approach to developing a theory of adaptive brain function is to continually think of brains as recognizing and adaptig to environmental patterns, because that is all that the brain has to work with.」
・「The recognition that something is different must correspond to a neural event,」
・「The prediction of environmental stimuli is a dominant function of the neocortex.」
・「I propose that each cortical unit recognizes associations in its own environment and adapts to predict these associations.」
・「Thus "prediction" means using internal state to produce neural activity which is similar to what is expected to happen.」
・「A central theme to my thesis has been that the neocortex operates on a single algorithm.」
・「"What is conspicuously lacking is a broad framework of ideas " (Francis Crick)」
・「Today we are in the "pre-Copernican" era of the understanding of adaptive behavior.」　前出書の私の紹介文と同じ表現が。（苦笑）