Chapter 7 - Mountcastle Theory of Mammalian Cortex: Internal Neural Language of Higher Brain Function

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Vernon Mountcastle's organizational principle of mammalian cortex. This principle proposes that the well-established cortical column is the basic network in the cortex and is composed of small irreducible processing units called minicolumns. This column has the capability of being excited into complex spatial-temporal firing patterns. The assumption is that higher mammalian brain functions involve the creation and transformation of such complex spatial-temporal firing patterns. The excellent candidates for the anatomical basis of the Mountcastle minicolumns are the dendritic bundles, which have been well established by many investigators. Furthermore, it seems very likely that because of the direct contact between neighboring dendrites over considerable distances, they can carry out the direct electrical averaging needed for the cooperative effect, which must be met if they are the irreducible processing units envisioned by Mountcastle. The structured brain of Mountcastle leads to a highly structured spatial-temporal internal neural language for higher brain function. The trion model is a mathematical realization of Mountcastle's principle. The trion model is the guide for all behavioral and neurophysiological experiments concerning music and higher brain functions such as math.