The Dynamic Manifestation of Cognitive Structures in the Cerebral Cortex

Abstract

Cognitive structures are organized systems of information that embody the knowledge used to construct an individual's reality. Having phylogenetic and ontogenetic determinants, they reside latently in the connectional organization of the cerebral cortex, both within and between areas. Different cortical areas, containing separate classes of knowledge in their local associative memories, operate in conjunction with one another to instantiate cognitive structures in perceptuo-motor behavior. As multiple areas recursively interact in large-scale networks, their mutual constraint leads to the emergence of coordinated large-scale activity patterns. These patterns constitute a consistent construction of reality that fits the constraints imposed by the structures of the internal and external environments. This construction is the dynamic manifestation of cognitive structures in the cerebral cortex.