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Models for the Brain

Nature volume 227, pages 410–411 (1970)Cite this article

Abstract

I AGREE with the contention of Willshaw, Buneman and Longuet-Higgins, in their response to my communication1, that the associative net they proposed2 performs the specified function as well as the hologram. Two of the most striking capabilities of human memory, however, are not present in their network. The first is our ability to recognize a person we know, when he appears in our field of view, which may contain a hundred more people. The sudden flash of recognition we may feel, this absolute certainty of “this is him and it can be nobody else”, is not just a subjective emotion, but is apparently evoked only by an extremely reliable and fast form of information processing in our brain. This function of recognizing is also performed by the two-dimensional hologram, as the appearance of a bright light point in the image plane of the optical arrangement, and the brightness and sharpness of the light point are a scientific measure of the degree of recognition.

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References

  1. van Heerden, P. J., Nature, 225, 177 (1970).

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  2. Willshaw, D. J., Buneman, O. P., and Longuet-Higgins, H. C., Nature, 222, 960 (1969).

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  3. van Heerden, P. J., The Foundation of Empirical Knowledge (Wistik, Wassenaar, 1968).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Polaroid Research Laboratories, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139

    P. J. VAN HEERDEN

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  1. P. J. VAN HEERDEN
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VAN HEERDEN, P. Models for the Brain. Nature 227, 410–411 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/227410b0

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