February 24, 2021
Thousand Brains Theory

Grid cells are special types of neurons that help us perceive position in a larger context. For example, to understand our position in the room we are sitting in. The cells themselves are arranged in a manner of a grid and fire based on our position. An array of such cells successfully encodes location, distance and direction. Grid cells are seen in the neocortex of the brain.


The neocortex is the part of the brain that is involved in higher-order brain functions such as cognition, spatial reasoning and language. A classical view on how a neocortex works is that it receives sensory inputs and is processed in a set of hierarchical steps. Where the sensory information is passed on from one region to another. It is assumed that a high-level object can be grasped when the information has passed through all the regions once.


This paper proposes a new theory. It starts by saying that there are more of grid cells in the neocortex. Arranged as columns and rows. Each column creates its own model of the objects based on sensory inputs. Each column would build a model based on slightly different inputs. These models than vote to reach a consensus on what it is sensing. As if, there are many tiny brains within our brain and what we sense and perceive is a weighted average of all the outputs.

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