The Role of Lamination in Neocortical Function

We have studied neural circuitry involved in pattern recognition. In mammals, this is mainly mediated by a highly laminated cortical structure. We have studied alternate biological solutions to the same problem and found that comparable neuronal components can achieve similar, or even improved, performance using nonlaminated configurations of neurons. Our work has also highlighted the importance of an alternative parallel channel of visual information to the cortex. This alternate channel appears to be more object oriented in its information coding, rather than with individual line segments of complex patterns. In many vertebrates, the object oriented channel constitutes the major means of information transfer and analysis.