A neurobiological theory of meaning in perception

The currency of brains is primarily meaning and only secondarily information. Brain select and pre-process the information carried by sensory stimuli before they construct meaning, and they post-process cognitive meaning into informative commands that control appropriate action and express meaning. A grasp of the intervening process of perception by which meaning is created from information requires observation of neural activity in brains during meaningful behavior of humans and other animals. Measurement is followed by detailed analysis and modeling of the neural activity in order to deduce brain dynamics from brain operations. Unlike computer operation, brain function is hierarchical with many levels. Neurobiologists infer sensory and motor information by recording pulses of microscopic axons of neurons. They infer meaning by recording the local mean fields that are generated by the dendrites of neurons forming interactive mesoscopic and macroscopic populations. Neural populations express meaning in spatial pattern of amplitude modulation of electroencephalographic (EEG) waveforms in the higher frequency ranges of cortical oscillations. Improved theory is needed to understand how brains create meaning. The aim of the theory is to apply population neurodynamics to device new ways to treat clinical brain disorders, and to devise new machines with capacities for autonomy and intelligence that might approach those of simpler free-living animals.

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