In our most recent peer-reviewed paper, A Framework for Intelligence and Cortical Function Based on Grid Cells in the Neocortex, we put forward a novel theory for how the neocortex works. The Thousand Brains Theory of Intelligence proposes that rather than learning one model of an object (or concept), the brain builds many models of each object. Each model is built using different inputs, whether from slightly different parts of the sensor (such as different fingers on your hand) or from different sensors altogether (eyes vs. skin). The models vote together to reach a consensus on what they are sensing, and the consensus vote is what we perceive. It’s as if your brain is actually thousands of brains working simultaneously.

A key insight of our theory is based on an understanding of grid cells, neurons which are found in an older part of the brain responsible for navigation and knowing where you are in the world. Scientists have made great progress over the past few decades in understanding that the function of grid cells is to represent the location of a body in an environment. Recent experimental evidence suggests that grid cells also are present in the neocortex. We propose that grid cells exist throughout the neocortex, in every region and in every cortical column, and that they define a location-based framework for how the neocortex works. The same grid cell-based mechanism used in the older part of the brain to learn the structure of environments is used by the neocortex to learn the structure of objects, not only what they are, but also how they behave. Read More