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Re: An Auditory Illusion



Dear Al,

> But consider the following two cases:
> 1.  One sees a red ball on a blue table.
> 2.  One sees a blue ball on a red table.
> According to a "node" theory, in both cases the nodes representing
> red, blue, ball, on and table are activated.  What then is the
> difference?  The two cases require a different arrangement of the
> same ideas, but node-based theories cannot express this.

The (now) "classical" solution to this problem is synchronicity, The
cell assembly for RED and the cell assembly for BALL fire in
synchrony if they are to express that it is the ball that is red.
This idea dates back to the 70es (Christoph von der Malsburg, "A
correlation theory of brain function", he actually cites someone from
last century who had the same idea) but was confirmed only recently
(1991 or so, Gray, Konig, Engel, Singer, in Nature: binding by
motion).

Christian
---
Dr. Christian Kaernbach
Institut fuer Allgemeine Psychologie
Universitaet Leipzig

Seeburgstr. 14-20          Tel.: +49 341 97-35968 (secr. 35960)
04 103 Leipzig             Fax:  +49 341 97-35969
Germany                    e-mail chris@psychologie.uni-leipzig.de