Page 48 - Artificial Intelligence in the Age of Neural Networks and Brain Computing

3. Revolutionary Brain Paradigms 35

3. REVOLUTIONARY BRAIN PARADIGMS: COMPLEMENTARY
COMPUTING AND LAMINAR COMPUTING

The possibility of deriving a unified theory of mind and brain has built upon the
discovery that advanced brains embody novel computational paradigms in order to
achieve autonomous adaptive intelligence. Two of these paradigms are complementary
computing and laminar computing.
Complementary computing [7] describes how the brain is organized into comple-
mentary parallel processing streams whose interactions generate biologically intel-
ligent behaviors (Fig. 2.2). A single cortical processing stream can individually
compute some properties well, but cannot, by itself, process other computationally
complementary properties. Pairs of complementary cortical processing streams
interact to generate emergent properties that overcome their complementary
deficiencies to compute complete information with which to represent or control
some faculty of intelligent behavior. Complementary computing hereby clarifies
how different brain regions can achieve a great deal of specialization without being
independent modules.
Fig. 2.2 includes an anatomical macrocircuit of the monkey visual system that
illustrates its multiple brain regions and the dense connections between them [8].
Fig. 2.3 summarizes a macrocircuit of some of the main brain regions that are modeled
in an emerging unified theory of visual intelligence, and the perceptual processes that
they carry out. This macrocircuit also includes bottom-up, horizontal, and top-down
connections that are needed to overcome computational weaknesses due to comple-
mentary computing that each brain region would experience if it acted alone.

FIGURE 2.2
Complementary computing clarifies why there are multiple parallel processing streams in
the brain, each with multiple processing stages to resolve computational uncertainties
that cannot be overcome by just one processing stream or stage. The anatomical
macrocircuit of the visual system dramatically illustrates this state of affairs.