Is your brain a hex grid?: On the spatial organization of non-spatial information
A link to this article (https://getpocket.com/explore/item/new-evidence-for-the-strange-geometry-of-thought?utm_source=pocket-newtab) was placed in my homepage by the decisions of some mysterious algorithm. Its theme is that brains use spatial orientation and positioning networks to use other kinds of memories, resulting in space-like cognitive maps for other kinds of subject matter. If you are a dedicated and diligent reader of Science, you may have come across it (I didn’t because I’m not)..
“Cognitive spaces are a way of thinking about how our brain might organize our knowledge of the world,” Bellmund said. It’s an approach that concerns not only geographical data, but also relationships between objects and experience. “We were intrigued by evidence from many different groups that suggested that the principles of spatial coding in the hippocampus seem to be relevant beyond the realms of just spatial navigation,” Bellmund said. The hippocampus’ place and grid cells, in other words, map not only physical space but conceptual space. It appears that our representation of objects and concepts is very tightly linked with our representation of space.
The arrangement of the spatial organization and orientation neurons is hexagonal, and the same may be true of some cortical regions.
A link to this article (https://getpocket.com/explore/item/new-evidence-for-the-strange-geometry-of-thought?utm_source=pocket-newtab) was placed in my homepage by the decisions of some mysterious algorithm. Its theme is that brains use spatial orientation and positioning networks to use other kinds of memories, resulting in space-like cognitive maps for other kinds of subject matter. If you are a dedicated and diligent reader of Science, you may have come across it (I didn’t because I’m not)..
“Cognitive spaces are a way of thinking about how our brain might organize our knowledge of the world,” Bellmund said. It’s an approach that concerns not only geographical data, but also relationships between objects and experience. “We were intrigued by evidence from many different groups that suggested that the principles of spatial coding in the hippocampus seem to be relevant beyond the realms of just spatial navigation,” Bellmund said. The hippocampus’ place and grid cells, in other words, map not only physical space but conceptual space. It appears that our representation of objects and concepts is very tightly linked with our representation of space.
The arrangement of the spatial organization and orientation neurons is hexagonal, and the same may be true of some cortical regions.
Back about 1972 I was working in Iran and hanging out with some Peace Corp volunteers (I wasn’t in the Peace Corp, but we were all young Americans in a foreign country) and we smoked a fair amount of hash. One afternoon we were sitting about and a thought popped into my mind. I asked the 3 - 4 people there to relax, empty their minds, and then said something like: “See every word you have ever seen in every book you have ever read.” Everybody had a different experience. I had seen a large 3 dimension space with words scattered about it. Somebody else saw a rapid flipping of pages. One person saw a single line of words scrolling across their vision. I thought it was an interesting example of how different people stored memories.
This really rings true.
I’ve been fortunate to work with many really top-drawer software developers. They almost all say that it’s east and natural for them to visualize complex, 3D data structures. I know when I do that, the structures are floating in a virtual space that seems to be a few feet in front of me and slightly above eye level.
I call them emotional savants.
I call them emotional savants.
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