What is the role of the neocortex in human intelligence and movement?

[Salbris]

Again, neural networks would give you the simplest introduction to how memory would work.

The hippocampus is not the organ of memory as memory is everywhere in the brain. It is the structure of neural connections.

But the hippocampus does have a particularly simple neural structure that is good for "snapshot" memory-fixing (look up LTP) and it is a cross-roads for matching expectations to events. So it does have a specialist role in the general ecology.

Pleasure and pain pathways - and how they reinforce patterns of activity - are really very well understood. And not so far from how you describe.

But really you are approaching this in a very random seeming way. Why not just study the subject starting with beginner books?

a) When you say that memory is everywhere in the brain, do you mean to say that the cortex's serve as a place holders for perceived data? I had long thought this was the case, but for some reason I never thought to find out. Am I right in saying the hippocampus is the focal point of memory and conceptualization?b) When I looked up the LTP I was pleasant surprised to see this sentence: "Specifically, it is the long-lasting improvement in communication between two neurons that results from stimulating them simultaneously."

As an amateur "scientist" or thinker I had only guessed at the possibility of such mechanisms. The fact that it exists, I hope, means I'm on the right track. As confusing as this might be, you may have just given me the most important piece of evidence I have ever seen. Thank you very much for your comment.c) I'm not interested in learning biological facts about simple processes inside of cells, but the general interaction between neurons, parts of the brain, etc. I'm not sure what you find random about my approach, but if it helps I'm trying to research how intelligence is formed within the brain. It's something I've been interested in for many years and only just recently have I been able to put together a much better understanding of it all. I'm not claiming to know more than dedicated scientists but I have theories and I'm pursuing them in hopes of finding something extraordinary.

 

[atyy]

a) When you say that memory is everywhere in the brain, do you mean to say that the cortex's serve as a place holders for perceived data? I had long thought this was the case, but for some reason I never thought to find out. Am I right in saying the hippocampus is the focal point of memory and conceptualization?

There are many types of memory. There is "declarative memory", like your ability to correctly answer "Who is the president of the United States". There is non-declarative memory, like how to tie shoelaces, which you can do, even though you probably cannot describe it in words. I'm not sure whether there is any universally agreed on classification of memory, but the general idea that there are various types of memory is agreed on. The most famous "hippocampal" case is HM, who retained old memories but could not form new ones - so one often reads that the hippocamus is needed for memory formation, but not for memory storage itself. HM's brain damage was not restricted to the hippocampus, so one should be not draw a firm conclusion from his case. I think these two books give a good overview of our current understanding of learning and memory:

http://books.google.com/books?id=pqoYubI2GhsC&dq=eric+kandel+AND+squire&source=gbs_navlinks_s

http://www.normandoidge.com/normandoidge/MAIN.html

 

[atyy]

Learning is a change in a behavior as a result of experience. So in physics "hysteresis" is memory.

You can see that physicists also have a model for "frustration"

Also note "fading memory" in the engineering literature http://www.stanford.edu/~boyd/papers.html, which is related to "liquid state machines" or "echo state networks".

There's stuff beyond that of course like:
Maass et al, Computational Aspects of Feedback in Neural Circuits
http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.0020165

 

[Schlofster]

If you want to understand how the neocortex works (the seat of intelligence, perception, and movement in humans) in relation to its surrounding structures, there is an excellent book called "On Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins
By the way, he is one of the founders of Palm Mobile Computers.