A Framework for Intelligence and Cortical Function Based on Grid Cells in the Neocortex

Reminder of Vernon Mountcastle idiom; everywhere in the brain uses the same mechanism but is adapted to different shapes of data (inputs and outputs.)

Quinn: Grid cells are so called because they appear to activate when a rat moved to a position along a grid. When every time the mouse was standing on an invisible grid line (say every inch) the neuron fired. When the firing was tracked as the mouse went through its habitat the firings were overlapped with the habitat and found to correspond to grid points.

A grid cell effectively overlays a grid of some kind, biologically a triangular grid, across some space.

A "grid cell module" is when grids of the same spacing and orientation overlap.

Displacement cells: storing some location between two active grid cells. Grid cells provide coarse positioning while displacement attempts to provide sub-grid positioning.

"What" vs "Where." different connections identify an object vs identifying where the object is within visual space.

TODO: Figure out what "place cells" do; an article is linked for these.

Multiple cells exist where the grid is a different size/orientation and they all work the same except these particular trigger points are somewhere else.

Position is then encoded as which of these overlapping transformed grid points correspond to where the agent is at the given moment.