What's the difference between layers and levels in the context of the HTM theory?

[Bitking]

@nbro

This same sheet of the cortex has subtle variations that are discernable with different methods.

So, Broadmann suggested a way to identify these slightly different “regions” of the cortex. The connectome and, in particular, the connectogram are, on the other hand, ways to visualize the connections between regions and, actually, you say, they allowed us to identify more cortical regions (I suppose, based on the connections?).

It has been observed that in these map-to-map connections there are definite pathways.

I suppose that these pathways are a sequence of connections between different “regions”. Is this what you (and other people) mean by “pathway”? By “definite pathways”, do you mean that some of these connections are, in a certain sense, not random, but they persist or seem to exist for a specific purpose?

These pathways for streams do seem to follow paths that originate in the areas more directly connected to the sensors that take in the outside world. These streams hop through several maps/regions and end up in the central hub of each lobe. The parietal lobe is tied to sight/sound/tactile senses and the hub that joins them is called the association region.

The frontal lobe is tied to the internal body sensor and also has a hierarchy of connected maps. These are not as well known as the parietal lobe but work on this continues.

The side lobes (the temporal lobes) are connected to other parts of the sub-cortical structures that seem to be more about values/emotions/memory and are also the store of your personal experience.

This collection of lobes are tied together with a collection of fiber tracts but the biggest bundles seem to be the ones that tie the hubs together. There is also a very special tract that seems to be both the driver for speech and very likely - the source of your conscious experience.

Intelligence vs Consciousness

My working theory on consciousness is fairly simple considering how complex the central nervous system is. Let me set the table on how I see the brain working: Focusing on the H of HTM. (Hierarchy) Consider this in a sensory stream general framework of (raw sense) to (collected sense/association) to (name/symbol) to (collected symbols/grammar) to (working memory) to (the emotionally colored here and now) in the tip of the temporal lobe. This is the stream of sensation that you know as your pe…

These connections of lobes have an overall plan of sensing and action that I describe in rough sketch here:

Temporal unfolding of sequences

As far as what starts a motor action - I see the need to look at this from a system point of view. In the beginning the lizard brain explores the body through babbling in all the motor circuits. As this process continues the cortex learns the most direct connections to the somatic cortex. As time goes on maps between the motor and the sensory cortex starts to fill in with learned patterns. Later, when we have explored and learned the world, we sense more of the world and this activation diff…

In neuroscience this larger pattern is often called the “global workspace” and there are some good papers on this:

Global workspace theory

If this interests you this is a good place to read more about it:

Dehaene_GlobalNeuronalWorkspace.pdf

A recent paper on the hubs structure & function:
“Three Distinct Sets of Connector Hubs Integrate Human Brain Function”
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(18)31153-7#.W3LymHW2k-0.twitter