The neural basis of cognitive processing: A review and a speculative architecture

The purpose of this article is to explore what cognitive research can reveal about the way in which the neural system processes information. To that end, a comprehensive review of cognitive/behavioral and neuroscience models and findings is presented along with ideas as to how the human neural system has evolved. The representation of information in short-term memory (STM) is ascribed to stable oscillatory patterns across hierarchically structured functional networks of neocortical areas. These oscillatory patterns are primarily shaped by information in long-term memory (LTM) that is stored in the synaptic connections between neurons and, consequently, between neural areas. It is argued for the first time that the non-sensory and non-motor information processing stages revealed by behavioral research involve the change of potentially brain-wide oscillatory patterns that follow the reconfiguring of temporary neural networks. These network configurations can be governed by hub areas in the perceptual cortices (serving stimulus identification), the hippocampus (declarative memory), and the basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex (motor behavior, STM, and information processing). These ideas are integrated into a tentative neural Three-Level Systems (TLS) architecture comprising evolutionarily older perceptual and motor systems that are linked by a flexible central processing system located in the evolutionarily more recent association cortex.