how is the brain able to give us images when we are imagining something?
In: Biology
My post wont be super eli5 but i hope it is interesting for at least someone. I recently took a class on mathematical models of neural systems and can add my two cents from what we learned there. There exist mathematical models where a set of neurons are respresented as a vector of 1s (firing) and 0s (not firing). We can create a system with connections between the neurons such that certain states of the system (represented by different vectors) cause the system to reliably go to other specific states. In laymans terms we can mathematically represent how one memory (say something you are thinking about or a smell) can lead to another (an image).
As an aside the model is somewhat rough and makes a lot of assumptions but the fact that we can create this kind of property mathematically is promising to understanding what actually happens in the brain.
For anyone who wants to read more, here is an article:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4681782/#:~:text=We%20present%20a%20model%20for,their%20long-term%20memory%20representations.&text=The%20network%20dynamics%20qualitatively%20predicts,memory%20items%20observed%20in%20experiments.
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