Into the Fields of the Mind

			  Jonathan W. Mills

   Over the past several years a tissue-level representation for
neural systems has been developed by Rubel, MacLennan, and Mills.  The
representation assumes that large masses of neurons can be treated as
a spatially-continuous field.  Some systems map easily to the field
model, such as Kilmer and McCulloch's RETIC model of the vertebrate
reticulate formation that is hypothesized to control behavior modes.

   However, tisues are composed of individual neurons.  Divorcing the
tissue-level representation from the neuron-level representation is
unsatisfactory.  Recent work by Mills suggests that field computers
(tissue-level models) can be transformed ("dissected") to yield a
neuron-level model.  An example of a model of the barn owl's vertical
location mechanism that was derived from a field computer model is
presented.  It is similar in several respects to the data collected by
single-unit neural recording.

   Using this paradigm, hybrid tissue/neuron models and VLSI
implementations of complex neural systems that blend sensory, motor,
and cognitive functions may be realizable...soon!