Confabulation theory addresses the premier scientific question: How does brain information processing, or cognition, work? Cognition is an outgrowth of movement: brain modules, discrete bodies of neuronal tissue which function like muscles, evolved specifically to exploit pre-existing neuronal muscle-control mechanisms and were successfully redeployed to carry out all types of cognition in macroscopic animals.

Each brain module describes one attribute, via activation of one of many symbols, collections of specialized neurons. An individual axonal knowledge link unidirectionally connects a source symbol in a module with a second meaningfully co-occurring target symbol in a second module. A module receiving knowledge links from symbols on other modules can be commanded to 'contract, ' confabulate, yielding a single active conclusion symbol, that symbol having the highest level of summed incoming knowledge link excitations. Multiconfabulation, multiple modules confabulating while mutually communicating via knowledge links, involves massively parallel application of knowledge links. When a module reaches a conclusion, action commands axonally connected from that conclusion are instantly launched, causing all nonreflexive and nonautonomic behavior. The power of cognition derives from the massive parallel application of knowledge, the interoperability of knowledge links across attributes, and the context-sensitive triggering of new behaviors, or amendments to ongoing behaviors.

Confabulation theory will profoundly impact research into animal, human, and machine cognition. This book is the first detailed, comprehensible scientific presentation ofthe theory, and it's suitable for self-study or as the basis for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in neuroscience, computational intelligence, cognitive science, linguistics, and psychology. With only elementary mathematics as a prerequisite, technologists, scientists, and the educated public will find the book accessible. The attached DVDs provide courseware, including an extended introductory video lecture presenting the theory.

Confabulation theory offers the first complete detailed explanation of the mechanism of cognition, i.e., thinking, an essential information processing capability of all enbrained Earth animals (bees, octopi, trout, ravens, humans, et al.). Concentrating on the human case, this book offers an hypothesis for the neuronal implementation of cognition, and explores the mathematics and methods of application of its mechanism. Thinking turns out to be starkly alien in comparison with all known technological approaches to information processing. While probably not yet scientifically testable, confabulation theory seems consistent with the facts of neuroscience. Beyond science, any complete detailed explanation of cognition can be investigated by applying it technologically. Multiple experiments of this nature are described in this book in complete detail. The results suggest that confabulation theory can provide the universal platform for building intelligent machines. In short, this book explains how thinking works and establishes the foundation for building machines that think.

With two DVDs of courseware, this book is suitable both as a text for professional self-study and for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in neuroscience, computational intelligence, cognitive science, linguistics and psychology, the prerequisites being elementary mathematics and neuroscience. Because of the theory??'s implications for philosophy, education, medicine, anthropology and social science, this book will also be of interest to scientists in those domains.

Confabulation theory addresses the premier scientific question: How does brain information processing, or cognition, work? This book presents a comprehensive look at confabulation theory, covering its conceptual elements, how it can be applied to real-world data, and how neurons implement the involved functional elements. This theory will have profound impact on our understanding of human cognition and on our research in areas such as linguistics, vision, learning and behavior. This book is designed to be used both for self-study and as the basis for advanced undergraduate and graduate university courses. Only a knowledge of elementary mathematics is required. Engineers, scientists, and the educated public will find the book accessible. The attached DVD includes a video lecture presenting the theory.