In a world where you can tell someone to think of a square, and then use functional magnetic resonance imaging and find a pattern of neurons lit up in a square on his visual cortex,
Wait, is that literally true? Is it true in general that, when you think about a shape S, an actual S-shaped region of your brain lights up?
Wait, is that literally true? Is it true in general that, when you think about a shape S, an actual S-shaped region of your brain lights up?
No. Even in the lowest visual region (where there literally is one incoming neuron for each cone in the retina) the image is very badly distorted, as though by a fisheye lens. And when you respond to a high level instruction like “think of a square” I would bet against there being any activation at all in this region, it is all abstract representations where the patterns of activation are unrelated to the shape of a square.
Wait, is that literally true? Is it true in general that, when you think about a shape S, an actual S-shaped region of your brain lights up?
No. Even in the lowest visual region (where there literally is one incoming neuron for each cone in the retina) the image is very badly distorted, as though by a fisheye lens. And when you respond to a high level instruction like “think of a square” I would bet against there being any activation at all in this region, it is all abstract representations where the patterns of activation are unrelated to the shape of a square.