From a single decision to a multi-step algorithm.
Humans can perform sequential and recursive computations, as when calculating 23×74. However, this comes at a cost: flexible computations are slow and effortful. We argue that this competence involves serial chains of successive decisions, each based on the accumulation of evidence up to a threshold and forwarding the result to the subsequent step. Such serial 'programs' require a specific neurobiological architecture, approximating the operation of a slow serial Turing machine. We review recent progress in understanding how the brain implements such multi-step decisions and briefly examine how they might be realized in models of primate cortex.
Collège de France, F-75005 Paris, France. stanislas.dehaene@gmail.com
Stanislas
S
Dehaene
Mariano
M
Sigman
D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009415:Nerve Net; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D011323:Primates