Figure 4.

Whole brain emulation to mediate digital information exchange. Instead of using the existing sensorimotor apparatus for internet browsing (eyes to see the screen, hands to control mouse/keyboard), in principle digital information, including abstract data structures that have no obvious sensory correlate, could be navigated via a customized “internet organ” (akin to the retina or organ of Corti) leveraging the numerous pattern recognition computational abilities of neocortex. The emulated {thalamocortical'} circuit processing this digital data could be reciprocally linked with real thalamic and cortical areas known to already process multi-modality sensory information, such as the pulvinar, angular gyrus, and tempoparietal junction. Figure reprinted from Serruya and Kahana (2008) with permission from Elsevier.