Table 2.

 Mountcastle’s Instrinsic Function of Cortical Microcircuits (Mountcastle, 1998, p. 287)

Thresholding: a nonlinear relation between the level of presynaptic input and cortical  neuronal discharge.

Amplification of inputs: as in the example of when a single impulse in a single myelinated  fiber of a peripheral nerve in an attending human suffices to evoke a conscious perception.

Derivative function: cortical operations tend to accentuate and amplify transient inputs,  adapt to constant ones.

Feature convergence: the creation of a neural representation of a complex feature or set  of features by combining signals of two or more simpler ones.

The distribution function: some areas receive the neural signals of certain simpler  features of sensory stimuli and distributed then separately to other cortical areas. Areas  3b and V1 in addition to having other functions, serve as distribution centers.

Coincidence detection: by convergence of excitation, linking together two events that  occur closely in time.

Synchronization and coherence of activity in the different nodes of distributed system.

Pattern generation: creation of spatial and temporal patterns in output signals that are  not present in inputs (e.g., induced rhythms).