The SP theory of intelligence and the representation and processing of knowledge in the brain

Abstract: The "SP theory of intelligence", with its realisation in the "SP computer model", aims to simplify and integrate observations and concepts across AI-related fields, with information compression as a unifying theme. This paper describes how abstract structures and processes in the theory may be realised in terms of neurons, their interconnections, and the transmission of signals between neurons. This part of the SP theory -- "SP-neural" -- is a tentative and partial model for the representation and processing of knowledge in the brain. In the SP theory (apart from SP-neural), all kinds of knowledge are represented with "patterns", where a pattern is an array of atomic symbols in one or two dimensions. In SP-neural, the concept of a "pattern" is realised as an array of neurons called a "pattern assembly", similar to Hebb's concept of a "cell assembly" but with important differences. Central to the processing of information in the SP system is the powerful concept of "multiple alignment", borrowed and adapted from bioinformatics. Processes such as pattern recognition, reasoning and problem solving are achieved via the building of multiple alignments, while unsupervised learning -- significantly different from the "Hebbian" kinds of learning -- is achieved by creating patterns from sensory information and also by creating patterns from multiple alignments in which there is a partial match between one pattern and another. Short-lived neural structures equivalent to multiple alignments will be created via an inter-play of excitatory and inhibitory neural signals. The paper discusses several associated issues, with relevant empirical evidence.