Patomic theory: a new way to model a brain

Patomic theory is a scientific breakthrough providing a new way to model a brain.

What is the new way?

A brain matches specific examples to identify the general. These specific examples are patterns, collections of sensor signals. A brain's capability comes from storing, matching and using linked patterns.

Patterns are linked sets of stored sensory experience, muscle movements or emotions. The brain links these together from their source.

To move, a brain selects a set of predefined muscle signals based on the "best fit".

A brain's patterns are bidirectional and hierarchical - they form linked sets of signals. This means that any part of a pattern determines the remainder. Matching a sound determines the shape, matching the taste determines the texture, matching a melody determines the words and so on.

To make this model easier to follow, we defined a single, indivisible element called the patom (combining the words Pattern and ATOM to represent the smallest element that stores, matches and uses patterns). A patom is responsible for storing patterns (snapshot and sequential). Patoms are just neural networks we treat as a black box.

When patoms link snapshot and sequential patterns together, the powerful capabilities of a brain become evident.

Novel patterns result from the lack of precision between similar stored patterns in the hierarchy. Simply selecting alternative patterns results in new outcomes - an effect we notice most with movement and language.

As an introduction, we presented the case for pattern matching systems in January 2000 on The ABC Radio National Show called Ockham's Razor. The Ockham's Razor patom transcript introduces the proposed pattern matching paradigm.