edelman/totoni on perception = memory

"The rapid reentrant interactions within the dynamic core thus give rise to a sort of temporal ongoing "bootstrap," according to which changes in the pattern of firing of neuronal groups involved in perceptual categorization can select one out of scores of specific activity patterns involving the entire core—and entire memory repertoire. This selection generates a large amount of information over a short time, hence creating a scene in the remembered present. The resulting integrated state of the core constitutes a memory and thereby the MEANING of the firing of neurons involved in perceptual categorization. Therefore, in categorizing incoming stimuli, the adult brain goes well beyond the information given, and within the dynamic core, conscious perception and memory should be considered to be two aspects of one and the same process" (p. 173).