Lukas' Notes

cognition

Definition

Vibratiuncle

A vibratiuncle is a miniature vibration in the brain, proposed by David Hartley in Observations on Man (1749), that constitutes the physical trace of a memory or idea.

Vibratiuncles are the mechanism by which associations are physically stored under connectionism: sensory input causes vibrations in the brain, and memories are smaller residual vibrations — vibratiuncles — in the same brain regions. Compound ideas arise when vibratiuncles connect to current sensory input.